Guilty confession

So, one of my most guiltiest of pleasures is my choice in reading materials. When someone asks me to list my favorite books, I can rattle off titles with the best of them. If nothing else, my English degrees have exposed me to some amazing history, philosophy, sociology, pirituality/etc. All through the pens of the masters.

However, the one collection that I consistently leave out of the list, the book(s) that I read more often than any other, is Invictus. To those in the know, yes, I am speaking of my high school year books.

shame, shame.

But I love them. Pages upon pages of senior quotes are where I spend most of my Invictus time. Seeing what 18-year-olds deem important or brilliant or poignant is endlessly fascinating to me. And the fact that we were all given that opportunity to speak out and leave our mark in a few words baffles me.

I spend most of my time with the '95 issue, since those were my classmates. Sure, there are the typical Bible quotes, shout-outs, Star Wars quotes, and silliness, but every once and a while someone's chosen quote makes me regret never knowing them. In a school of over 2000 kids, you must find your niche. I had a couple, but my circles rarely included Heads, Ghosts, Tech Kids, Latin Club Kids, Theater, Jocks, etc. The occasional representative would be there, but, for the most part, I only knew them out of their element.

So, these quotes are my one moment (admittedly, a terrible way to judge people) to hear them, trapped at 18. And so, most every day, I read some.

To David Heim, Charles Presley III, Rob Rawlinson, Esther Pencola, Kris Karr, Julie Chatterjee, Margaret Albers, and many more, we should have done coffee.

shanti,
mjh