She's really bright and in the beginning, eager.
But by the time she's eighteen and in her last leg of high school, she's...
Bored.
Tired.
Ready to GET OUT OF THERE!!!
By the time I zipped up my red graduation gown, I was ready to turn my back on high school and fly far, far away.
I wanted OUT.
I packed my suitcase and drove to the airport with a smile full of confidence. I was ready to take on the big stuff.
Time for university, baby!
And then, when I got down to Utah (and experienced moderate culture shock, by the way) I discovered that I was BEHIND!
I
WAS
EATING
DUST.
One of my first roommates was a sixteen-year-old who had graduated years early.
I was friends with a few guys who, at eighteen, already had their associate degrees.
When I went to class and my best work earned C's, I felt shocked, angry and, yes, a little betrayed.
My high school experience had not put me on an equal footing with my peers. They were LIGHTYEARS ahead of me!
Depressing, to be behind right there in the beginning.
Don't worry, I did just fine. I struggled in some places and soared in others. Got decent grades, got my degree, and even got married. Hard beginnings, happy endings.
But that feeling of being underprepared and of losing precious ground in those high school years stayed with me.
Stayed with me, that is, until now.
See, my husband is one of those cool people who graduated high school with an associate's degree. He basically missed his junior and senior years of high school and spent them at the community college. It worked well for him since he lost two academic years on a religious mission. He was able to graduate on time, without adding those years on the back end.
But he didn't really have a high school experience.
Now, I DID have a high school experience.
I had the good teachers, the bad ones, the group of friends who sat by the vending machine every day during lunch.
I sang in the choir and had crushes and joined the ski team.
I sketched comics and camped out in my calc teacher's room for extra tutoring help.
I met the most interesting, motley, hilarious, grumpy, spiteful, silly, awkward, interesting, kind, wonderful people-- FULL of personality-- in those four years.
I guess in the decade since I graduated and moved away, I've spent a lot of time thinking. Remembering.
And writing.
In these last twelve years, I've slowly come to realize that the true VALUE of my high school education was not really the books and tests. It wasn't the scores.
It was the people.
Now I see how the people I knew rubbed their personalities on me. They changed me.
And I hope that I changed them, in good ways.
My memories of highschool are priceless. Precious.
Irreplaceable.
You see, I have a treasury filled with rich memories of so many friends (and a very few almost-enemies) to fill up the stories that are beginning to sprint from my keyboard.
I'm so grateful, after all, that I went to an ordinary high school which let me meet and know so many different kinds of people.
My high school experience taught me the depth and color-- the RICHNESS-- of teenagers, in a way that can't be constructed.
And now, here I am, making good on a goal I've had for decades.
I'm writing my book. It's coming, slowly, but it's going to be good.
And do you know why?
Because I can see these characters as I write them. I know them.
Because I remember.
Because of my high school.
----
In ten years or twenty, if you happen across my someday-book, pick it up and flip through those pages. Your name won't be there, but you will resonate all the same. Tone and timbre, you'll be there.
That will be my way of saying, thanks.
-Jenna
