Some Things Never Change

How long has it been since you last went through your high school yearbooks? I know, I know, some things are best left to the past, but because I'm a sucker for nostalgia, I recently pulled them out from the bookshelf and started looking at them. I was partly doing this because the YA novel I'm writing has its main characters in high school and I was trying to remember what high school was like. I know a lot of stuff has changed, my book takes place in the present day but all my teenage memories happened before cell phones, text messages, you tube, and the Internet. Internet! There was no such thing! Somehow we survived.

I spent a long time reading all the things my friends wrote.

Oh God.

I don't think my parents read them. If they had I probably would have been put away somewhere. I'm also surprised how many of friends liked to write the F-bomb. Everything was effin this and effin that, and I hate this effin class and I can't wait till we are effin seniors and we'll effin rule the school and kick effin ass.

This is the stuff my girlfriends wrote.

Ah, good times.

I was going to scan one of the entries (a very mild one) but it didn't show up too well, so I will transcribe it here, word for word. This was written in my sophomore yearbooks by my best friend. We were 15 - and anxiously awaiting the freedom that driver's licenses would mean. This small piece of writing is a small glimmer into my personality at that age, something that hasn't changed.

Here we go:

"We have to go to Mt. LaCrosse with Peter and Jimmy again! I laughed so hard that I thought I would wee-wee in my undies.
I can't wait till summer '91 - then I'll be driving and we'll never be bored again!!
Do you remember how we'd pig out constantly last year? I'll always be grateful to you for increasing my stomach's capacity. I eat so hungrily that my parents yell at me for being such a slob. And you shouldn't have shown me how much fun belching is cuz when I do it my mom says how disgusting and unmannerly I am. I don't dare do it when my dad is around - he'd blow me away. Oh well, that's life.
God, I hate Mr. M____ski. He's such a you know what!
Remember how you used to like C____ R______? Eewwwwwwww!"

Here's another one from T.F. We sat next to each other in Bob Deml's algebra class. T.F. was something of a juvenile delinquent and for me, a constant hilarious foil. I NEVER knew what he was going to say. One time he stood up and told Mr. Deml to FUCK OFF!

Bob, to his credit, just sighed and ignored him and went back to writing the quadratic equation on the chalkboard. T.F. made algebra entertaining - no small task.

"Mindy,
So how's it goin? I hope the both of us can handle Bob's class this year. We should go to a party some night and do all the things your parents told you never to do. Ha Ha. Hope this can be a most awesome year this year.
P.S. Don't let your mom or dad see this"

Okay, I won't.