In movies and television, school reunions look like tons of fun.
Everybody attends and hilarity ensues.
But in real life, there is a lot of mystery surrounding these events.
Who plans them?
Who pays for them?
Why would anyone really go?
After decades start to pass, these people are really just strangers.
And it's also proof of aging.
Who needs other old people wandering around reminding you you're old?
Redditor Throwyz wanted to know why people chose to skip school reunions, so they asked:
"People who never went to their class reunions, why?"
My high school reunion was ok.
The sexy guys were still handsome.
That was all I cared about.
Who Cares
I Dont Care Shrug GIF by Puss In Boots
Giphy
"I don’t care about the people I went to school with."
SnooLemons5609
"Same. Who cares. I stayed in touch with those I cared about. The end."
TinyNightLight
A Selective Process
"I keep in touch with the people from high school I want to keep in touch with. No need to go to a mediocre event and be judged by the others."
Leeser
"Living in the age of Facebook everyone I care about from high school knows what's going on in their lives already. Anyone I actually want to interact with I already do."
mousicle
The In-Crowd
"Didn't want to be there as a kid, so had no desire to return."
MahStonks
"This is the answer. I've skipped all of my class reunions and never regretted it."
"But one of my friends decided to go to a class reunion a few years back. He said it was amazing (or scary if you will) how quickly old group dynamics re-emerged, even 30-plus years later."
"The guys and gals who made up the 'in-crowd' back around 1988/89 had mainly peaked at 16. Everyone acted much more mature, obviously, but he said the whole affair got really cliquey really quick. Like I said, I never regretted not going."
Fresh-Hedgehog1895
Not Welcome
"First of all, I wasn’t invited. I’m still as invisible to them as I was back then. Second of all, f**k those clowns."
Sweet_Platypus4981
"LOL, me too. I wasn't invited to the five-year reunion, and I still lived in the same town! I randomly worked with an old classmate, and she told me that the official list had me under 'could not find.' It was just so hilariously petty. I considered writing a note to suggest that they simply consult the local directory for my name but decided I didn't care enough."
ChangeTheFocus
Peaks and Lows
I Know Right Mean Girls GIF by filmeditor
Giphy
"I feel like reunions are for all the popular kids who peaked in high school who want to return to either gloat about how successful they are or to relive the 'good old days' if they weren’t."
ScoutJulep
The popular kids always have to show up and show out.
Even when their lives fall apart.
Irrelevant
Romy And Micheles High School Reunion Interview GIF
Giphy
"Are class reunions a thing in the time of social media? We can find out everything we want from everyone we ever met should we choose to do so."
Lumpy-pad
Forget Them
"I stay in touch with my best buddies from high school and university, don't care enough about anyone else to make the effort of traveling for a reunion."
Bu**holeQuiver
"This indeed. Half of this thread is people going 'f**k those guys.' I literally don't care. Hope they're doing well in a general sense but if I wanted a follow-up, I would've gone after it sooner. I can't be ar*ed."
Hotemetoot
"Exactly the same reason for me. If I was still local, I probably would have gone, but it was not worth traveling almost 1000 miles round trip."
SharksFan1
Nightmares
"I was bullied, had my property vandalized repeatedly and permanently (my car was keyed to sh*t more than once), got in fights, had inappropriate comments made by teachers. Why the actual f**k would I travel out of state and pay hundreds of dollars for a ticket to be surrounded by those memories?"
Chaotic-NTRL
Didn't Know Most Of Them Then
"I graduated with 450 people and I didn’t even know most of them then. I personally think class reunions are for people who want to brag about how much money they have or how great their kids are. Show off the new plastic surgery. Why the f**k would I go to something like that? Later losers!"
lunalovegood17
Never Look Back
"I hated HS, couldn't wait to get out, hated where I grew up, felt like a caged animal, and my life only got better after leaving there. Didn't look back and didn't want to look back. Now 55 and retired with lots of good years in front of me."
Important_Outcome_67
"This is relatable. Plus, I already know how all of those people from high school are doing-- they're all wasting away their lives in a shitty small town, still living out the same drama from 12 years ago. And I'd rather not hear all about their latest MLM bullsh**t. Enjoy your retirement!!"
Think_Doughnut628
The Quest
"Millennial here graduated from HS in the mid-to-late 00s."
"I'm still close with a core group of friends from HS. Those I'm not friends with, but still cordial acquaintances with, I keep up with through Facebook, which I'm slowly trying to remove from my life aside from my Quest 2 and looking at cat pics and vids on Instagram."
"I wasn't very popular in high school. I have some great friends from then, but I was also relentlessly bullied. Seeing as I can keep up with the positive parts of my life from then via just talking to my friends, why go back to the people who bullied me? I don't think about them anymore, I'd rather live my life without communicating with them."
tacobelmont
Decades Past
Aging Matt Damon GIF
Giphy
"I haven’t spoken to a single person from my high school class in over 20 years. I never really liked many of them back then so I’m damn sure not wasting time going to a reunion. Also I never even got an invite."
Technick83
As time passes, you care less.
Wish others well, but you don't have to know them forever.
"Escape Room workers of Reddit, whats the most absurd thing players have done?"
An 11th Hour Save...
"So this isn’t necessarily absurd on the players side, but instead from the Game master."
"One time our players were doing the bank heist theme, done in the dark and you have headlamps, and about 4 puzzles in one of my employees realized they had an item in their pockets still."
"So we brain blasted for a couple minutes and decided the best course of action was to pretend the employee was a 'security guard' and walk around the bank."
"So we went over the room intercom and warned them to hide cause it looked like the security guard was coming to them."
"Seeing all of the players hide in complete fear was priceless."
"One guy wasn’t even hiding he was just sprawled up against the wall."
"Our 'security guard' walked around, said 'hmmph everything seems good' and placed the item down on the desk."
"It was legendary that they didn’t suspect anything."- PM-ME-YOUR-VAN
So Many Questions...
"I did an escape room with my family and the workers have to tell you not to lick the light bulb."
"This is because some guy thought if he licked the light bulb the answer would be revealed on the light bulb."
"The only answer he found was light bulbs are hot and can burn you."- chazminor6
GIF by moodmanGiphyLocked In With Bad Company...
"Attended a 'Saw' series' themed escape room with my SO and some randoms since the room required 4-6."
"We get locked in to start, chained to fixtures like the dark room scene from the movie - lights are off."
"As soon as the thing starts one of the randos says, 'I have a gun in case we need to shoot someone'."
"I thought he was joking."
"We all did."
"Eventually the lights turn on and he pulls out a real gun and sits it in the sink and says, 'I'm leaving the gun in the sink in case something happens to me'."
"It's for everyone'."- JokerSix
It Always Happens When You Need It The Most...
"I did an escape room with a group of friends."
"At the end, you found a flash drive which was supposed to be plugged into a computer."
"We opened the document and there were instructions to print."
"We got print, and the printer gave us an 'out of ink' error."
"We assumed this was part of the game and started looking for a magenta cartridge."
"Then an employee slipped in the room, replaced the cartridge, and told us to hit print again."
"Apparently it was not part of the game."
"They just ran out of ink."- mizboring
Animated GIFGiphyI Could Go On Singing...
"I went to one where there were three identical rooms which teams competed in at the same time."
"If you finished, you then got to watch and listen to the other teams."
"Our team did pretty well and we got to watch the other two teams try to complete it."
"Anyway, there was this one lock which was a number combination and you solved it by finding some sheet music in a book, with five notes on it, which corresponded to numbers."
"The piece was entitled 'The Key' or something similar so you knew you needed it for the lock."
"Anyway this other team instead of converting to numbers and putting in the combination chanted this five note tune at the lock."
"When it did not work they tried again, then again, then someone else tried. "
"This went on for 10 minutes and got louder and louder."
"Eventually the game master stepped in and told them it was not going to work."
"Apparently they were the only team ever to do that."- staticman1
Less Than Graceful Seduction...
"I one had a group of drunk guys go in and they ran through their allotted hints pretty quickly."
"They asked for another hint and we said over the speakers that they were out of hints."
"One of the guys threatened to start taking off his clothes until we gave another hint."
"We didn't even have to give him the extra hint."
"His friends chilled him out and ended up finding the next clue pretty shortly after that."- trash_confetti
Martin Lawrence Underwear GIF by MartinGiphyCutting To The Chase...
"My buddy guessed a lock's combo which gave us the final clue, but we had not found the other ones."
"We ending up solving the room backwards."
"When the room administrator came in she had nothing else to say but 'What the f*ck did you guys do?'"- maarten-col
It's easy to get riled up, and succumb to doing ridiculous, usually humiliating, things when you see the clock ticking away above you.
Thankfully, the embarrassment is easily washed away with a few drinks afterwards.
Further down the line, you'll find yourself owning your buffoonery, with a story guaranteed to earn. some belly laughs for years to come.
Redditor HornedOwlsNest was curious to hear which video games were ideally suited for couples to play together, leading them to ask:
"What is the best video game for couples to play?"
Divinity Original Sin 2
"Divinity Original Sin 2 was perfect for me and my significant other since we are both into D&D."-Jurelover
Portal
"Portal and Portal 2"- Pm_me_fluffy_stuff
Dead By Daylight
"My SO and I play 'Dead by Daylight' as survivors."
"We get frustrated together when the killer is good, and we cheer together when the killer is bad."
"Perfect bonding experience."- NihilisticMind
Gang Beasts
"'Gang Beasts', trust me you will laugh yourselves to death."- CheekyFeller
City Beef GIF by Gang BeastsGiphyOvercooked
"'Overcooked', if you love a cooperation challenge."
"It could also ruin your relationship."
"Also, for those looking for a similar experience with less stress, you might try 'Diner Bros', though I think it's only on Steam/PC at the moment."- Decimaelstrom
Castle Crashers
"'Castle Crashers'"- OpulentOwl·
Snipperclips
"Snipperclips."
"It’s for two people and it’s where people work together."- mcboy973
Happy Well Done GIF by LaffGiphyDon't Starve Together
"My wife and I play 'Dont Starve Together' a lot on the PC."
"We both have our own PCs and it is such a great time."
"Besides DST, my wife and I love playing single player detective games where you need to solve an overarching mystery."
"We get addicted and we must complete it together and she usually watches and helps solve while I do the actual playing."
"They are a slow burn with hardly any action and are great to spend time with a partner on."
"Examples are, 'The Painscreek Killings' and 'Return of the Obra Dinn' as our two favorites we spent dedicated time together on."- LOSTonABC
So Many To Choose From!
"If your SO is into action games: 'Borderlands', 'Sniper Elite', 'Left 4 Dead'."
"Also 'Battle Royales'."
"If your SO is into non-violent games: 'Stardew Valley', 'Factorio', 'Minecraft', 'Terraria, Starbound', 'Don't Starve Together', etc."
"If your SO is not used to videogames: Story driven games you can play together such as 'The Red Strings Club', 'Oxenfree', 'Life is Strange', Telltale games in general."
"If your SO is into board games/party games: 'Monster Prom', 'Tricky Towers', 'Town of Salem', etc."
"Would also recommend: 'Dungeon of the Endless', coop tower defense dungeon crawler, and 'The Escapists 2', silly prison break sim."- Jurelover
They say a little competition is healthy in every relationship.
And is there really a better outlet to take out one's frustrations on your partner than Street Fighter
Then too, if the Black Mirror episode 'Striking Vipers' taught us anything, video games can result in some surprisingly sexy outcomes...
Redditor Substantial-Young-85 asked:
"What will die with millennials?"
Remember when cars were driven by people?
That's going the way of the horse and buggy.
To Walls
"I once tried to explain the my niece that phones used to be wired to walls. She's ten (she was six at the time) cell phones are all she's ever known. Among the reasons she guessed as to why they were 'tied' to walls: To stop people from stealing them."
N_Who
Phone Call Dancing GIF by Crissy ConnerGiphyWithout WHAT?!
"Memory of life without internet."
RagingDinoZ
"When I was a kid, we didn't have the internet."
Aido_Playdoh
"I remember asking our son one time if he knew how much tablet time I git when I was a kid (he was complaining that he was t getting enough). He guessed 2 hours. I told him 0, because the internet, let alone tablets, weren't really a thing yet. He looks confused and mystified."
TheHrethgir
Looked it Up?
"Remembering someone’s phone number."
Misttertee_27
"Still have my 3 best friends numbers memorized, when I haven't needed to use that info for 15+ years, as well as most of my family. Intentionally memorized my boyfriend's in case there's an emergency and I don't have my phone."
Particular-Payment59
"I know my parents' home number and a few friends from high school's telephone numbers. I do not know my wife's telephone number and when I do need it I always look it up on my phone."
-Handsome-Jim-
Music Tales
"Dubbing cassettes and burning your own mix on CD."
pfc_Frank
"Ahhhh, waiting by the radio for an hour for them to play your favorite song. You push record at just the right moment. Song plays! Only for the DJ to talk over the last 30 seconds. Sigh. Memories."
zenOFiniquity8
"Or somewhere yells into the basement or your room. Followed by “I AM TRYING TO RECORD A TAPE!"
kperalta87
Control+Save
"3.5 inch floppy discs."
Traylor_Swift
"I have a sealed 5 pack box of those in my room, wonder how much they are worth nowadays."
TrueF0xtr0t
GiphyFloppy what? Even I barely remember those. LOL.
Options
"Watching 'whatever was on.' Everything is always on now, you don’t stumble into an interesting (or awful) show because it’s the only thing mildly interesting on TV."
ChefJeff7777777
television fashion GIF by DenyseGiphy"that's not right surely"
"A coworker and I were talking a while ago and we started thinking/ talking about how the general population (not the ones going to school for it or people truly interested) most younger and older people don't understand a lot about computers. If it's not app, most people aren't really sure how to get to it on a computer."
"I thought, 'that's not right surely' but when trying to get a younger coworker (different dept) to add a printer he literally asked me "wheres the app I can't find it to add the printer" and I just like stared into the middle distance for a sec before just doing it for him. It was like navigating a computer wasn't something he'd done in his life."
"And he's only like 4 years younger than me. He's glued to a cell phone too so I was like yeah ok this guy should know. Nope. This is only one example though. However, when I really stop and think about it, the window from late 80s-00s were really the testing phase for home computers and most to all websites. So navigating them, learning basic code (OG, Myspace people)."
"And just figuring out computer language (not code just the terms) for normal people... really ended when cell phones became more popular. But it feels weird to have to explain stuff to someone younger than me while simultaneously doing the same thing when they are older. It's kinda frustrating tbh but mostly just mind boggling."
TheBohoChocobo
Split
"Playing multi-player video games with split screens in one room."
EngineerMinded
"Eeehh split screens will probably be a thing forever I mean if Nintendo is still strong and going in the 2080s then we will still have Mario Party."
Kiro_sage
"We used to do LAN parties. You could hook up to 4 Xboxes to each other any play a couple of people on each one. It was great. Cords running everywhere, but 4 Xboxes running at once mad for some fun times. You'd constantly be yelling back and forth between rooms and mom would lose it."
Odd_Description1
Travel Finndings
"Knowledge of pre-digital life. An appreciation for sending and receiving letters in the mail. As Arcade Fire put it, we used to wait. Memory of the USA pre 9/11. Using maps and Thomas Guides for road trips. Guys, I’m so old I remember the first time my dad used MapQuest to print out directions for a cross country trip, and how novel it seemed at the time."
MovieGuyMike
Manuals
"Apparently using a Haynes or a Chilton’s manual to work on your car. I hate using YouTube videos for car maintenance, but it looks like that’s all I have left."
RandomGovtEmployee
confused season 2 GIF by Blunt TalkGiphyI'm feeling a bit nostalgic. Oh the memories...
"Which job is a LOT less fun than most people expect?"
Rewarding, But Exhausting
"Preschool teacher."
"Especially with new COVID-19 regulations."
"Ever try social distancing 3 year olds?"- sociallyawkextrovert
Not Worth The Joy Building Them Brings...
"Oh my gosh, BUILD A BEAR."
"Weirdest and most frustrating thing."
"Granted I didn't make it a super long time in the job and seeing kids so happy is great."
"But they are really strict and the bad times get pretty bad."- BabyMalks
Not Exactly CSI
"I'm a Forensic Scientist and it's literally the only thing people ask me about on dating apps."
"It's very technical work and it's extremely routine."- Altephor1·
discover bbc GIF by britboxGiphyLove Books? Look Elsewhere...
"Barnes and Noble."
"Your job has literally NOTHING to do with books and it obviously attracts a lot of that type, myself included."- tenbladejen
Picnic Basket Loving Bears Are The Least Of Their Problems...
"Park Ranger."
"Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but a lot of days it was less 'talk about cool animals while wearing your ranger hat' and more 'the toilets are overflowing again, go clean the septic tank filter and stir the tank with a shovel' with a little bit of 'hey there's a meth head out guy down by the bridge, can you convince him to leave without killing anyone'."
"All for the low price of $26k/year with a college degree!"
"These jobs are so varied, and I just happened to work for an underfunded agency with too few staff."
"Honestly, I still loved this job and would have kept doing it forever if a higher-paying outdoor environmental job hadn't pretty much fallen into my lap."
"Being a park ranger taught me so much, and most importantly, I got trained as a wildland firefighter, which is still my favorite part of my job!"
"If you've always dreamed of being a park ranger, PLEASE go for it." -Reddit
One Can Watch Too Much TV
"I do closed captioning."
"While I joke that yes, I get paid to watch TV, it’s actually very tedious."
"And if you don’t actually enjoy the programming you’re being forced to watch something you don’t care for."
"Or worse, if it’s something I do enjoy like a long form drama, we usually chop those up into 15 minute increments and split between everyone so I only see chunks and not always even in order it actually ruins the show for me."- jessjess87
closed captioned GIFGiphyNot Always Coming Up Roses
"Working in a flower shop."
"It's just like any other retail job, but people constantly tell you how fun your job must be."
"Also helping grieving families chose funeral flowers is not fun."- ZakkiraJuneAiko94
"Under The Sea"... Some Of The Time...
"I'm a marine biologist."
"I spent the last week measuring defrosted fish heads."- smileedude
Might Not Surprise Everyone...
"Well I’m a scientist."
"I don’t know if people usually think of that career as fun, but I think people think it’s a lot more 'Eureka!' and a lot less 'this data’s has to be manually processed for 600 hours before I can analyze it'."- JeremyTheRhino
Bill Nye Scientist GIF by NETFLIXGiphyTravel Isn't For Everyone
"Not a specific job but traveling for work."
"I’m in tech and a lot of people starting out talk about wanting to go to customer sites and get 'out in the field'."
"I love to travel for fun but it’s hard to fit in the fun stuff when you have presentations and stuff to worry about and a lot of times your customers aren’t in the fun cities anyway."
"I also think I prefer the stability in day-to-day schedule of traveling less frequently."- bazerkas_bodyguard
It's very easy to dream about working another job after watching a movie or reading about it in the newspaper.
But those cases are far more often the exception, rather than the rule, and after working one day in a job you imagined was fun, or even witnessing someone working it, you might find the illusion instantly shattered.
Making one think it's probably more fun to imagine ourselves working these jobs than to actually work them.