Joking vs mockery, respect or disrespect?

[Nine]

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Somewhat off topic, but I think you'll agree:

David and I were talking about an article a friend posted (she's a youth psychologist) and my imminent 10 year high school reunion. I'm not keen to go to the reunion. The plan right now is to drive up anyway because friends who live across the country are likely to be in town, so it's the perfect time to grab lunch, but I have no plan to go to whatever "ceremony" they have going on. Anyone I still want to see or be in touch with, I am in contact with via some route through the internet. I have witnessed their changes and growth, and I know where they're at in life at this moment. No need to be voyeuristic on all the other numbnuts I went to school with.

Which brings me about to the point we were discussing. The article's premise was that (basically) we never truly leave high school. For some reason, whatever roles we took on there supposedly define us and we very easily slip back into those roles. And then there are these reunions where we can go back and see how everyone turned out after so much time. I've heard from older friends that the same old cliques are there.

Who are you people? I dislike who I was in high school. I disliked many of the people in my high school. I wasn't part of any group or clique, but wandered aimlessly with a shifting group of other wanderers who didn't fit in either. I was nerdy enough to talk to smart kids, but not socially inept. I was in the art classes, and friends with people in the drama club, and friends with musicians, and friends with popular people. High school was a way-point, not a defining portion of my life. I couldn't wait to get out and get a job. Then I got one and started making some money. My early 20's were incredibly formative - I learned more about history through my own reading choices, I suddenly became steeped in skepticism, I moved out so I didn't have to play at being religious anymore. I was thrust into a world of being on my own, being single, treading the waters of criticism and flattery alike. I became me. Note - I wasn't at college either. David agrees with this - he said the years after he quit college and got into the workforce also honed everything he is.

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