Where Are They Now?...

Anybody who has seen John Cusack in Grosse Pointe Blank will understand how I felt about the prospect of attending my 30-year high school reunion last week.

To wit: "I just honestly don't know what I have in common with those people anymore... or with anyone, really. I mean, they'll all have husbands and wives and children and houses and dogs, and, you know, they'll have made themselves a part of something, and they can talk about what they do. And what am I going to say? "I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork. How have you been?" I just think it'll be depressing."

Okay, so maybe I didn't think it would be that bad, but a certain amount of trepidation was very much the carte du jour.

But, in my idiom*, I went. And it wasn't so bad after all.

The reunion was organised by the Templogue College Past Pupils Union, and was aimed at a number of graduating years, but as the 30-year men, we were the so-called 'feature year'. I half expected we'd have to lecture the younger lads on life and such, because our former teachers were not averse to putting one on the spot from time to time, but it was not the case, and we spent an enjoyable evening catching up.

One of the lads has made a successful career as an artist, and he trotted out a bunch of statistics about how a group such as ours might be demographically divided; x% married, x% divorced, x% gay, x% in prison, x% dead, etc.

And while I can think of one or two individuals from my year who could perhaps have been expected to end up behind bars, I guess it was that last statistic that got us thinking - at least three of our graduating class are no longer with us. Gary died as a result of a brain aneurysm while on holiday; Eoin was tragically killed in a fall; and our friend Finbar fell victim to, we believe, an inoperable brain tumour barely two years ago. Some of the lads hadn't heard about Finny - it came as something of a shock.

It's a sobering thing to be faced with the prospect of mortality - in school we have our lives ahead of us, every day's another day and summer's just around the corner. I guess thirty years on, you have to just stop for a minute and look around at what your life's become.

That being said, everyone enthused about their kids, moaned about their bosses, laughed about past sporting successes and sang the school song, and we resolved to get back together more regularly.


I can live with that.

*Mightiest of Men