I overheard two teenage girls today talking about grad - which isn't for eight months! And the angst was incredible. One of the girls had already committed to a limo, a date (who was really just a friend) that her friend couldn't tell anyone, like, no one at all, about, like, two dresses because the photos were going to go all around the world. The other girl hadn't thought about it at all, except that because of the limo thing, she was now offended that her friend was going off with other people and not her.
I was cringing as I listened to this. I couldn't stop listening, but the whole time I was cringing.
It reminded me of how difficult and miserable and unhappy I was at their age. It reminded me of how every single decision was a life and death decision - and if I'd had to make a decision about who to take a limo with I would have been a wreck.
I'm glad, now, listening to those girls, that I didn't graduate from high school, that I went right from Grade 10 to doing university courses by correspondence and then, much later, doing my degree as a mature student. I'm sure I couldn't have coped with the decisions I would have had to make - what courses to take, who to walk to class with, whose parties to go to, what to where, what classes to cut. Oh my god, it would have been brutal.
Thank you, all the powers that be, for saving me from this.
Kate
1 comment:
Hey Kate...yeah, I skipped 10-12 grades too, and moved directly into college at 15. It saved my sanity. I actually made friends and began to enjoy life.
I probably wouldn't have even been asked to the prom--I was ostracized in junior high (dysfunctional and abusive family life, too smart for my own good, fat during the era of miniskirts and fishnet stockings, painfully low self-esteem), and reputations carried over to high school.
I'm just grateful I never had to go through the three years that would have been one nightmare after another for me.
It's odd. Occasionally I meet people who had a great time in high school and it's like we come from different planets. I have no idea what it would have been like to have a childhood/adolescence filled with happy memories, but at least I blossomed out when I moved into college. That's when the fun began for me. *smiles*
Post a Comment