Familiar tides are the strangest

Once upon a time, there was a boy and a girl in a small town highschool. She, tall and dark, was at the top of their grade and worked as a cashier at the local grocery store. He, blonde and quiet, was also near the top of their grade and worked a few odd jobs. Like many unfortunate tales, boy liked girl and girl liked boy. Boy, however, was oblivious and missed his chance. After they graduated, he tried to make up for his mistake. Alas, her heart already belonged to another. She knew the boy was interested but never said anything, instead electing to drop vague hints. Unfortunately, the boy was blind with the tragic sickness of teenage stupidity. After being confronted with a 'wtf?' by the boy, the truth became apparent. The boy moved away to another city in another province in order to outrun his crushed heart.

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During the holidays, some families sing together, others watch the big game, and others might do anonymous good deeds. 'Tis the season, after all.

This Christmas, however, my family took up vomiting everywhere in unison. Someone somewhere had picked up a particularly nasty 24hr bug, in which your insides attempt to become outsides with such vigor that both ends of the digestive system get in on the action. Over the course of about 2 days after a big family Christmas dinner, we went from one sick individual to over 17 of us.

Was not fun. Would not recommend.

But all things considered, if you're going to be hilariously ill, why not do it with your family? When shared between all of us, the speed and destructive nature of this whole thing became more a point of amusement and bewilderment than anything else. It'll be a Christmas to remember, in a very bizarre way.

I fell ill the day prior to returning to my home, so I had to move my flight. My mom felt kind of bad that so much of my first vacation in a year and a half (and the first time returning home in almost double that amount of time) was spent in such an... unfortunate manner. So as we were slowly improving, I went to one of those family fun parks with my Dad. We played some pool, pinball, air hockey, and golf. We stuck out like a sore thumb, but had a fun time together while a constant tide of small kids seemed to ebb and flow around our shenanigans.

On the way out to the park, I asked my dad if he ever looked for familiar faces when he visited my grandmother in his hometown. He made a remark about how those familiar faces were from so long ago, and that the city had changed so much. He then turned the question back to me, and I made a remark about how I hadn't spoken with any of those familiar faces since I graduated and left town, and that I don't know if I'd even recognize anyone if I saw them.

He recounted that he still sees my highschool friend around town as he drops his kids off at school. He was now the co-manager of the outdoor supply store he worked at as a teenager. And a girl that I crush on in highschool was still working at the grocery store on the corner. In a bizarre cosmic response to our conversation, later that evening I saw a picture of the all-star athlete/ultimate cool kid of my grade on the cover of the local paper with his wife and new kid.

It all kinda just... stumped me. These three people had a ton of potential, and yet they stayed in our small town, married up, had kids, and continued to work the same jobs they had in school. All that potential and smarts and studying, just to stay put.

Now a statement like the above just reeks of an elitist, closed-minded definition of success. Who says you have to travel to another city and get a good job to be considered living a fulfilling life? There's no reason that a happy family can't be as large of an aspiration as a fancy degree. If someone lives and works in the same place they did as a teenager, but can comfortably provide for their spouse and children... What's wrong with that? If they're happy and passionate about the life they lead, what more does a person need?

And why the hell should they care how a stranger from Once Upon a Time judges their life?

It still kinda confuses me, though. I thought they all had built up enough momentum to escape the orbit of that small town, and find myself at a loss when I discovered they hadn't.

Mind you, for whatever education or employment or life experience I have that creates my frame of reference for success... A spouse, a home, a family are all things that are conspicuously absent from my life right now. I bet these people would be equally bewildered at my lack of 'success' as I am of theirs.

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Back to our story. Girl kept working at the grocery store on the corner, found a new love, and continued her life in the small town. Boy worked in the other province/city, did some school there and abroad, and got a fancy job that paid him well. Boy and girl would never speak again, and now live their lives in total oblivion to eachother's existence. The end.

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Sometimes it makes me wonder what would've happened if Boy and Girl hadn't had a falling out. If he wasn't driven by a hurting heart to move away... Would he have stayed in the small town, working one of those odd jobs he got after graduation (fun fact, that would've been telephone technical support)? Would he have gotten a better education and struck out on his own? Probably not. For as upset as he once was, Boy is pretty lucky that things went awry the way they did with Girl. He's found himself on an interesting path now and wouldn't change a thing.

So in this new year of 2017... May the winds of disappointment or hurt fill your sails and breathe you to much warmer shores. One failure or another, one success or another, you'll find yourself where you need to be. Things will work out alright.
-Cril