High school was … just that. High school.

I am thankful that God blessed me with some great friends to get me through those years. I have mentioned my BF who I couldn’t imagine those years without, and I also had three school friends my age who helped me to survive. We enjoyed great lunchroom conversations (two of them were a different denomination, and we had some great doctrinal chats). They also made football games fun, as well as homecoming and prom.
I played basketball my Freshman and Sophomore years – well I practiced with the team everyday – and decided I didn’t enjoy it enough to run that many suicides just to sit beside my coaches every game. 🙂 Nor did I enjoy waiting on the curb long after practice every afternoon for my mom or dad to come pick me up. Most days I was waiting there with a friend who was waiting. Of course she had no parents and lived at the local Children’s Home. True story. Ask my brother and sister. They’ll back me up on that one!

The highlight of high school for me was my involvement in the choral program(s). I enjoyed singing in a small ensemble and girls’ sextet my last year, and truly it was a grace gift.

I am not sure of all the reasons, but the days of high school don’t log in my memory as pleasant. I struggled with classes, especially Math and Science. To put it bluntly, I didn’t enjoy the people either. I am sure some of it was me and my self esteem issues with my back brace. I didn’t necessarily fit in with the group of school leaders – clubs, cheerleaders, Who’s Who, etc.
So having a group of people at school where I did fit made a huge difference. I am so thankful that in those days you could get a few core classes out of the way in the first couple of years, and then all my electives were music “classes”. No, I didn’t get much of a well-rounded academic education, but it sure kept me from hating school. I am grateful for parents who allowed me to excel at what I was able to do, rather than pushing me into taking subjects I would have barely passed after crazy long hours of study.

In the afternoons, I had a job at an eye clinic as a file clerk. I also babysat. These jobs gave me a little gas/spending money and I did have a great group of church friends who were most certainly my day to day support group. I plan to zoom in on my youth group days in another post. Those days were too instrumental in my life to include only a blip in this post. God, in His goodness to me, placed us at a church that’s youth leaders would become vital part of my life’s journey.

I have never longed to go back to high school. Never once. 🙂 But even in that season, I recognize the colors … those brilliant shades of grace were always shining. Even when I couldn’t see them as clearly.