My Very First #TBT

How many of you know what #TBT stands for?

No, it doesn't stand for Today Be Thursday.

It doesn't stand for Today Be Thoughtful.

It doesn't even stand for Today Bring Tequila.  Though I'm sure that some of you would gladly celebrate that day if there really was such a day.

No, it stands for "Throwback Thursday", and it's all the rage on social media.  On Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, almost everybody that I know has shared at least one photo or memory for "Throwback Thursday".

Well, everyone except me.

As a blogger, pretty much every single day is a throwback day, so I never really saw fit to share anything specifically on Thursdays.  Because I share so much here already.

But you know...there's always a first time for everything.  And, well...in my case, this could be the first and only time I do one of these posts - well, unless you want to see more, that is.

This is my very first #TBT post.  Hope you enjoy it.

I'll admit, I was inspired to do this after finding some old photos while I was packing up things for the big move.  And, this photo is definitely an old one.  It's torn in the middle, but still mostly intact. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I take you back to May 1991.

I'm sure you can pick me out right off the bat.  I'm the guy who is at the back of the pack looking like the Pillsbury Dough Boy.  I mean, seriously.  I was 10 years old.  What the hell was I thinking wearing all white outdoors?  And yes, you can say it.  I was the chunky kid all throughout school.

Though I will say that I believe that I am wearing a Bart Simpson T-shirt.  This was before my school decided that the Simpsons were a bad influence on our school and banned them from the school dress code.  So, yeah, I was bucking the system before the system was created.  What a rebel I was!

Oh, and check out the cool sneakers I was wearing.  Those would be my L.A. Gear sneakers complete with fluorescent yellow shoelaces!  Though, given that this was towards the end of the school year, the shoelaces were more of a dingy green colour.  But still, I loved those shoes.  The blue and white tube socks I could have done without, but I loved the sneakers!

So, what the heck are my pals and I doing in this photo?  It looks like we're all pretending that we're going into labour and running around to force the kid to come out with everyone else standing around in shock.

Well, the back of the photograph has an inscription on it written in blue ball-point pen. 

"Catch-a-Star, 1991"

Now I'm remembering!  Catch-a-Star was a program put on by Vanier Public School where students in grades 4-6 from all over the city gathered together to partake in a two-day activity extravaganza where we learned about how to save the environment by doing lots of different activities and crafts.

Now, my school was kind of small, so only two students from each grade were selected to go.

Guess who was one of the Grade 4 students to be chosen?  Well, obviously it was me, as I wouldn't have the picture otherwise!

For what it was worth, these two days were absolutely fantastic, and I was absolutely honoured to have been chosen. 

And what made the Catch-a-Star seminar even more fun was the fact that we all had complete control over what activities we got to participate in.  We did four activities - on each day we had one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  And I remember all of the activities that I took part in!

Day #1, I made a T-shirt and watched Dr. Zed from OWL Magazine give scientific demonstrations. 

And, Day #2 was when my #TBT photo was taken.   I had chosen to take part in a whole bunch of different games and activities to play outside.  And I think we were playing a game in which half of us played animals, and the other half played resources that were available.  And each resource had a sign.

For food, we had to make a fist and hold it around our midsection showing we were hungry.
For water, we had to cover our mouths with our hands.
For shelter, we had to use our hands to make a roof over our heads.

It was an elimination type game.  You had to find a person who had the same resource that you had.  If you did, you were safe.  If you didn't, you were out.  And in this photo, given that most of the people chose water as their resource, that meant that you have photographic evidence of me getting a GAME OVER.

But man, that was a fun day!