To Boldly Go...

Tonight I’m heading to Victoria for my 20^th high school reunion.

If you asked me why, I would be hard pressed to give you an answer save perhaps “I missed the 10 year reunion”, which happened while I was still living in Victoria.

So why am I going?

There’s a series of documentary films, the first of which is called “7 Up!” In 1964, the filmmaker took a group of children, all age 7, and has since revisited them every seven years to see where they are. I watched “35 Up” and it compelling viewing, even though I didn’t know any of the people being documented.“ 42 Up” is the latest and possibly final installment.

So, if nothing else, I’m curious as to how other people turned out. High school at the time I experienced it was a pressure cooker. Every situation was the Most Important Life Event Thing Ever™! Everything that happened was writ large; of course, the perspective of time makes one realize that high school is merely a phase in life, and a rather insignificant one at that.

Of the 203 grads of 1985, there’s only one with whom I have anything one might call regular contact; I was best man at his wedding oh so many years ago (1990? 91? See, I can’t even remember), and we exchange Christmas emails and birth announcements. That’s roughly the extent of it. My good friend S who’s back in town at Emily Carr is a friend from high school days, but he graduated the year before me.

The woman who was our student council president in 1985 is organizing this 20^th reunion; as I browsed through my yearbook last night before bed, reading the little blurbs beside photos of the grads of 2005, I noticed next to her entry that she hoped to become the first female prime minister of Canada. I said I wanted to “design a popular computer” and “make gobs of money”.

And yet, here I go, to meet people who are essentially strangers to see how their lives turned out. I wasn't one of the popular kids in school; indeed, I was one of the nerdy geeks in the enriched program.

Oh well; it’s being held at Swans, a fabulous brewpub I frequented while I was still living in Victoria. If nothing else, the beer will be good!