Would You Go Back??

Not me. Not for a minute. I didn't love high school much. Of course if I had attended class a little more frequently....or chosen better friends....maybe I'd be singing a different story. Jo has reminded me....yet again....how hard it was to be a teenager. The drama of it all leaves me cold. I vividly remember trying so hard to fit in somewhere....anywhere. Of course, mine was an altered reality. Having a chemical imbalance as a teen left me with what I now call sideways thinking. Everyone in a room may have seen the same thing happen...or heard the same conversation....and they would have drawn the same conclusion. I...on the other hand...would see or hear something entirely different from what they did. That processing problem caused so much drama for me. It was just unreal. Luckily....Jo does not have that particular problem. Jo is a very head strong, confident teen. She fits in relatively easily. She hasn't always chosen the most morally centered friends....but most of them have been good kids. When we moved here...it is Jo that I worried about the most. Being surrounded with kids who are being raised with the same religious teachings...she was bound to find a couple that weren't defying their parents or testing the waters of sin a little too frequently. That safety net was removed when we moved here. Don't get me wrong. There are some great kids in her school. But few of the parents are as alarmed with the idea of teen drinking...or pre-marital sex...or even rated R movies as Jim and I are. It has been a challenge to get Jo to vocalize her morals and values to her friends....because they are uncool or prudish. She wants to fit in. She doesn't want to be the "weird Mormon girl". But at the same time...she wants to maintain her standards too. Such a conundrum. How to fit in the world without being of the world. Isn't that what we all strive for? How do we hold ourselves above the evils of man....while remaining grounded and avoid seeming pious? hhhhmmmm Well, I am so thankful to have survived high school. I just hope that I can help Jo negotiate the obstacle course of high school and that she can emerge unscathed from it's fiery depths.