Class Reunion
This past weekend I went to my girlfriend’s 10 year reunion. Class reunions have a lot to live up to for most people. After a decade of goal setting, hard work, and weight gain, people have a lot they want to show off. Everyone seems to have a different take on how it will go and what the focus will be. For those with kids, all they want to talk about is their families, others want to try to impress you with all their travels around the world, and the rest with their careers. What I found most interesting about the reunion was to see how these different groups mingled.
Those with kids pulled out the photos without even being asked. In fact, within a minute and a half of meeting one woman, I was already being shown her children’s photos. The travelers were a bit more subtle, and worked it into conversation playing off their travel like it was no big deal, but were sure to interject it into whatever conversation was going on. The careerists would throw around titles, companies, or people they worked with into conversation. When these three groups spoke with each other it was like a dance of story telling, with each picking up the story of the conversation and telling the next piece about themselves.
None of this was done in a selfish “me” attitude kind of way, after all the whole reason people go to reunions is to find out what is going on in people’s lives, but it was such a different communication style than what I’m accustomed to I found it fascinating. I’m looking forward to my 10 year, and finding out what role I end up playing (no, I won’t be the kids role).
Those with kids pulled out the photos without even being asked. In fact, within a minute and a half of meeting one woman, I was already being shown her children’s photos. The travelers were a bit more subtle, and worked it into conversation playing off their travel like it was no big deal, but were sure to interject it into whatever conversation was going on. The careerists would throw around titles, companies, or people they worked with into conversation. When these three groups spoke with each other it was like a dance of story telling, with each picking up the story of the conversation and telling the next piece about themselves.
None of this was done in a selfish “me” attitude kind of way, after all the whole reason people go to reunions is to find out what is going on in people’s lives, but it was such a different communication style than what I’m accustomed to I found it fascinating. I’m looking forward to my 10 year, and finding out what role I end up playing (no, I won’t be the kids role).
posted by david at Monday, June 26, 2006
2 Comments:
the whole reason people go to reunions is to find out what is going on in people’s lives,
Actually, I think the whole point of reunions is to make sure everyone else knows about your kids, success, travel, etc.
That is what I was saying, what is going on in people's lives is there kids, successes, and travels. I was just finding it interesting how each group needed to get their story out there and each was competing for time to tell it. I'm sure that changes as more years pass, less things change, and priorities change, but who knows.
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