I was doing my usual tossing and turning in bed early this morning which is unfortunately very typical for me and started thinking about random stuff. This might have been driven by some sort of dream that I was having about my youth but I don't remember the dream. For whatever reason I started reflecting about times in my life when I had what I consider a great deal of responsibility and how I have relatively little at this point in my life. I am quite grateful for the second part of that last sentence but it is due to a lot of different factors including spending about 20 years of my life working my absolute butt off in order to be able to chill a little bit now, I guess.
I wonder if any of you older folks out there can relate to what I am about to say.
I was thinking about primarily the time when I was in high school and how I had a relative mountain of responsibility yet still always took on more tasks anyway. This is the opposite of how I am now where even the smallest things such as booking a flight for something I know I have to do in January and would only take me 20 minutes or so to finally pull the trigger and book it, seem like monumental tasks that I keep putting off because I simply cannot be asked to do anything.
I think about how when I was in high school that I had the usual workload of academics that all students have, but in the morning I would also go around and pick up my friends who didn't have a car because I guess I was a nice guy. It almost seemed like a sort of bus-driver job and I went out of my way to ensure that I was picking up at least 1 or 2 very good looking girls that I was in school with.
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I loved this car... but what a piece of crap it was
Now we need to think about why I had a car and why they didn't have a car. This was because in addition to going to high school every day I was also employed part-time for as far back as I was legally allowed to be employed, which at that point in time for some reason was 14.5 years of age and only for 20 hours per week.
When I was a junior and senior in high school (11th and 12th grade) I got a pretty sweet job as a busboy at a fancy restaurant that was at a ski resort. This was really good money for someone my age but it also incorporated actually driving to the damn ski resort, which was at that time about 45 minutes drive in each direction. I once again utilized this time to encourage a hot girl student that I was in school with to also get a job there and we could ride in the same car. By the way this tactic of getting the hot girls in the car with me resulted only in me friend-zoning myself.
Anyway, the point is that I went to school all day long just like all the other students, but I dedicated about 30 minutes in the morning before school to being the hot-chick bus driver. I picked up a male friend or two as well :)
Then, on most days after school I would drive nearly an hour to go to a job that would last until around 9 or 10 pm, then drive another hour back home. Then when I got home I would have homework and also getting around to that pesky thing we call sleeping. Then the next day I would get up and do it all again.
My responsibilities didn't end there though. I was also quite active in extra-curricular activities such as team sports and getting involved in various clubs such as Drama club, which I was eventually voted in as the President of in my Senior year. These club meetings would take an hour or so after school and since I was the elected head of it, skipping these meetings was not an option. As an active participant in various plays that took place on stage in high school, I also had to go to practice for these plays not to mention memorizing my lines often when I was a passenger in the car to go to ski-resort job and also before going to sleep at night after homework.
I also had a rather active social life and spent a lot of time getting into a reasonable amount of trouble doing teenage stuff with other teenagers. I was NOT a druggie drunk like a lot of my friends so it was often me who was the sober driver at these things which once again resulted in me friend-zoning myself with the hot girls haha.
When I think back to those times and how much I intentionally put on my own plate I just am kind of in awe at how I managed to pull it all off. I wasn't a star student but I wasn't terrible either so my studies didn't suffer because of all the extra stuff I took on. I also ended up being voted as the "best actor" in my school for the yearbook photos so I must have dedicated a decent amount of time towards that.
I just kind of wonder how it is that I didn't completely stress myself out because these days in my 40's I have almost zero responsibility other than making a bit of money and looking after my dog. I don't really HAVE to be anywhere at any time of week other than the bowling outings on Thursdays and that is something that I genuinely enjoy doing so it doesn't feel like an obligation at all.
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that's the actual ski resort... what a piece of crap
I had so many responsibilities that I elected to take on back in my teenage years and I managed to do it all without the assistance of either the internet or even mobile phones. Sheesh, just thinking back to what the heck we would do if my car were to break down on the way to the ski resort seems to bizarre by today's standards. Mobile phones didn't really exist so if your car broke down you either fixed it or you started walking until you found a pay phone.... Then you would call a phone number that you had memorized or found something in the attached phone book in the booth.
It's crazy to me to think about times being like that. This wasn't even that long ago either, it was just the early 90's.
Let's hear your stories about high school and all the things that you had to do or elected to do during that time of your life. I can't believe I pulled it off and seeing as how my days now are spent mostly wondering whether or not I am going to exercise or start drinking early is about the highest level of responsibility that I ever have to take on.