High School Reunions.....

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Hi, I have never gone to my high school reunions, but the 20th is coming up soon. I am interested in updating with their questionaire form , which is complied in a book for the students. Did anyone ever mention to their fellow students that they had asperger's? Would it be wrong, like being labeled with a scarlet letter? Would it allow others, who are now doctors, parents, teachers, to finally understand,"is that why she was the way she was? I am comfortable in my skin, but I still cringe at my younger years that were so painful for me. It would be a way for me not to point fingers at anyone, but rather to try to explain there was a reason why I could not ever socialize, talk to others, make social contact with others. As hard as I tried, it just did not work for me.It was like I walked with an invisible barrier from others. Your feedback is appreciated.Peace....

I've avoided my reunions like the plague as well. However in the interest of raising awareness of Aspergers I might be inclined to tell them, however I'm not sure I want my employer to know and I think I would be afraid it would get back to them. However, I recently ran into a former teacher at a support group meeting. Her husband was the speaker talking to parents of special needs kids. I told her about my AS (I tend to either not talk at all or WAY too much in crowds) and I could see the light go on so that she was like "so that's why he was like that".

My 20th is coming up too, and I'm not going. Those years were hard for me too as I suffered alot of torment in high school and before. I think reunions are for those who want to relive their past happiness and glory days. All I would be reliving if I went to a high school reunion is 4 years or misery and torment.

As for raising awareness of AS, it wouldn't make a difference in my opinion. I don't feel the need to justify my behavior to these people anymore now than I did then. I am me and I have a right to be me and if anyone doesn't like it, that's their problem not mine.

I've moved on beyond that sick world known as high school and have no desire to go back to it or even to remember it.

Remember the phrase "knowledge is power". If you give out knowledge like this then be sure you give it to the people you can trust. I am not sure that many people would understand even if you did tell them, it depends on the nature of your former classmates but there are many shallow-minded people out there who would just think your retardation now has a name. I would suggest only sharing your Aspergers with the people who know you well or maybe people who would be tolerant of these differences. Your call, but I don't take a foolish risk, there is no guarantee people will ever understand you no matter how much they know.

That is excellent advice you gave..thank you....

I have refused to go to my reunions each time I was "invited". I couldn't stand them 33 years ago, what makes them think I would stand them now. What's the point? People wrote me off years ago! What for others is pleasant nostalgia, is for me painful remembrance.

When that door opened Graduation Night, I ran thru it and never looked back. All my yearbooks wound up in recycling bins.

Peace

I never even got them, let alone get my picture taken for them. Each year I was in high school, I was placed under the "not pictured section".

Damn year books are put together for preps by preps.

A few years back I actually looked through my senior year book and I did manage to find one picture of myself with my face planted behind a camera.

As for reunions. I wouldn't know anyone there and I doubt anyone will remember me. I didn't get invited to my fifth and my 10th is coming up in two years and I'm not expecting an invitation to that one either.

We had our 10th reunion 3 yrs ago and I didn't go, they wanted us to send a letter and all updating everyone on our lives... I kept it as short and less detailed as possible. I tend to like my private life.

I have my reunion coming up in 2011. That seems far off now, but I'm still wondering if I should go or not. On one hand, I met most of my current friends in high school, and I've been friends with them ever since. On the other hand, my high school was a place of torture. It still horrifies me to this day how much planning and organization the NTs put into bullying me: the perfectly crafted insults, the stalking at what seemed to me "safe" places, the embarrassing trick questions, and other stuff too horrifying to mention.

So my question is this: should I still go?

Only if you truly want to go! If you have any doubts, you won't have a good time! I went from "I don't ever want to see those B's & B's ever.", to "Why bother"!

But, there's a lot of time to go, so don't think about it now. Work on your own goals!

Peace

Hi, I do not plan on going, it has been 20 years, and I am just not ready yet.....I will send in the questionare on what has happened since high school, and that will be that..I see those who I wish to see, and for the others, I usually hear through the grapevine their lives... For those who have gone to the reunions, I was told the cliques were the same, they all huddled together in groups as when they were teens...If I was out of the circle, why attempt to squeeze into one again ? Just a thought.Peace......

My sentiments exactly. Physically, I may look almost the same (or so I'v been told), but, mentally and emotionally I'm not. I don't have the time to rehash old memories. I'm too busy working on new ones.

Peace

I got news that this coming summer they're tearing down the old high school campus where I went. Will I go to the reunion they're having for those who want to take a last look? Hell! No! No way! Not a chance!

The only thing I could think of when I got those news was about Pink Floyd's album, The Wall, which was up on the top of the charts during my last year there. And oh! How I could relate to the lyrics in Another Brick in The Wall (part 2)!

So... If you are reading this and you happened to know me in HS, however slim the odds are, them I'm sure you'll understand why it is a chapter in my life that no longer matters.

This being said, I dedicate these last lyrics in that same 'Floyd album to an English teacher I will not name here:

The evidence before the court is
Incontrivertable, there's no need for
The jury to retire.
In all my years of judging
I have never heard before
Of someone more deserving
Of the full penaltie of law.
The way you made them suffer,
Your exquisite wife and mother,
Fills me with the urge to defecate!

"Hey Judge! Sh** on him!"

But, my friend, you have revealed your
Deepest fear,
I sentence you to be exposed before
Your peers.
Tear down the wall!

I now live far from were I went to high school and even though its been 21 years I didn't realy like most of them then why would it change a couple of the teachers I wouldnt mind seeing again but thats about it

I went to my 10 year reunion, but it was before discovering A.S. Still, it was sort of interesting. Many of the sports jocks that were always tourmenting me were unusually nice. I noticed however that they were starting to get a bit chubby and out of shape. As for myself, I am in better physical shape now than I eer was