About Me - The Teenage Years

I haven't done one of these posts since March.  

I guess life got a little crazy for us :)

I went to Taylorsville High School.  I loved, loved, loved high school.  I had also loved Jr. High, and upon graduating from 9th grade and moving on to bigger things, I said goodbye to 95% of my friends.  The great majority of my classmates went to Granger High School...so I knew, starting my first day of 10th grade was going to be a little bit difficult and scary.  However, I saw friendly faces that I recognized and I was able to make friends quickly.  Really, really good friends.  The kind of friends that I still sit and think about how lucky I am to have had them in my life.  I know a great portion of who I am today is because of the friends that I had in High School.  

Sophomore year, I was the track team manager.  I have absolutely no memory of the experience at all except for going to one track meet at Bingham High and memories of how cold it was that day.  I was a member of Key Club, and ran for Secretary and had the opportunity to serve as club officers with my friends. I was in a few accelerated classes...but mostly, I was the social butterfly.  The girl that got in trouble in class for talking.  The girl that flirted endlessly and played with boys hearts a little bit too much.  

Jr. Year, I joined drama class, Jr. Chior, and participated in the school play, The King and I.  

I was still the social butterfly, and still toyed with boys hearts.  I also co-managed the boys baseball team with my good friend Allison.  We had so much fun, and were even able to fly to California for the boys tournaments. 

Senior Year, I was able to participate in a group called the Madrigals.  There were 24 of us, and we had so many opportunities to perform and sing for different audiences and in different competitions.  It was one of the greatest experiences of my life.  I also participated in the school play, Singing in the Rain.  I also participated in Senior Choir.  

I learned how to drive in my Drivers Ed class my sophomore year.  I remember walking into class on my 16th birthday and picking up my drivers license.  It was just that easy.  My car was a little, white, Geo Storm and I loved that car.  It was such a cute car.  In order to learn how to drive, my parents made a rule that we had to learn how to drive a clutch. I remember the many Sunday afternoons in the Stake Church Building parking lot with my Dad.  I still prefer driving a clutch over driving an automatic.

As I said earlier, I had the greatest friends any teenager could hope to have.  I have so many amazing memories from High School that I will forever be grateful for.  I'm a true believer in the saying "your friends can make or break you".  In my case, I am a better person because of them.  They were all such amazing examples to me.  

As far as the dating scene goes...I stayed rather busy :).  From the moment I turned 15 to the day of my 16th birthday, I had a continuous countdown of days.  I was super excited to date.  I was lucky to attend many school dances, and got to know so many great guys.  One of my most favorite dates was with my good friend Steve.  We went on a double date downtown by temple square where the guys proceeded to set up a table in the middle of the street where there use to be cement benches with flower boxes across from the church museum.  It was so creative and amazing and fun.  We even had a few people take our pictures because of the cleverness of it all.  

I had a lot of boyfriends in high school.  Two serious ones...one of them being Tim :).  I kissed a lot of boys...but I don't regret that at all.  My first real kiss was when I was 16.  It was actually really romantic and sweet.  My first kiss with Tim was in Disneyland in front of the castle...and my most favorite kiss was the day I became Mrs. Timothy Tappana.  

My first paid job was cleaning dental offices.  I actually got paid pretty good money, and I enjoyed it.  It must have been what originally sparked my interest in the dental field.  My high school job was at Bentley Square.  Oh, what good memories I have of that place!!  From the girls that I worked with to the people that came in, that job was so much fun.  

At home, it was just me, my mom, and my dad.  My brother and my sister had moved out...so I was enjoying being the only child at home.  I can admit that I was more spoiled than my brother and my sister, and I did have more privileges than them...but I also learned from their mistakes.  I never, ever snuck out of the house.  I never missed curfew.  I got excellent grades.  I stayed involved in great activities and my house was often filled with my friends on weekends.  If I "missed" a class, I called my mom beforehand to let her know.  I was that really good teenager that parents dream of having :).  My brother and my sister may disagree with me...but that's because they're jealous that I didn't have to share my car with anyone else.  I guess that's one nice thing about being the youngest in the family...by four years :).

Next installment in a couple weeks:  College years