In honor of the new school year, think back to your senior year of high school, and answer these questions accordingly:
1. Who was your best friend? Beth Wetheral and Kelley Birney
2. Did you play any sports? not senior year — too busy with theatre
3. What kind of car did you drive? Red and white 1984 Dodge Ram 4×4 Pickup with a tree guard on the front and steel bumper on the back, and rust spots over the wheel wells. Stickshift, and difficult to drive. I LOVED that truck.
4. It’s Friday night. Where were you? At a movie or babysitting.
5. Were you a party animal? Not at all.
6. Were you considered a flirt? Yes, but not at school. Nobody at school I wanted to flirt with.
7. Were you in the band, orchestra or choir? Not senior year. The choir director was incompetent and picked people that sucked up to him to be featured, rather than people that could really sing. I still had perfect pitch (before jaw surgery damaged my ear canals), so I couldn’t take it anymore and I quit after junior year. No regrets, either. I did musical theatre, though.
8. Were you a nerd? I prefer the word “geek.”
9. Were you ever suspended or expelled? No.
10. Can you sing the fight song? Of what? Of Randolph? Do we have a fight song? We didn’t have a football team at the time.
11. Who was your favorite teacher? Dewey Farmer, who was my physics teacher first semester until he was asked to leave because he wouldn’t follow the rules set forth by the administration (he asked us to call him “Dewey” and refused to wear a tie, and those were just the rules we knew about…). He was an awesome teacher, and it was a shame that he didn’t get to finish the year. I was ACING physics — and understanding it — because he was so damned excited about it.
12. What was your school mascot? The Raider.
13. Did you go to the Prom? Yes, but my date (a friend from church, since my boyfriend and I had broken up about a month before… he was off at college and we didn’t have much in common anymore)… Anyway… At 8:30pm on prom night my date went home with a migraine. The night ended up being fun anyway but it was still a bummer. My best proms (3 of them and one college formal) were the year before.
14. If you could go back, would you? Hell, no. As far as I’m concerned, high school was something to endure to get me old enough to go to college.
15. What do you remember most about graduation? Taunting a dropout girl in the neighborhood by calling out my window, “Guess where I’m going” as I drove by. I didn’t intend for it to come off that way, but it has bothered me ever since. Don’t remember the rest of the day, though, other than the fact that I made my graduation dress. And my baccalaureate dress, which I wore to my sorority pledge formal the next year.
16. Where were you on Senior Skip Day? Ditto Landing, but it was sanctioned by the school — not rebellious.
17. Did you have a job your senior year? For the first few months until rehearsals got too demanding for Christmas Carol, I worked at The Mill Bakery & Eatery across from the hospital (where Starbucks is now).
18. Where did you go most often for lunch? Probably home or to physical therapy (I had tendinitis in my left elbow and lost the use of my hand for several months).
19. Have you gained weight since then? Yes, but I needed to. I was the same height I am now and I weighed about 45 pounds less than I do now. I looked like a bobblehead.
20. What did you do after high school? Went to Duke.