Does Anyone Get Over High School?

I am currently reading a novel entitled "Best Friends Forever" by Jennifer Weiner. It took only the summary of the novel for me to get interested in this story. I can relate to this thing easily.

In this novel, it talk about the lives of two girls who has been best friends since they were nine years old. Then come to their teenage years. Betrayal kicks in. In the midst of it all, one of them became the outcast while the other one is swept away into the popular crowd. So in this novel, you get to see what was the became the end of their friendship, and how they each changed fifteen years later, around the time of their high school reunion.

The second I started reading it got me thinking about everyday life. We can be the most successful people in the world. We can have billions of dollars with millions of people adoring us because of our creativity. But in the core of it all, we will never forget that we used to be the outcast. No one cared about us at the time. No one didn't care about our creativity.

Then once you become successful those same people that once rejected you from high school are now spending over $300 of their money just to spend some time with you in the VIP section. It's like they never knew they used to pick on you. They have smiles on their face, spending time with you because they either like you as a person, or like you because you are rich.

Once you walk out of that high school door for the last time, you are more excited than you have ever been. However, you will never forget what the school has done to you. It's like high school left you an invisible scar on your back and you will never get it off.

When it comes to life does anyone get over high school?

Are You Still The Same Person From High School?

I don't think of high school that much. The memories of those four years are slipping away by the minute. It's kind of weird when you think about it. People say that high school is supposed to scar you for life whether it's good or bad. And yet, here I am, not really affected by high school.

All I remember is being that silent, still kind, shy person that was hardly talking to anyone. I was very private about my life due to my dysfunctional family, being bullied because I was the guy who was into technology and glee club instead of sports, and the struggle to accept my sexuality. I wasn't open about my life at all. It was a very difficult time.

I was not only on a journey towards accepting myself, but also looking for true friendships and true love. Everybody knows that when you break up with someone in high school, it feels like the end of the world. I sure had my share of those relationships and went through the emotions. The same thing applies to friendships.

Then once graduation was slowly approaching, I began to change. It all started when I sat down in a chair and said to myself "Do you love yourself? Do you accept everything about yourself as a gay man who loves glee club and computers? And do you give a damn about what others think about you?"

It was then that I became the person I am now. I am now this confident, calm, kind person who is completely open about his life. I am letting out all of this large amount of natural energy every day. I am now not afraid to tell people my stories. I even make a living writing and talking about my funny life. Ain't that a coincidence?

By the time graduation even came, everyone knew that I was different. I was still kind and friendly to everyone, but they knew I had this fiery temper if you pushed my buttons to the limit. I can deal with a lot of things. I have tough skin and a large amount of patience. However, if I am pushed to the max (and I'm talking about days of dealing with crap), that's when I explode. And back in school, if I exploded, everyone noticed it. My balls grew bigger and I knew how to use them.

When I look back at the person I was, I don't even see him anymore. He is fading away completely. I always thought that I would still be that same person. Not the depressed man, but the quiet, private person who wouldn't want to talk to anybody about his life. The only thing that's the same about me is that I'm still the shy type. I can't help it. It's stuck with me.

After years of leaving those four years behind, are you still that same person from high school?

Person of the Week: A Black Valedictorian Is Recognized 75 Years after Graduation

Pittsburgh School Denied her the Honor in 1936 Because of Race, Family Says

Fannetta Nelson Gordon was finally recognized yesterday as the valedictorian of Westinghouse High School in Pittsburgh—an honor denied her in 1936 because of her race

Gordon died three years ago at age 88, but her sister, Sophia Phillips Nelson, 93, attended the ceremony sponsored by the Westinghouse Alumni Association.

"It was just so emotionally heartfelt to see the 93-year-old woman take the award for her sister," says lawyer Reggie Bridges, head of the alumni group. "The room was in tears."

"I wish Fannetta could have been there," said Phillips Nelson. "She was a brilliant girl and determined."

So determined, her family says, that Gordon overcame the wrong that was done to her when the school principal pressured music teacher Carl McVicker to change Gordon's grade from an A to a B so she wouldn't be first in her class—an honor that her older sister, Sophia, had achieved two years earlier. The principal didn't want two black valedictorians within two years, the family says.

Gordon—whose official transcript ranked her fourth in the 155-student class—went on to become the accompanist for the National Negro Opera Company and played at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Hall. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, she became a high school German and English teacher and later was named by the governor as a senior adviser for English and foreign languages in the state Education Department.

But she never got over being deprived of her rightful status as valedictorian, her family says. "It was one of the most painful episodes of her life," says her niece, Gloria Wofford. "He erased her A and gave her a B because she was black."

Phillips Nelson said she and other students were aware of what had happened at the time. "We knew. Unfortunately, they were principal and music teacher—we were just youngsters."

The reality at the time for African-Americans, she said, was to tolerate injustices: "Just take it."

The recognition ceremony Thursday came about when Bridges reviewed the transcript and other records. "As clear as day you can see where the grades were changed in music," he said. "You can see erasure marks. " Her earlier music grades were all As, he said.

The Pittsburgh School District has not officially recognized Gordon as valedictorian. "It does appear there were erasure marks on the transcript—we can't confirm the back story" because the principal and music teacher are dead, said spokeswoman Ebony Pugh. "What the district does recognize is that Fannetta Nelson Gordon was a high-achieving student."

In the 1930s when the sisters attended the school, Westinghouse High School was about 5 to 10 percent African-American, whereas today the school is 97 percent black. The school—whose famous alumni include supermodel Naomi Sims and jazz composer Billy Strayhorn, the soloist at Sophia's graduation—will become two single-sex academies next year.

"Our school is in trouble," says Bridges. "This is just the kind of thing to remind [today's students]—quit making excuses. If these sisters could do it in the 1930s, you can do it."

"We hope that they will take a lesson from this and not let anything stop them," says Gloria Wofford.