I'm Guest Blogging & Listable Life

Remember when I told you that lots of exciting things were happening here at The Pink Growl? Starting last week when I featured my first guest blogger, and TODAY I am doing my first guest post!! AHHHH! I know that probably sounds silly to some of you more experienced bloggers, but I am super excited about it. Please head on over to Meg's blog at Henning Love to check me out in her Hometown Series. I'm telling her readers all about what it was like growing up in a small town in Tennessee.

And speaking of growing up in a small town - I'm also linking up with Listable Life again today to reminisce about high school!

I'm linking up again with Nicole over at MTDL for Listable Life. I adore her prompts because I always feel like I come out learning something about myself - that might sound cheesy, but it's true! This week will be no different - the prompt is 5 Things I Would Have Done Differently In High School. Whew - that's a toughy! High School for me was almost 10 years ago so being that I'm much older wiser now, I could probably teach my 17 year old self a thing or two.

1. Not let my 16 year old friend drive my car before I even had my driver's license - Sounds like there might be a story behind that, right? Well, there is! So one boring Saturday night when I was 15, my friend and I were looking for something to do. My mom allowed her to drive my car (she was a licensed driver and 16, while I was only a permit driver at 15). My mom said we could run to Sonic and come back. So of course, we drove further than that just to be out of the house longer. Well, 15 year old self, you should have listened to your mom! My friend wrecked my car - BEFORE I EVER HAD THE CHANCE TO DRIVE IT ALONE! I had to go without a car the first couple months of being 16 thanks to that little mistake. No good!

2. Not fall for the popular boy who turned out to be a dud - My senior year in high school, I fell hard for a popular boy. He was a star football player and I was a cheerleader so I naturally thought it was a match made in Heaven. Wrong! He was a jerk, a cheater, bad for my self esteem and actually turned out to be a loser in life. I did manage to learn a few valuable lessons from that relationship, but I also wasted a fair amount of time there. I wish I never would have fallen in that trap! Hindsight is always 20/20 though right?

3. Not let anybody hold me back from going far away for college - This is interesting because if I would have moved far away for college, I probably would not be with Skye and have the life I have today. However, purely for selfish reasons; I wish I would have experienced living on my own in another state while I was young. Instead, I let multiple people - namely the above boy and my mother- persuade me to stay close. I ended up at UT, which is about 30 minutes from my hometown. Again, I can't complain about how things have played out for me, but I always feel slightly lame only living in one place my whole life (so far anyhow).

4. Not let anything keep me from singing or cheering, post high school - Something you might not know about me, is that I used to love to sing. Now, I wasn't anything fabulous, but I did really enjoy it and I was definitely good enough to make myself happy. I was in a showchoir my junior & senior years in high school - junior year was all girls & senior year was co-ed.
I cheered my whole life, literally since age 6. I loved it, and it was a passion of mine. I had the chance to go away and cheer in college - and I turned it down to stay close to home and go to UT (see above). Those were some of the best memories I have in my life - singing and cheering. I still sing in my car, but I have developed this shyness about singing in front of others that I never had in high school. And cheering...well that really feels like a distant memory. No one is ever surprised that I was a cheerleader though, and that makes me happy that I still have some aspect of that in my personality.

5. Not let my social life get in the way of my family life - I have always been a social butterfly. Put a driver's license in my hand and nobody could keep me at home. While this made for some fun memories with my friends, I feel that I did neglect my family a little bit during this time period. One instance that comes to mind in particular, is spending more time with my Nanny (my great grandmother). She passed away the year after I graduated high school and I wish I would have spent more time with her in her last couple of years. I'm sure the same goes for my parents, brother and grandparents too. You can never spend enough time with the people you love the most though.
I know for some people high school is the dark spot on their existence. However, I had a really great high school experience. Being from a smaller town, I ended up graduating high school with most of the people I started kindergarten with. I loved being young and carefree - oh those were the days! Plus, I had a kick ass body back then! Oh if only I could go back to that!

Keep your eyes peeled tomorrow for my 2nd featured guest blogger in my 6 week series! And thank you all for making the first one such a success! It was my 2nd most read post of all time!!! Let's keep that momentum rolling.