My Story: 11/12 Grade and the end (for now)
Jan 06
Everyone,
I’ve been recording my youth with Mommy’s Piggy Tales. This is the last installment.
One thing that I never got around to talking about last time I told my story was the OTHER person I met that year that has changed my life. It’s my BFF Mink. In 9th grade, Mink and I had 5 of the 7 classes of the day together. Every day. We were partners in biology and learned early on that we were both completely horse crazy. And then we found out that we had a TON more in common. And then we were sitting together in French and helping each other with our homework. And we were jogging together in gym. And we were walking to seminary together every day. We ate lunch together. We moaned over Algebra 2 together.
Then we went to high school. And she went to our rival school. But she hated it so much the first few weeks she transferred to our school! And we hung out ever since. Every day in 11th grade we talked on the phone after school. We liked boys from the same group. We double dated for everything. We rolled our eyes over our French teacher’s latest explanation about being abducted by aliens in his back yard. We ate lunch together when we could. I was amazed at her art and drawing and she came to every orchestra concert I was in. She became my accompanist on the piano and we often did duets in our churches.
In 12th grade, along with another friend, we decided that we needed to know more about the state we lived in. So we were tourists in our own state. We went all over. We learned a lot, and laughed a lot. We also spent a lot of time going through drive through and ordering just water. It was a big joke with us.
Mink and I also got our first job at a bakery together. Although we rarely worked together (we both became “managers” in a short amount of time) it was fun to work at the same place.
And later in life, we got engaged within months of each other, married within months of each other, and had kids within months of each other. I named her second daughter. We talk every other week still and I don’t think of 12th grade without her in it.
In 12th grade, I decided to do something called concurrent enrollment. I spent the morning at the high school taking orchestra, English and chemistry. I left before lunch and drove to the local community college. There I took French. I picked French because I figured I knew a little bit of it. And I did need the credit to graduate from college, unlike the guitar I considered taking.
I finished school around 2pm every day and then I went home and did my stupid chemistry homework. No one I knew was home from school yet. My parents were both at work. I blame my stellar (really, they were shining) study habits in college from this. I got my school work done about the same time that Mink and everyone was getting home from school. And then I went out to play!
I think this year was the year that I took horseback riding lessons 2 times a week for awhile. I got really good at it, jumping around 4 foot fences and really loving the barn I took lessons at.
Orchestra took me on tour in 11th and 12th grade. We went to California and Disneyland one year, and Zions/Southern Utah the other year.
And of course, graduation. Our school always had graduation ceremonies out on our football field. The year I graduated, I had over 950 kids in my class. And as we got started, we watched huge black clouds roll in over the valley. They decided to skip all the deans speaking and let the kids who were supposed to talk and preform, do their thing. Then they kind of rushed through 950 of us for diplomas and rushed everyone off the field. I got a few pictures snapped and turned in my gown as the first big drops of rain fell.
This year my brother was on his mission for our church. Juice was at college about 30 minutes south of me (there were a few trips to see him) and then he left to go on his own mission. I was looking forward to college in Idaho, and just doing something DIFFERENT. I also went to Hawaii for the first time that summer as a graduation gift with my parents and my bestest horsey friend. We had a ball!
I feel like graduating high school was such a jumping off point for me. I did a lot of cool things in college. I’ve done a lot of cool things since. I look back at me as a senior and think that I was a pretty cool kid.
How do you feel about yourself in high school?
Safire
PS- Here’s a picture of me and Mink and our friend FlowerMaiden before a school dance. It was a costume dance and we went as 50′s kids. We had dinner downstairs in our unfinished basement. We hung blankets, twinkle lights, and carved pumpkins. My dad made us hamburgers and milk shakes and we played music from the era. The idea was perfect…my date was far from it! Still, I remember that date with fondness…if only because I was with my friends!
Mink and Spider and Fair, my past my past