It’s the senior year quiz, via E. Lockhart, via Eric Luper.
1. Who was your best friend?
Satan. (Or at least, that’s how I refer to her now.)
2. What sports did you play?
I was a quitter senior year, but before that I was a cheerleader (& before that it was basketball and dance team). Gasp. Does academic team count as a sport?
3. What kind of car did you drive?:
Some year maroon Grand Prix.
4. It’s Friday night, where were you?:
Probably in a parking lot, hanging out. Or driving around in circles. Possibly at the movies.
5. Were you a party animal?:
I can’t tell a lie: pretty much.
6. Were you considered a flirt?
I don’t think so.
7. Ever skip school?
Oh my, yes.
9. Were you a nerd?
I’m always a nerd, but in this sense probably not. I was more of an oddball.
10. Ever get suspended/expelled?
No — but I did do some time in detention. Since my mom was principal, this gave everyone great glee, the calling out of my name over the loudspeaker those mornings. I remember being in it once for cutting and there was this kid named Duke who had a boombox (which he couldn’t play in detention, natch) and the smelliest feet on Earth. Detention was presided over by our lecherous, idiot gym teacher, which upped the creep factor. The upside to detention was that I had chosen the classical music they played to torture its inhabitants, so I was less miserable than others.
11. Can you sing the Alma mater?
Not anymore.
12. Who was your favorite teacher?:
Billy Roy Farmer. English.
13. Favorite class?
AP English.
14. What was your school’s full name?:
Jackson County High School.
15. School mascot?:
The Generals, baby!
16. Did you go to Prom?
Yes, with Satan and six of our guy friends, most of who dumped their chicks so we could just do the fun group thing. This went over really well.
17. If you could go back and do it over, would you?
You know, never. But, that said, I grew up in a super-small town and always felt like those years were kind of free, in the sense that I knew the situation of high school utterly sucked. So I was into elaborate pranks and hijinks and entertaining myself. It could have been worse. But, no, I’d never volunteer to go back.
18. What do you remember most about graduation?
I read a poem I wrote for my friend Jamie, who died when we were sixteen. I remember her mom hugging me after the ceremony. (And after that, the only other clear thing is the after party, which got way dramatique.)
19. Favorite memory of your Senior Year?
The thing I remember most is driving into the parking lot every morning the last month blasting REM’s "It’s the End of the World As We Know It," and singing along.
20. Were you ever posted up on the senior wall?:
The senior wall? We didn’t have that. We had "the doors" — which were the gym doors — but we basically just stood next to them on days when we felt cool.
21. Did you have a job?
Nope.
22. Whom did you date?
Nobody, mostly.
23. Where did you go most often for lunch?:
The cafeteria, home of The Great Cracker Controversy. (This involved the salad bar, not race.)
24. Have you gained weight since then?
Thank god, yes. I was way too fit back then; all that sports.
25. What did you do after graduation?
Got a boyfriend. Went to college.
26. Who was your crush?
I can’t remember. Isn’t that sad? The pickings were slim.
27. When did you graduate?
1994. Oh yeah.
Two things struck me about this:
first – your mother was the principal?!!!! Oh you poor girl, you poor poor girl.
second – “satan”? that has to be the funniest thing ever!
Oh yeah, and my dad was my elementary school principal. I was used to it! (In a way, it was freeing. And they were both really good at their jobs; I was actually proud as hell of my mom for landing that job in a very sexist environment.)
Re: Satan. She really was/is evil.
good lord. you were super sporty. i am so impressed.
and see colleen. yeah. it doesn’t matter how proud you were of your mother, it has to have been occasionally pure hell.
I guess — but honestly, I was used to it by then. When I was a freshman, I was already at the top of the Most Hated Girls List the mean girls left in the hallway. It was freeing. Seriously. I just did not care what people thought of me.
You guys had a Most Hated Girls List? Man – I had no idea that going to school in the south where the benches were all segregated by race and economic station would be so mellow.
Really. We were all like countries with no border crossings but at least we didn’t hate each other.
I’m so glad I’m out of high school………