My Senior Year

The school year always started with two or three weeks of soccer practice before we ever stepped into a classroom. I had a couple free periods which were used to help on the yearbook and create the school paper. I took an advanced math class and a couple other non-required classes because I had fulfilled most of the requirement for graduating high school already. 

I don’t know how I knew this but I realized that if I transferred to a public high school I would only have to take a class or two to graduate and it might have even been possible to graduate that year if not for the Bible classes that we were required to take each year. Transferring to another school was not even an option. I’d spent 12 years at TCA and most of us seniors had been going to school together for five or more years. Plus, I don’t think my parents would have allowed it even if I had wanted it. 

My friends would date one another but I was usually everyone’s friend and didn’t date but during the Fall of ’84, I got interested in an IBC college freshman and we hung out a lot. I guess we were dating but we always did it in groups and my family used to take her home after church. I was very, very naïve about things at 17. I remember her trying to make me jealous while we worked together right across the street at Piccadilly Restaurant. While she was home in another state during Christmas break, she ended our relationship. We remained friends and I and my friends used to hang out with her and her sisters. 

I always loved the first week of school because we’d go off to a school retreat and then in January we’d have Spirit Week. Our class always did really well and came up with some really creative themes. We won Spirit Week our Junior and Senior years of high school.

Senior trip was one to be remembered. The first place we went to was Ironwood Camp for a few days and some Seniors from MGM were there also. We made some new friends and had a good time. Then we headed to San Francisco and then down to San Diego. I don’t remember all the places we went but I remember going to Disneyland and the San Diego Zoo. The best part of Disneyland is that we went on some of the rides many, many times without waiting in a line. It was great. The 3D experience was brand new and I thought we went to see Michael Jackson’s EO but I’m told that came out in ’86 and so I must have seen it later. I remember feeling guilty about it because it was Michael Jackson, rock music, etc. but it was 3D and we’d never heard or seen anything like that and we had to check it out. It was pretty cool.

The best part of our senior year was graduation. Thirteen years of going to TCA all ending in May of 1985. We only had 13 in our graduating class. Near the end of the year, we ended up with a dilemma. One of the seniors was caught stealing things from the girl’s locker room. It had been going on for a while but nobody could figure out who it was. The girl was caught during the last week or two of the school year. She’d only been coming to TCA for a year or two. I’m sure the school suspended her and they were going to give her a diploma but the seniors were given the choice to allow her to walk with us. I think we did a secret ballot and I believe we chose not to have her walk but I’m not sure how I voted.

Anyways, my senior year was great. I was going to college in the Fall. I had an interesting summer but I'll talk about that some other time.