Clare Rannigan

For some socially, I think it was fine.  If you had an older sibling who was already there, you were in.  And if you didn’t, then it was kind of tough.  I just never felt like I belonged.  I didn’t feel like there was any group that welcomed me.  I had one girlfriend there, one friend I made and that was it.  And we made that we both rode horses.  So that was what the basis of the friendship was.  I think that the football team was so big, figured so heavily because they had the nation’s winning streak.  And these were just sort of like these high school demigods.  And you know, I was an awkward looking eighth grader and there was just nothing, there was just no sort of niche for me to fit into or at least that I thought, so I just felt really lonely there, and kind of an outcast.  I tried to fit in by, you know, trying to be a cheerleader and I failed, really failed at that publicly in front of a lot of people during tryouts when I forgot my cheer.  Yeah, I felt like I was a round hole or in a bunch of square pegs or something.  It just didn’t fit.