High School Years: Part Deux

After work tonight, I saw a group of high school kids out on the street. They only looked slightly inebriated -- more of a gentle buzz -- as they exited the house where I assume the party was held at. I only saw them for a brief second as the cab drove along the street, but it was enough to make me think back to my own adolescence.

If I'd known in high school that I was going to earn a living as a prostitute, I very well may have dropped out. A grave mistake, surely, as a high school diploma is needed for college admissions. As I've said before, my college education is in fact an asset in my escorting career, because my clients are looking for something more than a tiger in bed.

Was I a Lothario in high school? Far from it. I'd been stood up on dates, if not flat-out rejected. While such traumas certainly stung, I can't say I was too disappointed. Simply put, girls my own age didn't interest me all that much. They always struck me as vain, insecure, demanding, incapable of acting as their own person instead of following the herd.

It wasn't until after high school that I had my first serious relationship -- with a married woman, no less. Catherine was lovely, and I still think about her sometimes. While most of my male peers were trying to bed slutty sorority sisters (and yes, I know that every girl in a sorority isn't a slut, which is why I'm referring to the "slutty" variety instead of the more mainstream kind), I was in bed with an older woman.

Rather prescient, don't you think?

As the cab continued through the nighttime streets, I wondered what those kids were up to. Were they just happy to be out of school? Wishing they could be up north where the temperatures are cooler? Nervous and anxious about the college admissions race, which seems to get tighter and more cutthroat each year? Whoever said high school was the best time of one's life must have had a very, very miserable existence.

Furthermore, how does one go about explaining my kind of vocation to a teenager? Doesn't selling sex go against everything they've been taught about what is proper and respectable in the world? Oh, but they'll soon discover that the world isn't nearly as black and white as it appears. In fact, I think that most of them already realize that. Take academic honesty, for example.

In simple terms, cheating is wrong -- but then again, what's a plagiarized paper here and there? Especially for a course they have no interest in pursuing in the future? The same goes for glancing at a neighbor's paper during an exam, or faking ADD / ADHD in order to get both medication and additional time for said exams.

Perhaps I'd tell them that selling sex -- at least in certain circumstances -- isn't so bad. Like I've mentioned before, it's a very practical career choice in some ways, one that pays well and leaves me with a lot of free time. While its illegal status is definitely a drawback, I'd say it's much less draining than other jobs. I'm rarely with a client for longer than two hours, and I never have to deal with much competition, at least not directly.

But would I go so far as to recommend it? Of course not. If there's one thing I can say about escorting, it's that it's not a job for everyone. The juggling of two identities alone can cause psychological exhaustion, not to mention the sex. But for a few of us, scattered in every major city in the United States, it's what pays the bills.