WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE A PENNRIDGE HIGH SCHOOLER IN THE 80’s

The decade of pop, blockbuster movies, and shoulder pads. Have you ever thought about what our school, Pennridge, was like during this iconic decade? What the students’ interests were and generally how people during this time spent their adolescence? Lucky enough for me, my mom, Stephanie Schmidt, graduated from Pennridge in the class of 1984. As a humblebrag, she was captain of the cheer squad, on the homecoming court, and voted the superlative of “most popular”. I got to talk to her about what life was like as a high school student of the ’80s compared to today. After the 70’s, tensions were high. Society felt shocked by events like the Vietnam War, Watergate, and social justice movements. However, the shape of the country turned around in the ’80s. Ronald Regan, who was a big-time movie star, became president, the debit card was popularized with the booming economy, and a new era of music was upon the time. I was curious to see what my mom would have to say about her life as a Pennridge student at this time. When asked about how pop culture influenced her life she said, “I remember doing an art class project on Madonna’s fashion choices. It included her fingerless gloves and bright red lipstick. MTV became huge; for the first time, people were getting visuals of music they loved. I remember all my friends listening to Prince as well.” Although today we have stars like the Kardashians and Harry Styles, some of the biggest household names in music became popular during the ’80s. A huge factor of high school today is the immense usage of social media. Walking in the hallways we use our phones, we take snapchats at football games, and teachers even incorporate it into their lessons. Smartphones and social media are a fairly new concept. I asked my mom if she was glad that there wasn’t social media while she went through high school and she stated, “in retrospect, I am very glad. We did more talking to people whether it was in person or on the house phone. Also, if you were to talk poorly about someone, you risked doing it in person not behind a screen. There were definitely bullies but they didn’t have a shield of being online.” Pennridge in the 80s feels like a different lifetime compared to now. Prom dresses were bright, big, and structured, people passed notes in class instead of texting, and student’s lives weren’t documented online. As my mom put it “you were either out or grounded. There was no fear of missing out.” Students could live freely in the moment without their mistakes following them contrary to today. One comparison we can make however is that after all is said and done, no more tests, no more fire drills, no more opening nights or Friday night lights, all we leave high school with is memories. From the 1980s to 2021, one thing the students have in common is, yes, a Pennridge diploma, but the most valuable thing we can leave Pennridge with is how we spent our time here and who we spent it with. No decade on Earth can change enough for us to not have our memories as the thing we truly leave high school with.