Oh yes, high school. I've always felt kind of bad for the people who say that their high school years were “the best of their lives” I mean, seriously? NOTHING beat high school? All I can think is that it has just got to suck rocks for winning a meaningless football game or pulling the best prank ever is the highlight of your life.
With that bitter little opening, I'm going to share 10 random memories from high school, and I'm linking up with NorthwestMommy.com for her Monday Listicles.
- No matter what anyone (Ahem. Yulia.) might think, I wasn't tall in high school. I grew 4″ in a summer between freshman and sophomore years, and I grew about and inch and a half after I graduated. I'm just a freak like that, apparently.
- I flunked my driver's test the first time (auto fail for not coming to a full and complete enough stop for the lady) and when I went back 2 weeks later, with the same test giver, I got 100%
- My favorite outfit my sophomore year was a plaid flannel, empire waist, calf-length dress with my Doc Marten mary janes.
- I had a serious crush on my freshman English teacher, part of it was due to the fact the he drove the most adorable orange VW Beetle.
- I was a three-year yearbook staff member, and it's how I fell in love with design.
- A few weeks after I got my license, my parents gave me a car, a 24 year old Saab, and they handed me the keys with the words, “you have 2 weeks to get a job to pay for gas.” Thirteen days later I was offered a job at the local movie theater, shoveling popcorn, and I've been working ever since (except for that whole kidney failure thing)
- I didn't have a curfew, and spent more than a few excessively late night chain smoking and drinking coffee at the local Denny's with my friends from the movie theater. (Bonus tidbit: I'm now Facebook friends with the woman who managed the Denny's overnight shift!)
- Analyzing Ode on a Grecian Urn for an entire quarter in advanced English my sophomore year ruined poetry for me for many years after.
- I didn't kiss a boy until I was 17, just before my senior year. (And because of that… see number 10…)
- I thought I was fat and ugly, but looking at photos of myself now, I couldn't have been more wrong.
I loved Doc Marten shoes when I was younger.
Your parents were pretty smart to give you a car and then tell you to get a job. I need to remember that for my kids.
The job thing totally worked, AND then I could tell them to give me gas money when I was driving my sister everywhere! LOL
I had red Doc mary janes!! I hitchhiked in them after I graduated and I swear you can still see their shadow from where sun burned dorsal of my foot.
Love how you know you were beautiful. Wish we all did, life would have been so much better, so much sooner. Great list Lizz!
Ooh, my mom wouldn’t let me get the red ones… said they weren’t practical enough. Oddly, I ALWAYS have at least 1 pair of red shoes in my closet now, flats or something for everyday wear… I wonder if the 2 are linked?!
I too remember how Doc Marten shoes were the rage back then..however I never really got around to owning a pair.
Never got around to it? LOL I had to make a SERIOUS case to my parents to let me get them… convince them they weren’t for “thugs”
I was in high school those same years. And I loved being on the yearbook staff, too. But I was (and am) really short. Love #10.
I miss Ryan.
🙁
oh BOY could i relate to #10. so much so it pisses me off! argh.
I graduated in ’96, so my time was about the same as yours. My parents too never enacted a curfew, and instead of the local Denny’s we would hang out at the diner.
Damn us girls with poor self image! If only my body looked like that now, I swear I’d run around in a bikini all year!
Lizz, you didn’t post a younger version of yourself photo, but looking at your pictures here, I imagine you were very pretty then too. It’s so sad that when we’re young we don’t see how beautiful we are! We only hear the negative, only see others being complimented and seeming so much happier than we are. Ah, youth. It’s so wasted on the young. 🙂 Nice to meet you!
You’re so sweet, thank you! And yes, absolutely, youth is wasted on the young. (Are we really old enough to be saying that?!)
Doc Martens were the bomb and that’s awesome you are now fb friends with the Denny’s night mgr! LOL
I actually spotted her at a fundraiser for the preschool my niece went to! Her son is an “alumni” there, so she shows up at events… I recognized her, all these years later! LOL
I felt the same way about being ugly in high school because I never had the attention of the boys I had crushes on. Shame on me for allowing someone else to dictate how I felt about myself. I was smoking hot – especially when compared to my post baby body. I would like to go back in time and snap myself out of it! Great list.
Yup. I totally played the role of the quiet wallflower, and thought that there was something wrong with me because of it. But I ended up with someone amazing, so I can’t complain too much!
Love it. You couldn’t be more right. Brand new follower. Will you follow my craft/fashion designer blog?
Took me three times to pass my driving test. My husband (who was in driving class with me) won’t let me forget it! I so agree, too… yeah, the days were good but certainly not the BEST!!
It seems like most of us had warped images of what we really looked like in high school, huh?
I shoveled popcorn for a while too – still can’t stomach the smell of it.
I agree w. you – if HS was the best time of your life, ugh. Was not for me that is for sure.
Great list (-:
You had a flannel dress? I am so jealous. Is it wrong that I would totally wear this dress now with Docs and not feel the least bit self conscious?