{145} grad ring

on this day, thirteen years ago, i graduated from high school. that's insanity. i can't believe how long it has been and yet it also feels like it really has been that long, you know? time has flown by but i've experienced so much life in that time too. let's see. what do i remember? i know that renae was my "date" for the day and she came to the banquet (good on her!). i remember going to steinbach early on in the day (why??), then going to candace's place to get my hair and make-up done by jeff. then we went to get our class photo done (where??), and then headed back to my parents' house where we took a bunch of photos individually and in groups of friends. then we changed into our robes and headed to the church for the ceremony. i walked down the aisle with brandy. i waved to my parents. while walking out of the church, i was crying. then we had the banquet (my mother gave one of the parent speeches). then we partied at the lions' club until 6:30 a.m. before heading over to j triple k for breakfast. then i slept the rest of the day. holy smokes. thirteen years.

my graduation picture. i had shoulder-length hair back then and really awful eyebrows. i got my tendrils straightened for my picture and wore my hair up. i always wore my hair up back then. and had no bangs. holy mega forehead, batman.

poufy dresses were totally in back then. maybe they still are?? who knows. if i was graduating this year, i certainly would not wear that same dress again but i still love it. it still looks beautiful. that's jess janz, chantel doerksen and stephanie brookes with me (i'm using maiden names because that's how i knew them then! lol).

my date, renae, and i. renae and i were always such super close friends growing up. all my favourite childhood memories involve her and her family. i'm glad to still be in contact with her and consider her a friend.

these were my closest friends in high school. lisa peters (on the far left) was my best friend--i was even her maid of honour when she got married. then there is amanda harder, kim penner and connie penner. i haven't seen lisa in many years, i ran into amanda actually a few months ago, i see kim occasionally around town, and i haven't seen connie in a super super long time.

richard martens was the principal at green valley at the time and louis reis was the vp.

 

at the banquet. all the grads sit on the stage in tiers so our families could stare at us. our theme was "the time of your life" and we used the green day song "i hope you've had the time of your life" as our entrance song--didn't everybody do that in 1999? i have absolutely no idea what we ate as our meal but we were given mcdonald's bibs to protect our dresses!

fitting into my grad dress again after 12 years (photo taken June 2011). i'm another 20 pounds lighter now so it might even be super large on me! can you imagine? being lighter than you were in high school? amaze-balls.