The Po Show

Other Paths

The weirdness of Facebook continues. I got a friend request from a woman who was one of my best friends in late elementary school. We hung out a lot in junior high and some in high school as well.

Pre-adolescence, she was sort of gawky and awkward, taller than all the boys. She did gymnastics and was in very good physical shape. During our early teen years, she got a lot of acne and was still taller than all the boys, so she remained sort of awkward and socially uncomfortable. Then later in high school, her skin cleared up some, and she started taking modeling classes, and she was suddenly attractive. She had a huge romantic courtship with the older brother of one of my best friends. After high school, she went to Europe to model and, I heard from others, was fairly successful. She was not classically pretty, but she was tall and had a beautiful figure and she was very photogenic. I didn't hear anything from or about her for almost 25 years.

Now I see that she is in NYC, and she has a wildly successful design company that she started 7 years ago. She designs furnishings and housewares, the kind you see on MTV or something. From her FB page, I saw that she just designed the interior of this insanely exclusive lounge club in midtown, where apparently you need to know one of the 100 "ambassadors" of the club to get in. Some of the Tribeca Film Festival private parties were held there. There are several pictures of her, and she is gorgeous and poised, in a dress that no doubt cost more than I've spent collectively on every single item of clothing in my entire life.

This is all so foreign that I find it completely bizarre. It's not like I'd want that life, or even understand what that kind of life is even about, but it's just really strange to think that this woman came from the same place and time I did. We used to walk home from 6th grade together. She almost got us kicked out of Disneyland once, when she spit out of the Fantasyland Skyway and her spittle landed on a park employee. She announced it to all the girls in class when I got my first period, because I was the first one and she was so shocked. We slept over at each other's houses. She seemed...ordinary.

It's odd to think of the paths that we choose, and where they lead.