Have I ever told you I have an obsession for anniversaries? I guess it’s some product of moving everywhere all the time and having the sort of roots you grow in a glass of water with a potato after it goes bad in the fridge, not the sort of roots that upend concrete.
Anyway, I love anniversaries; I love the passage of time, something I can unlock and dig my fingers into. I just realized that my Texas high school’s ten year reunion is this summer. Things about Stratford I most remember:
- being lost for most of my freshman year, and not noticing when I returned my senior year that I actually knew how to get around.
- nearly failing AP Gov/Econ and fighting tooth and nail to study for that final, then finding out that I got the second-highest grade in the class.
- finding hand-drawn notes from Matt on my car.
- dancing the sweat right off after school every day, hitting the gravel parking lot on my knee pads for the fifteenth time during rehearsals, all football season.
- Parking next to Erin in the faculty/theatre-nerd parking lot every day.
- passing around the Notebooks during class breaks and trying not to crack up too loud during class while reading them.
- sitting in the black backstage with Susie during Spring Show and finally feeling like we were friends, after six years.
- the breeze and the lights in the stadium on Friday nights; the uncomfortable feeling of sweating in lycra.
- graduating in my mother’s Ferragamo stilettos.
There are a lot of other memories in that building, and many of them are regularly trotted out by Erin when she meets new friends of mine. Particularly one involving a couch, and another one involving a fictional character named Phil.
I don’t feel nostalgic about Stratford; I was there for only two years and the friends I’ve kept, I’ve cherished. The friends I’ve lost touch with, I wish well but don’t miss. Still, I’m glad I had my American High School experience, and I treasure Erin and Raychul and Matt. I’m also not much for reunions. But when I saw the date set for mine, I was certainly tempted.
What do you most remember about high school, and did you go to your reunion? Was it just like Romy and Michele’s? Because I’d be way more likely to go if it is.
beauty school dropout
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Oh yes, mine was absolutely like Romy and Michele. Of course, like Romy and Michele, I built it up in mind ahead of time to be the greatest night ever, so it had no where to go but down as soon as it started. The highlight was when my nemesis asked me when I was due … and I wasn’t pregnant. Damn empire waist dresses! You can read all about the sordid tale here, if you’re interested:
http://onenjenifer.blogspot.com/2007/10/i-invented-post-its.html
My advice? Skip the reunion. But definitely make a point of contacting your old friends, for old time’s sake. That was the best part, hanging out with some good friends and reliving the “when are you due” moment over and over and over …
Hey little seeister… Houston awaits you, reunion or not. Here’s something that will make you feel better… I’ve got my 25th, yes, my quarter-century, my I-was-younger-than-THAT-when-I-graduated reunion coming up next year. Thcarry. I say do it! What the heck… =)
I went to my reunion and had a blast! Mostly because everyone there still lived in our hometown and seeing each other was no big whoop. Me? I breezed in from the big city and had a grand old time. And it didn’t hurt that I spent most of the night with my high school crush, even though he brought his girlfriend.
I went to my reunion last summer with my gay best friend who sat behind me in homeroom all four years and we had a BLAST. Afterwards, I wrote up some do’s and don’ts. If you want to take a look, here is the link:
http://mylifeinvino.blogspot.com/search?q=high+school+reunion
I didn’t go to my ten year high school reunion last fall, for a myriad of reasons: 1. I left high school with a bad taste in my mouth and while seeing some people would’ve been nice, I wasn’t sure it was worth it. 2. My boyfriend and I actually went to HS together; we sat next to each other in homeroom and never spoke. We re-met two years ago and are living together and he didn’t want to go. 3. I didn’t want to go without my boyfriend. 4. My boyfriend is the only person in my graduating class I am currently in contact with.
High school was interesting for me, in that I was a floater– I never had a core group of friends, I just had a bunch of friends from different groups. I was always aware that HS was a very temporary time in my life, and I treated it accordingly. I had a great time, I socialized with a lot of people, I was very involved in a bunch of things… but somehow, I never felt like I needed to have any sort of traditional HS experience. And, above all, I *never* wanted to be the person who looked at HS as the “best years of my life.”
There are more reasons, but I didn’t want to take up your whole comment section.
Hi Krissa – I’m Laurie – I just read at Cringe and met you there…You watched over my laptop and I much appreciated it. : )
I most remember everything about high school, because it was such a weird and random time. I went to a small Catholic girls’ school – 54 girls in my class. So I remember a lot of weird Catholic school things, like going to lunch with my friend Nikki in her Chevette and setting my hair afire while trying to smoke. And drama club. I was down with the DRAMA for real starting in junior year.
I also remember belonging to the Progressive Music Club, and wow does that name make me laugh now.
No reunions yet…our school closed the year after I graduated because the nuns ran out of money! But some of the girls recently found me on classmates.com, which I’m not quite sure how I feel about yet. We’re supposed to have a reunion in the fall. We’ll see if I’m up for it. It’s my last semester of my grad program and I expect I’ll be fragile. : )