These high school halls are not hallowed halls but they are unsurpassed in the scheme of life lessons….Truth and Fiction …
Remember that boy with the unfortunate eyebrows hurrying down the hall as if afraid or embarrassed? He was.
Remember that girl passing a note to her “steady” guy declaring her undying devotion because he said he “loved” her? He did not.
Remember when you thought a certain friend’s family seemed so perfect? They were not.
The stereo- types still linger in these tales of fiction. Fifty years later and I can name them all by heart.
We all wanted to be (well most of us) to be prettier, cuter, thinner, funnier, taller, shorter, darker, lighter, a better singer, a better dancer, the beauty queen, the sports star, the math genius, or the valedictorian.
I guess it is like the “Breakfast Club” and the “Big Chill” movie all rolled up together. (we did have the best music though). I always felt like the adults in my days of high school tried to minimize the harshness of the unspoken boundaries. There are many people that I admired from afar and would have like to have known better but there was also a nagging burden of exposure.
Ends up that about ninety-nine percent of High School Fiction left some of us hurt and even wounded and that is where reality steps in. No, we had not yet let our tender souls relax in the discovery zone of finding there is no such thing as perfect. How could we know that what lay ahead would require a lot more truth and a little less comparison?
Just saying…
Jill Autrey Dorman 
I myself have pondered these things many times, for myself, and for others. I am not a human development expert, nor do I understand the depths of neurology, but I do know that our experiences during these years form us in so many ways, some good and some bad.
We adopt a greater sense of self based upon how we navigate these years of differentiation which either makes us resilient in life ahead, or unhealthily vulnerable.
Our faith, if we have any left at the end of these years, can set the narrative for our worth and purpose going forward. Those who wrote the scriptures and other faith writings had weathered these years before us, and we have opportunity to examine our youthful conclusions within their pages, and adjust our perceptions. If I practice humility, I continue to do so.