The View from Nick: High-school reunions don’t have to be awful, unfun experiences
By Nick Claussen
July 17, 2008
I’m old.
And out of shape.
I also occasionally write sentence fragments and long, rambling sentences with lots of small words, but I think it is all right to do that sometimes if you need to do so in order to convey a certain meaning and style, and if you try to do it in the right context. Don’t you?
That’s part of what I learned after attending my 20-year high-school reunion recently. The Tinora High School Class of 1988 (my school is in Defiance County) gathered in the northwest Ohio town of Archbold, and I’ll admit I was nervous before I showed up. What if people didn’t remember much about me? Even worse, what if they DID remember much about me?
I had been to one reunion before and knew that I had a good time, but I wasn’t sure how it would go this time. I went to the first one when I was still married. I had someone to hang out with and didn’t have to concern myself with moving from group to group.
I was going to this one single, and I was a little older and a little fatter than the last time. Six months ago, I told myself I would lose weight before I went to the reunion. The problem was, I told myself that at a time when I wasn’t hungry. When I was hungry and didn’t feel like exercising, I told myself that maybe other people would be a little overweight, too, so it was OK to eat that doughnut.
When I walked into the room, a few people said hello to me and I quickly tried to figure out who they were. One woman turned out to be the wife of a friend, and the others were my classmates. I was relieved to see that a few people looked older and a little fatter like I did, but also saw that several of the people there looked really good.
I didn’t think I looked too different after 20 years, but noticed as I made my way around the room that a few people said hello to me in the same way.
“Hi there,” the person would say while looking at my face. Then his or her eyes would go to my nametag and then back up to my face “… Nick. You look good.”
Although high school was 20 years ago, I still worried about whether I should go up to groups of people and join in the conversation or if I was talking too long to some people. I’m 38, but had basically the same worries and insecurities I had in high school.
There wasn’t any reason to worry, though, as everyone talked to everyone else. The cute girls that I was too nervous to talk with very much in high school were nice, the cool athletic guys and party guys were all normal and down to earth, and everyone seemed friendly.
We quickly decided that anyone who wasn’t there was fair game to talk about, and they were jerks.
Unfortunately, not everyone at the reunion was as out of shape as I was, as some people are running marathons, some people don’t look like they aged at all, some people look better than they did in high school, some people were even nicer than I remembered, and plenty of them are making a lot more money than I do. I doubt any of them write any longer sentences than that last one, though.
The people from my class all visited with one another throughout the evening so we could catch up on how each other had been and talk about the jerks who were not there. (Just in case any former classmates are among my seven loyal readers, I’m just kidding about calling you jerks. I’m just talking about the people who weren’t there who don’t read this column.).
I’ll admit I ran out of things to say to people a few times, as we seemed to catch up on 20 years time in about three minutes. That’s when I tried to talk about my favorite subject, me. I’m sure they appreciated that.
“So, you won a Nobel Prize and are running for governor? That’s nothing, let me tell you about the home run I hit in softball last week,” I might have said.
By the way, I really did hit my first-ever home run in Athens co-rec softball recently. It was an inside the park homer, and I’ve been trying to find a way to get it into the newspaper.
“That’s great whatever you’re saying about your wonderful spouse, smart children and amazing job. Did I tell you about how I found a pop machine that sells grape soda for 35 cents still?” I might have also said.
High school reunions are a little surreal, but they can be a lot of fun. I recommend that if you have a reunion coming up, you go to it. I guarantee that if you do go, you’ll feel a little nervous, but you’ll end up talking to people you didn’t expect to talk to, you’ll find people you want to stay in contact with, and you’ll have a great time.
Plus, if you don’t go, you’ll be a jerk.
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