This past Saturday night was the ten year anniversary for my graduating class from Roxbury High School. Actually, it was a combined reunion for the Class of 1999 (my class) and the Class of 2000. Typically, high school reunions only draw in 10% – 15% of possible attendees so combining the two classes was a good idea. Each of our classes had some 350+ students in them, so out of possible pool of about 720 students, I would say that maybe 60 or so showed up. When you add in wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, and fiances, there might have been about 100 people in attendance.
It wasn’t a bad event, in fact it was fun. I enjoyed seeing a lot of the people that I haven’t talked to since Project Graduation, which took place right after we graduated high school. Also, it was nice to meet the husbands and wives of some of my old high school friends.
When I was driving home, though, something did cross my mind. Namely, do reunions have the same value that they once had now that Facebook is ubiquitous? Granted, there are a lot of people who are not on Facebook, but the fact is that there are a growing multitude of people who ARE using this social media platform. And yes, while I understand that there is something special to be said about the face-to-face interaction that comes with a reunion, there is also something to be said about the ability to look someone up on Facebook and see what they’re up to these days.
Just something that crossed my mind as I was driving home.
The group that put the reunion together to an amazing job and I hope that they receive the credit that they deserve. I put a little note on the lead organizer’s Facebook page telling her what a great job that she did. Reunions are hard events to plan, so I hope that this team comes back again in 5 or 10 years for the next one!