Fun Questions to Ask at a High School Reunion

Open questions for old classmates, the partners they brought and the committee at the microphone.

Fun Questions to Ask at a High School Reunion

Where has life taken you since graduation, in three stops?

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Which of the three stops surprised you?

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How it works

These 102 fun questions to ask at a high school reunion are sorted by who is talking: old classmates, partners who came along and the committee on stage. None asks about looks, pay or who married whom.

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Questions to ask at a class reunion, table by table

With classmates you knew well, take Who we were then: What was the inside of your locker like? Teachers, halls and the lunch room works with anyone from the building: Where was your table in the lunch room? The years between is the catching-up set, and it asks about Saturdays and surprises, not job titles.

For partners and for the stage

For partners who came along gives a guest something to answer: Which story about your partner's school days have you heard the most? For the committee to read from the stage holds 17 questions for the whole room: Who traveled the farthest to be here tonight?

Questions and answers

What are good questions to ask at a class reunion?

Ones a person can answer with a short story: What was written in your yearbook that you still remember? What did you want to join and never sign up for? Each card has a follow-up, so the talk does not stop at one line.

What are funny questions to ask at a reunion?

Ask about the small things everyone shared: Which homework excuse of yours deserved a prize for nerve? Which day with a substitute teacher went down in history? The laugh comes from the memory, so nobody in the room is the joke.

What questions can a committee ask alumni at a class reunion?

Room-wide ones with a quick winner: Who still lives closest to the school? Who has been to the most reunions, and who is at their first? Read one between courses, then use the follow-up to give the winner a line to say.

What are high school reunion conversation topics for people I barely knew?

Start with the building, not the person: What did the school smell like on a rainy day? Which hallway, stairwell or corner was your territory? What nobody knew has interesting questions for later in the evening.

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All 102 questions

Who we were then 17

  • What did you and your friends argue about endlessly? Follow-up: Who has changed sides since?
  • What did you care about enormously then that makes you smile now? Follow-up: When did it stop mattering so much?
  • What did you do the summer after graduation? Follow-up: Who did you spend most of that summer with?
  • What did you think you would be doing by now? Follow-up: How close did you come to that picture?
  • What did you wear, carry or drive that you thought was the height of style? Follow-up: What became of that stylish thing?
  • What was the bravest thing you did in those four years? Follow-up: Who knew about it back then?
  • What was the inside of your locker like? Follow-up: What was taped to the locker door?
  • What was written in your yearbook that you still remember? Follow-up: Who signed it?
  • What was your after-school routine? Follow-up: Who usually kept you company for it?
  • What were you known for in school? Follow-up: How do you feel about that reputation today?
  • What would you tell the person you were on the first day of freshman year? Follow-up: Which part of the advice would they have ignored?
  • Where did everyone go on a Friday night? Follow-up: What was your usual spot once you got there?
  • Which class did you look forward to, and which did you count the minutes in? Follow-up: What do you still remember from either one?
  • Which group did you spend most of your school days with? Follow-up: Who from that group is here tonight?
  • Which school event do you remember better than your own graduation? Follow-up: What happened at that event?
  • Which song was on at every dance, like it or not? Follow-up: What did you do when it came on?
  • Who were you trying to be at seventeen? Follow-up: What would that seventeen-year-old make of tonight?

What nobody knew 17

  • What did you do at home that would have surprised your classmates? Follow-up: When did you find the time for it?
  • What did you nearly do at graduation? Follow-up: What stopped you at the last second?
  • What did you think of this class back then, and what do you think of us now? Follow-up: What changed your mind about us?
  • What did you want to join and never sign up for? Follow-up: What held you back from signing?
  • What were you nervous about that nobody could have guessed? Follow-up: How did you keep it from showing?
  • What were you proud of back then that never made the yearbook? Follow-up: Who would you have liked to tell?
  • What were you quietly good at that never came up at school? Follow-up: Who here would be surprised to hear it?
  • What were you reading, drawing or building that you kept to yourself? Follow-up: How much of it is still with you?
  • What were you sure of at eighteen that you are less sure of now? Follow-up: What are you surer of than you were?
  • Which classmate did you admire from a distance? Follow-up: What was it you admired in them?
  • Which compliment from those years did you never forget? Follow-up: Who paid you the compliment?
  • Which friendship from then mattered more than it looked from outside? Follow-up: Where did the two of you spend your time?
  • Which job did you hold during school that few classmates knew about? Follow-up: What did the job teach you?
  • Which school legend did you know the true story behind? Follow-up: How far had the legend drifted from the truth?
  • Which school rule did you bend without ever being caught? Follow-up: Who else was in on it?
  • Who did you wish you had got to know better? Follow-up: What would you ask that person now?
  • Who was kind to you in a way they probably do not remember? Follow-up: What would you say to them tonight?

Teachers, halls and the lunch room 17

  • What did the gym, the library or the parking lot mean to you? Follow-up: Which of those three would you visit first today?
  • What did the last five minutes of the school day look like for you? Follow-up: Where did you head first when it ended?
  • What did the school get right that you only saw later? Follow-up: What made you see it?
  • What did the school smell like on a rainy day? Follow-up: Which room had the strongest smell of all?
  • What was the fastest route from one end of the building to the other? Follow-up: What made you late all the same?
  • Where was your table in the lunch room? Follow-up: Who decided who sat at it?
  • Which assembly, drill or announcement does everyone here remember? Follow-up: Which bit of it could this room still act out?
  • Which assignment are you still a little proud of? Follow-up: What became of that assignment afterwards?
  • Which cafeteria lunch would you order again tonight, and which never? Follow-up: What did you trade away at lunch?
  • Which class was harder than it had any right to be? Follow-up: How did you get through that class?
  • Which day with a substitute teacher went down in history? Follow-up: What part did you play that day?
  • Which hallway, stairwell or corner was your territory? Follow-up: What went on there between classes?
  • Which homework excuse of yours deserved a prize for nerve? Follow-up: What did the teacher say to it?
  • Which lesson stuck with you, from a book or not? Follow-up: Who was the one that taught it?
  • Which teacher had a saying or a habit the whole class could imitate? Follow-up: Who in this room can still do it?
  • Which teacher would you thank tonight if they walked in? Follow-up: What would the thanks be for?
  • Which teacher's voice can you still hear? Follow-up: What is the voice saying?

The years between 17

  • What do you do with a free Saturday these days? Follow-up: How does that compare with a Saturday back then?
  • What do you hope to report at the next reunion? Follow-up: How long have you been working toward it?
  • What do you still do exactly the way you did at seventeen? Follow-up: What has kept you from changing it?
  • What from school do you use more than you expected? Follow-up: And what have you never used once?
  • What have you learned to love that your school self would not believe? Follow-up: When did you first take to it?
  • What is a typical weekday for you now? Follow-up: Which part of that weekday do you like best?
  • What is the best thing that has happened to you in the years since? Follow-up: Who was there to share it?
  • What made you decide to come tonight? Follow-up: Who were you hoping to run into?
  • What turned out easier than you feared, and what turned out harder? Follow-up: What helped with the harder one?
  • Where do you call home now, and what do you like about it? Follow-up: What do you miss about this town?
  • Where has life taken you since graduation, in three stops? Follow-up: Which of the three stops surprised you?
  • Which choice sent your life in a direction you had not planned? Follow-up: Where do you think the other road led?
  • Which hobby or habit of yours would surprise this room? Follow-up: How did you fall into it?
  • Which opinion from your school days have you quietly retired? Follow-up: What was it that changed your mind?
  • Which place you have lived in would you recommend to this room? Follow-up: What should a visitor do there first?
  • Who from our class have you stayed in touch with? Follow-up: How have the two of you kept it going?
  • Who has shaped you most since we last shared a classroom? Follow-up: What did that person change in you?

For partners who came along 17

  • What do you hope to find out tonight? Follow-up: Who do you need to talk to for that?
  • What do you most want to ask your partner's old friends? Follow-up: Who looks likely to give you a straight answer?
  • What do you see in your partner tonight that you do not see at home? Follow-up: When this evening did you first notice it?
  • What does your partner do that you now suspect began in high school? Follow-up: What is your evidence so far?
  • What had you been told about this school before tonight? Follow-up: How much of what you were told do you believe?
  • What has surprised you about this crowd so far? Follow-up: What had you pictured on the way here?
  • What is it like to be the guest at somebody else's memories? Follow-up: What makes being the guest easier?
  • What was your own school known for? Follow-up: What were you known for inside it?
  • What would the students at your school have made of this one? Follow-up: What would the two schools have competed over?
  • What would you want your partner's classmates to know about who they are now? Follow-up: Which story shows that side of them best?
  • Where did you go to school, and how was it different from this one? Follow-up: What would your own reunion be like?
  • Which question should the rest of us ask you tonight? Follow-up: And what is your answer to it?
  • Which song from your own school years should be played tonight? Follow-up: What does that song remind you of?
  • Which story about your partner's school days have you heard the most? Follow-up: Who here could confirm that story?
  • Which yearbook photo are you hoping somebody brought? Follow-up: What do you expect to see in the photo?
  • Who here have you heard about and now want to meet? Follow-up: What have you been told about them so far?
  • Who here would you like to sit beside, going by first impressions? Follow-up: What gave you that impression?

For the committee to read from the stage 17

  • What should this class do together before the next reunion? Follow-up: Who will take the first step on it?
  • Which song should close the night, by show of voices? Follow-up: Who is going to start the dancing?
  • Which story about this class deserves one minute at the microphone? Follow-up: Who is the right person to tell it?
  • Which table can name the most teachers in one minute? Follow-up: Which teacher's name did every table get?
  • Who can still recite the school song, the chant or the morning announcement? Follow-up: Who will join in on the second line?
  • Who has a child, niece, nephew or neighbor at the school today? Follow-up: What has changed there, by their report?
  • Who has been to the most reunions, and who is at their first? Follow-up: What brought the first-timer out tonight?
  • Who has kept something from school all these years, and what is it? Follow-up: Where do you keep it now?
  • Who has lived in the most places since graduation? Follow-up: Which of those places felt most like home?
  • Who here met their best friend in this building? Follow-up: Where in the building did the two of you meet?
  • Who is still in touch with a teacher? Follow-up: What is that teacher doing these days?
  • Who made a promise at graduation and kept it? Follow-up: What was the promise you made?
  • Who remembers what this class voted on, argued over or petitioned for? Follow-up: How did the vote turn out?
  • Who still lives closest to the school? Follow-up: How often do you drive past the building?
  • Who took a class here that no longer exists? Follow-up: What did that vanished class teach you?
  • Who traveled the farthest to be here tonight? Follow-up: How many hours door to door was it?
  • Whose line of work would have surprised the whole class? Follow-up: How did you end up doing it?