30th Reunion

 

Memorial Day weekend was more momentous than usual as John headed to New Haven for his 30th college reunion. Yale does a great job organizing these gatherings and John was excited to see all sorts of folks. The first night started with an informal gathering at Mory's which was packed with classmates able to get into town early. Among other things, Mory is known for their cups and quite a few great college memories revolve around drinking cups at Mory's. It is not as easy to tackle these in your 50s, but it never hurts to try.

Every alum has their own perspective, but for John one of the best spots on campus is the courtyard in Jonathan Edwards, his residential college during his four years. This reunion weekend JE was not hosting the class of 1995, but he was still able to go in and walk around. 

 

A new feature of the reunion weekend were organized panels where classmates led conversations about different issues. A 30th reunion is much different from a 5th or 10th in terms of life experiences, and the schedule featured people talking about life after divorce, raising neurodivergent children, and writing a book. John's friend Amit led the charge for organizing these sessions and got John to agree to be on a panel talking about writing a book. John and his classmate Euny shared the stage and many of John's friends were kind enough to show up and pretend that it was interesting. Many of the people in this picture are far too aware that John wrote most of his papers the night before they were due and are not going to take writing advice from him. Soren, the guy on the far right in this picture, was one of John's roommates and led the effort to get as many of our JE people back to New Haven as possible. 

 

This picture captures the JE class of 1995 folks who were in attendance. JE had a pretty good showing overall. It would be fun to compare this photo to the photos taken with much less sophisticated cameras when these folks moved onto Old Campus back in August 1991. 

 

These three guys spent a good portion of the reunion hanging out and made a point of going for some long walks around the city to get some time for good conversation. Amit and John met on the very first day of an orientation conference and have been close friends ever since. Steve and John met through intramural soccer and their lives have intertwined in a variety of ways since college. Reunions provide an opportunity to see people you haven't seen in years and to reconnect with some you have lost touch with. Just as important they provide time to deepen friendships with people you have known for decades.