Homecoming 2009

I'm not exactly sure how many people get to revisit their own high school days every once in a while, but my wife and I do more than most I imagine. My wife, Jamie, graduated from a small private school called Glenbrook in Minden in 1999. After an arduous college journey, she graduated a couple years ago and started looking for jobs. Lo and behold, a teaching position had become available at her old school. She briefly interviewed with the Assistant Headmaster and was offered the job soon after. So, she now teaches AT her old high school WITH many of her old teachers.

Being a young teacher (I consider 28 still "young"), she regularly is assisgned all the responsibilities that the older teachers had their fills of many years ago. The homecoming festivities are a prime example. For the entire month of October, Jamie is neck-deep in planning and coordinating for the all the events of the homecoming week. These events are capped by the coup de grace....chaperoning the homecoming dance. Of course, she needs help with this responsibility, so I get the pleasure of tagging along.

It's strange to watch all the kids at the dance going through all the things that all of us went through ourselves in those days. I forget what a critical time that is in our maturation and development, and you can actually see it happening all around you. The shy kids testing the waters of the dance floor; the "cool" kids pushing the envelope of what's acceptable; the young kids being dominated by the upperclassmen; some boys searching for the nerve to approach girls; while other boys approach the girls like ravenous wolves.

These moments in our lives are more important that I previously have surmised. It was because of events similar to these in my own high school days that I was able to break out of a shell I'd been living my whole life. It's my love for dancing (and being good at it helps a lot) that kind of got me out there and mingling with the people. I was not accustomed to these very social moments, but after a few of them, my life had taken off. That being said, it's difficult for me to stand on the sidelines of the dance and act professional and adultish.

The dance was last night and I did better staying on the sidelines than I had the previous year. I even got on to a few kids for certain inappropriate moments, and definitely felt much more "in charge." I mean, I still had to do the line dances and a few the songs that have dances that accompany them. The kids really love it and try to make me get out there more, but I don't want to give any rogue parents any ammo against my wife. Unfortunately, these things really happen. But, last year was a totally different story. Jamie and I were much closer with last year's senior class, and two of the members of the class INSISTED that I have a dance off with one of them. That might sound inappropriate (it probably was looking back), but I couldn't resist the challenge.

After a brief battle with the high-school senior who's 9 years my junior, I remember one thing. It's hard to explain the pressure and the thrill of being surrounded by a circle of people (high schoolers or not) who are fixed on your every move at a moment like that. Luckily, my dance partner was a rowdy kid and garnered a lot of the attention. Case in point, I was soundly beating him in the dance competition so he took his shirt off and started jumping around crazy, so that gave me a reason to end it and to get him to calm down. Honestly, for me, it was like being in high school again, except WAAAAAAAY cooler this time.

I say all that to say this. We often look back and see our high school days as torturous (I do), but honestly, they were vital to our development of who we are today. Maybe in high school, we broke out of a shell, made huge mistakes and learned from them, had the time of your life, were miserable for four years, saw first-hand the kind of person you wanted to be, or just coasted through. Either way, it was more important than we realize and watching a bunch of 14-18 year-olds interacting with each in a social setting will bring all those memories rushing back. I suppose many people don't get the chance to go back into an environment like this, but I kind of wish everyone could. It's liberating to go back armed with 10 or so years of life experience and see all those awkward moments through much older eyes.