Lessons From High School

When you were in high school, did there always seem to be kids who got the best grades without even trying? Who could be cheerleaders or athletes, who could get the lead in the school play the first time they tried out, who never even had to deal with problem skin? And you wanted to hate them sometimes, but mostly you just wanted to have their good fortune.
 
While brainiac cheerleader prom queens are the stuff of high school, most of us never really get past the feelings that we had then--the memories of trying so hard and yet always falling short of the kids who, it seemed, could have it all without seeming to have to work for it, while we seemed to feel every struggle. And somehow, those people (or others like them) continue to populate our lives. Even if we have "found ourselves," and have enjoyed our own successes, it's remarkable how quickly we can go back emotionally to that time when we just wanted to be one of those people.
 
It never really goes away--envying those for whom things seem easier. And yet, how many of the things we can do now are things we learned well because we had to struggle? How much more adaptable are we now because things didn't come easily then?
 
I was never that brainiac cheerleader prom queen (and I don't think I ever really wanted to be), and most days, I feel as though I'm still fighting the good fight, either for myself or for my kids. And if, along the way, I can teach them to be fighters, to know that some of the greatest successes weren't meant to come easily, then I will have turned that high school experience into something useful (besides just a ridiculously indelible memory).