High School Me
My 30th reunion just happened. I would have loved to see everyone, but I’m uncomfortable socializing with the pandemic, and it was in a bar. So I would have had to scream to be heard through my mask while not drinking anything. I don’t know. It just sounded like a bad idea.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what my high school self would think about my current life. She would be shocked that I’m not a doctor. Stunned that some friendships have dried up and other ones she hadn’t predicted would have staying power have continued. She would be thrilled that I’m married to Josh and have boy-girl twins. She would not know what to make of my job. She would be confused why I don’t have an apartment in London with wall-to-wall carpeting. She would be confused why I don’t seem fixated on wall-to-wall carpeting. She certainly spent a lot of time considering it.
She would be happy that I still have guinea pigs. And still wear overalls. And own a lot of books. And am close with my siblings and parents. She would disapprove of the plants.
What would your high school self think of your current adult life?
5 comments
So many people who were going to go to med school…
My high school self would be astonished– I’m doing better than I’d ever thought possible. I also had no idea I’d go into economics and I knew I didn’t want a PhD. I just knew I wanted to not have to worry about money and to have a peaceful home life.
This is timely — there are still a bunch of my classmates who live in/near the town where we all went to high school, and for years now (excluding the last two because of covid) they have gotten together for dinner at a local restaurant at Christmastime. This year’s dinner is tonight. Obviously, being 1000 miles away, I’m not going. 😉 I did go to my 10-year reunion, which was not as bad as I had anticipated, but there were still a lot of us who hadn’t had kids yet at that point, so I didn’t feel like too much of an oddball.
My high school self would be amazed in some respects. Toronto was a dirty word in western Canada in the late 1970s… still is, lol. I thought I might end up in Calgary or Saskatoon or even Vancouver, if not Winnipeg — but Toronto??! Life works in mysterious ways sometimes…! I think she’d approve of the husband I wound up with, even if he WAS from Toronto, lol. She’d be mystified that I never had those two to four children she dreamed about and picked names for — or that I haven’t yet been to all those places she dreamed about seeing when she was able to afford it. She would be happy that I turned out to be a writer — but surprised and perhaps even horrified that I wound up doing it at the same bank my father did for most of my childhood & teenaged years — the bank that made our lives so miserable by making us move away from our friends every few years — and, moreover, that my sister wound up working for the other bank our dad worked for! We both vowed that WE would never marry a banker and put our own kids through same thing — I have always joked that, to paraphrase Gloria Steinem, we became the men we didn’t want to marry, lol.
But even though I became a corporate hack at the bank Dad worked for, and not the book author or journalist I envisioned back then, I think the nice paycheques and pension would convince her it turned out OK anyway, lol. 😉
I don’t think my high school self would know what to do with me. She would be thrilled I became a biologist and left home. She would be horrified by the gray hair and extra weight. She would be sad about the family estrangement and lack of connection with friends from home. She would be confused by Grey and the twins.
It’s interesting to reflect on who we were and how sure of things we once were. There’s a lose of innocence from recognizing we can’t plan it all out. But it’s also a bit freeing as I never could have predicted or planned some of the best moments with amazing people.
Oh, that doesn’t sound fun at all. Screaming over bar noise and not drinking or eating while worrying about COVID sounds terrible. Reunions are funny… my 20th got cancelled because the planners keep making it the weekend of Thanksgiving like everyone still lives there. Newsflash…most people don’t still live where I grew up, it’s prohibitively expensive (Westchester county, NY). So most people couldn’t go because neither we nor our families live there.
I love that your high school self loves overalls and so do you now, and that she is confused and disappointed by plants. 🙂 I don’t quite get the wall-to-wall carpeting thing, but the apartment in London? Sounds great.