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So, I had my 10-year High School reunion thanksgiving weekend, which I haven’t discussed or posted about because I’m lazy and sporadic when it comes to LJ. In any case, it turned out to be a lot of fun.
It wasn’t necessarily something I made a big deal of on the calendar – I like socializing, and if there’s a gathering within driving distance (the reunion was three exits up I-270) I’m generally going to go…
So there were a few observations.
I figured, going in, that I could divide things up into a few superficial categories:
1. People who turned out pretty much as expected
2. HS screwups who got their acts together
3. Worldbeaters who got beaten by the world. (those folks, I figured, would skip)
4. Screwups who are still screwed up
5. People I though well of, who are even better than expected
6. People who are too important to come
7. People who honestly just can’t make it.
Like any superficial categorization, it generally holds up. There were a lot of people I hadn’t thought about in years, who turned out to be really cool. At least in the brief setting. Jeff the guitarist had cut off his ass-metal hair, but he runs some music business or other in Ohio. QB Troy is finishing his last year of Med School. All the classmates who had my mom as a teacher, and now call her in to substitute teach their classes.
It’s an interesting thing. Seeing the cute redheaded girl who had entirely ruined her looks by going bleach blonde and tanning herself into a leathery state… The dudes who are going prematurely bald or are way overweight. You know, standard stuff like that.
And then there are the improbable inter-class marriages, the kids, and such… seeing what’s come of people you knew since elementary school. Finding out that the girlfriend of some dude you never cared about all that much is the best friend of your cousin’s fiancée.
And everybody leaves saying “we should definitely talk to each other and hang out more than once every ten years” but you only actually talk to five people after it’s over. And you were mostly just handing out business cards because it looks sort of lame at work if you still have a full box in your desk…
And getting reminded of your own HS image, self- or otherwise. For the most part, I don’t think my basic personality has changed all that much, except that I’m more laid back and a little more smoothed out around the edges.
See, to the kids I grew up with, I had a certain image. I did well in school. I was talking honors and AP classes, with kids a year or two ahead of me. I worked 25-30 hours a week at a pizza place. I volunteered at the local history museum. I tutored. I did the Bar-Mitzvah and Jewish Study stuff. I played sports. I chaired Model UN, wrote for the school paper, captained the Math Team and re-started the It’s Academic Team. So the image was that I was smart, and that I worked hard. And that I never slept, except sometimes in Mrs. Lloyd’s English Class.
The closer truth, was that I kicked incredible ass at stuff I really liked, and coasted on natural talent in other classes – the sort of coasting you can get away with in HS, but that gets exposed in college.
I didn’t do jack squat with science classes, and I half-assed my math homework, which is how I could get a C in the class even though I got a 5 on the AP. But in History, I’d finish the year’s work in October and get supplementary reading lists from the teachers.
Oh, yeah. I was voted Teacher’s Pet, because everyone knew how super tight I was with the history department. (And was unaware of how all the math teachers, who loved my big sister, were confounded by me and my attitude in those classes.)
And that I was reasonably friendly with some people individually, but also really arrogant and oblivious in group settings because I thought I was smarter than everybody else and kind of wrapped up inside contemplations of my own Brilliant Deep Thoughts. But, I’ve also always kind of felt that I was full of crap, and that I’d get exposed eventually.
Apparently, nobody in my HS class ever really thought that. That I was a kid who tested well, but wasn’t actually Hot Shit. Which, seems kind of weird to me, because I’m not. But I was apparently somewhat intimidating to some of the shier members of my class. So it’s cool to hang out with more confident versions of people I knew then, who turn out to be pretty cool when they talk to me. Of course, I think it also helps that I now have some slightly more polished social skills. I don’t know that I can quite capture how much of an arrogant tool I was back then. There is a reason I wasn’t one of the popular kids even though I got along well with most everybody in personal settings.
By my own standards, if not for the TV Show, I’d peg myself as having underachieved according to what I expected from myself back then, and from what others expected of me as well. Given my potential and all… But, as it turns out, I’m not nearly as ambitious as I was as a teenager. And I can see that gap between what I’ve actually done, and what I somewhat would have liked to have done. Which, obviously, I don’t care enough to actually do. So I’m sort of disappointed in myself, but more in a disinterested, detached kind of way.
I’m way too content with my life these days to really be bothered.
But that reunion stuff was fun. Some things never change. Give me an open bar, a spread of food, and a crowd to schmooze – and I’m going to have at least some fun… It's kind of like getting to go to a Bar-Mitzvah without that pesky service or the annoying kid...
It wasn’t necessarily something I made a big deal of on the calendar – I like socializing, and if there’s a gathering within driving distance (the reunion was three exits up I-270) I’m generally going to go…
So there were a few observations.
I figured, going in, that I could divide things up into a few superficial categories:
1. People who turned out pretty much as expected
2. HS screwups who got their acts together
3. Worldbeaters who got beaten by the world. (those folks, I figured, would skip)
4. Screwups who are still screwed up
5. People I though well of, who are even better than expected
6. People who are too important to come
7. People who honestly just can’t make it.
Like any superficial categorization, it generally holds up. There were a lot of people I hadn’t thought about in years, who turned out to be really cool. At least in the brief setting. Jeff the guitarist had cut off his ass-metal hair, but he runs some music business or other in Ohio. QB Troy is finishing his last year of Med School. All the classmates who had my mom as a teacher, and now call her in to substitute teach their classes.
It’s an interesting thing. Seeing the cute redheaded girl who had entirely ruined her looks by going bleach blonde and tanning herself into a leathery state… The dudes who are going prematurely bald or are way overweight. You know, standard stuff like that.
And then there are the improbable inter-class marriages, the kids, and such… seeing what’s come of people you knew since elementary school. Finding out that the girlfriend of some dude you never cared about all that much is the best friend of your cousin’s fiancée.
And everybody leaves saying “we should definitely talk to each other and hang out more than once every ten years” but you only actually talk to five people after it’s over. And you were mostly just handing out business cards because it looks sort of lame at work if you still have a full box in your desk…
And getting reminded of your own HS image, self- or otherwise. For the most part, I don’t think my basic personality has changed all that much, except that I’m more laid back and a little more smoothed out around the edges.
See, to the kids I grew up with, I had a certain image. I did well in school. I was talking honors and AP classes, with kids a year or two ahead of me. I worked 25-30 hours a week at a pizza place. I volunteered at the local history museum. I tutored. I did the Bar-Mitzvah and Jewish Study stuff. I played sports. I chaired Model UN, wrote for the school paper, captained the Math Team and re-started the It’s Academic Team. So the image was that I was smart, and that I worked hard. And that I never slept, except sometimes in Mrs. Lloyd’s English Class.
The closer truth, was that I kicked incredible ass at stuff I really liked, and coasted on natural talent in other classes – the sort of coasting you can get away with in HS, but that gets exposed in college.
I didn’t do jack squat with science classes, and I half-assed my math homework, which is how I could get a C in the class even though I got a 5 on the AP. But in History, I’d finish the year’s work in October and get supplementary reading lists from the teachers.
Oh, yeah. I was voted Teacher’s Pet, because everyone knew how super tight I was with the history department. (And was unaware of how all the math teachers, who loved my big sister, were confounded by me and my attitude in those classes.)
And that I was reasonably friendly with some people individually, but also really arrogant and oblivious in group settings because I thought I was smarter than everybody else and kind of wrapped up inside contemplations of my own Brilliant Deep Thoughts. But, I’ve also always kind of felt that I was full of crap, and that I’d get exposed eventually.
Apparently, nobody in my HS class ever really thought that. That I was a kid who tested well, but wasn’t actually Hot Shit. Which, seems kind of weird to me, because I’m not. But I was apparently somewhat intimidating to some of the shier members of my class. So it’s cool to hang out with more confident versions of people I knew then, who turn out to be pretty cool when they talk to me. Of course, I think it also helps that I now have some slightly more polished social skills. I don’t know that I can quite capture how much of an arrogant tool I was back then. There is a reason I wasn’t one of the popular kids even though I got along well with most everybody in personal settings.
By my own standards, if not for the TV Show, I’d peg myself as having underachieved according to what I expected from myself back then, and from what others expected of me as well. Given my potential and all… But, as it turns out, I’m not nearly as ambitious as I was as a teenager. And I can see that gap between what I’ve actually done, and what I somewhat would have liked to have done. Which, obviously, I don’t care enough to actually do. So I’m sort of disappointed in myself, but more in a disinterested, detached kind of way.
I’m way too content with my life these days to really be bothered.
But that reunion stuff was fun. Some things never change. Give me an open bar, a spread of food, and a crowd to schmooze – and I’m going to have at least some fun… It's kind of like getting to go to a Bar-Mitzvah without that pesky service or the annoying kid...
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It's kind of like getting to go to a Bar-Mitzvah without that pesky service or the annoying kid...
Hee! Anything is improved by the absence of bratty kids. :)
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I haven't been to nay of my reunions but now I'm feeling nostalgic. I never thought I was "all that" in HS mostly because I attended with people who really were. (one of my classmates was Howard Jonas, founder and chairman of IDT. Gonif then, gonif now, I'm happy to report. Anyway, he's more of a sucess story than most, but there were a lot of incredible people.)
I had a grand time in HS and there are a few people I'd love to see, so maybe next reunion. Assuming they can find me, hee.
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Me, I'm pretty easy to find here in the home area. My parents haven't moved, and I see a few of my classmates (inluding the reunion coordinator) every high holidays in temple...