Whenever I think of the idea of attending a high school reunion, I shudder with revulsion. I don’t mean to insult people who attended my high school. There may be some fine people that I could meet at such an event, but the idea of having enough attachment to my high school to return and attempt to relive my days there after decades away feels somehow wrong, in the same way that playing with my old toys from when I was a toddler would feel wrong. This aversion to things associated with the past is one of those emotions that ought to have a name, but doesn’t.
It’s a good thing that not all reunions are like high school reunions. The French have a word for a better experience of re-encountering something from the past. Retrouvailles is the feeling of being reunited with someone after a long separation. The word comes from the verb retrouver, meaning to find again.
Retrouvailles doesn’t have to mean the recapturing of a romantic relationships. Old friends can find themselves in this way as well. The feeling of retrouvailles comes when people who once were close are able once again to share simple experiences together as they once did. What they have found again is not about recreating past events, but about experiencing the feeling of a personal bond that had been lost.
