First, I would like to address the popular girls. Yes your hair, clothes and makeup may have been "on fleek" while we were in grade school, but I would like to tell you that I have thoroughly enjoyed watching your Instagram posts evolve into makeup-less days of sweatpants and the messiest messy buns.
Next, I would like to address the jocks. Yes, every girl wanted to look their best at your games to try to catch your attention, but I hope you are enjoying the anonymity of your large college teams and the preoccupied students not vying for your attention.
The people who always tore me down come to mind next. I would like you all to know that I am finally comfortable in my own skin that your words no longer tattoo. No more do I hear your belittling comments echoing in my head when I look in the mirror. I have outgrown you.
I can now afford clothes that would have lived up to the expectations of the popular girls, but now I buy them for me, not to impress you. I now have the pride in myself that every high school jock loses as soon as they reach college. What all of you lost when you abandoned your small bubble of the high school society you thought you would never leave, I gained.
Most of you never had a sense of the real world, so your freshman year at college was a real smack in the face. I however and finally free of the small cliques of high school and happy in the real world.
To the friends I haven't seen since we walked across the stage. We were there for each other's every day, five days a week, for twelve years of our lives. I think we deserve some time apart. We will be the friends that will reconnect when our kids are on the same sports teams or we reach out to have coffee together and are still able to pick up right where we left off the day we left the double doors of our academy.
To those I never befriended. I regret my decisions. I wish I had bonded deeply with everyone who would have given me the chance. I missed so many great opportunities to build memories and connections
To all the people I left behind in high school: you may be behind me, but you are still with me. Without each of you and how you affected me - both good and bad - I wouldn't be who I am today. So I thank you.
