Why do we do it to ourselves? We get that e-mail or facebook message announcing our 30-year high school reunion and we type, “Yes, I”ll attend.” Have we not learned anything? We are willing to go back to where we once hailed from a place of not fitting in socially and where no one paid any attention to us. So why would they notice us now? Do we go back to see who’s fatter, balder, happier, most popular, or most likely to have succeeded?
The same people who didn’t talk to us back then, won’t be making their way over to say “Hello” now. If it’s anything like my 10th the same cliques will prevail. So why would I go back? Is it to say: “Look at me now!” or “Look at her/him now!” ? I’ve grown so much (and not just poundage-wise!) since those years of uncertainty and come into my own. There’s no nostalgia for me in going back to a place I couldn’t wait to leave. Do we go back perhaps to change other people’s perceptions of us? I think we go back because we wish we were back.
Okay, so the countdown is on—2 months to go—to the gym, shed 10 or 20 pounds, get a life, in case I decide to attend my 30th high school reunion. Who knows…maybe I’ll meet that cute guy I once had a horrible crush on and see that he’s balding, sporting a paunch and living in a cardboard box under a train bridge!
