If you know the title, then you know the movie that inspired my blog today: Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, circa 1997. Hilarious movie, one of my faves, and one that got me thinking about high school reunions and how different they are and will be nowadays, versus the older days.

When Romy and Michele were ready to return to their old stomping ground and catch up with their classmates, they really hadn’t seen or talked to those people for TEN YEARS. That’s almost crazy to think about in our era of social media craziness.

We know exactly what most of our classmates are up to, whether we want to or not, and making up a story like inventing Post-its, wouldn’t fly for even a second.

The mystery is GONE. There’s no wondering if our own high schools’ Billy Christensen (the hot football jock) is still dating Christie Masters (the popular cheerleader and leader of the tormenting A-Group). There’s no surprising everyone with our awesome jobs or how skinny we got, or how cute our kids are; everybody already knows.

Sure, not every single person we went to high school with has Facebook or Twitter, but a simple Google search would at least probably land you on a LinkedIn page, or some article they were mentioned in. It’s near impossible to not be found anymore.

So in a way, it’s kind of sad. I hear my own generation, most of us just about out of high school for 10-12 years, and no one really feels the need to go to their reunion. If you’ve stayed in touch with people, you probably still see them, or at least talk to them online, and the other people you didn’t keep in touch with,  well you probably still have them on your social networks, or know someone who does, so what’s to talk about?

Getting together and just being in a room with everyone you once went to school with is cool, I guess? But now we’re also faced with the awkward part of the day.

Maybe you haven’t “friended” a certain person, not because you’re blatantly being rude, but just because you weren’t friends in high school, so why connect now? A lot of us find ourselves doing the annual cleaning up of Facebook friends, and I don’t know about you, but I literally feel bad every time I delete someone, thinking that if I happen to run into them, that’s the first and only thing I am going to be thinking about and feeling some strange need to explain. I hate that feeling!

It’s never personal, or rarely is, it’s mainly because our news feeds are cluttered, and we can barely find time to comment on our family and close friends pictures and events, let alone the 10 people we met on vacation last year, or the friends of the friends who add you to their list because they are seriously one of those people who have over 1,000 friends and seem to just add daily.

Also, reunions can be awkward because social media makes it very easy to offend someone, without even knowing it. I’m not one to post any of my political or social or religious beliefs,  but many people do. I saw a lot of “good friends” fighting with each other over political posts last year and now with the gun issue at hand, it’s happening again. So when you walk into the reunion and someone you thought you were close with gives you the evil eye, it might stem from one simple post, or quote, or article you shared.  It might be a completely different experience, than if you really hadn’t seen them for 10 years.

We’re all kind of stuck in the spider web of the WEB and we can’t hide who we are.
Nor should we.

The bright side: social media has given us a way to truly stay in touch with the friends we did and do hold dear, and that wasn’t as easy even as little as ten years ago. Romy and Michele decided they were going to be themselves, just like they were in high school, not caring if the A-Group liked them. And that’s a great way to live your life. Our personalities are not going to mesh with every single person we ever meet, go to school with, work with, so why try to be someone we’re not? Be you, do you, and the people meant to be in your life, will be there.

I’m Tara. I’m a very happily married, work-at-home mom, freelance writer, and
all-around goofball. And unfortunately, I didn’t invent Post-its.