I spoke recently with a friend who is going to his 30th high school reunion this weekend. He isn't looking forward to it. High school was not the high point of his life, and he's not feeling all that good about his accomplishments thirty years later.

My advice to him is

1. Realize that three people in your high school class enjoyed high school - only three. Now that they are 30 years older, it's pretty clear that those days are over.
2. Some of his classmates are bald through no fault of their own (my friend still has his own hair), some have been involuntarily "downsized" from their job, and some are dead. Compared to them, my friend is doing well.
3. People just want you to be able to pronounce their name, be kind, and ask how they are doing. If they ask how you are, you say, "Great!" as you remember the details of  Item #2 above.

I had a high school reunion last year. I was nervous about going, but I put on my party duds and showed up. I saw a lot of people I was glad to see, missed some that I wanted to see, and felt overall very grateful to be alive and able to party with people I had known a long time ago.

So if you have a reunion coming up or are just in throes of "Aaack! I'm in my 50s and life is changing!", remember that

1. you are still here,
2. you now have the chance to know yourself better and have some amazing adventures yet, and
3. being kind and sincerely asking, "How are you?" will get you pretty far down the road of life.