Reunion '29

Long before I ever left school, I used to fantasise about my future school reunions. Is that weird? I don't know, but I guess it must have been the influence of American television because I'm not even sure if we have massive reunions here in little old England. Anyway, I used to imagine what ours would be like. It doesn't matter if I look like a potato now and the boy I fancy doesn't know my name, I'd tell myself, because in 20 years at Reunion '29 I'll be all grown up and incredible, and that's when I'll snap him up. They won't know what's hit them. Oh dear oh dear, Georgia. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't something I thought about a lot, but it did cross my mind from time to time, in the same way I used to imagine what my specialist subject would be on Mastermind.


Yesterday I read online that Friends Reunited is closing down after 16 years. Friends Reunited was the original social network and I remember thinking it was incredibly cool when my mum got an account, many many years before my first dabble into Myspace and Bebo (remember Bebo?!) I don't think Mum really used it that much but some of her friends did and we were talking last night about how two people she went to school with were literally reunited on the site after 20 years and recently got married, which is pretty cool.

It then occurred to me that I'll never be reunited with ex-school mates online because, thanks to Facebook, we are yet to be estranged and still following each other around. Every man and his dog (literally in some cases) has a Facebook account, so even though the last time I saw most of my classmates was five years ago, I could tell you exactly what they're doing, who they're dating and where they had lunch on Tuesday with the click of a button if I so wished. There's no mystery anymore.

I do have a 'cleanse' or 'cull' from time to time, because there are some people you don't want to keep appearing on your newsfeed, but the inquisitive (nosey) part of me wants to stay connected to that-girl-I-worked-on-a-science-project-with-in-year-8 and I do get personally offended when I find out that someone that was in my tutor group has DELETED me for no good reason at all.

With the ability to talk/stalk anybody from my past at the tip of my fingers, it makes me wonder whether there will ever be the Reunion '29 that I used to dream about. Is posting a solid 8/10 selfie the equivalent of swanning into the still-smelling-the-same school hall, as if to say LOOK I'M SUCCESSFUL NOW? I think that people would still want to go, but it wouldn't be the same kind of reconnection that my mum's generation had, more a case of Tell Me Something I Don't Already Know.

Or maybe everyone else would give it a miss and it would just be me sat with the weird kid that somehow never got the hang of the internet.

Probably that.