10 reasons to attend your old school reunion
When that invitation to a school reunion shows up, your first instinct may be to chuck it in the bin. After all, adolescence is usually an awkward time that most people would rather forget rather than reminisce about. While many people will say that school was the best time of their lives, this isn’t always true for everyone. Still, there are plenty of reasons why attending your school reunion is a good idea. Here are 10 of the reasons why you might want to think twice before you throw that invitation away.
1. Reconnect With Old Friends
Remember the best friend that you talked to for hours every night on the telephone and swore you’d never grow apart from? Unless you’re one of the lucky few, chances are that you haven’t seen one another in years and may even have lost touch altogether. Few events offer the opportunity to reconnect with people that were once important to you and you may never see them again if you skip the event.
2. Because You’ve Changed Dramatically
People get better with age, and there might be some surprises of those who have lost a ton of weight or were the ugly duckling that became a swan at university, or later in life. If it was you, there’s something very satisfying about showing up to flaunt those changes. Poise and confidence often come with age, so you can navigate your reunion much more easily than the corridors of your old school.
3. To come to terms with Ageing
Seeing new fine lines and more gray hair isn’t easy to deal with for most people. When you arrive at your reunion and realise that everyone is getting older, it can make the experience feel less isolating and help you come to terms with the fact that ageing is an inevitable part of life.
4. Because Living Well is the Best Revenge
School can be rough, especially for kids that don’t quite fit the mold. Old wounds do heal. If you suffered through and have since built a wonderful, rewarding life for yourself, despite the bad experiences, showing off your success to the people that treated you badly can be quite vindicating.
5. To Network
Networking is so important in some fields that there are entire social websites built solely around the premise of helping people to network on a professional level. Attending your school reunion can be a great experience, but it may also afford you some networking opportunities that you would otherwise miss out on.
6. To Reminisce
Some people suffer through school, but there are also those that revelled in the experience. Looking back at your school career and sharing a few laughs with the people that were by your side for all of those great times can be very rewarding.
7. To show your spouse where you came from
Attending your school reunion with your spouse is a great way to share a part of your formative years. You can tour Reigate, introduce old friends and share stories that you’d forgotten all about, helping you forge an even stronger bond. Unless, of course, you are one of the luckiest people in the world and still married to your school sweetheart (which is even more of a cause to celebrate with mutual friends)!
8. To party like it’s 1975… or something
When careers and kids come along, opportunities to let your hair down can be few and far between. Your school reunion will give you the chance to be young again, use it as an excuse to head out for the night surrounded by people your own age rocking out to songs you haven’t heard in years.
9. To Satisfy your Curiosity
If you’ve ever wondered where people ended up and what they have done with their lives this is your chance to find out. Whether it is the motor head that constantly tinkered with his cool car or the nerd that always raised his hand to answer the teacher’s questions, it’s fun to see what’s became of them. Also remember that, by now, everyone will have been through heartbreaks, challenges and disappointments.
10. Because Wall posts aren’t real conversations
Seeing pictures and FaceBook status updates from your old friends or even sending a few messages back and forth just isn’t the same as seeing them in the flesh and catching up. As hard as it may be to believe, some people don’t even maintain social networking accounts. If you haven’t seen your school friends since graduation, there’s no better place to catch up than the spot where you all went your separate ways.