Being a college pom-pom girl was one of the great loves of my life.

The rule in college was that we had to stay and watch the entire football game, while wearing short skirts, sitting on cold hard bleachers. Oh well, we still had fun!

In a surprising turn of events, I was elected captain of the pom-pom squad for our sophomore year. I enjoyed it, but it sunk my plans for medical school.

We sat on the gym floor, in front of the fans, for the entirety of every basketball game. Except for halftime, of course, when we wowed the crowd with our high kicks and snappy routines.

My first serious boyfriend Tim, shown here dressing me as a Flying Nun using a hanger wrapped in toilet paper, was in nearly all my classes the first two years of college. Sharing the same last name, Thompson, we really were an adorable couple: the Thompson Twins.

I graduated in 1985—and God bless, I did it in four years—with a BS in Chemistry and a minor in Business Administration.