SORRY IT'S a long one!!!
NO PICTURES THIS TIME.
I came across a friend's blog today that triggered some of my own thoughts on high school.
It seems forever ago now, that I attended high school, but really it wasn't all that long ago.
You have to understand a few things here, I lived in Trona, California --- yeah go look that up see what you find. It is a podunk little desert town. With a "plant" as the main source of employment. They mine stuff from a dry lake bed, and la de da da.
The high school was SMALL. At least it's small compared to the high schools my kids will end up going to in a few more years.
I got teased in elementary because my parents kept having kids, and since I had a large family I got really teased. I just ignored it as best as I could.
I was the only member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints my age that was active in the church. There were others that participated here and there with coming to activities and doing other things like that. That isn't the point here, well a little bit it is, but I was fortunate enough to get involved with high school sports. It actually started with 7th and 8th grade. I was hooked!!
By 9th grade I was moved up to Varsity level and bypassed the JV level. I did have some great 'friendships' that started because of sports, and after the sports the friendships kind of died off. I had FUN playing on the teams I was a part of. Yeah, I wasn't perfect, and I wasn't the best, but I gave my all and worked really hard. I played Volleyball (7-12); Basketball (7-12); Softball (9-11); Cheer-leading 10-11 ( I know who would have thought me to be the cheerleader type)
Now, you could say I belonged to the "jock" group at school, but really I belonged to more than just that. I was also academically gifted and had practically straight A's. When I graduated I was #2 in my class. (Well actually I tied with another student) So I could have been classified as a NERD as well. And mostly I got along with those you would consider nerds. So I belonged to the "jocks", the "mormons", "nerd", "poor" (maybe no-one else really thought that but I did)
I was so surprised to find out every now and then that RUMORS, Nasty rumors were started about me. Like I was engaged in "sexual" activities over the weekend and such. Those rumors hurt and they hurt bad!!! I cried several times after hearing such things.
It really was quite sad to find people felt so bad about themselves they had to get creative and make something up to "RUIN" someone else.
I enjoyed most of my classes, but not necessarily everyone that was in them. There were "cheaters" and "liars" in some of my classes, but somehow they always got away with it. Don't ask me how, because I don't know. This made me feel pretty upset because I was always honest, never cheated, and worked hard for my grades. Whereas these others (not mentioning names) would just gab the copy of the test answers conveniently left out and write down what they wanted to know, and pass it around the whole class. I was devastated. I never touched the paper, for fear of being guilty just touching it. Plus I never wanted to condone such behavior and allow someone else to copy too.
I always got made fun of and told I was the "teacher's pet". Because I was a good two shoe!! Well, that was fine with me. I knew I was doing what was right.
I went through a phase in my sophomore year where I practiced "swearing". Call this my rebellious phase if you will. I thought I needed to talk like that in order to "FIT" in with the other girls on the team. It lasted a few months, and I felt horrible talking like that. So to those of you that heard me talk like that I APOLOGIZE for using such language. It wasn't right on my part, and to this day I still don't talk using those words. (Mostly)
If it wasn't for the high school sports and weekly attendance at the football games I think I would have died!! I didn't go and party on the weekends, because there was drinking and other such activities going on that I didn't want to participate in. I did feel left out now and again, but I'd never go back and just give in to the peer pressure.
I also didn't have the best home life either. We were a large family, not much money but enough for our needs. We lived in a small house, and I never had name brand clothes. In fact I finally owned my first pair of jeans in 7th grade and those were given to me. Crazy, I know.
I did have my "first" kiss while in high school. I had a boyfriend or two...but all of which I would probably never want to repeat. I wasn't ever on any of the "royalty" courts because I wasn't popular and never felt like I was that pretty either. But a lot of my friends did, and I was happy for them. Actually I'm kind of glad it wasn't ever me.
I am glad however that I made a lot of friends in the neighboring town that were members of the same church but attended in a different building. I had some great friends there!! And still keep in touch now. It's great.
I had a few jobs through high school, which would limit how many sports I could play in my Senior year. But I learned lessons then that totally helped me become who I am now.
Would I ever want to go back and do it again?? Probably not. Although the sports part was fun, and the good grades helped, the people there were just on a different life path then myself. We probably don't have much in common anymore, other than maybe having kids and talking about that. Otherwise, I don't know what we'd talk about.
Now college... well that is a WHOLE different and BETTER story. More on that later.
It's fun now, to check in on those I knew back then and see where life has taken them. But honestly, I do wish them well, and don't want to treat them the way I was treated, but really life is so much better for me now, with the wonderful people in my life that I don't want to go back and relive high school.
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