School Photo Day: Oh the horror

The journey as I morphed from this adorable tot...

... to this adult version (hands down, the day I felt most beautiful - it's amazing what professional hair, makeup and photography can do for your self image) was not always a graceful one.

Wait, you say, this is supposed to be School Photo Day?  Well, that is true, but for my own pride I had to post those two images to counteract the pain of what comes next.

I was, like all of us, a cute baby and I have grown into a reasonably presentable semblance of human as an adult.  However, there were those terribly awkward years in between, painfully documented in that annual rite - the school photo day.  I never had cool clothes. I didn't know how to smile naturally.  I would wait for my turn in front of the cameras, in line with all my fellow students like lambs to the slaughter, inwardly practicing my best portrait smile.  This, of course, was a useless exercise because I didn't have a mirror.  The torturous process was made worse by the feeling that one was doing it in a fish bowl.  The whole class was standing there, probably thinking what I a dork I looked like, smiling my geeky smile.  For someone as shy as my childhood self, this was intolerable.  Ack! 

The portraits documenting my awkward progression through childhood were lovingly compiled and labeled by my mother, who I still haven't quite forgiven for those bangs:

These culminate in my senior yearbook portrait... my, my I was really working the supermodel pout there, wasn't I?

Those aren't so bad, you say?  Well, we always are harder on ourselves.  But it gets much, much better if you scroll down to the bottom.

There were informal yearbook photos too.

I was a cheerleader:

I was in the school play:

I was in the school choir, which is the only excuse for this getup:

But if there were a contest for awkward yearbook photos, this has got to be a top contender*.   Note the snarky comment inserted by a fellow student signing my yearbook:

* The year after this photo appeared, I joined the yearbook club in order to have some chance to intercept the publication of any other humiliating photos.

* * *

So come on internets, if I'm willing to post a yearbook photo of me apparently picking my nose, you gotta give me what you got.  Join in and post a link to your site in the comments below.  No excuses if you don't have a picture available today.  It's now School Picture Week!  Follow my nose-picking lead and dig one out... then come back and post a comment in the next few days.  For more school photo fun, visit the sites of my co-hosts: Ironic Mom and EduClaytion.