Went to Amy's high school reunion last night. As I mused in my blog entry about my ten-year reunion (almost three years ago now -- time does fly), it seems that people of our generation are quite a bit less interested in high school reunions. As a case in point, only about 20 people -- out of a couple hundred -- showed up at Amy's reunion. In fact, her reunion happened one year late because of a lack of interest. And but for the strenuous efforts of one of her classmates, it wouldn't have happened at all.
I find it interesting, given that high school reunions are very important to those in generations before ours. Not so much these days. Amy's classmate even said that, when she called former classmates, some of them actually began yelling angrily at her about how they wanted nothing to do with a reunion. As I speculated after my reunion, I think this must come from some sense that high school really isn't that important anymore. These days, it is generally accepted and expected that kids finish high school and then go on to college. High school graduation, instead of being a major life event, has become simply a resting point on the journey of life for most people. In my dad's generation, by contrast (his 40-year reunion is fast approaching), one could stop at a high school diploma and manage to make a decent living, and no one would think anything of it. Smaller percentages of high school graduates went on to college, and even fewer went on, as my dad did, to graduate school.
Now, if one decides a high school education is enough, one is thought of as imprudent. College has become the norm, and even an undergraduate degree is now not enough for some fields -- many jobs encourage, if not require, aa graduate degree. In an environment like this, high school has become a hurdle one has to jump on the way to college, and not really a milestone in its own right. Little wonder, then, that high school reunions have lost their significance. After all, it's not as though our parents go off to elementary school reunions.
There have also been a lage number of people who argue that high school were among the worst years of their life, something to be forgotten and not celebrated in nostalgic reunions. Whether these people genuinely had horrible or awkward high school experiences, or they've decided that it's the "in thing" to declare one's disdain for their high school years, the result is the same. Few people are eager to reminisce about something they felt was a terrible experience.
There are also those in the "if I cared about seeing these people again, I'd have kept in touch" camp. I thought I was in this camp, given that really, I still keep in touch with most of my closest high school friends, many of whom were already long-time friends even when high school rolled around. But I went to my reunion and found (1) that I really had lost touch with old, close friends whom I enjoyed seeing again, and (2) some of the jackasses I didn't like so much back then aren't jackasses anymore, and I enjoyed seeing them as well. And, of course, it is fun to mock the jackasses who haven't changed -- or grown -- much since high school.
Whatever the reason, high school reunions seem to be facing extinction. My friend Jim, who graduated from m the same high school I did, but a year later, didn't end up having any reunion to go to at all. I guess that's too bad. High school may have been reduced from a destination to a waystation on the path to a longer journey, it's still ends up being an important formative experience, and it's too bad that folks don't look at it that way anymore.
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