147/365 Jon
I only remember Jon’s soft heart, bull’s-eye spiral and varsity jacket–the one emblazoned with our school mascot, a Rebel. QB embroidered on one shoulder, #11 on the other. Parading around in it those Saturday games I was sophomore royalty during a championship season.
posted by - Christine at 8:24 AM
3 Comments:
This is so evocative that I'm envious. Believe me, my life was never like that in high school, not even for a minute.
ditto, indigo, on "never like that, not in a million years"
this "sophmore royalty" is remiscent of all those girls I secretly despised in high school, but since I know I adore FRA, it makes me sorry for not knowing better then (but at least I know better now). I wonder, FRA, did you feel the heat of our anger? Or am I correct that we never even registered on your radar (especially considering that we kept to the shadows)?
Ha – in my own defense I was probably not one of the girls you secretly despised. I wasn’t a “card-carrying” member of royalty. I just happened to be going out with the quarterback. I wasn’t a joiner so I was 100% clique-free. My friends were equally distributed among brains, jocks, preps, stoners and gearheads.
I never found a slot in school. Nothing ever fit so I spent a lot of time roaming, which in the end I think served me well but we'll never really know. I think we all want to belong…somewhere. Anywhere.
I had several close friends who were Scholars and with them I could argue intensely about things like poetry and the universe in ways that made the two seem related and made us feel important. But they were only adventurous in their heads and got off on trigonometry in ways I never could.
Two of my dearest girlfriends were 100% Pure Prom Queens. They were genuinely caring and endlessly optimistic. Being slightly more fringe, I think I brought them a sliver of "reality" that enabled them to better appreciate their pearl earrings. They smiled a lot and got excited about girly stuff; that brought something to me. Plus that group got the most positive attention and the most slack from teachers - which was useful if you "occasionally" skipped classes.
I also hung out with the Dopers because they relentlessly searched for ways to actually experience those things that the Scholars and I were so busy debating. And they were the most willing to believe in things they could not see without having to label it god. If only they weren't stoned all the time. ;-)
I played regularly with the jocks because I found I had a thing for shirts with numbers on them that didn't indicate prison and they always yanked on my competitive chord. (yeah, I know, we don't need to explore that.)
I spent hours in the art department but that eventually became tiring because as artists they were bent on convincing the world that everything or nothing was of consequence, often simultaneously. I suspect bi-polarism is the result of generations of artists trying to acclimate in the real world.
Honestly though, I think my heart was always with the gearheads in high school because they we're happy getting their hands dirty building things that would let you go fast. And they didn't care that I painted and wrote bad poetry...in fact they thought it was good poetry!
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