I Hated You In High School

I think we're all aspirational, in different ways. There's always a goal we're striving to accomplish, be it academic, professional or personal.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a teacher, having admired those who taught me during school. I also wanted to lose weight (hello, internalized fatphobia!), be a comedian (CHECK) and I was constantly starting (and never actually writing in) a journal.

Buying new notebooks? Sign me up! Clearly the only thing preventing me from writing in them was having the wrong journal. And then the wrong pen. And then the wrong writing setup.

It took me a while to realize I'm just bad at written introspection. But I always saw the possible utility of journaling, writing down the minutaie of your daily life for later perusal (for whatever specific need!).

I Hated You In HIgh School is kinda thumbing its nose at me, but it's hard to argue with success. Tessa doesn't remember exactly why she hates Olive, her one-time high school confidante. She just remembers the bad vibes.

But luckily, Tessa is a cartoonist! So we get to see the cartooning journal she kept that lays out all the excruciatingly gay teen agony that caused the upset in the first place. And of course, there'd be no reason to be reliving all of this if there weren't certain ... feelings ... coming back to the fore.

I like this graphic novel. The art style is fun and loose without feeling lazy, and the characters are remarkably well-rounded. There's maybe a bit too much anxiety and worry suffused through these pages, but that also might just be me, projecting.

It's probably aspirational to think that knowing yourself better – being able to review past decisions, thoughts and feelings from the perspective you had while going through it all – can lead to happiness, or at least a better understanding of your current self. But part of being our best selves requires that we examine how we were in the past, even if only to emulate the things we did correctly (though, honestly, it's more often avoiding making the same mistakes). In that sense, we could all stand to remember why we Hated (Someone) In High School.