Kiss Kiss

This entry would be far better if I scanned some high school photos to accompany it. Instead you’ll have to just imagine, and hope I dig some out later.

In my 1997/98 yearbook from Hope Secondary School, that from my graduating year, there is a single line entry from one of the guys in my class.

Sorry to hear about that lesbian thing, Marc thought you were hot. Keep kickin’ it – Scott.

“That lesbian thing” he referrs to was the scandal of the prior school year in my small-town. Not that I have ever been (or think I ever will be) a lesbian. No, I do like the boys. But I did get my 16 year-old self drunk at a party, and kissed a girl on a dare.

Big deal you say – you see girls do that at nightclubs for attention all the time. You attend, or maybe even participate in the pride parade. You went (or considered going) to WET. Yes I know. But remember, this was from nine plus years ago. Before Will & Grace. Before Ellen and Rosie even had daytime talk shows, nevermind actually coming out publicly. And this was in a small, homophobic town, where we didn’t even have a token gay hairdresser.

So yes. That lesbian thing. A defining moment in my youth, and a damn funny story to look back on. Especially since I’ve kept in touch with exactly no-one from High School and I’m kinda curious if anyone will bring it up at the reunion in a couple years.

Now hop back in the Delorean and fast-forward to yesterday. I’m driving across the Granville bridge, and a vaguely familiar-ish girl honks and waves at me. I deal with approximately 500 students over any given summer, so random people stopping me to say “hi” isn’t unusual – and I rarely manage to match a name to the face anyway, so I smiled and waved and turned right off the bridge while she continued on straight.

And then it hit me. My lesbian thing. That was Kim Shaughnessy.

I’ve heard through the grape-vine and Google that Kim’s doing well, is a spoken word performing champ (quite literally), and was (though I’m unsure of their status at this time) dating a friend of a friend.

Unfortunately, neither Google nor the grape-vine were terribly forthcoming on any sort of contact information for her. So I can only hope that perhaps she Googles herself someday and see this:

Hi KimKim! It was neat to see you the other day, even though I wasn’t quite quick enough to recognize you. I hope you’re doing well, and should you have the time and/or inclination sometime, it’d be cool to have coffee, reminisce about the past, and catch eachother up on how our lives have turned out so far. *kisskiss* -JenJen.

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