My Teenage Journal, Part 2, Revenge of the Acne
Me doing my best melodrama villain as a junior in high school for East Central College’s production of Belle of Bisbee by Tim Kelly, directed by my mentor Deborah DeWitt. I don’t have any photos of me from my freshman or sophomore years, so it’ll have to do.
Previously on My Teenage Journal, I included excerpts from my old teen journal and made notes to add some context. If you haven’t read that one, I recommend reading it first. This is the second installment and I don’t have as many excerpts this time. And to make matters worse, I’ve run out of journal for the moment. I need to dig through some boxes and see if I can’t find some of my other notebooks. For now, this is what I have.
About the journal.
I wrote the journal across multiple notebooks and I have the first notebook right now, which I titled “What’s Up!” (I wrote this at the top of every page), and I started writing the journal on October 11, 1997, one day before my 14th birthday. Hopefully, I’ll find more of my notebooks later. This first notebook was a single subject notebook with a blue cover. The cover is gone now and the pages are barely holding onto each other with the binding. In the beginning of the journal, it was not that deep. Typically entires consisted of a sentence or two, often quotes from me or my friends from that day. Sort of like documenting teenage shenanigans and silly things we said. Eventually, I branched out to discussing the events of the day in a single paragraph, but it was still just documenting things. After a few years, I finally started writing down my feelings as well.
But enough blabber, let’s get to a few entires.
Journal Entries.
Sunday, May 23, 1999
“Becky Perry the devil.” — Big Mama.
…
“Nasty!” — Amy Dowdy.
…
Let’s not forget the spoons!
Mama says, “The spoons the devil.” Mama usually not wrong about these things.
…
Yeah, yeah, Zach is great. Yeah, yeah, Zach is good. What if Zach was one of us? Just a slob like one of us.
Notes — Not sure why there are a bunch of Big Mama and Mama references. Teen nonsense, no doubt. Fact check: Becky Perry is not actually the devil according to multiple, credible sources. Community note: That’s debatable. Amy Dowdy was good people and we were both goofy together, as life should be. Fact check: Spoons are the devil according to a report from MSNBC. Community note: Mama usually not wrong about these things. Good ol’ Zach getting the old “What if God was One of Us” by Joan Osborne treatment.
Saturday, May 29, 1999
School is out! Everybody was crying yesterday because Mr. Elsea is going to Popular Bluff.
Notes — Mr. Elsea was my choir teacher at the Junior High my freshman year, and he was just an overall good dude. He had a passion for music and especially show tune style stuff — we did a Lion King medley at the spring choir concert. I had a trio part in “The Circle of Life” that I bombed because of nerves, I opened my mouth and almost nothing came out. I hadn’t discovered I was a performer yet. Mr. Elsea was one of those teachers who could inspire you to do great things. He went to Popular Bluff, Missouri, to be their principal. A year later, he came back to watch our spring concert. After the concert, friends excitedly informed me he was in the audience. I rushed out to see him and as I walked up on the jovial dude, he saw me and said, “I hear your quitting choir.” My friends had already informed him I hadn’t signed up for choir for my junior year. I remember looking at my friends before responding, like, “really?” The reason behind me quitting choir was that the choir director at the high school was kind of a dick and often threw temper tantrums. He took all the joy out of music for me. I explained myself briefly, and he gave me a heart-felt speech about music and I wish I could remember the exact words of encouragement he gave me, but they escape me. But as I recall it was about reminding me about my love for music and doing what I wanted to do, and encouraging me to pursue music with passion. It worked. I stayed in choir through the rest of high school, though it did mean sitting through more temper tantrums. If you’re reading this Mr. Elsea, thank you for the music and always speaking from your heart.
Saturday, June 5, 1999
Tonight’s 70’s night! Wahoo!
Notes — This was my first reference to the Saturday night 70s radio show I listened to all through high school. It was a syndicated radio show out of Chicago that started at 7pm on Saturday nights and played for three hours. Every week a countdown was done that involved the Top 10 songs of that weekend from a year during the 1970s. It would take the whole show to get to the number one song of that week. A lot of repeat stuff was played, but the countdown always introduced me to new and obscure stuff. The radio show is what got me hooked on 70s music and eventually fashion as well. By the time I graduated high school, I had a lot of polyester in my wardrobe and knew a lot of 70s music.
I’m going to sign off by saying that I would appreciate it if you let me know if you like these teen journal entires and if you’d like more. Especially because doing more means me digging through boxes. I think I have at least one more notebook, but it’s possible something may have happened to it through the years causing me to throw it out and I don’t remember. So this may be a lost cause, I’m not sure. I have enjoyed this process though.
And here’s an obscure song I discovered through that 70’s radio show that I loved. It’s cheesy and fun. It’s “Ariel” by Dean Friedman.
