Musings: This is High School?

I grew up watching a lot of TV and movies that dealt with high school. From horror to drama to whatever, high school was a favorite setting. The stories made the place appear very mature and advanced with all the social relationships and personal issues that were dealt with. And most importantly, people looked so much older than I was on TV. I started thinking this way around the age of ten when I was a ways off from high school myself. Then I entered high school and everyone still looked so very young. The seniors stood out as older, but where were these people I had seen on TV? All the rougher and edgier faces that had been through so much more?

In my sophomore year, people still looked young. Same thing again in my junior year. And same thing in my senior year. Then I went to college and stopped paying attention for a while. When I got to my junior and senior years, it came right back: those freshmen still look nothing like the people on TV. Maybe it was just the schools that I went to. I was just being grouped in with other people who didn't look like the people on the television. Right?

Well, once I discovered Google and IMDB, I started looking up the ages of actors. Oh. So, it turns out that the entertainment industry occasionally uses people in their twenties, from early to late, to play high school kids. There may have even been the odd 30 year old.

My age perception appears to be permanently thrown off because I'm still surprised these days when I find out someone in their late-20s is playing someone in the mid-teens. Can't say it's ever been an actual issue or that it's corrupted my life. I do feel a bit lied to and led on since my high school experience was nowhere near as dramatic, which is actually good in many ways. The bigger issue is that I feel a little bit of shame for feeling any shame at all for not remembering that everything I see on the television isn't always 100% accurate.

Next up: you mean to tell me that I can't be healed from severe trauma and massive blood loss overnight?