It’s ironic that me, of all people, would be writing about high school. I graduated a year early, skipped graduation, missed prom, and felt like I was never at school. I can recreate and imagine what my memories would have been like, but the truth is, I was the most anti-high schooler I knew. I attended night school in order to advance in credits and skip a year. I spent my prom night plopped in front of the family’s desktop chatting in AIM chat rooms and slept in during my high school graduation. Looking back, I wonder if I missed out on the typical high school moments you’d find in movies.
High school wasn’t all that bad for me, though. It provided the right amount of angst to get out and do something. I always knew there was something bigger for me out there (in the real world) and found solace on the bus rides home from school blasting Television’s “Venus” on my Walkman. The moments on the bus allowed me to fantasize and listen to mix CDs on repeat. I’d close my eyes and imagine what the music video would look like; coincidentally, making music videos is what I am doing now, post-school. It was the little moments that shaped me and my interests—not the big high school events. I lived online and in my head. Daydreaming, plus the right amount of boredom, helped me create and fill after-school hours with creative activities like blogging and watching films. These images represent a sort of ode, or even goodbye, to the things I missed out on without regrets, but also pay tribute to the memories made and missed.