Would We Have Hung Out in High School?

I love my friends, Every stinkin’ one of them! One of them, Kim, and I were discussing a conversation her and her fiancé had, because of the new 90201 that is now playing on the CW. He mentioned the fact that in high school the “Kelli’s” were his type of girl. Okay no big deal right? Except the fact that Kim is not a “Kelli,” she is a self proclaimed “Brenda.” Which is definitely a different type of girl. This brings about a very interesting question? Would they have dated in high school? (Don’t worry; Kim and Karl are still together, despite this discovery.)

Throughout the rest of their conversation it was not only questioned whether or not they would have dated, but also would they have been friends? Now we all know high school (the public kind is the one I will be referring to, but this may also be true for private schools), or at least we understand high school as sort of a “rite of passage” that we go through. We were immature, but so was everyone else. Thus is why we had cliques and chains of command.

Each clique, stereotyped group, and crowd served their purpose in high school. They created a way to function amongst the mix of people. Sure, many times functioning meant conformity, but even most of those that didn’t conform made it through. Although we cannot assume that everyone was happy about it.

We know the names of the crowds and if we are true to ourselves, we know where we fit in. Me, I was a “floater” I didn’t really have a particular group I fit into and generally befriended everyone. Although, some people might have put me in the group of the “good-kids” and that’s fine. I suppose to me though, the group you really belonged to, was the one you hung out with outside of school. For me, I never hung out with the “popular crowd” outside of school, maybe the “aggies,” “smart kids,” or a mix of people from every crowd.

Believe me; I am not bitter about this, read the rest of this blog to understand why. However, I know the type of people that did hang out in that crowd. They were a tight knit crew that had seemed to know each other forever. You knew who they were. The ones in Homecoming Court, involved in Student Council, and participated in athletics.

Now I am 7 years out of high school and 1000 miles away. I have made a whole bunch of different friends, and most are a total different breed than I hung out with in high school. My best friends are: an indie-band loving/ popular girl, a band geek/ex-goth girl, pep club groupie/ prom queen, a smart kid/2nd tier popular, a baseball player/ partier, and class clown/good kid. How is that for a mix?

The common thread though, that more than likely most of us wouldn’t have hung out in high school. I would always be more of a “Brenda” than a “Kellie.” Most importantly, it doesn’t matter that we wouldn’t have hung out in high school. Rather it is important that we are now more capable of finding people worthwhile to befriend, no matter which group they were in.

No doubt about it, you can still tell who the popular kids were, sometimes. Especially the other day when I went to a social gathering and felt like I was hanging out with the whole ex- Homecoming Court of a local high school. The difference is hopefully time has changed us and we can see people more than their social status. That we see them as real beings we can befriend and share our lives with them. Then it doesn’t even matter if we would have been friends in high school.