Episode 363: My 30th High School Reunion

Hey, welcome everybody! We are gonna start Winey Palooza Wednesday in just a minute. Just waiting for my wonderful wife to join us on this remote edition of Winey Palooza Wednesday, which we'll talk about in just a second. There she is! All right, come on down.

Oh my gosh, well Guess where I went last weekend?

Where did you go last weekend?

I went to my 30th high school reunion.

Yes, thank you for bringing me as your date.

And Seth was my plus one. So this is a unique situation because when people bring their spouses to a reunion, they're meeting a bunch of strangers. But in my case, that's not the case. Case because Seth was a year behind me in high school. Now, we didn't know each other. We didn't say two words to each other. We didn't say one word to each other. Do you think we ever spoke?

No.

No. You don't think we ever talked at like a basketball game or anything?

I would remember.

Oh, you would remember?

Yes.

So my handsome husband went to my high school, was a year behind me. We didn't say two words to each other. I knew who he was, but we didn't meet until many years later at our synagogue. So anyways, bringing Seth as my plus one is a unique situation because he knows everybody. Yeah, I looked over and I mean, like, first of all, he doesn't need me at any event. He's just— he, he knows how to, like, talk to people and intermingle, right? He's a networker. Seth is a networker. That's the word I'm looking for. So he was off talking to people, catching up with people. He, he knew— you knew most of the people.

I did.

And so not only was it a reunion for me, it was a reunion for Seth because he also knew a lot of the people.

It was a bonus reunion for me.

And it was very cool to see everybody. So I was like, I said to, you know, my mom and my friends, I was like, I'm gonna stop by.

Well, 3 or 4 hours later.

So I want to say that I got there at 5:30, and within the span of 5:30 to 9:30, people kept pouring in. And it was just so cool that people kept coming. And another added bonus is that South was also gathering. So Seth and I went to Williamsville East, but I knew a ton of people who went to Williamsville South because we went to middle school together. So the South people were also congregating and I got to catch up with Williamsville South people, Williamsville East people. I was just like, This is, this is so cool and I also want to say there are at least a handful of people who were there who I talk to regularly, right?

Yes, you have local friends.

I am in the town that I went to high school with. This is not like a huge big deal for me to go back to the town that I went to high school in. I haven't left. I've been here for 48 years, so a lot of the moms have kids at the same schools as me. So for me, like, I talk to a lot of these moms regularly. This wasn't like a new thing for me.

Yes, and speaking of high school reunion, Corey Clark has joined us.

Corey, I want to tell you, Corey is the first friend who who found me at Old Homes Day. And how appropriate that he was the first friend that I got to see. I was so excited to see Corey. Corey and I went to first grade together and have been friends ever since. So we were 6 years old when we met. So I think that Corey wins for the longest friendship. Hey, Corey. And Corey came in town. Corey does not live here, so he came. He's one of the amazing people who came to town for this. Now, he does have family here that he got to see, but there were people who came to town for this, and there was a whole extravaganza planned on Saturday. As somebody who runs an extravaganza almost every day, I I was not feeling up to a whole day of activities. I think I, I think I collapsed on my deck. Is that appropriate, Seth? I think we were in the pool and on the deck.

Yes, you did not move very much the next day.

If you guys have not noticed from my vlogs, my kids keep me moving. So sometimes I do want to crash. So Unfortunately, Lily's friend had to get home. So Seth, you left and you went to get Ella downtown. And I didn't want to leave and Lily's friend had to go home. So it's now 9:30. I've been there for 4 hours. People are still flooding in. And I'm like, darn it, I've got to take her home. So in retrospect, I probably should have gone back. So what do I want to tell you about reunions? I want to tell you that if you are hemming and hawing— is that the word?— about if you should go, I want to tell you to go. I want to tell you what I told my son. Now, my son didn't take my advice, but I'm hoping that you take my advice. I told my son to go to the prom. I said, just go stop by and see what you think. I want to tell you that was my plan. I was going to go stop by and see how long I stayed. Well, I stayed for probably over 4 hours. So I want to tell you, take the plunge. Go to your reunion. Give it a try. You don't have to stay. You can connect with people that you didn't know you were going to be excited to connect with. The minute that I saw these people, I felt like I was like 16 years old. It was so cool. I could go back to high school like this. So I want to tell you to go. I want to tell you that we are adults. We need to get rid of our insecurities, and we need to just take the plunge and realize that all judgments from past stuff from high school 30 years ago should go away. I want you to know, my friends were telling me stuff that I didn't even remember. Like, I don't know what happened to my memory. I would like to think that I have a good memory. I can remember kindergarten. But my friends were talking to me about stuff that I didn't even remember. So kudos to them. But I'm kind of annoyed with myself for not remembering stuff. So where was I? OK. So you're going to go to your reunion. You're going to let go of any grudges, any judgments. You're going to let all of that go. You're going to go with an open heart. And you're going to talk to everybody. And I had a friend say, "I don't think we talked in high school." We talked in high school. I don't like when people say that to me. I want you to know that I take pride in the fact that I talked to everybody. I wasn't like, "I'm not going to talk to you." I talked to everybody. And we are going to enjoy connecting with people. We aren't going to think about the fact that our daughter is running around Old Holmes Day and she's only 11 years old and I'm not watching her, I'm in the beer tent with my friends. We're not going to think about the list that we have going on the next day. We are going to be present. We are going to enjoy connecting and we are going to let go of judgments. We are going to let go of insecurities and we're going to celebrate and I want to tell you what we're going to celebrate. We're going to celebrate our growth. OK? So I want to tell you that I like my 48-year-old self way better than my 18-year-old self or my 16-year-old self. I did not have confidence and security and I like myself way better. All of you, when you see this, because a lot of you watch this later on, Do you like yourself better now or did you like yourself better then? People were talking about how much they missed high school. So did I like high school? Yes, I like high school. Do I miss high school? God, no. God, no. OK, I'm going to give you all my advice. I'm going to tell you what I told myself. Go. See who you connect with. See who you get to see. It doesn't matter if you were friends in high school. It's still nice to catch up with people and hear what they're doing. Don't be insecure. Go anyway. Nobody cares. We're adults. Nobody cares about any of the crap from high school. Just go. Have a good time. See how everybody's doing. See what everybody's up to. Very cool. I loved seeing everybody. I loved hearing what everybody was doing. Celebrate how far you've come. Be present, be present at your reunion and enjoy it and cherish all of the memories that you have from high school. So I want to give you one last piece of advice. Do not wait to connect with people. If there are people that you want to connect with from high school, you do not need to wait for your reunion to connect with them. Call them up, find them on Facebook. I'm not gonna wait until our next reunion to talk to people. So Seth, anything else that you want to add?

I love your message. I think that is all very good. I think people should go I think they might surprise themselves and have a good time. And I enjoyed seeing people and I was also inspired to not wait. And I started messaging people from college that I haven't talked to in a very long time. And it's not like there's a reunion, you know, every X number of years at a specific place that is nearby. So I'm not waiting. I am taking your advice and I am connecting to people I have not connected to in a very long time. And I greatly appreciate that.

Yeah, like high schools have reunions. Do colleges have reunions? I feel like they don't.

And part of the problem would be like, I went to a big school, like I would need my department specifically to have a reunion for the right years, as opposed to if like Syracuse University did a reunion for our entire graduating class. I mean, that'd be like tens of thousands of people. 99 99% of whom I would not know.

So we went to my reunion. We enjoyed seeing everybody. And then Seth says to me, I don't talk to anybody from college. Like, that's not OK with me. So I love that that inspired him to reach out to people. Your college does a reunion? Seth, Corey's college does a reunion.

His college, like, is that his department in the college where it'd be a couple hundred people, or is that like his entire college and he goes and sees— I don't know where he went to school— does he see 20,000 people he doesn't know?

Cory, where did you go to school? It's an interesting question.

I don't need all of Syracuse University. I need a couple 300 people that were in my department, the four in my department, and a couple grades above and below me.

Hmm, well, you could certainly put it together.

I think I'm— you know what, I think I'm gonna have to.

I was telling Seth that I want a cheerleader reunion.

You're gonna have to plan that one. I can't help you with that.

Our entire class— Corey says his entire class gets together.

How big was your class?

Fascinated.

I am fascinated by this.

So, so Seth and I want to know, we're talking about high school reunions tonight, Hampton University.

I gotta pay attention for a minute.

Yeah, focus on that. Focus on driving, Seth. So we want to know, Seth and I want to know, does your college do a reunion? I don't think mine does.

Does your school of social work, might—

I don't know, I'll have to ask Marcy if she knows anything.

I mean, that would be the only people you would know and want to see, right? I don't know anybody in the School of Architecture.

I— well, you're talking about graduate school. I'm talking about undergrad.

Like, no, I was talking about undergrad. Like, I don't know any—

no, that's—

I wouldn't know anybody.

She wasn't in social work.

Oh, okay, sorry.

I wasn't in social work undergrad, Seth. That was graduate school. That— I did psychology undergrad.

Okay, so you need the psych department to have a reunion.

And yes, I had friends in undergrad, and yes, I remember them, and yes, it would be fun to see them. Um, but there's got to be college reunions that we don't know about. Oops. I don't know, Corey, you're inspiring me. I'm going to have to do some digging and find out. So we want to know, did you go to your high school reunion? What reunion are you on? Do you have college reunions? Fill us in. Let us know. So we went, the girls and I went to lunch with Seth's mom, aunts, and Seth's mom's husband. And his aunt was in town because she went to her 50th high school reunion. Oh, I didn't know that. So here—

why she was here.

Yeah, she went to her 50th high school reunion. You know what? You didn't read the revised version of my blog where I added that. Yes, so Corey, she was here for her 50th the same weekend we had our 30th. And I was like, wow, I thought 30 years was crazy. So 50 years, 50 years, that'll be me. Anyways, there is a new podcast on Friday. Please tune in. I'm sure it's a wonderful topic. And please come join the Whiny Plouza mom group on Facebook. It's free. It's supportive. Come find us. And what I want you to know is from losing my Facebook account with a lot of people on it and losing my Whiny Plousa page, I want to tell you not to put your eggs in one basket and I want to ask you to please find me in multiple locations. I am on Instagram, I am on Facebook, I am on TikTok, And you know where my podcasts are. Is there anything else, Mr. Green, that I am forgetting?

Like, rate, share, review, and subscribe. And honey, the 33 is one lane due to construction. We are going 6 miles an hour.

Oh boy. OK, well, OK, so we're going to hang up and let Seth drive. Everybody have a wonderful week. We might be coming to you from the car next week picking up Ella, but just be flexible with us till her internship. Relationship's over. So thank you, everybody.

Happy Winey Palooza Wednesday.

Happy Winey Palooza Wednesday. Have a great week. Thank you for tuning in to the Winey Palooza podcast. If you like what you heard, please be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. While you are there, leave a review. I love to hear your feedback. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time. This show has been produced by Market Domination LLC. To discover how you can have your own show completely done for you and turn it into a real published book and become the authority in your marketplace, go to www.marketdominationllc.com/podcastoffer.