Confessions of a Nerd

Busily struggling to wrap my mind around the fact that Ava goes to Kindergarten in a few short months has caused me to reminisce about my own school experience. One word keeps coming to mind: Nerd. It started off pretty well for me from Kindergarten through 3rd grade. I was in a very small town that had a very small school. There was one classroom per grade level. For some reason, I was pretty hot stuff. The boys liked to chase me around the playground. I even had a boyfriend. He was a blondie named Les. How in the world a Kindergartner has a boyfriend, I don't know. It's not like we treated each other any differently than everyone else. But I clearly remember I had to spell the word "less" out loud during school one day and I directed it toward him in a flirtatious way.

My family moved to a big city when I was in the 3rd grade. I think it went downhill from there. I did alright and managed to make a few friends. But I was often the butt of jokes. One of my main problems was my out-of-control, bushy, curly hair. It was such an easy target. And it seemed that all sorts of wacky upsetting things were always happening to me like the time I split my pants trying to leapfrog over a tire at recess. Or the time in middle school when I bumped my head into an wall-mounted air conditioner while walking outside. It poked a hole in my head. I had to get a tetanus shot and had a white bandage wrapped tightly around my head sort of like a headband. You can imagine that caused my crazy hair to look even worse than usual. Middle school isn't a great time for anyone really. I think we should just skip those years and hibernate or something.

High school was an non-adventure. I was a nobody. I had a few friends. I did a few activities. It was a blur of blandness. I'm the kind of person who would never go back to a high school reunion. There is no point. I don't recall any spectacular friendships (except for 1 or 2 that continued into college). I have no desire to relive that time of my life.

I really thought college was going to be much better than high school and in many ways it was. I did establish many lasting friendships. I was more socially mature and my hair had finally settled down and quit harassing me. I may have even been slightly cute. But the major disappointment of college was that no one ever asked me out or showed any interest in dating me. After a high school career of no dating I thought college was going to be the time for me to finally start attracting attention from the opposite sex. I was ready to date! I wanted to date! It didn't happen. I had some guy friends. No one ever asked me out. The only reason Cody and I managed to get together was because we were on a trip abroad for a semester and spent a lot of time together hanging out. He didn't have to ask me out because we were already going to everything together with the group. And I made the first moves with him. So it all worked out in the end. But I've always wondered what was wrong with me that no one ever seemed interested in dating me. A mystery for the ages I guess.

Anyway, I think I had an average school experience overall. I wasn't popular, but I wasn't detested. I participated some, but skipped a bunch of stuff, too. Like the prom for example. Never did prom. Never did Spring Sing in college. And now I am a happy well-adjusted adult. So I can't complain.