A random memory popped into my head and made me laugh, as I was sitting here at 3:30 am, trying to catch up on computer things left unattended during the daylight hours, before it becomes daylight hours again...when I was a student at the affluent Cherry Creek High School--as a member of the mere middle class--I was most definitely a striver: I worked so hard in school that I was voted Most Likely to Succeed. This is not a joke. My senior yearbook photo, however, IS a joke--not only was it NOT taken by Olan Mills Studio, the paragraph of activities next to my picture is so long, I think it dictated the layout of the entire senior section of 1000+ senior photos. I worked hard so that I could 1.) go to a good college, get out of Colorado and see the whole wide world 2.) go to a good college so I could become a ... lawyer! ... and therefore make TONS of money 3.) become a lawyer so that I could make tons of money and buy a big home in Cherry Hills Village 4.) make tons of money so that I could afford to have family portraits from Olan Mills hanging on my big home's walls. Everyone in Cherry Creek had an Olan Mills hanging in their home. For me, the posed studio family portrait stamped with the golden Olan Mills signature were the be-all-end-all symbol of having made it.

It's funny how things change. The teenage Jean Lee would be horrified at her 30-something self:

1.) I think my Most Likely to Succeed award should have been Most Likely to Succeed At Doing Almost Anything To Get On A Plane. 2.) I obviously didn't become a lawyer. Can you imagine how painful that would have been for everyone within a 2000 mile radius of me? 3.) My oldest brother is the one who made tons of money and bought a big home in Cherry Hills Village, so I am off the hook. 4.) I don't yet have an Olan Mills, but I am scheming for our first OM family portrait--I think dressing up in period 80's-era costumes would be the perfect way to pay homage to my once-ultimate status symbol.

(*The Olan Mills Awesomeness links were searched after I wrote this entry...thanks, ReidGreven, for illustrating why it's so odd that I yearned for one of these things.)