I survived my class reunion ⁷

by Katrina • Adventures, Travel • Tags: Friends, Tacoma, Travel

The grandiose gesture of me, flying back for my 10 year high school reunion was typically met with one response.

“Wait a second…you came all the way here from Minnesota just for your high school reunion??”

Yes. Yes I did.

Kind of.

To my friends and coworkers, I simply responded with, “Um, yeah. My class was kind of awesome.”

To my classmates at the reunion, I went with something along the lines of “Oh…uh…I’m just back here for work. I timed it so I could…er…come to the reunion, too.”

Technically, I did spend two days at the office, so this wasn’t a total fib.

But really? The main reason for the trip was the reunion. Judge all you want, but I loved me some high school.

Perhaps it’s because Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion is one of my favorite movies of all time, but I’ve been looking forward to my own reunion for years, and I wasn’t going to let a mere 1,500 miles stop me from attending. I booked three ticket (yes, Jolie made the trip to Washington), and that was that. We were going to reunite with the Franklin Pierce High School class of 2002.

(“We” as in Scott and I…Jolie stayed at my parent’s house.)

(Although I was seriously considering bringing her until several people pointed out how crazy it would make me look.)

(Plus, Jolie probably would have claimed she invented Post-Its and ruined the entire night, so leaving her behind was definitely wise.)

As soon as I arrived in Seattle, I started doubting my decision to come out. The more people I talked to, the more horror stories I heard about reunions gone wrong. Comments like “Only twenty people showed up to mine,” or “Mine was a huge disappointment — we stayed for fifteen minutes and then left”, made me question my entire journey. I also started realizing that most people nowadays don’t even attend their reunion. Panic began to settle in as I realized I had just dragged my entire household halfway across the United States for a tradition that many would describe as “lame” or “overrated.” Had I done something completely pathetic? Had I spent years looking forward to something  that was going to end up being a huge let down?

“Look on the bright side,” Scott suggested, “At least you’re not going to show up wearing that awful banana dress.”

The man had a point.

********

Fast forward twenty-four hours. After a whirlwind of spray tanning, teeth bleaching, and last-minute jewelry shopping, Scott and I walked into a room full of familiar faces. I knew right away that coming all the way out here had been the right decision.

I really wanted something hilarious and ridiculous to happen, and wish this blog post was a lot more snarky and over the top, but if I’m being totally honest, it was a completely pleasant evening. There was no scandal, no unfortunate incident — not even a catfight! To top it all of, I even followed all three of my high school reunion ground rules.

In fact, I only  had one glass of wine over the course of four hours.

One glass of wine.

I never only have one glass of wine, you guys.

Truly, this can only be due to the fact that I was having so much fun catching up with old friends, I didn’t even care about wine.

That my friends, is how you know it’s a successful reunion.

Also? There was a taco bar.

This really made me wish I had in fact brought Jolie.

(Just saying.)

While travelling from ‘Sota to Seattle for a class reunion is quasi-ridiculous, I don’t regret it for a single second. It was a night of great conversations, great memories, and great people. There was no one-upping or weird reunion shenanigans. It was simply a group of people who were all genuinely happy to reconnect.

Well…most people were happy.

(Honestly, I think Scott was just jealous that he didn’t graduate from the most ghetto-fabulous high school in the 253.)

(Or maybe he’s just still upset that his reunion didn’t have a taco bar.)

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