I was all set to do a post, and then, well, I got rambling on a side story. So now I'm doing a 2-part post instead of one horribly rambling post. It's my blog and I can do what I want, right? :) I still remember that I owe you a picture.
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In school I was never the popular kid. Along with the desire to never be the popular kid in the first place, I was also too nerdy, too antisocial, and too apathetic to ever be popular. Without the desire or the means, I really had no hope. I'm sure a small part of me wanted to be popular, but popularity involves a lot of politics, even on the playground. Seriously, politics is a lot of work -- I did mention the apathetic thing, right??? I did want to be liked though. I think I was liked by enough of the key people to avoid a lot of the mean-spiritedness that kids have toward the unpopular kids. I blended in just enough to marginally get by.
As an adult, I intellectually know that the whole popular/unpopular thing doesn't matter anymore. People are just people, and most people have a core group of friends. And that core group of friends probably involves people who used to be popular, semi-popular, and maybe unpopular. We're not in high school, and we're above that now.
The irrational, former-unpopular me can ascertain pretty quickly how popular people were in high school after just meeting them once or twice. And what's funny is that as an adult, I associate with people who were the "cool" and "popular" kids back in junior high and high school. Somehow I can fake that I was popular just enough to be accepted by people who wouldn't have given me the time of day way back when. At least that's my perception, which may not be accurate. One alternate theory is that I carry myself with more confidence than I did as a teenager, and people may generalize that I have always been as confident. I dunno. Maybe they just don't care.
I live now approximately in the same area I went to high school. However, I was only in high school for sophomore year (freshman year was in junior high back at the time) and then I went to community college. I vaguely recognize some people when I'm out and about in the city now. If they are approximately my age, then I presume they went to my high school while I was there for sophomore year. There were about 1,300 kids at the high school, which of course was too big to know everyone.
Just like in any high school, there were those people who everyone knew (of); you knew their names even if they weren't in your grade or they weren't in any of your classes. You probably knew who they were dating, you may even know what classes they were in and what locker they had. They were the legends. They were THAT popular, or THAT notorious, or THAT attractive. Sometimes all 3. Regardless of how big the school was, everyone - even the janitor - knew who they were.
There was one girl who was a senior when I was a sophomore. She was so over the top that she was one of those that everyone knew of. She was a cheerleader, loud, vivacious, laughed (really loudly) all the time, and she was prone to acts like cartwheeling down the hall or squealing so loud and so suddenly that she gave people pseudo heart attacks. I don't think she was amped up on any drugs, she was just one of those people who was high on life. And the apathetic crowd that I most closely associated with was the type to exchange eye rolls as she bounded down the hall loudly and at warp speed. At the same time, you had to secretly admire her endless enthusiasm.
As you might expect, I of course ran into her a few years ago and now run in the quasi same social circle as her. As soon as I saw her, I remembered her because, let's face it, it's hard to forget someone like that. Of course she didn't recognize me. But why would she? I was in a lower class than her, and I was the proverbial wallflower.
The funny part of all of this is that one of the first things she said once she realized that we went to the same high school at around the same time was that she used to be a cheerleader (yes, I know) AND she ended up marrying the CAPTAIN OF THE SWIM TEAM. Yes, she seriously referred to her husband as the captain of the swim team (remember, he was the captain of the high school swim team back in 1993). I almost wanted to ask if he's still the captain of the swim team on the 20 year high school graduation plan, but I refrained.
The petty part of me wanted to say that I was a college cheerleader, and I married the son of a diplomat, but again I refrained (aren't you proud?).
The former-unpopular, wallflower part of me who was in awe of talking to someone who used to be such a legend just nodded and said, "Good for you." Because really, that's all she's looking for...some affirmation that she's wonderful because she snagged the captain of the 1993 high school swim team.
And here's where I wanted to cut to my own experiences as a cheerleader, but I'll make that for my next post.
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