Either Very Brave or Very Stupid....

Me (now).. age 39.8

My grandfather is moving up to my parents’ house to live and my mom has been on a tear trying to get my old bedroom ready for him.  That means she’s been discovering tons of old things that should have been thrown out (or burned) a long time ago.  One of these “precious” items was a plastic picture frame that held all of my school photos, from Nursery School up to 11^th Grade.  

 

My mother, being so resourceful and smart, stored all of the pictures in this frame, so they’d stay together and be available for enjoyment later on in life. A time capsule, if you will, of how I grew over the years.   And they are all there, save for 4^th grade when I apparently did not have school pictures done, or if I did, they are somewhere in the basement files of South Windsor Elementary School.  We had apparently moved in between the taking and delivery of the pictures (remember when they were on actual film, took a while to get back to you!)

The other day I decided to take the pictures out and walk down memory lane--   I ooh’ed and ahh’ed over my early years..  Proud of how cute I once was, how much my children resemble me and how much I actually resemble my mother--  Around 6^th grade, however, I started sweating a bit.  This was also around the time that I started wearing the largest glasses known to man.  By the time I hit 8^th grade, I’m in full hysterical giggling and absolute horror at the same time.  11^th grade, yah…  let’s just say I was in my I WON’T SMILE AT YOU phase..

I am tempted to submit a few of these pictures to Awkward Family Photos.. I believe they could be worthy.. I am all for making fun of myself in old pictures.. I line right up and tease myself, but 8^th grade and 11^th grade brought things to an all time low--  

I’m going to share some of these horror shows (I'm either very brave or very stupid, not sure which) , and then ask my mother to have her head examined for letting me walk out of the house looking like I did..   

And.. Remember, while you are laughing and enjoying making fun of me (and my mullet, oh yes, there was one)… I am brave enough to put them out there.. I challenge you to do the same..

Kindergarten---  total 70's clothes, but I have good hair and a geniune smile.  Hands clutching my clothing, but overall, I'd say this was worthy of being on wall for a year and sent out in Christmas Cards--  I have a few years of adorable, I won't post them all.. You get the point.

 So, this was 5th Grade.  I remember this year as this was the year we all got monogrammed sweaters-  I also remember this year clearly as my mother was horrified when she noticed how messy my hair was in the picture.  For a solid year, she shook her head at the messy braids and asked me if running a comb through my hair had ever crossed my mind.  Notice my glasses.  They will be a reoccurring theme for the next few pictures.. LITERALLY the same mondo glasses





We call this the Disembodied Head Year (6th Grade)--  This was the year that we finally got my mother to allow us to do a "funky" background.  This was wrong for so many reasons.  The first of which is of course the fact that we have a floating creepy head off to the right.  The second was that there were 3 of us in the family having pictures done by different photographers at different times.  The result was not  uniform.  I honestly can say that mine wasn't the worst.  My poor brother and sister have these massive heads, one of them is almost literally behind the front facing picture.  Bad idea.  Ugly year on the wall.

I put this one here mainly to show you that I am still in the huge glasses (7th grade)..  Overall, not horrid.  Feathered hair (it was the 80's, leave me alone) and horrible red earrings, but a huge improvement from the floating heads of the year before.








I honestly do not have words.  This was 8th Grade.  Between the ever present glasses (they went away in the next year) and the outfit, you might, might pull your eyes away from the hair.. No, you can't escape the hair-

It's like Flock of Seagulls meets Billy Ray Cyrus-
I have an aqua shirt on.  It has geometric patterns.
I am wearing plastic black beads with matching earrings

I am truly a sight to behold -  I do not know if this actually stayed on the wall all year.  I'll have to ask



I'll spare you 9th and 10th grade.. They aren't actually that bad... Not great, but honestly not blog worthy up against 8th and 11th Grade..

Pause a moment to flush your eyes with water, get another glass of wine, etc...


I give you 11th Grade..  Hair, crappy black shirt that I don't recall owning, massively large and ugly earrings and I'm Going To Beat The Shit Out of You Face.  Can you imagine that poor photographer who had to face my loveliness that beautiful September day? 








My last two photos are High School and College Graduation pictures-
While my hair was still large, I'm happy to report that I am smiling and not trying to beat up the photographer--  I only hope that the expression improving with age is true.. or else I am doomed