10 Years Gone

I've been meaning to try and put together some coherent thoughts about it being 10 years since I graduated high school, but I just can't. High school was...

Well, let's start at the beginning. High school was high school- there were good times and bad times and times in between, but at the end of the day, I was sexually frustrated, unatttractive and completely inept socially speaking. But despite that, high school was probably one of the best things to ever happen to me. From 2nd to 8th Grade, I was an unwilling attendee of The School That Shall Not Be Named on the north side of Iowa City. (Think about it people. You'll get what school I'm talking about.) It was a decent enough school, I suppose, but it was small. Cliques were the order of the day and if you weren't in the right tax bracket, you weren't cool and people let you know it. I know one girl who actually transferred schools the bullying got so bad, which is just ridiculous. (Girls, especially the high school variety of girls can be downright vicious when they want to be.) In short, if being a teenager wasn't bad enough, I had few, if any friends (but the friends I did have were good ones- a habit of mine that continues, I'd like to think, to this day) and was pretty miserable outside the normal teenage bullshit.

So transferring to City High was a breath of fresh air. God, to this day, I can think nothing but good thoughts about that school. It was amazing and going there and graduating from there is one of the things that I will always, always be thankful for- and proud of. (Go Little Hawks!)

I was a little nervous transferring schools- but I got over it. Quickly. After skipping my 8th Grade Graduation- what a psychotic idea that was. I mean, what the hell were you graduating too? Oh that's right- 4 more years of the same old shit. I arrived at City High and hit the ground running. It took me a year or so, but I found a little corner, found out plenty of things I didn't know about myself, went on a few dates and did a whole lot of growing up. Some of it sucked, but a lot of it didn't.

Yet, I find myself curiously indifferent to the thought of my 10 Year High School Reunion. It's not that I didn't consider going, it's just that I looked at the guest list and didn't really get all that excited about it. I looked at the price ($50 for the Missus and me- $25 a pop! And it'd be more now) and became even less thrilled, despite the lure of free beer.

But The Quiet Man, who's been writing extensively on this topic for awhile now mentioned a good point. Mervgotti (another one of the gang from high school) isn't going because he feels like people haven't changed all that much in 10 years. I'm starting to wondering if he might be right... I found the idea of five year reunions ridiculous- people are barely out of college, for cryin' out loud.

So, to go or not to go? Part of me thinks it'd be nice to just go, relax, chill with people and get completely smashed on free beer. The other part of me resents what these reunions can end up being about: the 'ooh, look at me' factor. That's just irritating. I don't have a damn thing about my life to apologize for, so I think I'd just resent the hell out of being put in a situation where I might think about doing so. Plus, as the Missus pointed out at her ten year reunion with Facebook you tend to already know what's going on in everybody's life anyway (more than you probably want too, if you're being really honest about it) which tends to dull the conversation a little bit.

To go or not to go? At this point, given the fact it'd cost me $40 big ones at the door I'm leaning more towards no and yet...

I think this might be a game time decision, kids- tickets are apparently staying at $25 at the door. So stay tuned!