More perspective, this time about who we were and who we are

[scarlettina]

I think I've posted about this before, but it struck me again this afternoon and I need to write about it again.

In high school, I was in drama club and there was a guy who worked lights who wasn't very nice to me. I didn't know what his beef was, but it was persistent and when I left, I didn't really think about him again, except to remember him being a pretty unpleasant person.

Skip forward ~35 years to my getting onto Facebook. In the rush of folks who friended me after I joined, there he was--RP. I was surprised that he friended me. And then I decided that I was going to be so nice to him that he was going to feel bad. Well, two weeks later, he pinged me and apologized for how he treated me in high school. I was surprised and kind of delighted. Ever since then, we've been friendly, joked around, flirted a little, traded postcards when we travel. Whaddaya know? We're friends! And I'm pretty gratified with it.

Tonight we were chatting, and I was talking about how I'm going to Norwescon as a fan for the first time in years, rather than being on programming. This meant I could think about doing things like showing up in my black leather halter top. He teased me about it. Then he told me he'll be going to Florida two weeks from now and promised a postcard. I thanked him and he said, "Anything for you." My inner response was, "Wow, if our high school selves could see us now, they wouldn't believe it," and I had to laugh.

I think they call this growing up. Sometimes? It's not so bad.

Comments

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

One of my old high school classmates has started talking about how he was bullied. No specifics, I suppose it was from other boys. I honestly can't remember because I was also one of the bullied.