Friday, May 14, 2010

I Thought Turning Into Your Mother Was Scary...

Everyone says that, as you get older, you realize that you turn into your parents. Because I've been 40 since I was four, I always knew that I was my mother from the very start. Sometimes that's scarier than others, but as I get older, there's no shock involved when I catch myself doing and saying as she does. What was scary, was going back to my high school and agreeing with my vice principal.
When I was a teenager, I thought, I'm not wrong, these people (authority figures) are just rude (no, that probably wasn't my choice of words) and don't like teenagers. But you realize later that you were wrong.
I returned to my high school the other day to meet with the principal and a senior girl for a story I was covering for work. While I waited for them in the office, students were being called in to meet with the vice principal, mostly for disciplinary purposes.
I thought of how highy I used to think of this man when I was in school, which wasn't much, especially from someone who never even got into trouble. But as he handed out punishments over and over, I saw how leanient he was. I wasn't surprised that I agreed with him that these kids should be punished, I was just shocked at how he was letting many of them slide; of course, they didn't see it that way.
It's just so strange when change occurs over time, but you don't realize it until something happens that makes you think about it. When did we all grow up? For me, it happened so quickly, that sometimes I don't remember doing it all--I just was.
Being in my high school again was nice. When I realized what was happening in the office that morning, I chuckled at myself, knowing that I used to be that girl who hated everything the vice principal said. I saw my former journalism teacher and talked to him just as easily as I always had, only it was about a movie that we both watched at the drive in over the weekend. I walked the halls and saw how different things were, and how some things were exactly the same. Or was that just me?

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