As co-chair for all of my high school reunions, I have gotten comments & correspondence about how the cliques and boundaries no longer exist. While it may be particularly "fun" to see the hotshot jock who went on to play college football is now a bald blob & the homecoming queen's girdle (spanx from yesteryear) couldn't hide what had happened to her waist & hips, everyone was happy to see everyone at each meeting. We all share memories of the big snow day when system-wide, the teachers let us play out all day in 3 inches of snow (it was a BIG deal), the affable jokester who blew up the science lab making a stink bomb, remembering being at school when we heard JFK was assassinated, the teacher who picked her nose, the librarian we loved & who read to us the most wonderful stories, yadayadayada.
One call that I'll share came from a girl who described herself as an "invisible nobody" who didn't attend until our 30th. She remembered herself as not popular, not pretty, average grades, unable to afford the "in" clothes, shoes & purses. Instead of a big university, she attended a vocational school where she met & married a nice guy, also a nobody, & moved to his hometown about a hundred miles away. Together they built a successful business & raised good kids. She admitted coming out of curiosity, just to see what had happened to others, & was shocked that anyone remembered her & was interested to hear about her life. She was genuinely blown away that her classmates cared & she regretted not having attended previously. And the cool thing was, she was truly a late-bloomer. The average-looking, poor girl became a very pretty lady with money in the bank. Karmic justice? I don't know, but stories like hers make me happy to have made the effort to track down our classmates.
As for resentment for having been bullied, you'll have to decide. I know you mostly from the murder case & I see a nice guy: intelligent, educated, interesting, well-spoken (& well-traveled too?) Some of the most successful people in my school became miserable failures in life. It's wrong to expect school years to predict the rest of our lives. Real-life is what we are each day, not where we came from.
Good luck to you Snick!