final flashback friday

We've come to the end of our regularly scheduled Flashback Fridays.  There may be some that pop up every now and again...but as for the weekly pics, this is the end.  And lucky for you, I'm giving you two for the price of one!

for the Yearbook!

Senior year.  The end of High School.  The beginning of adulthood.  There's a lot that I could say about my senior year.  I got into far too much trouble, nearly didn't graduate, and because I didn't want to take the ACT (similar to SAT, I presume) I decided on going to the community college in my town.  Literally, my decision to go there was based on the fact that they couldn't reject me no matter how horrible my GPA was.

I was still crazy about boys, watched every episode of 90210, worked at the mall - by now I had moved to Northern Reflections - and was giving my parents a run for their money (sorry, mom and dad!).  I planned to be a teacher.  Every aptitude test I had ever taken suggested that would be the very best career for me.  So I had every intention of pursuing that goal.  But after a few years at KVCC, I gave up that goal.  I was still a horrible student and the thought of being in school for the rest of my life was terrifying.  Which is how I ended up working full time at a tanning salon and eventually moving out to Boston and settling here for the past 11yrs.

Our lives don't always turn out the way we think they will when we're 17 and the the world is a blank canvas before us.  There are twists and turns, detours and setbacks.  We make foolish decisions when we're young and don't realize the effect they will have on our adult selves.  I've come to terms with how I lived my life as a teenager/early twenties but it was an empty and meaningless way to live for a while.

I see some of the girls I've watched grow up from 6th grade to now graduating and see some of them making the same mistakes that I did.  It is my utmost prayer that they will come to realize the life they are living is shallow and pointless.  The lessons that they are learning don't need to be learned.  I know because I learned them firsthand.  I suppose it's a rite of passage to be stupid when you're young (and I sure was!) but if I could give one piece of advice to young girls reading this:  making dumb decisions (ie breaking the law, lying to your parents) isn't cool, it's dumb.  Don't be dumb.

I hope you've enjoyed this little journey through time with me.  It sure was fun to show you some pictures from long ago.  Thanks for sticking around!