My senior year...

Continuing this from Sarah's blog (we went to the same school, and were quite good friends for a while, although not our senior year - you'll have to ask her.)

,YOUR SENIOR YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL

[What year was it?]
1988

[What were your three favorite bands/music artists?]
Duran Duran, Sting, the Hooters (don't ask)

[What was your favorite outfit?]
How the f*ck should I remember that? All I remember about my clothes in high school was dressing like a 30-year old, because we weren't allowed to wear jeans. My school had a really fusty dress code. I had a couple of turtleneck sweaters that I liked. Geez - it was 17 years ago for Chrissakes!

[What was up with your hair?]
Ok, I had marginally cool hair. It was a sharply angled bob that was long in the front and cut halfway up my head in back, exposing a slice of closely-shorn scalp. I loved that haircut. I might get it the next time in in the salon.

[Who were your best friends?]
Jeremy, Brian, Becky, Burke, (who had to leave school 6 weeks before graduation for being an asshole... I'm not going into details, although the people I went to school with will remember), and Stephanie.

[What did you do after school?]
Played volleyball (badly), practiced the piano, went to Musicianship classes, watched my little brother

[Did you take the bus?]
Yes, from Pre-First grade until I graduated. This was a really sore point for me at home - all the kids in my class were getting expensive cars, or at least their own cars, when they turned 16, and I still had to ride the bus. How much did that suck? Quite a bit.

[Who did you have a crush on?]
Brian. Since 10th grade. And he bloody well knew it. And was so kind about it. He totally didn't hurt my feelings about it, and he could have. And kind of a mini-crush on David R. He was adorable, but I didn't really know him like I knew Brian, so it wasn't as deep.

[Did you fight with your parents?]
Yes, and I learned that it was better to approach an argument with my father with a lighthearted, witty attitude, as surliness only brought out the control freak in him. If I could make him laugh, I knew I had the argument won.

[Who did you have a celebrity crush on?]
Well, I gave up on Nick Rhodes when he got married. To his beard. I really don't remember if I had a celebrity crush after that.

[Did you smoke cigarettes?]
Well, only when I was with my stepsister, who started smoking when she was 15. Her mom smoked, and didn't mind her daughter befouling her lungs. Strange, as her mom was a nurse.

[Did you lug all of your books around in your backpack all day because you were too nervous to find your locker?]Hell, no. Our graduating class was like, 68 people. Who was there to be scared of?

[Did you have a 'clique']
No, I kind of felt on the outside of everyone after about 9th grade, when my clique graduated. Andy, Alistair, and Mike - how I missed you!

[Did you have "The Max" like Zach, Kelly and Slater?]
Nope.

[Admit it, were you popular?]
I wish. No, I was "the musician." You know, every class has one. We're never the popular ones.

[Who did you want to be just like?]
Violet Richman, my mentor. She was the chorus teacher, and was so arty and enthusiastic about life. I think I've succeeded in some ways.

[What did you want to be when you grew up?]After I didn't make it into music school (a huge blow to my self-esteem, and verily, my whole identity), I was thrown into a tailspin - I didn't know what I wanted to do then.

[Where did you think you'd be at the age you are now?]
Pretty much where I am now, but with more kids.

[Did you go to your senior prom? If so, who with?]
Yes, I did. I went with my friend Joel, who was a junior at Concord at the time. The July before my senior year, I made Joel promise that if I didn't have a date by 2 weeks before the prom, he'd go with me. Ironically, Brian asked me to the prom after I'd already confirmed with Joel. It felt good to turn him down, though, as he made it clear that he'd already asked Sarah, who turned him down. I hated being a second choice.

All things considered, what I remember most about my senior year was hating it. I had few friends in my own grade, and most of my friends had already graduated. I spent the year feeling isolated and miserable. Here's my own personal series of events for senior year:

Not making captain of our pitifully small volleyball team, and having to put up with Beth L. as our captain. Having to sit on the ends of the rows during assemblies and collection, as our headmistress (the bee-otch) took away the seniors' section in the back. Sitting in between Becky and Julie G., as I had since 7th grade. Fun English classes - Film and Literature! Shakespeare! Jeremy driving me to film night for Film & Lit, and stopping at McDonald's to get Happy Meals. The word "Duty" in Film & Lit - BWAAAAAAA. Buying a segment of Jeremy's shoe, and then decorating it. My disastrous Eastman audition. Madame Angelle's leaving halfway through the year, and having a substitute who translated a "How to Host a Murder" game for us to play in French- boy, did I realize I didn't know much French. Independent art classes. Accompanying Jenn P (who later changed her name to Willow and embraced an alternate lifestyle) on the piano. The Kokosinger's assembly, when they picked me out of the audience to sing to, and I hammed it up to the lyrics. Meeting for Worship. Trying to figure out what the deal was with all my friends either loving the Grateful Dead or Peter Gabriel - I wasn't sold on either. Richard the III didn't do it, I tell you! Watching George Carlin with Alex. Taking the Japan class with Ms. Powell. Trying desperately not to be hurt by former friends who had blown me off the previous year, but not quite succeeding.

Looking back on my senior year has been quite an experience this morning. Like Sarah, I won't give money to my school, as my daughter would need a full scholarship to go there. They pay their teachers a pittance. A position teaching french there opened up there last year, and I would have had to take a 50% pay cut to teach there. Imagine, now, the fabulous salary of a public school teacher and cut it in half. Right. However, unlike Sarah, I'll probably go to my 20th year reunion. I didn't go to the others, but I'd like to see how many people look the same, and, more importantly, if they act the same. I'll bet they do.