10 years

Tonight was my 10 year high school reunion. I'm not going to say I can hardly believe 10 years went by so fast because, really, I can believe it. It feels like ages ago that I was in high school. I'm not sure why that is...I guess life beyond high school has brought so much change that I barely remember the girl I was then.

I didn't go to my reunion. It was in SoCal and we're already flying out at the end of September. I'm not made of money, so I couldn't justify flying out twice in a month's period of time. Plus, it cost $75 A PERSON to go, and I hear they did not even provide drinks, aside from what was offered at the bar that you had to pay for. Crazy!

I'm a little sad I didn't go. While I did not miss the drinking and hooking up that I'm sure ensued, I was oh so curious to see everyone and find out what people were up to. There were those ten people that I really wanted to see and talk to and catch up with. And honestly, even the good, Christian girl that I am, (I'm about to "toot my own horn" here, so my apologies in advance) kind of wanted to go and "redeem" myself, if that's the right way to put it. Let's just say that in high school my hair was not too cute, my skin was AWFUL, and even at 17 weeks pregnant, I now weigh 10 pounds less than I did when I graduated. I can't believe I just admitted all of that! And I'm sorry, but you might have to wait a little while to see some of my high school pictures. If you're lucky, Ill post them someday. Really I just don't feel like scanning them right now!

So in honor of my 10 year reunion, I'm going to share 10 things I remember about high school. I'll keep most of them positive, but I should say that honestly, with the exception of the dear friends I made and a few experiences I had, I'm kind of glad I never have to relive high school again...

1. Starting freshman year knowing a total of maybe four people...that would be the number that graduated from my eighth grade class at the tiny Lutheran school I attended. I was lost in a sea of 400+ freshman and the only reason I had a name was because my dad was a football coach and teacher at my high school.

2. After spending my entire freshman year trying to find my niche at RHS, I finally gathered the courage, the first day of school my sophomore year, to do the whole "will you be my friend?" thing and ask an acquaintance/friend from class if I could eat lunch with her and her friends that day. Her answer was yes, and many wonderful friendships grew from that.

3. Mrs. Whittington. The short, feisty, chain-smoking English teacher. Everyone hated her the first day of Honors English sophomore year. I hated her the first day of school and even more the second day when I received a '0' on my summer reading essay (I NEVER did less than 'A' work...ever!). But then something magical happened by the second week of school. I started to love her. And she loved me. We clicked and that year I probably learned more about literature and writing than I ever had from any other teacher. I had her again my senior year for AP English and loved her and her class all over again. She was tough, but she was an awesome teacher and I won't ever forget her.

4. Track and field. Probably one of my favorite sports in high school, and still one of my favorite sports to watch in the Olympics. I ran hurdles all four years. My favorite was the 300 meter hurdles. I was okay at them. Ate it a few times when I was having an "off" running day. By my junior or senior year, I made it to CIF (California's version of finals) and was completely smoked by the competition in the early rounds. It was so much fun though and I PRed, which made it all worth while.

5. Weightlifting. I love that this is something I can tell people I did and they never believe me. My dad and some of the other football coaches started a weightlifting team my freshman year and we trained for and competed in several local and national competitions. I ended my high school career with two national weightlifting titles (in my weight class) and a trip to train at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs for a week or two during the summer after my sophomore year. I hate to admit that I'm really not that strong anymore...

6. The L.O.O.P.s - The Last Ones On the Planet. My friend, Lori, explains it much better than I could, so follow this link to learn what that was all about. I will say that this group consisted of my dearest friends in high school. They were/are awesome girls/women.

7. Ditch day. The above mentioned group of friends was essentially comprised of generally well-rounded, "good" girls. We would never ditch school or anything of the like, so when we did, for one day, we got our parents' permission and high-tailed it to Disneyland. It was a great day and we created some wonderful memories to take with us.

8. Yearbook staff. The best class I ever took in high school. Too bad I hadn't discovered it until my junior year. I loved it and if I would have stuck with my original career choice in college and the program at PLU had been a bit better, I most likely would have been doing something along these lines before Trevin was born. I LOVED it! Time flew by on deadline nights, the class period felt all too short, yearbook camp in the summer was awesome. I could not get enough of the editing and page designing. I was the editor-in-chief my senior year and loved the challenge and everything about it.

9. Boys. You'll notice that boys weren't towards the top of my list. Let's just say that I wasn't the type of girl that had a lot of boyfriends in high school. I didn't date a lot, or almost at all. I was rarely asked to dances. I'm sure there were many reasons. I was shy as shy can be and I was a football coach's daughter, to top those reasons. And after long enough, I decided I really didn't need a serious boyfriend in high school. I was moving away after I graduated, anyway. That doesn't mean I didn't have crushes, though! And I could name the short list of major crushes for you, but I won't.

10. Driving the big green monster of a van to school everyday once I was a senior and had my own parking spot. My fellow L.O.O.P.s and I all purchased spots next to each other and in the mornings before class, we'd usually meet in the parking lot. We had the pleasure, each morning, of observing our classmates in the parking lot, too. One girl in particular caught our attention. She shall remain nameless, but each morning, she would get out of her BMW, shut her door, lock it, them proceed to check each door before she left to head to class. As she walked away, she'd duck slightly, so as to see underneath her car...perhaps to check for certain things hiding under there? We never knew. One day, she even popped the hood of her car and was checking around in there before class. It was all very interesting.