So I think I'm going to go on a bit of a rant because what happened today when I visited my old high school for the day honestly kind of astounded me. I go in and of course I said hello and hugged my old friends. But there were multiple people that honestly had no right pretending they were so happy to see me. And even if they were being sincere in their excitement, they sure forgot how they felt towards me in high school quick!
So the first encounter was with one of my old best friends from high school. We all hung out in a group of around six choir students. When I left last year though, they continued on because I was the oldest of the group. Of course they all made their customary promises to never forget me; always be friends; see each other on holiday breaks; blah blah blah. Well this girl was the first to clearly "let me go" if you will. She stopped talking to me, and I figured it was just because of distance and being busy. When I visited for a weekend, however, she made all kinds of excuses that were clearly her wedging her way out of seeing me. The worse thing?: She also added that our other friend from the group who I invited wouldn't be able to make it either. Come to find out the two of them are attached at the hip and if one of them makes a choice the other automatically follows like a pair of Siamese twins who can't go anywhere without the other. I saw them both in choir the last time I visited and the girl was sitting there doing her full face of makeup in the middle of class. She wasn't that stuck up when I went there; she would have at least said hi. But I guess her face trumps our prior friendship.
That was months ago. Today when I visited the choir room I made no attempt to speak to her. I got the message loud and clear that she had moved on from our friendship and had no interest. Then, after all this time of avoiding me and ignoring me, she runs up to me and gives me a huge hug and yells out my name because she is just so thrilled to see me. What the heck?! Hun, I have had so many times where we could have talked, and maybe if we had just fallen out of contact I would have just sat there and caught up. But I gave her every chance to see me and talk to me like old times and she turned me down. You can't just pick and choose when you are in the mood to be a girl's friend, folks.
The second instance was another girl that I honestly didn't know hardly at all. Seriously I don't even remember her name. My senior year we sat at the same lunch table out of coincidence, and even then it was only for a semester. Well, she sure knew my name! She yelled it down a hallway (an empty one I will grant her, at least) and got my attention. Then again like the last fake friend, she gave me a big bear hug and exclaimed how excited she was to see me. She proceeded on about how much she missed me and how the school "wasn't the same without you". Um, seriously?? We barely spoke; to the point that, as I said, I couldn't even remember her name. The funnier thing is that I ran into her about three more times during my visit and each time I was met with the same enthusiasm as the first. Did I miss something? Because the girl and I never had any problems in high school but we weren't friends either. If she wanted my friendship back then she should have said something, because as far as I could tell then we had very little in common besides a lunch table. I don't know why she got so excited, but I have a sneaky feeling that it had something to do with the fact that I'm now a 'cool college kid' that she wanted to be associated with. Come to think of it, every time she would see me and get excited she always had a friend nearby. Sorry, but I'm not a shiny toy to show off to your friends.
When all is said and done, though, I am so glad I visited. I did see a few of my strong, true friends that I have maintained a relationship with. I also sat in on my four favorite teachers' classes, and I even sang with the choir. It's nice to reminisce and think of where I was this time a year ago, how far I've come, and how many things I have yet to achieve.
