Why are class reunions so terrifying? | Lauren Mechling and Rachel Dodes

The prospect of a high school or college reunion elicits shame, dread and regret. What if going could actually be good for your mental health?

Both of us have 25th college reunions fast approaching. And as we write this, neither of us has registered. The emotions that these events tend to inspire - most notably shame, dread and regret - loom so large in our psyches that we spent the pandemic co-writing a novel that hinges on reunion-phobia.

Apparently we're not the only ones. A friend of ours, Rebecca, hasn't mustered the courage to RSVP to her 20-year-college reunion in June. I am terrified," she said. I both really want to go and I really don't want to go."

Rachel Dodes and Lauren Mechling co-wrote The Memo: A Novel, out from Harper Perennial on 18 June