It's The One Thing I'll Never Understand

Of course, I actually do have other, more interesting (at least in terms of movies and writing) things to write about -- and I will, dear Reader, I promise -- but, it seems, lately I have been inundated with this thing. An image. A song. Some overheard conversation. A peculiar singularity that really, truly does boggle my mind:

The idea that no matter what one says:

1) They really, truly do miss high school.
2) That they are some of the best years of your life.
3) You'll look back one day and realize how wonderful it was.

Um, okay. I want to make some things perfectly, crystal clear:

1) No, I don't. Really and truly.
2) No, they really, truly weren't.
3) No, I really, truly will not. Ever.

I get that, for many, high school is this time of finding out who you are. Finding first love (or what seemed like love like, for a friend* of mine, who found out that "love" meant having her legs dangle outside of the back seat window while "Kurt"** showed her how much he, um, loved her.

I suppose I just don't get it. For me, high school wasn't what we see in movies -- especially today -- a bunch of cliques. The cool kids. The jocks. The nerds. The gear heads. No, in my high school, which was very small compared to almost everyone I have ever talked to, was divided into two "cliques":

Cool. or not.

Yes, I can hear the rumblings. Since I must have been in the "not" category, I am bitter.

The truth is, I fell somewhere in between. My brother was, truly and really, the most popular kid in high school. Sports, friends, parties. He was the guy they now make bad teen comedies about: everyone loved him and everyone thought he rocked the house down.

That gave me a level of comfort: I might not have been the coolest kid (I made the cardinal mistake number one of being cool: joining and sticking with Musical Theatre. I could have put babies on spits and roasted them and probably been looked up to more than singing and dancing my way through four years of Rogers and Hammerstein), but I wasn't a total dork, either. My brother's reputation kind of afforded me a sort of leniency. The cool kids didn't have to like me, but they weren't about to do anything mean to me (or, too mean to me), either. But, it was funny. Alot of the cool kids sat with me at lunch, but didn't talk to me too much in the halls. Weird.

SO, anyway, I just thought I'd say that not everyone loves high school or remembers it fondly. In fact, I left early to -- you guessed it -- go sing and dance.

And when I look back and remember the things that were said, were done, the good times (of course they existed) and the bad times (oh boy did they exist), I look back and think one thing:

It's over and I never have to go back. And if given the chance to do i again, knowing what I know now, I wouldn't. because I wouldn't be me. S0 for all those people who loved it, i am happy for you, because you deserve that. And for those, like me, who didn't. I bet you turned out just fine.

Now, excuse me, I have to go listen to some songs from South Pacific.***

"If you give off signals that you don't want to belong, people will make sure that you don't."
--PRETTY IN PINK

*Yes, my friend really, truly loved high school. She's one of them. Go figure.

**Not his real name. But I really, truly couldn't stand him -- and he certainly hated me.

***I actually think it is a really boring musical.