dona's 365

Elementary school classmate, Kathy often smelled like garbage. I don’t think I was ever mean to her, but I shunned her along with everyone else. We both ended up at the outcasts table in junior high, along with Chris , Pam and Cindy . We weren’t all that different after all.

The most ambitious member of my master’s degree cohort, Bernie delivered her exquisitely completed projects with a smirk of self-satisfaction. When she approached me to be her partner for a project, my delight soon turned to dismay when I realized she cared much more about appearance than the content inside.

Gregarious, pretty and smart, Debbie was all that I aspired to be. She never acknowledged me however; too busy being herself to notice the shyer students. I quietly mourned her death in a car accident after junior college, then married her brother a few years later. Coincidence? Probably mostly serendipity.

I first encountered Bob at my brother ’s Cub Scout pinewood derby race to which I inappropriately wore off-white hot pants and a brown see-through blouse. Upon passing him the next day, in the center stairway of our high school, he muttered, “you looked better last night”. He ultimately dated Sally .

Last seen evading ghosts , David lived down the street from me growing up. Although a couple of years my junior, we worked together as ambassadors by performing original skits to help prepare junior high school students for the rigors of high school. An Internet search uncovers his continued ambassador pursuits .