Life Lessons From My Time As A Kisser

Senior year. I had become terribly ill with a case of the flu, which would take me a few weeks to kick. For once in my life, I actually hated to miss school. I had my first boyfriend. The two of us, along with our group of friends, had a select spot where we hung out in the mornings as we waited for the bell to ring---seated on the floor leaning against the lockers in the Business hall. I was an upperclassman, ranked 9th in my class, got to leave school after lunch and drive in my own car to a co-op job where my minimum wage made me feel rich....and I had a boyfriend. Life had never been so amazing.

Then the flu slowed me down for a few miserable weeks. But my distress turned to embarrassed horror one afternoon when my boyfriend called, and his groggy voice croaked, "I'm sick. I think I've got the flu too. I had to leave school early....They're all joking, you know...since we're both sick. They're saying we got it from kissing."

My weary eyes bugged out, and panic seized me. Oh no! I thought. As ecstatic as I was about having a boyfriend--- as excited as I had been about having my first kiss---I was still on the shy side and despised being the center of attention. The thought of returning to school and having friends tease me about kissing seemed like the ultimate humiliation. What would I do? What would I say? I could say that the flu was going around and lots of people were getting it because that was really true. Everyone was getting it! Even people who weren't kissing each other!

But further compounding my torment, my boyfriend added, "They're saying we might have mono."

"No!!" I exclaimed. Not mono! Not 'the kissing disease!' I would have no excuse then. Mono was proof that you had been kissing, right? I would have to go to the doctor, get tested for mono---then the doctors, nurses, my family, friends, EVERYONE would be laughing about my new kissing activity. "But---but there are other ways to get mono too! AREN'T there?!" I asked my boyfriend anxiously. "Like drinking out of someone's glass or---"

"Nope," he interrupted knowledgeably, "you can only get mono from kissing. That's the only way."
 
I was 18 years old and had thought I'd reached adulthood, until this possible diagnosis of mono led me straight into adolescent turmoil. The jig was up: my boyfriend and I had been kissing. I imagined with dread the teasing that would ensue whenever I was well enough to again walk down the halls of W.E.H.S. My peers must surely be appalled at the shocking changes I had made between '95 and '96: I had eased back on my obsessive studying and lightened my stress load by selecting fewer AP classes and taking Teacher's Aide, Library Aide, and Office Aide instead---enjoying the perks of completing my required credits a year early. My GPA had dropped to a mere 3.95, and a teacher once said "shhh" to me for giggling. And now kissing?! If my transformation had also included a tendency towards cussing, I would've exclaimed, "What the heck is going on with me?!"

I fretted and agonized every day of those few weeks I was sick, until an eventual recovery confirmed that neither my boyfriend nor I had 'the kissing disease,' and we returned to school. Although close friends teased and jabbed, the taunting was not as bad as I had feared, since many of our friends had also come down with the flu, and the school had to close for a few days due to the large number of absences.

And life went on. My peers adjusted to the changes in me. Their initial shock at the quiet honor student who had never dated and was now (in my mind) also a kisser, eventually faded.

I sometimes remind myself of this when I want to venture out in an area of my life---learn a new skill, stand up for myself, wear an outfit different than my norm, pull myself out of the restricting box of expectations that has been constructed around me.

I can change.
I can be bold.
I can choose what is best for me.
I can learn to live without fear of others' opinions.

And life will go on.

Maybe better than before.


Does anyone have any high school memories that actually became 
a life lesson on down the road? Please share your memories here!