when i think about seventeen ...

Ever hear a song that takes you right back to high school?

{usually mine's a rap song, natch}

I ain't gone lie, I had fun in high school.

Possibly more fun than college, although college was definitely magical.

 {Don't worry, I ain't tryin' to ruin nobody's life or marriage, so I carefully chose photos for this post - anything that still looks questionable, I got permission for.}

I went to a high school in a small NC town {only public high school in the county at the time},
where everybody got along for the most part.

There may have been the occasional suspension for slappin' somebody in the face, but nothin' crazy.

For me, high school was afternoon trips to Bojangle's {if i didn't have to babysit}

wastin' way to much gas ridin' up and down the boulevard 

{with the windows rolled down just enough to seem mysterious if i was with somebody whose parent got them tinted windows, that is. me and the honda? naw}

jeans from

wantin' a wardrobe like the chicks in Coyote Ugly

rap music as loud as it would go

too much DMD
... like 2 or 3 cans a day. Whattup, Mrs. White?!
 (I was her T.A. in 4th period and we drank the hell out of some DMD from the teacher's lounge.)

too much Jack Daniels Downhome punch

{and the occasional Smirnoff Ice - woof!}

deciphering pager codes.  
yep, you read right. everybody had a pager. no, we weren't drug dealers. 

mud-slingin' in Toyota trucks
{and every boy I knew had one of those gel air fresheners - berry, coolwater}

Carhartt

Timberland boots

boys huntin' and talkin' about huntin'

football Fridays
{although I confess I never watched the games, I mostly wanted to dance to the drum music}

bonfires, house parties, sometimes mud ones

takin' a whole lot of shots {insulin ones. because I ate all the time, and this was pre-pump}
did scare the crap out of my boy Daniel one time though, because he thought i was doin' heroin in the back of his truck. sorry bout that.

and my beloved Honda, Tawanda
Tawanda was my homegirl.
She has heard so much rap, inhaled so much dust from the windows bein' down on a dirt road,
saw so many rounds of Popeye ...

I love this picture, because it just shows how carefree life was then. And it gets you to thinkin', how much of 'adult' stress can we help? A lot of it, we can't. But, I'm sure as hell tryin' to eliminate and avoid as much of it as possible. Life's too short, friends.
One of my very best friends in high school was a guy, and the girls that I was close with weren't the 'mean girl/bitchy/jealous' types, so most of my high school life was way too much fun, and pretty drama-free.

I remember one time, my friend's nerves were so toe up over a dude that she threw her tea up first thing in the mornin'. Ain't that crazy? Wastin' a good Bojangle's tea over a dude! I think most of us have been there - maybe not throwin' up, but thinkin' you gone die over his ass.
Thank God for livin' and learnin'.

And I thought I'd met the love of my life, {at least twice}. 

They say you never get over your first love. Hmm ... I'd say your first love leaves a mark, and it's different than any other because, duh, you never been hit over the head with it before. It's fun, it's exciting, it's hot. You are naive.

But you grow up, and you realize all the reasons why it would never have worked.
And if you are lucky, you meet someone that is clearly made for you.

High school was cozy for me, because it was a small town, and our group of friends was so tight knit. And though there was more than one "group", we all meshed well, I think.
There won't shit to do in our tiny town. So, we always ended up in bigger towns nearby for restaurants, the mall, the movies.

But, we typically ended up back at somebody's house.
Every weekend. All weekend, nights anyway. All of us. Together.
And I loved that.

I think if I could go back for a month, and come back to my life now, and have everything turn out just as it has now, I would.
Would you?