WHAT MAKES A HIGHSCHOOL REUNION NATURALLY INTRIGUING
A highschool reunion is almost a guaranteed source of joy and sorrow. Sometimes we expect the moon of them and they don’t deliver; sometimes we drag our feet getting there and encounter all kinds of lovely surprises. For many reasons, tenth anniversary highschool reunions have a reputation for generating particularly dramatic levels of stress and triumph.
With the tenth, anticipation and the potential for triumph and humiliation tend to reach their peak. Everyone in attendance has barely completed their first decade as a grownup: a few will be shooting toward the top of their profession, many more may still be searching. Even success will sit uneasily on some people’s shoulders, and there may already be a few divorces in the crowd.
Just the prospect of a highschool reunion may reawaken hopes and fears about one’s physical fitness and attractiveness. People may wonder whether anyone else will be particularly impressed by their achievements. Some may fear they’ll regress to the stereotypical roles they got assigned back in their school days. Men and women will try to solve their body issues at the gym, pushing to get that perfect figure, or at least as good as they’re apt to have. Shopping malls and boutiques may expect to see women on the prowl for a winning outfit.
In sum, it’s generally acknowledged that many folks try too hard, both in anticipation of the tenth highschool reunion, and on the nights and days of the event itself. Naturally, this has provided excellent dramatic fodder for Hollywood films and cable TV shows.
“Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion,” a 1997 feature comedy, followed a couple of 28-year-olds based in Los Angeles on their return to Tucson, Arizona, for their tenth reunion at Sagebrush High. Worried about the impression they’ll make, the title characters pretend to be the inventors of Post-It Notes. They adopt highly professional dress, with initially disastrous but ultimately positive results.
Also in 1997, “Grosse Pointe Blank” centered around a tenth highschool reunion for its combination of action thriller and romantic comedy. John Cusack plays a professional killer who tackles a job in his old hometown at the same time as his reunion. Obviously, he does not care to let his old girlfriend, whom he dumped, or his other high school classmates find out what his real work is.
“Grosse Pointe Blank” incorporates another popular highschool reunion theme: meeting an old flame. Such encounters happen in real life with a positive outcome just often enough to fan many people’s hopes for a similar experience. Single again due to death or divorce, older couples often link up at a reunion to consummate a long-time attraction or friendship dating back to their school days.
Obviously, reunions made easy fodder for reality television shows. The WB network titled its entry “High School Reunion,” which debuted in 2003 and depicted events at tenth reunions for the next two years. Moving thereafter to the TV Land cable network, the show shifted to twentieth reunions in Chandler, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Richardson, Texas.