My remaining three years of high school were in a brand spankin' new town, even farther away. Somewhere in the process I learned to compartmentalize my experiences. It sort of helped with the coping, made it seem a bit more like it had all happened to someone else. There was a false show of involvement with my peers, I was only connected as I absolutely had to be, never more. I spent much of my time in my own world, daydreaming about being anywhere else. I don't really remember many of my peers and fewer of my teachers.
I believed that life was one big horrible event after another and that the more connections someone had, the more they would be hurt in the long run. I struggled trying to figure out just how to make it through each day and an even bigger struggle with how to relate to men.
One year, the band made a trip to Florida to march in a parade at Magic Kingdom. We spent three or four days in Orlando in the middle of February and it was wonderful. It seemed so magical, palm trees and sand, sunshine and a blue sky that went on forever. I knew that one day I would have to move there.
It is, I suppose, a bit sad that three years of school, work and life in general can be summed up in such a short amount of space.
