Reunion

Yesterday was Homecoming for North Side.  After a few years of almost spiritless Spirit Weeks, the staff and students of North Side pulled off an old fashion Spirit Week and Homecoming Game Night.  So proud of everyone in the planning and execution of the week, especially Sherry Sheppard, Kara Wilson, and Deb Burch.  The traditions will continue!

I had to exit the festivities fairly early.  The antibiotics that I have been taking to get rid of the coughing, hacking, and headaches decided to do more than getting rid of the maladies.  Wish I could have stayed a little longer for my last Homecoming as a teacher.

I did have a wonderful experience before I left.  Along with former North Side grad and guidance counselor Ron Flickinger, I was to show the class of 1963 around our new building.  Five great upperclass students aided us in the process.  I have done tours of the building with a number of other graduating classes, but this one was truly different.  We had to bring them all together in the auditorium!  There were over 170 of them!

The phenomenon of a reunion really hit me with this group.  Just a week ago I attended my wife's reunion.  Until yesterday, that reunion impressed me the most of any that I have attended.  She graduated with a class of just over 90.  At her reunion  almost half of those graduates showed up.  I have gone to three of my own reunions, and we have never come close.  Of course, there were over 500 in my  graduating class, so that would be 250.  Very impressed with her Churubusco classmates.

The class of 63 came in force.  When asked how many of them had not been back to the school since graduation almost 3/4 of the hands came up.  Over half of them came from other states for the reunion.  When we took them on the tour, they were filled with questions, orienting themselves to the old building when they  found familiar sites.  They wanted to know about former teachers.  They suddenly recognized faces that they hadn't seen in 50 years as they passed in the halls of their alma mater.  For one night they entered the time machine.

Did they compare their lives to others?  Maybe not overtly, but it was in the back of their minds.  Did they talk about specific events that happened in the building?  Over and over and over again.  What did I notice the most?  It was what most of us don't look for.  The chance to be what we were.  I saw the high school faces come out in these faces not much older than mine.  I saw the shenanigans recounted with hearty laughs, maybe as hearty as they  laughed 50 years ago.

I am a believer in reunions.  Reunions are therapeutic.  Some of us need to validate who we were as if we don't believe that what  we experienced really happened all those years ago.  Others need to shake off those demons of their past by bringing what they have become to show "it worked out for me."  There are some of them who want to see if anyone noticed them in the past, so that they can be noticed in the future.

At my most recent reunion (45 years from high school), I was able to connect with two people whom I hadn't seen since we graduated.  The time that I had with both of them was priceless.  Both hadn't been my closest friends, but they were important enough that I had missed their presence.  To not have that time with them to catch up, I believe would have been a tragedy.  We all need to have closure.

So, to those of you who reject your reunions - I understand you as well.  Either you didn't have any relationships at that time worth examining again or you don't understand what the real reasons are for reunions.  I suggest, go at least once.  You might just experience a life that crossed yours that still has meaning to you.  When students are leaving the building on that last day of their high school career, they hang around forever.  They try to hold on to what they had.  Your reunion gives you the ability to glance at that once again.