Instead of more reminiscing and catching up with an old friend... I got to play high school counselor, coach, pre-op therapist, post-trauma empathizer and, oh by the way... I took some pictures, too.
Let's dig in.
From my angle, when LDF-SEMCO Class of 1990 classmate Heather (Daters) Hopper called to book her step-daughter's senior pics, naturally, I thought that maybe it would be a chance for "Date" and I to catch up on 20 years (ok... it's been 25... but who's counting?? Besides, I've bumped into Heather occasionally when East meets West in the battle of Marshalls that are connected by U.S. Highway 30. Regardless, it's always fun for me to put on my old sports writer's hat and talk old softball stories with arguably the best softball player in a long line of great ones to take the diamond in LeGrand.
As it turned out however, Heather's hubby, Chad brought his daughter Morgan in for her session a few weeks ago... so chances are... Morgan's session avoided the inevitable hi-jacking by history... and instead... the focus shifted solely on our Trojan bombshell... which is probably how it should be anyway.
Papa Chad did his duty (paying for it, of course!) and then opted to stay out of the way and Morgz and I got after our task at hand. And just because her step-mom wasn't there to get "interviewed" by the old sports writer... doesn't mean that my journalistic hat got taken off... oh no... not by a long shot.
I found out right out of the gate that Morgan was still smarting from seeing her high school volleyball career come to a close just the night before her senior session.
Deep down, even though her heart ached to see it come to an end, when the brackets come out around these parts, and one sees the words "Grundy" and "Center" on the line next to your team's name... it more often times than not means you're taking a 180 and exiting stage left.
It doesn't make it any easier however.
Thinking back to my own experiences in high school... it's a tough thing to take that uniform off for the last time... no matter when it occurs. So I understood completely.
My job then was to get Morgan pumped up to put on 3 difference senior picture "uniforms" and get excited about what we saw through the senior picture windshield, rather than looking through the rear view mirror.
Nevertheless, Morgan did get me up to speed with how her final volleyball campaign had gone. There was no way to avoid it, really because in just two days there was going to be a big reminder of how things went.
And before you bring up the fact that I just mentioned her season had ended the night before... let me finish.
As it turns out, one game into Morgan's senior season... will all of her hopes and dreams still on the table the volleyball gods served up a proverbial spike to the face as she damaged her patella tendon.
Over one half of her season was lost in recovery... and eventually surgery was scheduled to repair the mess in her knee and with "thanks" to Grundy Center... that scheduled surgery could proceed just 48 hours after I met Miss Morgan.
Talk about a busy week in a senior's life!
It's been several days since that surgery, and I'm hoping by now that she's feeling much better... and looking forward to big things like her final semester at school... graduation and maybe pursuing a nursing degree at DMACC next year!
All that being said... I would be remiss if I didn't razz Morgan just a little bit about another thing we have in common... broken noses.
Granted it's been awhile for her... and even LONGER for me... but we both have had our schnozes altered by blunt force trauma.
Evidently HER recovery went far better than mine as the proof is in the pudding when you take a look at this blondie and then get a load of a profile from this author... but this blog would not be complete without kidding Morgan about running into a TREE when she was in 6th grade. I'm not sure HOW this came out, and WHY she chose to indulge this tasty little tidbit with someone she knew may broadcast it to the world wide web... but I'm glad she did... and I'm glad she came to my studio for senior images... even if she didn't bring my old friend with her.
Thanks Team Hopper!
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