Tale As Old As Time:

Not-so-popular girl (Samantha) has a crush on the unattainable "jock" (Jake Ryan) who happens to be the cutest boy in the school. Jake has a girlfriend who is the most popular/beautiful girl in the school (Caroline).

Not only is this the story line for the movie Sixteen Candles, but it is also the scenario for just about every girl in Jr. High.

Of course, I had the same experience. It was 8th grade. My Jake was the cutest thing I had ever seen since I changed school districts in 6th grade. I fell deeply and madly in love. Jake and I shared our English class together and we were friends. However, there was no way I could compete with Caroline (said with a sneer). She was (obviously) a cheerleader and apparently the only pretty girl in our school. Everyone wanted to be like Caroline!! I only wanted Jake to like me. But.....it wasn't to be. Caroline was the school darling until she moved after our 9th grade year. (There's a big, traumatic, dramatic, jr. high girly story that should go along with this, but I am choosing to keep it to myself today.)

I hoped to never have to compete with or see her again.

Flash forward 4 years.

It's the summer Calvin and I are dating. We'd been together every weekend since our first date in March. I felt committed. I didn't date anyone else. I assumed Calvin felt the same.

HA!!!

Imagine my shock when Calvin told me that he knew Caroline, that she worked with him, and he had gone out on a date with Caroline's best friend, because he wanted to see if he could get a date WITH CAROLINE!!!

AUGH!!!

How could this happen? I thought I was finished with her!! All those old, un-Christlike feelings resurfaced and I was mad.

Calvin, unlike Jake, saw the light. He realized he loved me and we got engaged shortly after. I still held bitter feelings, but tried to bury them because -- after all -- I got my man!

Fast forward 20+ years. We got married, moved away from our college town, moved out of state, and eventually ended up living back in our college town.

20 years have gone by!! 20 years of life, love, kids. Good times and not so good times. 20 years should be long enough to squelch all those bad feelings. Right?

WRONG!!!

I went to work out at Curves this morning and THERE IS CAROLINE!!! She lives here!! In the same town!!! And yes, I still don't like her!! How can this be? Am I out of Jr. High or not?!?!

There is no big moral to this story. I guess it shows how shallow I still am and how much I have to grow as a person. Yes, it looks like I still need to grow up.

Can I please just graduate from Jr. High?