Letter Requesting 50th Reunion Essay

Class of 1969:In less than twenty-four months, we will gather to commemorate passage of fifty years since Yale declared us equipped for life as adults. Drawn by nostalgia, vestigial loyalties, and curiosity we will wander the campus, dip a toe in the deep waters of Yale learning, and seek reconnection with not-quite-forgotten names and faces. Whatever else we feel about Yale, we attend Reunions to re-unite with each other, to answer our unspoken urge to know “Whatever happened to…” after Yale?

That desire, to know more about people with whom we lived, played, and (perhaps) learned fifty years ago, animates not just the Reunion but the Class Book as well. Every member of the Class receives a copy of it (without charge). At the Reunion, we get to chat a bit with an assortment of classmates with whom we have had scant contact for decades…while in the Class Book, we can re-encounter far more of them, in words that say far more about themselves, than we could glean from those competing voices in a crowded tent. Class Book “personal essays” (or just “Statements”) are the best – perhaps the only – non-ephemeral voice we have for describing our lives in our own words to an audience interested in us because of what they shared with us – an audience of peers who we once knew well, saw often, and perhaps measured ourselves against.

Your essay is what you want to tell your classmates about your own life-after-Yale. It might relate lessons you think you learned; or perhaps battles won, lost, or never fought. It might relate the consequences of self-discovery and change. As classmates, we shared an education at Yale amidst the tumult and social upheaval of the late ‘60s: What marks did that shared experience leave on you? Would your Yale friends find you today more-or-less the same guy they knew 50 years ago? Did “going to Yale” become a part of your identity? Did it stay there? None of these essay suggestions is mandatory. They all are ways you could frame your answer to the question “What ever became of…” you?

Your essay should be more than narrative restatement of objective data (that you can also submit). In wondering “what happened,” your classmates are curious about how their peers and friends perceived, and sought, a place in, life-after-Yale. For our 25th Reunion, we were asked to appraise the role Yale had played in our lives. You could answer now for the first time, or revisit a prior response in light of another 25 years (or perhaps a re-calibration of values). If you felt at Yale that you understood what constitutes a “life well lived,” have you achieved it? Did your formulation survive its encounter with time and the world? Overall, do you feel that Yale adequately prepared you for your life – whether the one you anticipated or the one you actually lived?

You may write about any of these topics, but do not have to. Distill from half a century whatever lessons learned, self-discoveries, or surprises you want to share. Please take time now to begin writing your own essay (or statement), in 500 words or less, which is our limit for the printed book.  You may also submit up to three color photographs to accompany your printed essay.

In the near future, we will provide instructions on how to submit your essay (and other Class Book materials), by upload through the Class website, or as an email attachment, or by mail. You will also be able to upload additional photographs or other graphic files, and links to more text, to associate with the website presentation of your essay. We will also ask you to submit specific biographic “objective data” (e.g., current contact data, spouse & family details, etc.), for inclusion in the print Class Book along with – but distinct from – your essay.

If you have questions before you receive further instructions, email them to y69content@gmail.com. Your personal essays will be the living heart of our Class Book.

CLASS OF ’69 REUNION COMMITTEE

Doug Colton
Jean-Pierre Jordan
Bill Newman