OMG. THIS IS SO HIGH SCHOOL, OBVI.

Full post HERE!

You are no better than anyone else. You are no better than anyone else. You are no better than anyone else. You are no better than anyone else. You are no better than anyone else…

Or, perhaps:

Stop judging everyone. Stop judging everyone. Stop judging everyone. Stop judging everyone. Stop judging everyone. Stop judging everyone. Stop judging everyone…

Before I proceed any further, though, I just want to make sure that we’re all clear here in what exactly it is I’m doing, um, here.

I mean, you do know what I’m doing here, right?

OK, well, just in case you don’t, it’s that whole after-school punishment-slash-detention activity of writing lines (which is still a form of discipline in education systems these days, right?).

OK, well, if not (and given the sordid state of education in the United States these days, I’ll just go ahead and ass-u-me that you have no idea what I’m talking about), it’s when you’re held behind after class is dismissed because you got caught screwing around and you have to pay your dues (i.e. penance or imposition depending on where you received your lower level education (no pun intended, of course)) for the purposes of teaching you to be a little more like an adult and to embrace self-flagellation as a means of bettering yourself and improving your behavior.

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!

In case you forget and a HT at the best Sunday night lineup ever (The Simpsons + The X-Files)

OK, that was, admittedly a weird and tangential way of starting a post, but my point is this:

I came into work the other day to find and/or experience the following:

(1) A coworker and the gal he’s “seeing” (seeing being the operative term here since she’s still very much married to the man with whom she has a four-year-old daughter with) getting cozy in the hallway. Yes, the hallway. I mean, minus the lockers, it was like so high school, obvi.

Like, ew. Just, ew.

(2) Then there was the whole conversation that took place in a circle. Like the cool kids were talking in the circle while the not-so cool kids were, well, not talking and not in the circle. They proceeded to stand, however, near the circle and very much so telegraphing that they wanted, no, they yearned, to be in the circle. Which, is like, so totally lame. So. Totally. Lame.

(3) This was all followed, of course, by the exclusive lunch that only some folks got invited to (not me, obvi). The ‘kids’ who got to go to the cool-kids lunch came back a little drunk, which is like a total no-no at work, right? But, was like so totally badass because by coming back tipsy they were, in essence, sticking it to ‘the man’. I was so totally jealous. Not.

Regardless of whether or not I’m deemed mature or immature (definitely the latter), I felt as though I’d been transported (against my will, of course) back to high school, which is the last place I want to be as a 29-year-old woman-child-being.

But before I lead you to believe that I was actually cool in high school (I wasn’t), I ought to revisit the beginning of this post in order to end it on similar terms: stop judging other people and stop thinking you’re better than everyone else.

Yea, still my happy place (bibliophiles unite!)

High school and small mountain towns are just tough environments to live in. There are people all over the place doing their thing, but forgetting that they live in a very small fishbowl with prying eyes and ears just waiting to divulge their deepest, darkest secrets…

and for what? So, they (i.e. the teller) can feel good about themselves?

My goodness, what does this say about us as a culture and a society?

Will any of us ever really grow up?

I doubt it, but maybe that’s OK.

I mean, what do I know of other people’s happiness? I’m miserable!

OK, not really, but I’m certainly not happy and was reminded that achieving happiness and/or success in life are entirely up to you. I know that sounds stupid, but you achieve them based on how you define them.

Again, duh.

But I think that’s why I’m unhappy: I just don’t know how to define them.

What’s worse? I also think that my eyes have been so wide open to possibilities that I’m doomed to never be happy or successful or even remotely satisfied because I know and want to know so much.

Hm, almost sounds like I’m complementing myself, which I’m not, bee tee dubs.

But seriously, I’m not!

I guess I’m just slow in realizing that I haven’t grown up very much and am not much more than a high schooler myself. Sad as that is to admit.

But I’m going to keep living and growing and I encourage you to do the same.

So long as you aren’t happy and successful. If you are, though, please, please stick your head in the sand and carry on!