Having gone to college in a town where the greatest attraction was a Mobil gas station, I learned not to limit my friends to those in my class. Thus, I recently attended the 35-year reunion for the class that was a year behind me. It exceeded my expectations, and I realized a few remarkable things.

Smaller on the Outside

Returning to the tenacious little town of Houghton, I found the Mobil station had disappeared, replaced by a Chinese takeout and a new inn (the original Houghton Inn burned down when I was a student there). Yet, despite these abundant facilities 😁, I felt the town had grown smaller.

They say that things always appear smaller than how we remember them because we are bigger now. Maybe it’s true not just for the physical enlargement of the body but also for the expanding of the mind.

Not having a car—or a driver’s license—back then, I had been stuck on campus most of the time. I don’t remember being chafed by it, but the world outside, including Houghton town, had loomed in my imagination with the grandeur of the unattainable. The college felt like a small space amid so much greater.

Yet, coming back, I saw that the school was a colossus of intellectual, cultural, and social activity amid its surrounds. Since my time there, Houghton College has become Houghton University and offers even more. During the reunion, I focused on the people and experiences before me. They filled my attention. By then, I had seen the world beyond and could appreciate the special milieu of Houghton. It was a lovely immersion.

One Community

You might wonder why I attended this reunion instead of my own. One reason was that two of my best friends wanted to use the occasion of their class reunion for us all to get together. Also, I had other friends in that class. I looked forward to catching up with these former schoolmates but still expected to feel out of place at other people’s reunion. It wasn’t a great, or accurate, expectation. Right from the start, individuals I remembered—and those I didn’t—embraced me as one of their own.

I think it takes courage to revisit the glories of our prime and acknowledge they are faded now. That is probably why I haven’t gone to a reunion since my twenties. It might be easier if we could boast of successes in any of the terms that the world recognizes. Some or all the people I met that weekend might be able to make these boasts, but I wouldn’t know. It wasn’t what we talked about. Sure, jobs, children, and such topics came up, but I don’t remember any sense of competition, only genuine interest and warmth. It was as if decades of absence had not intervened and sharing our lives together was the most natural thing.

Perhaps it was the extraordinary people who took the trouble to come that molded the quality of our fellowship. There were only a couple of handfuls. But I would like to think that it had something to do with our shared faith. Maybe we all came to Houghton because it was a Christian college, and we reconnected so easily because that faith has matured through the years. And despite the corrosion of time and delineation of class affiliation, we are one community because we are one Body. We are family.

Meeting New People

Reflecting further on why people come to reunions, I thought it was to reacquaint with old friends and memories. But I came to a startling conclusion as we were leaving. Reunions are for meeting new people. I don’t just mean starting new friendships with those we hadn’t known before. That is a great blessing, and I rejoice in my experience of it that weekend. But even among our acquaintances and old friends, we discover the new people we have become in the separating years. And our relationships blossom and grow in new branches. Because the camaraderie of the past had roots in good soil and endured, refining as we do.

My Reunion

As it turned out, it was my reunion after all. I relived golden moments, welcomed new ones, reflected with gratitude, and energized relationships. What else would you want from a reunion?