Not everyone has the best memories of high school, so it stands to reason that they might not be the most excited about attending their high school reunions.
For those who actually do attend, they're able to confirm that the events are not all they're cracked up to be and are sometimes, quite frankly, a little bit strange or surreal.
Redditor Zdvj asked:
"People who attended their high school reunion, what was the biggest surprise?"
Stuck in the Past
"My 10-year reunion was held at a bar. It was all the same people at the bar as it was every weekend, but this time they were wearing nicer clothes."
- survivalguyledeuce
All Grown Up
"Back in high school, there was one girl who was extremely popular, extremely pretty, and seemed totally unapproachable from my vantage point."
"She was also really catty, embodying a lot of the 'Mean Girl' stereotypes."
"Talking with her at the reunion, it turned out that she was very insecure, and had a very tenuous home life for which she was compensating and now she is extremely kind, full of gratitude, and just really down to earth. I love seeing that sort of change in people!"
- Hetvenfour
Excruciating Detail
"The only high school reunion I attended was my 50th. I was surprised that people remembered things I'd done with amazing detail specificity."
- zoosuitbeatnick
Past Crushes
"At some point during our 10-year reunion, I asked the girl I had a crush on back in seventh or eighth grade if she knew that I had a crush on her. I just thought it was fun talking about that as adults."
"As it turns out, she texted me several times during the next few days, we met again, and now, almost six years later, we're engaged (for two years... but didn't marry yet) we have a house, a child, second child on the way and everything is great."
"Not what I expected back then!"
- juleztb
Forgetting Everyone
"That I couldn't remember anyone."
"Everyone remembered me because I was the freak in high school, and people kept coming up to me and being like, 'Scienceforbid, it's so great to see you.'"
"And I kept having to run to the wall where they'd plastered blown-up yearbook photos to figure out who the f**k anybody was."
- scienceforbid
The Aging Process
"How incredibly differently have people aged."
- Loud_Adagio2222
"I’ve never seen men age/gray so quickly as when they increase the size of their family."
- JMDeutsch
"I've noticed this at work. I'm the youngest guy in my department, and most of my coworkers are 50+. But guessing the actual ages of any of them, or even who is older than someone else is really difficult. Some of the guys look really old in their early 50s, while others are nearly 70 and relatively young."
"There are lots of factors, the job they've had, genetics, how well they take care of themselves, etc. But by far the biggest factor is kids. The guys without kids all look great for their age. While the guys with kids look like they've lived a rough life."
"It's a couple of decades worth of differences like increased financial stress and worse sleep that causes the fathers to age more quickly."
- MazerRakam
Job Choices
"Real estate agents. So many real estate agents."
- Hectordoink
"And 'entrepreneurs' and life coaches. Really, they seemed to be there to market their services."
- TrenchardsRedemption
Uninvited
"The reunion itself."
"My wife was down in the state south of us for training and got into an accident. I went down and got things sorted with her so she was good and went back to what she was doing and I drove back north. It was a Friday and I was driving through my hometown and figured I would take my mother out to a restaurant we used to both really like going to."
"As we were eating, an old friend from high school walked through, waved, and headed into the back. Then another, and another, and another. Just as I was about to get up and go see what was going on an old girlfriend and later good friend walked in, saw me, and came up to talk for a bit. Then she asked if we should head back there, which confused me."
"Turns out I made it to the 10th year reunion for my class without knowing that I was at the 10th year reunion for my class. I finished my dinner with my mom, let her take my car home (I would catch a ride), and had a good night at the reunion I didn't know to expect."
- ACorania
Survival Stories
"A guy had cancer and attended. He looked to be 80 years old but was in his late 20s. Cancer really took a toll on him. Sad."
- Tuesday2017
Career Choices
"The biggest surprise anytime I catch up with people I grew up with is finding out their career. Most of us have pretty unremarkable jobs but some that stood out:"
"The guy who got arrested for underaged drinking three times is now a cop."
"The girl who couldn’t form a coherent sentence is now a teacher."
"The super genius is living in poverty because he decided to move to Costa Rica to save the rainforest."
"The bad kid joined the Army and now runs a small business and is doing very well for himself."
"The weirdo became a DJ and does shows at nightclubs."
"The nerdy D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) kid now owns and operates an outdoor shooting range and is one of the largest ammunition suppliers in the area."
- PM_Me_UrRight
The Late Classmates
"It was disturbing that 17 classmates had died by our 10th reunion."
- Back2Bach
"We had a lot of kids die with in the first 5 years after graduation. Can't remember the exact number, but it was in the neighborhood of like 20."
"Don't remember all of them, it was a weird mix of stuff. Three died in the same car crash, five to ten were OD-related deaths. At least one murder."
"We were a class of 650."
"Still, felt weird that there were that many deaths. We went to a pretty decent school in a nice area."
- Main-Yogurtcloset-82
Feeling Excluded
"The last I ever heard of my high school reunion was in an alumni newsletter. I was listed as 'missing' with a request for anyone who knew how to contact me to contact the alumni organization."
"The newsletter was sent to my house."
"I’m trying not to take it personally…"
- Someoneoverthere42
Surprising Turnout
"At the ten-year, one guy who had been a kind of a nerd and on the bowling team was now part of a 'wacky morning DJ' crew on one of the more popular radio stations in New York City, and came in with big hair and dressed like a rock star."
- brock_lee
Alternate Endings
"The only real 'surprise' was just how wrong we were about how people would turn out."
"The ivy-league bound people you were sure would be CEOs one day, ended up dropping out of college, having normal middle-class lives, jobs, and marriages, and just being happy as 'average.'"
"The people you were sure would end up like Wooderson from School Daze, turned out to get Master's degrees and even PhDs in one case, and now work in either government or aerospace."
"The guy who fought to get into West Point, ended up doing his required four years and then leaving the armed services."
"One guy ended up becoming a semi-successful author, and nobody saw that coming."
"The girl who got pregnant at 16, who you were sure was destined for a life of struggle, ended up landing a great career and retiring early. And her kids turned out to be great people who any parent would be proud of."
"The people you were sure would never lose contact with their friend group, vanished as if they never existed."
"The people who had to ask yourself, 'I don't recall that name at all, did they graduate in my class?' are now friends with 75% of the class on Facebook and active!"
"The athletes (boys and girls) are now anything but athletes, overweight, and frumpy."
"The frumpy dumpy ones now are rock climbers and hike the entirety of the Appalachian Trail."
"IT JUST GOES TO SHOW: Who you are on graduation day is absolutely not who you will become in three, five, ten, or thirty years. The future is yet unwritten, and the only thing stopping you from change is yourself."
- whomp1970
Many of these Redditors shared in the woes so many of us experienced during those rough high school years, but because they also toughed it out and went to at least one reunion, we're able to see all that we are, and are not, missing out on by potentially not attending.
Sometimes it's surreal to bring people back from the past.
