Use Your Words - Don't shoot the Messenger

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once, and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

My words are:

villain ~ sobriety ~ soap ~ lunar ~ messenger ~ gaffe

They were submitted by: Climaxed  - Thank you, Jenniy!

Earlier this week, Dawn posted the questions below. I'll answer them here.

Think about your SENIOR year in High School. 

The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be! I always love seeing others answers and learning about people I didn’t know when I was younger, how they were when they were younger! It doesn’t take 5 minutes, let’s have some fun!! 

Did you know your current love? No. I did have a crush on somebody with whom I am still good friends today, though.
Type of car you drove? Wasn't even allowed to drive. I rode the bike.

Where did you live? Right here where I am now. I did move away between then and now, though.

Were you popular? I came a long way but ended up pretty well. In the early years I may have irritated a few people with my gaffes. They either got used to it, or I cooled down?
Were you in choir/band? No. Our group of jazz gymnasts performed a "Flashdance" choreography at the local nursing home's reopening.
Ever get suspended? No. I did end up in the hallway once or twice, though.
If you could would you go back? Yeah, that'd be fun
Still talk to the person that you went to prom with? We don't have this custom. 
Did you skip school? No ditch days around here.
Go to all the football games? What games...?
Favorite subjects? Languages. German is our first language. I liked writing essays - already the blogger back then! At age 13 we started learning Italian, and at 15 we finally began to study English. These days things have changed. My son started Engish in 3rd grade of elementary school.
Do you still have your year books? Again, we don't have them. I do have some individual pictures of my old friends, though.


Did you follow the "original" career path? What does that even mean? I went to college after high school. I guess that's as basic as it gets ;-)
Do you still have your senior ring? You guys have rings???
Who was your favorite teacher? Mr B, the only great history teacher I ever had. He did a great job making history somewhat bearable. At this point, may I also mention my least favorite oner? Mr T, our geography teacher. It's not that he was a villain. He probably just missed his calling. His class was super boring. He never updated his countries. We learned Rhodesia even after it's become Zimababwe for a while. We never even talked about the Americas!! He was not passionate about his job, except if there was something astronomical coming up. He could go on and on about shooting stars or solar and lunar eclipses, and I liked this a lot. 
What was your favorite outfit? "Carrot style" or skinny jeans, a white sweater.
Favorite pair of shoes? I have no idea what footwear I had. Definetly flat ones, though.
Favorite thing to eat in the cafeteria? I went home for lunch. We lived less than a mile away.
Favorite band/musician? Whitney Houston, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, A-Ha and many more. The 80s were the best!!
High school hair? Growing out my first and only big hair perm.
What kind of perfume? I don't think I had one. Just soap - for the usage of my words' sake ;-) Oh, wait, I probably had some "white musk" from the Body Shop!
How old when you graduated? 16

That's as far as the questions went. 

I'd like to tell you about our Swiss senior year of high school. I realize it's nothing like the U.S. We don't have proms, limousines, fancy dresses, ditch days and pranks. There were no year books and no "most likely to... predictions",  and I didn't even know there was such a thing as a senior ring? Wow.

So, what did our last year of high school look like back in the late 80s?

It was just like any other with the following exceptions:

We had final exams. If you had a signed apprenticeship agreement, you may have a had a clause mentioning a minmal test score you were expected to achieve. 

If you wanted to go to college you definitely needed a certain amount of average grades with a few specific rules: you couldn't afford to totally suck at math for example. These rules pretty much made sure you kept behaving and studying until the exams.

However, on the last official day before exams started, we celebrated "Uselütete". 

This relates and loosely translates as the school bell that was ringing until we left. Tradition had it that the senior classes dressed up for this last classes. Some were definitely more into it than others, haha. I am the one next to the devil. You can't see it in this picture, but I was at least wearing some abricot / light green flower power design pijama pants.




I am trying hard to remember if after the exams we had some kind of a celebratory party. I think there was some dancing and making out going on in somebody's basement. Man, our parties were so innocent! Even though at 16 we were allowed to drink, we practiced sobriety. We still had fun. I have the best memories with the friends I made back then. 

Our last reunion was less than two years ago, and on occasion of a classemate's book release some of us are going to be meeting again next month!


Which reminds me I need to get on my messenger and reconnect with some of them to make sure they save the date. Yes, of couse, for some reason that seems to be my job ;-)

What about your senior year? Care to share? Did you have a special role within your peers? Are you still in touch with some of your high school friends?


Don't leave before checking out my blogger friends' posts:    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Comments

  1. That’s so cool that you used my fb post to tie in with your UYW post. Great job but y’all don’t have class rings? It’s a big deal here.

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    Replies
    1. We really don't, Dawn, and I need you to show me a picture of yours!!

      Delete
  2. So funny how I just assumed that some of the things that were so tied in to our senior year (like prom, class rings and yearbook) would be the same everywhere.

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  3. I didn't have a senior year. I left school at the end of my sophomore to get married. I think a lot of times here we have to much pomp & circumstance and not enough emphasis on learning. I love that your son is learning foreign languages. I wish they did that here. (Rena)

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  4. It's so fascinating to hear about other's customs! We had a huge celebration and party for graduation. Yes, we had class rings and spent way too much on gowns and/or suit rentals. We've had one reunion. For our 22nd year. No interest in getting together again.
    The Class of '73 has been out of school now for 46 years!
    I SO wish they would get together for the launch of a classmate's book. We could have gotten together MANY time now! ;)

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  5. What a fun post! Loved reading about your senior year! I may share it on my blog just for fun.

    ReplyDelete

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