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Show & Tell Tuesday: High School Pictures & Memories

When I first saw today’s prompt for Momfessionals’s “Show and Tell Tuesday”, I was skeptical about taking a walk down high school memory lane on the blog, but I’m so glad that I decided to pull out my old albums and take a peek. 

I’ve had so much fun the last couple of days browsing page by page and remembering all the small, goofy things we did that made my high school days what they were. It’s hard to sum up four years in one post, but I’m going to try my best to hit the highlights. 
I went to Bob Jones High School in Madison, Alabama and graduated in 2006. At the time I felt like   I had the best classmates in the entire world, and I actually still feel that way! I’m still close with several of my high school friends and already cannot wait for our 10-year reunion next year. Such a good group! 
I kept really busy during those four years. I was the extrovert then that I still am today, and I thrived in having a lot to do (some things never change). I got my first job at 15 at a local all-star cheerleading gym as a beginner’s tumbling class instructor (forward rolls through back handsprings) and didn’t stop working again until I became a full-time mom. 🙂 
I worked as a hostess at Lonestar for a few months my sophomore/junior year before becoming a take-away server at the new Outback Steakhouse in town (I continued to work as an Outback waitress during college breaks at home). So many of my friends started working there at the same time I did, and because of that I really loved that job!

the three Outback musketeers!
 

As far as school involvement goes, I dabbled with cheering for a couple years, but I could never get my advanced tumbling down enough to make the competitive team, so my cheering ended after my sophomore year. Below is a picture from my sophomore basketball cheer squad.

I’m pictured on the bottom row second from the right
 
As nerdy as this sounds, my true loves and passions during high school were our school newspaper and SGA. I loved being involved in these two things. Writing and taking pictures for the paper was so much fun, and I was like a kid on Christmas every month when the printed stacks of papers showed up in the front office. 
I really loved SGA – the campaigning, prom planning, homecoming week prep, and all the extra opportunities that being a part of this group brought with it. It was a ball!

interviewing then-Gov. Bob Riley

goofing off with some of my SGA buddies while handing out t-shirts during homecoming week senior year
 
I had a wonderful group of friends that stayed pretty consistent from middle school until graduation and beyond. I still see many of them on a regular basis when I’m home in Alabama. There’s just something about the people who knew you and all of your awkwardness growing up that holds a really special place in your heart. I still love few things more than being around my hometown friends. 
We always took all of our homecoming and proms pictures together.

my life-long best friend Amberlee and me before our first homecoming freshman year

with Amberlee again before homecoming junior year 
(I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT MY HAIR…)
 
a big group of us before junior year homecoming

junior year prom 2005
 
junior year prom
Prom dresses have changed a bit. 😉
 
senior year homecoming parade 
I adore every single girl in this picture. Every single one of them!
 
senior year homecoming game
 
senior year homecoming dance
 
senior year prom
 
senior year prom
 
We went on beach trips together during my last couple high school spring breaks.
Destin, FL junior year
 
Ashley is still one of my absolute best friends in the entire world! Our friendship has never changed and only grown stronger. 
 
Gulf Shores, AL senior year
 

On the weekends we were always at school athletic events, hanging at somebody’s house, having sleepovers, or doing other random teenager things. 

summer 2003

High school friends – Look at this picture of Richard! He was such a goofball, and this is exactly the way I remember him. (Richard, pictured in yellow, passed away of cancer a couple years ago.)

before Glen’s infamous “Ho Ho Ho” party senior year (December 2005). 🙂
 
Christmas gift exchange senior year
 
my 18th birthday
 

During the summers I had friends at my house all the time because we had a backyard in-ground pool. My mom has told me multiple times that she’s so glad we had that pool because it meant that all my friends always wanted to be at our house and she could keep a better eye on us if she had us under her wing. 😉 Pretty genius!

Another huge part of my high school experience was our church youth group at Asbury UMC. Our church was a mile away from our school, and hundreds of kids were involved in the church’s youth group. We had dinner and bible studies on Sunday nights, breakfast on Monday mornings, worship and hang out time on Wednesdays, week-long choir tour trips during the summer, and all kinds of various weekend retreats throughout the year. 

choir tour in Washington DC – summer 2003
choir tour in NYC – summer 2005
senior year Christmas progressive dinner – 2005
 

We were at our youth building all the time, and as an adult I think it’s so cool that we had the opportunity to grow and stay on track with our faith while building friendships during those extremely impressionable years. I’ll always be thankful for the youth group at Asbury. My youth minister actually married Jamie and me!
Some of my favorite school memories include spirit week/homecoming week, the annual end-of-year powder puff game, and senior week activities. 

Here’s a picture of my sister and brother-in-law before homecoming in 2005. Josh was my classmate and friend, and I set up him and my younger sister Jennifer for homecoming. 10 years later and now they’ve been married for 4.5 years! They paid me back 2.5 years later when they introduced me to Jamie. 🙂

Here’s another family pic. At one point my family had three high school students at once. Madness!

All of this seems like so long ago but like yesterday at the same time. I love where I am today, but if I had the chance to go back to high school for a couple days I would jump on it. 
Hope you enjoyed this little walk down memory lane! Enjoy your Tuesday!
More posts from the “Show & Tell” series:
 
Show Us Your Home
Show Us Your Beauty Routine
What I Wanted to be When I Grew Up
Where Our Names Come From

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