How to Face your High School Reunion Head On

As my 20th high school reunion approached, I became a little bit uneasy and self-conscious about seeing people from the past. It was helpful that I had previously connected with a few people through Facebook, but I knew that there were many more out there. Although I still take care of myself and exercise, I am not the person that I was 20 years ago and that can get into your head if you let it.

Here are 12 tips that you can use to tackle the reunion like a champ:

1. Get out your old yearbooks and take a walk down memory lane. This will also serve as a name refresher for you.

2. Start talking to the few people that you keep in contact with from high school in advance. If you bring up funny stories from the past, it will get your memory going in the right direction and will serve as somewhat of an ice breaker.

3. Join Facebook and search for folks by your high school name and graduating year. Once you find them, add them to your network and it will start rolling from there. My husband went from 1 friend to 100 friends in about a month. People continue to come out of the woodwork from the past and he loves it.

4. Don’t try to go on some massive diet right before the reunion. It is not very genuine and there really is not a lot of progress that you can make at the last minute. Just know that most people are so worried about themselves and their own situation that they will not notice your flaws.

5. Do clean yourself up by making sure you have your regular grooming covered.

6. Don’t go overboard with your wardrobe. The less is more rule definitely applies because you do not want to look like you are trying too hard.

7. If possible, try to get some of your high school crew back together for a pre-party so that you can make a grand entrance together. Trust me. It is awesome to be one of a group when making an entrance vs. being the lone ranger.

8. If you have any flair like picture buttons or stickers or anything small from highschool that you can put in your pocket or purse, bring it. People love that stuff and it is a good way to break the ice.

9. Be prepared to give and receive a ton of hugs. People who you were not even that close to act like they have been searching for you for years and will give you giant, long hugs. Just go with it.

10. Don’t bring entire photo albums or folios of your children. If you must, a small wallet photo works best.

11. Don’t try to rekindle some long lost romance from highschool at the reunion. Especially if the person’s spouse is there.

12. Do have a few cocktails. It will loosen you up a lot. Just be careful not to be “over served” which is very noticeable at a high school reunion.

I ended up having a blast at my reunion. In fact, I felt let down afterwards because I was on such an emotional high the entire time. I can’t believe that I was worried about going when, in reality, the weekend went by entirely too fast.

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