Doug Mandeville:  

Life Wow. Let's see. At the time of this writing, I'm sitting in my office at work, pondering life at 32. Not too bad, I still have control of my bowels, I don't forget (much), and I'm in pretty decent physical shape. Let's cut through the PC crap. I was a freaking mess in my high school years - there, I'm man enough to say it. I won't be a baby and blame society, blame my dysfunctional environs, family strife, or anything else. My biggest regret in life thus far? Not only not making the most of myself socially and emotionally at that stage, but not really even bothering to try. Add in a large helping of being so ego-absorbed and self-important that I truly felt integrating with society was beneath me. Ah well. Hindsight is 20-20. The upsides? When I have a kid someday (I don't yet), I'll know what to teach him or her NOT to do in the game of growing up. That's a plus. For a number of years after I graduated, I held a lot of resentment to the people that give me a lot of crap in high school. But I realized as my professional development went on, that I was guilty of every abuse and back-stepping-on I had incurred myself; I was rising in my chosen pursuits by being aggressive, a bully - eating those weaker than me. It wasn't so bad being the eatER and not the eatEE. It became obvious to me I no longer have the right to begrudge anyone that gave me crap in school for behaving as any human will instinctively do in a po...Expand for more