Ten Years

All the cool kids are doing it these days, and I'm a sucker for peer pressure. First, Leah posted about her prom.....then Erin went off and did the same thing. If that weren't enough, on Saturday I succumbed to MTV's 'True Life: I'm going to Prom' and like Leah, that episode brought back way too many high school memories.

Sequins, tears, fake nails, pictures, hairspray, more tears, The After Party, and D-R-A-M-A is what I remember from my Senior prom. Junior prom was no better but let's focus here on my Senior year. If you throw in one long term on-again-off-again high school relationship into the mix you are bound to have some sour memories. I suppose it was a learning experience but still, too much drama for my tastes.

Yes, ten [freaking] years ago I was wearing this blingtastic red dress while flashing my guns for multiple cameras. I loved this dress and secretly hoped my ex-boyfriend would be WAY jealous of my date for taking my hotness. Yes, envy was the look I was going for and I remember this dress being so tight [on my stick-like frame, mind you] that I could barely breathe. But if the ex thought he made a mistake, then the dress worked! Score!

Please note that my friend Lauren was way more ripped than me. Also note our hideous chunky heeled shoes. [[shudder]]

[click the pics to make them big]

You've all heard me ramble about The Fab Five group of friends from my college years. Well, in high school there was my Trio of friends. Lauren and Laura were my besties and as dedicated jocks we traveled all over the great state of Missouri to play various sports. During these tournaments we became addicted to something I'm ashamed of, my friends. No, not booze, or boys, or drugs. We became addicted to finding long cars....then taking pictures with said cars for documentation sakes. You can imagine them, right? The really long boat-like clunkers that seem to take up two parallel parking spaces? Yeah, we loved hunting for them and their disgustingness. So when we had a limo for our group of friends my Mom totally made us take this picture. I was less than pleased, as you can see. But Lauren obviously loved it with her jazz hands and all. Laura looks a little restricted or stiff or something. But my look of disdain certainly tops the rest, no?

Oh, what? You wanted another muscle picture? Okay, this time with Laura. Like I said we were total meathead jocks.
So when I asked Mom to email me a few pics of Senior Prom she couldn't just stop there. What good would it do to reminisce about my Senior Year if my jock-like self didn't appear in any pictures? Exhibit A: Volleyball season. I am especially fond of this picture because of the creep-show in the stands filming video. Random dude is the only one in the stands on this day, huh? Odd. Also, my arms are freakishly long.

This is me killing a wicked set. Totally.
Defensive position, rocking the tight shorts and pigtails. The piggies were my signature look for sure....not a big deal when you don't have to worry about GRAY HAIR showing through on your part. Sigh.

Whoo, hoo. We won districts. These girls were such a huge part of my life back then. I've found many of them on Facebook [thank goodness for FB!] but I still wonder how everyone turned out over the years. I guess that is the point of our 10 year reunion this summer, huh?Total poser with the 'All District' title. I love this picture because of the stark contrast in body language between myself and Milldogg [on the right]. She is obviously thrilled:)

Ah, volleyball. How I loved you. You were always my second-favorite sport and therefore I felt less pressure with you. And really, the stanky knee pads were so much fun.

Then came basketball: my priority sport. You see, my Dad played at my same high school and went on to get a scholarship for college. I idolized my dad, you guys [still do]. I even wore his same number and everything. But when it came time for the scholarship part, I only got offers from smaller D3 schools who didn't have a PT program. And thus, my decision to break free from my jock-dom was made as I wanted the full college experience at a big school. Great decision, but sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to play in college. Oh well. Please observe my awesome manly haircut:Basketball is where my nickname 'Stick' came from. I was pretty scrawny and yet my perfectly sharpened elbows came in handy for holding my own with hoochies like this. I believe this is called a foul, my dear:

Oh, whatever. I'll just attempt a dunk on them anyway. Well, not quite a dunk but don't I have mad ups here? I'd probably blow a gasket if I pulled this stunt today at my old age. Also, I swear we had more fans at our games than these photos depict. It must have been a weeknight or something??I was clearly pleased with this speech by our coach. My posture is phenomenal and my green sports bra was just retired last year. I am not kidding, I think I still had it for 9 years after sweaty high school self donned it. Gross!
Ah, my girls. This is us after we won the Holiday tournament. I swear the big 'W' made everything okay in our little naive world. Man, the days of innocence before taxes, and health insurance, and bills, and grown-up stress were nice. But of course at the time, it seemed hard. Very hard. Go figure.

It's incredibly odd to think of how much changes in just ten years of your life. Back in 1999 my sole focus was volleyball, basketball, and getting into PT school so I could get the heck out of high school. I was still the Julia of today but I can honestly say I'm exponentially happier at this time in my life than I was back then. I look back on these pictures with a smile because I had some amazing times and formed solid friendships, but I am grateful that high school is behind me.

It's just like when I was watching the MTV show, my heart hurt for those little whipper snappers as they found their way through high school. It's not all bad but that whole teenage angst thing gets old after awhile. Finding yourself is hard, for real. And I can't even watch the awkwardness when the dude struggles to ask his crush to prom. Stab me in the eye, why don't you!

I'd like to grab them by the little shoulders and say, "Sweetie...your world will not end if he doesn't call you. And please, cover up your cleavage. You have bigger ta-tas at age 18 than I will ever have in my whole life. Not fair."

Kids these days...