I’ll Never Be Cool

And that’s totally okay

Photo by alan King on Unsplash

As a kid in high school, everyone knew me. I had nicknames like “Amazon woman” and “Mary Poppins”. I was known for being the tall girl, who had a pretty singing voice, got good grades, didn’t drink or party, and didn’t sleep around. Teachers loved me. Kids didn’t love me, really. But they knew who I was. So…I was popular, according to the definition, but not because I was “cool”.

I wasn’t coordinated, so I wasn’t the badass basketball player. I wasn’t aggressive, so I didn’t stick to being on the extramural rugby team. That was just plain scary! I liked to sing and dance and joined the show choir my freshman year. I just wasn’t cool. There was no way around it.

For example, once, when I was 17, I got off work at Target at closing time, 9 pm on a Friday night. I thought to myself, “I’m in my brother’s pretty cool restored ’64 Olds. I think I’ll drive down the strip and back uptown like all the “cool” kids.”

So I did. On the way down the hill, toward downtown, I noticed people flashing their lights at me and honking their horns. I thought nothing of it. I had no reason to think it was anything other than proper “cruising etiquette”.

Yeah…I was wrong. I got back up the strip, was on my way home (out in the country), only to realize that my LIGHTS WERE NOT ON! It was about…