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For illustrative purposes only. This wasn’t my school.
No, I’ve never attended any of my high school reunions and I never will.
Let me explain.
I was homeschooled from preschool through grade 3 and had excellent experiences with that for the most part.
In grades 4 and 5, I attended a wonderfully friendly little school in the western portion of the United States. Had I stayed there, maybe things would have turned out differently.
The summer before I began grade 6, we moved cross-country to a rural part of the midwest because a church there hired my dad as their new pastor. Most of my classmates had been together since kindergarten, if not much earlier in life, and at best the majority of them were not at all interested in welcoming new kids into the fold.
I was bullied for years, mostly emotionally although there were a few minor physical altercations as well. In retrospect, these experiences caused severe depression and social anxiety. Yes, I made a few friends along the way, but no one I kept up with after graduation.
One thing that kept me going was the thought that someday I would never again be legally required to interact with any of the people who made my life miserable for so many years.
My final year of high school only included two classes on campus which was a massive relief. The rest of the time, I was joyfully taking courses at a local college for free thanks for a dual enrolment program my school offered.
I was confused by classmates who grieved the end of high school. Their experiences were nothing at all like mine.
For me, those years are something I will revisit in the rare blog post but that is all.
I forgive those classmates and genuinely hope they’ve become kind and accepting adults, but I never developed the deep emotional connection to that chapter of my life that I’d need in order to be willing to travel internationally and spend a substantial sum of money just to attend a class reunion. The window of opportunity for that closed many years ago. No thank you.
One of my coworkers today said one thing that got him through high school was knowing he’d never have to seen some of these people ever again. TBH, I mentally dropped out of high school after I found computers.
The Internet was such a wonderful thing for kids like us! I hope your coworker is doing better now.
Yeah, there’s no way I’d have felt any sort of grief when I left school. I live in hope that it has gotten better for kids these days, but my sense is that it hasn’t.
I hear you there.
I think it may be worse in ways because of social media and such. Our generation could basically escape school once we were home…
I totally agree with you there.
He is! He really found himself in his twenties.
That’s great to hear!
I don’t blame you. It seems to me that at best some high school classes are small enough to become groups of close friends, but most aren’t and don’t.
Thank you, Priscilla. That seems to be very true.
My heart goes out to you, Lydia. Kids are such nasty beasts. We can carry those hurts for a long time. Good for you that you have been able to forgive and move on.