The Best Years of Your Life

The other day I had this moment of clarification. I realized that high school really was the best time of my life. 

This came as a huge shock since I have spent the last four years convincing myself that high school sucked a big one, and that I was leaving that school and all it's memories in the dust. 

It wasn't until my man friend and I were driving by after an unexpected food stop at the old mexican grub hangout that it came together. Looking past his fresh cut out onto the lawn of a school I so greatly despised, that I remembered the purity of that place. 

I remember being 60 pounds over weight and lacing any luster a teenage boy would take interest in. I remember going to late night volleyball hang outs and sitting at the table amongst people I felt no common interest with. Plus I hated volleyball. And I remember pouring every ounce of my being into a cheerleading program that tore my body apart and left me mangled floor. 

I remember leaving that place and never wanting to look back. Wanting to focus my life on showing kids that there is something more than what is confined in those four walls. But looking back at it now that seems so silly.

Of course high school sucks. It is meant to suck. But it is also meant to teach you. You are set up to learn in a place where failure really doesn't exist. Just think about it. No matter what mess you got yourself into there was always someone to back you up. You got picked up on the front lawn of a CEO's and Office Hoes party gone wrong, by your parents. They bailed you out. You got dumped by the guy that was sure to be the one and only and your friends talked mess for you, because they were there to bail you out. Life was hard and things were confusing, but bottom line you had people to make your responsibilities feel a little less. 

As you get older you take control. Those responsibilities really do fall only on you. No more B-Wing morning meetings, and off campus sneak outs. The girls in this picture are now college graduates. Winery sales reps. Newly engaged. Friends. Dreamers. Some I might never see again, some I didn't even know that well. But bottom line, we were there. 

We were all there. Jock or punk. AP or not. We were all there are one. We spent the four most freeing years of our lives together. Four years we will never get back, four years we never really want to give up. 

Oh, and then one time this happened: 

* I take responsibility for all that I was in high school. And remind myself daily never to take that path again. There are no right words, only head shakes.