High School Love 33

 in Hello Kitty / obsessions / Philippines by

Pink Think: “That smell of freshly cut grass makes me think of Friday night football in high school. The smell of popcorn…reminds me of the stadium. The cutting of the grass reminds me of the August practice.” – Garth Brooks

Even now, twenty-one years later, I still feel my heart race, and I am a high school student once again.

But my husband hangs back, and looks uncomfortable. And my kids, they look uncomfortable, too. I decide to be kind and take them out of their misery. I tell Drew, “Honey, if you want, you can go somewhere else.”

“Okay,” he says, looking relieved.

So off go my husband and children, leaving me with someone I’ve loved since high school.

No, not a guy. Not even a human.

I am standing in a store full of Hello Kitty merchandise, a Sanrio store in a Utah mall. If you aren’t sure who Hello Kitty is, this is how she looks like:

***

I couldn’t afford Hello Kitty, growing up in the Philippines. Sometimes, my mother would give me a few pesos for my allowance, then turn right around and ask me for cash so we could buy gas for the car. I envied some of the wealthier girls in my high school, who carried around little Sanrio attache cases and little flimsy notebooks that probably didn’t hold more than a month’s worth of notes, but who cared, they were cute.

I contented myself with window-shopping at the Sanrio store, my eyes devouring the pink, purple and red stationery and dolls, the stickers, note paper and envelopes.

***

I rediscovered Hello Kitty last year. For National Novel Writing Month in November, I came up with rewards to motivate me to meet my daily word goal so I could finish a 50,000-word novel in a month. I found the Sanrio store in the phone book, and bought a little stamp pad and stamps I could put on each day I made my goal. While I was at the store, I also got myself a Hello Kitty paper doll, a pencil case, and pens.

***

Today, I will not be buying anything. I am just content to browse and relive my girlish pleasure from high school. In a few minutes, I will call my husband and tell him I’m done.

A lady in the next aisle comments to her husband, sheepishly, “This store brings out the girl in me!”

I couldn’t agree with her more.

***
How about you, what is something you loved in high school that you love to this day?

Email, RSS Follow

33 thoughts on “High School Love”

  • Rita

    Hi, Pink,

    I found your comment through Barb Swafford’s blog. Are you a novelist? I am looking for 2 more authors for a book “I’m writing” in order to fulfill a Publishing contract.

    Interested, let me know!

    Rita at http://www.bloggrl.com

  • Big Plain V

    what is something you loved in high school that you love to this day?

    This is gonna sound bad, but I acquired my deep enduring passion for beer in high school.

    I’m legal now, though – and I can afford premium beers.

  • cat

    My blond hair. I dyed it religiously blond. I am now back to my mostly normal brown hair color, but I still dream of it being blond again.

    Thanks for stopping by my blog. 🙂

  • Pink Ink

    Q: Isn’t she??

    Rita: Hi! I posted a comment back on your blog. Shoot me an email (see left sidebar) sometime. Thanks.

    BPV: I’m legal now, too, and can afford Hello Kitty stuff. 🙂

    Cat: Go for it again, if it made you happy :-). I used to go blonde-ish, too. On me it was a disaster :-). Today, I go for some very light highlights here and there.

  • Janna Qualman

    Great post!

    Musical theatre is mine. Either watching videos of my performances (which my daughters love to dance to), or seeing live shows really takes me back to my senior year.

    If I weren’t a write, I’d do stuff on stage. 🙂

  • Her Shabbyness: Sweet 'n Southern

    What did I really love in high school that I love to this day? Hmm, that’s a hard one. High school kinda sucked for me. I would say cheer or gymnastics, but, a brutal injury my senior year ended that…Hmm… Well, I guess it was evident early on that I loved to write. My English teachers really encouraged me and I felt like I was good at it. All these years later, I don’t know how “good” I am, but, I still love it… Aww…

  • Marivic_Little GrumpyAngel

    I liked Sanrio, too. And like you I couldn’t afford to buy lots. But I had a small Hello Kitty notebook and a pen. But that was it. I tried to get my girl to like it when I became a Mom and could actually afford to buy somethings, but she didn’t get into it much. Is Little Twin Star a Sanrio thing, too? can’t remember now.

  • ~paulette

    well, nothing in HS, but when i was on my mission i found something very similar to hello-kitty. They were these innocent little girls and each page (in the stationary) would have a unique little saying on it. I loved them b/c they were obviously translated from their Chinese origon and the quotes were Sooo funny sounding when read in english. Like: “You are fire on me. You burn me.” HAHAHAHHA I wrote home on them every week (when i could afford a pad)

  • Pink Ink

    Wendi: Glad to see you here. Yeah, I can imagine the Hello Kitty-ness of your household. Around here, my daughters aren’t interested, just me :-).

    Janna: Hi again 🙂 I would have loved to perform, too, but I was too shy in high school. Now that I’m more of an extrovert, there’s no time :-). But I will be taking up a dance class soon…

    Her Shabbyness: Hello! *an injury* Must have made for an interesting senior year. I loved my English classes, too, especially my last years when we focused on lit, not grammar.

    Merianne and Rita: Your comments made me smile 🙂

    S. William: “Hi” back, and come again.

    Marivic: Little Twin Star sounds familiar, I think it’s Sanrio. I haven’t heard that phrase in a long while; makes me homesick!

    Paulette: Yeah, don’t you just love those translations!! My husband served a mission in So. Korea, and he noticed the same thing.

  • A Paperback Writer

    Hello Kitty is not really my style — and it certainly wasn’t popular at my high school. I probably would’ve liked it as a grade schooler, but I don’t think it existed in the dark ages.
    I do, however, understand the motivational factor in “cute” notebooks and stickers. I allow myself to buy “cute” spiral-bound notebooks in bright colors and patterns for notes, outlines, rough drafts, research, etc. — even though they run about 6 bucks and I could buy a Mead notebook for a quarter. I’m much more motivated to use a cute notebook, so it’s worth the extra money to me. (Mead notebooks I use for note-taking in classes, though– the non-creative stuff.)
    What did I love in high school that I still love now?
    That’s easy: the Beatles, Monty Python, and Tolkien.
    My friends and I wore black to school when Lennon was shot in 1980. And we were obsessed with Tolkien (long before the movies ruined the plot of LOTR, but we liked the Silmarillion and all the poetry as well). We also had handwritten scenes from MP and the Holy Grail up in our lockers — in a day before VCRs or the internet (to look up scripts). We simply went to the movie over and over again until we memorized it.
    I still love all those things — but I’m not a big fan of the LOTR movies. (They did some parts well but ruined so much of the story and some characters.)

  • Shari

    Love your new look, Jewel.

    As for high school, I’m with Rita, graduating.

    Keep me posted on your possible novelist publishing thing.

  • Monika Mundell

    Hi Pink,

    I love Hello Kitty stuff. I grew up in Switzerland so I never knew her until I visited Bangkok for the first time many years ago.

    Like you, I fell in love with the little icon and it brought the girl out in me as well.

    As for high school memories, hmmm, not sure what reminds me of that time. It has been a long while.

    I suppose the closest would be the music of the 80s. They bring me right back to the days of hair gel, black clothing and those leg covers we used to wear. Hilarious!

  • Laurel

    I love Hello Kitty! And have liked it sense I was a small girl 🙂 I always like going in the Hello Kitty store because of all the pink.

    I am only a Freshmen so I don’t know what I like just yet 🙂

  • Ari Koinuma

    Some parts of me definitely haven’t changed since high school. I still listen to — wait, I listen to heavier and more profane music than I did back then! 😉 I thought I was supposed to grow up?

    ari

  • Pink Ink

    Shirley: Really? On second thought, that really doesn’t surprise me. You should prepare a number for the next conference :-).

    PW: I love fun colored notebooks, too. I’ve amassed several over the last few years. Love Monty Python, too.

    Shari: Thanks! I’ll email you.

    Monika: Welcome! How interesting… Switzerland, then Bangkok. Japanese art/Sanrio is fun, isn’t it? Like you, I light up when I find good 80s CDs. I have a collection of them.

    Laurel: Aren’t we lucky to have a Sanrio store around? Tell your mom let’s go shopping sometime 🙂

    Ari: Thanks for stopping by :-). I peeked…you have a neat blog. I’ll visit longer sometime. As for growing up, I think it’s sometimes overrated :-).

  • Lance

    Me, well…I’ll probably pass on Hello Kitty….

    I like the way you write Pink! It’s different, and that’s cool (and awesome)!

  • Pink Ink

    Lance: Yeah, I know HK is not for everyone :-). And thanks for your kind words.

    Heather: It’s impossible to sneak in a Hello Kitty purchase around here; I can’t even say, “it’s for the girls” :-).

  • AudreyO

    We love high school football games. I wondered where your post was going. One of my daughter’s went through a hello kitty phase. I’m Audrey from the mom blogs.

  • Pink Ink

    Audrey: Thanks for saying hi! We’ve done a lot of sports around here in our house, but football hasn’t been one of them yet. But I know many families, their lives revolve around that 🙂

    Elizabeth: I googled it; very cute,and yes, it’s similar to HK.

Comments are closed.