Would I be the asshole for skipping my high school reunion?
My 10 year high school reunion is happening this October and I’m on the fence about attending or not.
My high school is in a very rural town in the USA and after graduating, I (and my entire family) moved away from this town and haven’t been back since. I now live out of the country (a 16ish hour flight away) and my family live in an entirely different state (a 3 hour flight away).
This year is my 10 year high school reunion, and given my high school is in a very small town, theres only 50ish people from the graduating class who are invited. I reached out directly to someone from high school asking if there would be any reunion arranged. I was then added to a Facebook page for the reunion and saw that they had previously posted a list of names of people who were missing from the Facebook group. My name was not included. So I was overlooked, and it wasn’t because I live abroad now since the names of the foreign exchange students from our year were on the list. Not a very nice feeling, since I went to school with these people for years and we aren’t even a big class size.
Now that the reunion is approaching, they’ve published the itinerary for the weekend. The reunion will consist of attending the high school football game on Friday, meeting in someone’s backyard for a bonfire after the game and meeting for a catered lunch in the local park the next day. They also said people will need to bring their own folding chair to each event except the football game.
Now knowing the itinerary, I’m feeling less inclined to go. Since I live out of the country and my family don’t live in that town anymore, it would take a lot to attend. To attend I’d need to take several days off from work, buy plane tickets, rent a car (since the small town is a 3 hour drive from the nearest airport), book several nights in a hotel and I guess also buy a folding chair. Also my new husband won’t be able to attend with me, given the cost, how far it is and how much time off he’d need to take to attend. And I wouldn’t be able to extend the trip to visit any of my family in their state, which would feel like a bit of a waste to travel all that way and not even see family (who I typically only see once a year anyway).
I do feel a bit bad about it though since I haven’t seen many of these people in years. I also got married a few months ago and my best friend from high school came all the way to my new country for the wedding. And now that the roles are reversed, and I have the opportunity to attend an event in her country, I’m on the fence about it.
Also side note, my best friend still lives in the states but not in the same town as our high school, so staying with/driving with her isn’t an option for the visit.
So would I be an asshole if I skipped the high school reunion?