The Real Deal

I've been catching up w/ old friends lately & have discovered that in highschool I was really in quite a bubble. Which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy highschool, I was just really unaware of what the people around me were really like. I would take whatever people told me at face value (for the most part). I always wanted to see the good in people, which isn't a bad thing, but for the most part I just didn't know there was alot more that I wasn't being told.

I don't know if that's just b/c I didn't know what too look for, or if I didn't WANT to look further, but from where I am now, I can honestly say that I don't think I ever really knew most of the people I went to school with. I know some of that is my fault. A few times when people would tell me something, I would respond in shock..... sometimes at their actions, but sometimes it was just that I didn't have any exposure to it beforehand & didn't really know how to deal w/ it.

For my part, I don't think I was ever really judgemental (though I might have been perceived as such). When my frieds confided in me, I wouldn't go running the other way b/c they were not like me. I still liked them for who they were, & their actions & histories is what shaped their personalities.

I knew in highschool that there were a few people having sex, but I was unaware that there were so many more. I knew there were a few smoking pot, but I had no idea just how many actually were, in fact, I was told by one of my friends that they guy I dated for awhile smoked all through highschool & I HAD NO IDEA! I don't know if I was just out of the loop, or oblivious, but I think it would have been a whole different experience had I known more of what was really going on. Perhaps now I think I'm more tolerant than I actually was back then, I can't say for sure, but it sure is weird to discover that when I thought I knew my classmates & my friends, I hadn't even scratched the surface. It makes me wonder just how much more I've missed over the years.....