High School Ramblings

Calliope at Creating Motherhood had the brilliant idea of a Blogosphere Summer Camp. While I don’t think I shall be participating every day, I will certainly be a day camper some days.

Today’s prompt: What were you like in high school? What extracurricular activities, if any, did you take part in during high school? Did you consider yourself a writer?

High school was the time of my life. I attended a wonderful English all-girls’ school – which was a big step for me, as I had attended an Afrikaans co-ed primary school.

I guess you could call me a bit of an over-achiever, but really I just loved learning and doing anything that took me out of my comfort zone and broadened my horizons. I hardly ever studied, but excelled academically. How I wish I was still like that now.

Having always been shy in public, my favourite teachers and my mom convinced (nay, forced) me to join the debating club.  Funny enough, with the right coaching I became very good at it. It was probably the best thing I ever did. In Grade 11 and 12 my team and I were first in the school and we won a national competition. It also offered me some travelling around the country. Some of my best memories were made in debating.

At a debating festival at Alex Road High School in 2006

I liked other activities too – I was on the Interact Committee, the school magazine (which had a bit of a dismal year though), forum discussion and I did some music. I think I probably burnt out a few times a year, but I loved it.

My mom also managed to convince me to take up karate, having never been any good at sports. Wonder above wonder I did well at that (my mom seems clairvoyant, sometimes…). I currently hold a Brown belt 2^nd kyu, not having trained for two years.

I guess HS warrants embarrassing pictures. For all my “successes”, it took me very long to develop my own image and to learn which hairstyles, expressions, etc were pleasing. Especially on photos.

The funny thing is that I managed to have boyfriends and go out partying on weekends too. I get shivers when I think about it.

Did I consider myself a writer? Definitely, more so than I do now. I had pieces published in English Alive and won bursaries through the De Beer’s English Olympiad. I loved writing, and for writing assignments I would often complete multiple topics as I could not pick one only. Looking back I pity my English teachers. I will be having coffee with one of them next week so I suppose I didn’t scar them too much.

High school was awesome. I think the only downside is that I now fear I may have peaked at eighteen.

Dressed up for my Matric dance (equivalent of Senior Prom) in 2008.