"We all have stories that we tell ourselves about what our lives are - and those stories are always wrong" - Shawn Coyle

Going to high school is kind of like cutting an onion: you have to do it, but you're probably going to cry.

In this audio essay, I talk about why that's true.

Before we get to that though, here's the deal: We're off this week and we'll return to regular programming in 2 weeks. The bright side: this is a bonus episode. It's rough and it's a bit of an experiment...but I think you'll dig the change of pace.

(If you're new to the podcast, don't start here, but if you're a fan, stick around.)

The piece that I read in this episode, I wrote 2 years ago (so, basically 10,000 years ago). Here's what's covered:

- What was high school really like for most people?

- What is the emotional reality of high school?

- Defining the bullshit: the status, fake work, fake friends, and the stories we believed about ourselves when we were 16 and incredibly stupid

- A story about me, a car, and concrete, and why it mattered

For more, go to realtalkstudio.com.