... is living a good life, or so they say.
When I was growing up as a Monster/Sci fi kid, I was definitely the "outsider" of my class, and social group. I was the fat kid who always had his face buried in a copy of F&SF, or a copy of Starlog or FM... I was the one who was always going to movies alone, or else with one or two other "social outcasts" who shared the same love for the fantastic. Sadly, it also meant that we got tormented by the other kids, almost constantly. (I remember coming home from gym class, covered in welts and bruises, thanks to the aptly named "murder ball," or the times I was beaten up in the locker areas.) Dating? Forget it.
But time has been a great reversal of fortune, since junior high and high school.
I was on the phone the other night with my Mom, who was giving me the skinny on the latest "small town scandals." One of the news items she mentioned to me concerned one of my childhood tormentors, who apparently was caught shipping a small brick of grass via the USPS. A dope sniffing dog went nuts at his package as it went by on the conveyor... The fact that he put a return address on the package was his undoing. He recently pulled eight years for it. (Maybe serve two, with good behavior.)
This got me to thinking, and I pulled out my old high school yearbook, and started going down the pictures... and thinking of where I knew they were today... of the bullies, one is now serving time, one had comitted suicide about ten years after graduation. (the reasons are unclear... he had a long term problem with depression) One is living alone, after his wife and kids disappeared one night when he was out drinking with his buddies again (there are rumors that he was abusive to his family...and he is long term unemployed), and one had died of cancer with AIDS complications. (Oddly enough, he was the one always slinging gay insults at me in school... projection?) There are others, mainly ones who moved away from my small town as I did, and didn't look back, I guess. Somehow, I doubt they are having a good time of it... but maybe that's just me indulging in a bit of schidenfrude...
I wish I could say that I felt sorry for these guys, but I just can't. If I feel anything at all about them, it's a grim satisfaction in knowing that their thug behavior didn't serve them at all well in the real world.
On the flip side, the one or two guys I hung around with are doing famously. Don is in CA, working for a microwave communications company, has a ten year long marriage and two kids... and Kenny is still back in my home town, and owns a small computer repair business of his own. He's been dating the same girl now for six years, and one of these days, I imagine they'll get around to tying the knot.
Anyone else have this sort of expereince... sort of a twisted, "It gets better" story arc?
When I was growing up as a Monster/Sci fi kid, I was definitely the "outsider" of my class, and social group. I was the fat kid who always had his face buried in a copy of F&SF, or a copy of Starlog or FM... I was the one who was always going to movies alone, or else with one or two other "social outcasts" who shared the same love for the fantastic. Sadly, it also meant that we got tormented by the other kids, almost constantly. (I remember coming home from gym class, covered in welts and bruises, thanks to the aptly named "murder ball," or the times I was beaten up in the locker areas.) Dating? Forget it.
But time has been a great reversal of fortune, since junior high and high school.
I was on the phone the other night with my Mom, who was giving me the skinny on the latest "small town scandals." One of the news items she mentioned to me concerned one of my childhood tormentors, who apparently was caught shipping a small brick of grass via the USPS. A dope sniffing dog went nuts at his package as it went by on the conveyor... The fact that he put a return address on the package was his undoing. He recently pulled eight years for it. (Maybe serve two, with good behavior.)
This got me to thinking, and I pulled out my old high school yearbook, and started going down the pictures... and thinking of where I knew they were today... of the bullies, one is now serving time, one had comitted suicide about ten years after graduation. (the reasons are unclear... he had a long term problem with depression) One is living alone, after his wife and kids disappeared one night when he was out drinking with his buddies again (there are rumors that he was abusive to his family...and he is long term unemployed), and one had died of cancer with AIDS complications. (Oddly enough, he was the one always slinging gay insults at me in school... projection?) There are others, mainly ones who moved away from my small town as I did, and didn't look back, I guess. Somehow, I doubt they are having a good time of it... but maybe that's just me indulging in a bit of schidenfrude...
I wish I could say that I felt sorry for these guys, but I just can't. If I feel anything at all about them, it's a grim satisfaction in knowing that their thug behavior didn't serve them at all well in the real world.
On the flip side, the one or two guys I hung around with are doing famously. Don is in CA, working for a microwave communications company, has a ten year long marriage and two kids... and Kenny is still back in my home town, and owns a small computer repair business of his own. He's been dating the same girl now for six years, and one of these days, I imagine they'll get around to tying the knot.
Anyone else have this sort of expereince... sort of a twisted, "It gets better" story arc?
