WENDY FROGSTOMP | Local News | Contact
Like most well-adjusted regional high school graduates, Emma Caldwell left Betoota for the coast just weeks after receiving her high school results – which were sufficient enough for the now 27-year-old to enrol in a sandstone university.
Fast-forward ten tumultuous years and the junior architect was back in town for the much-anticipated St Glenda’s High School ten year reunion last night in function room 2 at the Betoota Dolphins Leagues Club.
While she looks back fondly on her time at Glenda’s, she both relished in the opportunity to catch up with old friends and recoiled in disgust at having to talk to some of these people again.
“I’ve actively avoided 90% of my high school graduating class,” said Emma.
“Not because I don’t like them anymore but because I never liked them in the first place. Just because ten years have passed, now that we’re all independent adults now, doesn’t mean things have changed,”
“Everyone who didn’t leave this hell hole of a country town is either married, pregnant or on ice. It’s depressing to come back here. I’m sorry but it’s true. Also, most of my classmates were and still are fuckheads.”
Rather than shake it off like she would at any reputable West End wine bar, Caldwell let the presence of her former classmates ruin her evening, telling The Advocate that an interaction with an old friend turned handsy creepo from peer support led her to enjoy her first cigarette in five years.
“I just had to find an out,” she said.
“The only reason why I came back was that I knew that I’d be more succesful than most of the no-hopers I saw last night.”
More to come.
