Wayfarer's Journal

Speaking of Changes in Life

147 Comments

Speaking of life changes. There is, perhaps, no bigger change in life than the ones you make during adolesence. I recently found my Jr. High and High School I.D.s in an old album. Check out the change over six years. I also want to be sure to point m’boy Clayton to my Junior year in high school when I was growing a righteous mullet. The only problem was that my hair was so curly when it grew out that I couldn’t get it to hang straight down the way it was supposed to. True story: When my mullet was at its longest I went to the bank one day. I opened the door for an elderly gentleman who was shuffling slowly into the bank at the same time. “Why thank you young lady,” he said to me. I got my hair cut that afternoon and never looked back. C’est la vie.

My School I.D.s from 7th through 12th Grade

147 thoughts on “Speaking of Changes in Life”

  1. Tom…. Loved seeing the photos when you were at Hoover. During those years we lived two blocks from Hoover! Terry van D

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  5. I think you still look like you. I have saved my IDs for over 10 years so I have them spanning from 18 when I started college to age 30…..ok so maybe 12 years!

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  6. My husband has his college in our top bathroom drawer. Not sure how that drawer became it’s home, but I chuckle when I see it. His student number is his social security number printed across the top of the car. Ah the old days.

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  7. Hi i have similar problem that every year my face has change and variation have comes in my body i m very upset , because when i wan in University then i have fall in love but at that time my face is in black stage so i have lose , this years my face is middle white but i know next year is completely black just like dark color

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  11. LOL…. now I know when someone opens the door for me, I’ll just say “Thank you.” and not add “Miss” or “Sir” or whatever. 😀 I might assume a man to be a lady LOL

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  13. I’ve grown to appreciate the transformations from then to now ID photos depicts. The pictures were usually spontaneous. In my teens I use to tear up old pictures, because, I never taught I looked good enough in them. Thank God, gone are those days.

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  16. I have 4 kids and 3 of them are in their teens. My oldest child will turn 17 at the end of the month..it makes me think WTH?? WHere DID the time go?? I can’t wait to see what she’ll look like 25 yrs from now when her 25th high school reunion come around. Enjoyed your post 🙂

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    1. The good news, Eva, is that you were not alone in the “train wreck” years! I don’t know if I would call myself “brave.” “Shameless” might be a better adjective! Thanks for stopping by!

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  20. Thank you for sharing your story with us, it was great and I enjoyed reading it. It really is fun looking at how much your life (and your looks) have changed over the years.
    And thanks again for sharing your story! Cheers

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  22. What a fun post! Illustrating your growth through your IDs was really cool.

    The gentleman’s comment reminded me of a few years ago when I got a haircut with different layers than my usual. A friend of mine said, “Wow! You look like an 80’s rockstar!” That night I literally had nightmares that I had a mullet. The very next day, I got the cut fixed.

    Congrats on being FPed!

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  23. I am very happy that you saved these. Now you just need to mail them to me while I find other people with old school IDs and then I can wallpaper my laundry room in style!

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    1. It is incredible, isn’t it? Some of my favorite photos are of great-grandparents and family members I never knew, but the photo capture them and a moment in time that I somehow get to share through the photograph. Thanks for stopping by and for the comment.

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      1. Yeah, I try to imagine life without photography and it really must have been all about the stories and the objects that helped tell that story. It must have given people such a wealth of heritage once photography got on it’s way.

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  26. What a great story! And what a master you are of the short, sweet, and to the point post. Thanks for sharing the ID’s – would that we all held on to our grey-less hair, and our unlined faces. I’d dig my own ID’s out, yet I already know they show my progression through late-80’s, early-90’s high fashion, consisting of ever higher bangs and electric blue eyeliner. You’ve taken me on a trip down my own memory lane, simply by reading. Thank you!

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    1. Ha! Thanks. Funny you should say that. I did have the experience of being in movie my sophomore year (I made IMDB!). The signature did continue to transform, as well – though the senior signature is pretty close to what it is today.

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  37. Hi Tom, that’s an absolutely great post !
    You were a handsome young boy. I can see you growing up! This gave me an idea to start preserving my 5-year old’s ID’s. I am already regretting throwing away the first one from last year.

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  42. I don’t use LOL but I have to for your story. I had a horrible bowl cross bob hair cut my dad gave me before high school started which made me look like a boy. I’m sure a few people thought I was one, even though my name is Olivia 🙂

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  44. You look like my Homecoming date from Sophomore year in your 82-83 photo. He was cute! Granted I was born in 84 so I guess that would have been frowned upon for you to accompany me to Homecoming in 1999. I just blogged about the more colorful signatures from my yearbooks and this reminded me of it!

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    1. Ha! Well, I hope it was a good date! Yes, it would have been a little awkward had you brought a 33 year old date to Homecoming, but think about what a great blog post THAT would have made twelve years later!! Thanks, Miss MM!

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  53. Damn man. You’re photogenic. Every time I look at one of my ol’ school ID pics, I barf. :p True story. Perhaps I could blog on that. Why I will never be on any ‘Most Wanted Lists’ because that would require putting up a picture of me and no one will be able to stomach that. Hmm. 😀

    Nice post 🙂

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  56. Just think. We change so much every year, but for those of us born over four decades ago, we imagine we look the same for the past 20 years.

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  61. It’s also interesting to watch your signature evolve over time. I remember consciously trying to come up with a “cool” autograph when I was in third grade. I figured I’d need it, what with my destiny as a world-famous guitar player.

    Middle through high school was about ten years later than for you, but being an Indiana hilljack doofus, I also rocked the mullet (or Mudflap, Camaro-cut, Sho-Lo, etc.) for about four of those seven years. My best friend had a Soccer Rocker (permed in back). One kid had a mull-hawk for a while. We were corndogs. Punk rock changed our lives.

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  62. I love your post! I kept some of my middle school / high school IDs as well to look back on one day. Diggin’ the mullet that you had haha, it looked nice.

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  66. Pingback: Speaking of Changes in Life (via Wayfarer) « DanhTran :] A friend

    2. Yeah, much to younger girls dismay. To me, there is nothing like a nice hair cut and a cleanly shaved face. Adolescent boys always feel that high school and middle school is the time to explore how long they can grow the hair on their head and faces. (sigh)

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      1. Oh, you are so right. I have the stringy beard photos from my high school commencement to prove it! Of course, now I have the affectionate rewards of my wife to motivate the clean shaven face!

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  72. Wow — how do you still have all these? That’s crazy…but such fun post fodder!

    My mom chopped off my long hair when I was 6 years old…into a boy’s bowl cut. Seriously, it was awful … and that day, I was mistaken for a boy when we went out for dinner.

    I’ve never had short hair since!

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    1. Oh Mikalee, my daughters’ mother did the same thing to them when they were about 3 or 4. They had the same reaction as you and have had beautiful long hair ever since. They still groan about the photos of them with their “boy” cuts (though I have to admit they looked pretty adorable – but that’s just the dad in me).

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  76. Ha ha, what an excellent post 🙂
    The worst picture I have on any ID card that I currently own is on my NUS card, where the only picture I had of me facing directly forward, was also the one where I was holding a White Russian next to my face. People would always ask, ‘Why are you holding a glass of milk?’, which would then prompt me to need to explain that it was in fact a delicious, frothy alcoholic beverage, cue raised eyebrows and an evident ‘You’re an alcoholic’ kind-of-look passing across their faces.
    Epic, epic fail, my friend.

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  78. It’s always interesting to look back and how we changed not just physically, but watching our budding sophistication develop. Thanks for this post, Tom!

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    1. You’re so right, Alan. I think I know a few people who changed on the outside but their sophistication seemed to stop at about 13 years old. It’s good to look back on the road behind us and see how far we’ve come.

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  80. I had a similar experience over here in the UK in the early 70s. My hair went very wavy when i tried to grow it long. In a music shop a woman came up behaind me and said “Excuse me, young lady.” I left quick and felt so embarassed, but I think I stuck with the hair for a while longer. It’s funny how we change in photos and in the mirror yet we feel the same inside. I’m sure I’m still 14…..

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    1. Ha! Yes, I look at the gray hair and feel the rolling of the eyes as my children think me incredibly lame, but am enjoying life every bit as I did twenty or thirty years ago (enjoying it more, actually).

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