Bill Calzada | 210SA Contributor Violet Saenz-Arocha, 32, graduated from Holmes High School, where she was a cheerleader, in 1992. She works as a government recruiter and has done some acting, including a small part in the movie ‘Grindhouse,' where she met Quentin Tarantino.

High school reunion season starts this summer, and some people dread the idea of reuniting with the people they didn't particularly like in high school. Others have their reunion dates posted in their calendars. Good or bad, silly or sad, here are some reasons people give for attending, or not attending, their high school reunions.
 
 

You want to check out if the prom queen looks like the before photo in a Jenny Craig ad or if you still have that same connection with your group of old buddies. You can't help it. Human nature makes you curious. Just ask Violet Saenz-Arocha, 32, who was eager to see her classmates from Holmes High School, where she was a varsity cheerleader.

“I was excited to see everybody, so yeah, I definitely went to my 10-year reunion,” Saenz-Arocha said of her 1992 graduating class.

Martha Flores, a marriage and family therapist in San Antonio, said “timing is everything” when it comes to people deciding whether to attend their reunions. If they're experiencing an emotionally traumatic event, they won't go. If they're feeling successful and happy, then they'll go, Flores said, because they're feeling good about life.

She said some people want closure to a painful or unfulfilling time in their lives. “For some people, it's about saying goodbye to the past,” she said.

REVENGE

If you weren't part of the cool crowd and felt second-class in high school despite having goals and the smarts to accomplish them, you want to show your former classmates you made it. That is, if you really have.

Flores said people who were unpopular in high school and have been successful academically and financially want to show others that “they've made it.”

“They've been hurt by these people, and they want to show they've overcome it,” Flores said.

Which brings us to the reasons people don't go to high school reunions:

HUMILIATION

People who aren't satisfied with their appearances, jobs or marital status tend to stay away from reunions to avoid reliving the inadequacy of their teens. Who needs people you haven't seen in years and don't particularly like or respect making you feel like crap?

“If I don't lose 20 pounds and get a makeover, then I'm not going,” Nancy Phelan said of her upcoming 20-year reunion. “It's not worth the trip to California just to feel like I've let myself go, unless I know others have, too.”

CONTENTMENT

You're happily married, have the family you always wanted and have an accomplished career that's provided you with a comfortable lifestyle. Or, you're satisfied with being single and childless and are proud of your accomplishments and prospects for the future.

You feel you don't need to revisit your past.

Melissa Rentería | 210SA contributor