Did You Like High School?

With 50th reunions abounding, many of us have had the opportunity to connect with our pasts. I’ve found it interesting that many of us, like me, hated high school.

I said that – “I hated high school” – to a former classmate and he reacted in surprise. “Not you!” Yes, I thought, how often our outsides don’t match what we’re feeling inside.

My theory is that guys who played sports and girls who were cheerleaders liked their high school experiences – at least more than the quiet bookworms. I was known for being shy and smart, neither of which wins popularity. Also, there was a lot going on in my home life that I kept carefully hidden; so much so that I don’t remember a lot of high school at all.

It’s been interesting to live in the same town where I grew up and to have both my children attend the same high school as I. One (boy) loved it, one (girl) did not.

What’s been really fun is getting to know some people fifty years later. A few years ago, I reconnected with someone I used to know only casually, and she’s become one of my closest friends. When she moved back here several years ago and we met up, we sat and talked for three hours straight, both of us amazed at the similarities in our journeys. It’s also nice that she remembers my teacher-mother and what I was like even in the seventh grade.

Now (and for the past few years) a group of us meets for lunch once a month. I’ve gotten to know people I hadn’t known at all (it was a big high school) and to know casual acquaintances better. There are the storytellers and the quiet ones, and it’s all OK. Maybe we’re all just glad to have survived the ‘70’s and made it to our seventies!