I got this idea a few months ago when Jennifer Hillier posted a story she'd written when she was twelve years old. I've decided to have Flashback Friday once a month now. I will include a picture from high school and one or two high school pieces I wrote.Can you believe that I went to WinterBall with Harry Potter? That was actually a foreign exchange student from Denmark that I had my eye on the minute he showed up in my Economics class. Poor guy.
Yes, my hair is crimped. Yes, those bows are fabulously big. Yes, I looked FANTASTIC in the 80s.
I know that I have mentioned before how my writing choice in high school was mainly...gulp...poetry. Some of it was horribly teenage angtsy bad. Others not so bad and actually got published. My main way of expressing myself was through my writing. Almost everything became a short story or a poem. Mostly, poems.
I crammed as many activities into my four years as I could - some for the fun of it, but most for college admissions. Transcripts looked better with activities. Cheerleading, drill team, poetry club, math club, spanish club, drama club...there were so many others I don't even remember. Because of all the activities, I had to be good at multi-tasking. (On a side note: By 16, I had given myself an ulcer) If something stressed me out and I had to do an Ode for English class...that source of frustration (usually math) became a poem. I bring one such multi-tasking example.
ODE TO A HYPERBOLA
by Jennie Hayes
Oh,
stress and panic
you fill me with
as I pencil in,
erase,
refigure,
and graph.
We had to chart
focal points, too?
Oh,
diagonals
through your stomach,
arrows around your sides,
test tomorrow,
erase,
pencil in,
erase...
forget it!
As if I "forgot it"! I worked on it until it was done. Jennie not turn in her homework? GASP! The teacher would have fainted. When she/he came to, they would have declared a national emergency because there was NO WAY I didn't get my homework in (early, if I could!).
It's so much fun to look back. I don't know how I made it through those four years without having a heart attack. But I did. And you'll get a glimpse into them once a month or so...
What about you - do you have any delicious writing from your younger years??? Do you cringe when you read back on things? Do you laugh? Are you ever proud?
P.S. - Donea is having a FABULOUS NeToReMo this month. What is that? Well, hop on over (HERE) and find out! It's such a fun idea!
Love it! I remember the crimping irons well! :)
ReplyDeleteLove the poem too :) I wrote poetry as well - but never shared it with a soul. I worried someone would find it, so one day I had a bonfire and burned it all along with my journals. :)
my poetry was so bad and then when my dad found it, he thought I was depressed and all that stuff so he called in my cousin who is 2 years older to come and tell me how much everyone loved me.
ReplyDeleteweird I was just copying the kind of poems the other kids wrote.
PS if that is u in the wedding gown i would say you look hotter now.
That picture is awesome. Good ole 80's. Great poem too!
ReplyDeleteI seriously gotta go look for my old writing stuff. I wrote two "books" in elementary and middle school which I still have, and some poetry scattered about that I really should find and pull together. I had started other books in the past but I never kept them. I got frustrated that they weren't perfect right away and crumpled them up. Fortunately I learned (albeit much later) to curb that unrealistic approach!
I used to be a poetry junky when I was in high school too. Looking back, some of the stuff I wrote was so horrible, I couldn’t believe that I’ve been proud of it back then. Other pieces were actually relatively good. I did have a few poems that got published in the school paper and a few other places. Actually, my current WIP is based on a poem I wrote 10 years ago and still couldn’t get out of my head.
ReplyDeleteLove the poem.
ReplyDeleteI've found some of my early writings and mostly I laugh. I didn't write any angsty teen poetry. I was all about sunshine and happiness and my dreams of a world without any bad things like pollution and poverty.
You went to Winterball with Harry Potter? I'm SO jealous!
ReplyDeleteThat Ode is hilarious. In the best way possible.
Oh, I wrote some really emo stuff, not that I don't now, but those were the hilariously emo days. Naturally, they only induce laughs now.
Yes indeedy it is cringe worthy! My poetry was "deep"+"angsty" so...you just...imagine how awful that was.
ReplyDeleteYour math ode is hilarious!
How fun! I love the picture & your Harry Potter date! Did he wear dress robes? I was also an angsty poet in high school. Perhaps that's a stage that all writers go through.
ReplyDeleteI've done a couple Flashback Friday posts on my own blog & have another one coming up soon. It's so fun (and sometimes scary - lol) to look back!
I can honestly say this is the first math poem I've ever read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt grateful that I'm finished with studying math forever :p
ReplyDeleteOh the crimping iron. The 80s were fun hair times!
Haha, you so sound like me in high school. I always had my homework done early! Though I didn't take the foreign exchange student to prom--that picture is the best thing ever! You were so cute!
ReplyDeleteI love your poem! And I loved your comment on another blog (coming down the mountain, I think) about being worried about being too old to write YA. My advice? Don't worry. I'm writing YA and I'm bettin' I'm older than you. Glad I found your blog :)
ReplyDeleteOh my stars. You could not be cuter. And you got the Dane? I mean, seriously. Who gets the hot Dane? Nicely done, Miss Hayes! ;)
ReplyDeleteLove this idea! Your pic is AWESOME. And seriously, a poem about math. So cool ;p I actually found some of my old stuff, one of which is a book of poems I wrote in what looks like elementary school, possibly middle school. I'll have to maybe participate in your Flashback Fiday and put up some of my own stuff. Sounds like fun!
ReplyDeleteWow! You certainly had a full schedule!
ReplyDeleteI don't really have anything of my oldest stuff. The storage building behind my mom's house burned and I lost everything I had from school in the fire....maybe not too great a loss to the literary world :)