The Teen Years

Favorite Memory from my teen years. This is the topic that was suggested to me by my friend Barbara. Once again a topic that I can handle much better than …well “you-know-what” by now, if you have read my past couple posts . The topic that was suggested by my fellow blogger Colin, whose words keep coming back to haunt him 🙂 It’s a long title to spell out, so this will be the last time I mention it. Gotta stop, before the words come back to haunt me.

Picking a favorite memory from my teen years was difficult, for I enjoyed those years and had many fond memories. Yes, I had the typical days of teen girl drama where I was sure my world was falling apart; but the other days balanced those times out. The one thing that is a common denominator among my memories are my wonderful friends. Friends are so precious and I feel so blessed with my friendships. My new ones  and ones that I have kept through my childhood.

For my high school years I went to a private school that was too far to commute to each day, so I stayed in the dormitory there and came home on the week-ends. This is what made up a lot of my favorite memories of my teen years. My childhood friends went with me to the dorm, so it wasn’t like dealing with all strangers. And the teens at the dorm didn’t stay strangers for long. We became like a BIG family. Yeah, we didn’t always get a long, but what family always gets along?? It was a coed dorm, girls on one side of the building and guys on the other, but trust me we did have Adult dorm advisors. This wasn’t a college coed dorm. Figured I better clarify that before you all started questioning what made up my fun memories! 🙂

Why was dorm life fun, besides the fact that you got to chat with your friends all the time and goof around? One plus was the morning routine. No hurrying up to catch a bus and stand outside in the cold waiting for it. Nope, my morning routine consisted of this. Pulling the covers over my head as my best friend roommate would joyfully spring out of bed, throwing up the blind wide open so the brilliant sun could shine in. She would be smiling and singing a happy tune and I was NOT singing along!  She is so lucky I loved her and still do, LOL!  When she would go for breakfast I would get up and get ready. For I had it timed to a science in exactly how long I needed to get ready. Did I go to breakfast? Well put it this way, the question was, Stay in bed for about 20 minutes longer or go to breakfast? What do you think I chose? 🙂 My breakfast was grabbing a can of soda from the vending machine in the hall, as my roommate and I would dash across the parking lot and I would slide into my class just minutes before the bell rang.

The other plus, was that you didn’t have to rush to catch bus after school. You could take your time and if you wanted to stay for after school activities , no problem, you didn’t need to ask your parents for a ride. If you had a detention, that was OK, your parents did not need to pick you up. We all had detentions right? A rite of passage through HS? Some of you even had a month long detention right? Oh, was that just me? 🙂 Is there a story here? Maybe…

My friend and I sat right next to each other in Study Hall. One day I was thirsty. Leaned over to my friend and told her  I wanted a Rax milkshake and she agreed it sounded good. To this day I joke with her on Facebook saying it was her fault we went for if she wouldn’t have agreed I wouldn’t have gone. 🙂 But she agreed so  we did the logical thing when your  thirsty and NEED a shake! We reasoned it out in our heads. We had a double period of study hall and lunch followed. We wouldn’t be missed and we weren’t missing important classes, so that made it OK, right? We signed out to go to the library and cut through the field behind the school to the road that led to Rax. It was a little walk, but we had time. We told ourselves how others had done this and they had never got caught. Of course there was one big difference. Others had drove their own cars, not walked! We made it there and sat and rested enjoying the delish shakes and fries, a balanced meal. Didn’t finish the shakes, but decided we better start back, eager to tell our friends at lunch our accomplishment. We are chatting away walking down the road with our shakes as a car slows down and comes toward us. We look at each other and for the first time, we start getting some butterflies in our stomach. The car stops and so does our hearts as the window rolls down and our Vice Principal leans out. We didn’t say a word, I mean what were we supposed to say?? “OH so glad you found us, we got lost on the way to class and some kind stranger gave us these milkshakes from Rax!” Talk about being caught red-handed! What he did tho, shocked us. He told us to meet him back in his office ASAP and he left! No ride back! Instead it was like the music you hear in a suspense movie going through our heads the closer we got to school. The tighter our stomachs got with each step. The shakes no longer tasted good and we weren’t exactly chatting, except to say we are in T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

Made it back and to our big relief the VP said since this was our first time for this behavior he wouldn’t call our parents! 🙂 BUT he was giving us detentions for a month, and we had to go see our Study Hall teacher;  he would hand down a punishment as well. Well we really liked our teacher and so while we were embarrassed, we did feel a lot more at ease. I mean how bad could it be. We walked in and he was leaning back in his chair, legs propped up on the desk, smiling away. “Did you enjoy your shakes ladies, was it worth it?” Well..it turned out that we were confined to study hall for the rest of the time that we had it. No going to your locker, restroom, water fountain and especially  the library!  And remember it was a double period. Now for my one friend it wasn’t too bad, for she only had about 2 weeks left. I on the other hand had a whole semester left and she wasn’t there with me to talk to! Did he take pity on me?? HA! This is a teacher who loved to joke and had a lot of wit, so I knew I was in for it.

I heard so many times, “Aww, are you missing your buddy?” as he smiled and walked away. Trust me I tried using my own wit to get out of the class for just a little bit,it failed over and over. “Hey I have a project to do, can I work on it in the library? They have scissors and I need a pair.”  He smiled as he opened his desk drawer and pulled out a pair of scissors. I think he went home and stocked his drawers each night with different items 🙂 “OH Dang, I forgot my book in my locker, its right down the hall. Will only take a sec. I will read and be quiet for the rest of class, won’t disturb you.” He reached into his desk and pulled out a book and smiled that “Haha” smile as he handed me something that I totally had no interest in reading. “My throat is parched I need a drink.” I got handed a cough drop! Did I mention he was my favorite teacher, LOL! I would have to laugh and admit that it was better than having a teacher sternly watch me as he would glare at me over his spectacles. I would eventually give up for that day and we would chit chat 🙂

Yes, so many memories and the fun ones mixed with the serious ones is what made up life at the dorm. We could have very deep discussions on any topic, debating our points. And we could have serious fun joking around with pranks. The one downfall I had was being short, for I made to easy of a target. We could all be joking around and I would say something particular witty that would make the person not have a response. I would  have that gloat on my face. But not for long. For all they had to do was toss me up on their shoulders and I would get a cold shower! I saw the guys shower stalls way too many times. But don’t worry they would make sure no guys were showering before dragging me in! LOL! And let me make it clear, that I didn’t even always have to say something, I would just see certain people giving each other the look and I knew I was in trouble. But I won’t lie and tho I know you all will be in shock, a lot of times it was my fault, but not always! 🙂

We laughed, we cried, we bonded ,for those moments in time and they are memories I won’t forget.