Back in the late 80's when I was in high school, I got into a fight. I think I was a sophomore at the time, maybe a freshman. I can't recall.

I was about 5'1" back then and weighed in at about 100 pounds.



I didn't grow until I was about 17 and didn't stop growing until I was in my mid 20's. Since then, I've added a foot to my height and about 70-80 pounds.



I got into a fight with another kid that I considered something of an acquaintance / friend at the time. I had actually been better friends with his older brother (couple years older than I was also) in years earlier.



Anyway, we got into one of those classic high school fights. About 10 years later I watched the movie Dazed and Confused and the fight scene in that movie reminded me quite a bit about this fight. With the exception that there was no sucker punch in this fight, more of a round of bad boxing and bad wrestling.



Other people for several days passed rumors about each of us and what we had or hadn't said for several days. Then the stage for the fight was set, and we were supposed to brawl during a football game, maybe at half time or something.



Now, I wasn't much of a fighter and was about as light and about as tall as my own son is now and he's in 4th grade.



The other kid wrestled me down and then proceeded to punch me in the face.



Now it was at that point that I learned a couple things about myself.



1. I wasn't much of a fighter, especially when I was on the ground.

2. It didn't hurt much to get hit in the face.

3. It would be really good to get out of the quagmire of being pinned on the ground getting hit in the face, but I was kind of stuck.



So anyway, eventually the police or someone came and the hundred or so kids standing around in the classic fight circle watching this silly event scattered. I got up and scattered as well as the other kid.



That was pretty much it. We weren't friends for the most part after that until maybe senior year. By that time, I had become "cool". I was finally taller, had a car, smart enough to graduate early, had long hair, and I was running a frat house.



Running a frat house when you are in high school can make you very popular. Being smart enough to graduate early, but not actually doing it gives you lots of free time to party.



So in some weird way, we kind of reached some new mutual understanding in high school that senior year. Later, we even had a few shots before a party and I think that was probably the last time I spoke with the guy.



Then today something funny happened. (OK, to me the whole story seems funny, this just caps it off some more.)



I received an email from LinkedIn from this kid grown up. He's now a lawyer and looking to build some LinkedIn connections. Now, I'm going to accept the link. I have no ill will harbored towards him or anything like that.



I do find the story funny myself. It represents a period of my life where I had less wisdom and on good days today, I have and use much more wisdom.



That was not the only fight I was involved in when I was younger. I'm not proud of the fights I was in. I won a couple and lost a couple. I probably lost more than I won, and I always tried to get out of them, but fights usually break out when you have no other options.



Case in point, a crazy guy attacked my wife in a night club. That resulted in a fight that only lasted long enough to get him off of her and scare him into running out of the club, where he was chased down by the police, arrested, prosecuted and convicted after we testified against him.

He was drunk and high and was confused into thinking that my wife was his girl friend, who was actually hanging on some other guy on the other side of the night club.

So anyway over twenty years after getting my butt kicked by this guy, I'm going to be linked to him after I accept on LinkedIn. Hopefully, that will bring him some more business, keep him gainfully employed, and his family fed and maybe sent to school.

As networking goes, the connection is unlikely to do much for me, but you never know. I know many many lawyers, some good fighters and some very poor fighters.

These days if I were a teenager and had that fight, I'd probably be all over YouTube with video proof of my youthful stupidity. Today, youthful ignorance gets a lot more positive press than it used to.

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