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Flashback Friday




Today's Flashback is one of those formal school functions with G who I dated for awhile in High School.  Of course, dating in high school is a lot like being a manager of a big league team:  you are always just a losing streak away from being canned.  I'm not sure of the year but the poster in the background will provide all the clues you need.  G was pretty cool and we had a nice time.   Am I really wearing a vest?  Have I buttoned my shirt all the way up?  

 I look at that kid, and the introversion is already evident.  The pose is certainly a "gee, shucks" do we really have to do this?  But what did I know?  A kid just starting out in the world learning the ropes, learning people, and learning comfort levels. 

 That may be me up there but in reality it is all of us on our first date.  Awkward, forced, more like a fish out of water.    

 G and I also went to a movie in Monmouth.  I was reminded of the date just this week since 2001: A Space Odyssey played on TCM.  Like that kid in the picture above,  that film was wasted on someone who had not yet learned to embrace opportunity or ethereal, sophisticated art.  

 High school relationships, while representing the first true kind of ventures into meaningful friendships, are also the most brittle.   We are unfinished vessels - too immature to properly cultivate, too old not to try.

   


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Flashback Friday

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