It was too cool to use my AARP card in reserving a hotel room for my upcoming high school reunion. The years it took to earn that card are also helping me prepare.
Reunions offer mixed blessings. They give us the chance stand up straight (as long as we haven’t thrown-out our back), strut our stuff (even though a lot of that stuff is in a different place/shape than it was in high school) and let go of old stuff (the stuff we can still remember, that is). They also give us the chance to look (if we peek over the top of our bifocals) into the eyes of people who helped us become us.
So in the midst of my “am I going to be the only one who is gray, wrinkly, less in shape and less accomplished than I’d hoped?” silliness, here’s how I’ve decided to approach this reunion:
1. I’m celebrating that my memory isn’t what it used to be. So i’m not going to be embarrassed to look for those name tags. Nor will I be hurt when people look for mine. 🙂 AND I’m releasing all sadness and fear about anything that I blamed on anyone – including me! We were kids, we did the best we could. Heck, we’re NOW ADULTS and we’re STILL doing the best we can.
2. I’m going to treat every single person in front on me as if they’re my significant other. Because at any given moment, the person in front of us really IS that. Each one of us is completely different and completely the same – a goldmine of rich life lessons. So I’m going to learn something holy from every person with whom I have the honor of reconnecting.
3. I’m going to dance – a lot. The older I get (especially with a cane), the more I realize that having rhythm is very relative. I don’t know a lot about dancing – one thing I do know is that people look very happy while they’re doing it. So I’m going to join in the happiness – ignoring how goofy I’ll look.
How do ya’ll approach high school reunions?
Lisa’s Cheap Therapy blog 
I hadn’t been able to attend any of my earlier reunions, so we decided to go to my 45th high school reunion! It’s hard to even say that, as it doesn’t seem possible. We went with my best friend and her husband and we had a great time. Even danced with the first guy to ask me out, when I was 13, then I said no, because I thought he wasn’t serious, as he was the class clown. Actually, he was cuter at 63, than he was in school!
Glad you are going for it, Lisa!
Wonderful message, Lisa. These are words that we could live by every day, not just with reunions. I’ve been to a couple of my class reunions, and I don’t even know who these people are anymore. Not because they might have changed, but because I’ve changed….and wonder if they have. You have only two days to “get to know” people you lived around for many years. But you have no idea if they’ve changed/grown/not grown. And you have no idea what they’ve gone through in their lives prior to this reunion. I like your idea of just approaching them as just people who have a story….worth listening to. And that story could be completely different than the one you knew all those years ago.
Andy Rooney would probably say, “Why do we like reunions?” Wonder what his answer would be….and ours.
My 30th was in June. It was in Raleigh, I live in Greensboro. I didn’t go. It annoyed me that all the information was on Facebook, which I’m not on. I had to ask one of my daughters to look it up. And I was afraid to go. Afraid of what? I’m not sure and I haven’t put much effort into figuring it out!
Lisa, have a blast.