Sarah Speciale:
CLASS OF 1996
Moon Valley High SchoolClass of 1996
Phoenix, AZ
Toulon High SchoolClass of 1996
Toulon, IL
Sunnyslope High SchoolClass of 1994
Phoenix, AZ
Roosevelt Junior High SchoolClass of 1992
Wichita, KS
Toulon - Lafayette Elementary SchoolClass of 1988
Toulon, IL
Sarah's Story
Life
I have been married for 5 years and have 1 son and 1 stepson. I spend a lot of time playing 'chauffer' to and from their various activities. After many, many years in academia I have decided to work from home to make life easier on the kids...I can always complete my academic endeavors when they are a little older. I have a ton of hobbies...and they tend to be a little on the 'Martha Stewart' side lately. I've done a TON of home projects...I'm constantly thinking of something new to do. I really enjoy hanging out with friends, having intelligent conversation, and enjoying a good bottle of wine. I typically avoid people I went to high school with because I think I had a brain deficit back then, especially when it came to judgement of character. However, there are a few exceptions.
School
I don't really remember who my 'biggest crush' was...though judging from the boys I knew back then I'm sure whoever it was wasn't worth my time. I received absolutely no inspiration from any one of my high school teachers. Of course, it's really hard to inspire someone else when you yourself have no inspiration to speak of. There were teachers that inspired me when I was younger however, and most of them were in Telluride. I had such a tough time there, especially with other students, and they knew it and tried to help. I'd say from 5th Grade and up to 11th were probably the worst years of my life. However, I am fairly certain that I would do it over again because if it wasn't for those years, I wouldn't have the perspective on life that I do now. One of the craziest things that happened to me in school was when the principal at Telluride Elementary (Gordon) put almost my entire 5th grade class in in-school suspension for making fun of me. I know the principal was trying to help, but I was even more unpopular after that than I was before!
College
You could say that I've spent my years since high school touring every major university in Arizona. I've attended U of A, ASU Main and West, and a few junior colleges. Through most of that time my major was Anthropology. I got to assist for a semester with the fascinating work that gets done at the Bioarchaeology Lab at the Arizona State Museum, and I think that was the highlight of my college years. Although I must confess, I was a little creeped out by the 'bone closet'. Going on digs was the most fun. Another highlight was going to my brothers gigs and watching his band perform. They were great, and I still listen to their CD! I was lucky enough to avoid the 'unique roommate' scenario because I had my own apartment off-campus. U of A had a ton of different restaurants on and off campus that took your CatCard, so cafeteria food wasn't a problem either. I was certainly hooked on caffeine t...Expand for more
hroughout college! I was never so wrapped up in partying that I didn't have my papers done (and edited once or twice) well in advance of any deadlines. Once I got married and had a son was when I did most of my school hopping...mostly because of locations and changing majors. I recently decided to put off any further academic endeavors until my son is older. He and my stepson are my priorities, and what's best for them comes before anything else. My husband makes enough money for us to keep me at home and our children out of daycare.
Workplace
My career has so far been my children and my academic pursuits. However, I have worked jobs here and there to make ends meet when money was tight.
Right after high school, I worked at a daycare in Telluride. I got to watch some famous people's kids, which was cool. I also saw that daycare is really not a place that you should be sending your children to be raised. Not because we didn't do a good job, but because so many of those children missed their parents terribly and were starved for attention! It was really heartbreaking and made me realize what a lot of the kids I went to school with there when I was a child must have faced growing up. It certainly killed any resentment I still had towards my old classmates! I think the worst one was the son of the VP of a major global corporation. The daycare was where his NANNY dropped him off when he needed to run errands. This boy's father worked for probably one of the coolest places a kid could want their dad to work for, but he was absolutely miserable, and I never saw him with his dad.
Next, I worked as a cashier at a grocery store in Telluride. Then, I worked at one in Kansas. Living there is what motivated me to go to college!
In my first years of college I worked weekends at a record store. It was mostly for money to feed my frenzied addiction to CD's and vinyl. I also enjoyed the employee discount. They dealt in new and used merchandise, so we did get some very interesting customers looking to sell things that weren't always related to music. I really loved the phone calls of "Do you know the guy who sang that one song that was a hit a few years back?" My favorite was when someone asked me "Can you tell how many times a CD has been played by looking at it?"
When I was pregnant, I worked for a temp agency as a secretary. That cemented for me that I would never take a job as someone's pee-on ever again!
The last job I had was for the Post Office as a Data Entry Clerk. It was great money, but the whole position was completely mired in B.S. I worked there for a little over 2 years. Both of those years, I don't think I once had a holiday off or breathed in any fresh air in the month preceeding Christmas.
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Reunions
Register for Free to view all events!
Photos