back in High School

I keep having dreams I am still in high school. They have never stopped. Every once in a while I will dream I am back in school. Most times I look like I look now, and in fact it is as If I am the age I am today but it is as if I am taking some sort of classes and back in school, or maybe some classes for work, yet all my friends and classmates are there. And it is such a good feeling. High school for me will always be one of the best times of my life. It is as if when my mind can't deal with the stress, worries, bills, tasks, and problems of everyday life it takes advantage of my dreams and takes me back to simpler times. The dreams may sometimes be stressful, maybe I am taking a test, and I realize I did not even study for this, but then I sit down and see a familiar face, some classmate of mine and then I realize how lucky I am to be taking classes with all my old classmates and friends, and its just such a familiar feeling, like being HOME again.

Its so hard to explain sometimes, so many teenagers say high school is one of the worst times in their lives and my experience was so far from that. I went to a very small high school, and I mean small- my graduating class had less than 40 students. Because it was such a small school, we were all close, everyone knew every one's name. There was never anyone being stuffed into lockers (does that even happen in real life?), no ones glasses were ever broken, and no one was ever given a wedgie.  My memories are staying after school just to chat and goof around with friends, stuffing all our coats, books, umbrellas, in one tiny locker (there was about 8 of us) I never understood why we never though of using our own lockers? Going during lunch hour to Central Park to play on the swings, having class trips to the Museum of Natural History, the statue of liberty, Ellis Island and about every other museum and tourist spot you can think of. I remember passing notes to each other (cellphones weren't in back then), stuffing roses and love notes in notebooks from that short guy who just wouldn't leave you alone, walking and singing and playing in the rain all of us under one single umbrella, I remember just hanging in the hallways and stairways with about other twenty people and just laughing and laughing till your tears came out and your cheeks hurt.  Then there is the school trip at the end of the year. There wasn't enough money for some unknown reason (maybe the teachers went out partying ;) and we couldn't go to the Poconos for the weekend like every other senior class before us did. We were all pretty upset about that. But we were taken to Bear Mountain to spend the day. We played volleyball, we ate, we rode boats, and we ran and then it started pouring rain. And Harry said fuck it and started running in the pouring rain, and everyone joined and we laughed and played spin the bottle under the rain, and we splashed and jumped and by the end of the day our clothes and hair were soaking wet and it just didn't matter. 

Yeah now I know why I keep dreaming back in school, how could I not? High School was amazing. Every single person from my high school brings me good memories. And so my mind, every time I am stressed, keeps popping them up in random places, to help me deal with whatever I am dealing with, just a familiar face here and there to give me that homey feeling again....