About being President

First, a note about being class president. Really, when I got into it, it was just as a lark: Senior year started, and the morning announcements were done by one of the secretaries, and were very dry, but I remembered the year before (which I entered 1/4 of the way through) a student got to do them. So I inquired about who gets to do this, and found out it's a duty of the Senior Prez. Oh, I wanted to do those announcements.

The campaign was wild - I took marketing to a whole new level - posters everywhere, my name in the cafeteria on 3 foot high letters, bedsheet-sized signs hung out windows. Pure insanity, and somehow I got people to notice enough that the voter turnout went WAY up and I got into a runoff with Jeaner - my old best friend.

I don't really remember the runoff very well - It was an assembly and I had a few minutes to speak. I don't remember the speech, but it was probably a "vote for me because I'm NOT cool" sort of "revenge of the nerds" screed. And it worked. When I won, I lept up and yelled "This is the happiest day of my life", and it was, actually.

But getting back, I didn't really know what the job WAS, either. I was only in it for the announcements. Turns out there were a few more duties. I knew about the duty of making and showing a Senior Movie. Check. But apparently this also put my parents on the hook for running the Senior Night Party. AND it put me up to organizing reunions - which was something I didn't learn until much later.

Fortunately, my parents were able to corral their friends and put together maybe one of the greatest senior night parties ever - dinner at the Freight house in Stillwater, then all night bowling and dancing at the Diamond Lake Lanes with giveaways... I'm still amazed at what they pulled together, and because they knew I was such a blabbermouth, I was not involved in the least lest I give it all away.

Reunions... I totally whiffed on that. At five, I was a nervous wreck of a being, dancing at First Ave nightly, being in a band, and being dumped by a girl I was sort of engaged to. Thankfully Pamela came along the next year and we started straightening eachother out.

At 10, I just completely missed the concept. So when 20 came along, the reunion committee contacted ME, and by the time I got involved, they had it all planned. So I have made a vow that for the next one (be it 25 or 30) I'll be in the lead, and they can count on me to take them on out to 50.

So that's the President story: And let it be a lesson to others - read the fine print. On the other hand, I had a GREAT time doing those morning announcements. I bought a xylophone and did little 80's synthpop melodies (I just can't get enough, Nobody's diary) to start them. Then a fake announcement, then the real ones. So every day I came up with my melody and my joke.

Fortunately, i have totally outgrown my need to express myself in such a manner. HA!!!!