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Thursday, November 5, 2015

Throwback Thursday: High School


I am pretty sure I wrote about high school before, but I have been thinking about those years a lot lately. Sadly, a classmate of mine passed away unexpectantly a few weeks ago. It was quite shocking to hear of my classmate's passing, and I know it really hit a lot of my high school friends pretty hard.

Naturally, this sad occasion had me reflecting on a lot of memories from high school. I even pulled out my senior yearbook and combed through it one evening. I am not sure I even looked at the thing since graduation. Boy was I glad to have that yearbook because looking through it and reading messages from my high school classmates stirred up some memories I never would have been able to unearth on my own!

I graduated in June, 2000. I wasn't “cool”, but I was popular in the sense that I had a lot of friends. Unfortunately, I was often made to feel like I wasn't cool enough to join my friends in certain activities. My friends were never outright mean to be, but I did feel excluded sometimes. I am sure I am not innocent and did things to make other people feel bad. It's just part of high school! I'm over it.

The interesting thing was that as I was reading messages that people signed in my yearbook, most of them mentioned something along the lines of, “You are never afraid to be yourself and don't care what other people think of you.” Well, I actually did care what other people thought of me, but not enough to try to act like something I was not. I was in band, chorus, and all the musicals. I dressed weird. I said silly things. Another thing people signed in my yearbook was that I was the only person they could be themselves around. I guess I put out the vibe that if I could be my weird and strange self, they could definitely let their freak flag fly around me and I wouldn't think it was odd!

My graduating class was quite small- only 51 students! Looking at our senior pictures, I was shocked at how young we all looked and how out of style our clothes and hair were! It's funny, you never think that your look would ever be out of style... until it is!

I guess I have to show the obligatory yearbook pictures now!

Senior Portrait





My friends Ashley and Jared. 
We were great friends and were in a bunch of musicals together.

We all got to write a little blurb about ourselves.
I forgot I was class president my freshman year! (I had zero responsibilities.)
FYI: Dinkles were our marching band shoes.
I think I nailed my aspirations, except for the spontaneous part. I am NOT spontaneous!


We were asked what our favorite memory from high school was. Lots of people enjoyed my orange tights. I had a pair of BRIGHT NEON orange tights I would wear about once of year, even after they got a big hole in them.


My friend Jared and I were voted "Most Likely To Star On Broadway".
Neither of us are on Broadway, but we are both music teachers, which is probably most Broadway stars' back up plans...
Hey, we are TOTALLY ROCKING OUR BACK UP PLANS!

The senior members of marching band. I'm not sure what Bryan (top) and Chris (right) are up to, but Justin (left) is a member of the popular Christian band Sidewalk Prophets!


Ashley, me, Sherrie, a girl who's name I forget, and Mandy.
Our school held a lip sync contest our senior year. Ashley and I choreographed a dance to "Hey Mickey" and we won first place! $100 split 5 ways was a BIG DEAL when you were 17!
When was the last time you looked at your senior yearbook?
What were you like in high school?
Were you in marching band?

16 comments:

  1. What fun memories! My graduating class was 997 kids so I'm actually more in touch with people I went to middle school with as the high school sort of swallowed me up. I haven't looked at my yearbook in .....gosh forever!

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  2. How cool is it that you wanted to be a music teacher and now you are! I wanted to be a chemistry teacher but ended up w/ a degree in nutrition and ended up 20 years at Hewlett Packard. Definitely did not follow my plan but I am happy.

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    1. I think it is so hard at the age of 17 to decide what you actually want to do with the rest of your life! I think I ended up sticking with my plan because I got very lucky in getting a job in my field when I did!

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  3. Awe, that's really sad about your classmate's passing. When things like that happen it really makes us stop and think about life and our mortality, and all the things we remember and are thankful for. You're such a cutie in high school!

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    1. It really does make you think. I went through so many different feelings thinking about what happened.

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  4. I saw our "Hey Mickey" pic as I was scrolling through Facebook and of course it caught my attention!! That was a fun post to read. I'm feeling very nostalgic these days.

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    1. Me too! Hey, any idea who that other girl in our group was?

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  5. Oh goodness I don't even know where my high school yearbook is. All I know is that I had very bad hair going on..lol. I think it's great that you ended up in a career that you wanted to be. And I think it's great that you had your group of like minded friends. That can be so hard to find in high school!

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    1. It can be! I am still friends with a couple of them and when we get together it's like no time has passed- in a good way!

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  6. OMG-
    I would have to go to my parents house to find my high schol year book. I graduated in '91...many moons ago.

    I was in on the track team. I was not popular or cools either but a lot of people knew me. I was a quiet kid who just kind of blended into the back ground.

    -Tamieka@fitballingrunningmom

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    1. I quit track after a week! If you would have told me back then that I would end up loving to run, I wouldn't have believed you.

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  7. I wonder if anyone looks back on high school fondly. I feel like we were all trying to seem more confident and cool than we felt. I'm kind of glad HS sucked a bit, because it makes life now seem that much better.

    I went to a tiny HS too...my graduating class was 31 students. I don't regret going there, but sometimes I wish I had had the REAL HS experience at a big school.

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    1. "I'm kind of glad HS sucked a bit, because it makes life now seem that much better." <---- Isn't that the truth!!

      Wow did you go to a private school?

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  8. That is so sad to hear about your classmate passing. I have not heard the bad news yet with anyone I graduated with. I think in high school I was actually quite bubbly LOL. Come to think of it I'm probably still pretty bubbly right now LOL!

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