Show and Tell - Worst School Pictures!

It’s Show and Tell Tuesday with Andrea at Momfessionals and today it is all about sharing our WORST school picture….ummm…that would be pictures for me! I decided to focus only on myself today and take a little walk down memory lane instead of embarrassing any of my offspring!

I started off on the right foot! Here I am in kindergarten with my long blonde hair and baby teeth. I was still halfway confident enough to smile naturally and school pictures were non stressful. This is probably my favorite school picture ever! I love my memories of kindergarten.

The downfall all began when a daughter of one of my mom’s friends whom I really looked up to cut her long hair into a pixie cut and I decided I wanted my hair the same way. Kimberly Cunningham was tall and pretty and could play tether ball like no other so in 1st grade I talked my mom into this haircut and it wasn’t terrible and I was still able to smile. The haircut, however, seemed to cause my hair to begin to be unruly. It was the mid 70’s and Dorothy Hamill was skating in the Olympics and I had to have “the do” so for 2nd and 3rd grade I rocked it. Oh 4th grade, what a turning point for me as this was my very last picture without glasses. On to 5th grade, I mean, I needed to see but did the glasses really need to be the only focal point here?!! My hair was still kind of crazy and unruly and oh what a round brush or flat iron may have done for me! I am Carly Jo’s age here but to me I look so much more mature. As if the glasses were not enough, I also added braces at the end of 5th grade. You can see in 6th grade I began to look rather unsure of myself but oh how I loved that plaid shirt! It was a popover style and I’m pretty sure it was Gloria Vanderbilt! But of course, I have saved the best for last…….

Peer pressure struck and I NEEDED my glasses, I mean look at my pupils!! I just wanted one picture in my favorite Izod shirt NOT wearing those hideous glasses but y’all, I couldn’t see the camera or the photographer. Here I am looking all googly eyed with my still unruly hair and my braces. This picture is proof that a mom only sees you on the inside and thinks you are always beautiful because not only did she continue to display this picture in my home, she also gave it to my grandparents to display in theirs! To make it even better my brother wore the same shirt for his 5th grade picture this year and he still to this day will tease me about this picture!

Walking down memory lane isn’t always sunshine and roses. When I look back at some of these pictures on the surface they seem awkward and geeky and a little shy but if I really think about my time from 1st to 7th grade I remember so much laughter and silliness. Slumber parties and skating rinks and summers at the softball park. Parents who loved me and thought I was smart and tried to instill work ethic and good values. Childhood years when I was free to just be me before peer pressure and self awareness creeped in. Sometimes I feel like I am so much more like the girl in these pictures on the inside now than I was during many of the years in between. Wow, that was getting a little deep!

Last August I wrote all about Who I was in High School and Katy and I would LOVE for you to join us back here next Tuesday to share your school day memories and what you might tell your younger self as part of the Spiel the Beans with the Queens linkup party!