As a young teenager in high school, I have yet to grow out of my awkward stage. It all started when I was little. Growing up with three brothers, a dad, and a tom-boy mom, obviously my hair and wardrobe wouldn’t be the greatest, compared to my cousin who had cute clothes and had bow in her perfect hair every day. On the other hand my mom gave me the freedom of dressing myself and doing my own hair. Between the pig tails and the knotted up braid in my hair to my t-shirt that I wore every other day, not knowing I had a huge chocolate ice cream stain on, I looked like I was homeless. In elementary school, I was very courageous when it came to speaking my mind. We had a fire fighter come in to talk to our class about fire safety. His presentation was over and he asked if we had any questions or comments. Well for being about 5 years old I had no idea what my dad’s job was but I did remember my mom saying he had a bunch of jobs growing up. So I thought her definition of normal jobs would be a police man, fire fighter, milk man, the nice guy on the corner that sells hot dogs, etc. So I thought he knew my dad since he was a fireman also. Then he asked for my dad’s name which I was pretty lucky to know because 99.975% of the time I call him dad, daddio, pops, big butt, etc. After I asked the question, I came to the realization that he most likely wasn’t a fire fighter. Turns out he works in an office in Libertyville, whoops.
Then when we start getting to third and fourth grade, where I was able to eat all the food on earth and still be model for those anorexia ads. This is when my mom made me join band and the basketball team (Everything she did in high school). I was fine with the basketball team because cause some of my best friends played. I was the only one uncomfortable enough to have to wear a t-shirt under their jersey. Band was a different story. For one, the only instrument I could play was percussion but if I tried playing anything else it sound like a whale was dying. And we didn’t want people to think that we had a slaughtering house of whales in the band room. But I wasn’t horrific at drums so I gave it shot. And also because the hottest guy in my grade did drums too. As I “forgot” my drumsticks every day, he always had an extra pair. Even though, I think I actually did lose them. I believe they were my dogs brand new chew toy.
Middle school is quickly around the corner and my awkwardness is starting to reach new levels. I had quit drums because I came to the realization that I was too good for the band. Just kidding, I was horrible. But I kept it going with basketball and then in 7th grade I tried out for the volleyball team. Volleyball practice is where I discovered that I run like T-Rex and have the looks and coordination of a new born Giraffe. But I guess that coordination paid off because were the conference champions. Now we have to change for gym and that is just asking for the awkwardness moments to happen. Well as some girls mature faster than others, we are still very naïve and immature. What’s a sports bra? What’s deodorant? Although I was fairly quick at figuring out the answers, it was common sense. On the other hand, some girls could have used some guidance. Even though I had enough trouble just trying to remember to bring my gym clothes every day and remember my locker combination.
I finally get to high school. Where I thought everything would straighten out and I would just be a normal person that blends into the backgrounds. I was able to accomplish blending into the back round part but being normal wasn’t the case. Being normal is too main stream. I was very nervous and didn’t know how to do anything. I wore way too much make-up as a freshman I looked like an orange raccoon. I also tried to become Ms. Athletic and be a three sport athlete. Soccer, basketball, and volleyball were my sports. The next year I had quit soccer because after only scoring one goal in my 10year soccer career, I felt there is no hope. The year after that, I had quit basketball because quite frankly the varsity coach made me nearly pee my pants every time he walked into a room. I’m not sure, but I think my mom might have been slightly upset about that because she didn’t look at me for 5 days. Well, all in all, I am now a starter on the varsity team for volleyball, school is going pretty well, and I am now at least a somewhat coordinated giraffe.