Recently, one of my Facebook "friends" added me to a secret group for our high school.
The group was meant to reconnect alumni that hadn't touched base with each other in almost two decades. Despite this forum having been created by one of the bullies that tormented me during that time, I stayed long enough to lurk around and see what was going on. Wouldn't you be curious? I was.
It became pretty obvious that the group was literally just a shrine for the drama-club people longing for the good ole days: photos of performances, scanned notes from the yearbook, cherished memories that only they would remember. The drama club was mostly composed of the high school's self-proclaimed elites who made sure that if you did not fit their high-end criteria of cool, you would never have the chance to participate in anything they had a modicum of control over.
Of the original 930 alumni, only 180 were members of the group. Out of those 180 members, barely any paid any attention or participated. Some conversation starts were attempted, such as what we'd been up to in the last two decades: it was cathartic to see that this nerd had done quite well for himself versus some of the elites of then; however, most of the posts were by my bully, who we'll call Jerky. Jerky tried very hard to get conversations going to reminisce about days gone past, posting elaborately edited photos that would look right at home on MySpace and never missing out on an opportunity on plugging his blog. You know the type of blog I'm talking about: the one no-one reads. The reality was that nobody, and to an extent not even the other jerks, really gave a shit of rummaging in the past.
If you're approaching your 40s and you're still longing for the days back in high school, what does that tell you about yourself? Is it because it was the last time you thought you were cool? Or mattered? If your life right now is so morbidly dull, you should just sit quietly in the corner and let that fallow lifespan of yours reach its eventual conclusion.
You know why nobody cared to participate in the group? Because high school isn't real life. It hardly matters the moment you're done it. With each passing year since you last attended, high school becomes less and less relevant the more real life sets in. If you miss it, that's fine: but miss it for its simplicity of life. Otherwise, don't drag us along for the ride: there's reason why some people have not spoken to each other for twenty-years.
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