My Favorite Year In School

I was chatting with a parent who was telling me about their child and what a tough year they're having at school. Lots of pressure in their sport. Lots of Advanced Placement classes. Lots of hours at work. And she said that this particular year would be the hardest, simply because the workload would decrease dramatically in time for their senior year.

And, I started thinking about what was my favorite year in school from kindergarten through high school. Truth be told, my favorite year in my education was probably my sophomore year in university. I mean, I'd gotten over my fear of failing out. I didn't have to be a pledge in the fraternity any more. I'd gotten over the newness of college life & figured out how to drop and add classes. Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale. Not really involved in my major (of course, that major would change four more times after that year, but hey). Mom paying the freight. But I'd decided to limit this discussion to K-12.

So, here's why my senior year was my favorite year in high school.

1) Since the required athletics period was last on our schedule, I had a teacher's aide, two study halls and a lunch period built right in. This meant a large part of my day was spent playing hacky sack on the Senior Patio or grabbing a nap on the high jump pit mats.
2) Mrs. Swindle. She was the first teacher that saw any academic potential underneath the "too cool for learning" image I put out there. She was tough on me in particular and constantly encouraged me to write, and told me that reading was okay...even noble. Plus, her quirky teaching methods endeared her to me.
3) Getting "booed" at every function including senior prom. I was president of my class, and ran largely on a dare. I won, in full disclosure because my friends cheered me like I was a rock star during the speeches and campaign (which lasted two days, and the other guy was easily more qualified). Just to keep my ego in check, as part of a "we made you, we can break you" poking fun, every time I was introduced at any function, they booed like I was a referee who blew a call. And my best friends would give me the finger by acting like they were scratching their eye any time I had to give a speech.
4) Monday nights at Campus Life and Thursday night Bible study. I was going to church, but the first time I ever heard the difference between being saved and growing in Christ was at those meetings. I didn't realize it at the time, but those two weekly occurrences were instrumental in so much of my personal and professional life it's downright scary.
5) Since I got an acceptance letter from Auburn before school let out my junior year...yeah, well, that's hardly an incentive to spend much time in the three classes I was taking. I'm not sure I did homework, and if I did, it was in study hall.
6) I was dating one of the all-time great high-school girlfriends. Later on at college, we (and by we, I mean she) figured out we weren't a "til death do us part" kind of couple and both married people we loved more. But we had nothing in common except each other and laughed a lot and my homecoming and senior prom were both fun.
7) In one of the all-time "I can't believe this went on and nobody stopped it" events, our entire senior class went to a hotel in Fort Walton Beach, Florida and stayed a week after graduation. Not a parent or teacher or chaperone was even in the state. 18 and 19 year olds released on their own recognizance is pretty surreal--in an era where 19 year olds could buy booze. In retrospect, not too good of an idea by our folks or the insurance company of the hotel industry...but we had a blast, man. It was wonderful chaos.
8) I had a job at the Hoover Square 6 movie theater. It was the best of all high school jobs. You got to wear nice clothes. All you had to do was tear tickets, tell people to keep their feet off the seats, sweep the lobby of loose popcorn and you got free movies and snacks and gameroom tokens the whole time! I got paid extra if I dressed up as Riff Raff for the Rocky Horror Picture Show on weekends, too. Plus, they put me in their management trainee program and I got paid double and learned how to thread projectors...and then all you had to do was spend about 15 minutes threading 6 projectors, push a button, sit around and watch movies and eat popcorn--even letting your friends and/or girlfriend hang out anytime--...repeat the process twice and hope no films broke. That only happened once and it was no big deal.
9) Hanging out at Starr Lake or Papa Joe's Pizza parking lot with Def Leppard or Van Halen playing on somebody's newly installed tape deck/power booster, throwing a football or frisbee and talking crap.
10) Being a part of a really good baseball program because our baseball coach spent a great deal of time being our friend, but not our buddy. It really was about way more than baseball. Baseball was just a reason he could teach us all those things good coaches are supposed to communicate to a team they coach.

And, I think that senior year was when I realized that I pretty much lead a charmed life. I mean, I knew others weren't having as good an experience and all that, but, mine was pretty good. Sure, some bad times are on the hard drive, but overall it was a really good year...unlike the year that would follow--

So, what was your best year in school and why?