High School

Thanks to the Facebook phenomenon over the last couple of years I have been able to reconnect with some of my old high school friends.  I'm referring to them as being old just to get a rise out of them.  Truthfully though, it has been very exciting and a lot of fun for me as I learn about their lives and their many successes--I am very proud of them.  We are spread all over the world now but are able to stay in contact and catch up on each other's lives via technology.

I was fortunate enough to attend a private all girls school.  I loved it.  I had lots of good friends.  Our school was small with only about 500 girls total and in my graduating class, we had only 100 or so.  With it being such a small school we were closer than most and probably did not participate as much in the mean girl mentality as some other schools.  I think we were more accepting of each other.  Some would come to school with curlers in their hair and looked as though they had just rolled out of bed and others came to school looking as if they'd just come from a photo shoot.  I was somewhere in the middle, hair, and makeup always done, but not with a good professional look.  We all came from different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.  But quite honestly I didn't notice because to me we were equals--as in all the same.  Thinking back on those times it was most likely due to the fact that we all had to wear the same uniform.  We would try our hardest to personalize those little gray pleated skirts with different colors of socks and sweaters to go over our white blouses.  However, probably the best way to be an individual in my high school were our shoes, for me--it was all about the shoes.  I fancied myself as a shoe trendsetter.  Really, I did.  And I'm still that way to this day--it's all about the shoes!  Oh, and handbags!

I have such great memories of high school.  But I think my best memories are those of my senior year.  As seniors, we had control of the school.  We could leave campus for lunch or when our classes were over for the day.  And we had senior lawn--where we would hike our skirts up and sunbathe.  We could also sneak up to the small rooftop of one of the campus buildings and sunbathe up there.  We felt invincible--our lives, our futures, and our world was ahead of us.  Some had already traveled abroad, some had serious boyfriends, and some were just happy to hang out with friends and enjoy our last year of high school together.  We'd go to dances, football games and parties, we'd hang out at Folsom Lake or the river, we'd sneak off to grab a Winchell's donut and we'd talk about our hopes and dreams, but most of all we'd laugh.

I think I was the hanger-oner.  I never wanted that year to end.  I guess I knew in my heart that we'd all go our separate ways and we'd never see each other again--most were going off to college and I knew they'd never come home.  Little did I know that years later I'd be one of those who had moved far away from my friends and my home.  It sure is fun going back though.  Sometimes, OK, all the time--when I'm in town I drive by my old high school and I drive down the street where I used to live.  I tell my husband for the thousandth time who lived in what house and when.  And the great thing is--he's patient with me and lets me talk on and on.  

I recently discovered that I was a listener and deep thinker by nature even way back then.  I was fortunate enough a few months ago to meet some of my high school friends for coffee when visiting in my hometown.  As we sat there reminiscing I asked them to describe me in one word.  I was shocked to hear them all use the same one.  They said quiet.  Quiet?  I guess back then I was a true introvert--I kept my thoughts to myself, I was the observer, the watcher.  I'm not quiet any longer--thanks to my husband, he has been able to draw out my inner craziness.  I talk a lot now, and I laugh even more.  I've matured through the years and it was interesting for me to view them--my friends, as mature women too.  However, I have to be honest--they looked just the same to me--my girls, my friends, my high school buddies.  That was quite a day--I am hoping to have more days like that--where we sit outside at a little coffee shop or restaurant, laughing, talking and remembering when...