High School Musical
Okay, this really isn’t about that Disney movie, but it is about high school. Leslie’s daughter’s graduation made me think about my own high school years. Back then, I don’t ever remember worrying about what activities I was involved in the way kids are now–as a means to get into college. Which college I got into didn’t really much matter. I was a fairly average student (3.2 GPA or something like that) and I knew I could pretty much count on getting into the state college I wanted to attend. I wasn’t interested in moving far from home, I didn’t have any aspirations toward the Ivy League. I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do career-wise. I just knew I liked school, but I liked my activities more than class. Who didn’t?
Which made me wonder if any of those activities helped me in my current life, since they are what I focused on much more than any class I took.
(This is a scan from my high school yearbook. I’m surprised I even HAD a picture in the yearbook. No love lost, you know? Besides, our senior yearbook had a disaster that involved rain and open windows, so most of the good pictures were lost at the end of the year. In case you couldn’t guess, I’m the one in pink.) 
I was in student government. VERY much into student government. I’m participating in a leadership exercise in the picture above. I know I don’t look very enthusiastic…like I said, bad pics. The workshop was at Disney World…who can NOT be enthusiastic at the happiest place on earth?
Anyway, in student government, most people just did things my way because I was meaner than everyone else. Or at least, I was VERY convincing. In other words, I was bossy then, I’m bossy now. Check.
I was on the dance team. Loved that, but wasn’t willing to sacrifice anything else for it. Quit at least twice, once after I wasn’t made captain even though I deserved it. My best friend got it, which made it VERY hard to pout. But I still quit so I could give more time to student government. I was a diva then and I’m a diva now. Check.
Drama and singing. Loved that. Loved, loved, loved. Was caught more than once with a script in my Algebra book. You could take me out of just about anything, but not this. Wanted me to sing a solo in front of 1000 people? No problem. Obviously, speaking in public doesn’t scare me. I don’t have to carry a tune. Was a ham then and am a ham now. Check.
I didn’t do anything associated with writing. Yearbook was too clicky. Literary magazine too weird. Newspaper? Did we have a newspaper? (Yes, we did, it was called the Accolade and I don’t remember a single other thing about it.) I did write skits for student government.
Lots and lots of those. I’m the chick just off to the left, looking down. I know this was called, “History of the World, Part 83.” It was our senior skit. I remember my toga was pink. After that, can’t tell you much. English was the only honors class I’d take and I loved it a lot. Loved words, but was picky about who I wrote them for. Yup. Still the same. Check!
So here’s my question…think back to your high school years. Did any of those activities translate into your current life and career? I think being a bossy diva who isn’t afraid to stand up in front of people and be a ham and who is picky about who she writes for has all come in very handy for me. How about you?
Oy! And then there was college…
Hmmm … GREAT one, Julie! I was Copy Editor of my high school yearbook and though I doubt writing captions for all the pictures prepared me for my writing career, I guess writing all the other things did! Who knew? I never thought about it before!
Laughing b/c we had a Toga party for the yearbook too! (I have all my pics in the basement. Just found them. We should do a week of Plotmonkeys Pasts and post each day!).
LOOK FOR HOT ITEM, EVERYONE!!!!!!! It’s starting to trickle into stores!
Comment by Carly — May 24, 2006 @ 6:16 am
I was a complete wallflower in school - I was in the crew of our school plays and on the yearbook team, so not a lot translated to my later years. HS wasn’t that big of a deal to me. It’s the here & now that I think about, and the possibilities for the future. I guess one thing I took away from it, thanx to an amazing English teacher I had my senior year, was a total love and respect for the written word and how powerful it can be. Profound huh? LOL
Comment by Stacy ~ — May 24, 2006 @ 7:10 am
:s Not sure, but very interesting question. … I was a geek, worse a Mexican geek!! I was in FBLA and the Spanish club, but I only did them to be in the yearbook more than once……
So dance club? that is pretty cool Julie!
Lui
Comment by Lui — May 24, 2006 @ 10:05 am
I was such a geek in high school. I was in clubs that really translated into what I thought I wanted to do (I majored in International Studies for my first B.A.). Then, in college, I fell in love and decided I didn’t want to travel the world as a single gal after all (I feel a romance book in here)…I wanted to do what I thought I wanted to do next…teach elementary school….thus, my second B.A…..Currently, I am a stay at home mom. Long story, short answer…nope, nothing in high school prepared me to stay with my adorable boys (I had to get that in that they are adorable!).
Comment by katie — May 24, 2006 @ 10:07 am
I had a lot of friends im high school but I didnt really join any clubs. I also went to a small school and there werent many to choose from. I wrote a lot back then so that still stands today.
Its funny you wrote about high school. I went through my high school journals and poetry books a couple nights ago and blogged about it as well. Memories…..
Comment by Kelley — May 24, 2006 @ 11:26 am
I was a loner in high school, probably because we moved around so much within a two year span (junior high into high school) that it was hard for me to make and establish friends, only to move again. Once I settled into the high school I graduated from, I made a few good friends, but I didn’t do much in the way of extra-curricular activities.
And my worst subjects were History and English — and here I am, a writer, LOL!
Comment by Janelle — May 24, 2006 @ 12:10 pm
Well, Lui, I didn’t say I wasn’t a GEEK, too! I’m sure I didn’t think so at the time…I was in FBLA one year, too. And Spanish Club…our Spanish teacher was the coolest. She took us to competitions every year…did the Mexican hat dance once year…God, that was probably SO politically incorrect! But we did actually study real Mexican dance and music when choreographing it!
Katie, there’s NOTHING that prepares you for motherhood! And of course they are adorable. Nothing wrong with shouting that out!
Kelley, I have nothing left from high school. Except my yearbooks. Everything was thrown away in a room redecorating accident.
I wish I had journals and such…though maybe I’m not. :s Friends were the best part of high school, I think. I still keep in touch with a few of them. I went to a relatively small school, too.
Stacey, I had one of those profound Senior English teachers, too. She’s retiring this year, as a matter of fact. I was lucky enough to teach under her when I went back to my high school as a teacher for four years. I love her!
Janelle, I hated History, too. Probably because our teacher was a basketball coach who’d rather show us films of back when he played against the Harlem Globetrotters (he was on the white-guy team!) than actually TEACH us anything. By college, I loved it, though.
Comment by Julie — May 24, 2006 @ 12:29 pm
what a cute pic. those were the days
Comment by kim H — May 24, 2006 @ 12:40 pm
I was on the newspaper staff, was news editor my senior year and everything. Back in the good ol days when you had to use a developer machine to make your headlines and you cut and paste the newspaper onto a board! No getting it all done on the computer, though we could at least print the stories out that way…
I was in FBLA too but dropped out. I only did it cos I had friends in it and they only did it so they could go to the conference at Disneyland! LOL
Aaah, memories. Thanks for sharing yours, Julie!
Comment by Karen — May 24, 2006 @ 12:59 pm
Awww…high school. The days of Mom waking me up, breakfast fixed for me and all I had to do was stumble into the bathroom with eyes barely open. The hot water was actually hot because I wasn’t the last one to get a shower.
Walking onto the patio at HHS was always great. I had friends in different areas from geeks to the most popular. The ones that I hung out with the most however were the music and drama people. I loved anything to do with singing and acting (Speaking in front of crowds doesn’t bother me either).
English was great, the reading, the writing; the rules…okay not so much the rules. The reading and writing was wonderful though. Math, let’s just say I took what was required and then stopped the math all together. I always figured that was what calculators were for since being an accountant was not in my plans ever.
Changing HS my junior year could have been hard, traumatic even, except that I immediately got involved with the drama and chorus. Great times.
Back in the day (so I’m dating myself now), we had to take PAD (Problems of American Democracy, for the young ones here). Usually that was a class hated by all. I had the Basketball coach for a teacher and he was the coolest. We all were given a part to play and research for the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Once the research paper was written we had an actual trial with everyone playing their respected parts. Was fun and we learned without realizing that we were learning.
So…did my HS have anything to do with the present? I’d have to say yes. It gave me the love of acting, of reading and writing my own stories. And perhaps most important to continue to do what I love to do.
Thanks for such a great post Julie, for bringing back memories of fun times, good friends and doing our best to keep out of trouble or not get caught.
8)
Comment by Vicki — May 24, 2006 @ 1:37 pm
Random questions to you authors out there…I know this is off the topic today, but I got to thinking…do you ever get tired of it when your book comes out? Do you just go, ‘ho, hum’ or do you get really excited? Do you watch the ‘charts’ religiously or do you just get excited knowing that people are excited to read your new book? Sorry for being off topic, I was just curious……
Comment by katie — May 24, 2006 @ 2:19 pm
Did anything in high school prepare me for life now! No! When I was in high school very few girls went on to college & if they did they became school teachers, nurses mostly! There were no such things as computers, most families only had one car & there were party lines on the phone! Does this date me, oh yes!, people still took short hand & in my bookkeeping class we added all those long columns up in our heads! I did go to a local business school for about 6 months after high school & then got a job, I really just wanted to earn money & get married!! How dumb! That was the mentality then. You graduated met some guy got married had babies–wow what opportunities! What I did miss after high school was music, I was always in chorus & was in some plays none of which has to do with my life now except I love music.
Interesting question Julie, it is not something I have really thought about.
In today’s world even women are expected to succed & there is an awful lot of pressure in school to achieve, I’m always wondering when kids just get to be kids?
Comment by Donna M — May 24, 2006 @ 2:41 pm
I think I am quite a bit older than any of you are. The only class I took in
hs, that pertains to my life was Home Economics.
Comment by Estella Kissell — May 24, 2006 @ 2:58 pm
Mmmm, high school. Okay I did colorguard, those girls who waved the flags during the band performances, Nope never used that in real life. Except I can still throw one up and spin and catch it, which my niece thinks is totally cool.
Now I also did yearbook my senior year, which taught me all about computers and layouts and design. I loved it and wish I’d dropped band 3 years earlier (since we weren’t allowed to do both). I think that class is what made me fall in love with decorating and writing. If I ever get published I’m going to track down my Yearbook advisor and tell her she’s part of the reason it was possible.
Now Honor Society didn’t prepare me for anything except being ignored for the accounting geek I am. No big surprise there.
Everyone tells you in highschool that once you’re out, you’ll wish you were back in. To heck with that thought. I worked a full time job and had so many activities I wouldn’t want to go back to high school for all the money in the world. I’m perfectly happy with where I’m at now in my life, although if I win the lottery… now then I’d be super happy. :d
Comment by Madison — May 24, 2006 @ 3:19 pm
I was one of those weirdos who really loved high school. While I was there, I made the best of it. HOWEVER, the thought of going back terrified me. I had nightmares. My main recurring one had me finding out I hadn’t finished all my credits and had to go back–but because I’d burned my uniform in the senior parking lot the last day of school–I couldn’t. I was just telling Carly that story today. I think someone threatened to keep us out of graduation for doing that…but they never followed through. Thankfully!
Comment by Julie — May 24, 2006 @ 3:55 pm
Julie
I loved high school too! I had so much fun.
Comment by Kelley — May 24, 2006 @ 4:14 pm
I am a whole lot older than most of you, and I was a loner in High School, I hated to participate in anything that would draw attention to myself……..
Comment by Cryna — May 24, 2006 @ 4:15 pm
KATIE - It NEVER gets old for me. I watch the charts religiously. I’m sorry, I do. I work so hard during and between each book, the pressure is so big. And since YOU asked (sorta) HOT ITEM is # 20 at BN.com right now!!!!! (^) for everyone, on me! LOL.
Comment by Carly — May 24, 2006 @ 6:46 pm
Yey, Carly! Keep it up!!! (y) (eating a piece of cyber cake…hoping it is chocolate!)
Comment by katie — May 24, 2006 @ 7:08 pm
wow thinking back to high school i was on the news paper staff and my sister and i got there in the middle of the semester and during some of the projects for the newspaper my sister and i got aquainted with the students faster..also for me we lived in a foster home and needless to say i was using all of the things that i learned in home econ at home. we as foster children were abused along with having to do; all of the chores all of the farm animals., paper route ,all cooking.and all of the daily activities we had to do….there were 13 of us but there was only 4 of us old enough to do all of the chores…it was a nightmare time of life but thank goodness for mrs fox…she really understood and was a great resource for a 15 year old….
Comment by peggy c — May 25, 2006 @ 11:16 am
Okay…I am a newbie at this. I have never ever ‘blogged’ before. But, as I was cruising around the wesite this seemed like a neat idea.
High School……Wow!! The eve of Mother’s Day we had a ‘Last Dance’ at my high school, b/c they are tearing it down, since they built a new one on the football fields. It was the second one in the city and is very outdated they say. (They who? I ask) It was very neat, but I did work there last year, so I must admit not quite as nostaligic of an event for me as it was for some others that attended.
In H.S. I was in DECA, similiar to FBLA. I was actually the Vice-President, also I was not nominated for Homecoming Queen from that club b/c the advisor wanted someone who might win representing us. That was a lesson I am still learning, that I am not pretty enough or popular enough for society. Then and now. Although, now I am good enough for me and my family and find joy and peace in that.
I was very shy and mainly took business electives. I had planned on being a business executive. I am a secretary at a JHS and mom. (l)
Personally, I hated HS and am so glad that those days are over. The bright part was that I was well respected by my instructors and encouraged by them to always strive to do better.
Comment by Debbie — May 26, 2006 @ 12:54 pm
Welcome to blogging, Debbie! As for pretty and popular enough…says who? If you’re pretty and popular to your family and friends, that’s all that matters. Ever.
Comment by Julie — May 26, 2006 @ 1:09 pm
Comment by ellie — October 5, 2006 @ 9:07 am