Wow. It's been 20 years since 1988, the year I graduated high school. 1988 was a flurry of super mega hold hairspray, dark eyeliner, and big decisions. Where would I go from here? I could have never predicted the crazy paths my life has taken.

I don't remember high school as being an extremely happy time for me. I was not easily categorized into one of the convenient Breakfast Club-style stereotypes of prom queen, jock, rebel, nerd, or misfit. I am not filled with misty-eyed nostalgia when I look back at the years I spent at my school. Don’t get me wrong—I remember good times as well as bad, laughter as well as tears, unfettered joy as well as painful peer pressure. I had good friends and we cracked jokes and rode through the crazy times together.

Recently, I was contacted by the reunion committee for my school. They built a website where all the people of my class could get communicate, build a profile, find out information about the impending reunion. I came to this website with a huge chip on my shoulder—I felt invisible while I was in school, why would I want to be a part of this? So I visited the site. I built my profile. I found some old friends and reconnected. I heard from people who told me I made an impact on their high school years, and I reached out to people who made an impact on mine. That chip on my shoulder got smaller as I realized that for every person who didn't notice me in high school, there was at least one that I didn't notice. High school is a strange microcosm; with a few exceptions, we all seemed to walk through those halls, recognizing that we all belonged there, but really only seeing those who we included in our little groups.

It was a happy day for me when I graduated. In the halls of my school I felt compressed; upon graduation, I felt like I could stand tall and breathe—the whole world was in front of me. I had no idea where I would go from there, but I knew I was headed somewhere.

Good, bad, or indifferent, those years in high school helped to shape the woman I have become today. I wish my 14-year-old self knew what I knew now, had my confidence and my self-assurance, but those attitudes have been cultivated over years and years of experience. So I'll just be happy to be me - and thankful that I don’t have to live through those crazy teen years again!