Today I visited a local high school for work. We were evacuated part-way through the lunch period - a chlorine spill in the shop area.

Standing around in a high school parking lot for 45 minutes gave me a lot of time to reflect on my own high school years.

They weren't happy. I remember feeling anxious, fearful and inadequate most of the time, although if you'd asked me, I don't think I would have been able to identify what was making me feel so bad.

The strangest thing, visiting this present-day high school, was seeing the teachers. They looked just like me - my age.

I wondered what my teenaged self would have thought of my 44-year-old self. Would I have been as intimidated of me as I was of all my other teachers? Would I have been happy with the way I've turned out?

Funny - I just realized I look pretty much exactly the way I did when I was 15. Same weight, same hair. Just an older face.

Thank goodness high school doesn't last forever...

~

[Author's note: I just realized that these two photographs were taken almost exactly 30 years apart. On the left is my Grade 10 school photo, taken in the fall of 1981; on the right, me in November 2011. Crazy.]