01 February 2009

Is it just me?

So, lately it seems like a million people from my past have popped up on Facebook and it's been a bit weird. I honestly never kept in touch with most of the people I knew in high school and now that I'm "seeing" them again, it has actually caused me all sorts of anxiety. I went to two different high schools (transferred between my sophomore and junior year) and many of the people I considered friends at my first high school grew distant when I changed schools. So, I'm seeing all these people from the past and it has made me notice a few things.

1. It's a bit insane how many people from FGR are married and having zillions of kids. It makes me wonder if they look at my profile and think I'm a pathetic loser. Or maybe they're envious, hard to say. It also makes me wonder if they consider me a lousy Catholic because of that (I accept I'm a lousy Catholic for lots of other reasons, but I don't need to add that to the list).

2. All my leftover self-consciousness from not being in the "cool" or "popular" groups resurfaces with Facebook. Will my profile "prove" that I'm "cool" now? And then I remember that it really shouldn't even matter in the first place. Why do I care what these people think of me anymore? I haven't seen them since 1996. It doesn't matter, but I can't help but wonder...

3. I also have this fear that if I friend some one, particularly people from my first high school, that they won't remember me. We did NOT go to a big school (there were probably only about 50 people in my class) and many of us had gone to school together since elementary school or middle school. Until today, it hadn't been an issue. Then I found someone I'd been pretty good friends with in 10th grade (she was a year behind me) and friended her. I got a message back, "Do I know you?" I guess what made it a little surprising is that she'd hung out at my house, been to birthday parties and so forth. Anyways, it fed into my fear that I'm a completely forgettable person (again, not Ms. Popular in HS, very quiet, very shy). I am SURE I am over-analyzing all this.

Anyways, it's just interesting I guess. It makes me feel stupid though that all these insecurities can pop up even 13 years after the fact. I wonder if I'm the only one that feels this way...