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Has Facebook Made High School Reunions Unnecessary?
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whynotshesaid
02/02/09

In reply to Has Facebook Made High School Reunions Unnecessary?
My 10 year reunion was just like high school. All of the drunk rich boys who never left town hung out together with their wives from later classes, the drill-team members and cheerleaders stuck to themselves, and I and my small group of friends sat in the corner and made fun of everyone else. Like I said, just like high school.

Which means that, ultimately, it was a big waste of time and money. None of us will be going back for our 20th.
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Grim Reaper of the Forest
02/02/09

In reply to Has Facebook Made High School Reunions Unnecessary?
My reunions have been fun. I guess I am just a nosy person and I'm fascinated by how people's lives have developed.

That said, I went out to coffee with one of my high school English teachers once when I was back in town from college, and he made a weird comment, like "Well, you didn't really like high school". I loved high school and had a great group of friends. However, I wasn't the typical preppy jock type who hung out with the most popular crowd (like his daughters).
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midwestdesigner
02/01/09

In reply to Has Facebook Made High School Reunions Unnecessary?
I know I probably sound like a naive moron, but you know what? Class reunions can be fun. Sometimes there ARE people that are fun to reconnect with. And if one is not as skinny/successful/married/with children/living a glam life/etc. as one would wish, well, get over it. Everyone has their insecurities, and if you stop being Judgy McJudgy for two seconds, you might actually have a good time. Also: If you don't get to your 10-year, chances are, you won't get to go to any other reunions, because you'll be too hard to locate.
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Jenloveshercurves
02/01/09

@midwestdesigner: I'm hoping I'm too hard to locate. I think that many of us here on Jezebel just don't care to reconnect with people that attempted to make us feel like shit on a regular basis. The point of the article seems to be, hey you reconnect with the folks from highschool that you actually miss all the time via Facebook, why have reunions to see the people that you don't care to see? I think this is a fair point. I generally have found people that I always wondered about online and I don't really care to see the people that would actually attend a ten year reunion.
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Ulookinatmyjunk, JOC
02/01/09

In reply to Has Facebook Made High School Reunions Unnecessary?
I'm reading these posts and I'm curious: What qualifies as a life well-lived? I'm reading a lot of I'm traveling/I'm exploring the world/I left this shitty town/I'm studying to be a doctor or lawyer comments.

What's wrong with just being a normal person, with a normal 9-5? I'm feeling a bit inadequate because my 10-year reunion is coming up and I'm curious as to what qualifies as pathetic.

I have a pretty good job working with kids. I travel occasionally. I still live in the same state and never went away to college. I'm very, very single and without child. I worry that if I can't throw up a law degree or a pic of my 2.5 kids and recent trip to Brazil, that people will think that I haven't gone very far.

/sigh

this thread is making me depressed
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keep it under cover
02/01/09

@Ulookinatmyjunk: Diary of a Mad Black Blogger: Don't be. I'm still very close with my group of friends from high school and most of them have regular 9-5 jobs and no kids. They're all very happy and that's what matters. I can't see any reason for anyone to look down their noses at that.

For the record, I'm one of those "studying to be lawyer" people and am somewhat dismayed at all the gloating going on in this thread. There's a lot of bitterness in some of these posts, and I gotta wonder - are these people really as happy as they claim to be if they can't bring themselves to be happy for other people's successes, or sympathetic to other people's plights?

I mean, high school certainly wasn't the greatest time of my life, and there were a lot of people who were downright rotten to me at times. I never took it personally - high school is a weird isolated environment. People have changed a lot since and I hold no ill will towards them. I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed at how many of the former hot guys have gone bald or gotten fat, but it's more a feeling of "Darn, that's too bad," than a Nelson Muntz "Ha ha!"

There's really only one person I want to see at my reunion, and it's not because I want to gloat at him. We were kind of in love with each other but neither of us could admit it so we had a kind of tumultuous bickering-filled friendship that totally died when he'd come home from college and visit me and I'd be a total bitch to him. For some reason, I was always pissed at him and to this day I'm not sure I understand why.
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Ulookinatmyjunk, JOC
02/01/09

@appels+oranjes: Thanks for that thoughtful comment. It meant a lot. I was getting so frustrated with the gloating.
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onehotmess
02/01/09

@Ulookinatmyjunk: Diary of a Mad Black Blogger: yep, I see what you mean. I thought I was doing pretty damn great, but reading some of these posts about all the traveling/awesome job/blah blah blah makes me feel like I was wrong. But I'm happy where I am, I'm where Ive always wanted to be, I have a beautiful son (and I'm only 23, so yeah...) and a great man so I'm good! Dont let it get ya down, lady!
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onehotmess
02/01/09

@onehotmess: and and and! high school was actually really fun for me! I wouldnt want to do it again, but I'm not going to feel bad that I wasnt miserable the entire time, which also seems to be a common theme on this thread.
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whynotshesaid
02/02/09

@appels+oranjes: I just read most of the thread and I have to say, I think you are right about detecting quite a bit of bitterness in some of the posts. I mean, I understand feeling bitter toward the high school years, especially if you had it rough, but at some point people have to grow up and move on and quit holding grudges.

And also, I too was pretty bitter when I was in my late teens/early 20s but then two things happened - I got so busy living my own life that I kind of forgot about my high school years, and I also had a moment of clarity in which I realized that, hey, I could be pretty shitty to other people too. I mean, we were all teenagers for god's sake. It's like there is some kind of timebomb DNA code that explodes when you turn 14 and makes you start being assy to people. So to be all bitter toward people for the mean shit they did as teenagers just seems pointless to me, because odds are good, we all did mean shit as teenagers.
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Ulookinatmyjunk, JOC
02/02/09

@onehotmess: Congrats. I guess a life well-lived is how you define it for yourself. I feel that a lot of these people are more stuck in high school then they would like to admit.
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ImproperDancing
02/01/09

In reply to Has Facebook Made High School Reunions Unnecessary?
I graduated from High School in 2005, in the early days of Facebook...the reunion started the instant I left for college.

I ignore 85% of the friend requests from people I knew from high school....Hi, we never talked...
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Jenloveshercurves
02/01/09

In reply to Has Facebook Made High School Reunions Unnecessary?
You couldn't pay me to go back to my highschool reunion in small town Montana. I know what all of my friends from back there are up to and I even know most of the gossip about my classmates that I disliked (alot of it involves meth or some other addiction that is equally as sad). Going to that reunion would only give me a chance to say, yes I was the only person in this class to attend an out of state college and finish. Yes, I did have higher grades in my more selective college than all of the valedictorians. Yes, I do have a great career now after attending graduate school. No, I'm not married or have children and yes, I consider the fact that I escaped a small town in Montana without a young marriage (and subsequent divorce) or very young pregnancy to be an accomplishment. Do I care about these people? No, not really. They did all they could to make my life miserable in high school and now they are living miserable lives. I'm pretty much done with them. My mother actually openly laughed when the president of our class asked for my contact information for an all-class reunion. She told her just to send the invitation to my parents house.
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Remedios Varo can't see no huevos.
02/01/09

In reply to Has Facebook Made High School Reunions Unnecessary?
I have more of a beef with family members adding me on Facebook than people I seldom talked to in high school. I was a huge closet case back then, and my orientation was a subject of gossip, so I sometimes wonder if the people friending me are friending me to figure out if I ever came out. I don't really mind, but I can't help thinking that sometimes.
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NewsBunny
02/01/09

In reply to Has Facebook Made High School Reunions Unnecessary?
I was the kid you all spit on (literally) in high school.

I wouldn't go to a reunion if you paid me. Fuck all of them.
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Jenloveshercurves
02/01/09

@NewsBunny: Aww, I was literally spit on too in high school by my classmates, memories.
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MizJenkins
02/01/09

In reply to Has Facebook Made High School Reunions Unnecessary?
NO NO NO NO NO! On principal dammit! The interwebs are NOT a substitute for live human interaction!

::she says, while skipping brunch to chat with strangers on Jezebel::
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Ratinski
02/01/09

In reply to Has Facebook Made High School Reunions Unnecessary?
My ten year was supposed to be this year; I never got an invite, which indicates one of two things: 1) it didn't happen, and considering my recollection of the people who were supposed to be in charge, this is entirely possible, and 2) they couldn't find me. I didn't hop onto Facebook until 2008, I went to college outside the three state zone of Illinois, Iowa, and southern Wisconsin, then I went to grad school and moved to the East Coast. I haven't seen ANYONE from high school aside from random encounters in the mall when I lived at home the year I took off between college and grad school.

In any case, I probably wouldn't go. I didn't have many friends in high school, certainly none that I remained friends with after leaving, so I probably would end up getting drunk to relieve the monotony or cutting out early to go find something actually fun to do.
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Residentdrunkgirl
02/01/09

In reply to Has Facebook Made High School Reunions Unnecessary?
I think facebook is honestly what you make of it. I accept friend request when my email says I have one, do the requisite "hey! Long time, good to hear from you" then forget about it. I have no idea what people are up to because I really just don't care to look and find out. I don't write on peoples' walls and most have stopped bothering to check my profile because I think they realize I don't give a shit about it.
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lookethatmyface
02/01/09

In reply to Has Facebook Made High School Reunions Unnecessary?
Reunions are still technically a few years off for me, but part of me is like "YAY Time to get that bitch back for ruining my senior year," and the other part is just sad about how many of us fulfilled all these existing statistics about minorities/first-generation students/low income/immigrants dropping out of college for whatever the reason. Maybe this will make more sense to me when I'm a few years older and have a job or at least job experience that isn't simply work study/summer camp counselor. So yeah, as much as those wounds from high school are still fairly fresh and painful, I'm just saddened by it all. This is coming from someone who revels in every minute as a "vindictive bitch."
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Trulymadlyme
02/01/09

In reply to Has Facebook Made High School Reunions Unnecessary?
I love that rando people from high school find me on facebook. I'm a zillion times hotter than I was in high school, so I'm all what's up suckas! My ship has sailed! You can't get with this now!
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Maiden Curly Crown O'Portugues-Winchester
02/01/09

In reply to Has Facebook Made High School Reunions Unnecessary?
i went to college/live in the town next to my hometown, so i pretty regularly see my fellow 04 class, either on breaks or at school. none of them remember me. i can stand right next to them as they reminisce with another friend of mine forever, and then have to be awkwardly reintoduced...so, no reunions for me unless i live the dream of marrying cillian murphy. here is my question, though--about half the people i see around town from my class have got THE fattest faces. their bodies are not fat, nor do they look odd in other ways, but since high school their faces have all just puffed up like puffing things. is this just an 04 thing? or just a my town thing? or has anyone else noticed this?
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KRS10
02/01/09

@TacoToes:

i will fight you for cillian. to. the. death.
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Maiden Curly Crown O'Portugues-Winchester
02/01/09

@KRS10: first let's band together to take out his actual wife, though. but LEAVE THE CHILD UNHARMED.
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Residentdrunkgirl
02/01/09

In reply to Has Facebook Made High School Reunions Unnecessary?
OMG this has kept popping up in my facebook -

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

I don't want you know this about me, I don't want to know this about you. QUIT THIS SHIT.
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prestocaro fears the culling
02/01/09

@Residentdrunkgirl: That's so annoying. You should unfriend those people who sent that crap chain your way.
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lookethatmyface
02/01/09

@prestocaro: washed, ready to eat: A friend who graduated early sent that to me. I messaged her like, "why are you telling me things I already know about you? This was pointless and time-consuming. Miss you though."
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