I wanna run through the halls of my high school...

Reason #257 why I LIVE for the fall...

HOMECOMING! I loved homecoming in college, and it's even exciting at whatever school Spencer is attending or working at at the moment, but no homecoming compares to high school homecoming week...especially senior year. I've missed Flashback Fridays three weeks in a row. I hope this makes up for it. I scrap-booked the entire event. And I am embarrassed to post my sorry scrapbooking skills on the world wide web. To my credit, scrapbooking has come a long way since then. Plus I was never really into it. And though I don't really do it, I'm MUCH better now. Some one gave me a bunch of homecoming pictures after I finished my scrapbook, so I'll include a couple of those, too.

Homecoming is different at every high school. Ours started with an extended pep rally between classes two weeks before the big game. Every sport and club nominated one boy and one girl to be on court and we all get our names read while we walk down the red carpet at this pep rally. Zac and I were nominated by the madrigal choir. People vote all week and the top 7 boys and top 7 girls are announced at the homecoming dance on Saturday Night.

I've always loved this picture of Zac and I at the pep rally.


These are almost all of the nominees. It was a two page picture from the year book and I can't seem to fit the whole thing in my scanner. Sorry Jessica, you're right in the fold of the book.

For whatever reason, I was popular in high school. And I attended a fairly large high school. I look at these pictures and don't think I really fit in...though I never realized that at the time. I certainly wasn't cool. I've always been a bit of a dork. But I really didn't care a wit in high school. I didn't really notice or care that I didn't fit in. Oh, to be that carefree again! I stayed really involved in high school and knew a lot of people and kind of had a feeling that I might make homecoming court.

So the day of the big dance, I got a personal invitation to a choir workshop at a nearby college. Only one person from each part got to come and I was the alto chosen from my school. I was assured I'd make it back in time for the dance. HA! The workshop was an amazing experience. One of my favorite choir memories. (Though I went with Chris Mathison, Chante Olivas, and Scott Mendenhall...Chris and Chante snubbed me the entire time and Scott I think met some girl from another school right off. I was a little lonely during the breaks and never wanted so bad to be friends with Chante and Chris.) It was seriously a great day, but the concert we put on at the end of course ran long and my choir teacher was driving us back in a school van and I was still in my choir dress.

You can't imagine my anxiety. Being on homecoming court was the single most important event in all of high school to a girl like me at that age. I hadn't re-applied make up since 5:00am and my hair was rained on and when the car pulled into the school parking lot I bolted for the dance. And I missed the announcement of homecoming court by less than 2 minutes. DEVASTATING!!! Part of the fun is getting recognition in front of the entire school. And I didn't show up? It must have looked like I didn't care. But the look on my face in the next picture says otherwise. And that doesn't begin to portray my excitement. Luckily, I made it in time for the year book pictures. Phew! Only I looked awful from my LONG day.


Homecoming week always had a theme. My senior year it was something like Dancing Through the Decades. So every day had a different decade as the theme. Original, huh? Se we dressed according to the theme and participated in some crazy activity everyday at lunch hour and during the extended passing period between 2nd and 3rd hour classes.

Monday...40's day. We were playing some game where you had to find a raisin in a bowl of tapioca. Gross. But I won. And the lunch hour activity was a dunk tank.



Proof I got dunked. I don't remember who got me, but I think some one cheated.
Tuesday...50's day. A three legged race and a massive slip and slide. That was a riot. It hardly seems fair that the rest of the school doesn't get to participate. I can't imagine why homecoming week is fun for anyone but the homecoming court. Though I remember loving it my other three years of high school, too.



Wednesday...60's day (notice a pattern?). I look disturbingly a lot like Elton John. The lunch hour activity was an auction. Each court member seriously gets auctioned off. I don't have pictures of the auction but just wait til you see what my purchasers did to me.

Thursday...70's day. But I was dressed otherwise. Remember the auction? Zac, Nicole and Traci bought me for the day. So they dressed me crazy, I had to wear a sign stating who were my masters and anytime my name was said by anyone all day, I had to break out in a round of the Kellogg's Frosted Flakes jingle...show 'em you're a tiger... They had a whistle for me to break into some sort of dance, too. This went on pretty much all day. There were a few races and things in the mix, but mostly wacky performances.


Friday...80's day. I know I dressed up, but don't have pictures. The parade was in the middle of the day and the court got to go home early to get dressed up for it. It's seriously ridiculous. Homecoming court had a free pass to do whatever we wanted that week. We skipped classes for goofy activities and yearbook stuff. We had a free pass to be late for anything. We were even granted permission to go home to change our clothes. We had special privileges because we were popular? I loved it at the time, but come on! I'm sure the teachers HATED homecoming week. No teaching or testing can really get done.

So, the parade...well, first yearbook pictures, then the parade. We drove around the neighborhood close to the school and passed an elementary school on the way. Kyle Lane, the court member I shared a car with, brought huge bags of candy that we threw to all the elementary school kids lining the street. I was happy to share a car with him. We'd been friends since like 3rd grade. It was more fun that way. Then we continued on to the football stadium where the entire high school was in the stands. (And we still threw large amounts of candy to the students...Apparently it worked for Kyle. He won homecoming king.)

I think it's odd that 6 out of the 7 guys were on the football team, but not one cheerleader made homecoming court. (Though one girl was on the football team.)



My graduating class had like the worst float every year. (I hope I'm not offending anyone who worked on it...I worked on the class float every year.) Some classes had spectacular floats. Ours was always a little bit pathetic. But fun none the less. This year, going along with the decade theme, we had a 50's diner. The pictures are awful, but the float wasn't great to begin with.


And finally, the football game on Friday Night. It hardly matters who wins. The week was so fun. The winner gets announced and nobody is talking about homecoming anymore by Monday morning. I didn't win homecoming queen. Elsa Sanchez did. She was on the football team. How was I supposed to compete with that?

So at the beginning of the game, the parade went around the field again. And at half time, the cheerleaders and dance team combined with the marching band put on a big half time show and each court member got escorted onto the field by a parent (my dad escorted me). They announced the winners and just like that it was all over. Two weeks all over with that quick announcement.



My fun friends came to the game that night to support me, even though they all had tickets to go to Knotts Scary Farm. They waited until after half time to go. I changed my clothes and had to work the concession stand for a choir fundraiser the rest of the night. It was back to reality.

This was like the culminating event for all of my high school years. This was SO important to me. From my first high school homecoming as a freshman, all I ever wanted out of high school was to be on homecoming court. And looking back, it is ridiculous. It's like we had celebrity status for a week. Why would anyone care about me waving at them from the back of a convertible? Though I'm so grateful for these fun experiences and memories, I'm glad my priorities are in a little better order these days.