Isn’t that always the case? For those of us who weren’t born under a lucky star, who don’t seem to effortlessly back into good luck and better fortune, doesn’t it seem like the universe has a sick way to get a laugh. I know you’ve thought it. I know I have, too. Sometimes, it just isn’t fair.
Just in general, things never seem to fall quite in place. I remember something as simple as high school schedules. What could I possibly be complaining about here? Well, this is pretty specific but quite illustrative as well. In high school, schedules were widely set before you even knew it. This was because certain classes were limited to one or two periods a day, and if you wanted to be in those, the rest of your day played out without much input. Example? I was on the math track to hit Calculus by senior year, and that meant you could back up to Pre-Calc in junior year, Algebra II in sophomore year, and Geometry in freshman year. At least I think, but regardless of the details, you get the point.
Now with all the other classes I was aiming to complete, like multiple years of a foreign language, hitting AP English, and finding any other “advanced” class my school had to offer, which actually didn’t extend beyond what I just listed, I was already set into a course track that had minimal variation.
However, there was that thing about one OR two periods a day. So while classes like AP English had one course by senior year, getting there in the preceding three years offered a couple options. And just my luck, literally every time there was a chance for this, I was in the class opposite of when my friends took it. So, I was in first period Chemistry and second period Pre-Calc while everyone I knew was in first period Pre-Calc and second period Chem.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand how this seems relatively inconsequential. But I think back to high school, the equivalent to social castes playing out with raging hormones, and I remember how upsetting it was to not be with my buddies. I couldn’t hang out with them, I didn’t share the same jokes, I missed out on their hijinks. And why? Why was I literally the only one on this schedule set-up while every one of my friends was on the opposite? Damn you universe! Damn you!!
So what ended up happening? Did I know anyone in these classes at all? Yes, my childhood neighbor was in these classes. He was a year ahead of me so we never shared any classes together even though we literally grew up going to the same schools together for 12 years. We were best buds, rode our bikes to the comic shop and 7-11 every afternoon, carpooled until we could drive ourselves, and hung out all the time. He’s the one that I found myself driving down Lombard Street with, and he’s the one that ran hills together as we trained for football tryouts. So after a decade of schooling in close proximity, we finally shared a couple of classes together.
Being a year older, he had his own set of friends in these classes. And being the epitome of a cool friend, he brought me into the fold. I got to sit next to his two cheerleader friends and we all joked around quite a bit. Those were some fun times, seeing the world from a senior’s perspective even though I was junior. They helped me get prepped for senior year, from the stupid stuff like pranks and hooky to the serious stuff like college and graduating. By the end of the year I was sad to see them graduate, but so happy to be cheering them on, if that makes sense.
Back to stupid schedules. There was also the semester after I returned from my broken leg. Second period was the worst because I was in Physiology and Anatomy, again one of those random courses that not everyone took but all my friends did. Except they had it for first period and I was in second period, thank you again universe! It was also in the last classroom of the building, and this building was the farthest away from the quad, and second period let out into our 15 minute break. Seriously? I’m on crutches and I have to hobble my way across the entire school to get to break? Luckily I had friends in second period to keep me company…oh, wait, no I didn’t!
Down the hall, my football teammate did have General Science class for second period. After I came back, he realized I was down the hall and he’d wait for me after class to walk out to break. He was a great guy, funny dude, really good family. In fact, his father stayed with me at the hospital after I broke my leg until my family got there. So his son waiting around for me, cracking jokes on the walk wasn’t unexpected but welcome.
In that General Science class, one of his friends also sat next to him. She was part of the social group we all hung out with, so we knew each other in passing. Quick aside, I actually went to a middle school that was outside of my geographic district. My mom fought to get me into this school, so I had to make new friends there. Then as high school arrived, I fought to go to the school that they were all going to. Just so happened that this high school was also outside of the geographic boundaries, so when we arrived there as freshman, there was a healthy mix of several middle schools feeding new students into this class. Thus, the social circle that I grew into was a mix of my middle school and the other main middle school, a mix of old friends and new strangers.
Back to my football buddy and his friend. He was from the other middle school, but she was actually from the same middle school as me, and yet, we had never really talked before. There were a couple reasons for this. First, I wasn’t really big on talking to the females back in middle school. Don’t get me wrong, I was definitely a ladies’ man…OK, I wasn’t, as evidenced by me using that term. So I was shy, first point. Second point, we never shared any classes in middle school, again, damn you universe! Third point…I absolutely had a crush on this young woman. Goodness, even if we were in every class together, I probably would have never spoken to her.
Back again to the daily walks to break. Soon after I returned to school, my football buddy changed his schedule. Transferred to a different class to get a different something or other. That meant for the rest of the year, I walked with my middle school crush every day to break. How sweet those five minutes became…sigh. It’s like a bad teen romantic comedy, right? It actually kind of sucked as I got healthier and the crutches went away, after all that meant the walk to the quad was quicker. Sigh.
Schedules, back to schedules. By the time senior year rolled around, the majority of the classes I wanted to take were offered only once a day. Things like Calculus or AP English only had one period, and all of us who were on that track had dwindled to a single period anyways. So finally, I had a schedule with all my friends, right? Nope, because my best friends were the ones that dwindled away. Luckily though, after three years of being in the opposite classes, I had made some other friends. We were all in these senior classes together and we all continued to joke around and laugh it up.
In fact, by the end of junior year, I was closing out the English class where none of my friends were and had developed a new friendship with someone who sat on the side of the room. You know in high school, they always like to seat you in alphabetical order to help squeeze the life out of you and drill conformity into your psyche. So, she was early in the alphabet and that meant she always sat in the first row and that meant I was craning my neck back towards her quite a bit by the end of the year.
Come senior year, we danced around the subject for a bit. However, after a summer full of nightly phone calls, we finally sealed the deal at the beginning of the school year, we were finally…going steady! Haha, that sounds so funny and dated. But yes, we were funny little kids “dating” in high school.
Still, when I look back, I know the universe has a target on my back. You see it from the examples above. How could you make high school the most excruciating experience in the world? Screw with my schedule and my schedule alone, so that I would never be able to hang out with my friends. Best friend, years-long crush, and first girlfriend aside, the universe definitely got the better of me on that one didn’t it?
Coming up: The unimportance of feeling important