Learning and growing through life’s intricacies

Until I was in junior high, I didn’t know I had to style the back of my hair. I didn’t know I had a “back of my hair.” Mine was not a mirror-rich environment.

I wore shrink-to-fit Levis and flannel shirts to school most days. If that seems fashion-lazy, let me assure you, those Levis were not for the faint of heart. The break-in ritual required to make them wearable remains a rite of passage unique to my generation.

The most significant wardrobe decisions I made in junior high centered on whether my shoes laced properly, a significant factor when seeking to evade opponents during lunch-hour pom-pom-pullaway.

It’s the fate of the old to say it, but it was a simpler time. Of course, it only seems that way looking back, but one thing is certain – during my school years, I was naive about much more than the back of my hairstyle.

For example, I didn’t know that getting the giggles becomes less and less frequent as we age, but more and more necessary. I didn’t know that midriffs wax and hairlines wane, that happiness isn’t guaranteed, and that one day, we will all do something we love for the last time, though we won’t realize it until later.

I didn’t know that Sunday nights would never be better than when I was a kid and my sister made popcorn on the stove, in a pan with a crank-handle on top. She timed the melted butter to coincide with opening credits for “The Wonderful World of Disney.” I still don’t deserve her.

I didn’t know that parents age and friends grow apart, that cancer comes to people, no matter the goodness of their hearts, and that heartache experienced without the benefit of a theater and a Hollywood soundtrack just hurts.

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