High School...Ugh

I am finding that I'm in a rut when it comes to writing new blog posts. So this morning I found an idea generator, hoping to stir up some creativity and motivation. After looking through some of the prompts, I decided to write on this one: "Describe a typical day during your high school years."

First of all, as much as I disliked the majority of my time actually spent in high school, I now know what the quote, "Youth is wasted on the young" really means. *Sigh.*

But, getting back to the prompt, a typical day started out with getting ready. Probably the most important part of getting myself together for school was my hair. It was the early 1990s and the style was feathered and/or teased on the top with the sides spritzed with hairspray and blown out, like ridiculous hair-wings. After contributing to global warming via Rave hairspray, I had to do all those other mundane tasks (eating, dressing, etc.) before leaving for my rural high school. I lived about 5 minutes from the closest high school, but because I technically had a county address I attended a school about 20 minutes from my home. In the earliest days of high school I had to ride the bus, a.k.a. "the cheese wagon." Back then, it was extremely embarrassing to have to ride the bus. Eventually I made friends who had cars & caught a ride with them. Some of the best times I had (in terms of transportation to school) were with a boy named R & some of the other kids from our neighborhood. R drove an older, but sportier model of a Dodge Aspen. It had some sort of plaid interior from what I remember. What was so fun about going back & forth to school in this car specifically I can't say, but there was a lot of laughter, speeding, & going through a fast food drive-thru in the morning. Also, we had a little taste of independence from our parents & the crushing oppression of the bus drivers.

Once we had arrived at school, my mood became a little less jovial. I wasn't one of the popular kids. I wasn't wealthy. I wasn't a cheerleader. I wasn't as attractive as most of the other girls. I was kind of awkard-looking and introverted. I was in the school band. I didn't know it then, but I had social anxiety (big time.) I hung around with other kids who were just as awkward as I was & thinking back, I wouldn't change that if I could. Most of the "popular" kids peaked during high school & their spark fizzled over time, as I've seen through the magic that is Facebook. One of many harsh moments I remember from high school is hearing one of the popular guys telling his friend that I would be "okay" if it wasn't "for my face." Ouch. That guy isn't as cute as he thought he was back then.

As far as high school classes, typically I sat as far away from the teacher as I could & avoided being called on as much as possible. I joked with my friends & passed notes back & forth. I did my work but because I felt that school was boring, I didn't embrace learning as much as I should have. If I had put forth just a little more effort I think I could have done more with my life. I could have left my hometown to go to college, majored in something different, and possibly ended up in a higher-paying profession. However; as Don Meredith said, ""If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas”.