Do I Know You?

Friday night I ate at a restaurant in town, and my waitress was a girl I went to school with. I've known her since kindergarten, and we graduated together three years ago. I've seen her working in this place before, but not since she had her baby last year. When she came to take our order, she didn't acknowledge that she knew me at all, only calling me "ma'am."

Granted, I didn't say "Hey, how are you?" either, so perhaps I'm being hypocritical. I suppose in my head I immediately reverted to our days in high school where she was the popular girl voted onto the homecoming court every year and I was just a shy geek. I don't think we had any classes together in high school, but we definitely knew each other, and she most definitely watched me give a speech on our graduation day. I guess Friday night I just wanted some recognition from her that I wasn't just some customer, I was a girl she knew and someone that was worthy of a simple greeting.

I suspect I'm being over dramatic here, but another thing that bothered me was that she didn't speak to Nathan at all. As I said, she gave birth to a son last year, so I expected her to be friendly to Nathan, but she didn't. It's certainly not a requirement that waitresses pay special attention to Nathan, but knowing that she has a son just slightly younger than him, it struck me as odd that she didn't talk to him.

This girl was one of many to have had a baby a few years removed from high school. I don't suppose there is anything wrong with that, although many of these girls aren't married and didn't finish college. Babies are wonderful, but I can't imagine trading my college years in for that kind of responsibility. I've learned about my baby-making peers from Myspace and Facebook, and I often wonder if anyone has wondered about me and searched for me. I don't have Myspace or Facebook, only this blog (which no one knows about). I guess it makes me sound vain, but I hope that someone looks back on our time in high school and wonders what happened to me.