I’ve been out of school for a long time.
I had kind of forgotten how long it was, until I got invited on Facebook to a reunion event… then calculated the years… and opened a bottle of wine. It’s been 25 years! How absolutely crazy is that?!
My word that’s a long time!
Anyway, I’ve known about a few of the other reunions, and didn’t go to them. Today, was another matter entirely. You see, the reunion took place at the Fourways Farmers Market. I was taking photos at a baptism lunch at Longmeadow… which is right next door. Plus, I’ve been wanting to go the market for ages and haven’t got there. So I really didn’t have an excuse.
I must say though, that I was about to give up hunting for them, when I spotted one face that I recognised. One! And then after being there for a few minutes I recognised another face. That was it!! I recognised 2 people! I didn’t even recognise most of the other names, let alone their faces! LOL!
And apart from Judy and Guillaume, no-one had a clue who I was either! It was too funny… and strange. No-one recognised my name or my face! LOL! I didn’t think I’d changed that much… other than chopping my hair off.
As you can imagine, a lot of the conversation was about school days. And teachers, and what teachers did. I couldn’t remember any of the things they spoke about.
Here’s the thing though… I truely cannot remember much about school. Judy reckoned I was in a nerdy class. I probably was. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t relate to what they were talking about. I do know for a fact, that I got up to no good… but it wasn’t around school friends… because I worked on weekends, and my boyfriends were all in other schools (I didn’t believe in having a boyfriend in the school, it was too close to home)… I had other circles of friends. And I’m OK with that.
I was really quiet at school. And I know that. That’s probably why no-one remembers me.
My only regret has been not keeping in touch with my “close” school friends. I speak to Lorraine… but Debbie and Lorna have never even acknowledged my friend requests on FB. The 4 of us were inseperable at school… yet I don’t think we ever got together after school ended… ever.
So weird.
Anyway, I didn’t stay long. Wish I could’ve stayed to work out more about what everyone has gotten up to, and where they fitted in. But after being out at photoshoots etc for most of the weekend, I just wanted to see my family… and eat!! Holy moly the queues at the market were long… and I was starving! I’m going to have to make a plan and get back to the market soon.
As for school stuff, it doesn’t actually bother me that I can’t remember. School schmool. I really didn’t like school much. Varsity however, was a different matter entirely… I became a person there.
that is very weird. You went to school in Jhb, right?
I’m from PE and I didn’t really keep up with anyone’s news but my sister is still there so she used to tell me now and again what a few people were up to.
However since FB, a lot of us talk quite a bit. Next time I go down, I’ll have to have a little reunion. Although I still believe if nothing made you reach out and keep in touch, do you REALLY have that much in common anymore?
There were 4 of us who were also tight – 3 girls and a boy – and the boy lives a few streets away from me. But still I haven’t even suggested getting together. He’s high maintenance and I suppose at the time I didn’t feel like drama 🙂 The other girl and I are FB friends but she’s never on (only at birthdays…..) and the 4th person is not on ANYTHING (no place to stalk :)). She dumped me and the other girl for telling her her BF was cheating on her. YES… fun times 🙂
You’re right, we’ve probably got absolutely nothing in common now. I lost touch with them when I went to varsity… my life was just in a very different space to theirs.
Sad though, considering the days and hours we spent together.
I’ve always enjoyed my reunions…but I still keep.in touch with a fair number of school friends, so maybe that’s why.
The women always look more or less like they used to, but most of the men I wouldn’t be able to pick out of a police line up.
I had the same BF rule in school! 🙂
LOL re the men!
I have my 25 yr reunion coming up in Dec, in CT. They are planning to make a weekend of it, black tie dinner, family picnic blah blah blah. And i have absolutely no interest in going whatsoever. I’m friends with a few of my high school friends on FB, but do I really want to spend an entire weekend with a whole lot of them. Don’t think so. I guess i’ve just moved on from school too – don’t really remember much of my high school days – my family was going through a lot of stuff so i have pretty much blocked my teenage years out of my life. So i don’t know. Still need to think but really don’t think i’m going to make it. And it really doesn’t bother me at all.
I wouldn’t even consider a whole weekend… I wouldn’t know what to say to them for that length of time!
We had our reunion a few years ago – blogged about it. And yes, as Louisa says – the girls sort of look the same, give and take. Way too many of the boys are huge, fat and have no hair and hence bare no resemblance to the boys they were.
What was really sad for me was that the one guy said his school years was the best years of his life. Really? Heavens, they were possibly my worst. The whole world awaited after that.