Throwback time!!

Gentle readers, it has recently come to my attention that you have followed me throughout my college experience, but you don't know where I came from. So now we shall embark on a journey to a place called Summerville, South Carolina, where it all started.

But luckily for you, the first 14 years of my life are not particularly significant. You only need to know a few things: I swam, sang, danced, and acted. I went to Rollings Middle School of the Arts for Creative Writing (that major is now defunct...our class was the last class to have that option available.) Going into 8th grade, I decided I was going to do things MY way, and I didn't care what anyone else thought of me. Enter uber-preppy Laura, who dressed according to "The Four Essential Preppy P's": pink, polka dots, polos, and pearls. Mind you, this sort of behavior was taboo at my middle school--cliques were so pervasive that they literally ruled our lives. There's even a period in 7th grade that is now referred to as "The Clique Wars," which was really just a huge uprising of the geeks (my group, though I had a few "popular" friends) and the popular kids trying to maintain the status quo. However, it got so out of hand that our principals became involved. But I digress.

A typical outfit in 8th grade

The most significant event in my life up to that point happened 3 days into my freshman year of high school. My best friend, Michael, died from neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of leukemia. I was devastated. However, I pressed on with my life, insisting nothing was wrong. Michael and me in the Creative Writing classroom in 8th grade

Preppy Laura stuck around through sophomore year. I was a sweet little church girl, a straight-A student, your average 14/15/16-year-old kid. My closest friends were girls I went to church with, and we all hung out on the weekends, doing things like going to the movies or going out to dinner. We thought we were being edgy when we listened to bands like The Scene Aesthetic, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and Jack's Mannequin. I liked boys who were football players and I ran cross country and track. I had an on-and-off boyfriendishthing named Jake who was the epitome of what Preppy Laura liked--3rd in his class (and fighting to be Valedictorian), went to church with me, Commander in ROTC, on the track team, drove a nice car, tall. I dated a lot of other guys besides Jake, but he is still the most significant man during that time in my life. Basically, I was about as clean-cut and All-American as you could get. Me at 15 in a pretty standard look (note the Vera Bradley purse and monogram necklace)

April of my sophomore year, though, my dad died unexpectedly from a massive stroke. This, combined with having to quietly deal with Michael's death for the past year and a half, and again compounded with the stress of my tumultuous relationship with Jake, pushed me over the edge. It was a very dark time in my life, but that time gave way to the person I remember as the ACTUAL High School Laura.

High School Laura liked classic rock music, black nail polish, and bottles of hair dye in various colors. I was not as edgy as this probably makes me sound, but I was certainly much edgier than before. I went for the vintage look instead of the standard uniform of a polo, jeans, and flip flops. I wore printed miniskirts (which I was often sent to In-School Suspension for), skinny jeans, flats, and floaty, romantic tops. I quit cross country in favor of focusing on dance (I later joined Summerville's first dance team), and I turned up my nose at the typical "southern" lifestyle. My best friends and I grew apart, and eventually we barely spoke at all. My academic performance also tanked--even though I was president of Beta Club, I was failing half of my classes by December of my junior year. Luckily, that changed with the threat of community college, and soon, I was back on my straight-A track. It was also during this time that my taste in men changed significantly. Instead of the typical Alpha Male, I was into scruffy musician types who spent their free time chain-smoking cigarettes at Starbucks, skulking around downtown Charleston, or writing songs with their band. My most significant relationship, by far, was with a guy named Alex. He was the epitome of the kind of man I liked, and it didn't hurt that he was also wildly intelligent. He eventually broke my heart (broke up with me 2 days after prom--nice), but luckily, that only made me focus even more on both school and dance.
Junior year prom night (sorry, I had to crop out Alex)

My breakup with Alex didn't just change how I felt inside, though--I decided to change my outward appearance as well. I had my cartilage pierced (the upper part of my ear) and dyed my hair blonde. Alex hated blondes, except Heidi Klum, but everyone loves Heidi Klum. By February of senior year, though, I was done with Blonde Laura (and the $180 bill at the salon every time I needed a touch-up). I went back to brunette, and started focusing on my future at college.

Typical Blonde Laura--black nail polish, goofy face. PS I was going to my 18th birthday dinner with my then-boyfriend...I don't know why I thought a ponytail was an appropriate hairstyle choice.

One of my favorite pictures of me during my blonde phase

But I don't need to go through the college thing, because this blog chronicles my time at USC. So there you have it--my life in a nutshell. I was a church kid, then a hipster kid, then a blonde, and then a brunette again.

But I still like my scruffy men and black nail polish.

Keep it classy and fabulous!
xoxo, Laura