Matt Green

A couple days ago, my daughter Rachel sent me a crazy meme to fill out. One of the questions was "WHO FROM HIGH SCHOOL WOULD YOU LIKE TO RUN INTO?"

I answered Matt Green, of course.

Now she wants to know who Matt Green was/is.

Matt Green was a sweet young man that I dated when I was a Sophomore in high school. He was totally different than any guy I had ever dated before or since. He was a journalist on the high school paper. He was a brain and super, super sweet. And I was crazy about him.

He was tall and slender and I adored Matt. He looked kind of like Richie Cunningham.

We dated for just a couple months. I remember he had these nice light green Ford F150. We went all over the place in that pickup.

We were doing really well and I was extremely happy being Matt's girl.

Then one of his so-called "friends" stepped in. Twenty years later, I still refuse to say his name.

This "friend" decided I was not good enough for Matt. Looking back, I would say he was probably jealous, but at the time, I just thought he hated me.

To give you a little bit of background, I had only moved into town about 2 months before my Sophomore year in high school began. I had really blossomed that summer. I was 5'3" and 120 pounds. And to put it mildly...I looked like Dolly Parton's little sister.

So, one day I came to school and walked up to my locker in Sophomore hall. I could see something written on my locker, but I was not prepared for what I saw.

Written in black Sharpie all over my locker were crude drawings of me and my chest. In big words was written: "Don't take her to the dance, Matt. She's a slut!" And many more things -much worse.

Well, needless to say I was very upset. I didn't know who had done it, and couldn't even imagine who would do such a thing. The administration was contacted and the janitors cleaned up the locker for me. But the damage was done. Matt broke up with me. Said he couldn't handle the "stress". Plus, I was called a slut and whore from that point on...So I figured if I had the reputation, might as well enjoy it.

A couple of days later, I went to school early and discovered this "friend" writing on my locker. "Friend" was a star football player and baseball player. He stood at least six feet tall and was a good sized guy.

He was quite surprised when I grabbed him and repeatedly slammed him into the lockers. The biology teacher had to come out of his classroom and subdue me. I have never been so angry - before or since.

That day showed me what I am capable of when riled.

I understand Matt is an officer in the military these days. Last I heard he is married with children. I hope he is happy.

I would like to run into him again just because he meant so much to me. I guess he was the last vestige of innocence in my life.

As for "friend...I have no idea where he is or what he is doing, but as you can see, I still harbor some really bad feelings about the whole thing.