List #10: Things that were actually good about high school

In my latest creation, before a high school dance.
 I think this is grade 11?

Though I'm not really given to bouts of nostalgia, I did actually have an okay time in high school. I originally started this list as Things that Sucked about High School, but I couldn't really come up with more than five, in terms of my personal experience. So I thought I'd make a list of positives. Here goes:

1. being able to put all the money I earned toward clothing or fun stuff (though I did save some for post-secondary)
2. seeing the social downfall of the bully who harrassed me constantly--in grade eight I was scared of her, by grade twelve I felt sorry for her
3. my art teacher, Ms. Vernon: she was somehow both an eccentric misanthrope & a great teacher to the students she liked (the vast majority of my teachers were quite good & really committed to their students too)
4. doing volunteer work (my school was a community secondary with a great volunteer program that made it really easy to find placements for all kinds of stuff)
5. no wrinkles, grey hairs or arthritis
6. knowing the names of nearly everyone in my year because my grad class was less than 90
7. having a really dorky exclusive art club at lunch times (with membership cards even)
8. getting cheesy award plaques for academic achievement & volunteer work
9. the gymnastics segment of P.E.
10. babysitting
11. though I kind of hated it at the time, a daily 20-minute walk through paths in the woods & quiet neighbourhood streets was a pretty cool way to get to school
12. having giggle fits with my best friend over practically nothing
13. when the stars aligned every six days & I had my spare block, then lunch, then art class--three hours straight in the art room!
14. being given a large set of (expensive!) aquarelle pencils by a teacher because I was the main one using them. I'm guessing that with the way school supplies budgets have fallen, this kind of thing would never happen how
15. never being pressured into using drugs or alcohol
16. how quiet sewing class was
17. the hilarious mnemonic devices I learned from my history teacher (I can still remember all of Canada's prime ministers because of this)
18. the fabulous novels I read in all the English classes I took
19. the goofy teacher theme days where most of the teachers would dress up like one of them. They all showed up in tweed blazers with golf shirts & jeans on the chemistry teacher's day, nylon track suits & runners for the P.E./Foods teacher's day, brown pants & a white dress shirt for the principal's day
20. going to the same school for nearly five years (I moved there almost half way through grade eight)
21. wearing a period costume to grad (me & my boyfriend rented from Watt's Costumes & were going for a 1750s French court dress look)

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1. Why Monday lists? Reading the lovely Chloe's blog, Tea Swamp Park, I found an idea I had to 'steal': a list of all her Halloween costumes, with quite a few photos. She got the idea from Hula Seventy's List Project. I've decided to do the weekly lists for a year that Hula Seventy is doing.