School days, school days,
dear old golden school days...
Do you remember that song? It's been on my mind a lot lately. We attended our oldest's high school choir concert a few weeks back. The theme was Rock On or Rock 'n' Roll or something along that line. The kids were told to dress like hippies. I saw outfits frighteningly familiar and several that had me muttering, "That is so wrong." For instance, togas were not part of the mid-60's to mid-70's hippie culture at all. Toga parties became popular after "Animal House" but it should be noted that movie took place a generation before the hippies.
But I digress...
It was a kick to see the kids dressed up in their version of my high school days. The concert was a delight (how I wish I could sing!) and a gentle tug on my memories, both good and bad. I noticed subtle signals - and some not so subtle - of who was and who wasn't popular. Faint ghosts of self-doubt instilled during my high school days surfaced. I do not miss those ego blows. And in retrospect, it was all so silly. High school standing has so little to do with real life. I now know that I should never have given power over my self-worth to others whose opinion became unimportant very quickly, but that's high school for you. It took time for me to realize and conquer that.
At our 10 year high school reunion, the power of high school cliques tried to assert itself as if 10 years had not passed. Everyone seemed to want to prove something (including me). At our 20 year, people seemed less intent on showing off and more interested in visiting and reminiscing. That is, except for those how missed the 10 year reunion. They still had to prove themselves. I thought, "How high school."
My 30 year high school reunion is just around the corner (how did I get so old?!). I can not wait to see my best friends. We all live so far apart these days that we rarely get to see each other outside of reunions. I look forward to this reunion with nary a trace of high school angst. So perhaps age isn't such a bad thing, after all. I've grown very comfortable with myself. I've learned to judge my success against my own standards, leaving behind the measuring stick of high school days.
It was, after all, only 4 years of my life.
Do you remember that song? It's been on my mind a lot lately. We attended our oldest's high school choir concert a few weeks back. The theme was Rock On or Rock 'n' Roll or something along that line. The kids were told to dress like hippies. I saw outfits frighteningly familiar and several that had me muttering, "That is so wrong." For instance, togas were not part of the mid-60's to mid-70's hippie culture at all. Toga parties became popular after "Animal House" but it should be noted that movie took place a generation before the hippies.
But I digress...
It was a kick to see the kids dressed up in their version of my high school days. The concert was a delight (how I wish I could sing!) and a gentle tug on my memories, both good and bad. I noticed subtle signals - and some not so subtle - of who was and who wasn't popular. Faint ghosts of self-doubt instilled during my high school days surfaced. I do not miss those ego blows. And in retrospect, it was all so silly. High school standing has so little to do with real life. I now know that I should never have given power over my self-worth to others whose opinion became unimportant very quickly, but that's high school for you. It took time for me to realize and conquer that.
At our 10 year high school reunion, the power of high school cliques tried to assert itself as if 10 years had not passed. Everyone seemed to want to prove something (including me). At our 20 year, people seemed less intent on showing off and more interested in visiting and reminiscing. That is, except for those how missed the 10 year reunion. They still had to prove themselves. I thought, "How high school."
My 30 year high school reunion is just around the corner (how did I get so old?!). I can not wait to see my best friends. We all live so far apart these days that we rarely get to see each other outside of reunions. I look forward to this reunion with nary a trace of high school angst. So perhaps age isn't such a bad thing, after all. I've grown very comfortable with myself. I've learned to judge my success against my own standards, leaving behind the measuring stick of high school days.
It was, after all, only 4 years of my life.
posted by bemused at 10:36 AM
2 Comments:
Hmm. Interesting. My 20 year is coming up this fall and I don't know whether to go or not. I went to the 10 year, and had a good time, but it had some strange moments, too. The thing this time: I have no family left in my hometown. If I went, I'd have to fly, rent a car, and get a hotel. Do I really want to invest that much in going to my reunion? I dunno....
My family is long gone from my high school town so we have to do the hotel thing, too. It won't be cheap but it's the rare chance I have to see people who have meant so much to me for years and, to quote Mastercard commercials, that's priceless. We'll also head north to visit relatives in the next state so that's lots of visiting on the same dime (okay, lots of dimes, hundreds and thousands of dimes).
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