High School Years (Part 3)

This post is in continuation of my Personal History challenge that I'm working on, where I record my own personal history in order to share it with my family and friends in both the present and the future.

High school was a roller coaster. In 9th grade, the most I remember was just trying to figure everything out and how I fit in the picture. There were lots of people I did not know, and a lot of my friends from Middle School were in other classes. At that age, we were at the bottom of the totem pole, so to speak. We were the youngest of the high schoolers, and I tried to just not get run over in the hallways most of the time. I was in Choir that year, but when my other required classes conflicted with my schedule, I didn't take any more classes after that grade.

In 10th grade, I gathered up enough courage to try out for the soccer team. There was a new coach, who also used to be my 9th grade teacher, and he decided that instead of cutting people from the team after "tryouts," he would just put the not-the-best playing girls in a sort of "second-rate, backup team." Yeah, I was on that team. I was among the bench-warmers, who barely lifted my sorry butt off the bench unless our team had an enormous lead over our opponents, or in the unlikely case that all the players that were (supposedly) better than me all became seriously injured. And I mean, incapable of walking, kind of injured. *Phew* Okay, I really need to not work myself up about it. I honestly was not close to being among the best players on the team. After not playing soccer for about 4 years, I was a lot slower than most of the girls, and didn't know most of the tricks that many of the girls knew. On top of that, my whole soccer career up to that point, I had always played left full-back. My high school coach always insisted on putting me on some random offense position, because "we had plenty of good defense girls." Playing defense all your life and then all of the sudden being thrown into the front lines of offense is like stepping into a whole, another world.  *Sigh* It just... hurt... to feel like I had no real value to the team. As if I stopped going to practices and games, it would probably relieve more people than concern them... Okay, *end rant.*

Nonetheless, I still stuck with it on through my Junior year as well, and I even made it on the "Varsity" team that year, even though I was still warming up the Varsity team bench most of the time. I stayed on that team only for my love of the game, and for the friends I made on that team. I met and became good friends with Andrea, Chelsea, Sarah, and Erika.

To this day, the only one of those friendships that truly lasted, and even got stronger, through the years, was my friendship with Erika. We met when she needed a ride to our team pictures and I offered to pick her up. It was super awkward in the car at first, because we didn't really know each other at all. But, for some reason, after that, we hit it off. I spent many days hanging out and having sleepovers at her place. She slept over and hung out at my place, too, and pretty much every time she came to my house, she tried some kind of food she had never tasted before. Let's just say my family is a little bit more adventurous when it comes to fruits and vegetables, haha. My family didn't always stick with the normal apples and carrots, we also loved things like asparagus, peaches, etc. Yeah, real exotic, right? I still remember Erika's face when she tried a peach for the first time at my apartment. Let's just say she's not a fan of the fuzzy peel on the outside. Hey, props to her for trying it, at least!

Throughout soccer, she was my support that kept me coming to practices and games. She didn't care so much that I wasn't as good at soccer. Of all the drama and politics involved in that soccer team, she didn't care about all of that. She made me feel important, even if I wasn't one of the coach's "favorite, star players."

Yup, that's us... in all our teenage glory- as borritos.

Erika is so fun to hang out with. Whether it was the millionth trip to Taco Bell, jammin' and dancing crazy at a dance (or especially in our cars), having a thousand near-accident experiences when we're both in the same car, or having the ugliest cries of our lives over the phone, she was there for me. Heck, she even dressed up like a burrito with me so we could get free burritos from Chipotle on Halloween! We were there for each other during the biggest heartbreaks, trash talking the other person, even if we didn't know exactly what the other person was saying or crying about. I even tried (and failed) to switch high schools to attend the same one as her, when the boundaries changed right before my senior year. She even found a blind date for me to get me into her school's prom. I even call her mom, "Mom," and vice versa. Even when I went off to college and was busy with my new life out there, she didn't give up on me or our friendship. She still contacted me and made sure I was doing all right. She was my bridesmaid/maid of honor. She gave the most beautiful, sweet, heartfelt speech at my wedding reception, and made me bawl my eyes out. I was her bridesmaid/matron of honor at her wedding. My speech was, well, not as good as hers. Perhaps because people could hardly understand me through all my blubbering. Hahaha. She made plans for more than a year to save money, conspire with my husband about her plans, threaten my husband if he ever opened his mouth to me about her plans, fly out to Utah, and surprise me one random day after a dentist appointment. She practically adopted my children as her own niece and nephew, and spoils them rotten until she's broke. She worries about their health, happiness, and well-being almost as much as I do. She knows how important my faith is to me and my family, and respects me for it. She is patient with me even when life gets crazy and I'm not the best at calling, texting, or messaging her. I can act like myself around her. She is an extremely dedicated person. She is strong, and comes back up from trials in her life even stronger. She knows how to break it down with me when the right song comes on. Erika is extremely loving, caring, and all about respect. She knows when to tell me when I'm going a little too past the crazy boundaries. She is working hard to achieve her Vet Tech degree, and has an immense love for animals. She's caring and determined enough to even go vegetarian most of the time. I really look up to her strength, sense of humor, hard work, dedication, and love for others' well-being. I love her as my best friend, and I'm so glad she's in my life to help support me and get me through both the bad times and the good. I would definitely not be the same person I am today without her. (:

In our stunna shades: PEACE, dawg. She brings out my inner black woman.