Don’t Be Afraid of Your High School Reunion

Last night while watching Empire, I got a Facebook notification. During the commercial break, I scrolled through my notifications hoping that it wasn’t someone asking me to join their pyramid scheme. Suddenly, I paused and my eyes grew big with horror. It wasn’t a pyramid scheme or someone announcing their pregnancy, it was my high school fucking reunion.

It’s been 5 years since I graduated from high school and apparently, this was the perfect time to link up once again. Now I never hated high school, but I had always been under the impression that high school reunions were a time when former grads came back to brag about their awesome lives, well paid jobs, and to show off their perfect spouse. So when I saw the reunion invite, I automatically thought , “I don’t have anything to brag about.” It hasn’t even been a year since I graduated from college, I still haven’t had a “real job” in my field yet, and I haven’t even been thinking about starting a family like some of my other classmates.

After sleeping on the idea of attending my reunion, I realized that a high school reunion isn’t supposed to be a competition. Instead, it’s a time to network and share the talents I do have. Hell, a high school reunion would be the perfect time to laugh over memories of detention and sneaking off into hallways with our crushes. It might even be the perfect time to “shoot your shot”. Most importantly, the reunion would be the perfect time to pay respects to our late classmate, Luis Inoa.

One thing I’ve had to learn since graduating is: One person’s success is not my failure. Constantly comparing myself to others causes nothing but an unnecessary anxiety attack. In our twenties, we’re all searching for ourselves, trying to figure out what’s next, and growing accustom to the new “grown” lifestyle that we begged for when we were kids. Now, I’m actually looking forward to reuniting with my classmates.