No Romy, No Michelle
Jul. 30th, 2005 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eggwardsTonight is the night of my twentieth high school reunion. Conroe High School, class of 1985. We graduated in our highschool stadium on a hot end of May day with my grandparents watching. since the stadium was being upgraded from grass to turf we were the class that graduated on dirt.
Of course I'm not going. Sure, the high cost of the event is one part of it. the party tonight is $75 for one, heaven forbid I should want to take a partner to this event. Then there was also the bar event yesterday and the picnic today. The odd thing is that each one of these events are happening in The Woodlands, the master-planned community that was the turf of our rival school, McCullough High.
No, the fact is, I really don't care to live my high school days over again. Twenty years ago was just that. Sure, i loved the band and the choir, and most of all the drama club. I loved performing in the plays and musicals. High Schools was still a very uncertain time for me. I was in love with a girl, but I didn't know why I was more sexually attracted to Kevin Pippin and half of the football team, and just praying that those feelings would go away.
I wasn't totally sure that i would be able to go to college where I wanted to (and I didn't, we couldn't afford SMU), so I didn't know where I was going. Hell, all I had was a dream that i would be a television actor like my idols Robin Williams and David Letterman (I know, what role models I had). Somehow i could be a talk show sitcom comedian if I wanted to, and damn it, it should come easily, shouldn't it?
Maybe that's a little part of it. I'm a little ashamed that I'm not the man I hoped I'd be back then, but those aspirations were a little extreme. Being a middle manager homo isn't so bad, and I'm probably doing better than several of my classmates. Heck, I'm sure most of the girls were married within 4 years of exiting high school.
I don't know this though. I cut ties pretty quickly with most of my high school friends, and have rarely seen or heard from any of them since, even with my Mom and Dad still living in the same city. Mom a few months ago was asking me if I was going to the reunion, but mom also asks me all the time about old friends and anyone who graduated within 10 years of me, whether I knew anything of them or not. I graduated with 667 (I swear it was 666, but the school didn't want to tell us that) other students in my class, so I don't even know all of those in my own class.
My Mom attended her 40th reunion a couple of years ago, she keeps up.
The few that i've seen, are the ones I was better friends with, Billy, who I think did finally come out - since I think the guy he was having dinner with was his partner, Jim, who the last time I saw him was just after he didn't see me at the ten year reunion, and he tracked me down, and Leighza, the old high school sweetheart, who was working at IKEA at one time and was married with four kids and one on the way.
Of course there was Randy Kuhn, the class clown, he was killed by a robber in his house one day.
Still, I noticed that one of the organizers of the reunion is my old high school nemesis, Scott Levantino, the school bully. i thought he was in jail for investment fraud, but I guess he's out right now. Too bad. I guess he has a reason to show off to all the others. personally, most of those people in my class didn't give a damn about me then, so why would I go there now? I wasn't part of the in crowd, and neither were my friends. If we had kept up with each other, I'm sure we could find something much better to do on our own than this overpriced attempt to recapture the prom.
I looked at the list of people going and recognize names, but not friends. looks like the people I really knew are sitting this one out. Only 210 out of 667 will be there. My name doesn't appear on the missing classmates list though, so I guess they didn't try very hard to contact me. That's fine.
Still, our most famous alumni was the voice of Wishbone the dog on the PBS television show.
Of course I'm not going. Sure, the high cost of the event is one part of it. the party tonight is $75 for one, heaven forbid I should want to take a partner to this event. Then there was also the bar event yesterday and the picnic today. The odd thing is that each one of these events are happening in The Woodlands, the master-planned community that was the turf of our rival school, McCullough High.
No, the fact is, I really don't care to live my high school days over again. Twenty years ago was just that. Sure, i loved the band and the choir, and most of all the drama club. I loved performing in the plays and musicals. High Schools was still a very uncertain time for me. I was in love with a girl, but I didn't know why I was more sexually attracted to Kevin Pippin and half of the football team, and just praying that those feelings would go away.
I wasn't totally sure that i would be able to go to college where I wanted to (and I didn't, we couldn't afford SMU), so I didn't know where I was going. Hell, all I had was a dream that i would be a television actor like my idols Robin Williams and David Letterman (I know, what role models I had). Somehow i could be a talk show sitcom comedian if I wanted to, and damn it, it should come easily, shouldn't it?
Maybe that's a little part of it. I'm a little ashamed that I'm not the man I hoped I'd be back then, but those aspirations were a little extreme. Being a middle manager homo isn't so bad, and I'm probably doing better than several of my classmates. Heck, I'm sure most of the girls were married within 4 years of exiting high school.
I don't know this though. I cut ties pretty quickly with most of my high school friends, and have rarely seen or heard from any of them since, even with my Mom and Dad still living in the same city. Mom a few months ago was asking me if I was going to the reunion, but mom also asks me all the time about old friends and anyone who graduated within 10 years of me, whether I knew anything of them or not. I graduated with 667 (I swear it was 666, but the school didn't want to tell us that) other students in my class, so I don't even know all of those in my own class.
My Mom attended her 40th reunion a couple of years ago, she keeps up.
The few that i've seen, are the ones I was better friends with, Billy, who I think did finally come out - since I think the guy he was having dinner with was his partner, Jim, who the last time I saw him was just after he didn't see me at the ten year reunion, and he tracked me down, and Leighza, the old high school sweetheart, who was working at IKEA at one time and was married with four kids and one on the way.
Of course there was Randy Kuhn, the class clown, he was killed by a robber in his house one day.
Still, I noticed that one of the organizers of the reunion is my old high school nemesis, Scott Levantino, the school bully. i thought he was in jail for investment fraud, but I guess he's out right now. Too bad. I guess he has a reason to show off to all the others. personally, most of those people in my class didn't give a damn about me then, so why would I go there now? I wasn't part of the in crowd, and neither were my friends. If we had kept up with each other, I'm sure we could find something much better to do on our own than this overpriced attempt to recapture the prom.
I looked at the list of people going and recognize names, but not friends. looks like the people I really knew are sitting this one out. Only 210 out of 667 will be there. My name doesn't appear on the missing classmates list though, so I guess they didn't try very hard to contact me. That's fine.
Still, our most famous alumni was the voice of Wishbone the dog on the PBS television show.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-31 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-31 10:11 pm (UTC)We were all outsides though. I guess that's what kept us together for the ride.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-31 04:36 am (UTC)I'm always intrigued by people that don't go to reunions. Some don't go because it's inconvenient (they can't get back from their trek through the Andes in time), but there seem to be a group of people that develop an almost religious fervour about why they're not going - as though they still allow what happened in the past to hold onto them even now - rather than letting go, they repress what happened in the past.
I'd say go, do it, realise how unimportant it is in the big scheme of things, do something outrageously silly on the night, and go home.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-31 10:16 pm (UTC)If there was a college reunion, that I'd be willing to attend. I still have ties there and love seeing those folks and knowing what's going on with them. I have no problems there.
I just don't have any reason to spend $75 US to see people I don't know who probably don't remember me.
Besides, I had more fun with Alex Darke at the Ripcord last night anyway!