Hangin' with the "in" crowd

My 10 year high school reunion was July 4. I didn't go. The reasons are plenty: It was too expensive; I was too new at my job; I just didn't give a damn. I really didn't like high school much, and I certainly keep in touch with the people from my graduating class whom I care about. In part, my complete and utter ambivalence kept me from being considered "popular" in the traditional sense. 

High school popularity, at least at Sioux City North High School between 1994 and 1998, is a ridiculous-but-complicated social structure based largely on your parents' income. I should have been a cheerleader, a tennis player, a member of the student council and one of the kids who spent her weeks planning school dances and weekends drinking booze in the corn fields. Instead, I chose to ride horses, travel across the country and participate in the school music, drama and honors programs. National Honor Society was considered an acceptable thing for the "cool" kids to involve themselves in; theater was border-line; and choir was a flat-out no. Unless you wanted to slack off for an hour a day. If you actually cared about the music, you were a "choir queer," just a step up from a "band geek." 

 

Andy claims to have been a shy kid in high school, although you'd never know it now. He says he kept mostly to his circle of friends, and he left a legacy in the Prospect High School theater department for his technical theater work. It's not every day that they create a senior award for you! But I can only imagine where this accomplishment - that I consider remarkably cool - would have ranked on the North High School cool-o-meter. 

So it strikes me as ironic that, now that we're all grown up, Andy and I are part of the "in" crowd! I had to laugh about that Saturday, after I got home from work. The apartment complex was hosting a resident appreciation pool party. I missed the entire thing but was pleased to see my husband represented our family with flying colors. When I arrived at the aftermath of the shindig, Andy was lolling in the pool, talking to some friends of ours. Other friendss were playing poker around a table reserved for apartment staff members, while still others were relaxing - and wrestling - in the hot tub. My dear friends Eve, Mallory and Ashley reserved a lounge chair for me, and greeted me with hugs and kisses. There were lots of "hi"s, "I'm so glad you made it"s and "come have a drink"s. There were also plenty of hugs and knuckle bumps to go around.

Inexplicably we are part of the "cool" clique: the group that everyone knows and that always seems to be having exorbitant amounts of fun together. Other residents kept a watchful eye on our antics - and there were plenty, mind you - from a distance. When I invited one young woman to join us, she got embarrassed and said she was waiting for her friends to show up. 

What a comic, or cruel, genius fate can be. After all this time, the social structure still exists, albeit now based on individual merits and personality. My hope is that eventually we can all learn to infiltrate into the "in" crowd, and that the hierarchy fades away. 

In the meantime, my new friends and I are going shopping!