High School Reunion

Good morning, and a very happy Tuesday to all.  Stayed in yesterday.  The weather was nasty.  In fact, I had been awoken at 4 am by the sound of the ice hitting the AC and bouncing off onto the window guards.  That is all ice on the ground in the courtyard.  Better safe than sorry.

Only an open mind still has room for new knowledge. What is outgrown
and used up must be discarded to make room for what is yet to be learned.
And much of the best thinking is done alone--in deserts, on beaches,
in bed, behind closed doors. It is why we say we need to get away--to
escape from clutter and busyness--to hear ourselves think.

Robert Fulghum

I'm planning on heading on over to art class this morning, but whether or not I get there is dependent on what it is like when I step outside.  Can't judge anything by the courtyard.  Always gets less snow and rain that what is really going on outdoors. 

I received an invitation to a class reunion of the 'Class of 65'. and I have much mixed emotions over it.  Part of me would love to go and see all my old classmates, but the fact is, I wasn't a member of the 'Class of 65' so I just wouldn't feel right.  I WOULD have been, but I never completed school there.  In fact, as I recall, after my sophomore year, the principal kindly asked my mom to send me to another school.  I wasn't wanted there.  Let me explain....

As many of you know, I was emotionally bullied during grammar school.  Up until the 4th grade everything was fine, but then my cousin moved into the neighborhood, and the school placed him into my class.  Now his father and my father, although brothers, were not raised together.  My grandmother close to keep his father, but turned my father and his twin over to my great grandmother to raise.  I don't know why the family feud between the brothers began, but I tend to believe that my dad and his twin had it so much better than the brother my grandmother chose to keep.  I'm guessing that this animosity was passed on to my cousin.  Personally, I can't come up with any other reason why someone who I had never met would have so much hatred towards me.

Anyway, everything went downhill for me when my cousin arrived.  My dad was an alcoholic, something that had been kept in the closet until my cousin arrived and told everyone.  I was teased and laughed at about my dad, my hair, the way I dressed (my mom worked and I was left alone in the morning to dress myself).  You name it, they teased me about it.  As a result, I became shy and withdrawn, something that I carried with me to high school.

The teasing abated when I started high school.  We all went to our separate classes. I wanted to be a part of the crowd, but I was so shy and had absolutely no social skills.  As I grew older mom and dad decided that the best way they could keep watch on me while still being free to live their own lives was to ground me for just about everything.  I wasn't a bad child.  I realize that now, but my parents led me to believe I was.  They'd ground me a month for something as simple as having my coat unbuttoned when I came home from school.  All the kids did this, but my parents treated me as if it were a major crime.  I never attended the Friday night school dances or even participated in other school activities, for that matter.  The only time I was free was those times I spent with my grandparents or my aunt. 

I had NOTHING in common with the other kids.  I didn't have a boyfriend, girlfriends to confide in, I didn't go to movies, nothing, absolutely nothing, but I was desperate for friendship.  So I did the only thing I could do to have friends at the time.  I started skipping school.  In the beginning it was only a day or two here and there, but it soon turned into days at a time.  The 'bad' kids became my friends.  And when I was in school, I was usually suspended.  In those days suspension met sitting all day in the school auditorium.  I glorified in the attention it brought and equated that with being cool, so I purposely did things to get suspended.  Ironically, though I rarely attended any of my classes, only for tests, I passed everything.  

And so it was that I entered my junior year in another high school altogether. Ended up dropping out three months before graduation but that's another story altogether.  

So, you can see why I have such mixed emotions about attending. I don't even know why they sent me an invitation.  Even more surprising is the fact that someone like me, who never had a great start in school, would become a lifetime learner.  In fact, I recently discovered that our local college has obtained a grant to provide free college classes for seniors and I've already contacted them about the summer semester.

Well, that's about it for today.  Hoping you all have a good one.