I guess what this makes me think about is, part of being an adult is doing things you don't necessarily like.

A company gathering, a few hours a couple times a year, that should be something a person can tolerate. They're your coworkers, you know them all to some extent already, and it's an evening or whatever once a quarter.

Especially since your managers will already know you pretty well.

I don't know, it's hard to be sympathetic, cause there are lots of awkward situations I just put up with in my day-to-day, that are a lot higher-pressure than that.