- There's a handful of normal kid things I kind of missed. - There's a handful of normal kid things I kind of wish I'd missed.

There's a lot of high school life that I missed out on. I don't think I ever lost any friends in bitter fallings-out (in fact I'm pretty good at keeping friends unless we simply grow apart), I was never a direct spectator in relationship drama, I only had school pride insofar as I was in the band for two years and was forced to go to football games.

Most of my life has surrounded academics, in fact. I don't mean this to say that all I ever do is study, study, study, but I've always operated under the assumption that knowledge is tantamount, and a few close friendships are all one really needs.

At least, because I'm often dissatisfied with the way things are, I've let myself believe that it was just an assumption. Maybe it is. But in another sense, it's the truth, because that's what works for me.

A lesson to be learned this quarter is that injecting yourself into someone's else's paradigm is not very conducive to happiness, although sometimes it's necessary for survival.