Just the other day my sister bumped into an ex-classmate of mine and the said ex-classmate actually stopped and chatted with her. I was in the same clique with her in the first two years of my secondary school but I’ve not seen her in years. In fact, the last time I saw her was at a class reunion easily a decade ago (oh my, this makes me feel real old). Anyway, she exchanged numbers with my sister (who was too polite to reject her) and wanted us to add her as a friend on Facebook. I received her Facebook friend request shortly after my sister’s encounter with her but me being me, decided to ignore her request altogether.
I know my reaction may come across as strange or even snobbish to some, especially since we were considered quite close back in those days. But I don’t know, these things somehow make me uncomfortable. Adding someone on Facebook isn’t a big deal but when it comes to getting re-acquainted with ex-classmates, I get freaked out for some reason. I think it’s the possibility of that person trying to reconnect with me and wanting to catch up that makes me so adverse to it. I’m perfectly okay not having to meet some of these people again and adding them to my Facebook may just jeopardise this. There are people who relish the idea of catching up with their ex-classmates and rekindling an old friendship or two. There’s nothing wrong with this of course but I can only say I definitely don’t belong to this camp.
As you probably can tell by now, class reunions and gatherings are not my thing at all. I mentioned earlier that I attended one years ago and I have to say it started off pretty well. It was actually quite interesting to catch up with the people whom I’ve not seen in ages and trust me, this says a lot coming from the anti-social me. However, as the night wore on, I came to realise why I dislike such events so much. After the initial hellos and obligatory small talk, most of us simply drifted back to the same group of friends that we’ve been keeping in touch all along. Doesn’t this defeat the purpose of having a class reunion? Why would I need to make it to the gathering just to catch up with my close friends? I don’t get it. And amazingly enough, the so-called popular ones still mingled mainly within their own clique right from the start. You would’ve thought high school was over a long time ago and we had all grown up to become mature and sensible adults.
Anyway, I must clarify that I’m not unfriendly or a snob, it’s just that I don’t like to socialise or engage in awkward small talk unless absolutely necessary. Not sure if any of you get what I’m trying to put across here?
We just need close friends, not acquaintances. Only treasure the good ones