Comments on: How quickly life paths diverge

By: Cyde Weys

Cyde Weys — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:57:21 +0000

Knacker, while I understand your point, I also feel like it kind of trivializes the deeper point that was being made here. Yes, most people don’t have kids immediately upon graduating high school (not around here anyway), but there’s still something to be learned by pondering those who do and then reflecting on how wildly divergent those lives will be for the full six decades afterwards. The computer nerd part isn’t particularly relevant.

By: Knacker

Knacker — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:12:45 +0000

Reread what I said. I wasn’t making a statement about computer nerds in general, just using “computer nerd” to describe the original poster.

By: KTC

KTC — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:27:51 +0000

So true. But I think you’ll get over that after a little bit. When you last known these people, at least you know what they’re like (things do change obviously), and you know what they look like etc., and knew how at least some of them could be settling down and having kids soon. Now try finding a bunch of primary school friends who you haven’t seen or spoken to for more than a decade, and seeing them obviously as a complete stranger. THAT is strange.

By: William (green)

William (green) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:10:59 +0000

I don’t see how being a computer nerd makes you fiscally invincible. Want to let me in on the secret?

By: Knacker

Knacker — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:14:51 +0000

Yeah, people do things. I don’t know why this surprises you.

Not everyone’s a computer nerd for whom there was never any danger of having a litter and ending up in a shanty.

By: Erin

Erin — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:56:33 +0000

No it’s a grocery store- my mom used to take me with her every Sunday morning after Sunday school. The staff there was so friendly and nice, she missed shopping there after we moved so much she would drive 40 minutes just to buy food.

By: Cyde Weys

Cyde Weys — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 03:20:55 +0000

Nah, the Safeway in Silver Spring.

By: William (green)

William (green) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:46:12 +0000

Snyder’s is a grocery store? I thought it was just a bakery.

By: Erin

Erin — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:01:42 +0000

Are you talking about Synder’s, the grocery store?

By: lee

lee — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 07:31:12 +0000

I moved back to the town I went to 1-9th grade to go to college after living elsewhere. One day on the bus, I saw a girl I recognized from Junior High. I could not help but recognize her, she is the homeliest woman I have ever seen, kinda a Margaret Hamilton without the glamor and with bad acne. When I approached her in Junior High School hoping to make friends, she was as sour and mean as she was physically unattractive. I would see her around a lot, always alone, and often glowering. A few times I had occasion to speak with her, she was just as unpleasant as the first. Nor was I the only one I saw treated so. It seemed to be her standard mode of interaction.

I first saw her, after my return, riding the bus. She was just as homely as ever, but she was hugely pregnant and with someone, and most amazingly of all, they both were visibly happy! The guy was obviously enchanted with her and seemed to be trying to make sure she was as comfortable as she could be. She seemed quite taken with him, laughing at his jokes and making cow eyes at him. She would have been about 19, and judging from them being on the bus and the clothes that they were wearing, they did not have much money. I saw them several times over the next few years, and always, they seemed very happy, and she was not gratuitously nasty to various strangers she interacted with.

I always wondered what brought on the change. I am sure it was the same person, I heard him call her by name.