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.
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4 comments:
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! :)
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?!?
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.
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.
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