HIGH SCHOOL REUNION

Certain things from my 50th high school reunion stand out:

·          The person who lied about his career to increase his stature

·          The person who was most humble about his remarkable achievements

·          The person who rushed up and hugged me so I couldn’t see his name tag, but I somehow knew instantly who he was

·          The woman who was probably the most likable person in the class, but could no longer show her natural warm self because of an illness

·          The woman I looked at for a long time trying to figure out who she reminded me of.

·          A former flame that I’m still drawn to, even though I realized we were so incompatible.

·          A woman who seemed too easy to recognize until I realized I had just seen her two years earlier

·          The man who in a warm way spent a long time telling me how he has adapted to retirement

·          The one conversation that went beyond the, “Hi, what have you been doing for 50 years” level and got into religion and the paths our children were following

·          The poster with photographs of classmates who have died, more curious than emotional, but I did feel a sadness when I saw a sweet person there whom I hadn’t heard about.

In general, I had a somewhat easier time remembering people than I thought I would, but what I couldn’t remember was the kind of relationships I had with the people.  What did we talk about?  What did we do together?  What were their personalities like? 

Other than seeing my old classmates, the reunion activities were not memorable.  The food ranged from good to uneatable.  Few people danced to the music from the DJ, and people virtually ignored the contests such as “who’s been married the longest” and “who traveled farthest.”

 
As the reunion thinned out, I didn’t want to go around saying good-bye to people because I couldn’t remember whom I had talked to and I also didn’t want to strike up conversations with new people. I think the event was just too big, and it would have been better to have lots of little reunions. I now regret not accepting the invitation of the fellow who said, “I’m having some people over tomorrow...”