High School

I'm not one of those people who thinks a lot about high school, though I did enjoy many aspects of that time of my life. It's when I learned to be a real human being with multiple interests and a group of friends and not just a bookworm with no life and no social skills. I get the feeling some adults are still obsessed with what happened in high school: those old friendships, romances, rivalries, games lost or won, grade point averages, prom dates, etc. At least that is the impulse all those "Classmates" ads must be catering to--join so you can find out who your ex-boyfriend married! Aren't you curious? Frankly, no.I've never been to a reunion and feel like I probably haven't missed much. If I happened to be in town when one was taking place, I'd be likely to attend. But I've never felt the urge to go out of my way to do so. It's not that I didn't like anyone I went to school with, but I've moved on with my life and don't have a burning desire to revisit the past. I have one close friend I keep in touch with and now with Facebook, I occasionally interact with a few others. One reason a reunion hasn't really interested me is that my friends included a broader group than just my class year. I was friends with many people a year older or a year younger, and also, since everyone in the county took Advanced Placement classes at a central location, people at different high schools.But an old friend on Facebook posted some photos from high school, and I had an inordinate amount of fun looking at them and remembering things and people I had completely forgotten about. I was looking at one picture thinking, hmm, that looks like my house, but I can't remember ever having all of those people over. Then the next picture confirmed that it was indeed my house. It even prompted me to drag out my yearbooks, something I probably haven't done since we moved into the house in 1996 and I stashed them on a closet shelf.I had fun in high school. Maybe a little too much fun sometimes. I was involved in lots of activities. I wasn't what you'd call popular, except maybe within my own little subculture of freaks and artsy types. I was insecure yet covered up for it by speaking my mind, frequently and loudly, about anything. I wanted to be independent, and chafed against parental authority. I was a lazy student in subjects that didn't interest me, though I thought I was pretty smart. I was intelligent, but not terribly wise. I had a couple of "serious" boyfriends but didn't really date a lot aside from that. I gave up on trying to "fit in" back in junior high, and spent most of high school trying to stand out, which was actually a whole lot easier and more fun.I'm glad to be older and wiser now, and wouldn't want to go back for anything. But it's fun to remember.You can see a couple of the old pictures on my Facebook page, not that they're probably interesting to anybody who wasn't there.