David Ashton: The High School Reunion

Reunions have been floating around in my shallow brain pond lately, I was asked  to help plan the 20-year reunion for my graduating class and I was a tad conflicted at the invite. I mean, I didn’t even like high school that much. Well, let me clarify that. I liked a lot of the things around high school, but the high school experience itself, not so much.

Kind of a strange admission from someone who runs a group that is dedicated to Castro Valley memories.

High school was just a whole lot of me feeling awkward and acting like an ass. Okay, I still feel awkward and act like an ass, but now I’d like to think those traits have mellowed like fine bourbon, now merely smoky, mossy personality characteristics. I think high school Dave fancied himself as a punk rock James Dean, but the truth is I was probably more Screech on a skateboard. I have to believe that most of us felt that awkwardness, just tried to play the part, hustled to fool everyone else. The great memories we have of adolescence are a willful omission of all the times we said something dumb, did something deplorable, or embarrassed ourselves by getting mud all over our white Ben Davis painters overalls which  we thought were super cool. (Too specific? Maybe?)

I was talking to my sister-in-law and she told me that her graduating class has never had any reunions. She posited that with social media and Facebook you really didn’t need to have reunions anymore. And she’s right, that’s what social media is for, catching up with old acquaintances without the risks associated with holding a real conversation. You don’t need to suck in your stomach, or comb over your hair, or fill in those inevitable awkward silences after you admit you never became the astronaut you wanted to be in the second grade. Since it is over the computer you are able to present your best self, shining with awesome rays and brimming with snappy punchlines.

And that’s exactly why reunions are important. Our computer selves are often distorted, false fronts, and they don’t define us, just as who we were in high school doesn’t define us. They are two pieces of a bigger whole. The reunion let’s you shake the hand, look in the eye, and enjoy real conversation with people who knew a very young, awkward zygote version of who you are today. A reunion not only lets you catch up with old friends, it also provides an opportunity for you to more fully realize who you were and who you are.

Needless to say, I said yes to helping plan the reunion. Hopefully, my complete lack of organizational skills and acerbic tongue will come in handy somehow. Maybe I can tell someone they aren’t allowed to bring 40 ounces of malt liquor into the reunion as one of my co-planners had to tell me at our 10-year reunion. In the meantime, if you attended Castro Valley High School, graduating class 1993, please join www.facebook.com/CVHS1993 so we can keep in contact with you as we move forward with our plans.