Hard to Believe It’s Been 40 Years...

Today I will be boarding an airplane for Connecticut. Tomorrow night is my 40th High School reunion.

Two weeks ago I spent a weekend in Georgia reuniting with some old Air Force buddies with whom I spent many months sleeping in tents and flying around the world.

Reunions are an interesting time. I remember my 10th high school reunion felt very competitive. Everyone was out of college for a few years. They were making their way in the working world and boasting about how they were moving up the corporate ladder.

The 20th was different. People talked a lot more about their kids. There was some sadness as a few of our classmates had already passed away.

I didn’t attend my 30th.

My college reunions followed the same path.

There’s a saying “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans”. Seems very true. What I wanted to do for my life in 1985 was very different from what I actually did.

I never planned in those younger days to be running assisted living homes. That’s for sure.

One of my best friends from high school ended up in Silicone Valley and became a tech billionaire. He founded two companies I’m sure you know.

When I was in Seattle several years ago on a business trip we had lunch together. We didn’t talk business or money. We talked about friends.

“Have you heard from so and so?”

He hadn’t changed other than a few wrinkles starting to show. I was jealous. Not of his money. He still had most of his hair.

In this digital and internet-connected world people might wonder why anyone would need to spend time and money going to reunions?

These days you can catch up on what everyone is doing through social media. If you want to track someone down, you can just reach out to their friends or family through direct message or text.

Yet in-person reunions seem to me to be one of the last analog events in a digital world. For us that are older it is a chance to revisit a time before the internet.

Where we had to call people on a landline. Then go to see them in person. There were no other options back then.

If they lived out of state, we had to pay long-distance charges for each phone call.

These days reunions are a chance for us to put our cell phones down and have a real connection with people.

And there are some health benefits. Originally back in history people thought reminiscing, or the disease of nostalgia was a mental disorder on the level of paranoia.

More recent research has found that reunions can strengthen our autobiographical memory and reward systems.

So don’t be afraid of meeting up with old friends. In real life. Without the internet. Whether it is a formal reunion or you just happen to be in town. You may be helping each other out more than you know.