to wonder if any of you have gone to a school reunion

[atthewelles]

Humming and hawing about an upcoming one. Friend trying to persuade me to go but I'm not sure if it will turn into some kind of competitive 'who's done the best since we left school' kind of thing, or if it will just be a fun night of reminiscing and feeling like a teenager again.

I've been to a couple of these and really enjoyed them. Probably the best bit though was that they were held at our old (all girls) school and it was wonderful to re-visit the various classrooms again. I'm still close friends with about 10 or so girls from school and so we all went. I found people were pretty honest about how life had treated them and the atmosphere didn't seem competitive at all. In fact what struck me was how much nicer most of the women were in adulthood. Even girls I hadn't liked much at school had grown up and turned into very likeable characters.

Thanks for the replies. Charbon you're still close friendswith ten of your
old school friends? Wow!

I think I might go. I suppose in my head I'm imagining a bunch of immature competitive 17 year olds whereas in real life it will be a room full of middleaged women whose lives have had all the usual ups and downs and surprises and disappointments and will, like me, be looking forward to a bit of reminiscing and a good laugh.

Oh go you must go, if you don't like it you can always leave. Went to the 'now we're all 50' one in the summer and it was really good to see everyone and how little we've actually changed, everyone was pretty recognizable. Must be the all girls grammar school thing like so many of the above posters, yeah bring back them grammars (innit!).

Yes and I'm thankful every day for them - I realise it's quite unusual for a group of schoolfriends to be this close after 30-odd years. We've gone through so much together, including periods when some of us have lived overseas - and sadly one death in the group - but the deep friendships we made from 11-18 really did stick. Funnily enough, every one of us has got strong other friendships with other women we've met through work or the childrens' schools; as though it gave us such a good template and foundation for female friendship in our lives.

I'd give the reunion a chance. If I've ever encountered a competitive person I've found it breaks down their defences if I'm a bit more honest about the bad times and the mistakes I've made in life. It's hard for someone to keep on bragging in the face of that and I've found it gives people the signal to tell the truth. As someone else said, by the time we get to middle age, no-one's had the 'perfect' life but it's bound to have been interesting at least!

Over. My. Very. Dead. Body.