Since graduating in the Yale Class of 1982, I have never attended a class reunion.
I don’t know your reasons for missing college reunions, but here are mine:
• Fifth (1987): I avoided loud, drunken parties when I was a student. Why would I return to Yale for a loud, drunken party? One day, I drove to New Haven for pizza and a walk around, but I intentionally avoided reunion weekend.
• Tenth (1992): I moved to Columbus. Not worth the flight.
• Fifteenth (1997): I already missed the fifth and the tenth, so I didn’t think I qualified for the fifteenth. (I’m still not even sure there was a 15th.)
• Twentieth (2002): My kids would have to miss a day of school. Though I missed plenty of classes at Yale, I believe in education for my kids.
Now, however, I am going to our Class of 1982 25th Reunion. Here’s why:
• My classmates were fascinating, funny, and argumentative when we were 20. Now, we’re 46 and I really crave those laughs and arguments. And I think this will be an unusual opportunity to make new friends from all over in the Yale Class of 1982.
• When I was a student bartender at the 1981 reunion, I learned that the 25th is the one reunion to attend even if you miss all the others. That’s when Yale feeds your heart with nostalgia and you’re still young enough to get around.
• Yale and New Haven will open their doors: great faculty lectures, a 25-year update on how Yale has changed, rooms on the Old Campus – and some of our old haunts around town.
• The Reunion Committee has assured me that I won’t be stuck in a loud, drunken party. There will always be a quiet alternative for conversation.
If you are a classmate, please come to this Reunion. This is the one. Let’s all be in New Haven together. Please save the date: May 31 — June 3, 2007. And let our classmates know by putting your name on the list.
I’d be glad to hear from you at artie@youngisaac.com.