A Very Lucky Girl

I'm sure many of you know of my fellow blogger, Miranda or Life Measured in Coffee Spoons , but you probably don't know our history. I met Miranda in sixth grade at St. David's School. She was (and still is) one of a kind. And also one of the smartest people I know! We passed notes all through middle school. These were not your average crinkled scraps of paper haphazardly stuffed into lockers...we caught the writing bug early. We would fill pages and pages of real notebooks and pass them back and forth in between class, detailing our experiences with our peers and our intense crush on Fibi. We planned to perform in the middle school talent show together and practiced everyday after school in her mom's van. Hilary Duff serenaded us with "Someone's Watching Over Me" and we followed along with our respective solos and subsequent duet. We were pretty impressive, not going to lie. And then...I chickened out. I gave up and broke down and went against everythin...

Often referred to as NH when I mention him here, I've known Nathan Honaker since I was in 4th grade. He truly is one of my life-long best friends, despite the heartbreak that we put each other through in turn. It all started in 5th grade, maybe with a yes or no note? The details escape me. We had a good three day run. He moved away to Greenville, SC for our sixth grade year and I didn't really notice his absence. Probably too preoccupied with a crush on a guy that barely knew I existed. But, seventh grade year was a different story. He came back to Raleigh. And promptly started dating a different girl. Cool, Nate. We spent time together on the cross country team and formed a friendship through running and our Bayleaf Baptist church connection. I played Yahtzee at his house one evening with both of our siblings and watched him and Oakes battle it out in Ping Pong. The summer after seventh grade he moved into a house in my neighborhood, approximately 2.5 miles away. Convenie...

I never fail to blush furiously when I reread my old journals. There are pros and cons to keeping track of my life events since the 6th grade. And a pro is seeing the growing up process and discovering 8 specific things I'm SO glad I have left in the past: 2007-"...he said I was smart, funny, clever, and beautiful. And made him feel like he could be himself. How does he always know what to say?" I outgrew the terrible trait of fishing for compliments by asking that awfully annoying question, "but, like, why do you like me?" of guys I talked to, and actually believing their answer. Side note: Tyler tried to tell me I didn't need to fish for compliments, and without reading what this unnamed previous guy had said, began to tell me, "you're smart and funny..." Oh. Well, that's familiar. 2008-"I also wrote a sonnet about NH." I haven't written a sonnet since. To be fair, it was an assignment for a class, but the subject ma...

I unearthed this pearl of a paper from a file filled with a Safe Sex PowerPoint presentation I made for my speech class at TCU, several embarrassing essay attempts, and my AP Biology Fruit Lab report. Oh, the joys of a hard drive.  I did not have a guy when I wrote this during my junior year in high school, unless you count the pseudo-long-distance relationship that NH and I shared, so I don't know why I thought I was an expert. But my English teacher required an advice essay so I didn't hesitate to share my extenssive knowledge... Well, if you are reading this you are wondering how to get, but most importantly, KEEP a guy. I mean, once you actually have him labeled as yours, you have to have some strategy to keep him that way. First things first. Hopefully, you were already pretty good friends with this guy. It is not a good idea to jump from, “Hi, what’s your name?” immediately to holding hands and sending sappy text messages. Trust me, it is likely that this sort of r...

judge away. Circa 11th grade Consider this an intervention. Trust me, I've had my fair share of selfies. But then I graduated high school. high school shopping swag These are some hard and fast rules of those pesky self-absorbed images: 1. Try to have another person in it. I have zero judgement for the visible arm holding out the photography device if there are two faces in the frame. Sometimes you just don't have a third person to take that perfect picture. We forgive you. 2. If a partner is unavailable then at least use a webcam and NOT a mirror. Myspace-esque photography ended at the same time as That's So Raven. And no one cares to see your current brand of toothpaste reclining on your bathroom counter.  3. Keep ALL clothes ON.  I cringe when I see those horrifyingly low slung shorts as people boast in their gym time. I'm proud of the mornings I spend running as well, but I'm not trying to plaster it across Facebook. Save it...

Remember when I didn't suck at running? I know, it's been awhile. Seventh grade began my cross-country and track career. Paul and Sharbear required a sport of me, and this one didn't require any hand-eye coordination so I decided it was worth a try. I ran all summer in preparation for the cross-country season (it didn't hurt that my coach lived in the bedroom down the hall and would know if I dared to skip a single scheduled day) and the first race at Ravenscroft dawned on an autumn day. I ran the requisite 5K and crossed the finish line in a decent place, much to the dismay of my parents. Wait, Taylor can do sports?  Our St. David's School Varsity girls team finished out that season as State Champions in our division. Sharbear overheard some indignant runner-ups complain, "uh yeah, we could run that way if we hadn't hit puberty yet either." Irrelevant, since we had some talented high-schoolers on the team as well.  Eighth and ninth grade didn'...

Paul and Shari have been married for 24 years. Please, hold your applause until the end. Personally, I think it's truly an act of God because I've never met two people more unlike each other. But then again, we've all heard it said that "opposites attract." (Although Tyler and I are very similar and I'm almost 99% positive that there's an attraction...)  Paul and Shari went to high school together at Benjamin Franklin High in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was a freshman when she was a sophomore (and he still never lets her forget the meager age difference) and they had Geometry together. Paul sat behind Shari, passing on a paralyzing fear to me that I would have to marry whomever I sat behind in Freshman Geometry. No wonder I couldn't figure out proofs, I was too concerned with Frank and I's lack of a love connection. Unfortunately, the high school love connection was short-lived for my parents. She was a cheerleader and traded in Paul and his bike ...

When did my generation start to emulate MTV? Is it a phase that every one's goes through? It seems like just a few days ago I was marveling at the horrific decisions I heard whispered about in the hallowed high school hallways. When did they become a part of everyday life?  Now, I have friends that think nothing of the drugs they are voluntarily attacking their body with. People are celebrating 4/20 so cavalierly. It's no longer a big deal to drink oneself into oblivion every weekend. Is it even going to be fun to drink when I'm 21? Is breaking the law part of the rush? My friends, myself, and acquaintances don't look ahead to how our choices in the present effect our lives in the future. We are babies ourselves, how can we be making choices that lead to children?  We took a survey in my sociology class about our deviant behavior and criminal activity. A vast majority of us have skipped school more than once and nearly 90% drive over the speed limit on a regular bas...

When I lived in North Carolina I had the privilege to babysit for this amazing all-American family. They have two gorgeous girls, Grace and Emily. It recently came to my attention via Facebook that Gracie is having trouble with some girls, at school I presume. I don't know the entire story, but I was 14 once. And I'm 19 now and the fairer sex has not really changed. Lindsay Lohan starred in the epically mind-numbingly hilarious movie, Mean Girls. Director Tina Fey managed to send an anti-bullying message even while leaving me gasping for air through my giggles. I quote it incessantly, "why are you so obsessed with me?!" Girls are mean. We honestly are. Our instinct is to put down the females around us in order to get a false sense of superiority. And since it's not true superiority, it is fleeting, thus the mean girls cycle is formed. We have an intense competitive nature to be the prettiest, smartest, best-all around. And when we feel that we fail at our goal...

I got asked at dinner the other night what my most embarrassing moment ever was. You'd think I'd have to contemplate that for a while, go through my mental files of blush-inducing moments, but there's one incident that leaps to the surface, as much as I've tried to bury it. It was the last summer weekend before high school started. I was an incoming freshman and found myself at the freshman retreat at Camp Oak Hill in North Carolina, designed to make us a giant, happy, drama-free family before being thrust into the upper school. Grabbing my swimsuit (a modest bikini, I thought I was SO cool for having a two-piece), I raced to the zipline, anticipating the inevitable adrenaline rush. A sizable chunk of my classmates sat at the edge of the lake and watched people zip over the glassy surface of the water before plunging into the water and rising up again due to the buoyancy of the line. I tapped my hot pink painted toes on the wooden platform, desperate to show off my ...