I had a lot of friends in high school. They were varied in which cliques or groups they belonged in. I was friends with artsy types, band "geeks", nerds, academics, stoners, athletes, everyone, really. It didn't matter what graduating class or group they were in, I made friends.
I hung out with many of them outside of school, but had a key group that was my go-to group. We were so varied in backgrounds and race that we once joked about how we were "like the United Nations". My key group consisted of me, a middle class white girl; Barb, a working class white girl who's family were devout Catholics; Neha, an upper middle class Indian girl; Alex, a Cuban-American "mixed" girl who was adopted by an all white family; Suphansa, a Laotian, middle class girl; and Brandi-Jay, a black girl who had immigrated from Trinidad with her family. While we were all mostly somewhere in the middle class, we were very varied in how we were raised. Some of us had to work, some wanted to but weren't allowed, some didn't have to. A few of us had cars to drive. These girls kept me sane in high school. Although we had the occasional infighting, we had each other's backs. When we graduated, we continued to hang out until the end of the first semester or year of college. We grew apart. We all went to different colleges and majored in different things. We made new friends - friends that understood our new lives.
This brings me to my epiphany. This is the reason I don't care to go to my high school reunion. While I went to school with many of those people for twelve years of my life, I grew apart from them. Many of them don't get me and my current life. Of the ones that did go to college straight out of high school, not enough shared my major. I went to three different universities for undergraduate nursing and never once had a class with any of them!
Who understands my life? The people I went to college with. My friends from college. My work friends. That's who gets me. That is who shared my struggles. Each college major is different. No one really understands how relatively hard your own major was other than those who went through the same courses, those who had to wait several semesters to be admitted to the school of their choice within their university.
Would I go to a reunion with those I graduated nursing school with? Absolutely. The 100+ of us bonded through the three years of ups and downs. We have since bonded over the highs and lows of our post-undergrad life. We have gotten married, had babies, got jobs, lost jobs, got promoted, got certified...the list goes on. These are the people I chose to surround myself with.
I do keep in touch with some people from high school via Facebook. I still see a couple. To me, all a high school reunion is is a reminder of what it was like in high school. The cliques will still be there. People will be standing around judging others. People will be fake and nice to some people's faces and nasty and real behind their backs. I've grown past that. I don't need to pay to participate in that again!
