I organised a QHS school reunion and only 11 people showed up. I’ve worked out why.
At first when 2025 rolled around I was like: ‘How the hell has it been 30 years since I graduated high school?!’
And then it became: ‘Yaaasssss, opportunity for a reunion!’
So I went hard. Created a Facebook event. Invited all the people I was Facebook friends with from school. Told them to invite their friends. DM’ed people to encourage them to come. Posted old photos of people from our year almost daily in the Facebook event. Even created a Queanbeyan High School Class of 1995 Spotify playlist dominated by Silverchair, Mariah Carey, Offspring and Boyz II Men.
And then when I walked into Campbell & George on the night of the event, there were 11 people there.
I honestly thought we’d get at least of half of the people in this pic there.
I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t understand how people could not want to come.
I’ve spent the months since the reunion thinking about why the turnout was so low. Here are my thoughts:
1. Facebook killed the need for the traditional school reunion.
Some very famous Queanbeyan faces in this pic of a group of girls from my year, taken in 1994.
Think about it. If you went to school in the 1970s and had a reunion in the early 2000s, you literally hadn’t seen your first crush Luke Henderson – the gorgeous guy from woodwork – for 30 YEARS. If you wanted know what happened to your fellow students, what careers they went into, how many kids they had and most importantly who they married, you had to go to the reunion.
These days, you’re friends with Luke Henderson (and a whole bunch of your classmates) on Facebook.
You’ve been scrolling past photos of Luke’s wife, kids (and grandkids, in some cases) for years. There’s literally no need to catch up with Luke at a reunion because you know everything about him, including what he drank on the first night of his holiday in Adelaide last week and that he loves sharing Reels about cats jumping from ridiculous heights.
I think this is the main reason no-one bothered turning up to our reunion.
They’re friends on social media with the people they liked and aren’t interested in being friends with the ones they didn’t like. End of.
2. You have to be really comfortable with where you’re at in your life right now to attend a reunion.
The small group who showed up and had an absolute ball.
Nothing makes you reflect more on what you’ve actually achieved over the past 30 years like the fear of being judged for it. Am I happily married? Are my kids amazing and spread out across the globe in jobs where they’re changing the world? Am I skinny and wrinkle-free and looking insanely good for 48? Am I rich, with three successful businesses and another one in the works?
And the worst one of all: did I make it out of Queanbeyan?
What an absolute load of BS. If these are the true measures of success, I’m a miserable failure.
But you know what? I’m okay with who I am as a person as I had the courage to step into a room of my former classmates and be judged for everything I did (and didn’t) become. The other people there had the courage to come too.
(For the record, I’ve never felt more loved and accepted in my life than I did at the reunion.)
3. You have to have actually enjoyed going to high school.
Some Class of ’95 legends at the Year 10 formal.
I loved school. Like loved school. But I’m a social person, a show-off and have the confidence of Samantha Jones from Sex and the City.
For someone like me, school was heaven.
But I know that’s not everyone’s experience. And the last thing you’d want to do if you had a hard time at school is walk back into a room full of people who remind you of that. And that’s more than acceptable (in fact, recommended).
Was I disappointed with the turnout to the reunion? Yes. But the people who wanted to be there were there, and made it one of the best nights out I’ve had in a very, very long time.
About the Author: Briony Winchester
Part bogan, part wannabe plus-size model and part journalist, Bree's the woman behind Q! News. A born storyteller, she's been writing locally, nationally and internationally for more than 30 years.
