The Forbidden Bite

Chapter 29: Life After High School

Career Day.  The day in most high school kids life where the school sets up a bunch of different stations of possible careers and the information of how to succeed in that career.  They have flyers and volunteers there to tell you how to join that career.  We are supposed to vision our future.  We get the same speech every time we do this, about how important our future is.  I never think about my career, I don't even know what I want to major in.  College Application season is coming up next month and I don't even know where I want to go for college.

"Everyone loves planning there future,"  Jacelyn said sarcastically as she ran up next to me.  Career day is practically all day.  In our classes they have certain speakers from different careers, and during the day we have assembly's.  We have to stay late after school to go look around the booths and choose two that we think we want to invest in.  This is the most boring day of the entire high school career, especially after you've done it for four years.

Daniel wasn't here because he is suspended which probably is a good thing.  It would have been hard ignoring him today.  At the beginning of the day we have to file into the auditorium to have our "Beginning" assembly.  Me and Jacelyn walk into the assembly where our principal is standing on stage talking to his secretary.  We eventually sit close to the front, as we wait for the wave of kids to sit down.  It was loud and filled with chatter, as kids discussed career day.  I didn't see Richard here or in the halls, I wondered if he missed because he was hurt.

I sighed, feeling so conflicted.

"Hello, students of Vanguard High.  We do this every year with our high school students so we can show the choices of there futures.  We want to show you that there is a life after high school,"  My principal said with a wide smile.

I rolled my eyes at the last sentence.  We aren't delirious, we know there is life after high school.  It's just not a life most kids want.  We graduate college, and get a job sitting behind a desk.  We meet someone who loves us and then breaks our heart.  We meet another and we stay with them.  We learn to settle.  We marry and have kids, and they grow up.  We get old and sick and then we die.  It's an old story.  That repeats itself through generations, and nobody gets fulfilled.  No one feels like they have made a difference in the world.  I know what's after high school, and I don't want it.

"Welcome, Mr. Malcolm to our stage.  He is the chief of the police department and he is here to give you kids some advice on growing up,"  My principal proudly said.  I looked around the auditorium and no one cared except the new freshman who are excited for anything.  We don't care about some adults point of view about growing up.  They don't get it.  Of course they were kids once, but do they remember what it was like?  They don't know what it's like being a teen in 2018, nor do they care.

As the speech droned on for about an hour of useless advice.  Advice that helps no one.  Kids aren't supposed to feel humiliated about being smart or gay but they are.  Girls shouldn't feel like they have to be stick thin, but they do.  Boys shouldn't feel like they have to be masculine all the time, but they do.  Parents shouldn't blame themselves about everything, but again they do.  There are so many things the world shouldn't be, but it is.  It's not about wishing it was different, it's about trying to survive the way it is.  Maybe if they had a speech about that, then kids would listen.

Eventually I felt someone shaking my shoulder and I opened my eyes.  I realized all the kids around me were getting up and leaving.  I must have fell asleep after the chief said "There is life after high school" for about the sixth time.  I finally made it into Geometry and put my head down on the table.  Most of the time Mr. Burton made kids sit straight up, but he didn't bother me.  I eventually lifted my head a looked beside me and behind me.  I noticed the two empty seats before anything else.  Daniel, and Richard.  I threw my head back down on my desk, and it made a thumping sound but I didn't care.