Hanging in a group feels safe, moving in numbers is safe. In my secondary school about half of the year had come from the prep school, and about 90% of those in the prep school had come from the Montessori school. Some of these girls had been friends since they were three. THREE!! You would think they would eventually run out of conversation topics, but...no.

I went to a playschool, where I excelled in painting rocks to make them ladybirds, and where I ate off a coloured plastic plate. This was back in the day where I used to actually eat - before the days where I stopped, before I started again. Keep up!

I then moved to primary school where I think I was the only person from my playschool, so new friends were made and friendships formed. I excelled contributing to "OUR NEWS" daily and in putting my hand up in the air to answer questions so high that I would get out my chair "me, me, me, me, me, pleaaase, me!". Competitive? I think not...

Then came secondary school, where about 25 girls moved over from my primary school. In my class I knew three others. I wasn't friends with these three others, but simply knew them. I didn't particularly like straining conversation with these three who I barely knew and decided to move out of my 'safety' and find new friends. It wasn't so much of a choice, but rather I had to.

If you interweave the time spent in and out of hospital growing up, having to talk to complete strangers, people of different age and background, I never really had much choice. Unless I wanted to become a social isolated...freak...thing....

But the people who went to Montessori, junior, and secondary school together, never faced this task. They always had the safe cocoon of knowing who they were with. These same girls, now in college, still hang around together, and only together. Sometimes a new member will be allowed join, but that's a rarity -most of the time because nobody would want to join that group.

God forbid these girls will ever have to go out and find new friends or acquaintances. Some will be fine, but others will be lost. They say that if you haven't learned to talk by the time you're five, that part of the brain dies, as there is only a limited 'window of opportunity' to learn language skills. Maybe the same can be said for social skills? Who knows.

And so concludes my stream of consciousness for today....

(Ring Mater, go to work, and no yoga make up today's plans.)