by Julie Hockenberry Hicks

Created on: May 27, 2010

A Room Full of Jars

There’s the geek squad‘s official poster child and the captain of the cheerleading team.
They’re now happily married with a fluffy white mutt in a house by a stream.

The guy voted most likely to succeed stuffs envelopes between odd jobs every now and then.
He never actually said what he puts in them.

The Goth girl now sports blonde hair, wears anything but black, and is a lawyer these days.  
And also a lesbian. Guess her Emo boyfriend and she parted ways.

Then there’s me. I wasn’t friends enough with math and science to be hailed a nerd.
And I was too socially awkward and shy to be one of the theater herd.

I never had a label to erroneously predict my future fate.
I was just one of the miscellaneous strange quiet high school inmates.

It dawns on me as I look around at familiar strangers and find myself again trying to blend in.
Our supposed marks or lack thereof during the four years don’t make us who we are and they didn’t define us then.

Those former titles are like stickers on jars left soaking in a sink full of soapy water all day.
Labels that seemed so permanent can peel if we put enough effort in to scratch them away.

Learn more about this author, Julie Hockenberry Hicks.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.