Penny for your thoughts?

I admit even though I used that expression, I don't actually know what a penny looks like or how much it's worth. But it ties in well with today's prompt from The Daily Post which is:

Dig through your couch cushions, your purse, or the floor of your car and look at the year printed on the first coin you find. What were you doing that year?

My couch doesn't have gaps between the cushions, I don't own a purse and the only cars I own are in my dreams. I had to do a little improvising today and went to this little bowl where my family and I keep our silvers and a few golds.

I stuck my hand into the bowl, pulled out a 20 cent piece and flipped to Queen Elizabeth's head. I almost burst out laughing because the coin was made in 1975 and at that time, I wasn't even alive. Hell, my parents were still children then!

So I tossed the 20 cents back and dug out another one. The next coin was made in 2010, which was perfect.

Twenty-ten, as I call it, was the year I graduated from high school. It was the most stressful year of my life yet because my school had us preparing for exams which they insisted would determine the outcomes of the rest of our lives. Of course, they were lying but they wanted us to do well so I spent a lot of my days slaving away on homework and practice exam papers.

It wasn't as depressing as it sounded. I had many free periods at school and because I'm me, I'd spend them in the library either reading a good book or going over my (many) mistakes in tests and other papers. However, my best friend often persuaded me to dump my work and muck around at the playground that's a five minute walk from the school.

We spent practically every free period there and to be honest, it was the highlight of my year. There's nothing better than shouting and running around, being a kid and going down slides, across flying foxes, taking pretty pictures, ugly pictures and being silly. It made me forget the pressure that seemed to box me in around my desk and chain me there.

I have never regretted spending time with my best friend when I "should have" been studying, not even when some people hear about it and give me a look of derision to imply I could have gotten much better marks and gotten into a better course at university. But their opinion doesn't mean a thing to me because in the end, I got into the university I wanted and I'm doing the course I wanted.

I might not have gotten the highest marks but I got enough to get me where I wanted to be. I'm happy with that.