A >family reunion is held next Saturday, and my mother has organized it. I know she wishes that I would take part in it, and maybe I would if it didn't take place two hundred kilometers from my current location. Or maybe not. Most of the people that are going to be there are total strangers to me; distant relatives that I have met perhaps once or twice in my life. And I am so very awkward with strangers. Shy and self-conscious and without anything to say. I am no good at small talk. Why torture myself needlessly?

It isn't just the small talk though - it's also the questions that they are going to ask. When does my school end? What I am going to be? Am I seeing somebody? When my mother is going to get grandchildren? The answers - I don't know-No idea-No-Never - aren't something I want to share with them. I don't want it highlighted that really, I have no freaking idea about anything.

Or am I being too self-important? I doubt people would be that interested in me. They would ask because it is a custom to ask, to make chitchat, not because they'll care. And that's the crux of the matter: I don't care either. So there isn't any reasons why I should participate, except to please my mother.

Maybe at the next reunion I'll have something worth telling...