Program Kids

One of the best things I ever did was ignore my mom when she told me to stay away from a certain group of kids in my high school. These kids were . . . . Program Kids (insert evil music here). Hmmm . . . . it sounds much less terrifying than it did as I was being warned away as a freshman in high school. I vividly remember my mom telling me to not hang out with any program kids because they were trouble. That lasted maybe a week. What can I say? Those program boys were cute!

And it turned out that those kids were some of the most interesting I’d meet in Thompson Falls. They had traveled, had fancy clothes, took week long ski trips, had great stories from various adventures, and taught me the very important lesson that money is not everything. Money does not buy you love or your parent’s attention. It can however buy you trouble and a one way ticket to the middle of no where Montana to rehabilitate.

I ended up being friends with a fair number of the program kids over the years. I found it ironic that my mother was concerned about me spending time with these kids when they were under tighter rules than the strictest parents could come up with. They were genuinely nice and interesting kids though, with the common denominator of wealthy absent parents. And by the time they were rehabilitated enough to attend my high school, they were back to being “normal” kids. With less privileges and more rules than the rest of us.

A few years ago, in the MySpace hay day, one of them tracked me down to thank me for always helping him with his math. I of course sat next to him in math because he was cute and funny. He apparently sat next to me to get help with his homework. The MySpace note was so sweet and thoughtful that I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I hardly knew what I was doing in math. It definitely made it worth ignoring my mom all those years ago.

The program kids, even if they were trouble, taught me that there was a whole wide world out there. Not just in places to see but in people to meet. More importantly, they taught me that friends can come from anywhere and come from a variety of backgrounds. And for this I thank them.