COOL

All through school, I thought I was an outlier.
Even friends spat at me that I was ‘different’ like it was the f-word.

Photo by Mesh on Unsplash

Two days ago, someone requested me as a FB friend. I blocked, thinking it was a scammer. Then she messaged me on LinkedIn.

Her opening line was:
‘Hi Therese, you were the coolest person I ever knew in school.’

‘Me? Cool?’ I replied, ‘You must have the wrong person.’

I’d known her, we’d shared classes and hung around with each other for 6 years, through junior and senior high.

But it was 40 years ago, so her name had slipped my slippery mind.
If the first compliment was a shocker, the second Julie said was even better.

‘You were the most interesting person in a (all-girl Catholic) school surrounded by a heap of pretentious wannabe Summergirls.’

I had to admit, I always wanted to be one of those tan, gorgeous girls.

Didn’t everyone?

My long-ago friend Julie was the smartest one in school.

Julie even told me that she was the only one who had stood up for me at an assembly I was excluded from. I had…