What I learned in High School...I learned that there are many kinds of people. I know I was a geek, there were the jocks, the heads, the kickers and probably some I have forgotten. I had friends in each category, although the jocks I was friends with weren't important jocks. They were the tennis players, I actually played on the tennis team for a short time. I remember we called our coach Farrah because she had Farrah Fawcett hair, it was hilarious.
My friends who were heads were friends because they were the people who threw the cool parties and that's where the drama geeks usually ended up.
Kickers is what everyone called the cowboys. I had quite a few friends in that group. My best friend there was Maggie. We did pretty much everything together when we weren't in school. We had most of our classes together, too. Summers were great with Mags. Her parents also became second parents, although they are Mama and Daddy. I talk to Mags to this day. Her grandparents became mine and we would go to their ranch and ride 'ole blue who liked to rub up against trees with you on his back. We had so much fun doing everything that high school girls are supposed to do.
The other thing I learned in High School is what real pain is. Shortly after I completed training to be a lifeguard my mother woke me in the early hours of the morning to come help my father. I didn't know what was wrong, she said he had made a funny sound and stopped breathing. She came to get me because I was CPR certified. When I walked into my parent's room I knew it was already too late. I won't share the gross medical reasons that told me this, I just knew. There was nothing I could do. My mother had meanwhile gotten my older brother and he jumped right in and started CPR. I can still hear him screaming at my father to breath. When the ambulance arrived they hooked him up to some mechanical CPR machine and the last thing I remember seeing of my father was him being wheeled out of the house with some big suction cup pulling his chest up and down.
My mom and brother went to the hospital with dad, I stayed home with my Granparents and younger brother. In all of the stress and anxiety of the waiting I was able to lay down and go to sleep, if you can imagine that. Now I'm going to testify to something that has shaped my life from that day on. As I sleapt I had a dream, but it wasn't like a dream. There was a bright light and a beautiful man came out of the light and told me that my father was dead and that I was going to have to stay calm and keep it together for the rest of the family. He told me that my mother was going to need me and that I was going to have to take care of things for her. Next thing I know my mother is coming through the door, a total wreck. She tried to tell me that my father was dead and I told her I already knew.
My brother was devastated that he had been unable to save our father and my younger brother just sat in a chair with a blanket over his head and screamed and cried, he was twelve. My Grandparents were shell shocked, they had moved down from Ohio about a year before so my Grandfather could spend his last years with my father.
As that morning progressed I remember going through my parent's address book and calling all of my "Aunts and Uncles" from the military to let them know what had happened. Those were some of the most difficult phone calls I ever made.
I think it was about 8 or 9 am when our doorbell wrang and the visitors started arriving. They were my Church family. Mom and I had joined the Church officially just three weeks prviously. I don't know how they found out, but there was always someone there to take care of things for us. They drove us to meet my older brother's at the airport, we had enough food to feed a third world country. We didn't have to worry about anything. And Mr. Mangrum, my drama teacher was there, too.
There are still some things about this time that amaze me. The people who reached out to us. And when I went back to school, that was the hardest. I had anxiety attacks, and Mr. Mangrum was there each and every step of the way, so were my friends.
That was the biggest lesson I learned - the true meaning of friendship. I couldn't have made it without all of them. To this day I am grateful that they were by my side and I will never forget them for it.
Beautiful Bloggable Me
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