Mama Kat Prompt: When Dreams Were All They Gave For Free To Ugly Duckling Girls Like Me...
That title is a poignant line from a song by Janis Ian called "At Seventeen" which was a top-40 hit in 1975 when I a senior in high school. It played on the radio constantly and always made me cry because I felt it described my high school life perfectly . I say this because Mama Kat's Writing Prompt for this week, which is "What Were You Like In High School?" and the lyrics of this song used to resonate strongly with how I felt about my teenage life. The parts I related most to are highlighted below: "I learned the truth at seventeen That love was meant for beauty queens And high school girls with clear skinned smiles Who married young and then retired The valentines I never knew The Friday night charades of youth Were spent on one more beautiful At seventeen I learned the truth... And those of us with ravaged faces Lacking in the social graces... ... to those of us who...