This sucks: your least favorite person from high school is normal now.
It has recently come to your attention that the least cherished, most hated, clowniest fool from your high school is actually normal, and not the freak idiot that you used to hate. No matter what they did in high school, you couldn’t help but roll your eyes and think “I hate this monstrous person.” Be it reminding the teacher to assign homework, or just being in the way, your disdain for this person is seared into your DNA. But now? Not everyone feels the same.
This shocking revelation came to your attention when one of your friends, now known as a traitor, informed you that, “She’s actually kind of fun. We hung out a few times when I was home. We had a couscous party.” What is a couscous party? A party where you eat couscous? That sounds weird. Just because you ate couscous with someone you all used to hate, doesn’t make it your problem. Or, does it?
Sometimes it takes time to process a jarring paradigm shift of this nature. Sometimes it makes you wonder, “Am I the problem?”
Finding out other people from high school no longer vehemently hate some dumb idiot you all made fun of behind their back can be a shock to the system. Maybe you’re feeling betrayed. Stupid. Like, if their annoying Instagram doesn’t make them a bad person, what does that mean for you? Does it mean you’ve wasted time and emotional energy holding onto your dislike of someone from your past, who actually isn’t that bad? And, does that make you feel stupid? Yeah. Yeah, it does. It sure does.
“I think you’d really like her if you got to know her,” your friends try to convince you.
But if you let go of your dislike for this person from high school, what else do you need to let go of? Stalking other people you hate on social media? That bottle of Clean and Clear face wash that you haven’t used in six years that lives in the way back of your bathroom cabinet? The book on your bedside table that you know you’re never going to read? Maybe. Maybe that would help. Maybe you would enjoy yourself more if you went to the next couscous party. Maybe that would make you feel better. And it actually sounds kind of fun, anyway. Let it go. Embrace the couscous.
