The gathering storm

I should probably be looking forward to this coming weekend. It's the last football game of the season at the old alma mater (which is a pretty big deal). Almost all of my friends are going to be in town for the game, and many of them will be crashing at my place for the weekend. It'll be a chance for everyone to chill, reminisce, and catch up. Sounds pleasant enough. Unless you're miserable, self-conscious, self-loathing me.

Rather than getting excited about squeezing into a packed stadium for an afternoon of football, or looking forward to tossing back a few beers with the old crew, I'm mostly just dreading all of it. Most of the alumni in attendance this weekend will be returning in triumph, all proud and confident for having moved on to bigger and better things. Questions like "What are you doing?" or "Where are you living?" will be volleyed back and forth.

Now, I don't want to come across as excessively cynical here; I genuinely believe that the vast majority of the over-achievers I went to college with are modest and are sincerely interested in what their classmates are doing with their post-college lives. All the same, given the current status of my own post-college life (or lack thereof), I'd rather just avoid the inquiries, as well-intentioned as they are sure to be.