I started using this moldy old photoooo on Facebook and Twitter recently (and I’ll probably change it again soon). A few people, even some I knew in high school, have thought that this was my senior picture. It is not. It is my ninth grade pic. I found it on my computer. I don’t even think I have a copy of it around here, except in my ninth grade yearbook. I think that The Engineer found a large version of it in The Commander’s house a few years ago and scanned it.

First off, I also think that I could be mistaken for a high school senior in this pic. The trajectory of my life has been that I looked older than I was until I was about 16 and then I looked younger than I was until I was 40. I can’t remember the last time I got carded for buying “whine” but I know I was over 50 (and yes, I think the clerk was delusional). I have yet to get carded in the other direction, i.e., “we have a special for senior citizens”. I am an old bag now and I know my time is coming.

What surprises me about this picture is the 5000-watt smile! I *smiled* in my freshman year of high school? Now that I am an old bag, I smile like that all the time. Except for the slodgy and thankfully few and far-between days when I don’t. Back then? Smile? Really? Man oh man. I’m not sure I remember that! I remember all the angst and drama about being a teenager all too well. And yet. There were fun times too, even then. Off the top of my head, I can remember falling while downhill skiing and lying in the snow laughing hysterically at how ridiculous I probably looked. I won’t bore y’all with other incidents.

Is that really me? Yes, it is. But life has been good to me, even when it isn’t, and I have finally grown into that smile.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 at 5:58 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.