I Did Not Peak In High School

Brian and I went to our local high school's football game last night. They are ranked #4 in the Tribune's poll this season, and were playing the #1 team. And it was down the street and cost $3 to get in. And they really are impressive. So, it was a fairly entertaining evening.

After a first trip to the bathroom, where three members of the school's dance team were primping in very short shorts and knee socks pulled way high, however, I started to think back to my high school days. I was a football cheerleader, but not a good one. I was always the one in the formation with my arm at the wrong angle. In addition to being uncoordinated, I also didn't know a thing about football back then and so didn't understand what the cheers meant. Cheers like "Sack! That quarterback! Crash! Through that line!" were lost on me. So was one called 'First and 10." Our captain always had to tell me and a few equally clueless friends of mine when it was time to whip that one out.

Seeing the dance team girls and all the other teenagers mingling, in their well-thought-out clothes and hair, made me grateful for the time I didn't waste back then caring too much about what brand of clothes I had (Guess jeans were cool for awhile, but that died in 9th grade) or how my hair looked. I wasn't a "nerd" necessarily, but I wasn't into sports (the yardstick for cool at my high school) like all my friends. I liked having a part time job more than I missed being able to run cross country. For what it's worth, by graduation, I had a much better CD collection to take with me to college than most of my friends. I knew, thanks to some older siblings, I guess, that there was much more to life after high school. If I was awkward then, or didn't always "get" my friends who were better at makeup and hair than I was, it was okay. I'm not sure if I've reached my peak yet, but I'm sure as hell glad I didn't do it at 16. Yikes.