Sunday, April 06, 2008

TLC, Circa 1994 *

In honor of Steph Hale's second release, I'm rounding out this edition of high school week, officially known as "Favorite Group You Were In" week. And if you haven't, after being pestered about this for a week, picked up your copy of TWISTED SISTERS yet, then GO TO THE BOOKSTORE or ORDER ONE RIGHT NOW! Okay, I'm done shouting. On with the post.


Fourteen years ago (omigods, has it been that long) I was a Chief. For the uninitiated, that's a student at Kickapoo High School in Springfield, Missouri (aka the alma mater of Brad Pitt and Lucas Grabeel--no, I didn't know them ... jeeez, I'm not that old or that young!).


At KHS, I was a middle-grounder. A little bit of everything. I was in the honors and AP classes, but I never took them toooooo seriously and as long as I got a B-average I was happy (something I have in common with Phoebe from OH. MY. GODS.). I was in Science Club my senior year, but only because I needed an academic extra-curricular for my college applications. I think I missed at least half of the club meetings. (Shhh, don't tell anyone.) I was in Art three out of four years (it wasn't four out of four because Art IV conflicted with another class).


Mainly, I was in sports. I wasn't a total jock--my best friend was a band geek and no one else in our circle was on anything more strenuous than the golf team. I played basketball my freshman year--oh the horror! Girls basketball players are the worst. I think I still have injuries! I know I still have nightmares. But of all the groups I was in, I think it was the tennis and swimming teams that were my favorites.


I was on varsity tennis all four years and varsity swimming for three (I missed out junior year to be on my dad's AAU basketball team). Unlike basketball, which is a team sport and encourages those cliquish friendships we authors so like to write about, tennis and swimming are individual sports. This means that the individuals on those teams came from a broad spectrum of the student population. There were cool girls and stoner girls and geek girls and jock girls and girly girls and loner girls and a homecoming queen. You could find just about every type of girl on one of those teams in a given season. And for the duration of the season, we were all friends. (I know, I know, that sounds like the end of Mean Girls or something, but it's true!)

So, that's a rundown of my high school involvement (which may be kinda similar to Steph's and the polar opposite of Tina's). What about you? Were you on a favorite sports team? Or an academic team, like Academic Decathlon or Robotics? Dish please.

Hugs,
TLC
OH. MY. GODS. -- Dutton, available May 1st!
teralynnchilds.com

* You might have noticed that there aren't actually any photos of me from my time as a Chief. I assure you, this is because I'm too lazy to dig out and scan the yearbooks, not because of any horrifically embarrassing hairstyles. Honestly.

4 comments:

stephhale said...

Fun memories, thanks for sharing, TLC. I'm jealous because we didn't have any cool sports like tennis or swimming. I most definitely would have done swimming! :)

TinaFerraro said...

I loved reading about your high school experience, which was not only polar opposite to mine, but sounds way better! Now, to be fair, my brother--same high school, two years later--was swim team captain his senior year. And loved it. So we did have that team, and yeah, I could have joined...just didn't. But I don't think we used the word "slacker" then. :)

And you went to the same HS as Brad Pitt?!?

Keri Mikulski said...

Total jock! :) Soccer, Basketball, and Softball, all four years and some college. But, you did bring up an interesting point as I thought back to high school. My inner-circle was pretty diverse - some played sports, others didn't.

KrisLeet said...

I was pretty active in high school. In addition to marching band I was also in cheerleading, diving, swimming, I played roller hockey in the men's league on weekends (there was no women's league), and I played the occasional rugby game. Swimming was my favorite though. I swam competitively from the time I was 5 till I got hurt my senior year. I broke (and still hold) the county record for the 500 free style (which is 20 laps), and my time was 5m 10s. The nice thing about swimming not only did I have a close knit group of friends I met through the years, but most of my swimming pals were also in Marching Band with me.