The great organization event continues and tonight, I happened upon my box of scrapbooks and yearbooks. I have the usual pictures and ribbons and awards and “ice cream 90 cents” sign from the supreme court cafeteria that we all have. And I have a lot of notes. Notes, of course, are what we used back in junior high and high school for our heart-felt, emotional interaction. It takes maturity and growth to tell someone how you feel, so you practice by writing it down and leaving the paper on the person’s car, tucked under the windshield wiper.
I wonder if high school kids still write notes or if they just send MySpace messages.
I always think back to high school as being fairly innocent times, but I forget just how much I got around. I have notes from lots of boys. And cards from flowers.
My favorite note is probably from Eddie, who had recently been dumped by Missi (that bitch). We were making out one night and he called me by her name, and as you might imagine, that doesn’t sound very romantic to a 16 year old girl. I suppose it wouldn’t sound all that romantic now that I’m 35 either. Anyway, I was heartbroken, devastated, etc. and I don’t know how I am still standing now to tell the story. He wrote me a long letter, proclaiming his eternal love for me and only me. The letter was flowery and sweet and he swore that his love was deeper and truer than any love felt anywhere, since the history of the world and even included a handy table comparing all the ways in which I was better than the despised Missi. (The table was followed by a paragraph in which he promised he would never compare me to her because I was incomparable.)
You know how the story ends, of course. As soon as she gave the slightest inclination she might take him back, I never heard from him again. Well, that’s not exactly true. I was flipping through my yearbook and came across where he signed it. As Missi’s lovesick fool.
My (one of many) teenage tales of love and heartbreak. Forever immortalized in writing. Just like Romeo and Juliet. But with more Tears For Fears and fewer poison vials.