I know that there's stuff about me that got past the yearbook censors my senior year. I've deliberately never read most of the stuff in that yearbook. I read what my friends wrote, and I read the stuff written about the dorky academic clubs that I was in, and that's it.

"innocent until proven guilty"

I usually say, "Do you lead off with that in job interviews?"

"Innocent until proven guilty."

"You know you're supposed to say, "perfectionism" or something like that when the interviewer asks you what your worst quality is, right?"

Ha!

The weird thing for me is sort of bonding with a bunch of other former DC-area private school women on Twitter, as if those girls didn't make my life miserable for the 4 years I was there. But I went to Holton-Arms (same school as Dr Ford) so I'm in the in-crowd now, I guess.

Holy shirt I want to BURN IT ALL DOWN.

Yesterday I actually had a bonfire and sat outside reading fiction by the fire. While all the while thinking Burn It All Down. It was soothing.

But I went to Holton-Arms (same school as Dr Ford) so I'm in the in-crowd now, I guess.

DH and I had the public vs private school debate, as I suspect most parents do. I went to private and he public. His arguments won and I agreed to public schools for the boys. As fraught as all high school experiences may be, the stories I hear out of the private ones really are worse.

I was the only one of my siblings to go to private school - I had previously been in a math/science magnet program, but didn't get into the math/science high school so my parents started looking for alternatives. In retrospect I wish I had gone to our local public school instead. I found my tribe in middle school, and lost it as soon as I entered 9th grade.

Thinking of youthful horrors is a part of my day today in other ways as well. Today is my nephew's 20th birthday. That means that it is 2 years ago today that he killed a man driving intoxicated, and for the family the 2 year anniversary of a teen girl losing her dad. On our side of the equation without exception all of us are heartbroken that this young man's life is forever ruined, but we also grieve for his victims and know that he has to pay a price for the immense harm he caused their family.

My nephew is still in jail awaiting trial. His lawyer is still working to try and get his trial moved to juvenile court since he had only been 18 for minutes. Basically delaying proceedings as long as possible in hopes that a plea deal will be more favorable as the case grows older. 2 years down, unclear how many he will end up serving. He will be pleading guilty at some point, because he is. The family filed the civil wrongful death suit a couple days ago as they grow more frustrated with the criminal delays. Only surprised that they waited this long. He has nothing, but the judgement come and he will pay some percentage of whatever earnings he is able to make when he gets released from jail.

It all sucks and we all cry over the situation often, but I have never heard anyone in our family make an excuse for him being a teen. We have looked inward and remembered times when we shouldn't have driven as teens, but we have never questioned his responsibility and the fact that there is a price to be paid.

To tie this together, yes, Kavanaugh probably had an alcohol problem that created a monster in high school and college. But this doesn't relieve him of the responsibility to pay for those actions. Period. He hasn't taken responsibility at all.

I am pretty sure my (private boarding) high school yearbook contains references to a gang rape. I have no idea how it wasn't caught, but maybe yearbook nerds are pretty innocent? I think I didn't realize myself until much later.

I actually just Googled the woman this morning, thinking of it.

Wow, geez flea.

My public high school was so big who knows what could have been going on. But it also meant it was big enough to find your people and mostly avoid too much insider/outsider drama. Middle school was much worse for bullying. (And elementary school, for me)