Remember that girl in school who sat in the front row, took copious notes (with excellent penmanship), and raised her hand so often the teacher stopped calling on her?

She always turned in her homework on time. And she always got an A.

I hated that girl.

If you were that girl, sorry, I didn’t really hate you. I was jealous of you. You were so organized. You made everything look easy. You made the rest of us goof balls look bad.

You followed the rules and never got in trouble. I didn’t like following rules and looked for loopholes. You behaved. I made jokes in class and threw spit balls at the teacher in the lunchroom.

You got awards. I got sent to the Principal’s office.

I thought you were a goody two-shoes. You thought I was a loser.

We were both given the same set of rules. You followed all of them, I followed some of them. You worked hard. I looked for shortcuts. You behaved. I acted out.

And yet. . . we both turned out okay.

We both became lawyers. Had successful careers. Made a contribution. We just took slightly different roads to get here.

You followed GPS. I winged it. You got here on time. I got lost a couple of times (I’ll never admit it–I’m a guy), but here I am.

Let’s drink a toast to the past and celebrate our differences. And give thanks that school’s out for summer. Oh, right, you’re taking summer school. Figures.