20 Year High School Renunion

The impetus for our trip to Utah was mine and Dave's 20 year high school reunion.  20 years ago I was Senior Class President and Dave was a Senior Class Senator and that means as class officers we are responsible for reunions.  At the time, in my young mind, that sounded awesome.  Of course, the reality is that reunions are a lot of work especially when you already have a busy life and don't even live in the same state.

For our 10 year reunion, Dave and I didn't help much in fact we didn't even go.  I've always felt a little guilty about that but honestly, I was 6 months pregnant, we lived in Chicago and had just moved, Dave was taking the bar, we were closing on our first house, it was just a crazy time for us.  Fortunately, we did as much remote help as possible and other people picked up the slack.

Fast forward to our 20 year reunion, and I knew it was time for us to pay our dues.  And when I say US, I pretty much mean ME.  Lucky for us we started a whole year in advance and could use the wonders of the internet (and the marketing skills of Christina Raab!)  I also had a few wonderful people that dedicated tons of time, got people excited, and shared their talents to make it happen.  I really get teary-eyed thinking about everything they did and how the whole reunion would not have been possible without them.

So after a year of planning, a website, a Facebook page, paypal accounts, signing contracts, tons of phone calls, registrations, etc. it was finally time for the Ben Lomond High School Class of 1993, 20 year reunion.  Let's do it Fighting Scots!

We had a pretty small graduating class less than 200 people and we probably had about 75 people come to our reunion.  It was a small, but very fun.  Reunions are interesting because there can be lots of angst, emotion and anxiety surrounding them.  Honestly, Dave and I really enjoyed high school.  We were young and dumb, but overall we both look back fondly at our high school days.  Of course, not everyone feels that way, so you never know what you are going to get at a reunion.

In the end, our reunion was really great.  We had a very good mix of people who came and everyone was just happy to see each other.  Everyone was nice to everyone, none of the high school drama seemed to be there.  I think that after 20 years, most people are over it or basically have experienced enough in life to realize that what happened in high school just isn't that important.  Also after 20 years, you have probably come to accept who you are and don't care as much if you are old, fat, or what job you have, etc.

Before - 1993

After - 2013

Anyway, here is a rundown of the two days of the Class of 1993, 20 year reunion:

1)The first event was a grads only social at the high school on Friday night.  The high school had been completely refurbished and honestly, we didn't even recognize it.  In a way it was nice to see the school improved.  Even though it wasn't the same as we remembered, it would have been sad to see the halls beat up and falling apart.  This event was completely planned by Leslie Lovato, a classmate who volunteered to make it all happen.  She did a great job.  She even created a memory wall based on our favorite memories of high school.  She works for a printer and got all these cards printed up for us!

This was pretty much an evening to just visit and get to know people again.  We did take a tour of the new high school and another classmate (Deanna Gerber) but together an awesome slideshow of pictures from our high school days.  A couple other classmates also bought pizza for everyone from the local pizza hangout.  It was a tribute to nostalgia as it was a high school tradition to go to the Ogden Pizzeria after football games.  In addition to the pizza, we also had all you can eat snow cones--so fun!!

I didn't get many pictures, I was too busy and it was a bit inconvenient to carry a camera around

Shauna Mann, Jenny Vudhivadhana and Heidi Rees

the girls soccer trophy case from my glory years!

Everyone was so happy to see each other that we had to almost kick people out at the end of the evening.  Fortunately, we all moved over to a rooftop bar in downtown Ogden.  Again, we all had a good time visiting there, even though most of us didn't drink.

2)The next morning, some people started the day with a 5K run/walk.  Dave and I didn't do it because we needed to go early to set-up the park for our family friendly day.  We had park day and picnic for grads and their families at an adorable park in Huntsville, Utah.  Leslie, also used her connections and got two bouncy houses donated.  It was great.  We had a good turnout at this event too and it was nice to see everyone's kids.  I'm glad we could take our girls and they could meet some of our old friends.  They also had a fun time playing at the park.

The kid playing games

Towards the end of the afternoon, we gathered everyone up and drove about 5 minutes to the Huntsville Cemetery.  It was at this cemetery that our classmate and good friend Ray Stoffers was buried.  It was right after the 10 year reunion that he was killed in a car accident.  Ray was also a Senior class officer.  He and Dave were best friends in high school and Ray was a groomsman in our wedding.  Everyone in high school liked Ray, he was pretty much "Mr. High School" so it was important for us to visit his grave during our reunion.

Ray's parents and sisters were invited to meet us at the gravesite and they all came.  It was a pretty emotional moment to be there with his family.  Dave said a few words as did his parents, then some others just shared special memories of Ray.  It was really touching.

3)After the park, we rushed back home to clean up and get ready for the adult only dinner that evening.  The dinner was at Rickenbacker's Restaurant at the Ogden Airport.  This was the event that I worked on the most.  We had a great turnout, in fact a few more than we expected.  We also played the slideshow from the first night so that spouses and partners could see it.  Another classmate, also put together a whole playlist of music from our high school era so that was fun too.  The venue was great and it was another nice evening of catching up with old friends.  Since I was one of the organizers, I was again busy trying to make sure that everyone had a seat and that everything was taken care of, but by the end all was well.  I didn't love the food, it tasted good and there was nothing to really complain about but nothing to really rave about either.

The only reunion picture of Dave & I

Christina, Pat and Jenny

At the end of the evening, we had quite a few people approach us and say, "we need to do this more often.  Let's do it again in 5 years."  Honestly, those of us on the planning committee just looked at each other and said, "ya, whatever!"  Actually, it made us happy that people enjoyed themselves enough to want to do it again, but reunions are a lot of work and we were exhausted.