Who Is Cooler? You or I?

I've had a lot of time to re-think the HS experience for the past 2 years while watching Dillon go through it. At first it was hard because he is different than I. He thinks the popular kids and "Jocks" are jerks and in general, stupid, and purposely will not wear the "preppie" clothes I buy him because he doesn't want to be that guy. He wears jeans and concert T's, Chuck Taylor's, and has long hair (as long as his dad will allow). He is an artist and hangs out with girls with black fingernails, heavy eyeliner, multiple piercings...you know, the works. (But he brings home all A's, gets his homework done, and is serious about going to college and being a vet. So it all balances out.) I see what his perceptions are about the kids who were like me in HS and I know that he is wrong about those kids. If I had known him in HS I might have thought he was a stoner or just a slacker and I would have been wrong. No matter what "group" or "clique" they fall into, no matter their strengths or weaknesses, all HS kids have doubts about themselves and think that they look wrong, say the wrong things, aren't smart/skinny/pretty/buff/athletic/handsome enough. And it's too bad that it takes 20 years after graduation to figure that out.

I did have a bit of a clue about all of that when I was in HS. Stella (whose name has been changed to protect the innocent) and I became friends in Jr. High and as we became closer and started talking, we each realized that we had been ambivalent about the other and our preconceptions were all wrong. I remember thinking she was so cool but probably wouldn't want to be my friend. And I distinctly remember, having a sleepover, and she and I laying in my bed one night in HS having a girl-talk. She told me how she thought I was aloof at first (she didn't use the word "aloof" but I don't remember the exact word - same general meaning) but once she got to know me she realized she was wrong. I've been fighting that perception my whole life. What comes off as aloof is actually an almost debilitating shyness that I have yet to grow out of. It drives my Type-A husband crazy! With people I don't know so well I present as prickly and totally don't mean to. Once I warm up, though, I hardly shut up.

Hehehe. Now I've gone on and practically forgotten the point.

Oh yeah, point is:

High School kids always think that the person seated next to them is cooler than they are and they are all wrong. The end.