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CLASS REUNIONS: Best Reason To Go Is To Reconnect And Not To Impress

This message was also posted earlier today on the website "Big Ten75.com

Hi Carolyn,
Those of us like yourself who will be attending our 40 Year Reunion are very blessed to even be able to make it. I am very excited and thrilled about this 40 Year Reunion (because) whether you realize it or not we have 5 (five) of our Class of 1975 Classmates that this will be their (first time) ever coming to a Class Reunion. Also we have 6 (six) of our Classmates who are coming from out of town and we will have 4 (four) of our Willowbrook Jr. High School Alumni that will be attending this Reunion. Now that's dedication. Giving Class Reunions can be hard and they have not always been easy but I have worked on our 10 Year, our 20th Year, our 32nd which was our "50th Birthday Gala", our 33rd, 2 (Two) Joint Class Reunions, 2 (Two) Alumni Picnics and now this 40 Year Reunion. I sadly missed the 35th & the 55th Year in Las Vegas. I signed up for this Reunion 7 (seven) years ago and now it is here (so) I am dwelling on the positive as always so no matter who is on the list and is coming and no matter who will pay at the door on Saturday evening I know for sure we will have a "Celebration of Life" the fact that we are all still here, the fact that we're a Class of 1975 "Family" and the fact that we are all still living and breathing. Praise be to God!!

Hey Carolyn and Classmates below is an article that I found online that sums up the way that a lot of people feel about Class Reunions. Take care everyone and I will see many of you at our 40 Year Class Reunion this coming Saturday, April 25, 2015 at "The Loft", Los Angeles, Ca.


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CLASS REUNIONS: Best Reason To Go Is To Reconnect And Not To Impress

 

 



Members of Kaimuki High School's Class of 1975 perform the "Electric Slide" during their 35-Year Reunion at Hawaii Prince Hotel in Honolulu.

 

 

 



For people anxious about attending a 10-, 20- or 30- 35+ Year High School Reunions, veterans have this to say: Don't worry. It gets easier.

 

 

"I think when you're going to your 10 and your 20, you're trying to impress everyone with who you are," says Marlys Ahrendt, who has organized (Four) Multi-Year Reunions for her High School in Sioux Falls, S.D.

 

 

After that, it's more about grandchildren than grand achievements, she and others say.

 

 

So what is it about Class Reunions that draws us back?

 



Many factors come into play, says Stephanie DeLuse, a Doctor of Psychology at Arizona State University in Tempe. Among them:

 

 

• The Curiosity Factor. We want to find out how people turned out. We engage in social comparisons, sometimes without even thinking about it. And we want to see how people are doing so we can compare our situations with theirs.

 

 

• The Desire To Right A Wrong. A couple of examples are apologizing to someone that you fought with or confronting someone who made your life miserable.

 

 

• The Hope Factor. We might want to catch the eye of an old crush or track down old friends, DeLuse says.

 



• A Longing To Set The Record Straight. Especially if you voted for a friend as Prom or Homecoming Queen/King or ran for something in High School and was not chosen but someone else was who you did not select or like was.  For example, someone who was chosen as the High School stereotype, like the person voted for Prom Queen/King or Homecoming Queen/King who becomes a scientist or someone who has gained weight or who has lost a lot of weight.

 

 

Still, the prospect of seeing peers from the early years provokes everything from anxiety to apathy.

 



Time has passed, but reality has kicked in: Maybe those 10 pounds weren't shed, true love got away or a business failed.

 



The pressure is enough for even a Prom Queen/King or Homecoming Queen/King to skip the whole thing.

 



"But there are some people who hated School," Ahrendt says. "They wouldn't come back if you paid them."

 

 

Some come back through thick and thin, every year. Cherokee County Community High School's Class of 1929 in Columbus, Kan., had its 75-Year Reunion in 2004, cementing a place in Guinness World Records as "The Longest Running Annual Class Reunion".

 

 

Ahrendt loves Class Reunions. For her, they're about making new friends.

 



Ahrendt graduated in 1957 with 450 people and says she has become close to Classmates she didn't remember in High School.

 

 

"You know, you never know who you're going to meet," she says. Through the years, Ahrendt has discovered the "Wild Girl" married a Pastor and the "Holy Terror" turned out to be a Successful yet Modest Multimillionaire.

 

 

"We put expectations on people. And when we've found out what they're really doing, you're so far off the mark," she says.

 

 

Before Angel Dietzen Anderson of Appleton, Wis., went to her 10-year Reunion last year, she was worried she wouldn't have anything to talk about with the five friends who had been her buddies.

 

 

"I've lost touch with all but one," she says. "Those are probably the people I'm most nervous to see again because it's so weird. We were so close. I know so much about them. They know so much about me. But we know nothing about each other now."

 



The mix of excitement and angst is typical, according to Edith Wagner, Editor of Milwaukee-based Reunions Magazine.

 

 

"The first notice of the next Reunion, which frequently comes a year ahead, tends to set off all kinds of things like diets and thoughts of hair color and new outfits," Wagner says. "It just triggers all this 'I'm going to go back so I've got to do all this changing.'"

 

 

But Reunions "are all about that reconnecting", she says.

 

 

"A lot of it is to go and recapture a bit of our past," she said. "The years that we were in High School, ... it really is a very significant slice of our lives. It's also a slice of our lives that can easily be forgotten because we really do go on to other things."

 



Cheryl Kunz of Rockford, Ill., who graduated in 1982, has yet to attend a Reunion.

 

 

"The only Reunion that I really wanted to attend was my 20th," she says. "It's more fun to see people after a long time, and much more interesting to hear how their lives have changed after 20 years. By the time I found out when and where the 20th reunion was, it was too late, you could not pay at the door."

 

 

Becky Coggins of Chandler, Ariz., who graduated in 1975, is married to her High School Sweetheart.

 



She feels sorry for people who choose not to be contacted. She "believes in the importance of reconnecting and maintaining old friendships".

 

 

"Even though we're 52 & 53, we're still 18 at our Class Reunions," she says. "These are people who we shared our first life experiences with — first car, first crush, first heartbreak. Time may change on the outside, but not in the inside."

 



 

 

(Monica LaBelle writes for the (Sioux Falls, S.D.) Argus Leader; Emily Seftel writes for The Arizona Republic. Also contributing: Heather LaRoi, The (Appleton, Wis.) Post-Crescent; Elizabeth Davies; Rockford (Ill.) Register Star

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Replies to This Discussion

Happy Friday Apaches & God bless!!

To my Class of 1975 Classmates & my Alumni Friends I will see you all tomorrow evening at the Class of 1975 40 Year Reunion Celebration!!

Love and Blessings, Phoebe

THANK YOU FROM THE CLASS OF 1975 "40 YEAR REUNION COMMITTEE":




We the Class of 1975 "40 Year Reunion Committee" want to say "Thank You"!!

We were so.... happy & delighted that you could attend and participate in a very special evening for our Class of 1975  at our "40 Year Reunion". We truly appreciate those that came from far and near.

Your presence, your laughter, your showers of kindness, generosity, love, humor and good wishes made the day truly memorable.

We are so glad that "friendships" do not come with price tags because if they did, we would never be able to afford Classmates as great as all of you.

Your friendships as well as the photos that were taken captured the evenings moments and they are something that we all will "treasure forever, for a lifetime".

The evening was definitely a "Celebration of Life".

Long live the CLASS OF 1975!!




Love and Blessings to all !!




Phoebe Macon : Reunion Chairperson
Wayne Ware : Reunion Committee Member
Natanya Nelson-Blakely : Reunion Committee Member



P.S. In the coming days the Photographer's professional 40 Year Reunion photos; Webmaster Wayne Ware's photos, and my photos will be posted. Please feel free to post your own photos that you may have taken.
Take care & God bless everyone!!




 

 

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