high school in my slow lane

if there's one thing that fast times at ridgemont high has taught me, is that i didn't mind being mousy in high school or the last twenty years in that respect. i may be too prudish for my own good but taking caution is always the way to go. the fast-paced western world adolescence of linda barrett and stacy hamilton would be out of place in my uptight world. the few crushes were passing fancies. the rapport partner was merely a mirage or preferred the quiet ingenue from the next town. the flirtations were one-sided or mere products of a deluded imagination. most dudes go for the kelly taylors -- the pretty vacuous ones, or someone with certain magic i try in vain to pinpoint. a bookish brain is not necessarily more substantial. i'm not saying that just because i'm still lousy in algebra.

one's high school experience could make or break a fragile spirit. in the years before cable, digital dishes, worldwide web and even a tiny little thing such as a landline in our house -- i sought refuge in my crappy paperbacks and the newspapers, where i first grappled the appeal of sports, editorials, politics and history. it was bad enough you were trying to form lifelong friendships and deal with ghastly angsts, add to that the impact of an acute rejection from the teenage dude who in the decades to come would lead one to conclude, thank goodness he let me slip by.

i would have loved to sport a shorter hair. my big 80's 'do was so aagh. i had articulated a few highly-humiliating speeches during elections and elocutions. the leaky quadrangle was witness to all my vocal impediments and i wasn't even singing. but at least my potentials weren't exactly loser material. high school coquetries despite the promise and allure on the CW channel are simply too fluffy to guarantee forever. i think the same way with college, with the subdued one's corrections of my article in mind. i've learned from that, you creep.

but with all due respect to the flimsiness of young love, fairy tales always make me smile.