High school and mental games

I got to thinking today about my high school days and, while I'm happy to say that I'm not one of those poor guys who constantly relives their "glory days", I do enjoy an occasional reflection on high school life.

I wonder a lot about what people did after high school. Some people that I know about, such as the captain of the football team (who was also the prom king, homecoming king, and general BMOC) went into coaching. One of the guys on the team, a talented athlete, got busted for dealing crack.

I always wanted to be the guy who went off and made a smashing success of himself ... winning the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, winning an Oscar, etc., etc. Of course, I realize I'm not alone ... everyone wants to show up their classmates, be the one who "makes it".

It makes me shudder to think it's been 16 years since I graduated high school. That's so surreal. I look at high school students now and don't remember them looking that young when I was in school.

And I look at the girls in high school today ... what great bodies!! I mean, WOW. Sure, you've got the requisite outcasts and physically unattractive people, but the hot girls today seem to be SO much hotter than when I was in school. What's up with that? I been cheated.

A mental game I like to play is one where I think about places in my life where I made a decision that affected the course of my life, and wonder how my life would have turned out if I'd made a different decision.

It's a lot more difficult than it sounds, you know. It makes you examine your current life and realize that, if you'd made different choices, your life would be different.

For example, I was given the opportunity to go to California with a friend right after I graduated high school. If I had gone to California, I wouldn't have attended Texas A&M, never would've met my wife, never would have had my daughter. If a genie magically appeared and offered to let me start my life over from that decision, would it be worth the price? Would I give up my amazing daughter for a different life? No.

See? It's a challenging mental game to play. Kind of like reciting complicated math formulas while you're having sex in order to prolong the inevitable orgasm. Um ... or so I've read. Ahem.

-B-