for the love of high school ...

Did anyone ever watch this show ...

The Facts of Life was a goofy little show set at an all-girls boarding school - it aired in the early 80's, when I was just starting middle school. Does anyone remember the original cast of FoL (which included a young Molly Ringwald)? ...

Young and impressionable, I used to dream that someday I'd be a part of it ... that I'd go to a fancy girls school, wear a cute uniform, live in a dorm full of giggly typecast girls, throw in a kooky grandma type like Mrs. Garrett and crazy hijinks would ensue. I fancied myself as a Tootie ... young and silly, a bit nosy and gossipy, always wearing those roller skates and spouting sassy catchphrases like "there's gonna be trubbbuuulllll" ... cue canned audience laughter. Can anyone relate? Is any of this even ringing any bells? Well sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction because the punch line is that I actually did end up attending an all-girls boarding school for my high school years. And although there were definitely a few crazy hijinks, the real thing was a long long way from the Facts of Life cliché ... no uniforms, no Mrs. G, no silly script or audience applause.

I was barely 14 when I arrived, with about 90 pounds on my pre-pubescent 5'2" frame. The school was over 1300 miles from home in an age long before cellphones, emails, internet, or even computers - total isolation by today's standards. Now that I have daughters of my own, I know how much my mother's heart must have hurt as she hugged me goodbye on that first day. But despite the distance from home and my complete lack of sophistication, somehow it all worked and not only did I survive boarding school, I flourished. Speaking literally, I grew 5 inches taller that first year (yes, it actually hurt) ... but more importantly, I went from a lost and awkward middle schooler to an engaged and self-reliant teenager. Happy joyful years ... by far the most challenging, most fun, most difficult, and most rewarding experience all at once. And a sisterhood to boot. It was the right school at the right time. Lucky lucky ladybug, right? I do know that - and I will always be so incredibly grateful that I got to be a part of it.

(photo courtesy of Molly Merrick)

Tomorrow I'm driving down to my alma mater for 3 nights, it's my Reunion Weekend and I can't wait to see my peeps because I already know that we'll pick right up as though no time at all has passed ... just like the generations behind mine are already singing about ...