80s Nostalgia
80s Nostalgia... Any time I listen to the 80s station on Sky FM, I get nostalgic. There's a lot of memories from Calgary, and a lot of people I left behind and miss. I was just telling my wife that those were much simpler times for me... but even though I'm nostalgic, I'm not stupid... it was also a really hard time for me.
Elementary school was pretty hard - walking into school not knowing anyone, trying to make friends, and being out of place until late Jr. High and into Sr. High. The one word that comes to mind often is 'frenemies'. I had a number of people that I hung out with because... if I didn't, I'd have nobody to hang out with at all. It was a strange dynamic - half the time we were playing around as friends, and the other half of the time I was picked on by some of them. Fortunately, by mid Jr. High I started learning to defend myself, and I had enough people I could honestly hang around with that I didn't need to hang out with my frenemies as often.
The other thing I remember was... I wasn't as good a kid as I could have been. With family stress, and feeling usually like I was a hanger-on rather than someone well-liked, I did some pretty bad things. I had a bit of a problem with stealing (as did some of the other frenemies around me), so things tended to move from house to house often. Part of it was a matter of wanting... security? My family didn't have much and couldn't afford much, and part of it was the people I was hanging around with picked on me or took advantage of me, and part of it was that I honestly wantedwhat I saw people around me having. It was a bad stage for me, and I lost one friendship and almost lost another because of it - a lesson I learned about the hard way. Of course, it didn't help that people stole from me too, so it became an attitude of 'get them before they get me'.
Still, life seemed a lot simpler back then. There were some people I honestly liked, and some people I hung out with because I felt they needed friends. Others were decent enough people, and those ones I miss the most. There was just a certain feeling there that I wish I still had. (... and of course, the Calgary theme song suddenly gets rammed into my skull again...)
Two things stand out from my last day in Calgary, when I left school for the last time. The first was the school newspaper, where someone had mentioned I was leaving as an 'editorial / gossip' thing, and someone else mentioned they wanted to throw a party because I was gone. This was the Bad Thing.
The Good Thing was this. I was feeling a bit down about the newspaper thing - I just picked it up on my way out, but I was trying to ignore it and remain upbeat as is possible for someone about to lose everything and everyone they know. I ran into my friend Pam on my way out, who was setting up the bulletin board device over the cafeteria. We talked a little, and she wished me luck. Then, she programmed the board to say 'Goodbye, Chris' to wish me well.
That was... nice. It really helped, and I was really glad for that.
Elementary school was pretty hard - walking into school not knowing anyone, trying to make friends, and being out of place until late Jr. High and into Sr. High. The one word that comes to mind often is 'frenemies'. I had a number of people that I hung out with because... if I didn't, I'd have nobody to hang out with at all. It was a strange dynamic - half the time we were playing around as friends, and the other half of the time I was picked on by some of them. Fortunately, by mid Jr. High I started learning to defend myself, and I had enough people I could honestly hang around with that I didn't need to hang out with my frenemies as often.
The other thing I remember was... I wasn't as good a kid as I could have been. With family stress, and feeling usually like I was a hanger-on rather than someone well-liked, I did some pretty bad things. I had a bit of a problem with stealing (as did some of the other frenemies around me), so things tended to move from house to house often. Part of it was a matter of wanting... security? My family didn't have much and couldn't afford much, and part of it was the people I was hanging around with picked on me or took advantage of me, and part of it was that I honestly wantedwhat I saw people around me having. It was a bad stage for me, and I lost one friendship and almost lost another because of it - a lesson I learned about the hard way. Of course, it didn't help that people stole from me too, so it became an attitude of 'get them before they get me'.
Still, life seemed a lot simpler back then. There were some people I honestly liked, and some people I hung out with because I felt they needed friends. Others were decent enough people, and those ones I miss the most. There was just a certain feeling there that I wish I still had. (... and of course, the Calgary theme song suddenly gets rammed into my skull again...)
Two things stand out from my last day in Calgary, when I left school for the last time. The first was the school newspaper, where someone had mentioned I was leaving as an 'editorial / gossip' thing, and someone else mentioned they wanted to throw a party because I was gone. This was the Bad Thing.
The Good Thing was this. I was feeling a bit down about the newspaper thing - I just picked it up on my way out, but I was trying to ignore it and remain upbeat as is possible for someone about to lose everything and everyone they know. I ran into my friend Pam on my way out, who was setting up the bulletin board device over the cafeteria. We talked a little, and she wished me luck. Then, she programmed the board to say 'Goodbye, Chris' to wish me well.
That was... nice. It really helped, and I was really glad for that.