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What Was Your Favorite Day In High School?

If you’d like to get to know people, you can do it by asking about their experiences in high school.

For example, there is a movie directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, and we’re told two of his main characters were high school sweethearts, and “very popular,” and you infer that he was a football player and she a cheerleader.

That tells a story in itself, doesn’t it?

In a way, you know that real, grown–up life isn’t going to be a joyride for these handsome folks who peaked when they were 18.

Ask someone at a mixer about their experiences, specifically about their favorite day in high school.

Will they reply, “When I had that cap and gown on,” or “When I had that diploma in my hand”?

Or, will they say it was opening night, when they had a leading role in that school play, the one that was publicized so favorably in the weekend newspaper?

Who we were, then, has a lot to do with who we are, now.

There are many stories that could come out, that you’d never expect to hear.

For instance, I read the obituary of a famous actor, whose son went to my high school, for a short time. What makes him special is the fact that we were born on the same day, nearly at the identical minute, at the same hospital, two thousand miles away.

My Mom made a big deal of telling the account of whom I “was born next to,” and it was very interesting when I told my birth-mate the story, when we first met, some 15 years later.

He ended up being a wild and troublemaking sort, who I learned, was later busted for possessing thousands of pills.

Anyway, if you ask me, when I first said hello to this “new kid” at our school, and told him about our shared past, our very beginning on this planet, I suppose that was one of my most memorable days in high school.

Finally, I got a chance to tell this story, to the one person who would appreciate it the most.

I’m just happy we didn’t hang out together, after that!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.