Skip to main content

I am who I am

With my 20-year high school reunion coming up, I am wondering who has been doing what. Fortunately, some of the reunion organizers created a web page that allows us to enter info about ourselves, family, job, favorite high school memory, etc. (this is my equivalent of Facebook!). I find myself checking this site every day just to see who has posted what. A few of us have this shared memory that involves leaving a dead grouse on the lawn of our biggest football rival. I am still trying to remember everyone who was in the car and who was the one who almost got ran over (two people insist it was me, which seems believable given my coordination). Another classmate was reminiscing about the time I had about 10 people over drinking what we should not have been and my parents came home a day early. Good times.

Most of all, I am thinking about what I have accomplished since high school and how I now care so much less about what I have done than I did for my 10-year reunion. A couple months before the 10-year one, a few of us at the company where I work asked my boss if we could change our title from "editorial assistant" to "editor." Once we assured my boss he would not have to pay us more money, he said he did not care what we called ourselves. For me, I just thought editor would sound more impressive in the reunion booklet.

But fast-forward 10 years, and I no longer care so much what people think. Why does a certain title make one successful? I do admit when I filled out what I had done over the past 20 years, I realized most of my accomplishments (scant as they were) came in the first 15; I really have not done much since having a kid. But what bothered me most was that I did more "good" back then, both to my body (when I lived at the gym) and to the world (or at least the Burgh, with my volunteer work).

I also had vowed to lose at least 10 pounds before the reunion. I have gained almost 15 pounds since graduation, and it would be nice to be that high school size again. But I weigh now about what I did at the 10-year reunion, so why try to fool anyone? Does it really matter?

What I think counts most is the kind of person you are. I try to be a good person, and Lord knows I need to try harder, but to me that is something. Treating others as you would want to be treated is important, way more so than a nice title, a huge house, and a size 6 body.

In a few months, I may change my mind and start begging my boss for a better title or I may start picking up a dumbbell again, but don't count on it.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
You said it, you are who you are. Size does not matter (as long as you are healthy). Be glad to have a job in this economy! Great pic by the way.
January 30, 2009 at 10:36 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why do they stand up there and say that when they are just lying?

That extra-long title is courtesy of my nine-year-old and was something she uttered during "Say Yes to the Dress" on Friday evening. I watch very little reality TV, but I make an exception for this show because I like to look at the dresses. And sometimes, the stories are heart-warming. Typically at the end of the show, a snippet of a wedding is aired. In this particular show, a woman who was confined to a wheelchair was exchanging vows with her fiance. After the two of them finished, J made her comment. I asked her what she meant as I must have been on the computer while the TV was on, and she explained that because so many people just get divorced, why do they even say "as long as we both shall live"? That is tough one, kid. I tried with what I thought was a sound explanation: Most of the people who get married truly believe they will be together the rest of their lives, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. But if you don't think that you will be ...
10 comments
Read more

What a year 2021 has been (Day 7)

I have almost no words for what happened yesterday at the Capitol. Protesting is one thing (though I truly think it is and has been time to move on). But to storm the Capitol? A friend on Facebook said, quite simply, " Almost 20 years ago a group of people on an airplane sacrificed themselves to protect the Capitol. How far we have fallen!" Indeed. And, yes, it IS storming the Capitol. I have seen numerous videos of people knocking down barricades/fences, pushing police officers, and breaking windows and climbing through them. That is beyond protesting. And even if a protestor did not do those things, if they followed those seditionists past those barricades and into the building, they are just as guilty. I did not support the violent protests this summer that resulted in damages to businesses and public property (I was in full support of the actual protests). But I also acknowledged as a white person, I cannot truly put myself in the position of a black person who is angry a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Disenfranchised Republican

When I went to vote this a.m., I handed my ID to the guy, since my last name can be tricky. He looked for several minutes in the box with the cards. Then he asked if I was in the right place (there is another area in this room, for people in a different neighborhood, I presume). And I told him that this is where I have always voted. He then reviewed the bound paper list, found my name, but could not figure out why it was there, yet not in the box with the cards. Then he realized what was going on and rather exclaimed, "Oh, you are a Republican!" One of the ladies sitting next to him said, "Oh, one of those." I said I assumed they had not seen too many of "my kind" that morning, and she said I was the third. Then, being the open person I am, I eagerly said I was coming to rock the vote and vote for Ron Paul. One of the women commented that she liked some of the things he had stood for, perhaps to try to make me feel as if I was not voting for a terrible per...
9 comments
Read more