\u2026or I could title this post \u201cDon\u2019t be a prick.\u201d<\/p>\n
I have been doing some reminiscing lately. Last weekend was my 10 year high school reunion and I also visited with some old friends from college at a wedding. In both cases it was great to think back to the way things used to be.<\/p>\n
I thoroughly enjoyed my high school years. Beth and I started dating, I had lots of good friends, an appropriate amount of freedom, and was involved in things I really enjoyed (racing mountain bikes, playing soccer and roller hockey, etc.). <\/p>\n
It is easy to look back and recount all the good times. At the same time, I have to remember that high school was not an easy world to live in if you were on the fringe. I have several friends who look to their reunion with disdain. One person even said to me, \u201cwhy would I want to go back 10 years later \u2013 I didn\u2019t like those people a decade ago, why would like to be around them now?\u201d<\/p>\n
It really hit home for me when one gentleman from my high school class said to me, \u201cI am surprised more people don\u2019t still think of you as a prick.\u201d That statement didn\u2019t offend me because I knew he was right. While my life was pretty great, I am sure I made high school hell for others (especially as a Sophomore and Junior).<\/p>\n
A lot can change in a decade. There are few things that I look back at from high school and can say I still significantly proud of (sure they were \u201cThe glory days\u201d, but how much of it really matters?). On the other hand, I still have several regrets \u2013 especially when I think of the way I treated people. I know that in an attempt to make high school \u201cthe best of times\u201d for me, I made it \u201cthe worst of times\u201d for others.<\/p>\n
Some people say if they had it all to do again they would do it all the same. Well\u2026 that isn\u2019t me\u2026 I would change things. If I could tell High School Ben Kickert any piece of advice it would simply be \u201cDon\u2019t be a prick!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2026or I could title this post \u201cDon\u2019t be a prick.\u201d I have been doing some reminiscing lately. Last weekend was my 10 year high school reunion and I also visited with some old friends from college at a wedding. In both cases it was great to think back to the way things used to be. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[598,595,596,597],"class_list":["post-1279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thoughts","tag-advice","tag-high-school","tag-memories","tag-prick"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}