From the Vault

I've never liked Tuesdays. I'm not sure why, but they've always been my least favorite day of the week. So, I've decided that every Tuesday I will randomly pick an old picture out of this tupperware box I have sitting on my closet shelf in my office and blog about it.

This picture was taken in May of 1997 at my high school graduation. I graduated in a large class...about 450 students. These are my parents standing with me. My dad, Bobby, and my mom, Nancy. We all look a lot different today than we did then. To be honest, I don't remember much about my graduation ceremony. My school didn't have what you would call a "formal" ceremony. A lot of cheering and whooping...some gang signs flashed as some students received their diplomas. You know, a typical graduation. I distinctly remember wanting to get out of there fast because I had a baseball game to play that night and I remember that night at our "project graduation" I won a K-mart gift certificate (which I used for flip-flops) and a "Shoe Carnival" t-shirt that said "I shopped at Shoe Carnival and lived." Whatever that means.

My senior year was pretty good. It wasn't great or special or anything. I have a feeling most people would say that the older they get the events that happen in the five to six years after graduation tend to dwarf the "senior year experience." We did have a new principal my senior year who was absolutely Terrible! (terrible with a capital "T") He became more of a punch line by the end of the year and our principal from the previous three years actually ended up handing our diplomas to us on graduation night. I can remember being a bit self conscious because most of my friends were graduating with honors and had "honor cords" and tassles and a bunch of stuff that's probably in an attic somewhere now and I had a plain green graduation gown with a yellow tassel. I graduated almost right in the middle of my class. A startling 2.4 gpa. I wasn't blessed with the best work ethic my first 19 years of life.

We have our ten year reunion coming up next year. I only keep in touch with about five or six people from my senior class. It'll be fun, I guess to go and show how much I've changed since then. I've kept myself up pretty well and I'm willing to bet that most of my other classmates haven't. Other than that, I guess I want to leave high school in that picture. My last time on that campus, posing for a picture with my parents. My best years (like most people) have come after that night.