10th Grade: Saturday Night Live, Orlando Magic, McDonald's and My First Car!

Here is the next chapter in my Mommy's Piggy Tales Project! Read along and help me relive 1992-93, better known as 10th grade:

What was it with me borrowing my Mom's clothes? This is her shirt again! I remember sitting for this picture. The photographer wanted to mess with my hair and I was UNHAPPY. I mean, hello, who dares mess with a 15 year old girl's hair? I had it PERFECT for this picture...ha! This was my favorite school picture by far. The mullet was officially history and my hair looked like all my friend's hair...all one length and just like I wanted. These were the days when I thought it mattered what everyone else thought about my appearance and I had to look GOOD! I got up every morning at 5:30 to wash, blowdry (diffuse) and style my hair. It's naturally curly so I tried to get the most out of it each day. Man, the sleep I could've been getting...lol!

10th grade was a pretty good year. I was no longer a cheerleader, so I continued to pursue my musical talents in the band. I had tried out for Drum Major, but didn't make it. So, I was officially a marching band member. Our dear band director, bless his heart, had no control over our group. We were not very good and honestly, I had no idea what I was doing or how to read a drill chart on the field. He would be my 1st of 3 directors in my high school career. We didn't do very well at all at Marching Festival. The judges couldn't even make out some of our shapes, that's how awful we were. No one took it seriously and I wanted better!

My classes were pretty good this year. I took Algebra II and Geometry together. Most of my friends took Algebra I in the 8th grade, but due to my lack of math talent way back in 6th after we moved to Perry, I got stuck in regular math in 8th grade putting me behind. I wanted to catch up and this was the way to do it. I never took the advanced math classes though. I knew math was a weakness, and no matter how much the teachers tried to move me to the advanced classes, I stood my ground and was comfortable making good grades inthe average group. Why put extra pressure on myself? My chemistry teacher was a joke and that's putting it politely. He was moreinto his environmental science classes and I learned NOTHING about chemistry. Half the time I don't think he knew what he was doing. It was such a waste. I couldn't get the good teacher because of schedule conflicts. This really set me back once I hit Chem. II the following year...ugh! I took Journalism this year and got my introduction to Saturday Night Live...seriously! Our teacher, I guess when she had nothing for us to work on, would bring in videos of Saturday Night Live and let us watch them in class. I have no idea how she got away with this. We thought it was great! I was never allowed to stay up that late and had never watched it. Boy, I got an education...ha! I was again a scholar in Mrs. R's english class. It was such a hard class, but my friend Destin and I hung in there. We became best friends this year, as he sat in front of me in class. He was also in the band with me.

Here is my first car, a 1981 Datsun 200SX. I bought it from my cousins for $400. They were going to give it to me, but my parents insisted that I earn it. I had taken a job at McDonald's flipping burgers that spring of 1993, right after I turned 16. I wanted my own money and my parents wanted me to have the responsibility. I had always been a responsible kid, so having a job was really good for me.

This little car did me well. She had some major rust issues, but overall ran like a top. Yeah, she was old and while I watched a lot of other kids get new cars while I drooled, I was thankful to even have a car. I had already been told by my parents that there would be no cars at 16 because couldn't afford one. This little car was a blessing. I had her up until I had been married a year.

I spent many days and nights working at McDonald's. It was great to have a little money that was all mine. I got a good taste of the real world too. Be extra nice to those people working the drive-thru. It's a ROUGH job!

Oh yes, the band pictures. I think this is the first year we did these. I still like this picture! We found out at the end of the year that our director would be leaving and moving away. It was really scary because I had tried out for Drum Major again and this time I GOT IT!!! The thought of being Drum Major of the band and having a new director was scary. I was off to Marching Band Leadership Camp at FSU the summer after 10th grade. What an AWESOME experience that was! I learned so much and had so much fun being with other people that were Drum Majors. I made new friends, and really learned how to perfecting my conducting skills.
I had a friend who I talked to on the phone a lot this year. He and I would watch the Orlando Magic games on TV and dot he play-by-play. I was a huge Magic fan! They were a relatively new team back then and nobody really knew much about them where we lived. I always liked to cheer for the new guys. We also survived the Storm of the Century that year. We were without power for a week and school was cancelled. We missed our Concert Band Festival, so our director got us in to compete at the middle school festival so we would have a chance. Again, we didn't do very well here either.

10th grade was a good year. I stayed busy between my job and the band. I was halfway through high school with big dreams of getting out of this small town. Great things were yet to come!