1.18 Favorite Memories - Viking Pride

Bestest Friend and I are embarking on a new blog project. Each day of the month we will post a picture on a pre-determined theme and write a little something about it. The theme for the eighteenth day of each month is "Favorite Memories."
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I don’t keep around many keepsakes from before I went to college. Aside from a very few snapshots, these are the only two items I can think of that I still have from my life before college. I helped one of my friends move into her very first dorm room and I was amazed at how much she took with her. When I moved into my first dorm room, my possessions fit inside three black Hefty bags, one large suitcase, and a backpack.  

 

But these two things are things I am proud of from high school.  I was valedictorian of my class, maintaining a 4.0 for my entire four years.  This is not something that comes up in my day to day life and it certainly hasn’t led to me fulfilling all of the grand plans I know my high school teachers had for me, but it’s something I worked really hard for in high school and remains a source of inspiration for me when I get down on myself.  If I could rise to the top when things were as bad as they were for me back then, I can definitely rise to the top when things are so great for me right now.
 

And then there’s band. I played clarinet from sixth through twelfth grades. I wasn’t good, I am almost tone deaf, and I’m pretty sure the director rolled his eyes every year when he saw me on his class roster, but some of my favorite high school memories are band memories. Hours on the practice field placing little flags and practicing formations, the white uniforms of the flag girls turning brown with mud during a particularly rainy marching competition, going to a restaurant with my “band friends” before we went to the symphony our senior year, and hearing the echo ring around the room after the entire band played a perfect tuning note.

Today, I keep the mug on my desk filled with pens and pencils and I keep the medal hanging around a stuffed pig’s neck in my office. Memories are good, but I’m glad I can afford to be choosy about the ones I surround myself with each day.

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To see what Bestest Friend wrote about the theme of the day, check out her blog, Too Legit To Quit.