Today, quite by accident, I found my high school class on FB. It contained a link to the official website of my high school graduating class. Once I got there, I noticed everyone struggling with their little writing assignments: “What I did over the summer…err…for the last 25 years.” I thought this was an excellent idea and so I composed this little rant to tell my old classmates exactly what I thought of them.

Thank you, BHS class of 1984!! Because of you, I learned I was special. Thanks for the beatings!! They really put a fine point on just how different I was. After a couple of years, I learned how to make myself invisible, despite being “triple hips” and “Over-Groth.” To hide from your righteous wrath, I learned how to hide in the bathrooms for forty minutes. When I realized that I needed to transition, I knew you had been right. Thank you!!

Thank you, BHS class of 1984!! Because of your help, I learned to expand my horizons. Thanks especially to the individual(s) who terrorized my poor, defenseless locker with increasingly bizarre pranks. Water in my locker, which destroyed my books and my Walkman, several different locks on my locker, which had to be cut by the janitor’s bolt cutters. Eventually, I got a new locker in the upstairs locker bay. I was practically Magellan. Thanks!!

Thank you, BHS class of 1984!! Because of your help, I learned who my friends were. After years of being jumped/tripped/pushed, laughed at and mocked, I finally started to eat my lunch In the performance areas. The band/chorus/drama kids might not have bent over backward to be my friends, but they didn’t hurt me, either. While performing, I also learned how to show little bits of myself safely. So double thanks!!

Thank you, BHS class of 1984!! Thanks to your help, I learned my limits. Now I know when I am spiritually and emotionally drained. Like a car running out of gas, I learned what it feels like to truly want to die. I also fell to depths of depression unknown since then. Now, when I visit those dark places again, it feels like I’m going to see an old friend in a very familiar place. Who knew despair and suicidal ideations could feel so comfortable? HUGS!!

It is so wonderful to be involved with people of your character and giving nature. I don’t know how I will ever repay all of your many torments…err…kindnesses. I feel that, much like a mystical orbit, everything has come back around full circle. Back in high school, you helped me learn how to become invisible. You came close to killing me several times, you beat on me more times I could count and you reduced my self-confidence to the size of a grain of sand. Now, after 25 years, I realize I have learned a new trick: I learned how to make all of your faces blend together and then finally disappear from my memory completely. Thank you all SO MUCH!! Now, don’t grip, I’m about to completely forget another one of you… *snap*