“However enjoyable the holidays may have been, there is always a pleasurable excitement about going back to school.” ~A. Q. Carter
Hello, my lovely friends!
The week has flown by, and it’s already Friday Funday! Today we’re diving into the rollercoaster that is high school. It was one of the best—and worst—times of my life, but it absolutely molded me into who I am today. Let's get into it.
1. My sister and I are four years apart, which meant we never spent a day in the same school. I'm actually grateful for the gap, because we're total opposites—she's an extrovert, and I'm an introvert. Our personalities would have certainly clashed. She graduated high school in June 1986, and I started my freshman year that August.
2. My school stopped offering special programs like Gifted and Talented or Club 34, but I was placed in AP English and AP Math. I also made a plan to finish all my core classes during my freshman and sophomore years. My goal was to have my final two years free to take electives and more interesting classes, and it mostly worked out as I had hoped.
3. I never quite fit into any one group in school because I was friends with everyone. Our class was a diverse mix of backgrounds, with most of us growing up together from kindergarten to high school. The majority of students were Black and Mexican, with only a small number of white kids. We were briefly separated in middle school, but we all came back together for high school.
4. I took French for a number of years, starting in middle school and continuing all the way through high school. While I still remember the fundamentals and can read and pronounce the language, my conversational skills have gotten rusty. I'm hoping to refresh my memory and regain some fluency by taking a few lessons.
5. I was on the Speech and drama teams. I competed in debate, and placed in a few meets on the weekends. I took drama all four years, but only tried out for one play, "Dracula." I got the part of the maid, and had to learn an English accent. I learned my lines and the accent by watching wrestling and copying the British Bulldogs.
6. Back in the late '80s, I was a total metalhead. I lived for the hair bands: Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, and Guns N' Roses. They were the biggest thing around, and my friends and I would go to a concert almost every month. We'd pack into one car and sleep in the parking lot just to snag tickets. There was a core group of about 20 of us who were at every show, and we all became good friends.
My mom was cool with it and always wrote a note for me to excuse my absence from school the next day. One time, the school office tried to deny the excuse, but I told them to call my mom at work. They did, and she set them straight—I got my excuse note.
So glad you stopped by! Wishing you the coziest morning/afternoon/evening ahead. Can't wait for our paths to cross again!
.jpg)