Reunions and Reality
So I had some time to kill yesterday, and I was flipping through the channels on the TV, I found this new reality TV show, based on a high school reunion in Texas. Initially, I thought this was a good idea. It's people that already know each other, and they're being put back into their normal setting. So this is as close as any network has come to "reality" in their reality TV setting.

But before I got a chance to like it, I sat down and watched it. I only saw the introduction, and maybe the rest go better, but I didn't like what I saw. High school is of course an ordeal we all need to go through, but when we leave, we realize the errors of our youth, and we move on.

We, the viewers, got to see their introduction, including a short bio of who they were, and then we watched them walk in and be recognized and greeted. In the personal interview portion, they seemed to be answering a set list of questions. This is roughly how it went.

1. Tell us about your high school experience.
- Option 1 - I was a loser in high school because were mean to me and made fun of me. I don't why people couldn't be nicer to me.
- Option 2 - In high school I was always really hung up on and people never really gave me a chance to be anything more.

2. Why are you coming on this show?
- People in high school didn't give me a fair shot, and I want to show them now that I'm better than they remembered, so they'll be jealous that they weren't nicer to me.

I don't keep in touch with my high school community much, except for people that I knew through church, but the idea of a reunion like that did perk my interest. It'd be easy for me to fall into the self-centered trap that each of the TV contestants did (ie. Those girls that didn't think I was good looking, would they pay attention to me now? Is my religion still a social deterrent?). It's easy to see that wrong that was done to me, but if I remember back, it isn't too hard to remember either the times when I was a jerk to other people.

Here would be my answers:

1. I was worried quite a bit about fitting in, and I wish that I had taken the time to be more genuine, and have fun being myself, not what I thought other people wanted.

2. I want people to see me for who I am, but I also want to take the opportunity to apologize to anyone that I was a jerk to, and I want to thank them all for helping me to become who I am.

   [ posted by William @ 3:03 PM ]