Still reading John Green’s brilliant book, “Looking for Alaska”. I’m right in the middle of a ‘regrets’ point in the book, so I came up with this list.
In no particular order here are 5 things I regret from High School…
1. I never asked Missy, Rene or Becky out. Not that they would’ve said, “yes” and I’m very happily married to the only woman on earth with the endurance required to live with me, it would just make looking back at the old days seem less cowardly if I would’ve asked.
2. I didn’t get to show my movie in Government/Economics class because my film was not compatible with the projector. My report was on “Pornography in America”. I had the movie, the lights were off but the projector refused to run that size of film. It would not have been my proudest moral moment but it would have been epic, the stuff of legends.
3. I made fun of people. Somewhere early on in school we just decided there were some people we would all make fun of and I was so relieved it wasn’t me that I went along with it. Looking back it’s like tadpoles making fun of another tadpole because his tail is short or fat or bends funny. You just want to go back in time and yell, “We’re all freakin’ frogs here people!”
4. I let other people define who I was. What was I thinking? I once was excited about the idea of our family moving in my teens so I would get to start over. Of course, even at the new school they would smell ‘nerd’ on me…
5. I didn’t steal the vinyl record of songs from middle-earth that included J.R.R. Tolkien actually reading an elvish song from LOTR. I’m sure it got sold in some school yard sale in ’86 for .25 cents and now Comic Book Guy has it sealed in plastic in his mom’s basement. I know, I know, I’m a nerd. This may have led to #1 above.
What’s on your list? Any regrets you’d like to share?
1. taking life far too seriously for someone who was only 16
2. caring way too much about what people thought of me (then again what teenager doesn’t?)
3. allowing teachers to define what i could and couldn’t accomplish
4. spending far too many hours crushing on boy after boy after boy after…
5. trying to hard to be a “good christian” with a spotless image
1. not taking band class more seriously, I could have been a star!!!
2. wasting an entire summer in summer school so I could fail grade 10 math for the 3rd and final time.
3. torturing/tormenting and disrespecting the nuns who taught me.
4. not “applying” myself.
5. not taking life more seriously, wait I still have trouble with that one 🙂
1. I regret not noticing any particular interest. We could have been great friends. If you would have let me know more about yourself, I would have said, “yes”, at one point. But of course, I remember most of our conversations being about your girlfriend, and another red headed boy.
2. Not trying harder to just be myself. I wanted desparately to fit in with a group, but I was like a square peg.
3. Not taking band more seriously.
4. Not taking school more seriously. I got a good ACT score, but I really didn’t apply myself to learning at that time.
5. Not trying to get to really get to know more people. I should have tried to participate in more extracurricular activities.
Ah! The good doctor. Yes, that’s true, and I did spend a lot of time talking about my girlfriend until she decided I’d ruined her life and I lost her class ring…