Why Should You Attend The Class Reunion?

Many former students, no matter what high school they attended, ask the age old question, "Why should I attend my class reunion?"  It is a valid question, and if you expend a large allotment of time and mental effort, one could find a myriad of reasons not to make an appearance.

Some of us may not want to attend because we feel limited by the way our lives have turned out, or the way we may appear.

"Man, I can't attend looking like this. I look as broad as a barn, with the doors both wide open."

"Gee, what if people discover that I shovel elephant dung at the circus."

"Will my friends be intimidated that I am lavishly and sinfully wealthy?"

Of course you could be the fat man at the circus, where you also shovel pachyderm feces, but you have made several million bucks on the sides as a commodities trader.  Wouldn't that be a story to tell your old friends?

We are not the same people that took those final steps from those memorable halls over 30 years ago. Back then we were all fresh faces, with dreams in hand and spirit, eager to stamp our own unique signature into this temporal world.  Some of those dreams came to fruition.  For others those dreams changed and evolved into a different and marvelous reality unfathomable as mere kids.

Whatever we have become, for the most part we are far better people than when we left the launching pad back in 1980.  We are more articulate, expressive and more self assured of ourselves.  We have the ability to fight through the insecurities of youth and peer pressure that limited the full potential that resided, chained deep within our psyches.  For once we can reveal our true selves and in return uncover the 'undiscovered country' in our friend's lives, and in the lives of former classmates we knew, and those we'd hoped to know better.  We are more complete people now.

Class Reunions are a time of reconnecting with old friends and those we grew up with, and also rediscovering why we were friends and companions at one time.  The fact that we have shared a common experience during a moment in time is the social glue that beckons at the core of our souls to come home, at least one more time.

Understand that time is a precious and limited commodity.  Invest into it wisely and reap the wealthy payout in smiles, laughs and love.

God Bless .  Hopes and prayers that we all attend, and that we all have a blast at our reunion.





This is an adapted version of a favorably received letter written by John White, a 1973 graduate from a high school in Texas, and sent to his classmates.