A way to go back into the past…

The first Saturday of February is always the Alumni Reunion Day in Belarus. It doesn’t matter whether you graduated from school last year or sat at your school-desk for the last time fifty years ago.

Today you have an opportunity to reunion with your school or college mates and recall the old good times or simply look at those who always remain young and light-hearted in your memory.

Some of them have become big shots, running factories, companies or even political parties. Let’s ask Siarhej Kaljakin, the leader of the Party of Communists, if he is going to mark this day.

Kaljakin: “Unfortunately, not. We have a different system of reunions. We meet on the days when we graduated from the university, i.e. in July. This happens once in five years. As for the school mates, we meet once in ten years.

How do we organize them? We meet and have a small drink together and talk about how the life is going on… We also express our views on what is taking place in the country. We talk about everything.”

Surely, not all alumni get together exactly on this day. Due to various reasons, reunions sometimes get postponed for the other dates.

But, what is the difference when? The most important thing is to meet eventually. Rock musician Liavon Volski narrates about his experience:

“We usually don’t get together on this day. We meet somewhat spontaneously with the schoolmates, and it happens seldom, unfortunately.

Usually, those reunions go in the same way. People talk who has achieved what and something like this. We have had only three or four reunions.”

The front-man of Liapis Trubetskoj band, Siarhej Michalok, has a more serious attitude to the meetings with his former schoolmates. In no way he describes them boring. It will not be an exception this year, either.

“Yes, I am going to meet with the alumni of the 37th ward of the Minsk regional psychiatric clinic. I was admitted there in 1990. I am telling you seriously.

We, the people who have survived the drug addiction, meet often and exchange the new formulas of a healthy life style. We all are totally different.

There are serious businessmen or former punks and heavy metal fans; there those who have achieved something in the society and those who have achieved nothing among them.

We drink tea. We do not have drinks on principle, although there are drinking people among them. We are not ascetic; it is just more interesting to us this way. We are not anonymous drug-users or members of Anonymous Alcoholics. On the contrary, we are open dope heads.

I also have my mates from the Institute of Culture, but we met the last time about four years ago in a restaurant. Yet, we all are very different people. Excuse me for having spoken out in a negative form. But, I have told you the truth. But, I can brighten up a bit and tell you how joyfully we play forfeits, blow balloons, share the new salad recipes and enjoy slow dances.”

If you have not yet made an appointment with your alumni or have simply forgotten about this, you still have a chance to sort it out.

Grab your phone and dial your school or college mates. They will be definitely happy to hear from you and will not refuse you an appointment.