Early Bird Discount Almost Done

It's almost February, and that means the opportunity to purchase a reunion ticket at the Early Bird rate is running short. Thanks to Sandy Louangkhot for booking her ticket. Now it's your turn. Ticket purchases are secure and easy through PayPal, and they only cost $30. Reserve yours to spend time with classmates, make new memories, enjoy tasty food, and meet at an unbeatable venue downtown. Your purchase helps our planning to continue moving forward. Thanks in advance for your support.

Now is also the time to send your update so we can add to our Classmates page. Courtney Shandera and Kelly Paul (Kee) both did this even though they likely won't be able to attend the reunion since Kelly is moving to Utah and Courtney is getting married on June 7. (Congratulations, Courtney!) What's stopping you from taking five minutes to let us know how you are doing?

Reunion Funnies

Guest List is Growing

A special thanks to Tyler Shelton and Taylor Rust for purchasing tickets to our Timberline Ten Year Reunion. Our guest list is growing, and we want you to be included. If you purchase your tickets this month, you can take advantage of the Early Bird Discount. Why spend $10 per ticket more by waiting? Buy a ticket today and secure your spot at our reunion. Come celebrate and remember with us.

10 Really Great Reasons to Go to Your High School Reunion

This is from a blog by Kenney Myers. Read it in its original form here.

When that invitation to a high school reunion shows up, your first instinct may be to toss it in the trash. After all, adolescence is usually an awkward time that most people would rather forget rather than reminisce about. While many people will say that high school was the best time of their lives, this isn’t always true for everyone. Still, there are plenty of reasons why attending your high school reunion is a good idea. These are ten of the reasons why you might want to think twice before you chuck that invitation into the garbage can.

1. To Network – Networking is so important in some fields that there are entire social websites built solely around the premise of helping people to network on a professional level. Attending your high school reunion can be a great experience, but it may also afford you some networking opportunities that you would otherwise miss out on.
2. To Reminisce – Some people suffer through high school, but there are also those that reveled in the experience. Looking back at your high school career and sharing a few laughs with the people that were by your side for all of those great times can be very rewarding.
3. To Show Your Spouse Where You Came From – Attending your high school reunion with your spouse is a great way to share a part of your formative years. You can tour your hometown, introduce old friends and share stories that you’d forgotten all about, helping you forge an even stronger bond.  Of course unless you are one of the luckiest people in the world and still married to your high school sweetheart (which is even more of a cause to celebrate with mutual friends)!
4. To Party Like It’s 1988… Or Something – When careers and kids come along, opportunities to let your hair down can be few and far between. Your high school reunion will give you the chance to dance the night away. Rather than sharing the dance floor with a crowd of college kids at a nightclub, you’ll be surrounded by people your own age rocking out to songs you haven’t heard in years.
5. To Satisfy Your Curiosity – If you’ve ever wondered where people ended up and what they have done with their lives this is your chance to find out.  Whether it is the motor head that constantly tinkered with his cool car or the nerd that always raised his hand to answer the teacher’s questions, it’s fun to see what became of them.
6. Because Wall Posts Aren’t Real Conversations – Seeing pictures and FaceBook status updates from your old friends or even sending a few messages back and forth just isn’t the same as seeing them in the flesh and catching up. As hard as it may be to believe, some people don’t even maintain social networking accounts. If you haven’t seen your high school friends since graduation, there’s no better place to catch up than the spot where you all went your separate ways.
7. To Show Your Spouse Where You Came From – Attending your high school reunion with your spouse is a great way to share a part of your formative years. You can tour your hometown, introduce old friends and share stories that you’d forgotten all about, helping you forge an even stronger bond.  Of course unless you are one of the luckiest people in the world and still married to your high school sweetheart (which is even more of a cause to celebrate with mutual friends)!
8. To Party Like It’s 1988… Or Something – When careers and kids come along, opportunities to let your hair down can be few and far between. Your high school reunion will give you the chance to dance the night away. Rather than sharing the dance floor with a crowd of college kids at a nightclub, you’ll be surrounded by people your own age rocking out to songs you haven’t heard in years.
9. To Satisfy Your Curiosity – If you’ve ever wondered where people ended up and what they have done with their lives this is your chance to find out.  Whether it is the motor head that constantly tinkered with his cool car or the nerd that always raised his hand to answer the teacher’s questions, it’s fun to see what became of them.
10. Because Wall Posts Aren’t Real Conversations – Seeing pictures and FaceBook status updates from your old friends or even sending a few messages back and forth just isn’t the same as seeing them in the flesh and catching up. As hard as it may be to believe, some people don’t even maintain social networking accounts. If you haven’t seen your high school friends since graduation, there’s no better place to catch up than the spot where you all went your separate ways.

First Annual Alumni Basketball Games

Timberline welcomed back past basketball players for two alumni games on Friday, Dec. 27. The women's game started at 6 p.m., and the men played at 8 p.m. Both games featured plenty of players to fill out the rosters, which pitted those that graduated in even years versus those that graduated in odd years. The even-year women fell to their odd counterparts, but Andrew Anderson and Daniel Miller helped the even-year men to a tight victory. All former basketball players that participated at any level are invited to the event in future years. Look for information surrounding the alumni game around Christmas time next year. As part of the festivities for our high school reunion, we hope to stage a time for pickup basketball at the Timberline High School gym. Stay tuned here for details in the coming months.

Making the most of class reunions

This article comes from CNN.com and is authored by Louisa Kamps. Read it in its entirety here.

(CNN) -- Throughout my 20s, I said "Thanks, but nooo thanks," to school reunions. Thinking myself a forward-leaner barreling toward the next big thing (a lusty new life as an aspiring woman of letters in New York City), I had zero interest in revisiting my high school or college days.

My reunion aversion wasn't about how I looked, how successful I was or some other fear of appearances. I just had no reason to feel nostalgic. As a student, I'd never found a solid perch in school's social aviary. While I always had a grab bag of close friends, with most of my classmates I often struggled to hold myself just so, to do or say the exact right thing. Among a circle of superachievers at my Wisconsin high school, I could break a sweat attempting the perfect wisecrack. With a posse of beautiful tortured artistes in college at Brown, I wondered, squinting through clouds of American Spirit smoke, if my expression was properly pained, my eyeliner adequately runny.

But as I inched forward in my chosen profession post-college and started settling into my own skin, I no longer felt such a compulsion to break with my past. And I started to become curious about my former classmates: What ever happened to all the brains and beauties ... and jocks and preps and stoners? Who were they growing up to be?

Hoping to find out, I headed to Providence, Rhode Island, for my 10th college reunion with my good friend and classmate Nina. It was 1999, the height of the dot-com hubbub. At the opening-night picnic, I was chatting with Nina and a few mutual acquaintances (some married; others, like Nina and me, still single) when word came that one of our classmates had to cancel last minute because she was finalizing a deal to sell her booming Internet advertising startup for, rumor had it, several million dollars. Our jabbering circle fell silent. We took longs swigs of our beers and frowned at our cut-offs and flip-flops. But when we looked up a moment later, we all just laughed -- deliciously, cathartically -- because we knew we'd been thinking the same thing: Where were our million-dollar paydays?

Right then I realized the consoling value of reconnecting with others who, by virtue of having passed through the same institutions with you and having been shaped by similar forces, share a good deal of your social-historical DNA. These are the people who understand better than anyone how you might have expected life to unfold and what a punch it is, therefore, when expectations and plans inevitably change. I've since become a true believer in reunions -- having attended every 5- and 10-year gathering at both of my alma maters since my first trip back to Brown.

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Share Your Story

Our classmates list is 339 names long, and we have heard from 40 of you who have registered and sent updates about life. We look forward to hearing from many more. What have you spent the last ten years doing? Did you travel the world? Enter the military? Go to college? Start work? Begin a family? Experience and overcome challenges? Nothing is insignificant. We want to hear your story. Take five minutes, and send us a brief update. You will be added to our contact list, and your story will be posted on the Classmates page on this site. Thanks for staying in touch.