Last night I had dinner with my brother and his wife. Since we had a little time before the movie started, my brother wanted to go cruise the car lot for a new ride. As we're walking around, a truck pulls up and the driver yells something at my brother. He ends up knowing the guy and walks over to say hello. I glance over and half-recognize the woman in the passenger side. I start to walk quickly away down the aisle when hear my brother say " Really? Maybe she didn't recognize you...Hey Em!" I glance back and try to keep the annoyance off my face.
"Hi! Oh it is you! Hey Sarah!"
I proceed to have to chitchat with a girl I went to high school with. A girl I went to elementary school with. A girl who was pretty mean to me throughout the majority of those 13 years. I know that I'm supposed to be grown-up and forgive and forget, blah blah blah, but I've noticed something since I've left high school. After I got out of that rumormill and grew out of my awkward geeky freak phase, all those people who were mean to me will go out of their way to talk to me. I had one guy see me at the bar and start hitting on me and I couldn't resist the urge to point out what an ass he was to me in high school. He had turned into a real sleeze anyways. One of the major creeps stopped me in the mall and asked if my last name was my maiden name. I looked him square in the eye and told him no. I had kept my married name after I got divorced so I wasn't technically lying. He looked stunned and said I looked kinda like a girl from high school only skinnier. I resisted the urge to punch him.
I know that it's kind of petty to still want to avoid these people after ten years. I live in my hometown so its a little tough to avoid them completely. I figure I still talk to the ones I liked, why should I have to pretend to be nice to someone who was never nice to me in the past.
As Sarah drove off, I could hear her two kids screaming bloody murder in the back seat of the truck. In the silence afterwards, I was grateful for karma.
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3 comments:
That is the advantage of not living in the home town any longer... of course, my school class was so big that I'm not sure who all knew me anyway. I was pretty much a loner. I still have the scars, tho', and don't care to go back there.
You handled it much better than I would have. Then again, I guess you had to since your bro' was there.
I have no reference to your situation, I moved alot, ALOT as a kid and for some reason I have always been that exception to the rule; the geeky guy who is cool. I was and I guess still am that guy who is always mistaken for someone I am not. Geeks thought I'm smart for an artist, artists thought I'm ok for a rebel, rebels thought I'm pretty cool for an intellectual. To this day, even I haven't figured out what crowd to fit in with.
But I never fit in with the mean and cruel bunch. There is just no place for them no matter what unfortunate circumstance might motivate them, bringing pain to others is just weak.
Unless we are talking about those hapless Alliance Elves, Gnomes, Dwarves, and lame Humans in WoW. They are just askin' for a smack down.
I think that what winds up happening to these people is that once they graduate, they realize that the real world doesn't care what clique they belonged to in high school so they're humbled down quite a bit. That and they probably start experiencing life's true troubles and that really puts things into perspective. Sorry about that other guy -- some jackasses just stay that way.
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