I thought I would relay some thoughts I had while enjoying a lovely spaghetti dinner at a restaurant with my mother last night. We were dining next to the most obnoxious table of high school girls I’ve seen in a very long time. Here are some fragments of conversation that I was forced to overhear due to their extreme loudness:
- “Omigod, Casey’s dad totally ran off with the babysitter…she was like 20 and he was really old like 40 or something. So anyway, they ran off to Vancouver…and then he totally left her there. Of course he denies it all now.”
- “Yeah, I’ve got my phone alarm set to play a noise like a baby crying so I won’t forget to take my birth control pill."
- “Hey, does anyone have anything smaller than a 20, ‘cause I’ve got like 4 of them.”
- “I really hate jobs where they tell you what to do…that’s why I hated Lifeguarding."
- “Amanda totally got the worst car ever. I mean, it’s like a minivan or something. I really don’t understand why she couldn’t just get her dad to buy her a nice one like a Lexus or something.
After hearing these little snippets of conversation…and sending them lots and lots of “shut up!” vibes…I realized something: It doesn’t matter what year it is…those girls will always exist. They will always roam the halls of high schools…completely unaware of what life is like in the real world…where daddy doesn’t pay for everything…and there are people who actually would rather not have a Lexus. They will always be there, tormenting the weak, the fat, the strange, and the geeky. As I sit here thinking about this, my mind drifts to 2006…and my 10 year high school reunion. I haven’t heard anything about it yet, but I can’t help but wonder what happened to the girls of privilege that went to my school. Did they grow up to be weak, fat, strange, or geeky? Would there be justice in that? Are they all married to equally obnoxious men?
The more questions that pop into my head, the more I realize that it doesn’t really matter what happened to them…what matters is what they did for me: They made me realize that I don’t want to be like them. I want to consider people’s feelings before I do or say things which may hurt them. I want to appreciate what I have…and not worry about how much money or stuff I can acquire before I die. I want to do what’s right for me and the people I care about…not what others say I should do. I think I just might be going to my high school reunion after all…if only to see the odd looks on their faces when I walk up to them and say “Thank you.”
