Friday, May 2, 2014

Frock Fridays: Ten Years

This weekend, 76 of my former classmates and I will celebrate our 10 year high school reunion.  Not everyone who processed down the nave at the Cathedral on that June morning in 2004 is able to come back to DC, but I'm excited to see many of the girls with whom I spent all those years.  Believe it or not, I'd gone to school with 21 of them since the age of five!

Honestly, though, I think we were ready for a break from each other by the time we graduated.  Middle and high school were intense; because we went to a relatively small school, we were all intimately involved in each others' lives.  The academic pressure we, our parents, and our teachers placed on us was acute, and that often spilled into our relationships.  (A New York Times reporter witnessed a classic scene outside a sixth grade Wellness class at my school in 2002: "Are you stressed right now?" says [one girl]. "I am so stressed.")  After graduation, I maintained close contact with only about half a dozen of my classmates.  Many of us flowed together over the years at Thanksgiving alumni events cohosted with our brother school, but then we all ebbed back to the new lives we were making.  At the beginning, watching each other from the sidelines was more than enough; we graduated just as Facebook was launched, and it was easy to be voyeurs without actually making the effort to keep in touch.

Now, though, in part because of the glimpses that social media has given me, I'm really looking forward to getting to know my former classmates again.  Despite having desperately needed space a decade ago, I want to catch each one and find out more about what they're up to!  We've all become our own people since 2004, but we were all unquestionably shaped by the years that we shared and, at the risk of being unbearably corny, that will always connect us.

reunion

Of course, the first question we've all been asking each other as we've corresponded about the weekend - after the initial "Oh, you're going to reunion? Me too!" exclamations - is "I have no idea what to wear!  What will you be wearing?"

I decided to go classic high school for our two main events.  On Friday night, we have an all-alumni BBQ with the boys' school, and I snagged this Loft dress on sale just for the occasion.  It's dress-code appropriate even without my old J Crew cardigan, with straps wider than my thumb and a hem longer than the reach of my fingertips, and basic black flats will keep me comfortable as I run around.  It's all cute and casual for a Friday evening, but nice enough together that I can wear it straight from work.  Looking back through old photos, I totally believe I would have worn this outfit in 2003 if I could have!

Except for the fact that skinny jeans weren't trendy in the early noughties, I'm pretty sure that I wore a variation on my outfit for Saturday night to every single dance in high school.  A strappy black top?  Check.  A black blazer?  Check.  (I'll actually be wearing the exact same one that I bought my senior year!)  Dark denim?  Check.  I can't remember what kinds of shoes I wore to our informal dances, but they probably weren't heels.  Now I don't have to worry about being taller than the boys, though, so black pumps, not too dressy for our bar hopping but still a bit glam, will be perfect.

It's also Flower Mart weekend, so I'll need a totally different outfit for Saturday during the day... what should I do about that?  So many decisions to make!  Keep up on Instagram to see how it all goes, dear readers!
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9 comments:

  1. Have fun!!! Ours is coming up next year and I seriously can't believe it's been 10 years!!!!! Craziness.

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  2. My 10 year was a few years ago and I never attended as we were living in Gabon (bit long of a commute.) My entire graduating class was only 80-something students and the majority were together right from kindergarten (that is small town living at it's finest.) I hardly keep in touch with any of my high school friends anymore. There are a few who I touch base with a few times a year but I'd say I remain closer with university friends. Mostly, our interaction is limited to Facebook - both a blessing and a curse, I suppose.


    (Also, I'm just putting this together, my sister's 10 year is taking place in June. I would have never pegged you two as the same age!)

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  3. Class of '04 is still the best. :) I graduated in a class of 244, so I don't think there is the same camaraderie 10 years later, but so much happens in 10 years. Pretty much everyone is married, there's a pregnancy announcement every other week, and this is just generally an exciting time to reunite. I won't be going to my reunions, but I have a feeling it would be different with just 77 grads. Have a great time!

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  4. My three closest friends from high school all attended my wedding reception a month ago. :) It's so hard to maintain long-distance friendships, and with two of them, we don't keep in touch regularly in-between visits. Luckily they're the kind of friend that when we do get-together, it's like no time has passed!

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  5. So fun! I've been eyeing that dress too! Have a great time!

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  6. This is a slightly off-topic comment: One of my closest friends from college went to an all girl's school outside of DC (though I don't think you went to the same one, but that would be an especially small world.) Do you think there are more same-sex schools in the mid-Atlantic zone than elsewhere? It's reasonably unheard of in the SW. And do you think it altered your learning experience? (I know there are studies that show that boys academic curve remains the same regardless of the presence of girls, but that of girls is very different.) x

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  7. Judging by your recent Instagram pics of your weekend, I'd say you've been having a pretty fantastic time! :)

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  8. I missed my ten year reunion. At the time, I was on an assignment out in Guam that involved a little bit of work and a whole lot of beach and scuba, so I didn't feel too bad. Until I realized that there were a lot of people there that had been really good friends and I hadn't connected with. Facebook really doesn't connect you - like you said, all it does is give you the voyeur Rear Window peek into other people's lives, so you know what's going on, but you're not a part of it. I'm beyond glad I made it to my ten year college reunion.

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