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A Sparkling Reunion for Class of '78

27 September 2003 - just another Saturday for most people. But for several hundred men and women gathered enthusiastically at a gilded ballroom in a downtown hotel, it was a very special occasion. It was a night to celebrate a passage of time shared by them. For this group of people, the NUS Class of 1978, the place of meeting was totally unimportant - the only thing everyone there was interested in on that balmy September night was who else was there.

Ah yes, a class reunion - the stuff that men and women promise each other in their youth to do 10, 20, 25, 50 years later. In reality, most people find it hard to remember that they ever made those promises. It is even harder to imagine that one actually gets to that once distant future point in time when he or she has to act out the promises.

In a crowded ballroom that evening, 379 alumni made good on their promise. They turned up for the reunion all decked in finery, with the girls of yesteryear still looking stunningly beautiful, and the men trying not to look quite so, well, nearly 50. Eager eyes sought out old buddies and old flames; and there were peals of laughter as recognition emerged from amidst markedly different body shapes and hair colour.

So there they were that night, 25 years after they left university in 1978. It was heartening to see everyone at the reunion talking excitedly about the ‘good old days’.

Most realised of course that there was nothing really ‘good’ about those days. Many remembered the pressure of lectures, tutorials and the semester-end exams ... but they also wistfully remembered that it was a time when they were young and carefree. So what if it was selective recollection? It felt good to be seeing old friends and enjoying that camaraderie all over again.

In the 25 years since 1978, the graduates of the Class of ’78 had gone about their lives in their own ways, pursuing their separate dreams. They were busy building careers and families. Casual friendships, for most, had become a dispensable luxury. Memories of faces from 1978 faded with the images in those albums of old photographs showing young, remarkably slender people from a different era, donned in flashy clothes and sporting some rather odd hairstyles.

As these things go, reunions are actually a rather strange experience for many of the alumni. People knew one another for three or four years during their university days, but many of them had not interacted in 25 years. However, the shared memories of three years a quarter of a century ago quickly brought people back together again, as if they had never parted. It was a time for all to socialise, renew old ties as well as to make new friends.

In the bonhomie of the evening, the Class of ’78 did what people at reunion parties do - swapped stories about the different paths they have travelled since graduation and showed off family photos. They were there that evening to do a quick rewind in the collective VCR of their memory banks to the times when they were all young, not just at heart, but just young.

For one night, the Class of ’78 re-celebrated their youth. They got together and drowned in sentimentality together. We could not have asked for a more glorious and happy reunion!

By YEONG WAI CHEONG