My Life - Chapter 21 - Life in High School

When I was the right age, high school started sophomore year.  9th grade was the last year of Junior High School and our last year at St. Paul's.  I doubt any 9th grader in Janesville in the late 1970s and early 80s thought they were 'in' high school.

There were 23 kids in my 9th grade class. there were 597 in 10th grade.  Sophomores had no control over the location of their locker.  Let's just say I spent as little time as possible in front of it.

Other than the kids from St. Paul's, I only knew a few students.  I got to know quite a few more through the activities I joined.

Sophomore year.
1978-79

  My first year I wrote for the school paper, The Criterion.  We had regular meetings to get our assignments and discuss what news mattered around the school.  I joined Debate and Forensics (speech competition) and stayed with both teams all three years of school.

  Junior year I qualified for National Honor Society.  In addition to the honor we had meetings and raised money for charity.  It was National Honor Society that got me ringing bells for the Salvation Army, which was something I quite enjoyed.

  I didn't find any record of it in my high school yearbooks, but Audio-Visual club was an interest.  That gave me the opportunity to do play-by-play for the girls varsity basketball team.  It was also a springboard to reading the morning announcements at the start of second hour.

Junior year.
1979 - 80

Last year of high school I tried new things (I'll pause while you wonder who is writing this).  I continued writing for the school paper.  After going to debate camp for three weeks in the summer our team had its best year and I finished first in extemporaneous speaking at the conference tournament. 

Yet there was more to do.  Two friends and I auditioned for the school's Shakespeare play, Comedy of Errors.  It was more fun than I expected.  In the spring, there was Thespian Follies where my friend Andy and I did our take on the Dead Parrot routine by Monty Python.  The moment I remember is when we looked at each other while waiting for the audience to stop laughing.

I went out for Cross Country.  I wasn't fast, alternating between the bottom of the junior varsity and top runner on the C squad.  It didn't matter.  It was fun and more of a team sport than you'd expect.  The plan was to run track in the spring, but an injury put me on the sideline.  The silver lining was I got to help call our home meets.

Senior year.
1980 - 81

  There was a year on student council, but I don't remember which one.  

  High school is where I learned to navigate life.  That meant figuring how to handle other people; how to respond to bullies; and summon the courage to do something new.

  It was the transition from the sheltered life of elementary school to hallways crowded with kids I couldn't relate to or understand.  But in going to class, joining different groups; and learning about others I learned about the larger world.

  It's likely that part of my high school education which prepared me for college and the world beyond.