Just in case Cassandra, at least, is still reading this, have you been to any of your college reunions? High school? Grad school?
Sunday, June 16, 2013
In which We Can't be Bothered with Reunions
Another Doonesbury flashback for this week's Sunday comic. This will be the last one for a while from Proffie Galore, who starts summer break this week!
Just in case Cassandra, at least, is still reading this, have you been to any of your college reunions? High school? Grad school?
Just in case Cassandra, at least, is still reading this, have you been to any of your college reunions? High school? Grad school?
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Non-traditional undergrad and grad student...no reunion fodder there.
ReplyDeleteWent to my 10th, 20th and 30th high school reunions. All done with that. I should have been clued in at the 10th when they awarded the door prize for "came the longest distance to attend". I came from Hawaii. My buddy came from Poland. He got the prize. Reunion venue was the Jersey shore. 'nuff said....
Grad school has reunions? You mean besides the MLA or whatever other ginormous annual conference?
ReplyDeleteI have been living abroad since the big reunions started rolling in, and can't really justify the time, cost, and hassle of returning home when pretty much everyone I liked (and everyone who annoyed me) is on Facebook anyhow. Thanks to social media, I predict reunions will soon go the way of the dodo.
My undergrad 20th is this weekend, but I didn't go (too much $ to get there). My school has an active alumni FB page so I get to see photos that people post, and none of the people I was really close to will be there (they were in different years).
ReplyDeleteGrad school? No. My program was shut down the year after I left, and my other degree is from a place mostly peopled by pretentious trust-fund d-bags I have no interest in seeing again anyway.
Thanks for the cartoon--huge Doonesbury fan here!
Then I'll include more in the Sunday comics come September.
DeleteI've largely avoided alumni events, mainly because I rarely saw anybody I knew at them and soon became bored.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, my alma mater had a milestone anniversary and I attended some of the sessions. Except for seeing some of my undergrad profs again, I should have stayed home as those gatherings were largely an excuse to grovel for money from alumni.
Never have gone to a college reunion (NO desire), but actually would like to do one with my Masters group (there were about 35 or so of us and we got to know each other pretty well). The PhD group is too strung out (and some of my best acquaintances never finished).
ReplyDeleteWent to my 10, 20, 30 and 40(!) year HS reunions, basically because I live fairly close and I liked a most of the folks (and some I knew in Elem School or went to college with).
[Still here, but going on vacation -- well, taking a staycation and swearing off the internet -- tomorrow]
ReplyDeleteI periodically go to high school reunions (I live near where I grew up). High school was a pretty fancy girls' prep school, and I veer wildly between feeling very alienated from what is clearly a wealth, privileged world (the place has gotten even fancier since I graduated, and besides, I was a day student at a mostly-boarding school) and finding I have a lot in common with many of the women, who tend to be sensible, hard-working, civic-minded people, dedicated to making the world better for everybody, but especially for women, whether they work for pay or put in long hours as volunteers. On the other hand, I've also testified *against* what some of the school was asking for in a zoning case (but wore a sticker with the school's seal, because they were handing them out to alums. This puzzled the staff and alumnae present, though it shouldn't, since they supposedly want to instill a taste for independent thinking). Guess that didn't quite count as a reunion.
I've only been to one college reunion (my 25th). I got to sit on a panel on the future of higher ed with two executives in the for-profit higher ed sector (who I think were disappointed to find that their fellow panelists were two plain old proffies, one not even on the tenure track, rather than the cabinet-level secretary who is also a member of our class. They also really, really believe that they're making education available to the masses. In other words, they're not evil, just self-deluded. That was the scariest part of the reunion). I also took advantage of the cheap dorm housing to do a day's research in a library affiliated with the school. And I got to see a number of old friends. That last was definitely the best part (the research was inconclusive).
I've gone to one reunion at my grad institution (which is particularly reunion-happy at all levels), and may go back to a big anniversary of the grad school next fall (which looks like it might be another discussion of the future of higher ed. Yes, I seem to be attracted to this subject). I can't remember quite why I went that one time, but singing with a group I'd belonged to while there was the best part. I think I may have also done a bit of research in the library (and that might have been my reason for going).
Enjoy your web-free staycation, Cassandra!
DeleteHave never gone, will never go to High School reunion. Technically there is enough money in the world to pay me to go, but it's a very unlikely amount of money to see in one place outside of Bill Gate's bank statements.
ReplyDeleteAs for college/grad school reunions. Never gone. No interest. I keep up with friends via Facebook and it'd be awkward running into old girlfriends.
I went to a high school in a remote part of the country. When I graduated 40 years ago, I wanted to get as far away as possible. Academically, I liked it. Socially, it was hell.
DeleteI went back once in a while since then, including spending 3 undergrad summers working in a nearby oil refinery. The only reason I go back now is to visit my father, particularly since my mother died last year.
I have no interest in seeing people I knew from university. If I wanted to know what they were doing, I could always look them up in the professional registry.
High school? No, no, and no. It was a convent school with nuns who had Ph.D.s -- great role models -- but a counseling department whose take on depression was that it was a sin, as the sufferer was wasting God's gifts. If I had ever considered donating, that idea was squashed when the school insisted on addressing solicitations mail to my supposed married name, even after I sent them my correct ("maiden") name. Big thanks to whichever one of my sisters gave them my contact info.
ReplyDeleteCollege? The classmates I want to keep up with, I do. The financial and political bigwigs, I didn't know and don't care to hang out with.
Grad school? No formal reunions have been held, but I have an informal annual weekend with a select few. We call ourselves the Women Into Surviving Education Association (WISE Ass), and our "meetings" involve a dude ranch, rocking chairs, a hammock, lots of CM-style stories, and way too much wine.
I sat next to a guy at my high school graduation that I had never seen in my life. I had no idea who he was, nor he me. So High school reunion- not yet, probably not ever.
ReplyDeleteThree months later I was enrolled a university as part of a freshman class that was touted as the largest in the nation for that year. A few years later "Enrollment Management" became a "thing." (I've lived in cities that have smaller populations than my alma mater's undergrad enrollment.) Given the oft quoted stat of 33% completion rate within six years, think I could pick anyone from that group out of a crowd?
If there was a Residence Hall Classes of 'W-'Z, reunion I might go to something like that, though.
I have never been to a reunion for any school I attended.
ReplyDeleteOne reason is that I never partook much in the social events of my alma maters, so I really didn't get to know many of my classmates very well.
Also, there are many whom I have no desire to see again. There are a few about whom I'm curious. I can use social media and other means to find out what they're doing now.
And three classmates I'd want to see are dead.