Past and Pedestals

Have you ever noticed how some people live in the past? It seems like it occurs for various different reasons.  Some never grow up and move on from their High School days of gossiping , sniping, pointing fingers, looking down on people and generally just being immature pain in the asses. They tend to be stuck in place as the reality that they have no life in the present sinks in. Realizing that your best days were in your teens must be a difficult thing to bear.  I had the priviledge of having my worst times in high school and my experience in life has only improved as I age.  The awkward time for actions and appearance thru those years made it very difficult to go to school each and every day.  It seemed everyone was more suave, beautiful, graceful, and generally more together than you.  The world in general seemed very small and tended to shrink with each passing day.  The feeling that everyone was talking about you as you walked thru those halls, the looks that people cut as you quickly passed by.  The humerous part of all this, is that now as you look back you realize that you weren't the only one who felt this way.  Everyone just had a different was of showing it...but horribly alone you still felt.  But there were those few..."the golden ones" who pranced thru their life without a care in the world.  Holding everything together with no stress and without a care in the world, or so it seemed.  So sure of themselves that anyone who didn't live up to their standards were emotional tortured and for a few unlucky even physically. They were definitely high on a pedestal. Most of us were jealous of this and did everything we could to try and fit in, to conform, to mold ourselves into them.  And when we couldn't we hid, shrank into ourselves and waited...

Then real life comes on and we slowly climb outside of ourselves to realize that that life was a fallacy.  It wasn't real , that isn't how life works.  The "nerds" ruled in ways that they never understood was possible.  The musicians control the mood of the world with the notes that they sing and melodies they strum for us. The writers found their own niche and gave us the gift of perception other than our own.  Each person slowly finds their own spot, their safe zone, their own pedestal.  The ones that are lucky enough to realize that this is real life, excel. Their wings are spread wide and they fly high.  There is more to life than high school...wow there is more to life than the clothes you wear, how beautiful you are, dating the proper person, driving the nicest car, sitting at the popular table in the cafeteria.... or is there....

Oddly enough, high school still does exist in big boy and girl adult world... it is still about who you know, what you wear, who you date or are married to, what car you drive and if you have a special spot at the popular table...it does still exist!!  Some of us have just learned that it doesn't matter.  The most important realization that a person can have.  It doesn't matter...are you happy? Does the life you live fulfill you? That is what matters, no matter what table you are sitting at, or neighborhood you live in..are you fulfilled.  Do you smile from the inside out and do you enjoy the pedestal that you have forged for you and your family?

You can live with the high school mentality and gossip, point fingers at everyone else and make peoples lives difficult.  But take a minute and look in the mirror and see your reflection, your true reflection and realize that this isn't life...that is high school.  Those of us who have chosen to move on, have grown into ourselves.  Maybe looks, maybe feelings, confidence, securities...whatever it may be we have aged gracefully and we have excelled in our chosen path, our chosen destiny. We have climbed high and we have finally reached our pedestal...