Recently I've been getting emails for a class reunion for a boarding school I attended for one year in Japan, from 1967 to 1968.
The mailing list includes everyone who went there who is still alive. Some of the people write in, some don't. The ones who do seem to feel quite nostalgic about the place.
I don't have fond memories of either the secondary school I went to for four years, or my college. I can't quite figure out whether I feel fondly about that boarding school, though.
It's been almost half a century since I went there, and it seems both more and less real for that reason. More real just because I was a very impressionable 13 when I went there, so the memories are more vivid. But it also seems less real, simply because so much time has passed, which makes it more a memory of a memory.
I suspect pretty much everyone who reaches a certain age feels the same way (even if most people have fonder memories of their school years than I do).
The next reunion is this summer. But it'd be weird, and discombobulating, and probably a little depressing, to see a bunch of old people you knew as 14-year-olds.
So I'll pass.
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11 comments:
can you speak Japanese?
I could probably remember quite a lot of things about being 13 if I had to but I don't think I'd describe any of those memories as vivid. I've got a decent memory for information but not so much for experiences. I know what happened but I don't really see it or anything very clearly. You are lucky, if you can, or perhaps unlucky if it was traumatic.
Steven --
No, don't speak Japanese, though it was my first language (I lived there from 1 to 2 and a half, when you learn how to talk.) Went back at age 8 for a year, relearned it, was fluent, came back to the US an promptly forgot it again, then when I went back to Japan at age 13 i got sent to an English-speaking boarding school, and never relearned it.
It seems strange that one can speak a language at age 8 and then forget it. If you listen, do you know any? Must be in there somewhere. Maybe the right kind of bump on the head could bring it back.
Do any of your kids look Japanese at all?
Steven --
It sounds familiar and yes, it's back there somewhere, but I've never bothered to relearn it.
No, my kids don't look Asian.
I attended a boarding school during my last two years of high school, having fond memories of the place. However, I haven't attended any reunions (yet), going on 30+ years. Gasp!
-birdie
Birdie --
I think the longer you wait, the harder it gets to go. Also, it's probably the same set of people who attended their 5th and 10th reunions who are also more likely to attend the later ones as well.
I enjoy reading a publication that the school mails to alumni. It's interesting to read about your peers. However, I don't enjoy reading about people's deaths. May they rest in peace.
-birdie
My 35th high school reunion is this summer. I went to my 5th and 10th and had a good time, but now I live 1500 miles away. So, probably not going to make it.
I have very strong memories from when I was 12 and 13. It must have been a very emotional time for me. My memories of 14, 15, 16, 17 are much less clear .... Maybe it was because I started smoking pot and drinking at 14.
E. Rekshun --
Well, you have a good excuse.
What your name signifies, btw, may be just a memory of a memory for me after I get through with this prostate cancer treatment.
Anon --
Well, in that case, I hope you'll think of this blog as rehab.
(I know I do.)
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