I haven’t had too much to blog about lately. Life has just been so normal. No trips. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just every day life. I’m not complaining (except for the no trips part), I’m just going to take the opportunity now to catch up on some random personal history questions. Here goes.

Teenage Years

16th birthday. These are pictures of pictures so they’re a little morphed. My head to arm size ratio isn’t quite this bad in real life 🙂

What hobbies/activities did you participate in?
I continued my piano lessons until I was 16 or so. I had gotten as far as I could with my current teacher. For the next year or so I took some time off from official lessons but kept up my playing. When I was 18 I decided I wanted to keep progressing so I started searching for a new teacher. I played for 3 or 4 and they all said I was too advanced to take lessons from them. I ended up getting a referral to a lady off of Foothill Blvd. She was very old. I sat down on her bench and confidently played a Sonatina I had mastered. Or so I thought. She pretty much ripped my playing apart. I then realized that although I had always been a great sight reader and a top player with my old teacher, I really hadn’t been taught much actual technique. The new teacher was expensive ($45 per 1/2 hour lesson if I remember correctly) and I was paying for it myself. I quickly became disenchanted and discontinued after only a few lessons.

I tried snowboarding a couple of times but wasn’t very good at it. It was fun but I pretty much did it because I thought it made me seem cool to boys. Mostly I worked, hung out with friends, and snuck underage into clubs to go dancing.

What are some of your first driving experiences?
I had been saving for a car for a couple of years before I turned 16 so I was able to get just a small loan to buy the car of my dreams. Instead, my parents brought home their own version of the car of my dreams, a late 80’s pink Chrysler Caravelle.

This car did end up being sweet. The interior was plush burgundy. The front seat was actually broken and “fixed” so it had some nice rocking and bouncing to make it a very comfortable ride. Also, the owner before me installed a killer cd deck and a huge woofer in the trunk. Awww, Yeeeaah….

After a couple of fender benders and then a more major accident my first car was history. My next car was a sporty Toyota Corolla with a sun roof. I LOVED that car. But one night I let my brother borrow it for a hot date and he totaled it.

Did you have a boyfriend?
I mostly just hung out with boys that were friends and then occasionally went on a date with them. There was this one guy that I saw and went out with regularly on and off for a year or so. He ended up being a jerk so that ended. It made me sad because before he turned out to be a jerk we were friends and had a lot of fun laughing and hanging out together. I didn’t have a real boyfriend until right after my 18th birthday.

What was your first paid job?
One day my dad asked me what I was interested in. Out of nowhere I said travel. There just happened to be a couple in our neighborhood who owned and ran a travel agency. My dad talked to them and got me a very part-time job. I was 13 years old and worked 2 hours a day, a few days a week. I think I was paid $2 an hour and then got a raise to $2.50 an hour. Haha. That makes me sound a million years old! My duties were to copy and put together their tour brochures and itineraries and organize the file room. They had closets and file cabinets full of travel brochures for places all over the globe. I read just about everything I filed. I tudied all the glossy pages advertising beautiful far-off places. I learned the travel lingo. And, yes, I fell in love. Eventually I asked for more responsibilities and another raise, seeing that I had been working for them for 2 years and was now 15 years old, but was told they were going to hire their granddaughter to take my place instead. I was pretty bummed but was then able to get another job making minimum wage ($5.15?), so that was a definite plus.

For a year I worked at Hogi Yogi. I didn’t care for the job too much but I had fun making new friends and goofing off. After a few months of working there, my brother returned from his mission and became the manager of the store. I enjoyed opening the store with him and seeing him take on the responsibilities of management. Everyone loved him as their boss. He was really fun but also knew when to put his foot down. I felt really cool being his sister.

When I turned 16 and could drive myself to work I decided to get out of the fast food business and started selling shoes at ZCMI on Foothill Boulevard. I worked with a strange older lady and didn’t really enjoy the job. Half the time I was there all by myself and got very bored. After a year (or less) I moved to an opening in the shoe department at ZCMI in Cottonwood Mall. The old lady cried when I told her I was leaving.

My time at ZCMI Cottonwood was a game changer. I met so many new friends, many of whom I’m friends with still. I fell in love for the first time. I decided to go back to college. Over the two years I was there I slowly left old, unhealthy friendships and actions behind and came more into my own skin. I gained much needed confidence in who I really was and wanted to be.

Well that’s it for now. Hope you enjoyed this little look into my teenage years. It’s surreal thinking back on all these memories and seeing where I am now.