Drama

I'm sure we have all had those moments in life where we have come across pivotal advice. For me, the nugget I always go back to came to me when I was a senior in high school.

My only sibling- my sister- was a sophomore in college when I was 17. She had enrolled and started at Texas Tech University when I was 16 years old and a junior in high school. By the time I was a senior, I was used to her being away and being the sole focus of both of my parents day in and day out.

My senior year, I was president of the student body, secretary of the BLHS choir, caption of the Mock Trial team, a trainer for the softball team and a member of the INTERACT club and committee. Obviously, I was busy and, arguably, over committed.

I had had an incident-- the details of which I still remember to this day- and I called my sister. A club similar to StuCo and one that was supposed to be a "sister" committee had started some drama at BL and my Student Council moderator was on my case about the fall out.

It was as if Sandra Bullock were hosting a dinner party at Tao- and Lindsay Lohan showed up wearing the same dress-- but was pissed, after the fact that Lindsay showed, and Sandra made mention of the wardrobe faux pas and it caused an uproar.

That is the best way to describe the issue. Point being, it was incredibly superficial, but it started drama with the inferior club at my high school, and I, as the main representative of my organization, had to address this seemingly frivolous issue with diplomacy and tact when I felt it was nonsense to begin with. Add adult pressure on top of it, and I was unnerved.

So, I called my sister. And she was inexplicably patient. She heard my entire spiel about the affair- from start to finish- and never interrupted. She listened to my subsequent complaints about all of it and when I finally shut up, I said, "what do you think?"

And this is when she gave me some of the best advice I have ever gotten. She said, "Lindsey, in 5 years, do you think this will matter?"

Well, duh, that answer was hands-down unequivocally, NO. And I said that as much to her. To which she responded, "I wish I had the problems now, in college, that I did in high school. You will get to a point, that you will wish for high school problems, because college problems an beyond are much more important and difficult."

At the time, I didn't get it and our conversation ended abruptly. But, it was not too long after that conversation that I understood exactly what she meant.

I am far out of college now- both undergrad and graduate school, and I still wish for "high school" or even "college" problems here and now...in retrospect to what I am dealing with.

And why this is all relevant-- I was put in a networking position this evening, and was asked to identify possible colleagues from a pool of individuals I might know. The primordial understanding being that some of these people had been asked the same question, and it was clear that the presence of my name indicated directly whether or not they wanted to acknowledge me as an acquaintance, and I could tell from some of the names still available, that my name had come up and been surpassed...and I can directly pinpoint why, now, for reasons that are as a result of college drama.

And when that realization hit me, my first flash of memory came back to my sister and her wise words: "I wish I had the problems now that you do in high school."

Because the "problems" in question I think back to from college, may as well be from a Sweet Valley Twins novel from high school. The setting may be dissimilar, but the tenets are all the same. The drama I experienced in college is similar to the same crap I dealt with in high school: superficial, heresy, and immaterial to life itself.

And essentially what it made me realize, is that, I truly do wish I had the problems I did in high school. And beyond that, I wish I had the problems I did in college. To be honest, I am absolutely FLOORED that now, at 25- almost 26- years of age, am STILL answering tho situations that have passed over 3-4 years ago. When you decide to take a real job, move to a specific city, take a WIFE (or a husband) and set your sights on procreating, where is the place in your life for holding on to the past?

I don't get it.

We all graduated from high school 6 years ago, and college 4 years ago. When are you adult enough to let the past be the past? Mistakes be nothing more than that? And wishes nothing more than conversation meant for dreams? When do you choose to leave drama where it belongs? In the past?

You would think.