A Narrative For My Class Reunion

By: Andrew Kavchak

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Stanley Koszczuk was a student at Samuel de Champlain College (SCC), a private English boys’ school in Montreal, and a member of the graduating class of 1979. Every year, during homecoming week in September, SCC invites the classes celebrating quinquennial graduation anniversaries to a reunion reception and dinner at the school. In 2024, Stanley received an invitation to attend his 45th anniversary class reunion. He had not attended one since the 20th back in 1999. Over the years, Stanley had numerous reasons and excuses to avoid going. The timing was inconvenient, other priorities were more pressing, and, like many others who did not attend the class reunions, he did not want to be compared to more successful classmates. However, now in his sixties and retired, the justifications were no longer credible. Keeping up with the Joneses had long ceased to be an issue. Stanley became nostalgic and looked forward to the reunion as a means to rediscover his roots and refresh the feeling of belonging to a community with his classmates. He retrieved his diaries from a box in the attic and reminded himself of the daily teenage trials and tribulations he had recorded in the 1970s and had since forgotten. Going to the reunion would be an opportunity to share memories with others who were at the school with him.

Class reunions may be considered autobiographical occasions at which attendees anticipate being asked what they have done since graduating. Stanley reflected on his life since leaving SCC and came up with a short narrative that reflected his identity and that he could use to reply to such inquiries. This story is about one student’s time at SCC, his experiences after graduating, and the joy of taking a trip down memory lane with sexagenarian schoolmates at a class reunion.