1987.

If any one particular year stands out more than any of the others in my almost-55 years on this planet, far and away the year is 1987.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I’ve never had quite a rollercoaster year before or since.

The year seemed to start on a high note….I was Dean’s List at my community college (where I fulfilled my senior year of high school), my beloved New York Giants won their first-ever Super Bowl, I got accepted to Ithaca College, and I met the person who would give me my first true case of puppy love.

Things seemed to be going well….and then BAM! Reality started to hit me, in ways I wish I understood then the way I do now.

The LAST thing I wanted to do was go to my high school graduation that June. But as my dad was a well-admired retired teacher, the optics would have been pretty bad if I blew it off. So I kind of found a “happy medium”….I walked out before it was over. It wasn’t much fun watching people win awards for which I was deemed ineligible, but then to take a direct hit of silly string to my right eye? Fuuuuuuck that….it was “peace out”. Needless to say, this did not go over well with dear old Dad. After grounding me for the entire summer (which my mom got reduced to a weekend), my dad and I had a rift that was never resolved. This was just the beginning.

Boy, do I wish I had a reset button. If I had a DeLorean and could go back to the Fall of 1987, I’d do it in a heartbeat. With the exception of my grades, my first semester at Ithaca was a social disaster. Becoming more aware of my social areas of improvement would’ve been a big help. I learned from this, but damn, it cost me dearly that year.

My Giants got their butts handed to them by the Chicago Bears in the Monday Night Football season opener, and then the NFL strike that year destroyed their season. Maddie left David on Moonlighting…..my world was upside down.

1987 was the only year that I had nothing but spaghetti for Thanksgiving. I spent the day before Thanksgiving in the infirmary with a severe case of food poisoning from a turkey sub. Good times!

I’m sure there were some good experiences that took place during the entire course of that year, on which I’m currently blanking. I’m thankful for the friends I made that year who are still friends to this day. I’m grateful that they saw our commonalities, and they didn’t give up on our friendships.

I still can’t help but have “What If?” moments from that year, as things seemed very extreme. Questions like “What if I’d taken the stairs at MENC All Eastern Choir that year and never met Mandy in the elevator?” Or “What if I hadn’t crashed and burned that first fall semester?”

Life happens the way it’s supposed to happen, and I know that I’m where I’m supposed to be in life on July 27, 2024….

…..but I’ll always wonder about what could’ve happened if events had gone a little bit differently here and there.

(And by the way, in all of my What If scenarios, the Giants WIN the Super Bowl….just sayin’.)