My 25th High School Reunion
This past weekend, I had the fortune to attend my 25th high school reunion. My time in high school was pretty special to me, and many of the friends I made while there I’m still friends with to this day; I’m even married to one!1 My friend Amy was going to be in town visiting her folks for Thanksgiving, and she was the driving force in convincing me to go to our reunion events. I’m super glad she did.
The first event was a gathering at a bar on Friday night. I was designated driver, and it was nice to not need alcohol as I mingled. In reunions past, I might have felt nervous to reconnect with folks, needing the crutch of a social lubricant to say hi. This year felt different. It’s not that I felt more confident (I still feel shy around people and overcompensate with what looks like extroversion), it’s that I felt done with any need to compare myself to my peers or find a way to impress them. It was nice to just be with folks and reminisce, their memories filling gaps in my own I didn’t even know were missing.
The following night was the more fancy night. Kat, Amy, and I bundled up for the cold weather and took a long train ride from the exurbs to the venue at a swanky hotel in Alexandria. Kat and Amy were in nice dresses, and I was in a makeshift suit-like outfit I cobbled together from the few garments in my closet that still fit.2 It was an outstanding venue with great food and a photo booth. Our alumni leaders, Bryan and Sarah, really did an amazing job coordinating the events and bringing us all together. They even arranged for an open bar through a generous donation from an anonymous classmate.
I did partake (though not to extreme amounts), and the bourbon loosened my inhibitions to be more friendly and less internally anxious. However, when I’m in my cups, I tend to miss obvious social cues and I tend to overshare. I probably told people things about myself and my family that were too personal. I definitely was too eager to ask people to put their contact information into my phone. And, I most certainly put my foot in my mouth more than once. In the remote chance one of you reads this, know that I was coming from a place of really, really wanting you to like me. While I know from experience that many of the awkward moments I will remember forever, the other person likely won’t recall even five minutes later. If I did miss a social cue with you or I said something weird, I apologize.
But overall, I had an amazing time. I sincerely wish I could be around these people more than once every five years. There are old friends who live in my city that I’ll be inviting out for coffee. There are rediscovered friends who live far away that I hope I’ll work up the nerve to text on a regular basis. I hope I can find ways to get glimpses into everyone’s lives as I offer them glimpses into my own.
I love you, Class of 1999. Thank you for an amazing weekend!
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Kat and I didn’t actually know each other very well in high school; we started dating in college. She was a year ahead of me and only knew of me at all through her best friends, who referred to me as “that annoying underclassman”. ↩︎
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For some reason all of my suits shrunk during the pandemic, especially around the waistline. Must be some obscure reaction cotton cloth has to COVID-19. 🤷♂️ ↩︎