Reunion Report
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Ten years and several thousand drinks ago I graduated from West Linn High School (yes, in 1996). In the last decade more has happened in my life then you'll ever be able to read about, but suffice to say that I'm not where I envisioned myself, I've kept some friends and made many new ones, and I've certainly not accomplished what I hoped to - but there's still time.
I'm currently in business school I have no money - and for some reason the reunion committee decided to have it at Kells in downtown so the admission was ridiculously high. My plan was simply to not go (and not just for financial reasons) I had, however, some friends from college (who I happened to go to high school with) going so I offered to be the designated driver and just hang out in the bar while they were reunioning and limit myself to one drink per hour. Which, as a plan, was going along quite nicely for a while...
Because I have some of the greatest friends on the planet, I was able to get into the shindig without having to pay the exorbitant $60-ish dollar advance fee or the $72-ish dollar door fee. I was sneaked in - MacGuyver style. One donated admission wristband, one pair of nail clippers, some fingernail glue, and some creative ingenuity (thanks Dawn, Alex, and Robyn) and I was able to walk right in. (I didn't eat the food, however, figuring that I hadn't really paid for it.)
Once I got up there, I was amazed at how short I felt! Back in high school I was - at 6'1" - one of the taller people in the building. It seems that's changed in the last decade as some people have hit a growth spurt. And gosh, it would have been nice to see this page before I went!
Unsurprisingly, not one person I hung out with during my two-year stint at WLHS was at this reunion. Seriously. The friends I had during high school were either a year (or two) younger or simply didn't attend. So while the people that I hadn't seen in a long time stayed that way. And since high school was very clique-y the reunion was filled with the same cliques; people talking to all the people they knew ten years ago. I did manage to see some people I knew and was able to make them feel better with my "I don't have a job, I sold all my stuff and live in a studio apartment in Salem while I work on my MBA. How are you?" speech.
In the end, the reunion was fun. There was some surreptitious adventure, some familiar faces, a few drinks in a good bar... and traveling there and back with some really great friends - the ones I don't have to reunion with.
I'm currently in business school I have no money - and for some reason the reunion committee decided to have it at Kells in downtown so the admission was ridiculously high. My plan was simply to not go (and not just for financial reasons) I had, however, some friends from college (who I happened to go to high school with) going so I offered to be the designated driver and just hang out in the bar while they were reunioning and limit myself to one drink per hour. Which, as a plan, was going along quite nicely for a while...
Because I have some of the greatest friends on the planet, I was able to get into the shindig without having to pay the exorbitant $60-ish dollar advance fee or the $72-ish dollar door fee. I was sneaked in - MacGuyver style. One donated admission wristband, one pair of nail clippers, some fingernail glue, and some creative ingenuity (thanks Dawn, Alex, and Robyn) and I was able to walk right in. (I didn't eat the food, however, figuring that I hadn't really paid for it.)
Once I got up there, I was amazed at how short I felt! Back in high school I was - at 6'1" - one of the taller people in the building. It seems that's changed in the last decade as some people have hit a growth spurt. And gosh, it would have been nice to see this page before I went!
Unsurprisingly, not one person I hung out with during my two-year stint at WLHS was at this reunion. Seriously. The friends I had during high school were either a year (or two) younger or simply didn't attend. So while the people that I hadn't seen in a long time stayed that way. And since high school was very clique-y the reunion was filled with the same cliques; people talking to all the people they knew ten years ago. I did manage to see some people I knew and was able to make them feel better with my "I don't have a job, I sold all my stuff and live in a studio apartment in Salem while I work on my MBA. How are you?" speech.
In the end, the reunion was fun. There was some surreptitious adventure, some familiar faces, a few drinks in a good bar... and traveling there and back with some really great friends - the ones I don't have to reunion with.
posted by Burton at 5:29 PM
3 Comments:
i am still jealous you guys were at Kells. good fun, great drinks, and awesome music...compared to the Gov. Hotel where the only thing good were the sexy bartenders.
What, you call yourself MacGyver and you didnt take any pictures?
(I guess I didnt miss much, eh? lol)
I had a similar experience at my ten year back in '03 (not to date myself or anything). I didn't really enjoy it as much as I'd hoped, although it was kind of interesting to see where life had taken people. I heard the 20 year is better because people are more removed from the old cliques so it ends up being more laid back.
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