Nostalgia

Ah, High School. For ComputerDaddy, those were the years. He was a studmuffin there--not the jock kind of studmuffin: the totally cute band geek studmuffin who all the girls oohed and aahed over. He probably wouldn't have given me the time of day (though he's TOTALLY into my high school pictures with the early 90's perm. I roll my eyes at this.) My experience was a bit different. Let's see what I can remember:

1. Who was your best friend? My perception of this changed depending on the year--there was Charity my sophomore year (the kind of "friend" who uses you, so no longer a friend since I have a backbone now) and Cilla my senior year. But looking back, my real best friend was Lauren, because we roomed together in boarding school for three years and were there for each other through it all, even when we weren't hangin' out much. We maintain contact to this day, which says a lot, since she's way over in Australia.
2. Did you play any sports? I was the sort of girl who always got a B in P.E., because I did OK on the quizzes and tried, but wasn't all that good. However, my moment of stardom came in ninth grade when I was the Championship goalie AND winning All Star goalie for my intramural Floor Hockey team (think hockey played in a walled court with a rubber ball.) Then my knees went bad in 10th grade and that was that. On the plus side, I got a waiver for P.E. and it stopped messing up my GPA!
3. What kind of car did you drive? Ha. Car? I lived overseas and went to a boarding school. I didn't even have the basic permitted bike. But I learned how to drive in a manual Toyota pick-up truck, as I recall. Something like that.
4. It’s Friday night. Where are you? If I was at home, then probably reading in the living room. At school, I was attending whatever event the school had created for high schoolers that Friday. The one year I was in Michigan, I occasionally was hanging out with the aforementioned Charity and two other friends I had that year. Woot! I lived a crazy life, people.
5. Were you a party animal? Um, pretty much think I answered that in #4.
6. Were you considered a flirt? I really wanted to be one. But the answer is no. I was awkward. Really awkward.
7. Were you in the band, orchestra or choir? Orchestra in 10th grade, the one year I was in a school that had one--I played the flute. And choir in 11th. Then our choir teacher left and we didn't have a replacement. Boarding schools in West Africa have limited options.
8. Were you a nerd? Sigh. Yes. My claim to fame was being top dog in anything Literature-, Writing-, or Speech-related.
9. Were you ever suspended or expelled? HA! I was too "good" to have any of that happen to me. Boring much?
10. Can you sing the fight song? We had a fight song?
11. Who was your favorite teacher? Without question, Mrs. "H", my tenth year English teacher. She is still my role model. She still teaches at that school in Michigan, and she's still a favorite of just about every student. A close second would be Mr. Baxter, my senior Bible teacher. He was an older guy, but boy did he teach well. And he didn't shove his ideology down our throats like some other Bible teachers.
12. What was your school mascot? Eagle, I believe.
13. Did you go to the Prom? We didn't have one--we had a Junior Senior Banquet, put on by the juniors for the joint junior and senior classes (sophomores were servers). It was mandatory attendance. I went my junior year with a blind date--a friend's friend who'd flown out to visit for a few months from Michigan--and did not have a date my senior year because there was a SEVERE dearth of males.
14. If you could go back, would you? Oh dear god, no. Well, maybe, if I could be cooler and more confident, more like I am now. But I'd probably just regress, so no.
15. What do you remember most about graduation? Our salutatorian was so sick with food poisoning that she had to be carried up the aisle by her boyfriend and ended up bolting from the auditorium a few minutes later. Several other people were sick too, and sat on the podium looking green the entire time.
16. Where were you on Senior Skip Day? No way to skip, since we had a closed campus and everyone knew everyone's business. We did have a school-sponsored Senior Class Trip, however, which was for a Whole Week by the beach, so ours was better.
17. Did you have a job your senior year? I was a computer lab monitor. The first ten hours a week were mandatory and unpaid by the school, and every hour after that paid something like 30 cents. I DREAMED about minimum wage.
18. Where did you go most often for lunch? The dining hall. We all did. All week. Even weekends. Yum.
19. Have you gained weight since then? Is this a rhetorical question?
20. What did you do after graduation? Went to college in Michigan. Met ComputerBoyfriend, who became ComputerHusband six years later and ComputerDaddy four years after that.
21. What year did you graduate? 1995
22. Who was your Senior Prom Date? Didn't have one, remember? Except the boy I really WANTED to have as a date had already asked someone and then we sort of started dating and so we were shooting longing glances across the room but then he dumped me because it was just a senior fling for me and he was a junior AND he turned out to be a total psycho pervert freak SO....I'm kinda glad I went solo.
23. Are you going/did you go to your 10 year reunion? Went by without a whisper. We're scattered all over the globe now, and the people who were senior year class officers weren't really into the whole organizing thing. Oh well.

They weren't the worst years of my life (junior high wins that honor), but I really am glad they're over. If I were to go back, I'd change a LOT of things. But then, perhaps I wouldn't be the person I am now--for better or worse, who knows? There's a reason time is linear.