How would You Start Over?

Remember that mediocre Drew Barrymore movie, Never Been Kissed, where Drew's character enrolls in high school to write an exposé, chosen because she is the only employee of a newspaper who can pass for a high school student? Remember that her brother, played by David Arquette, enrolls in high school too so that he can have one last chance for success with baseball? If you haven't seen the movie, no matter--I've just summarized it for you (minus the saccharine love story). My real point is that someone in real life, Guerdwich Montimer, to be precise, apparently took some advice from that film and decided to fraudulently start high school again at age 22.

This kind of crime intrigues me because its detriment to others is unclear. The article mentions that Montimer's trial is set "for the week of Aug. 1, following the conclusion of the capital murder trial of accused cop killer Larry Neil White;" one could hardly say that this crime is equal to cop-killing, but who has it affected most? The kid who got cut from the basketball team in Montimer's favor? The 15-year-old girlfriend who thought he was her age? The church faithfully standing by him even after they found out that he has fabricated both his name and age? Also, Montimer faked his whole identity--would he be less culpable if he only faked his age (like the little leaguer who was too old to play)?

My gut reaction to these events is to say "no fair" that some people can start their lives over while my honesty prevents me from it. But this type of story mainly makes me wonder both why I would start high school again and what I would do on a second try. All annoyances of high school aside (and can they really be set aside?), perhaps I would be more focused or try harder to make friends or manage to get accepted to Harvard, but these things don't seem worth the trouble of creating a false identity and pretending to be 16 again. I do wish I had done some things differently, but all of us must wish that. What makes a person decide that he can just be someone else, just slough off an identity for a more favorable one? Besides the law, what keeps most of us from doing that?