Ligers lions and tigers mixed..... bred for their skills in magic

As I was commuting from work the other day, I saw myself, sitting by the metro station.... the MOST AWKWARD teenager in life sweating like a priest in a playground, with the ill-fitting baggy t-shirt, haircut that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy having self

And all of a sudden I felt myself in a time warp.....

Picture it, 1995, and I'm 13. My parents decide that the public schools in my area were much too dangerous and run down for me to attend so we begin the hunt for private schools.... we did the run through the all boys schools, which, in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have written off so quickly, we did all the schools that kids with names like Quentin Warrington IV go to..... right.

We, and by we I mean my parents got wicked tired of me belly-aching that I didn't want to be "that guy" in our neighborhood that got picked up by the short bus to go to school.... but did they listen? of course not.

I got sent to a Quaker School in the greater DC area, which was big on "feelings" and "communicating." Now y'all should be abundantly aware that in my family "feelings" consist of discerning levels of dirtiness in maritni's and "communicating" consists of pretending any and all problems can be solved with denial denial denial. Needless to say I wasn't exactly "cut out" for this experience.

So I show up.... first day of school. First of all my entire grade had 17 people in it, and they had all gone to school together since elementary school. I was doomed.

Not only was I the fresh meat ready to be preyed on, let me paint you a little picture, hair parted in the middle forming a butt on top of my head, glasses of rec specs fame, apparently I'd found Green Day/Nirvana and with it my angst which was chanelled through jeans and old flannel shirts that I'd steal from my dad because my parents thought that wearing baggy clothes was innapropriate for a young man. This all combined with my budding homosexuality didn't exactly make me at the top of anyone's A-list. PS who's the guy that was ALL ABOUT wearing the cat in the hat hats to class?? yup you guessed it.

Also, soccer and lax were the sports of choice for all the guys, and what did I do?? yes I had to be the one kid whom had to leave school every day and go to diving practice for four hours, so no chance of 'hanging out after school' even if I wanted to...

Thankfully I convinced my parents that public school was the way to go and gratefully returned to the world of sub-par cafeteria food and fights that would leave tracks of hair and individual extensions littering the halls..... ahhh public school.

So, Awkward teenager standing by the metro stop, I tip my hat off to you and thank the baby jesus that I'm no longer you.