The most dreaded social event for any would-be-cat-lady. To be honest I was not all that keen to go, but I put on my dress, removed all the cat hairs from it, did up my hair and put on my shoes. I had long planned on what I was going to say, perhaps I aught to dress up my life some, but, alas, I've always been a terrible liar. So I drummed myself up to face my former class-mates and make some sort of summery of my past ten years and, inevitably, compare notes against my own success-or lack there off.
There were several question I answered deadpanned: “Yes, I'm still living at home (with my cat )” “Yes, I'm still unemployed”, and “Yes, I'm still single”.
Those few statements were enough to put must people at pause, and I can understand how they are hesitant to respond to that as the responses fit with none of the popular topics. Almost tall my former classmates (of those who had showed up) had at least one child. Some had three. One was expecting her fifth. And more or less, that is what they talked about. The woes of leaving your child in kindergarden for the first time, the dilemma between one-time diapers and the other kind. When these topics had been throughout groused, the next conversation was renovation. Horrid trips to IKEA, the woes of ordering kitchen appliances and having them fit. Car-insurances. Wedding plans. Phones with pictures of their children and spouses were passed around.
I wisely kept my 100-and-so pictures of my cat to myself.
Yes, the guy who had once nicked a camera only to take pictures of his own ass, had grown up. It was somewhat disconcerting to see that even the rowdiest of the “class clowns” had shaped up decently and was well off in some high-end firm, while I, myself, was still stuck in limbo between education and not really-sure-what-I-really-want-to-do-the-rest-of-my-life. The reunion made me feel old and that I was lagging behind in Real Life with at least two children and a house-mortgage. Somehow these things might have been easier to explain away if I could show to some sort of amazing accomplishment-like winning the Nobel Prize in Literature or working with NASA.
I feel somewhat embarrassed to confess that when I heard that one of my former school-friends, had never had a job after graduating college, and was a stay-at-home-mom (with her fifth kid on the way). I'm sure it's the greatest life in the world for many, and I mean no offense when I say that I want a bigger world then ten years of staying at home.
At least I've traveled,
I've studied abroad.
Learned a foreign language.
I've met loads of great people
At least I have my cat. <3
