High School Days: Junior Jubilee

Junior year was incredible for me. I was really coming into my own and realizing who I wanted to be and how I wanted to present myself. Sweet 16 never seemed so sweet! I had started to grow into my looks more and had developed my friendships to the point where I really could peg just one person as my "best" friend. I was in love with life!

After School: Once again, I made the end seat in choir and couldn't wait to start shining as an example to the new sophomores, rather than serving as a wannabe to the juniors and seniors (there were no senior altos that year). I still found myself too frightened to audition for a choir solo, but the teacher teamed me up with two of my closest friends, who were seniors, to begin our own singing trio. Combined with one of our fabulous friends who played piano, we quickly became "The Perfect Fourth" and were a big sensation, performing at every concert and a ton of major school events. I loved it. In the fall, I made the school musical with a supporting lead role and became hooked. That spring, I was offered another supporting lead role in the school play that caught some attention. Meanwhile, in YPA outside of school, I scored a leading role in their show as well. The acting bug had hit!! I was still part of the speech team, only this year, I got double-entered (a huge honor) in Creative Expression and Duo. In Creative Expression, you write your own 8-minute skit and perform it as all the characters. As a writer and actor, I succeeded big time. I took first at nearly every single tournament and at least placed at the ones I didn't win. I took first entering into the state competition and had a ball competing against so many great performers.

Friends: I had my "main group", which still consisted of Jessie, Katelyn, and Megan, but it had become bigger since we started liking boys more. Suddenly there was Lee, Nick, Jake, and Jason. Lee and I were the only single ones. You can bet that fueled the fire a little! It was an awesome relationship we all had going on. My "other group" was now chock-full of theatre kids and musicians. We were artsy and had a lot of fun, but for some reason (maybe it was all the sense of competition amongst us), there was always a little tension around them. With my main group, everything was easy and I loved it.

Boys: I was still incredibly shy with the opposite sex at this point in my life, but my little transformation over the summer had certainly caught the eye of some. This was the season of sweet puppy love. I went on a few dates with Lee, from our group, but it was only a sweet flirtation, never something official. I had my first kiss at this age, but it wasn't what you'd expect from a first kiss: it was a stage kiss. My roll in one of the shows called for a kiss with a stranger that I had been cast opposite. Awkward? Oh yeah. But the role made us become good friends, despite the fact that we went to separate schools. By the time prom rolled around, I found myself without a date to the prom. Not surprising if you knew me back then. But I was not about to let my friends all go to prom and have fun without me, so I got the courage up to ask out my own date (the same guy I had the stage kiss with, actually!). It was great and I dated him throughout my junior summer. I also met a boy named Kyle that summer. He was friends with "my group", but I never talked to him or hung out with him, since he was older and I didn't enjoy his flirty demeanor with my girls. But I ended up seeing him at a grad party, where neither of us knew many people and ended up talking for HOURS. I was glad I finally gave him a chance. :)

Keeping Up Appearances: My growth spurt (if you can call it that, shorty) over the summer caused my hair to grow at a rate that I'm still not sure is good for you ha! I came back in the fall with hair down my back and that's where it stayed all year. I had so much fun styling it millions of ways that year. Makeup was now a regular part of my routine, and Jessie always had AMAZING makeup, so she served as an inspiration to me. My outfits continued to be outlandish- funky, eclectic masterpieces, complete EVERY day with a pair of matching heels. It was my trademark.

So junior year for me was my stepping stone to greatness: I had started getting supporting lead roles in shows, but still wanted leads. I had been placed in a performing group, but was still uneasy about choir solos, and I had finally been on a couple dates, but still had no boyfriend or real kiss. I hoped to check off all those things by my graduation, and hoped the following year would bring me just that.

Check back tomorrow for the third, and final, part of my high school series, dolls!

'Til then,