A Mental Reunion

So...lots of great comments about our high school selves--all in great enthusiasm for Jenny B. Jones' book So Not Happening. And, I have to tell you, the reason I connected so much with this book (and there's another one coming...yay!!!) is totally due to the fact that the main character, Ella, is on her high school newspaper staff. With a fantastic opportunity for investigative journalism, and a cute editor-in-chief. Well, I was on our newspaper staff, too, but that's where my connection with Ella ends. Well, that and I had no fashion sense, style-less hair, and a boring, though in-tact, family.

Of course, all of these thoughts brought me straight to memory lane, and I had to ignore every household chore waiting for me and haul out the Mayfield High School yearbooks. I looked at every picture of me, living through the school events much as I did when I was a student--somewhat removed. I looked at pictures of football games I never went to, dances I chose to stay home from, clubs that never drew me in. I remember being not solitary, exactly, but I had a small group of friends--all of us content to have each other. I read the notes scrawled within the cover pages and realized I'm really pretty much the same person now as I was then. I affect people the same way. I'm still really smart, and really funny, and really nice. Really. Some might see it as a frightening thing to remain what they've always been, but not me. I just wish I had the confidence to embrace all of that about myself back then--without the constant worry about not being in the midst of the "in" crowd.