Tuesday, October 4, 2011

SO HOW WAS IT FOR YOU? - JWT Reunion

Going to a reunion, after more than 25 years is a very strange experience. 7 years ago I went to my 25th year school reunion. Last week I went to a JWT staff reunion. I worked for the company from 1979 to 1985. Both experiences were similar as in both cases I was meeting up with some very special people who were part of my daily life all those years ago.

And right there is the very first thing you learn. People don’t change. Sure they may look a bit different – lacking hair or grey hair in the men and a definite softness in the face and body of most of the women – but voices, mannerisms and personalities remain intact. So that as soon as you begin talking all those physical differences fade away. Years melt and relationships seem to resume exactly at the point they left off… . even though it is decades since you have last spoken together.

At a deeper level something else also shifts… very subtly you are brought face to face with your younger self. Your carefree self, the person you were before you embarked on a life partnership, before kids, before the slavery of a mortgage. Very often your younger self is one who has suffered few traumas or difficult life events. And a reunion offers you the opportunity, if only for a few hours, to become that person again.

Sure, lip service is paid to finding out how many kids your ex colleagues/friends may have, where they live… but in reality no one really cares much about that stuff. We acknowledge that we have all moved on with life – in a myriad of different directions. But that’s not the point, is it?

The whole point of a reunion is to reclaim and revisit those earlier days. To hug the special people who were once a very important part of your day to day life. To acknowledge the fun, the craic and the laughs we shared so long ago. In the intervening years you have often wondered if you are looking back at those times through the proverbial rose coloured glasses. A good reunion shouts loud that you are not wrong. Those days were the best of times. The times you laughed loudest and longest; the times when your main concerns were in having a good time and enjoying yourself.

Life would be very boring if everything remained the same forever. We are all on a journey and so we all move on. We have all seen different things, done different things, experienced tough times and sublime joy. But the great gift of a reunion is the pause it allows in life; a pause in which you are granted the opportunity to revisit your past, to remember your younger self and to embrace her. And if you are lucky you might be able to reclaim a little bit of that more reckless, more spirited, more spontaneous you. The trick then is to ensure she doesn’t cause too much chaos in your current reality!

I will keep you posted!

Photo of old pals - Des Abbot, yours truly and Tony Fitzgibbon - decades later

11 comments:

  1. To find the carefree younger self within the present. An excavation that is not always easy or enjoyable. Glad the reunion was a success in both aspects!

    Where did the photos Go!

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  2. All so true. Went to my school reunion last year and it's uncanny how you just slot back in with old friends. Glad you enjoyed it.

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  3. ah Ann you were too quick.. was having all kinds of diffuckalties with them! Sorted now! Thankss for the comment.
    Hi Caro - thanks for the comment - its a universal experience isnt it?

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  4. What a lovely post, Barbara. And it's come at a good time for me. I'm going to my 25 years (gasp!!) school reunion next week. I'm looking forward to it more than ever now! x

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  5. It sounds as if you had a wonderful evening perhaps with just a touch of nostalgia. You were lucky that your time with JWT was such a happy time, it's lovely to revisit those memories.

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  6. I was looking forward to hearing how things went. So glad it was a good time! x

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  7. Sounds like a good night Barbara, I have some good mates that I don't see but when we do - we always slot back in.

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  8. I probably wouldn't mind going to a school reunion, though I didn't actually enjoy being in school at all. I had a hard time of it, definitely not the happiest days of my life. I think a lot of would be spent seeing if any of the people who gave me a hard time had changed.

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  9. Oh Maria - school reunions are great. At ours, it took about an hour for all the old gangs to reform. As a result there are about 8 of us who remain in contact and meet up about twice a year for a bite and a chat.. Enjoy

    Yeah Nor - I was so lucky.. we all were.
    Hi Susanah - thanks - yeah it was great fun
    Michelle - so much shared history with old friends - they are the best!
    Paul - I am so sorry your school days were not very happy. I hope if you do go to a reunion that you can connect with the good people!

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  10. That is a lovely piece Barbara. I was at a college reunion a couple of weeks ago and it was amazing how quickly we regressed to 20 year olds - scary and exhilarating!

    I wonder if you knew my dad? His name was Ivor Smith and he would probably have been working in Universal Travel at the time you were in JWT. He subsequently set up his own agency - Delta Travel on the Malahide Road - and he would have known a lot of people in JWT.

    Cheers
    Sean

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  11. Hi Sean and thanks for the comment... your dad's name is familiar alright but I don't think I knew him as such - no doubt dealt with him on the phone regularly!!

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