I Was There

The phone call from the Vice-Principal came at the last minute, and with apologies:

"Would you and your parents be able to be at the Senior Awards Ceremony this evening?"  Somehow my name had been left off the invitation list.

I had a hunch I knew what the award would be and I dreaded it.

Sure enough, as I sat biting my nails through the ceremony, watching my classmates receive honors for excellence in a variety of academic pursuits, the time finally arrived and my name was called.  I won:

Perfect Attendance.

That's right!  While my peers were taking home plaques and trophies in Art and English and Science and Math, I won an award for the unthinkable--I showed up every day.  I was presented a plaque over my protests:  "I'm SURE I was absent once in sophomore year!"

How would I ever live it down?  Seriously, High School had been an experience I was ready to forget; this would be the final humiliation, adding insult to injury.  To this day my face reddens when I think about it.

Now that I think about it, though, it's really OK.  In fact, I'm kind of proud of it.  After all, what more can really be expected of any of us than to simply show up and be ourselves?  For a deeply closeted, somewhat chubby, clumsy and red-faced teen it may have been a disaster.  But in the end, to have had the opportunity to live a full life and to have actually shown up for it every day is the greatest reward.

Carpe diem...there will only ever be one today.  Hope to see you there!