Was High School Easier For You Because You Were Pretty?

Someone asked me that a while back and it has perplexed me ever since then.  First off, it had to take it as a compliment, because the person who asked must think I'm at least the remnants of pretty now, if they were assuming I was pretty in high school.  Still, it was an unexpected question.

In high school we're all hormones and growth spurts and angular and awkward.  No one thinks they're pretty in high school, do they?  I didn't think I was ugly, perhaps not repugnant and maybe even passable, but my hair was frizzy and I had acne and there were the braces and I had a large birthmark on my knee and the fifty-seven other things that made me less than appealing than I thought all the other girls were.   That's just high school, I thought.

I found out as we continued to talk that my friend had had a difficult time in high school.  I wasn't prom queen and I didn't get straight A's, but I didn't have a particularly terrible high school either.  It was a time of growth as we transformed from children into adult bodies--and that in and of itself, is awkward. 

So was I pretty in high school?  I've seen the pictures and the blue eye shadow is cringe-worthy enough, but now that I'm in my forties, what I wouldn't do to get back the not-so-old and not-so-busted body I had back then, crooked teeth, ungainly limbs and frizzy hair and all.

The Big Boy Update:  Mixing colors.  He had a lesson at school today on mixing colors.  He learned that red and yellow paint make orange paint.  He learned you can add more yellow to make the orange brighter and that you can add white to make the orange lighter.  He loved it.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Potty helper.  My daughter didn't want to go to the potty at school yesterday.  She said, and I am quoting her teacher here, "no no no no no no no."  So the teacher asked if she could go show one of the younger, new students how to use the potty.  To that, she went straight over, sat down, peed a little bit and told the other student all about it.  She was very proud to be able to help.

Fitness Update:  Eight miles.  Piece of cake in comparison to twenty-six.