Being an Adolescent...

Being an adolescent was not nearly as dramatic for me. I mean, there was drama but it wasn't the every day dramatic/traumatic that SPEAK was. Making friends was pretty easy for me. I met one of my best friends on the first day of school. She was a transfer student from a private school and we decided to be locker buddies in band after we realized we also had accelerated algebra together. She and I stayed friends throughout high school and we found a "click" that worked for both of us and eventually had a great group of girls and guys to hang around.  We weren't the preps, goths, punks, band geeks, jocks, party animals, druggies, rich kids or brains.  We were a mix of being smart, good at sports and social and somehow our group managed to travel with most groups depending on what was going on. We enjoyed being middlemen and knowing everyone. We enjoyed being with each other.

Typically the girls of the group dated the guys of the group and this is how I met my fiance. Needless to say, he and I are the only "couple" from our hs group that are still together. We did NOT get best couple in the yearbook. The couple that did will be getting married 3 mos before us next year.  Speaking of the yearbook, I won "best smile". Max, my fiance,  got "teacher's pet" and my best friend was voted "friendliest", while her boyfriend and his twin won "most spirited".  It's pretty obvious that my impact on my peers was not as great as those I ran around with. lol

When thinking back I try to remember a particular teacher in high school that I loved. A couple stick out in my mind.  As I said earlier, my freshman year I took accelerated algebra.  My teacher was a stud. I remember all of the girls giggling the first day and gossiping about what a "great butt" he had.  Regardless of his "assets", (pun totally intended haha), he was a favorite teacher because he cared and took the time to make sure that we not only understood the material, but mastered it.  I remember how disappointed he'd got with me when I got a D on a test. He actually had me retake it 3 times until I got an A.  At the time I couldn't decide if this was awesome or a little excessive. Looking back I think he might have wounded my math-ego a bit... however, for the next two tests I spent extra time after school with him and practice tests to make sure I got that A (and of course I did). After thought: alegebra 2 and college algebra were a breeze after that semester.

Another favorite teacher was the yearbook instructor. Yearbook was THE BEST CLASS EVER. Not only did we get to eat lunch in that class, but we got to be CREATIVE.  This is when I fell in love with photography and this teacher was the one that pushed my skill-level into national competitions. I won a lot of awards for my photographs and got to travel to some pretty cool photojournalism conferences throughout the country.

So to end this sweet little post, let me summarize: between the people I met and hung out with and the couple of great teachers I had, high school was a pretty enjoyable experience for me.