Categories: random
Tags: facebook, school, reunion, memories
Date: 17 January 2009 18:56:01
This evening in my home town there is a reunion of my year at school, entitled "Now we are 40" (well, actually some of us aren't yet - at last, a reason to be pleased my birthday came at the end of the academic year rather than the start. Now being one of the youngest in the year is cool!). If HD had still been working down south we would have been near enough that I could have gone to it, but given that he's not working, and it's a long long long way just for a weekend when we haven't got much money coming in, I'm staying up here with my slippers and Horlicks while they all dust off the ra-ra skirts and the legwarmers (and that's just the boys, *boom tish Ithankyou*). It's been organised via facebook, and I've had such a laugh the last couple of months as all sorts of random people from my class and year, and the school orchestra, have got back in touch.
Also fun, in a cringeworthy sort of way, have been the school photos that have appeared on facebook on the page for this event. I can't believe we ever looked that young!
It's got me thinking though. When I first heard about the reunion, I really didn't want to go. Although I did well at school, apart from music I didn't really enjoy it until 6th form (the last 2 years, before uni), and I was never part of an in-crowd, but always a bit on the edges. I was a bit angsty, and clueless, and awkward, though being good at music and drama meant that I could overcome that to an extent. And all I thought was, I'll walk into the room where the reunion is taking place and all the feelings of awkwardness and not really belonging will come back, and I'll end up needing therapy! But, as it's come nearer and I've got back in touch with people from school through facebook and the conversations have been fun and inclusive and there's been no sense of the excluding tendencies of packs of teenagers that I experienced at that age, I've been more curious to see what people are like now and what they are up to. Though, as I said to HD today, I don't know if once we'd got past the "OMG it's you!!!" and talked about what we are up to now there'd be anything much left to talk about. I've just told as many people as possible whom I know will be there to take millions of pictures. I'll be avidly scanning facebook tomorrow all day (though knowing what happens with hangovers at this age, it will probably be more realistic to expect people to not be back online until the middle of next week!). I think I am a bit sad not to be there - but at least it means there won't be any hideous photos of me plastered over the internet (at least not from this event anyway!).