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I was introverted and shy, and was not a presence at all in my high school in Utah. My dad was in the air force, and I got sent to Utah schools from 5th to the beginning of 10th grade. I don't know if the Mormon kids just hated me or what, but I was miserable.

Then we moved to England, and I went to school at Greenham Common AFB, where they kept the nukes during the cold war. It was an odd time and place... there were "peace ladies" camped outside the gate 24 hours a day every day of the year protesting our use of the land, and the nukes, of course. At one point, before I got there, a hundred thousand of them linked arms and surrounded the base. It was us against the locals.

In a way, that was good for me. Even though I wasn't much to speak of, the kids I went to school with were practically forced to be my friends. For once I mattered! I made a lot of friends, joined the tennis team and got a letter jacket, and by my senior year I was one of seven senior guys (small school... kindergarten to 12th grade was about 300 kids). I was a big deal! Plus, I did the cover for my senior yearbook, and I was on the staff, so I made sure I got represented, but not to the point I was obviously spreading myself all over the book.

The school closed in 91, right after I graduated. Worldwide budget cuts and winding down. The cold war was over. The school opened a few months before I got there. So the school really was mine, and my classmates'.

I only kept in touch with one guy, and even he and I fell apart for six years, until email and the internet came in in a big way. We're all spread around the world now, and there was apparently some attempt to have a reunion a few weeks ago for the seniors two years ahead of me (the first graduating class of the school in 1989). I didn't go, though it was open to everybody, since the main group going didn't have anyone from my circle. Now I have a group of people I check in with now and then, including my old high school girlfriend, who's married but hotter than ever. I'm much closer with the high school friends than college. I didn't have a car in college, or much money, and didn't drink, so I didn't fit in at all. Plus, the friends that I did have, I usually knew their first names, but after 15 years I can't remember their last names, and have no way to find them even if I could be bothered. I'm not even sure what year a lot of them graduated, because I knew people ahead of me and younger than me... assuming people graduated on time.

All in all, high school helped me come out of my shell and grow a lot more than college did... although college was more fun because I was older and had more freedom.

I still pull my Greenham Common Cobras letter jacket out every now and then (in colder weather, because it's heavy and hot) and wear it to the movies or whatever. Apparently, one of my classmates works within walking distance of me (a huge coincidence, considering we were in England, and now here in Denver) and I'm trying to see if I can catch his attention with it.