Finale

What have I learned from doing the deep dive into my high school years?  I find myself funny and insecure and yet there is also a touch of confidence as I evolve from a teenager into an adult.  I seem to have been a little bit “boy crazy” in my diary although I was not one to run after anyone.  I certainly had some celebrity crushes (who didn’t when you look at the posters in teen bedrooms in those days) and could be quite dramatic about it. 

I also find myself endearing as I slowly come back from two years of “hibernation” from the social world.  I really had a difficult time moving from Burlington to Winnipeg right at the start of high school (in Grade 9) and then moving to Montreal at the end of the school year to Montreal for 9 months.  Not only did it cause me personal trauma in leaving friends of 6 years but it also set me back scholastically to the point of really struggling with math and science.  To find myself saying “I am becoming very social” and having ambitions to join various clubs (though much was kyboshed by Dad’s helicopter ways) was new to me.  I found myself developing lifelong friendships with Ninette in Montreal, Silvia, Ranee, Yvette and Marjolaine (who does not appear in these entries as she ought to have been).  I also developed a strong correspondence with my cousins Birthe and Axel, letters that I really valued at the time and treasure today in my “archive”.

I revealed a lot about my family, especially my relationship with my dear sister Jeanette and I have to thank her for not being angry at some very personal revelations – they were too funny not to write!  Also my insensitiveness to poor little Charlotte’s mishaps, but she thought they were fun to read and of course it is a “blackmail” treasury for her to pull out those incidents!  My brothers got pretty short shrift but once I became a teen they were not playmates of choice except during the summer when we again chummed around, particularly on our bikes.

A lot of nostalgia but tons of laughs and pleasure in reliving those young days.  I hope my readers were able to see the value and that it helped send them reflecting on their own school days.  In a good way.