Friday, April 16, 2010

Photoshop Friday! With High School!

(In honor of Renee, who is the original Photoshop Friday-er.)

Some of you may have heard that Kiersten and I visited our old high school yesterday. It was MAGICAL, guys. You can go read Kierst's thoughtful post about the duality of high school life. I'm gonna try and be the funny one today.

Let me introduce you to the wonder that is Lone Peak:
*cue angelic music* Oh Lone Pear, uh, Peak.

Truth be told, my high school experience wasn't all that bad. Sure, there were tough times, angst, and many a night spent alone, but I genuinely liked myself and knew who I was. I didn't care what people thought (most of the time). And when I did, it was more "What's wrong with THEM?" and not "What's wrong with ME?"

I might have been a tad over-confident.

The problem with that was not everyone knows/likes themselves in high school, and I think I freaked people out with my self-confidence. So I was a rather content loner/nerd/artist/techie teen.

I found high school fairly amusing. I felt like an observer more than a participant. Most of my observations were sarcastic/snarky.

Like the Sword in the Stone:

Or on The Commons:

And then there were the inspirational sayings, which constantly filled me with motivation and drive:


These weren't here when I was in school, but man would I have made fun of these flags! They were everywhere! As if we couldn't tell it was the "Cafeteria" or the "Copy Center or the "Main Office." How pretentious are those babies?

You know that Kiersten and I went to high school together, but I have this feeling that you guys have a very different picture of what that actually entailed.

We had A CLASS together—like, a whole year-long class. It was AP Art, and this is kind of how it went:

Then there was this:

That's not to say I didn't have zero interaction with Kiersten. If you've read her blog today, you'll see she mentioned making fun of Prom.

I was on Prom Committee that year, and she made my best friend cry (who was in charge). That said—Prom utterly and completely DESERVED to be made fun of. We had to have it at school, thanks to some hooligans who got our school banned from every party venue for a few years. Let me recreate this for you.

First, we wanted to make it "not look like school." We had this brilliant idea to cover the lockers in black butcher paper:

Originally, we planed to lower the gym ceiling with chiffon and lights to mimic a night sky. But the chick in charge of that decided to buy a discount, 200 ft wide, Army PARACHUTE instead.

She bought it without the committee seeing it. It was not even close to as dark as she claimed ("It'll look black in the dark!"). It was non-returnable. We hung it on our gym ceiling, dying inside of embarrassment:

But it all turned out for the best. If I'm being honest, I'm not sure Kiersten and I could have been friends in high school. We might have even been nemeses, since I was horribly intimidated by smart, pretty, opinionated people back then. (Now I'm just mildly intimidated.)

Besides, if we'd been friends in high school, our lives would have been perfect and then we'd have no horrible/funny/sweet experiences to inspire our books. That would have been a crying shame.

See how we're not hugging? That's cuz Kiersten gets my bubble issues. True friends.

33 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you said that!! Because yesterday when we were saying goodbye I thought, gosh I really hope she doesn't want me to hug her because I am the most AWKWARD hugger ever, I HATE hugging (because most women's chests hit at my neck or WORSE, my face, trust me, you wouldn't be a hugger, either). But then I felt bad because maybe you thought I was being rude by not hugging you.

    LONG LIVE THE BUBBLE.

    And good ol' Lone Pear.

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  2. HA! No, I'm not a fan for the exact reason. Especially because...well, yeah. It should be obvious.

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  3. She may not be hugging you, but it does look like she's grabbing your butt. I'm just sayin..... And I'm still hugging you. So there. :)

    Looks like you guys had fun. And you both look super hot (I'd be grabbing your butt too).

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  4. Personal bubbles don't apply to butts, Kasie. Of COURSE I was grabbing her butt. You're just jealous.

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  5. Kasie, for that comment, you're not getting a hug. How about a swift kick in the pants?

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  6. You guys are so funny. I'm not a hugger either, for your same reasons (my condensed stature).
    I loved high school, and I went to an all girls school which isn't what people think, at all. I'm still friends with my friends, even though I haven't seen most of them for 15 years and we live thousands of miles away.
    And when I go back home and visit my school...it's not the same, you know. Especially because now there are boys, and because they wear different uniforms. But I still love the place, with all my heart.

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  7. Kiersten, I'm super jealous. And you shouldn't have told me personal bubbles don't apply to butts. You may have made me more dangerous. :) Just kidding, I won't grab your butt (at least not the first time I meet you).

    Natalie, please don't withhold your hugs from me, I might get a complex. But if you want to distract me from trying to hug you, you might try throwing junior mints and running the other way. :)

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  8. Hah, this is so funny, thanks for sharing Natalie.

    I was pretty lucky back then. Even though I was an equally loner/nerd/techie teen I was in enough trouble at that age that I ended up attending six different high schools. In some ways it sucked but mostly it was awesome.

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  9. LOL, I'm definitely one of those who is a hugger...as are my entire family (my in-laws mention this all the time :P)

    I did not like high school. In fact, I've probably forgotten a lot that happened, even though it hasn't quite been ten years since I've graduated. I think I "found myself" around junior year, when I started going to youth group and actually had more than two friends. :P And then all high school memories are limited to that, which technically occured at church. But I have wonderful memories of that!

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  10. It's funny how those things go. My best friend now and I went to high school together. We took a lot of the same honors classes, but we never really hung out or talked or anything.

    And then we ended up going to the same college starting our junior years, and we've been best buds ever since. :-)

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  11. That's so funny; I clicked through on this post specifically to ask if you guys really knew one another in high school, and you already answered that!

    And I was wondering if it was Lone Peak after Kiersten's and your last posts.

    It's like you're reading my mind.

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  12. I had no idea you two went to high school together! How strange and ironic to see how things have changed!!

    LOVED your doodles on pics. :)

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  13. You guys went to Lone Peak? Sweet! How funny you guys went to school and were never friends. My friend (who lives near me) and I have the same thing. She's cool (now...j/k)! =)

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  14. Personal bubbles are SO IMPORTANT. I want to wear a shirt that screams for people to not, not, not touch me. *shudder*

    My high school was so not as clean as your high school. Jealous.

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  15. Kasie, you and I can hug each other and leave Kiersten and Natalie (and Sara) to their non-hugging weirdness. :P

    That looked like a fun time, ladies! Thanks for sharing!

    Natalie, the drawings were AWESOME. :)

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  16. It's always fun to go back to the beginning:) Thanks for sharing.

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  17. I'm fairly new to both your blog and Kiersten's, so this was fun. Love your sense of humor.

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  18. Found you on fairyhedgehog. I'm not a YA writer (mainstream fiction for me), but what the heck...I love your page. It's actually quite reminiscent of high school and how I doodled all over my folders.

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  19. Don't you mean "Photoshop Friday© ?" I demand my dues. ;)

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  20. Hehe, okay, Ren. It was in honor of you! I'll hurry and make a note:)

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  21. Oh dude, now I feel so bad that I hugged you when I met you. =O

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  22. L.T., don't feel bad! It's MY problem. I don't hold it against people. I am fully aware that hugging is a social norm. I'm the weird one:P

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  23. ugh! Lone peak...i hated high school...mostly cause i hated feeling like everyone disliked me :( now im just fine with that fact :) and i remember that prom...it was....parachutingly memorable

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  24. This was a great post! Yet I missed meeting Kiersten. Again. I think there's a conspiracy going on here...

    Kiersten, I almost bought that exact same dress at the mall the other day! I didn't look that good in it. So it's still there.

    Natalie, I'm glad your high school experience was good. Mine kind of sucked. A lot. Funny thing is, a girl I knew in high school (we never ever talked, really) is now one of my best friends. Strange how that works!

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  25. Your Sword in the Stone picture rocks.

    I've always had space bubble issues, but I married into a family that hugs.

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  26. You and Kiersten went to school together? :O

    Somehow in all this time, I've missed that fact. But taking it into consideration now, I think it needs to close it doors. It's had its big moment. I mean when will it ever produce two alumni like you again?

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  27. SO CUTE. That prom drawing just made my whole day. Maybe my whole life. Thank you!

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  28. Aw, high school. Thanks for your walk down (funny) memory lane!

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  29. Ah, high school. What memories. Your HS actually looks gorgeous, and fairly new.

    I went back to my HS a few weeks ago and nearly passed out from all the changes they'd made. For one, they added a huge new 3 story building and a giant new cafeteria that made ne cry a little in the inside.

    It's funny that you and Kiersten went to the same school at the same time and never actually spoke. It makes me wonder who I might become friends with now (that the drama's over).

    Ann-Kat @ Today, I Read...

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  30. Y'all are so cute. What a fun post!

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  31. Okay, I will try to remember not to hug you on Saturday when I meet you at the conference... ha ha, this is awesome. So far I don't know any other authors from my good ole Alta. Go Hawks. ;-)

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  32. What a fun post. Thank you for sharing!

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  33. I had no idea you guys knew each other in high school. I wonder what you would have though if you'd known you'd end up bffs.

    Kasie and I didn't know each other in high school, but she and my husband were friends. I love having the inside dirt on him. ;)

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