Recently, I have gotten Anthony into watching Friday Night Lights. It’s one of my favorite shows and since I’ve tried multiple times to get him into any of my favorite shows with no luck, this is a small victory. For those of you that havent seen it (you should) there’s a couple of main characters I’m going to describe for the sake of this post. Matt Saracen is the under dog starting QB, who’s nerdy and slightly smaller build, sweet and genuine, and awkward in general. Tim Riggins (insert heart eyes) is the hot, popular, party guy, who really does whatever he wants because his parents aren’t around, but ultimately is a good guy that doesn’t show it. Two very opposite, but lovable characters (most of the time). Anthony had asked me if I would have dated Matt Saracen in high school and I said yes. He said “Why because he’s a nerd? You wouldn’t have dated Tim?”

Contrary to popular belief, I was not a popular kid in high school. I was friends with every body, but I didn’t really run in that circle. I had two, maybe three, real friends. Good friends. Friends that I did everything with, and they also were not popular kids. We were those kids that spent our Friday nights playing board games, driving around, or going to the park just being stupid. We spent our Saturdays building giant slip n slides, watching scary movies, and laughing until we cried. There were no drugs, no alcohol, and no reason for our parents to mistrust us. It may seem to some that my high school years were pretty lame, but I can tell you they gave me some of the best memories of my life. I still laugh at Jayden teaching me and Sammie to drive his standard truck and the absolute panic and laughter of stalling out at the stop light. I cherish the hours of Quelf at Kayla’s house and how ridiculous we got trying to win. Now more than ever, I miss the countless Wednesday night’s we spent at youth group with Steve playing some insane game like baby food roulette and hearing him yell “Katers” from across the parking lot and doing some silly dance move to make me laugh.

I would’ve loved to date a Tim Riggins in high school, but that wasn’t really the crowd I ran with. I didnt get nominated for prom or homecoming court. I didn’t get invited to parties. I didn’t have guys knocking each other over to ask me out (even though my husband says I was a hottie in high school). What’s so ironic about the whole thing is, I ended up marrying a Tim Riggins. Not that he’s a Tim Riggins now, but in high school, that’s who Anthony was. Granted, he worked hard and ended up in the military, but personality wise and party wise, definitely a Tim. I feel like this is such a funny spot in our relationship because our personalities are so different in terms of socializing. I am very much content with not coming out of my bubble and so I don’t really make friends that often. Anthony is the exact opposite. He has no problem going up to people, introducing himself, and it’s almost like instantaneous he makes friends. For example, we’ve been at Crossroads for over a year now and he has a pretty good crew of friends. I have like two. Everyone at church seems to know him and recognize him, but I’ve not had a single encounter like that. I’m kind of getting there with the people in the Kids Ministry. But he has this insane popular gene that I just do not have. Like if he misses a service, people notice and we go to a HUGE church. He’s been out with pneumonia and last week at his first service back, several people noticed him and made sure to say that they’re glad he’s back and they were worried. Like WHHHHHAAAAT?

Now we’re not in high school anymore and no one is really the same person they were in high school, but I still find it so fascinating how even as adults, parts of our high school personalities stick with us. There is always a group of “popular” people and if you don’t think there is, you’re in the popular group. What I find even more humorous, is trying to explain to Anthony that I don’t have the popular kid mentality because he doesnt know any different. For example, he always says things like “just go talk to them” because that’s something he can just do. I still very much have this stigma of being part of the weird outcast crowd of kids so I always assume people aren’t going to like me. I’ve been working really at putting myself out there and not caring as much what people think, but that tends to be hard when you think you’re weird.