Ask Lemmy

I feel like people don't do this anymore. My highschool was very large and I don't think myself or anyone I know even knew who is responsible for it so it never happens

Fuck no. I was done with that shit the moment it was over. I didn’t give a fuck about them back then and I certainly don’t give a fuck about them now. Anyone I cared to keep in touch with I’ve kept in touch with.

I did, but undercover. It was hilarious!

A lot changed in my life after graduation, including my first name and my surname (the latter due to marriage, the first thanks to deed poll, I always disliked the name my parents gave me...).

A few dear old friends from school knew about me living abroad, about all the other changes going on in my life and since all of us were the weird folks back then, we decided to prank everyone else big time.

So, I went there as a friend of one attending. Fricking no one recognised me. Not a soul. But they kept asking why person x was the only one no one found contact details of online, or any other way of contact. The person they knew just disappeared into thin air after graduation.

A big mystery no one could figure out who wasn't in on the ruse. Some great theories we've overheard that evening included, but were not limited to:

A) dead

B) in prison

C) became a hermit

I stood right next to those people I went to school with for over 10 years, some I knew even longer.

It was a fun challenge for me keeping a straight face for the entire evening while drinks were also involved. Not one person could figure out they knew me in the first place. :D

If one was held, then I was not invited. In any case COVID fucked up my last 2 years of highschool, so I feel it would've been awkward.

I cannot physically escape my high school reunion in this lifetime.

I went to a fairly small school and I was the only one who graduated that year.

So every moment of every day for the rest of my life is my high school reunion.

On the upside though, I was the valedictorian, a fact which has actually helped me get jobs.

I went to the first one and didn’t enjoy myself. Saw the assholes are now cops and most of the self-proclaimed cool kids were now shilling one MLM or another. Everyone still hung out in the same groups they did in high school. They held a moment of silence for the popular dickhead who got drunk and drowned in a river after high school.

I'm good. I didn't even attend my own graduation, much less any reunions.

No. I've spent a long, long time and a lot of effort to try and fundamentally change the shitty person I was back then. I don't want to revisit that chapter at all.

The entire purpose of highschool reunions was rendered irrelevant as soon as social media was invented.

This year would be my 25th. Never been invited to a single one. There have been several, as a friend has confirmed.

I'm not worried about ever seeing those assholes again. K-12 was spent being tormented for being different. Not something I need to relive.

If I was invited, I doubt I'd go. It's not even worth my time to flex on someone I couldn't be bothered to give a cold shit about.

I keep in touch with my real friends, always. No need to reuinte with a bunch of bigots who made my youth a hell in a box.

Never once. I still talk to the only people from there I care to know.

Nope. Hell I'm not even sure there was one.

The venn diagram of "people who organize and attend high school reunions" and "people I want to ever see again" are two circles drawn on different pages in different books on different shelves.

No.

I'd moved out of state by the time the first one came around. Seemed like a lot of bother and expense to see people I didn't keep in touch with otherwise.

Never got invited lol. Not that I'd go, I have no interest in mingling with white supremacists. I grew up in a fun area.

Thought about the 10 year then went to see phish instead

Oh hell no.

I didn't like the bulk of my classmates 40 years ago and from what I've seen in the FB group for my class, which I joined to find those few I did like, time has not improved them at all.

Oh fun, story time!

I didn't like most of the people in my high school, I'm sure some of them grown to be nice people, but my best friend in high school is still my beat friend now. In fact she is family and we share the same last name. (but we didn't get married!)

So back in the day we very briefly dated but it was clear to both of us that wasn't going to work but we've remained been friends ever since. Fast forward a few decades and I've finally came out and transitioned like I always wanted to. Was already no contact with my birth family for unrelated reasons, so when it became the time to legally change my namd... I took hers! She is the only person that felt like family anyways, every major holiday, birthday, breakup, we've always been there to help each other. So now we call each other sisters, I'm the cool fun aunt to her daughter and I've been maid of honor in both of her weddings and married to my own gorgeous wife. Life is good! Everything worked out, happy endings all around.

(Fun fact: technically you can say I lost my virginity to my sister 😜 )

But back on topic, I thought about going to a high school reunion just to see if I'd pass but even if I did, then I'd just be some random lady no one recognized? I felt like I didn't belong around those folk because of my own issues, but since I never made happy young memories at the time, I wouldn't have much to reminiscing about at the reunion either.

No, because all of my high school peers were enemies. High school - or rather the entirety of my childhood - was a time of bullying. All I learned was how to hate and eradicate myself. How the fuck am I still here.

Absolutely not. No desire to see those people again. I didn’t enjoy high school, and I don’t like the person I was back then either. Everyone is better off going their separate ways.

No. I kind of forgot they existed. With modern communications, I don't need to meet up with a bunch of people I don't care for in order to keep in touch with the handful I do.

No. High school sucked because teenagers suck. Any decent people from then I just kept in touch with. Those who peaked at 17 are pretty pathetic.

I’m so relieved to find a ton of other “no’s” in this thread!

I always felt like I was being a bit antisocial not to go to one. I’ve never been to a college reunion either. I’ve kept in close touch with only one person from high school and a handful from college. Add to that: 1) I don’t feel like I have much to brag about; 2) I would feel icky bragging even if I did. And that’s what I imagine reunions to be, if you haven’t kept in touch generally: just a bunch of near-strangers posturing to each other to feel better about themselves. I just don’t have any interest in that. It’s much the same reason I got off of social media about 10 years ago (minus the link aggregators/forums).

I only went to high school for two years then took all my classes at the community college, so I wasn't like super well known or liked or anything. I've also had a gender change since then, and I don't wanna have that conversation the whole event.

Yes and I even volunteered to plan it. We didn't have one until 20 years and it was nice to see how people all kind of become normal. Even the kids that were assholes were reasonable to talk to and several apologies were made.

I went to a smallish high school (a handful more than 100 per grade) and all of us were together since kindergarten. Some people flat out said they wouldn't come and I think they missed out.

We had some teachers show up that were still in town. Some dude was like "hey dream_weasel I'm sorry I used to pick on you here's why I did", and some ancient crushes and gossip got revealed. It was on the whole pretty fun. I think we will do one for 25 years now.

Edit: All the "no" in this thread is wigging me out. Morbid curiosity would have made me say yes at some point.

Yes.

Did not like the people much back then but was still interested how it all developed.

I had some nice talks. It was fun talking to my highschool crush she seems to still be the same person. Glad it did not work out back than otherwise I'd propably still be stuck back there.

The most interesting part was seeing people that told me they thought I was the cool person back then while I was very insecure back then and definitly did not think of myself as cool.

i forget how it came up, but last year someone mentioned high school reunions and i was thinking, "hey, my ten year should be coming up soon. i wonder if it'll be worth going" and then later that night one of my old friends from high school mentioned he just got back from it. i'm sitting there wondering if i would be generous enough to grace them with my presence while the event was currently going on and i wasn't even invited! the more things change, the more they stay the same

Oh fuck no. There are a handful of people from highschool I wouldn't mind catching up with, but the vast majority of them I either never met well enough to form an opinion, or actively disliked.

...and as long as it's been, every single one of us is a completely different person now. It'd basically be like meeting a few hundred complete strangers. And at that point, I can just go to a bar or something and meet complete strangers right here - why travel to reunion for that?

I changed high schools midway through my sophomore year, going from an all-boy catholic school to public, so I didn't really know many people from the public high school, besides my immediate social circle. Also they were the cool, class-skipping, weed and cigarette smoking kids, so I doubt they'd be at the class reunion, and they're probably the only people I'd want to see anyway.

There was this beautiful girl I went on a date with once who went to my high school... a couple years after I graduated, I saw her at a bar, and she gave me her number. I didn't even remember her. We went on exactly one date, where she revealed that she nanny'd for a super rich summering-in-a-french-villa family, and for some reason it intimidated me so much I had a panic attack, and before we even got to where we were supposed to go on the date, I turned the car around and took her home. Apologized, and never really spoke again.

I still think about her, and how beautiful she was, and what the fuck came over me that night. But I doubt she'd be at the reunion.

Also I haven't been very successful in my own life (not terrible by any means but, not great) so I wouldn't really be able to show off much of anything except that I'm much more handsome and physically fit now than I was then. I dunno. Doesn't seem like much when I'm still riddled with student loan debt and anxiety.

I was asked by some friends that I hadn't seen since HS if I was coming to my 10 year reunion. It happened to also be the same day of my wedding and when I saw pictures, looked like maybe 40-50 of class of 300 showed up. There wasn't a 20 planned that I'm aware and honestly with social media I don't see a point.

I was invited to my 10 year. The person running it had encouraged my exgf to break up with me years ago. It wasn't being held at the school, and by all accounts only a few people were going. I think it was going to be at a Denny's essentially. It sounded miserable so I skipped it. No regrets.

I couldn't wait to get those people out of my life. Why would I want to see them again?

No, 'cuz it's just "look at me! Look how successful I am!" Boring as shit.

I did not. If I wanted to keep in touch with people I would have.

Did not attend. I didn't like those people when I was in highschool. There's no way I want to see them now.

Both times I just had another option with actual friends that I wanted to do more. I don't really give a shit about anyone from high school, but curiosity would have gotten me to go if it wasn't for the other option each time.

And, to be honest, I've seen a lot of them on Facebook and they're looking a lot older than I look, so I guess I could have rubbed it in the faces of some of the people that thought they were hot shit back then.

No, I never had a close relationship with anyone in high-school. As the gay, neurodivergent kid...I didn't fit in all that much. I ignored all my reunion invites.

I did not go to the tenth or twentieth. I can’t imagine how they’d even find me for the thirtieth in the 2030s, I don’t really do any social media these days.

I’m an introvert and haven’t kept up with anyone from high school. Seems like it’d just be awkward.

Invites were probably on Facebook and I don't give enough fucks to login.

I can not imagine voluntarily entering the 7th ring of hell.

No, and I doubt anyone would remember me. I sure as hell don't give a shit about any of them. I was relentlessly bullied and picked on in school, to the point where my parents took me out and homeschooled me during my freshman year onward because it was obvious that the school staff wouldn't do anything about it.

No. I'm still working on unfucking myself after the way those assholes treated me. Why would I want to see them again? I'm not successful enough to flex on anyone.

I remember peering into the facebook group where they were planning our reunion, they were making a list of all the people who "most likely wouldn't show up" and therefore "didn't need an invite".

The list was basically all the unpopular kids they didn't like.

We haven’t had one, but if there were, I would probably go. I was pretty much friends with everyone, and I still stay in touch with a few people I am very close with.

My feelings towards a middle school reunion is pretty much the same as everyone's feelings towards high school reunion. I would never show up to a middle school reunion. There were some people who tried to do one 10-15 years ago, and I never went, and I never will. The people there sucked. I never want to see them again. If I do then I pretend not to know them and I am pretty sure they do the same.

I vaguely remember tossing some mail about a reunion a number of years ago, never planned on going to one.

I can count on one hand the number of people I've willingly talked to since highschool, and none of them in the last 15 years.

Plus I guarantee nobody would be friendly to a Trans person. My highschool once made national news for a hate crime...

No. High school for me was spent with people with which I have nothing in common, so I didn't keep in touch with anyone there.

I still stumble into people I once knew, and I of course say hi and engage in some chitchat, but nothing beyond that.