Thoughts on High School

Feeling a little sad today as I finally posted the last chapter to my epic, ‘Best friends share everything.’ It ended up being a solid 224,100 words on  fanfiction

or on JBNP if you are a member there.

The story finished up at the High School ten year reunion. I got to thinking about school and how that whole experience was for me.

I wasn’t a popular girl in High School. I didn’t date; I had braces, and I hung with the odd kids. I have heard so many people that I admire as adults, say something very similar about their youth. So sometimes I wonder. What happened to the people I thought at the time were perfect? The ones who were on the school council? Represented the school at sport? Who were the king and queen at the prom, or whatever was your country’s equivalent. I wasn’t their friend then, and I’m not now, so I don’t know. They won’t be tracking me down on Facebook for instance. I had Quil say in the story that you kept in touch with the people you wanted to from school. Clearly I ran, as fast and as far away as I could. I don’t keep in touch with any of them.

Every time I hear someone I admire for their free thinking or their imagination, talk about their youth, they weren’t one of the popular people at High School either. Even Joe Manganiello did a series of vids for the ‘it gets better’ campaign about how he was bullied as a kid. I know right? Look at him now.

It gets better video.

Lucienne Diver is a book agent and author who writes a series called ‘Vamped’. I heard an interview with her recently. She said she wrote a story about the queen bee of the school getting turned into a vampire and having to dig herself out of her own grave. This upsets her, mostly because she ruins her manicure and her hair and she can no longer see her reflection to fix it. She laughed about how annoying the character was and how she was initially written as a reaction to the beautiful people. Her character has grown on her now, clearly. If you see her photo, I am surprised she wasn't in the beautiful people category, but hey, people change as they grow up, too. (Clearly Joe did.)

Vamped.

I worry about people who think the pinnacle of their existence was High School. Who look back and think that that was the best they will ever be. I suspect Stephenie Meyer may fit in this category. Her obsession with youth and teenage vampires is evidence of that. Her character, Bella Swan nearly has a panic attack about turning eighteen! Meyer had to change vampire canon; make them day walkers, just so that they could go to High School and meet their lamb. Bella didn’t meet Edward in a graveyard at midnight… oh no… that would be icky. So it’s the safe, well lit world of the High School cafeteria for their first meeting.

Personally, if I was an eternal being, High School would be the last thing I would do with my endless time. And I certainly wouldn’t do it more than once, no matter how old I was when I was turned. If I was a fourteen year old vampire, I’d just argue that I looked young for my age.

If you think High School was the best you ever were, then you are in for a world of disappointment. Real life isn't like that. That’s clearly a good thing for the non-popular kids.

We didn’t fit in then, but we have learnt to accept ourselves. We have lost weight, our skin cleared up, we got our braces off, we learnt to cut our hair over our protruding ears or we found other people who think the way we do. Even if we do none of those things, it does get better… if we find that acceptance and peace within ourselves. After all, that’s who we live with. We can always leave High School.