Comments on: Why I Didn’t Go To My High School Reunion, The Aftermath

By: Elaine

Elaine — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:05:12 +0000

As an American Studies professor, I read about cakewalks in 19th-century minstrelsy. I, too, didn’t know they were still around. They sound more fun now. Maybe it’s a southern thing. Do the walkers still do creative dancing, instead of simply walking?

But more importantly: I’ve only ever been to two reunions, mostly because I’m usually too far away / too poor to travel / too nervous. But one of those 2 reunions surprised me, because the boy who used to carry around his own full-sized box of kleenex — for his frequent bouts of crying-under-a-table — actually showed up at our 10-year high-school reunion. And he looked happy. Therapy, he said, worked wonders for him. So has the computer revolution, I guess by providing high-paying satisfying jobs to nerds everywhere.

Seeing him happy made the whole reunion worthwhile. Everyone else was complaining about how uncool it was. “But look, John Eric is happy,” I said (not his real name, of course).

“Oooh, Elaine likes John Eric!” someone else said. “Elaine likes John Eric.”

So I left that reunion early, fearing high school may never end.

That probably doesn’t sound like a pro-reunion story. But I wanted to tell it. Maybe my point is that if all of us middling mostly-nerdy-but-not-quite people could actually have the gumption of the truly nerdy yet awesomely brave John Eric, maybe then high school would finally end. So I’ll start it here: I do like John Eric. I think more of us should emulate him. Maybe even carrying a kleenex box along the way.

By: starrlife

starrlife — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:34:37 +0000

Love this post- trip her for me too!
PS- I am 53 and never heard of a cakewalk- it must be a regional thing?

By: Sari

Sari — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:58:07 +0000

I don’t go to reunions, either. I think it’s funny, because I was a child that moved around a lot (parent marriage/divorce issues). I went to three elementary schools, one junior high and four high schools.

As a result, I didn’t have a lot of self confidence and I think that I probably had a much better experience than I remember. I often think it would have been much better if I could have stood up for myself more. It wasn’t that I didn’t have friends, but I think I worried a lot more about what everyone else was thinking or felt than what I wanted, which I look at now and think “Dumb!”

FB is funny, I have friends there that I never would have ever thought would remember me. I also see a lot of people that I just think “you know….no. I don’t need to go back there.”

I like myself a lot better now than I did then, though I’m finding out that seems to be more universal than I would have thought.

By: Alisa

Alisa — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:54:49 +0000

some things never change. my 13 year old experienced a (possibly inadvertent) snub last night when her friends called from a party to which she wasn’t invited. or was she invited but, in her charmingly typical manner, spaced it out? the joys of cell phones and impetuous teens is that you can know you’re missing out on the fun in real time, not just when Monday morning rolls around and everybody’s talking about the party you missed. Ahhhh, middle school!

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:19:55 +0000

How can anyone not know what a cake walk is? Did this younger generation get deprived? Our school carnival is next week and I can’t wait for the cake walk! We still have the store-bought rule though.

By: Terry Greene Sterling

Terry Greene Sterling — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:04:04 +0000

Now I have to rush off to facebook to read all the other comments. The other day, a guy who went to high school with me 43 years ago told my husband (out of the blue and with some resentment) that I was a “teacher’s pet” and “smart.”

By: Susan Segal

Susan Segal — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:08:00 +0000

Actually, kids have changed a bit since the cruel ’80s. Of course, there are still the bitchy self-centered ones, but there are alot who are not. Don’t know why other than there are more of them who excel and don’t need to be so snotty, but a surprising revelation.

By: cate

cate — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:58:02 +0000

I don’t know why I don’t know about cakewalks. Is it a regional thing? Was I a deprived child?

I really like what that guy wrote. “it’s all front page news in our own brains, nothing more.” I should get a tattoo of that.

By: Heather B.W.

Heather B.W. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:07:53 +0000

I am touched by you and your classmates that also had the courage to reveal themselves.