16th
Peak cool
There’s a peak in everyone’s life, and a moment when you realize that your peak has passed. I imagine people often make that realization in mid-life crises, or in the low point of their marriages, or maybe when they retire. The lucky ones peak late. And slowly. Ideally, the summit of your life’s achievement and personal coolness ought to be a slow burner, warm and easy like a long summer. Then there are the ones who peak in high school: the varsity footballers, the most popular cheerleaders. Prom queens, pop stars. They tend to have long, painful slides down.
I have the rare mixed blessing of knowing the exact date of my peak. It was 30 April, 2009, and I took this photograph to mark the occasion.
A French woman who teaches English at a local middle school asked a friend of ours from Colorado to come to the school for “American Day.” She created the event for the joint purposes of introducing her students to real Americans and their culture and to give them a chance to practice their English with native speakers. Having learned from foreign exchange students as a small man myself, I was happy to oblige.
I figured middle school kids would probably look up to college students, but I didn’t know whether my foreignness would magnify or filter their interest. Turns out I could not have overestimated its benefit.
For one day, I was Mick Jagger. I was their Elvis, their savior. The girls thought I looked like the guy from Twilight and swooned, which of course was difficult to respond to appropriately, as that kind of attention usually just makes me laugh uncontrollably. The reaction from the boys was more tempered, but I was still awesome to most of them and only fascinating to the rest. To put it humbly, I was a god for one school day; the real-life enactment of a some low-rent Disney B-movie about a lonely nerd’s wish come true where everyone learns the value of real friendship in the end but he still gets to be friends with the hot chick.
Literally surrounded by an ever-growing and -tightening circle of prepubes on their playground after lunch, I was the most popular I’ve ever been. And probably ever will be.
So I peaked early. Big deal. I can handle being just average for the rest of my life. I’ve still a blog and social networking to delude myself about my importance.
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