If you are not coming to the reunion, you need a good excuse. The following reasons have been tried and are un-acceptable.
Excuse #1: I'm overweight.
Rebuttal: You're not alone. (personally I can still fit into the same earrings I wore in high school)
Excuse #2: I'm a different person than I was in high school
Rebuttal: Lucky for you, we ALL are. Let's face it: we could only have improved.
Excuse #3 I don't look as good as I'd like. I (choose one or more) am bald, have wrinkles, saddlebags, grey hair and no one will recognize me.
Rebuttal: Guess what! You won't recognize anyone else, either. Using the reunion committee as a representative sample, our whole class looks like a "before" photo in a plastic surgery ad.
Excuse #4: I'm not successful. I'm not (choose one or more) a lawyer, a doctor or rich.
Rebuttal: You'll be pleasantly surprised to find how much everyone has matured. We may be plump and wrinkled (see Excuse #3, above) but we're not stupid. Money is not success.
Excuse #5: I was not in a popular clique in school
Rebuttal: Now that we're old and smart, those cliques have dissolved just like the superficiality they were based on. The only cliques you'll notice at the reunion will be the sound of your joints as you walk around.
By Mary Fobian as published in Reunions Magazine
Carol Kenney