This week, I had the wonderful chance of going back to my high school to attend a dinner honouring an alumna, or Old Girls as we call ourselves.  It’s amazing how popular these events are.  Sure, the woman honoured this year is well-known, but it seems that at this school, at least, these functions tend to draw sizable crowds.  For many of us, our time with the school doesn’t end with graduation; it’s something which continues for life.  Of course, this isn’t the case for everyone.  There are some of the alumni who hate their school and want nothing to do with it ever again. I think that’s sad.

There are also those who say that if one graduated high school years ago, then they should leave high school behind.  They say that it’s immature to think about high school so many years later.  I disagree with them.  While one shouldn’t be completely obsessed with high school years after graduation, it is an integral part of one’s life just like undergrad, work and family.  Having pride on which school one went to shouldn’t mean that he or she is too immature to realize that high school is already over.  In fact, at the dinner last night, most of the Old Girls in attendance weren’t recent grads. They were women who attended the school decades ago (many were from the late 1960s or early 1970s, the same period the honouree graduated.  Others were from even earlier decades).   I sat with women who graduated in the late 60s and they happily reminisced their days at the school, talking about the ugly chapel veils (which had been long phased out by the time I arrived in the early 90s), their teachers and so forth.  Would you call this immature?  I surely would not call that immature.

Maybe it’s a cultural thing.  For some people and perhaps even the schools themselves, once you go, you’re gone – never to be seen or heard from again.  Alumni events are not considered official school events.  However, my alma mater holds events for Old Girls on a regular basis and they’re generally well-attended.  For some, it’s just an evening to have fun.  But there are also those who use this as a networking opportunity.  After all, you often hear of men doing this.  It’s something they’ve been doing for years.  It’s good to utilize these alum connections, because you never know who knows whom.  In our current economic environment where competition is much stiffer when it comes to jobs, knowing people may give you an upper hand.