Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The big reveal

Ok, ok. So I don't know how I feel that so many of you guessed RIGHT!! Usually people look at the picture, point to about 6 different people while I answer "no" and then they finally give it a "Nooooooo....that's not you, is it????" So yes, for all of you who guessed that little beauty in the hot pink jumper in the back row - you are CORRECT! Although I shouldn't say little. Or beauty for that matter! Seriously, I had a rough few years as a kid!




So here's the wondrous progression starting with first grade. Still top row in the middle. Not too bad yet.





















But woah baby! By third grade I was sure a looker! (still top row, middle)




















Luckily in 4th grade I was in a split 4th/5th class so there were actually a few people taller than me. I'm the third from the right on the back row - with the lovely side pony tail and panda sweater-vest.




Now 5th grade was a little bit of a tricky one. I guess the guy was tired of me usually being the steeple, so he tried to camouflage me in the second row. AWESOME idea. Totally looks WAY better having me in the middle of the short people. Don't look out of place at all. (HA!)


Even sadder is look at all those tiny cute petite girls in the front row - those are all my good friends!





Then in 6th grade (sorry it's so crooked), it was back to being the steeple. And so funny that my mom every year would tell me to wear hot pink or something in the class photo so I would stand out. As if I needed any help!!! I was already a foot taller and twice as wide as everyone else in the class! And that was being moved up a grade in kindergarten. Can you imagine if I had stayed behind???


Anyway, I'm glad that it's actually just really funny to me now. For a while I was so embarrassed that that used to be me. I had a friend bring his elementary school pictures to high school one time, and everyone died when they saw me. People would crowd around trying to look at it and just die laughing that it was me! I was a little traumatized by that for a few weeks, but then luckily I got over it and realized how dang funny it was because I didn't look like that by the time I went to high school. I think I started to stretch out a little, and then also went to Diet Center with my mom when I was in about 7th grade - then it was all smooth sailing after that.

To make myself feel a little better, at least I wasn't the only one! While Ryan usually looked like this skeletor photo for most of his years, I did manage to come across a few awkward moments of his own!










I always think about girls growing up now though - they will NEVER have such horrid and embarrassing pictures as those of us who grew up in the 80s. They will never have pictures of them with plastered bangs, half curled up, half curled down, wearing neon colors and all the other nasty fashions of the 80s!

Anyhow, good times, good times. Hope I gave you a good reason to chuckle today!

13 comments:

Tyler Jorgenson said...

Ok, now I feel bad about making fun of you so much on mission. I didn't know that you had such a brutal childhood. You ready for those babies yet?

Mumsy said...

Oh, Jen! I was looking at my school pictures just a second ago. They are the worst--worst than any I've ever seen! (Including yours.)

I just wish I'd grown up to be a super babe like you. Sigh.

todd & nicole said...

Isn't childhood great, and so nice our parents have all the pictures documenting it. I have to say that being on the front row wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I was usually the shortest and very first kid. In all my elementary I only got moved in to be the 4th shortest kid...I would have loved being on the second row, the top was just way so far out of reach.

Chadlee said...

So funny! This just made my lunch break, I got a good laugh. I love all those 80's clothes, they bring back fond memories. For instance the 6th grade picture, you have the classic ESPRIT shirt, NKOTB shirt, the girl with the lacey Jessica McClintock dress, but then - what is up with the T-shirt with the smiley face and a bloody bullet wound? Yikes!

Shannon said...

Jenn I will reveal my afro photos just to make you feel better.

Melissa Bigelow said...

oh man, that was funny. Dave and I laughed pretty hard. and jeff should feel bad for the trama he caused you...oh, the good ol' days, right?!

Corinne said...

GOOD TIMES!!! I saw lots of familiar faces - and I must've been in the "steeple" position right before you :)

Anonymous said...

Blame it on me!
But during all those years, our darling Jen did things like ask me if I could accompany her while she practiced her singing at 10 p.m. (so she could stay up late), or
would sit on the desk dictating to me while I transcribed her poems, or
prepared her birthday invitations on the computer at age 6, ... 9 months in advance of the party she was planning, or.....
beat me at Scrabble one summer (on our daily games) 7 out of 10 days in a row, or..
Came home from first grade, drew the inner ear, labeling all the parts, and only needing help on the spelling of cochlea.
Love, Jen's mother, Carolyn.

LuAnn said...

I can understand why you don't remember being my bodyguard. People sometimes block traumatic memories as a coping tool. I can't figure out what grade it was though. It had to have been no later than 2nd because you protected me from my cousin Ben who is 4 years older than me.

LuAnn said...

Hey just to let you know that I hated to be the end of the first row every year. I think that's why I'm not even smiling in 5th grade. The only time I wasn't on the end was that last year when I was second to Jenni Brown. She was only shorter because she was a gymnast. And...when it comes to bangs half curled up, half down...at least your mom didn't get your hair cut with bangs from ear to ear (4th).

Unknown said...

At least you didn't look deathly ill in your pictures. I always had huge bug eyes with big dark circles under under them, and no meat on my bones. Not to mention the huge 80's bangs. Man I was a looker-let me tell ya!

I did have to laugh at Ryan's Skeletor pictures! I had heard that but it was great to see. Were you really Lu's body guard? I can't stop laughing right now.

It makes me worry when I think about my kids going through those awkward phases. Did my mom really think that I was cute?! I remember my dad always telling me "some day you will be a beautiful swan", so I know he thought I wasn't very cute. But I knew I wasn't cute.

H. said...

Those are awesome! I'm so glad to finally see the infamous grade school photos! thanks for sharing.

Sharon said...

Okay that was fun ( your commentary included :)! I love the one with the cute blond boy with the closed eyes. I bet his mom was so so happy about that.