It is that time of life once again when I will be bombarded with emails, texts, and phone calls from some friends from high school asking me if I'm going to our 50th reunion. In fact they've already started. This year I'm going to be proactive in keeping the contact on this to a minimum.
I will not be attending the reunion.
This will be the 45th consecutive year I won't be going and to help with any future plans, I will not be attending any in the future either. People who have known me for lo these many years are always taken aback that I'm not interested in going.
I'm not sure why that is, I have not deviated from my answer for 45 years. I was not part of the popular click in high school. The handful of friends I had back then I have remained in contact with over the years so there is no need to make a special trip back to renew acquaintances.
For all the others that will be attending, I either have no idea who you are, or I have no interest in seeing you. Sorry to be so blunt but since we have no personal relationship I don't have to worry about hurting your feelings.
Yes I am aware that this makes me look like a cold, detached, miserable, SOB. I'm OK with that. I have never understood why people feel the need to get back together with people you had nothing in common with all those years ago. Do you think suddenly the person who wouldn't give you the time of day for four years is suddenly going to be interested in your life now?
Of course it may be that they realized at some point that maybe they should have been more friendly to others in high school and they want to try to make it right by now pretending to care about how your life turned out. Guess what? It's too late.
Besides not giving a rats ass about most of these people, I cannot think of a more boring way to spend a night than to sit around and talk about people and events I have tried for 50 years to forget.
Like I said, I have my core friends from back then that I stay in touch with, although I could do a better job of that to be honest. They know that even if I don't talk with them for a period that I still love them and care about them. I would love to see them but we don't need a reunion gathering to do that.