Chatfield Class of '97 Reunion

This weekend I had my 10-year high school reunion. I have been looking forward to going for several years now, as I am quite proud of how much I have accomplished since high school. Being able to tell everyone that I achieved my childhood dream job, and to show off that I'm not so shy anymore, feels like such a "win." I was looking forward to smiling right at the people who bullied me in school and say, "I'm a writer. I work for myself. So what do you do?"

Well, perhaps not quite so belligerent, as I'm not quite that confrontational. But I did want to show off a little.

Of course, nothing ever works quite the way you expect. First of all, not many people showed up at the reunion. Out of a class of about 650, I estimate there were only about 80-100 people at the dinner last night -- and that was counting spouses. Even fewer showed up for "Family Day" at the park this afternoon.

I think a lot of the dismal turnout had to do with a lack of organization. It seemed like the girl in charge of planning had it thrust upon her, but the invitations were basically sent out with four weeks notice (and a host of spelling and grammar errors). A few things about the plans -- such as a last minute address change for the afternoon at the park -- also seemed suspiciously disorganized.

The biggest way that this affected me was that I felt I didn't get to see many people that I remembered from high school. I recognized a few people at the reunion, but many of them I didn't. As a result, I spent most of the night talking to the same few people. Not a bad thing, because they were actually some of the people I most wanted to see... but still.

In any case, I had a great time last night. Today was fun too, albeit rather anti-climactic. There were fewer people, not much to do, and it was very hot. We spent most of the time sitting and chatting, again with more or less the same small group of people.

I think I'm going to try to get more involved with planning the next reunion. Although I don't want to be the primary contact or anything major like that, I would be comfortable being on the committee, and I would love to do the invitations next time. You can rest assured there won't be any spelling errors in my invitations. ;o)