I’m an extrovert. I get energy by being around others and enjoy most every chance I get to meet new people. If given the choice, I would stay late at every party and never run out of things to talk about or people to meet. I’m interested in people, what makes them tick and what they have been up to. And, here comes the punchline, I really don’t like reunions. I should like them. They should be perfect for me. As years have sped past, I have had more and more opportunities to test this opinion and I come up with the same answer. The reunions are primarily looking backwards and a chance to give my own biographical update—two things, at least for now, I don’t particularly enjoy. So, I have dreaded my high school and college reunions. Go figure.
Until now. My twentieth high school reunion happens in the Summer of 2011 and we have already started meeting. The discussions have not been focused on banquet chicken or party locations, but Purpose and how we can make our reunion a combination of purpose and connectivity between the 430 graduates. In celebration of our 20th reunion, we are going to serve as chief sponsors for a home-build through Habitat for Humanity.
Throughout the balance of 2010, we will work to raise $60,000 and find enough volunteers to sponsor 10 build days in the summer of 2011. Next summer, we will have 10 teams that will spend a day advancing the build of a house. (have you ever heard someone say, I’m not going to the reunion because I see the people I want to see anyway?) These are the people we are going to target to take a day with their core group of friends and work on the house.
Now, I want to go to the Reunion Party. Maybe it’s the combination of looking backwards with looking forwards? I’m not entirely sure, but the vision of a slide show illustrating the build of a house while eating banquet chicken and chatting up classmates sounds like a must. This feels like the right thing to do and a fun way to connect with old friends.
