No high school reunions for me and the unanswered question finally gets answered
Unlike Rob, I won't be attending my 30 year high school reunion. I was one of only two people in the group I hung out with that actually graduated and the only one in my class (the other guy was a year younger.) Now this wasn't a stereotypical group of lazy drug using teenagers. My friends were intelligent and hard-working and that's precisely why they decided not to waste years of their life in a school that was teaching them nothing and sucking up time they could spend gaining skills and earning a living. Had they gone to Rob's high school, who knows, they might have stuck around and aimed for a college scholarship. As it was, they aced the GED test after 9th grade and went off to become electricians and mechanics and construction workers who had time off to play in the evenings and on weekends. I, on the other hand, stayed in school while flipping burgers on my evenings and weekends. And I did it simply because my getting a high school diploma was something that was very important to my parents. My parents were the children of immigrants and for them going to school was a privilege, something they had to juggle in between work. It wasn't work just so they could get a few bucks to buy a car, it was work that was needed just to help the family survive. My mom had to quit high school to go work as a live-in maid so she could send the money she made back home to help feed her younger sisters and brothers. My father did manage to graduate high school since work that could be done around a school schedule was a bit easier to find for men in those days, but it wasn't easy working full-time and going to school at the same time while still attending to farm chores. Therefore, the "high school diploma" was a big deal to my folks and despite all my teenage angst and rebelliousness, I just couldn't let them down on that one. And so I, every bit my father's daughter, proceeded to go to school from 7:30am to 3:30pm and then work from 4:00pm to midnight. But not five days a week, just three.. well, maybe four or five because someone quit or called in sick. And oh yes, I understood that I couldn't be paid for running the grill (even though I was) because only men were allowed to hold that job, but I wanted the experience. And yes, I understood that I couldn't be a manager until I turned 18 but I went ahead and worked like one because I wanted the experience. Rinse and repeat that at various other employers for the next 30 years to get to my current job and guess why I'm still there? I want the experience. Blarg.