Cities and suburbs, real and imaginary.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

10 year what? Reunion? Already?

I just got back from my high school reunion the other evening.

In high school, most of my life was lived outside of high school. I had little school spirit. If you looked me up in my senior yearbook, you'd find one picture of me among the students - (with burgundy hair...) - and one picture of me waaaaaaaaay in back with the marching band. (I played the tuba.)

In high school, I spent my time doing martial arts and doing drum corps. I slept in high school. I woke up. I passed a test. I went back to sleep. Prom weekend fell on the same weekend as a drum corps camp in Denver, and I was like, "Okay, expensive party with people I've been staring at for six years, or Denver and hang out with people I'll be performing awesome music with all summer and beyond." Drum corps won, hands down.

Some people were genuinely surprised I came.

I'm glad I did.

Everyone had grown up. We're all living and working and falling in and out of love. We're crossing the tables of the lunchroom - *gasp* - and mingling freely with no cliques anymore, no casual indifference to each other, and putting all the stupid kid posturings aside. We know who we are now, as adults, and we are all comfortable enough in our skins to stop feeling threatened by each other, and to talk about what we remember and be one group of people, instead of dozens of smaller groups inside a bubble separated from each other.

Nolan Catholic High School, class of 1998, is doing just fine.

4 comments:

Lola said...

Look. I got you a new reader. You are now beholden to me.

http://hobble-hopping.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-books-and-what-i-smeared-on-myself.html

J m mcdermott said...

No one is allowed to tell me they didn't like it!

My ego is huge, and when one's ego gets this huge, even the slightest pinprick can send me into a cascading meltdown of expelled wind.

I hope you guys like it! That is actually very nice of you. The nicest thing anyone can do for a media artist is to hand the media to another person. So, finding me a new reader is really, really nice of you!

Lola said...

She's not really a straight fantasy fan so I thought she would like it. From the reviews I've read it seemed that the more literary minded people liked it more than the hardcore fantasy fans.
But when I finish I won't lie to help your ego either. Big egos lead to big let downs so that's why I try to stay as humble as possible. Then again I'm not trying to make a living off of it either. I think you professionals need more ego to make it. So now I'm contradicting myself. lol.
We'll let you know when we finish.

Anonymous said...

I've been outed. It ain't the first time.

Lola and I are apparently going to read it together, so there is little chance it will melt into the pile of books by my bookshelf that are only half completed. That's a fact of which I am ashamed! But this is good news... Lola's presence might curb my laziness! Fantasy isn't something I usually read, but I'm pleasantly surprised when I do.

I'll be regularly checking your blog now that my interest is piqued, so... keep up the good blogging?