High School High

One of the stories I was busy with last week was a profile Bethany Griffin, a Louisville area high school teacher who recently had her first book published. The book, titled Handcuffs, is a young adult novel written specifically for teen girls, but it has such great character development that I believe it should be on the reading lists of grown-up girls too.

During my research for the profile (which you can check out by clicking here) I talked to one of Griffin’s former teachers whose class introduced Griffin to some of the best young adult literature. She told me that at the end of the class she would always challenge her students to try to one day write a young adult novel of their own. She said she would tell them, “Now, every one of you has a young adult novel in you. Your own life story is a young adult novel,” and before I got off the phone with her she challenged me to pen a young adult novel as well.

I’m not sure if my story would make the bestseller list though. High school for me was very atypical. While most people have a major identity crisis in high school as they struggle to fit in, it was during my high school years that I learned it was okay to just be me. I went to a high school for art geeks and math and science nerds and it taught me that being smart was cool. I also made the greatest group of friends a girl could ask for and we’re still tight today.

Don’t get me wrong, I had plenty of teen angst between boyfriend drama and my worries over my family’s financial woes. But I wonder if anyone would connect with my nerdy story.

What about you? Tell me about your high school years.