My Trip

Recently I have heard a song (Photograph by Nickleback)that inspired me to pick up my high school yearbooks and take a trip back down memory lane.

Man I did some stupid things.

I looked at the pictures and wondered who that person was and now here I am seventeen years removed from those times. Some were good, actually it is odd but I don't know why I remember the good things instead of the bad things.

I know there were bad times. Times that I really didn't like, some I regretted, some when I look back and saw how heartless or mean I could be. And now here I am, worn down by life and I look back and see how brash and sometimes arrogant I was. Here is the lowdown.

My family had a restaurant that I worked in from middle school until I was a senior when we closed it. Times were pretty rough for a while. I had a paper route in the early mornings. So I started driving when I was fourteen.

The town cop let me as long as I kept it under control but I can't tell you how many times I got stuck because I thought it'd be fun to take my pinto station wagon through a long stretch of mud or a snowbank and what do you know, there was a ditch under there!

Yeah, stupid was my middle name. I rebelled a lot at school but my grades were good enough to get the honor roll. I was a football player and weight lifter. I decided early to learn a skill so that I could make ends meet while I was a struggling rock star....

So I learned how to paint cars. I went to college and dropped out and painted cars again. I worked painting cars and tractors after that for twenty dollars a day. I painted aircraft and then worked for a cable company, got laid off there and got my current job. Thirteen years later here I am.

I have finally figured out what I'm good at and what I want to do.

I was at the ten year reunion and was pretty happy to see the people I came of age with. There is something about the high school years that just imprint you.

I see a couple of people occasionally who are still in town or who have moved back.
I have friends that I dearly love.
Some that I have brief sentences with that I just can't relate to anymore.
Some I'd love to have long conversations with but haven't seen in years.

Yeah I know, "Don't live in the past".

I don't....but it is nice to take a trip back and remember where you came from. To remember what you had a burning passion for then and compare it with what you desire now.

To compare you before you took a few of life's beat downs. While you still had rough edges but you thought you were the pinnacle of humanity...you had the world by the tail. What you didn't know is that the world tolerated you...that it had seen better and badder and survived them too.

I thought I was so brilliant back then and now what I had in book learning I lacked in experience and wisdom. Only time can give you that so when you hear that youth is wasted on the young...Believe it.

I'm sorry...this rant has been brought to you by my memories and if you are still awake and reading, kudos to you, you are my hero!