It was Worth All the While

I have been thinking a lot lately about my high school years. I guess it would have been more timely to write something like this 18 months ago around my 10 year class reunion, but I have some alone time on Tuesdays and Thursday to actually think! 

I am grateful for my high school experience because I see the high school kids today and the immense pressures they are under. They have to look perfect, act perfect in front of their parents and teachers, and then they have the pressure of acting wild and crazy on the weekends. Alcohol isn’t even a big deal anymore because drugs are so prevalent. And of course from the counseling perspective, cyber bullying is out of control!

I try to be very careful when talking about God’s providential care because I understand some people may take things to extreme, but I truly believe my high school experience was due to God’s provision.

Towards the end of my 8^th grade year (2000), my parents informed me that we were moving because of my dad’s job. This upset me for many reasons, the obvious being leaving my friends; but, also my sister had already graduated high school and my brother was graduating that year, so it would just be me entering high school with no one to pave my way. My parents let me be a part of the moving process and deciding where to move to in the Dallas area. I remember my dad and I went to a town called Forney and there is a HUGE jackrabbit statue in the middle of town, and I adamantly said “I ain’t being no jackrabbit!” So we moved to the next town over, Crandall. It is a small town – population around 3000 and a 3A school, no stop lights only stop signs… perfect size for me.

I often tell the story of my first day of high school. I was extremely nervous. The 9^th grade class met in a lobby area before classes started, and a lady who I would come to be very fond of, Mrs. Bruce, was kind enough to introduce me to my classmates. She was introducing me to a girl named Nicole and I all of the sudden felt sick. I ran to bathroom to throw up. Now envision these bathrooms… it’s a big open area with sinks and then on one side is the girls’ room and the other is the boys’. There are no doors to the entrances to the bathrooms. So I get sick and I walk out to wash my hands and I hear two guys in their bathroom talking. Guy #1 said, “Have you seen we have a new English teacher? And she has a daughter.” Guy #2 asked, “Is she cute?” Guy #1 responds, “No not really.” …well my mom was the new English teacher and I was the not so cute daughter! I finished washing my hands, but I had to walk by the boys’ bathroom to return to the lobby. Then I hear “oh there she is!” I was mortified. I never found out who it was, and if you’re reading this, I really don’t care to know who it was! (Ignorance is bliss)

High school wasn’t perfect, but, at the same time, it was. I had enemies and exes and crushes and everything else, but my school, and especially my class, was perfect for who I was. The cool kids were the smart kids. They were in the AP classes, UIL and/or NHS; of course they were also pretty and athletic. Therefore, by definition I wasn’t popular, but they were also nice so I was friends with them. I know there were some pretty bad incidents that happened with some of the kids, but for the most part (from my perspective, anyway), bullying wasn’t a big issue. And I am so thankful cell phones weren’t as popular then as they are now! I can't even imagine how things would be different.

Another thing that made my high school experience so great was that I didn’t experience peer pressure. Now don’t get me wrong, I had personal pressures on myself that caused me to make mistakes, but I was never pressured to drink or go to parties. In fact, I was never even invited to a party. That may sound like a negative, like I was a loser, but honestly, I am so thankful for that. There was drinking at one of my parties and I didn’t even know about it until later, but that’s a whole ‘nother story! We had such innocent fun… shopping at the Galleria, going to restaurants, or watching One Tree Hill at friends’ houses. *sigh*

I often think about if I had stayed at the town I moved from or attended a big city school… would I have drank in high school? Would I been motivated to work hard? Would I have been pressured to “be popular among the boys?”  ..you know what I mean ;)

So thank you, Crandall High School and the class of 2004 for helping me stay true to who I am and not forcing me to be someone I’m not. It was worth all the while!