I only now realize how fortunate I was to attend Calgary’s Lord Beaverbrook High School. I don’t recall an awareness of its comparatively large size nor the breadth of what it had to offer; it was brand new the year before I started.

LBHS was enormous – my graduating class was nearly 500! In addition to the academics wings, there were studios for hairdressing, fashion and design, and shops for autobody, welding and construction (students even built a house in the shop!!). When I review the school’s site today I am astounded by even further expansion of this list.

For me it was more than mere “teasing”; it was both atmosphere and actions that set me apart… like these:

I attended Fairview Junior High for Grades 7, 8, and 9 – three years with a lot of social grief but also a lot of fun.

I remember nothing of the Honours program itself, but I do know that I developed my lifelong habits of writing and rewriting notes as a studying tool (I still go through reams of note paper) and making a list for everything (although now I call it a “bullet journal” and spend extra time making it look cool).

I can flash back to so many images: exchanging notes with my best friend during class, eyeing the boy I had a crush on, wearing cool elephant pants as I walked through the hallways, sitting in the art room, enjoying lemons during time-outs with my basketball team, enduring fingernail inspection in Home Ec class, walking with the girls to Health Class as the boys went separately to theirs.