Let's take a walk...

Last night Sophie asked me if I liked high school. She is going to be a sophomore at Orem High next year and she is understandably nervous. I quickly replied, "yes" without much thought so as to quickly put her at ease, but upon further reflection, I thought about how much I really, thoroughly enjoyed high school. I tell myself that high school is like living in the dorms: something you loved but something you would never do again. And while this is true-- I would never go back to high school-- I had some pretty fantastic experiences between the ages of 15 and 17. So, in a blast from the not so distant past, here are just a few of my top memories of high school (in no particular order):

-Student Council. I was on Student Council my senior year and what a great experience that was. I'm a pretty shy person as it is, but I was even worse in high school. I was awkward with everyone but my close friends and almost went into panic attacks whenever I had to speak in front of people. But I'm convinced student council broke me out of my shell a little bit. I mean, when you have to put on assemblies in front of the entire student body, there's not a whole lot of room for shy-ness, now is there? But the people on student council are really what made it. Through all the hard work, the foosball tournaments, and stealing of bean bags, we were great friends.

Student Council

 

-AP US History. Okay, okay I'm a nerd, I get it. But I absolutely adored this class-- definitely my favorite throughout high school. (Confession: I even more than slightly enjoyed taking the actual AP test.) I took it as a little bitty squashmore, but to this day, I remember how much I loved the subject and the teacher, Mr. Miner. His passion for teaching was an absolute inspiration. If/when I ever am in charge of a classroom, I want to inspire kids like Mr. Miner inspired me.

-Sporting events While BYU football games are fun, I enjoyed going to high school football and basketball games a lot more, especially during my junior year, but also during my senior year on student council. Kaylynn and I were tight friends my junior year and we got DECKED OUT for sporting events. Layers and blue and gold clothes, face paint, the whole kit and kaboodle. We would stand up on the bleachers and start our own cheers, much to the dismay of the cheerleaders, and yell and scream until we went hoarse. I still remember a lot of the cheers from those games, complete with the cheerleading movements which I will kindly demonstrate if the price is right. :)

 

-Young womens leaders I am absolutely convinced that I had the best church leaders on the face of the earth. Not only through high school, but all the time I was in Young Women's, my leaders were more like friends to me than leaders. They were, and still are, people I look up to and so greatly admire. Whether they knew it at the time or not, they helped me through some rough patches, and to them I am very grateful.

Last, my most definitely not least (in fact, this is probably first):

- Swimming and everything that came along with it: the hard practices, the waking up early, the meets, but especially the people. I met some pretty amazing people because of swimming... especially Space Cadet. She was a senior when I was a sophomore but we made some pretty great memories in the one year we spent together in high school. Memories like playing baseball in the locker room after practice with a wooden sword and a shower puff. Or sitting in the sauna for 45 minutes after practice, or seeing how many dips we could do at weight training, or driving around in the Simps and swerving at random people on bicycles (not my proudest moment, but pretty dang funny) or just sitting and laughing for hours on end. Thankfully, we're still good buddies and will be for a really long time if I have anything to say about it.

 

So there you have it. Sorry to take you all on a walk down memory lane, but sometimes it's just nice to sit and think about some great memories from the past.