High School is Bloody Awful!
As per usual, I got a piece of customary junk mail from Classmates.com informing me that some high school classmates had recently update/uploaded profiles...
So I went in and poked around. I have a profile on there, but not the "gold membership" so I don't get to view much about my classmates other than that they're married and how many children they have. Most are married, most have at least one kid. I think it's me and the gay guy I went to my junior prom with who are the only two on there who don't have kids (I went with him because he was a good dancer and had wicked good fashion sense--and he asked. little did I know this would be a bit of foreshadowing...)
Before I knew it, I'd spent two hours plus goofing around with the thing and ended up wondering why I didn't go to my 25th high school class reunion (it was last year, around Thanksgiving).
Then it hit me--among the football jocks and beautiful girls, I was just one of the Nameless Rabble. Somewhat dysfunctional among the Nameless Rabble, but not someone anyone would have any strong desire to remember.
I got to thinking about what makes some people really get into high school reunions and that sort of stuff, and it wasn't anything I could relate to. My Godmother was very much into her high school days--always on the reunion committees and such. I remember her making decorations for her 25th reunion (gad! that was a *long* time ago!) and that she always had her "girlfriends" around--her "gang" from high school.
She was one of Those People--a Pretty Girl and An Artist--the kind of person that I never was.
High school is such a weird thing. We worship the jocks and the beautiful girls and then it's all over and we keep going on with life. Pop culture encourages us to invest a great deal in our high school experiences, like that's all we're ever going to have in life. The music from our high school days is supposed to be with us forever...all those memories are supposed to be the things that bind us to our Home Town.
I had a better time when I was in my 20's, and the music I remember the most is from those heady club days of the early to mid '80's--all that bad synthpop sounds like wonderful stuff to me....
All those folks I used to know from the Melody Bar...all those struggling musicians (a couple who made it big) and artists and d.j's and writers and drag queens and revolutionaries...
And as I think of that stuff, with all its drama and all its insanity....I think of moments of complete disgust and amazing ecstasy...
I begin to recall why I didn't go to my 25th reunion...
And realize--high school was bloody boring.
(listening to Alphaville's Forever Young on my Erasure Station at pandora.com)
So I went in and poked around. I have a profile on there, but not the "gold membership" so I don't get to view much about my classmates other than that they're married and how many children they have. Most are married, most have at least one kid. I think it's me and the gay guy I went to my junior prom with who are the only two on there who don't have kids (I went with him because he was a good dancer and had wicked good fashion sense--and he asked. little did I know this would be a bit of foreshadowing...)
Before I knew it, I'd spent two hours plus goofing around with the thing and ended up wondering why I didn't go to my 25th high school class reunion (it was last year, around Thanksgiving).
Then it hit me--among the football jocks and beautiful girls, I was just one of the Nameless Rabble. Somewhat dysfunctional among the Nameless Rabble, but not someone anyone would have any strong desire to remember.
I got to thinking about what makes some people really get into high school reunions and that sort of stuff, and it wasn't anything I could relate to. My Godmother was very much into her high school days--always on the reunion committees and such. I remember her making decorations for her 25th reunion (gad! that was a *long* time ago!) and that she always had her "girlfriends" around--her "gang" from high school.
She was one of Those People--a Pretty Girl and An Artist--the kind of person that I never was.
High school is such a weird thing. We worship the jocks and the beautiful girls and then it's all over and we keep going on with life. Pop culture encourages us to invest a great deal in our high school experiences, like that's all we're ever going to have in life. The music from our high school days is supposed to be with us forever...all those memories are supposed to be the things that bind us to our Home Town.
I had a better time when I was in my 20's, and the music I remember the most is from those heady club days of the early to mid '80's--all that bad synthpop sounds like wonderful stuff to me....
All those folks I used to know from the Melody Bar...all those struggling musicians (a couple who made it big) and artists and d.j's and writers and drag queens and revolutionaries...
And as I think of that stuff, with all its drama and all its insanity....I think of moments of complete disgust and amazing ecstasy...
I begin to recall why I didn't go to my 25th reunion...
And realize--high school was bloody boring.
(listening to Alphaville's Forever Young on my Erasure Station at pandora.com)
posted by Tish Grier at 4:00 PM
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