5/25/2009

Off-topic: awkward teenage-ness

Being an awkward teenager is no fun. But being an awkward teenager that grows up to be somewhat famous, or at least more publicly known then the average person, must suck even worse. Especially if you were an awkward teenager any time after, say, the mid- to late- 1990s. Why? Because there are pictures! And everyone can see them.

During a hockey-less day last week, I was making due by following the Memorial Cup. Nothing like a little Canadian junior hockey action to fill a gap in NHL coverage. Anyway, the tournament this year was in Rimouski, Quebec. The Rimouski Oceanic team has produced three (potentially 4) NHLers in the last 10 years; the three that are currently in the NHL are, well, kind of big names that you may have heard of before.

Anyway, I was looking around their site seeing who might be the next one to make it big, and some how found the old rosters. And those old rosters had old head shots. I don't know why they cracked me up so much, but they really did. And thus I share with you, 16-17 year old Brad Richards, Vincent Lecavalier, and Sidney Crosby:



Brad does not look that different at all (though I think this was the pic from his last season, so he would have been 18 or 19). Vinny... whew, I would have had to check a birth certificate to make sure he was old enough to even be eligible for juniors. (there is also a weird-- yet striking-- resemblance to my youngest nephew; I don't know what it is, but I showed my mom and she agrees. Either my 10 year old nephew has some unknown French ancestory, or Vinny has some African roots he may never have known about) And Sidney... love the hair.

And in total fairness to the guys, here I am from my high school yearbook (it was junior year, so I would have been an equivalent age):


(I didn't have polka dots; the scan just came out weird)

Looking back, that was not a terrible picture of me at that age. It must have been just after I had gotten my braces off and just before I got glasses. Lucky, my eyes went bad after my teeth were fixed, so I avoided the dreaded brace-face / four-eyes double threat.

I would have loved to include a picture of Mathieu at 16, but, um, the Internet wasn't really invented yet. I'm sure his headshots from Mt. St. Charles Academy and the Cornwall Royals are out there somewhere in a print program or something. I do have one picture of him from about that time that someone sent me, but I swore I'd never post it publicly. And my word is good. =P

No comments: