EXCUSES?!?!

NO EXCUSES FRIENDS!!!

If you are NOT coming to the reunion, you need a really good excuse and a note from home. The following reasons have been tried and are UNacceptable....

Excuse #1: I don't like the location, theme, itinerary...

Rebuttal: It's HARD to plan a reunion...it's hard to find something to make everyone happy and it's even harder to get people to want to come. We're just trying to do the best we can with what we have to work with and want it to just be about getting together and having fun. We're sorry if it's not the reunion you hoped for but we promise once you're there you'll have a great time! We are an amazing group of people and we can make whatever we do fun!!!

Excuse #2: I've gained a lot of weight!
Rebuttal: Look around!! I doubt very few of us could get back into our jeans from high school any more.

Excuse #3: 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 #4: 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. Just pull on your Spanx, comb it over, slather on the Eucerin and forget about it for the weekend!

Excuse #5: 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 a little bigger and wrinkled (see Excuse #3, above) but we're not stupid. Money is not success. Don't waste time on this one! When will you be rich enough? at our 40th??? You probably won't even be asked anything about what you're doing now...we'll be too busy playing casino games and eating to care! Life is too short, let's connect now while we're still young!

Excuse #6: I was not in a popular clique in school
Rebuttal: Now that we're older and smarter, those cliques have dissolved just like the superficialities they were based on. The only cliques you'll notice at the reunion will be the sound of joints as people walk around.

Excuse #7: I hated everyone in high school or everyone hated me.
Rebuttal: Everyone! Not a single person you have fond memories of? Check your email list, I'm sure you have at least 1 person you have contact info for. Email them and bring up the subject, they'd probably love to see you there! And if you had "enemies" it's time to make amends, show up, smile, make peace and you won't have to think about "being hated" anymore!!!

Excuse #8: I can't remember anyone's name.
Rebuttal: That's why God invented name tags! You can always use the excuse, "My memories getting bad, what's your name again?" We're giving you hints on the "Who's Coming?" page to let you know who you may bump into, in case you're worried about forgetting names.

This is just going to be a relaxing weekend to have some fun with people you shared a part of your life with. An excellent chance to be included in some great photos to share with your friends and family! Escape the stresses of everyday life, to go back in time for just a weekend.

If any of these are your reasons for not wanting to reconnect, we hope that you'll put them aside. We're all older now and you won't regret it!

Don't miss this incredible chance to face-and laugh at-our past!

REASONS TO ATTEND YOUR 25 YEAR CLASS REUNION

You’ve got nothing to prove.
No one can relive that big game like the friends who were there with you when it happened.
Few events offer the opportunity to go back in time and laugh like a teenager.
This party doesn’t involve puffy prom dresses, dyed to match shoes, or big hair – though you might see a few photos of just that.
You want to swoon over your ex-boyfriend.
You want your ex-boyfriend to swoon over you – might want to start looking for that perfect outfit now.
You know high school didn’t define you.
You might find out Mr. Most-Likely-To-Succeed is now a stay-at-home dad, and Miss Biggest Flirt is now a tenured professor at an Ivy League.
You’ve traded in your sporty Chucks for sexy Jimmy Choos a long time ago.
Even though your life didn’t follow the road map you had planned, you know deep down your path has been uniquely yours.
You can spend a night out with your significant other, kid-free!
Even with the best of intentions, you really don’t get together with those high school Facebook friends.
You look better than you’ve ever looked before.
You feel better than you’ve ever felt before.
You are so not who you were back then.
You want to remember who you were back then.
You can’t hear the infectious laugh of the classmate who sat behind you in geometry, see an ex-girlfriends’s smiling blue eyes, or hug your former locker partner on Facebook.
To introduce your husband to the girlfriends who got you through your high school years.
It is sure to be chock full of status worthy Facebook postings, Instagram hashtags or fodder for your blog.
Even if you’re recently divorced, have a bit less hair, lost your job or wear a few extra pounds, you are still who you are, only better.
It is a great way to show your partner where you came from.
And an even better way to see how far you’ve come.
There are very few opportunities in life to reinvent yourself.
You can watch a movie about a reunion – Grosse Pointe Blank, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion – or you can live it!
Group memories are best shared as a group.
At a reunion, everyone shows up older, and then grows young again.
Your classmates know just what it is like and just how it feels to be in their 40's now.
To talk about your high school glory days, not to relive them, but to tell your classmates “I’m glad we went through it together” makes for a great evening.
The “I didn’t like anyone then”, “I still talk to everyone I want to talk to”, and “everything there is to know about anyone is on Facebook” excuses are predictable and ordinary. You are neither.
Rarely in life do you get to look back through a new lens.
Being someone’s “friend” on Facebook does not mean you know anything about them other than what they did last Friday night.
Because you can.

The Class Reunion

Author Unknown

Every five years, as summertime nears,
An announcement arrives in the mail.
"A reunion is planned; it'll be really grand,
Make plans to attend without fail".

I'll never forget the first time we met,
We tried so hard to impress.
We drove fancy cars, smoked big cigars,
And wore our most elegant dress.

It was quite an affair; the whole class was there.
It was held at a fancy hotel.
We wined, and we dined, and we acted refined,
And everyone thought it was swell.

The men all conversed about who had been first
To achieve great fortune and fame.
Meanwhile, their spouses described their fine houses
And how beautiful their children became.

The homecoming queen, who once had been lean,
Now weighed in at one-ninety-six.
The jocks who were there had all lost their hair,
And the cheerleaders could no longer do kicks.

No one had heard about the class nerd
Who'd guided a spacecraft to the moon;
Or poor little Jane, who's always been plain,
She married a shipping tycoon.

The boy we'd decreed "most apt to succeed"
Was serving ten years in the pen,
While the one voted "least" now was a priest;
Just shows you can be wrong now and then.

They awarded a prize to one of the guys
Who seemed to have aged the least.
Another was given to the grad who had driven
The farthest to attend the feast.

They took a class picture, a curious mixture
Of beehives, crew cuts and wide ties.
Tall, short, or skinny, the style was the mini,
You never saw so many thighs.

At our next get-together, no one cared whether
They impressed their classmates or not.
The mood was informal, a whole lot more normal,
By this time we'd all gone to pot.

It was held out-of-doors, at the lake shores,
We ate hamburgers, coleslaw, and beans.
Then most of us lay around in the shade,
In our comfortable T-shirts and jeans.

By the fortieth year, it was abundantly clear,
We were definitely over the hill.
Those who weren't dead had to crawl out of bed,
And be home in time for their pill.

And now I can't wait--they've set the date,
Our fiftieth is coming, I'm told.
It should be a ball, they've rented a hall
At the Shady Rest Home for the old.

Repairs have been made on my hearing aid,
My pacemaker's been turned up on high.
My wheelchair is oiled, and my teeth have been boiled,
And I've bought a new wig and glass eye.

I'm feeling quite hearty, and I'm ready to party,
I'm gonna dance 'til dawn's early light.
It'll be lots of fun. but I just hope that there's one
Other person who can make it that night.