Throwback Thursday...20 years in the making!

Tomorrow night at my school is the 8th Grade Graduation Cerremony.  I'm a bit sad because I've really enjoyed this class.  I had a number of them in my 2nd grade homeroom before I moved over to teach Library and Tech the following year.  They have a big piece of my heart.  I chaperoned the first ever overnight 8th grade trip to HersheyPark with them and over the years we've had a ton of laughs.

All over Facebook these days I'm seeing pictures of high school graduations....many of my former students!  It got me thinking of my own graduation from high school...which I realized was exactly 20 years ago!!  WHAT?! How could it have been that long ago? How am I even old enough for such a milestone??  Most days, I still only feel (and act!) about 25!

So today I thought I'd share a fun throwback post...of me in high school!!  EEEKKKKK

Enjoy!!

____________________________________________

 This is gonna be hard because I have THE WORST memory!!!! But I can pinpoint some great times!  {And maybe some not so great times...but I'm just gonna skip right over those!!}

My high school memories are contained this box that sits on the top shelf of my closet!

I went to a very small, all-girls high school!  We were sometimes dubbed the country club of high schools.  It was a private Catholic School with grades Pre-K through 12.  Actually my bestie Mel went there all her life.  I just went to the high school.  Numerous times throughout my four years I heard "I can't believe you go to my school Kate"!

 The high school was small.  My sisters all went to a huge school with over 500 kids in each class.  That was not for me!!

Mine was an elite school, steeped in tradition.
Like the sophomore sleepover {which I didn't attend...thanks Ker!} The Junior-Senior Supper, the Senior Stairs and the Junior Moose Room! We had classes like Humanities, PBM, and Christian Family Living. We had Stations, not Homerooms and Mods, instead of Periods!

over 200 acres of beauty and hallowed halls

I graduated with just 53 girls.  So everyone knew everyone!  And we were all friends, but groups still formed.  Many of the girls I still keep in touch with via Facebook, and am enjoying seeing where they are in their lives right now, but mostly I just keep in constant contact and see Mel and Kerri regularly. Good thing they're blog-approved!!  :)


In high school I didn't do sports (obviously!) but was on the yearbook my Senior Year and was a Regina Teen.  My school was the Academy of St. Joseph...run by the Sisters of St. Joseph.  Our campus housed a nursing home for retired nuns, and the Regina Teens were basically Candy Stripers at the home after school.  So I did that a few years.  I was traumatized I think.  But sometimes it was cute.  I was also part of Play Crew, Spirit Week committees, photography club for a short time and a member of Student Service.

Some highlights of high school...wish I knew where more pictures were!!

Dances, Sweet Sixteens, and Proms

 Father-Daughter Dances (we always went to the diner after!) ,Winter Formals, Random Friday Night Dances with boys from the all-boy schools.  The Cotton-Eyed Joe!!  It Takes Two to Make a Thing Go Right!  I went to big elaborate Sweet Sixteens and others that were just fun sleepovers like my own!  And had a great time at them all!!

Just for Fun...This was the invitation to my Sweet Sixteen!

I had a better time at the Junior Prom than I did at the Senior Prom.  I went with a friend's brother, and my friend went with her brother's friend.  But she kind of ditched him...so I like to say that I had two dates!  HA!  And I had the best time with the two of them.

Mel and I at Junior Prom!

Christian Family Living.  During this course we went and played with our  Pre-Kindergarten buddies. I think this is what cemented me wanting to be a teacher.  I loved my buddy!  SCOTT...two T's are better than one!! (the lower school was co-ed!) Oh and we played with lummi sticks!!!  We LOVED that!!

Off-Campus Days were fun too!  That's when we went into New York City and saw Broadway shows.  I saw Miss Saigon, Smokey Joe's Cafe, and Rent.  Rent was my fave.  We met Wilson Cruz after the show.  He was on My So-Called Life which was big during that time and one of my fave shows!

That's his autograph!!  HA!













Senior Year we went to Grad Night in Disney World.  This is when they closed down the park and graduating classes from all over the U.S. have the park to themselves overnight.  The flight home was the most memorable of the trip.  Our plane dropped 10,000 feet in mid-air (in a split second!) and I thought perhaps I might die!  Pretty much a real-life Tower of Terror scenario!!

Spirit Weeks each year were a lot of fun! Filled with skits and dance routines...I remember being part of the freshman year skit.  Our song was If I was a Rich Girl...nananahahahahahnaa


Some of my favorite assignments: Does including this make me a geek!?!
The Wedding Project for CFL.  We had to plan our wedding from soup to nuts! Like guest list, song list...everything! And present it to the class.  I'd be married to Jonathan Jackson (Lucky on General Hospital at the time- Avery Barkley on Nashville now!) by now if my dream wedding came true!  LOL...clearly it was an all-girls school!! And apparently my wedding song would be "I Finally Found Someone" by Barbra Streisand and Bryan Adams from the movie The Mirror has Two Faces. (I don't even remember ever seeing that movie!)  If I ever do get married I might have to keep that!!  HA!!

Precis of Wall Street: We watched the movie with Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas and totally analyzed every bit of it!  Then we wrote about it.  The last line of my precis said...the Mo' Money you come across, the Mo' problems you see!  I think I got an A-  I was a big Biggie Fan! {R.I.P}

Another favorite project was a final religion project we did where we had to talk about five things we valued, five favorite quotes and five favorite bible verses. All put together in a tiny little marble notebook. I still have it!!  I also loved going to mass in our beautiful chapel.

I'll never forget losing a friend and classmate the summer before our Junior year!  It really bonded us as a class and let us all know how fast life can change! {Just a few months ago we lost another high school friend quite suddenly, and it was another shock.  It was actually during this time that I was told that a few other girls from our class passed away as well.  It's sad to think that our small class has gotten even smaller!}

Random Fun Facts:

• In high school I probably watched Clueless 150 times, saw 100 Lifetime movies and ate buckets of raw cookie dough. 
• I was still a Girl Scout. 
• During our 4 years, a nun went from a Sr. to a Miss :)
• Our lockers were big...we would all sit in them every morning and do HW before heading up to class!  
• I discovered that I hated cigarettes (thank God!!)
• I was obsessed with *NSYNC. and saw them in concert twice in one week the summer of Senior Year.
• My love of country music began.  
• I feel like we bowled a lot! 
• I never dated!  
• I got such a low score on my first try at the SAT's my dad told me to have a great time at community college!  hahahahahaha (I laughed then too...don't worry!!  And I went AWAY to college!)  
• My Chem teacher called me at home to tell me I passed the regents! She was a lovely lady!!
• My math teacher? NOTSOMUCH....I asked her once if I failed a test and she said "of course you did!" I am not ashamed to admit I cried! And that chick was a NUN!!!  
• The school song is forever in my memory!!

My senior picture and quote from the yearbook:

This picture...ugh!!  It was an ugly 4 years!!  I am thinner now than I ever was in high school...THANK GOD!!  Last summer I actually saw a friend from high school for the first time since the 10 year reunion and she told me I looked hot....It made me laugh for the rest of the night but it secretly made my summer!

My page from my family in the yearbook senior year!

Sadly our school has now closed it's doors!  But I was able to go to the final celebration in 2009.  And was so glad I did!!  For a school that operated since 1856, it was extremely bittersweet.

Kerri, Me and Mel on Graduation Day on the Senior Stairs! We only wore the typical cap and gown for the Graduation Mass.  Graduation Day each girl wore a floor-length white gown and white gloves, and walked down the aisle carrying roses. {I remember being SO sick at graduation with a fever and the shakes! Booooo...}

On the Senior Stairs one last time!
2009 right before the school shut its doors.

I'm so glad I decided to do this!  But I'm also glad these days are in the past!!