On Isolation and Belonging: Stories We Tell Ourselves 25 Years After High School

It's been 25 years since I graduated from Idaho Falls High School. It's not a milestone I'd necessarily mark on my own, but I found myself strangely disappointed a few months ago when a classmate who was trying to organize a reunion for this summer wrote to say she wound up too busy to plan one.

Maybe it's just where I'm at in my life, maybe it's being a parent of young kids, but I've found myself thinking more and more about my high school years.

High school was complicated for me. I did well. I wasn't the most popular kid, but I had enough friends. But especially in my junior and senior years I felt increasingly isolated. All my friends were wrapped up in relationships with boyfriends. I definitely wasn't. I started drifting away from things that used to be important to me. I quit the soccer team. I started spending more time by myself because that was easier than the performing that came with being out with friends who