Big Fun and Small Lessons In Little Rock

Hey y'all - 

For the last weekend of our trip to Arkansas, we drove down to Little Rock. My high school was having their 20th reunion, and I thought I wanted to attend. 

We stayed in downtown Little Rock, where we visited the Children's Museum. The museum is really impressive, and among other exhibits features a tornado simulator that's a small room staged to look like an average suburban garage with an 80's-era TV in the corner tuned to the "local news." Apparently, if you stay in the room long enough, it loses power and things on the shelves rattle and the wind howls at a crazy high volume and the window "breaks" and there's powerful gusts of wind, and... I'm totally guessing here, because Laney and I left about 28 seconds into the simulation, as soon as the fake reporter on the TV said, "Central Arkansas is under a tornado watch..."  Goodbye. 

There was a TV studio where you could pretend to be a news anchor. There, we learned that Laney's career in broadcasting is limited only by her inability to read the monitor. I sat next to her so we could practice our morning show banter. 

Laney: Did you know there's a tornado coming to Arkansas?

Mom: No! I hadn't heard! What should we tell our viewers to do?

Laney: Head for their attic!

We apologize to our imaginary viewers that you were probably blown to smithereens by this hypothetical weather event. 

I also made the rookie mistake of wearing a green shirt in front of a green screen, so I look like the Easter Bunny's butt is growing out of my shoulder. We should have been reporting on my strange medical condition.

The museum was a huge hit with Hagen, too, who enjoyed all the things you'd think he would:

We took the trolley tour, we explored the riverfront, we ate frozen treats, we went to War Memorial Park and did some serious swinging and climbing.

...and then it was time for me to go to my reunion.

There were 250+ students in my graduating class back in 1994. I was probably friends with about 12 of them, which is par for the course in high school, I think. I have kept in touch with about 5 of them. I don't know what made me think, 20 years later, that I would want to sit in a meeting room of a hotel and eat dry chicken with people I didn't know then and wouldn't recognize on the street today. But such is the pull of nostalgia, I guess.

We're about 10 years early on this conversation, but if I forget to tell you later:

High school is awful for 99.9% of people. You're physically awkward.  You never feel as attractive as everyone else.  You wake up some days and nothing in your closet fits right and your hair won't do. You get caught up in stupid friend drama, and this is coming from someone who didn't have internet in her house 'til after she graduated, so I can only assume with social media, things are going to get worse. You dip your toe in the dating pool and sooner or later someone breaks your heart - though, I can tell you with great confidence, you will probably not remember his/her name 20 years later. You try to pass algebra while surrounded by adults asking you where you're going to college and what you want to do with your life. And all you can think about is how you can't believe that the guy in 4th period that you've been in love with for months was last seen holding hands on the bus with that girl from 3rd period who has the personality of wallpaper.* It's just the worst.

But if high school is terrible, that's okay. It's good, even. Because that means you haven't peaked. You don't want to be one of those people who run their high school and then never accomplish anything else. The struggle is good - it stinks while you're going through it, but if you persevere, it'll make you stronger. Or at least way more interesting. You don't want to be 20 years past graduation, listening to Springsteen sing "Glory Days," with a tear in your eye as you realize the best time in your life has come and gone.

So go forth and struggle. Then, 20 years later, you can look back and laugh at those awful years as you share a dry chicken dinner with people you will probably never see again.

Or, better yet, just skip the reunion and stay home and celebrate how far you've come with the people you love most.

Love,

Mom

* OK, this is a true story. In fact, as I was heading to the reunion, Peg Peg asked me about this boy, and if he was going to be there, and if he had ended up marrying that girl who was dull as a box of rocks. The lesson here is that you might forget about your high school heartbreaks, but your mama doesn't forgive so easily.