The Cool Kids ~ Then & Now

When I hear the Echosmith song "Cool Kids" I am transported back to the 1980's of Taft Junior High and Crown Point High School (CPHS ~ Home of the Dawgs)!!

 

Partly because the music is so 80's!  But the biggest reason that draws me...I did feel that way at times in my impressionable years.

 

Now, I look back and hear myself saying..."What was I thinking?!?"

 

But we don't know it then.  We just want to be where things are happening.  We don't often know who we are and with whom we truly click.  We want to be part of the "it" crowd!  We want to be looked upon with awe, maybe a tiny bit of teenage worship.  We want to be one of the people within whose stratosphere other people want to gravitate!!!

I was having a lot of personal (family) struggles at that time in my life.  I look back and think that there must have been times I was on auto-pilot!  I think many of my fellow classmates were having silent struggles of their own.  If only we knew to share our issues and find the support we needed from friends who could understand the trials and tribulations, beyond the typical teenage angst.

I did have great times in high school with those who would be considered the "not so cool" kids!  If I could go back, I would seek out more of those times and deeper friendships with the others who were much more like me.
 

If I could go back, there are so so many things I would do differently.  One of the most important being :  search out the "oddballs," find the people who were really having fun, just being themselves!!! 

I believe the instability and insecurity I was experiencing in my home/family life, left me somewhat flailing and unable to find any direction, let alone figure out who "Jennie Long" was and what her future might hold.
 

Thankfully, as I have grown up, I have found more of who I am (tho I am always still searching and learning) and I have found awesome, unique (aka odd), fun, authentic, witty, talented and loving people who get me and really like me, who support and encourage me, who aren't exclusionary but rather find the similarities in all of our differences.  The NEW Cool Kids!!  The REAL Cool Kids!!

 

I cling to many of them virtually and so often wish I could be part of their lives, maybe not daily, but weekly or even monthly.  I wish I had the money to fly in to see them or fly us all together in mini reunions and gatherings, our own Conventions!!

 

This year, I intend to convey my love, respect, appreciation and gratitude to them, many of whom come from "the old days" and others are fresh faces, having just come on my scene in the past handful of years.  All treasures, all unique, all badass mammajammas!