Thursday, June 4, 2009

Who Were You?


Back in high school, that is. I just watched the documentary "American Teen" and things haven't changed much since I was in high school; sadly. It's still as cliquey as ever, the popular girls are still biotches and the geeky kid still can't get a date. As far as stereotypes go, I related most with the "rebel," Hannah. Though I wouldn't call her or me a rebel, just not cut from the same conforming mold. We didn't fit in anywhere else.

There was a time I wanted desperately to be popular. My best friend from elementary school was one of the most popular girls in school. We'd been friends since Kindergarten, but once we got to junior high, she decided she no longer wanted to be my friend (since I wasn't popular) and sent one of her other friends over to break the news. Yeah, harsh. I cried.

I would say I was socially awkward because I was so worried about being made fun of for what I said or did. I was that shy wallflower girl who was a people pleaser. I would have done favors for any of the "in" crowd just to be "in" for that one brief moment. I had friends, but even then, I was the quiet one in the group and if my friends were absent or busy during lunch, I was the girl that was eating lunch in the bathroom so I wasn't seen alone at any of the tables. I even had girls prank me regularly and to this day, I have no idea who they were. They would call other kids from my class and pretend to be me saying who knows what. Most of the phone call recipients never talked to me about it and only two of the guys that did, wouldn't give me details. So it must have been bad. There's one thing high school kids have now that I didn't, caller id.

Hannah was a step ahead of me though, and I decided I didn't care what others thought only after I left high school, for college, my junior year. There was a program that allowed students to get high school and college credit at the same time and the high school paid the tuition. I thought, "Great! Whatever gets me out of this drama." That's when I was finally able to breathe and just be myself. All of my snarkiness is just built up from those years of repressive school angst.

My ten year high school reunion was last October and I skipped it. Most of the people I've wanted to keep in contact with I have (Facebook is awesome). After watching that documentary, it made me even happier that I didn't go. Who wants to dig up those kinds of memories? Some things are better left in the past and only dug up for blogging value. :op

6 comments:

Alyssa S. said...

Seriously though...are you SURE we aren't clones? Of course you are the much cuter one. The lab people must have made you the improved model. I...was you...only I did the passive aggressive power thing and made myself even weirder and billed it as being not being a conformist (if you've ever seen the South Park goth kids...that was me, less the smokes). Wait until you hit the 20 year reunion (mine just happened and I missed it)...a few messy divorces, kids and a couple of mental breakdowns later and those beyotches become a lot more normal! I found that at least a couple of my former cheerleader friend have actually turned into likeable people.

Christie Cottage said...

LOL! Go to your high school reunions! You'll find you had more friends than you thought!

Now let me see....when is my next one??????

LillyShayStyle said...

I loved highschool, that's when I "shone". But up till middle school, I was awkward..
I've seen alot of the cheerleaders from my school, they're fat and unsuccessful now, mostly. That makes me laugh :)
I'd love to go to my 10 year and show off my beautiful family, but I live too far away now...
Now I want to make a highschool post! I'll have to find a photo at some point :)

twolefthands said...

Well, you were a little beauty! School girls can be so witchy! I loved high school, some of my very best memories. I still have remained close with my 4 best friends. At our 25th reunion, the boys were bald and the girls still looked pretty darn good!

ShabbyNChic said...

I absolutely LOVE your blog! It has to be the cutest one I've seen yet. Keep up the great work!

Natalie said...

We had our 10 year reunion, too, and I didn't go, either. I feel the same way as you. I keep up with the ones I cared about (yay, FB!) and the others weren't worth the 800 mile drive.

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