life is junior high.

when i was 13 years old, there was a boy that lived directly next door. he was a year older than me. a goof. the boy who would catch frogs at the end of the street in the storm drain and then try to sell them. he wore thick, black (red?)-framed glasses. he was in even in a local commercial for some bank. his bedroom overlooked our driveway, and some nights he would try to play guitar for me and i would sit in the driveway below and listen. he had a basketball goal in his driveway, and when i would come home from school, wearing my st. catherine "class of 97" shirt and gym shorts, we would just shoot baskets over and over and over until it got dark. he would start water balloon fights that lasted for days. we laughed a lot. and we would talk. we talked about everything. we would have serious conversations about religion and life. as "serious" and "knowledgeable" as you can be at a wise 13 years of age. i didn't think we were anything but really good friends. Two people who happened to be in the same place at the same time who had a lot of fun together. Maybe he was my first "crush," but i was too young to realize that. We were good friends.

one day, i realized there was a party going on next door. i knew it was his 14th birthday. he was having a birthday party and i realized that i wasn't invited. i was so hurt, i cried.

tom brokaw gave the commencement address when i graduated from college. after his obligatory mentioning of "the greatest generation," he said some of the most wise words i've heard. He said "Life is not college. Life is not high school. Life is junior high."

[from his 2009 address to the graduates of William and Mary], he continued, "You'll be astonished by how much of the rest of your life will be consumed by the same petty jealousies you encountered in adolescence, the same irrational juvenile behavior, the cliques, the dumb jokes and the hurt feelings.

And to the women of the class of 2009, be forewarned:
These boys sitting beside you who are about to become men will take their inner boy-and their baseball caps and their sports teams-with them and they will never completely understand you."