Junior Year

The summer before my junior year I started dating a little more. The summer was filled with the usual; parties, movies, dances, Surf n Swim, volleyball, tubing at Bear Lake, just lots of fun. 

My junior year started with a dilemma.  I got asked to Homecoming by a boy that I didn't want to go with.  He was a really nice, funny kid, but not someone I was interested in dating.  I knew there was another boy that had been thinking about asking me, so I reached out to let him know that if he wanted to ask me, he needed to do it right then.  That way, I was able to tell the first boy that I was going with someone else.  It didn’t stop the first boy though, he asked me to Senior Cotillion a few months later.  Maybe I should have just said yes the first time.  

The social aspect of my junior year was less about parties and more about going on dates.  My dad sat me down and had me make a list of all of the boys that I thought were cute, or interesting or that I would like to get to know better.  There were more than 30 boys on the list, lol.  Obviously, my dad didn’t want me dating just one boy, and it worked.  It was fun getting to know lots of different boys and going on lots of dates, but it kinda turned into a bit of a soap opera.  I was interested in one boy more than the others.  He had dark hair, was 6’3” and a guard on the basketball team (sound familiar?)  I loved going to watch him play basketball.  His dad didn’t love him hanging out with me though because he didn’t want his son to lose focus during the basketball season.  One night, we were sitting out on the porch at my house talking.  It was a little after midnight.  His dad pulled up, got out of the car and said, “Matt, you better beat me home.”  We said goodbye and he left quickly.  We had an on/off relationship over the next 2 years.  He was the 3rd boy I kissed.

Academically, I had another great year and especially loved my AP U.S. History class.  I continued to be part of Lace and was in the musical, “Singing in the Rain.”   I enjoyed going with my friends to the football and basketball games.  We would often go to “Garcias” after the games for virgin margaritas.  I loved to dance, so we went to lots of “stomps.”  At one stomp, a boy asked me to dance during every slow song.  He told me to listen to the radio when I got home because he dedicated a song to me, “Love at First Sight.”  I wouldn’t date him, because he wasn’t a member of the church, but we became really good friends.   Eventually, we invited him to take the discussions and he got baptized!

Spiritually, I was striving hard.  I wasn’t perfect, but trying and repenting when necessary.  Each night, I would think back over the day to identify ways I could improve and needed to repent.   I really enjoyed seminary and firesides and did my best to invite my friends to spiritual activities.  I still went to our weekly yw activities, attended church and prayed and read my scriptures daily.

I was really blessed to have a car to drive during high school.  It gave me lots of freedom, but, reading through my journals, it seemed like I was a free uber driver.  I drove lots of people all over the place.  During Christmas that year, my friends and I decided to do the “12 days of Christmas” for about 10 boys we thought were cute.  We had so much fun making and delivering treats to our friends for 12 days.

During the spring, the cutest, most popular boy in school asked me to the Junior Prom.  His name was Robb.  He showed up dressed in a suit and tie holding one red rose, got down on a knee and asked if I would go to the prom with him.  I think I just about fainted, I had had a crush on him since the 6th grade.  We were good friends, but never in a million years did I think he would ask ME to prom.  It was a dream come true and I had a pep in my step for the next month.  Unfortunately, the date didn’t go as well as I had hoped.   I was too nervous and twitterpated to even talk to him like a normal person.  We had fun, but after the dance, I fell asleep while watching a movie.  He got a small peck and a thank you at the doorstep.  

I also went back to California with Lace that March.  We did all the usual stuff like Sea World, Disneyland, etc, but this time, we also went deep sea fishing.  I got so seasick that I wanted to die.  The rest of the trip was fun and fabulous as usual.  That year, I tried out for Laytones and made it for senior year, hooray!

When we got back from Cali, I picked up a petition in the office because I decided that I wanted to be a student body officer for my senior year.  Mindy ran for President, Matt for VP, and I ran for secretary.  We all won!   After the election, the 3 of us got to interview and pick our cabinet.  The next few weeks were a lot of fun, we had a leadership conference and lots of meetings.  One morning, we were kidnapped from our beds, blind-folded, driven around in the back of a truck, made to walk blind-folded through Layton Park and then pushed into the Surf n Swim pool.   Afterward we had a nice breakfast with the student body officers that were graduating.  It was way fun!

Even though school got out for summer, I still went to school almost every day through June.  I had Laytone practices and lots of meetings for SBOs.  Aside from the meetings, we would go change the marquee each week.    

Junior Prom

Morp

Senior Cotillion

Harvest

Deep Sea Fishing