The letter to notify my high school class of our upcoming reunion stated:
”Come and relax with your spouse, significant other, and/or family.”
I read this, kept reading, learned about all the planned events and was excited for the chance to reunite with classmates that I have not kept in contact with over the past few years.
A few weeks after the arrival of the letter (still a few months before the reunion), I spent time with the small group of high school friends that I continue to keep in touch with. One friend made it quite clear that she didn’t want to attend any of the events, but felt some sense of obligation. Her compromise would be to attend the Friday night get together, but not the rest of the weekend’s activities.
I probed her for the reason that she didn’t want to attend. I thought that her reply would revolve around the need to lose weight, lack of a high profile job, or perhaps the fact that she is single and didn’t want to arrive at the event alone. While these things may have been somewhere in the back of her mind, the issue that she got fired up about was the opening to the reunion information letter.
She quoted it word for word and said that if they were trying to include everyone, they had missed her. I was taken aback. I had read those same words and not even noticed them, moving quickly on to the details of what, when, and where. Another friend chided her for reading too much into the wording of the letter. She admitted that this may be the case, but that she was upset about it nonetheless.
Perhaps I should be similarly upset, but I’m not. I am looking forward the reunion, despite the fact that I am going alone and despite the fact that they seemed to have forgotten me.
