This book is part of a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review!
Today's Wild Card author is:
and the book:
FaithWords; 1 edition (January 7, 2010)
***Special thanks to Miriam Parker of the Hachette Book Group for sending me a review copy of this book and also for sponsoring this very cool giveaway!!***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Shelley Adina is a world traveler and pop culture junkie with an incurable addiction to designer handbags. She knows the value of a relationship with a gracious God and loving Christian friends, and she's inviting today's teenage girls to join her in these refreshingly honest books about real life as a Christian teen--with a little extra glitz thrown in for fun! In between books, Adina loves traveling, listening to and making music, and watching all kinds of movies.Visit the author's website.
Product Details:
List Price: $9.99
Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: FaithWords; 1 edition (January 7, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0446179647
ISBN-13: 978-0446179645
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
THE CHIC SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH
© 2010 by Shelley Adina
Chapter 1
LET ME PUT it right out there: I’m no sports fan—unless you count surfing, which is more of an attitude to life than a sport. I used to think that there were some things you just knew. But if God were a major league pitcher, He’d be the kind of guy who threw curveballs just to keep you on your toes. To catch you off guard. To prove you wrong about everything you thought.
Which is essentially what happened to us all during the last term of our senior year at Spencer Academy.
My name is Lissa Evelyn Mansfield—yes, I’m back again. Did you miss me? Because, seriously, this last term of high school before my friends and I graduated was so crazed, so unpredictable, that I had to write it all down to try and make sense of it.
But, hey, let’s take a moment here. The words last term of senior year need some respect, not to mention celebration. They need to be paused over and savored. Excuse me.
Okay, I’m back.
The term began in April, and by the time our first set of midterms (or thirdterms, as my roommate Gillian Chang calls them, since we get three sets of exams every term) rolled around at the beginning of May, it was just beginning to sink in that there were only seven weeks of high school left. Seven weeks until freedom. Adulthood. Summer vacation. Adulthood. Home.
Adulthood.
Eek.
“Sarah Lawrence is stalking me,” Gillian moaned from where she sat on her bed in our dorm room. “Here’s another letter.” She fished an envelope out of the pile of mail in her lap and waved it.
I looked up from my MacBook Air, where I was checking e-mail. “Don’t let Emily Overton hear you. She got turned down and her roommate has had to keep her away from open windows for the last month.”
“But I already told them no twice. What’s it going to take?”
“You could fail some exams.” I’m always willing to offer a helpful suggestion. “They can’t help it if they covet your fearsome brain.”
“So does Harvard. And Princeton. Not to mention Stanford and Columbia and Juilliard.” She threw her hands in the air so that the letter flew over her shoulder and bounced off the headboard. “How am I supposed to pick just one? Can I spend a year at each school? I could be a career transfer student.”
“I’m glad I don’t have your decisions to make,” I told her with absolute honesty. “If all those schools were after me, I’d run away and hide.”
“I’ve got to figure out what I’m doing with my life.” She glanced at me. “Or maybe I should say, what God wants me to do with my life.”
“There’s the kicker.” I nodded sagely. “I understand about waiting on the Lord, but . . . He knows about registration deadlines, doesn’t He?”
“Oh, yeah. He knows. I keep asking Him, and He keeps thinking about it. Maybe He wants me to figure out what I want, first. But that’s the impossible part.”
Poor Gillian. She has the kind of brain schools fight over for their research programs. But she’s also a music prodigy—hence the acceptance from Juilliard. Then, to complicate things even more, she also has quite the talent for drawing, and ever since she met my friend Kaz Griffin, her dream has been to create a graphic novel starring a kick-butt Asian girl with a secret identity. Kaz, in case you haven’t met him, is my best friend from my old high school in Santa Barbara. He’s been trying to get his graphic novel published for, like, years, with no success. But I have to hand it to him. He never gives up.
Anyway. Gillian.
“You could always do pre-med at Harvard and minor in art or music,” I suggested. “You know you’re going to need a release valve from all that scientific pressure. It would be good to have the right-brain kind of classes to turn to.”
Gillian pushed the stack of mail off her lap and leaned back against the mound of colorful silk pillows. The letter from Sarah Lawrence crumpled somewhere underneath. “But then how will I know if I’m any good?”
“Um, your grades? Not to mention, if you got an acceptance from Juilliard, you’re good. Full stop, as Mac would say.”
Lady Lindsay MacPhail, aka Mac, was a student here at Spencer for two terms, and she’s one of our little group of friends. She’s gone back to live in London until the end of term, when she’ll return to her family’s castle in Scotland, and she has none of these questions about her life. She knows exactly what degree she’s going to get, when she’ll get it, and what she’ll be doing after that: making the Strathcairn Hotel and Corporate Retreat Center the go-to place for world-class events in the UK.
I envy people who have their future in a laser sight. I’m still trying to figure out what to wear tomorrow.
“What do teachers know?” Gillian asked. I don’t think she was looking for the answer to that one. “If I’m going to find out whether I’m really any good, I have to try to get into an art program and give it everything I’ve got. Try to get an exhibition. Or a publisher. Live in a garret and try to make it as an artist.”
“That sounds scary.”
“I know.” She sighed. “Medical school is the easy path, grasshopper.”
Only Gillian Chang would say something like that.
I turned back to my notebook and saw that while we’d been talking, a message from Kaz had popped up in my inbox.
*
To: lmansfield@spenceracad.edu
From: kazg@hotmail.com
Date: May 4, 2010
Re: Ow
I am so regretting pushing off physics until senior year. My brain hurts. What was I thinking? Instead of grabbing my board and heading for the beach, I’m stuck down here in my room writing equations I don’t know the answers to.
Does the Jumping Loon tutor over the phone? Can you ask her? I’ll give her anything she wants, including full use of my studly body, if she’ll just say the magic words that will unveil the meaning of x and y, not to mention z.
Life, I’ve got a handle on. X is a mystery.
Kaz
I looked over my shoulder. “Kaz wants to know if you do physics tutoring over the phone. He says you can do what you want with his body if you help him.” I paused when she didn’t look up from a Neiman Marcus catalog. “I didn’t know you were interested in his body. Does Jeremy know about this?”
“That sounds like a jealous remark.” She flipped a page. “Ooh, nice dress. Chloé does summer so well. Which reminds me, if we’re going on a Senior Cotillion dress safari, we’d better start soon.”
I was not to be sidetracked, no matter how tempting the bait. “Is something going on with you and Kaz?”
She put the catalog down and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Yes. Yes, there is.”
I sat there as stunned as if someone had upended a bucket of seawater over me.
Kaz and Gillian? What? How is that possible? When did—
What is the matter with you? Kaz is your friend. You aren’t . . . like that. If he’s interested in Gillian, it’s none of your business.
Poor Jeremy.
“Lissa. Lissa, come back to me.” I blinked at her. My face felt frozen. “For crying out loud, get a grip.” She was trying not to laugh and not succeeding very well. “He’s teasing you. He’s helping me with a plaster mold of his hand for my art project, okay? That’s all.”
“A mold. Of his hand. And you don’t have guys’ hands any closer than Santa Barbara?”
“He has interesting hands, which you’d know if you ever paid any attention.”
Of course he did. And of course I did. Pay attention to him, I mean. He was my best friend. We e-mailed each other, like, twenty times a week.
“And Jeremy’s hands aren’t interesting?”
She picked up the catalog and flipped another page. “Write him back and tell him of course I’ll tutor him. We can start tonight if he’s desperate.”
Hm. Poor Jeremy, indeed. What was going on here? “He wants to know the meaning of x.”
“Don’t we all. Some of us wait for the universe to reveal it to us. And some of us wouldn’t know it if the universe dropped it on our heads.”
“What’s your point?”
But my friend, who usually has all the answers, didn’t reply.
© 2010 by Shelley Adina
Chapter 1
LET ME PUT it right out there: I’m no sports fan—unless you count surfing, which is more of an attitude to life than a sport. I used to think that there were some things you just knew. But if God were a major league pitcher, He’d be the kind of guy who threw curveballs just to keep you on your toes. To catch you off guard. To prove you wrong about everything you thought.
Which is essentially what happened to us all during the last term of our senior year at Spencer Academy.
My name is Lissa Evelyn Mansfield—yes, I’m back again. Did you miss me? Because, seriously, this last term of high school before my friends and I graduated was so crazed, so unpredictable, that I had to write it all down to try and make sense of it.
But, hey, let’s take a moment here. The words last term of senior year need some respect, not to mention celebration. They need to be paused over and savored. Excuse me.
Okay, I’m back.
The term began in April, and by the time our first set of midterms (or thirdterms, as my roommate Gillian Chang calls them, since we get three sets of exams every term) rolled around at the beginning of May, it was just beginning to sink in that there were only seven weeks of high school left. Seven weeks until freedom. Adulthood. Summer vacation. Adulthood. Home.
Adulthood.
Eek.
“Sarah Lawrence is stalking me,” Gillian moaned from where she sat on her bed in our dorm room. “Here’s another letter.” She fished an envelope out of the pile of mail in her lap and waved it.
I looked up from my MacBook Air, where I was checking e-mail. “Don’t let Emily Overton hear you. She got turned down and her roommate has had to keep her away from open windows for the last month.”
“But I already told them no twice. What’s it going to take?”
“You could fail some exams.” I’m always willing to offer a helpful suggestion. “They can’t help it if they covet your fearsome brain.”
“So does Harvard. And Princeton. Not to mention Stanford and Columbia and Juilliard.” She threw her hands in the air so that the letter flew over her shoulder and bounced off the headboard. “How am I supposed to pick just one? Can I spend a year at each school? I could be a career transfer student.”
“I’m glad I don’t have your decisions to make,” I told her with absolute honesty. “If all those schools were after me, I’d run away and hide.”
“I’ve got to figure out what I’m doing with my life.” She glanced at me. “Or maybe I should say, what God wants me to do with my life.”
“There’s the kicker.” I nodded sagely. “I understand about waiting on the Lord, but . . . He knows about registration deadlines, doesn’t He?”
“Oh, yeah. He knows. I keep asking Him, and He keeps thinking about it. Maybe He wants me to figure out what I want, first. But that’s the impossible part.”
Poor Gillian. She has the kind of brain schools fight over for their research programs. But she’s also a music prodigy—hence the acceptance from Juilliard. Then, to complicate things even more, she also has quite the talent for drawing, and ever since she met my friend Kaz Griffin, her dream has been to create a graphic novel starring a kick-butt Asian girl with a secret identity. Kaz, in case you haven’t met him, is my best friend from my old high school in Santa Barbara. He’s been trying to get his graphic novel published for, like, years, with no success. But I have to hand it to him. He never gives up.
Anyway. Gillian.
“You could always do pre-med at Harvard and minor in art or music,” I suggested. “You know you’re going to need a release valve from all that scientific pressure. It would be good to have the right-brain kind of classes to turn to.”
Gillian pushed the stack of mail off her lap and leaned back against the mound of colorful silk pillows. The letter from Sarah Lawrence crumpled somewhere underneath. “But then how will I know if I’m any good?”
“Um, your grades? Not to mention, if you got an acceptance from Juilliard, you’re good. Full stop, as Mac would say.”
Lady Lindsay MacPhail, aka Mac, was a student here at Spencer for two terms, and she’s one of our little group of friends. She’s gone back to live in London until the end of term, when she’ll return to her family’s castle in Scotland, and she has none of these questions about her life. She knows exactly what degree she’s going to get, when she’ll get it, and what she’ll be doing after that: making the Strathcairn Hotel and Corporate Retreat Center the go-to place for world-class events in the UK.
I envy people who have their future in a laser sight. I’m still trying to figure out what to wear tomorrow.
“What do teachers know?” Gillian asked. I don’t think she was looking for the answer to that one. “If I’m going to find out whether I’m really any good, I have to try to get into an art program and give it everything I’ve got. Try to get an exhibition. Or a publisher. Live in a garret and try to make it as an artist.”
“That sounds scary.”
“I know.” She sighed. “Medical school is the easy path, grasshopper.”
Only Gillian Chang would say something like that.
I turned back to my notebook and saw that while we’d been talking, a message from Kaz had popped up in my inbox.
*
To: lmansfield@spenceracad.edu
From: kazg@hotmail.com
Date: May 4, 2010
Re: Ow
I am so regretting pushing off physics until senior year. My brain hurts. What was I thinking? Instead of grabbing my board and heading for the beach, I’m stuck down here in my room writing equations I don’t know the answers to.
Does the Jumping Loon tutor over the phone? Can you ask her? I’ll give her anything she wants, including full use of my studly body, if she’ll just say the magic words that will unveil the meaning of x and y, not to mention z.
Life, I’ve got a handle on. X is a mystery.
Kaz
I looked over my shoulder. “Kaz wants to know if you do physics tutoring over the phone. He says you can do what you want with his body if you help him.” I paused when she didn’t look up from a Neiman Marcus catalog. “I didn’t know you were interested in his body. Does Jeremy know about this?”
“That sounds like a jealous remark.” She flipped a page. “Ooh, nice dress. Chloé does summer so well. Which reminds me, if we’re going on a Senior Cotillion dress safari, we’d better start soon.”
I was not to be sidetracked, no matter how tempting the bait. “Is something going on with you and Kaz?”
She put the catalog down and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Yes. Yes, there is.”
I sat there as stunned as if someone had upended a bucket of seawater over me.
Kaz and Gillian? What? How is that possible? When did—
What is the matter with you? Kaz is your friend. You aren’t . . . like that. If he’s interested in Gillian, it’s none of your business.
Poor Jeremy.
“Lissa. Lissa, come back to me.” I blinked at her. My face felt frozen. “For crying out loud, get a grip.” She was trying not to laugh and not succeeding very well. “He’s teasing you. He’s helping me with a plaster mold of his hand for my art project, okay? That’s all.”
“A mold. Of his hand. And you don’t have guys’ hands any closer than Santa Barbara?”
“He has interesting hands, which you’d know if you ever paid any attention.”
Of course he did. And of course I did. Pay attention to him, I mean. He was my best friend. We e-mailed each other, like, twenty times a week.
“And Jeremy’s hands aren’t interesting?”
She picked up the catalog and flipped another page. “Write him back and tell him of course I’ll tutor him. We can start tonight if he’s desperate.”
Hm. Poor Jeremy, indeed. What was going on here? “He wants to know the meaning of x.”
“Don’t we all. Some of us wait for the universe to reveal it to us. And some of us wouldn’t know it if the universe dropped it on our heads.”
“What’s your point?”
But my friend, who usually has all the answers, didn’t reply.
INTERVIEW WITH SHELLEY ADINA
Tell me a little about yourself and your family.
I’m a Vancouver Island girl living in the redwood forest in California with my husband and our nine chickens. I emigrated here for a lark twentysome years ago, met my husband-to-be a month after I arrived, and never left.
What do you do in your non-writing time?
Life is so interesting it’s hard to get it all into the space of a day! I love music, so I play the piano and a 30-string Celtic harp (http://www.triplettharps.com/Axline/Axline.htm). My mum taught me to sew when I was five, and I haven’t stopped—I’m a historical costumer with an 1812 Regency afternoon gown and spencer in the closet, along with an 1892 silk ballgown and various Edwardian walking costumes. Right now I’m starting on a steampunk ensemble that will involve goggles, bustle draping, and black velvet. Yum!
What inspires you? What makes you laugh?
My friends’ successes in publishing inspire me and their books encourage me. And my chickens make me laugh—you should see the pandemonium when anyone even whispers the word treats within fifty feet of that lot. Chickens are smart—they understand English as well as the next person. We have to spell the T-word around them.
Do you like to cook? What is your favourite recipe?
I do not. This is why I married a man who does. I do, however, like to eat. And bake. My favourite recipe is my mum’s blonde fruitcake. Fruitcake is normal in Canadian households, but in the States it’s a national joke. Everyone hates it. There is actually a Great Fruitcake Toss in Colorado where contestants compete to launch the poor things (http://www.2camels.com/great-fruitcake-toss.php). However, my cake is delicious and I’ve converted our whole neighbourhood. No one maligns fruitcakes where I live.
If you had access to a time machine where would you go? If you could live in another era when would it be? Why?
I think I’d like to live in the Edwardian period. I’d have lovely clothes, electricity, and the telephone, without fast food, video games, and pantyhose.
What is the best book you've ever read (other than yours of course!) ?
Oh my, I can’t pick just one “best book.” I’m a very eclectic reader. Here’s a partial list:
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
True Colors by Kristin Hannah
The Twilight Box by Troon Harrison
If you could be any fictional character who would you be?
Lizzy Bennet, hands down.
When you were a little girl what did you want to be when you grew up?
A writer ! I’ve known since third grade. In fact, I recently tracked down my third-grade teacher on Facebook (okay, if I lived in the Edwardian age I’d miss Facebook) and told her that she had been instrumental in my ambition to become a writer. She was so touched. She even remembered me!
Who is your favourite writer and have you met them yet?
I have met a number of my favourite authors: Jennifer Crusie, Kristin Billerbeck, Kristin Hannah, Troon Harrison, Mary Jo Putney, Brandilyn Collins, Susan Wiggs. It helps to belong to Romance Writers of America and the American Christian Fiction Writers. We all go to the same conventions :)
What is your favourite music to listen to while writing? Or do you need complete silence?
I don’t like any noise when I’m writing, except if I happen to be in Starbucks or someplace with my writing group. Then it doesn’t seem to matter. Of course, once I get into the story, the world around me kind of fades away, and it takes a shout or a nudge on the shoulder to bring me back to the temporal plane again.
What is the worst job you have ever had?
I don’t want to talk about it On the other hand, I used to work in the narcotics division of the RCMP (no, not as a uniform member; as an admin). The. Best. Job. Ever.
Do you have any plans in the works for writing another book?
People keep asking me if I’m going to take the girls from the All About Us series to college and follow their adventures there. But the answer is no—I’ve launched them from high school, and now it’s time to let them fly! Right now I’m dividing my time between my M.F.A. thesis, which will be a steampunk YA novel, and my Amish vampire book. Like I said, I have eclectic taste
Thanks for the opportunity to visit with you, Tara!
Thanks so much Shelley for your fun answers!! It is always a pleasure to hear from a fellow Canadian :)
MY REVIEW
I really enjoyed this fun series. Adina is an excellent writer and even though this series is geared to teens I think it would appeal to most women of any age. I loved following the main characters throughout their highschool years. The books are filled with humour and life lessons and plots that keep the reader interested. The Chic Shall Inherit the Earth is a quick read and although I think you could read it as a stand-alone novel it would probably be much better read as part of the whole series!
This series would make an excellent gift for the young women who love to read in your life. It is also a series that should really be available in every public library. I look forward to reading more by Shelley Adina!
I have a super fun giveaway for you all today- one person will win the grand prize of the ENTIRE All About Us series (all SIX books!!) and 3 winners will each receive a copy of book #6- The Chic Shall Inherit The Earth. Cool eh?!
The All About Us Series includes the following books:
1. All About Us
2. The Fruit of My Lipstick
3. Be Strong & Curvaceous
4. Who Made You a Princess?
5. Tidings of Great Boys
6. The Chic Shall Inherit the Earth
You can find more information and excerpts from each book on Shelley Adina's website.
* Please note that this giveaway IS open to the younger readers out there- anyone can enter this giveaway so make sure you let all your highschool kids/ friends/ friends kids know about this contest!
Would you like to win the All About Us series?
~Leave me a comment here telling me something interesting about your highschool years... good, bad, ugly- whatever you want! 3 winners will be chosen randomly using random.org but the 4th winner will be chosen on the basis of their interesting answer (just for fun)!
FOR EXTRA ENTRIES
~Subscribe to this blog via email
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~ Become a Fan of my blog on Facebook
~ Share this giveaway on Facebook, MySpace, a forum or any other social networking site of your choosing (as often as you want)
~ email a couple friends about this giveaway and let me know that you did
~ stumble, digg, tag, bookmark, vote up, thumbs up, favourite, or anything else you can think to do for this site or giveaway (as many as you like- there is a "share" bar at the bottom of this post to make this easier)
~ publicize this giveaway in any way on any site and let me know that you did ex. adding it to a Mr. Linky on a giveaway site etc. ( I am very easy to please!)
~ head on over to Shelley Adina's website and read about the author and her books and come back and tell me something interesting (as many interesting things as you like)
~ if you have already read any of the books in this series tell me something you liked about them, one of your favourite moments, which character you liked best, which book was your favourite etc..
This giveaway is open to readers in Canada and the USA. I will choose the winners on January 25, 2010.
Winners will be notified and will have 48 hours to reply to my email or I will choose a new winner. Please make sure you leave an email address or way to contact you in case you win!
Don't forget to enter my other great giveaways...
164 comments:
I moved around A LOT during my school years and never really had many friends (or enemies)... When I became a mom... I did not want that for my children... It's so hard for me to fathom that I've succeeded... My children have friends that they have known for 15 years! Watching their lives unfold... it's very hard to say which was less stressful on the teen years, knowing almost noone or knowing just about everyone...
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i really hated the school i went to i was able tograduate in 3 1/2 years although i very rarely attended thanks minsthins at optonline dot net
I was very involved in high school - I ran track, played tennis and was president of National Honor Society!
Thank you for the giveaway :)
hurdler4eva(at)gmail(dot)com
I follow your blog on google friend connect!
Thank you for the giveaway :)
hurdler4eva(at)gmail(dot)com
I did ok in high school, but sure wouldn't want to go back. I was kind of a loner, but had a few friends. It's been interesting when my kids have the same teachers I had in school.
I hated high school, I was late in developing, had very over protective parents, was bored silly in most of my classes, and only survived by being involved in sports.
I think my niece might enjoy this series.
Let's see, high school brings back memories of, uhm, well...bad glasses, bad clothes, bad hair. Painful gym classes and boring science classes. Ugh. Also? I was a band geek and on the honor roll. And yet, I had good friends, some great teachers and was totally ignorant of what adulthood would bring. Coulda been worse, right?
I hated my high school years .. except for art classes. To me, going to school felt like an entire waste of my time. I wasn't learning anything new and I was ready to take on the world. I didn't even hang out with very many of the kids at my own school.
This series would be a wonderful gift for my beautiful teen granddaughter. She recently took up reading YA and I know she'd love these books!
reading_frenzy at yahoo dot com
I'm a follower!
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very quiet hung around with a couple of friends mverno@roadunner.com
I enjoyed high school - sneaking into the drive-ins on the weekends, roller skating, driving by the hot boy in school's house. We went downstate in high school football - lots of fun memories.
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I love that she's addicted to designer handbags!
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In high school I had friends who were cheerleaders,friends who were what you could call geeks and friend who were the "bad girls". I never saw the cliques that people alway talk about. cardshark42(at)hotmail(dot)com
I am an email subscriber. cardshark42(at)hotmail(dot)com
Oh, high school. I went to a high school where all that mattered was who your parents were. Glad to be gone from there.
monster6236(at)gmail(dot)com
I hated high school! I was extremely shy and my family moved a lot. I was always the new kid.I still have nightmares of not being able to remember my locker combination.
smchester at gmail dot com
I follow your blog on Google Friends.
smchester at gmail dot com
High school had it's ups and downs for me. I was slightly overweight, shy and lost my mother during my latter years.
However, I did meet my high school sweetheart and married him 10 years later! (we were apart for a few years)
tanandjosh@telus.net
I follow you - @tannieschatter
I Tweeted:
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tanandjosh@telus.net
I moved around A LOT during my school years and never really had many friends.
justpeachy36@yahoo.com
My high school years could be a YA book in and of itself LOL... There was a girl who nobody seemed to want to talk to and me being me, I decided to befriend her. As things ended up she was being abused in her home and eventually ran away and went back several times. She was also a closet lesbian. Our experiences as friends was very interesting. I can definitely say she impacted my life in a lot of ways. I learned tolerance, and acceptance and whole lot about prejudice and how narrow minded people can be. How much it hurts when those closest to you don't believe you when you tell the truth and how to help yourself when you've done all you can do to help someone else....
Please enter me in the giveaway.
I have good memories of high school. Best times were getting my driver's license,going to football games, bonfires, and going out to pizza.
Subscribe to this blog via email.
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I Subscribe to your blog via Google reader.
I Follow your blog.
I'm a Fan of your blog on Facebook.
I got to go to a private school and graduated with the same class I was in for 13 years.
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I loved it! I was super involved and really enjoyed myself.
Thanks!
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I did not like high school
con5459(at)gmail(dot)com
My high school years were OK. I did really well.
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High school was a difficult time. I moved to a new school and had to make new friends and learn new social rules. I was a star athlete at my old school and spent 2 years having to prove myself at my new school. I guess in the end it worked out fine, I met my future husband and we have 3 beautiful boys while in high school.
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I think my teenage girls would enjoy these books. I wasn't involved in sports but was involved in other clubs. I was vice-president and peer educator for FHA (Future Homemakers of America). I'd travel with my teacher and do speeches to other schools and organizations about recycling, education, and other important topics.
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I can honestly say the best part of high school was getting out. I never fit in with any crowd so pretty much was a loner..maybe 5 or 6 friends to hang out with. All my friends were much older so I couldn't wait to finish.
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During my highschool years, I was very involved with my church youth group, I grew and matured quite a bit through all the drama those teen years bring, I wouldn't trade it at all.
While I hated my teen years - I have bad memories that I'm thrilled cannot be seen on Facebook! I actually threw away my high school yearbooks because I figured the people I cared about I'd be friends with years later (and I still am)!
The irony is that, while I hated high school, I chose a career where I'd work with teenagers every day! I hope to help them make their high school experience better than mine was!
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I haven't been out of high school for too long and I have to say that I'm sad it's over. My favourite part had to be all the tech classes. The wood shop, Auto shop, Machining shop, I loved them. I bet I would have slept there just to spend more time in those classes :P
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In highschool our group used to eat *behind* the cafeteria.. there was a hole in the ceiling tiles.. we threw our garbage up there seeing how far down the hallway it would go. It may be there still :P
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Wow, highschool. I was involved in jazz dancing, wieghts, track and field but at the same time....I had low self-esteem. I was very quiet and did well and hey...I graduated. Yippee.
Okay, here's an embarassing story:
I ran track and field out of town and did the track 5 times. Came in second last and because my breasts were hefty ( I was wearing a light bra...dud), my bra broke. I was so embarassed. ha ha
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I remember pain and turmoil in my hs years. It was not good ever as i was into drugs heavely.
Thank God it is not that way today.
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I lived in Sioux Lookout; a tiny northern town where in highschool we were the Sioux Warriors and the Dryden Eagles were our arch enemies.
I was a cheerleader in highschool, though painfully shy. It was fun though I hope my daughter isn't a cheerleader.
And I am a highschool drop out. Ugh!
I loved reading Sweet Valley High and SVU so this series intrigues me if it has a Christian flair!
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My HS was interesting in that it was an all girls school, at least til my year. We were the last. The following year they allowed boys to come in. It was odd only having about 20 boys in a school of 500 students. It gradually leveled out but it would have been so much more fun if the school had gone co-ed before I got there.
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My fisrt year of high school was bad... Some girl thought I liked her boyfriend and made my life terrible Weird thing is I liked his friend not him.... Switch schools and life was better....
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Even going to a private Christian high school my high school experience was not any easier than other kids going to public schools. My classmates where always at odds. Our class was known for not getting along. We fought a lot...but it was different for us because there was only 13 of us. We didn't have hundreds of other friends to turn to. But now, we all get a long, now that we are not in high school. We connect on different levels: jobs, living situations, money, kids, etc. All 13 of us are still friends, see each other, turn to each other. It's pretty amazing.
Thanks for the chance.
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I went to a Christian boarding school. We had to sit on the opposite side of the chapel from the guys. And if we were caught holding hands, we were put on social (no contact allowed at all). Amazingly, most of my generation is on facebook and very much in touch after 20 years!
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My high school was tiny, our graduating class was only 100 people. A few nights before graduation, all the cowboys went to the lake for a party. A group of my friends and I decided to be smart@sses and drove to the lake, parked on a cliff looking over the party and turned on our brights (headlights) to annoy them. A few of the cowboys jumped up and headed for a truck to chase us down. We drove away as fast as we could, but our Camry was no match for their truck. They chased us down, threw bottles at our car (water bottles, don't worry) and went back to the party. Two days later, I was matched by height to walk down the aisle for graduation with the driver of that truck! To this day, he still doesn't know it was me in that car, lol!
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The best part of high school years was just plain old hanging out with my friends. That was so much fun!
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hated high school, glad i was out of there - regnod(at)yahoo(d0t)com
I enjoyed HS, was very involved in sports and other activities. Still keep in contact with my math teacher.
Wendy
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I had to drop out in my 11th year cause my mom had died.
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My high school years were really great. I had great friends, great teachers, many activities and a great boyfriend! But when it came time to say goodbye and head off to college. I was so ready for the big time! To move on to bigger and better things. No regrets!
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I forgot my high school answer the first time! hahaha.
I am attending college as a dual enrollment student to finish up my high school credits, as well as get college credit.
and I would LOVE to win this series!!! I follow your blog and am a fan on facebook.
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I was pretty shy in high school and had pretty good grades and enjoyed being on the track team.
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I was a brat in high school. I really regret the way I acted.
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At my high school graduation I wore a v-neck shirt and shorts under my gown so when I walked it looked like I was naked underneath! Unintentionally, of course!!
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My HS years were not that eventful. I wish I had paid attention and learned more. Especially in math. I could use that knowledge in helping my daughters
I'd love to win this for my daughter. Thanks.
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I had a great high school experience. At first I was a little shy but a wonderful teacher got me involved with being on stage and cast me in Taming Of The Shrew, much against my personality, that showed me how to open up and feel good about myself.
High School was really bad for me, but I started gaining some confidence in high school. AztecFeller@aol.com
I was such a dork in high school (glasses; team manager; etc). Thank you
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Our High school had the typical clicks of popular, athletes, brains, burnouts and others. I was an other, not very smart or pretty or athletic. My friends where others too but we had fun together.
I thought it was funny in high school how it was nothing like the movies perception of cliques. There were the obvious groups of people, the popular kids, geeks, etc..but no one group was super mean to another group of kids. Although one thing that upset me was this particular group of kids was mean to this one girl, not in a picking-on sense, but the girl really liked this popular guy and it was obvious he didn't like her, and yet he continued to write on her facebook wall, and his friends joked about them going out.
Amanda Barnes
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I went from dismissing Christians in high school to becoming one. :) (not surprisingly, my better years were the later ones in school)
I wasn't too crazy about high school.. I can't say I went much ;)
Thanks for the great contest!
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in high school i was the type of kid that went to keg parties and that kind of stuff and gave my mother a very hard time which now i truly regret :(
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Something interesting... well highschool was the only time I didn't move at least 3 times a school year. I went to the same high school the whole 4 years. Before that, I had never been to a school more than one year in a row!
Thanks!
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I had the average "smart girl/band geek" high school experience. It had its ups and downs, but I do have fond memories of it.
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I had a lot of friends during my
high school years.I guess I was the
sane one of the bunch.They were
always pushing the limits,and
getting into trouble,while I stood
back and examined situations before
jumping in to the madness.I am not
saying I didn't have fun but avoided
misery that would affect me down the
road
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In high school best friend and I started a little rumor that got out of hand and ended up being the talk of the school. I doubt that many would know that we had started the rumor as we were wallflowers who were very quiet.
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Blah...high school... small town life not for me-
Diane Baum
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My high school was small. Our graduating class was 20-ten girls and ten boys. We didn't have a football team. Our school wasn't integrated until our junior year. We had one black graduate. garrettsambo@aol.com
My hs years were okay but very crowded. My concern is for the grandchildren in this economic downturn.
At the start, of my 10th grade year ~we moved & I had to go to a new school.
It was a school that had hazing.
On my first day a senoir came up to me & said I had to go out into a courtyard & get on my knees & bow to a totem pole.
They were the PNG"Indians" & had a totem pole.
I was rasie as a christian & do not worship false idols.
I refused to bow & worship this totem pole & be hazed.
The next afternoon when I got off the bus after school I was jump & beaten badly by 10 girls.
This made me bitter & find it hard to trust anybody or anything.
I am 46 now!
As of this date 8 of them have died because of illness, car wrecks ect.
Those 8 are in hell worshiping their false idols.
The other two are in jail.
"Vegence is mine" say~th the Lord!
That he has done!
To this day this kind of hazing still goes on in public schools.
Wonder why some kids snap & go postal.....this is why.
Then these bulliness them call themselves victims!
Sorry for the rant!
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I am so glad my high school years are over. I feel like my life is so much better the older I get.
I would not want to relive the high school years! yuck...but, I guess the most interesting thing I did was get pregnant! Today, 25 years later I have a beautiful daughter of whom I am extremely proud and I'm a preacher's wife :)
Best time making the mouths of certain snotty cheerleaders drop: When I tried out, I did three back handsprings and a back flip. They had no idea, and I giggled when I saw their faces.
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My favorite part of high school was taking a class on how to be a zookeeper.
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I thought it was interesting that Shelley Adina wrote her first teen novel when she was 13.
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i joined the track team just to "round out" my high school resume so I would have a better chance at college admission. Since there was no try outs, I got on a varsity team with no problems - I was NOT athletic at all so this was a huge accomplishment. Was even a captain my senior year!
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oh, and i once ran the 2mile in track an was SO SLOW they let me skip a lap because it was taking too long!
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