Smells Like Middle-Aged Spirit: High School Reunion

While perusing the internet for articles featuring age and aging, I was immediately attracted to this article's subject matter: the high school reunion. My interest likely stemmed from personal experience, as just a few weeks before I departed for Stanford, I wandered into my living room one morning to discover my stepmom and dad engaged in rapt discussion about the events that had transpired the night before at her 20th high school reunion. The previous night's proceedings provided enough conversation plot points to occupy the two for hours, as they discussed the job changes, weigh gains, divorces, plastic surgeries, and midlife crises that have filled the lives of my stepmother's former classmates. It's always fascinated me that that high school reunion, more than any other milestone unifying event, has become such an entrenched part of American culture. Since high school is often considered the awkward and torturous purgatory all adolescents must trudge through before ascending to collegiate paradise, why is there so much hype about the high school reunion?

The author's personal essay about his own 20th high school reunion offers a glimpse into the annual experience shared by middle-aged pilgrims. While he admits to experiencing some of the cliche emotional moments depicted in Hollywood films -- discovering that the class hottie really felt insecure and alone all along -- the author also expresses a confusion with the whole ordeal. His statement, "The night resists the taking of its pulse; there's just no way to get an accurate reading," suggests the ambivalence of his emotions. With each paragraph, his tone wavers between cynicism and sentimentality, likely mirroring his moods throughout the night. Ultimately, the essay's departing words of wisdom seem to be that it is impossible to recreate the past, and that any night spent wallowing in nostalgia can do little to deny time's continual progression.