Post by Barrigard on Sept 3, 2007 13:06:37 GMT -6
I wrote this for my live journal a few weeks ago while bored at work, it starts assuming you read my last post on LJ which was a transcript of the trolling of aliehut, which took place in August 2005.
So immediately after that last post school started and my two essays were finished and got top marks. They were for AP World History, which was probably the most eye-opening class I've ever taken, if not for the information then for the essay writing skills and thought process. The class did have its down side however, as I was so wrapped up in studying for the national exam in May I completely dropped all attention to other classes. My thoughts were "its just integrated chemistry physics/English/Geometry, Its easy/I'm good at it/I've taken it before." Tsk Tsk, not so. I failed all of those classes that semester and had to spend the rest of the summer in summer school (dropping out because I wanted to go to a Dream Theater concert ). However I got a 5/5 on the national exam which is the highest score possible, putting me in the top 12% of the students who took the test nationwide. In other news I did write an essay for English on the history and impact of Black Metal.
That was my Junior year academically, personally and socially it was if possible more rocky.
I made some new friends, due to lunch new lunch and new seating in Japanese class where I met Sabrina and Baldy (later christened skinhead #1) and at lunch "Bones McCoy". It turned out that Bones, Max, Clay, and I would start the schools first student led club, Anime club. (it was a train wreck really...)
In late September I had a sort of personal epiphany that I don’t' want to disclose on the open internet that had long reaching consequences on how I thought about myself and others. I have a theory that this was somehow connected to reconnecting with my old flame Satomi that same month, though she told me she wasn't coming back to a relationship she did want to talk. This was ok with me, because I had a tall glass of denial sitting next to me at the time. About a month later I didn’t' hear form her again, she changed her email address (which was pretty normal for her, she gets a new one every few months) and I have yet to hear from her. So I was out of denial but I remembered that there was a vat of guilt that had been brewing for years I could enjoy for the next year and a half or so. Nothing important happened in the spring of 2006 as I was consumed by my schoolwork. But I did read some good books, My Antonia which is in my top 5 favorite books was read. Along with On The Road and The Great Gatsby which I thought was a tad overrated, especially if your familiar with F. Scott Fitzgerald's other work like me and you realize its all the same story. I also read the gospel according to Larry, which was the next step in the chain reaction started that late September in regards to how I thought about my self and my world.
Things picked up in the summer, it started with a weekend trip to Utah which was a makeshift family reunion for my dads side as the official occasion was my aunt graduating from medical school. I remember my uncle gave me a hard time about screwing up geometry. It was good to know someone was concerned though.
I had a weeks or so of just screwing around when the night before summer school (June 5) started (I had argued against this tooth and nail claiming it would be better if I did and online course) from my mom informing me that I was indeed going to summer school the following day. The following day was one of the worst in memory. Summer school sucks, and I had to go. Keep in mind that I've taken this same class before, LAST summer. I had a bunch of plans that didn’t' go through involving seeing the omen remake and stuff. Ok it wasn't that bad but I didn't have fun on 6 6 06. Nor did I find an emo to punch in the face.
The summer did pick up, I did VERY well in geometry because I seated myself away from the losers in that class toward my own table. As much as I didn't like it at the time, not having my friends Stephen and Jon be in the same class as me, as they were taking it next month, probably helped me out a lot. The teacher was really great too. I ended up with a B in the class and took my final while watching BATMAN BEGINS. I'm not sure how that worked out but it did.
That wasn't the end though, because I had another session of summer English to attend. Summer English was full of the sorts of people you would assume had failed English, dull people, unmotivated people, and qwerky/awkward people who probably had ADHD or some derivative. I used to be in a lot of classes like this in middle school and earlier in high school, but I had somewhat moved my self away in recent years. This class was very important, not about what I "learned" according to the curriculum, which was literally nothing. But my interaction with these supposedly bottom of the barrel, unintelligent kids helped me realize as I was at the time that peoples situations are obviously not determined by how smart they are, or how talented they are exclusively as the rest of society would have us believe. I realized that there was nothing different about these people except the experience they had with school. These kids were smart but had been discouraged and they thought of themselves as dumb or worthless or at least not suited for what was highly valued in a school setting; academic achievement. Because these children DIDN'T do well in elementary school they were not identified early as "gifted" or more accurately "important enough to receive a better education then some" and were not given the opportunities that others were as early as third grade. The schools were creating a class system based on achievement early on, claiming a sort of Reagan - esque idea that when they show improvement then they're own hard work will get them where the other early identified students are now. They didnt' take into account that kids are a product of their peers, if a persons friends smoke, the likelihood of that kid smoking increases. The same principle can be applied to academic performance, if you take "smart kids" and put them together in a separate classroom or give them separate classwork to do they will begin to associate with those kids around them who are like them, and disassociate from kids who are unlike them in this regard. Children are now given praise from adults and a community, and so this peer pressure system keeps them in check right from the age when that begins to really matter 9/10 years old or 3rd/4th grade. But the crux of the argument is that this is a poor way to handle students because the standard children are held to and the environment they learn and work in early elementary school is absolutely nothing like the rest of school and certainly not like real life. So the argument I made was that because only a certain kind of student works well in early school it does not mean that they should be exclusively put in a positive cycle so early as the age the rest of the class would have caught on would be a little older and after a change of scenery like say entering middle or high school. But by that time they are caught in a downward social spiral just as gifted children are caught in a upward positive cycle. Both kinds of students miss out on a lot, but this concept is detailed in a piece I would write in September.
Ok back to the rest of the summer, I read a very good book about a guy who lived off the land after graduating college and did a book report on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya that involved a whole presentation and me NOT actually reading the original lite novel. This was also going on at the same time as the internet neutrality debate, so I also wrote a paper defending neutrality titled "Internet : Serious Business". 24 hours after summer school ended I was on a plane bound for Dublin to see extended family. (we nearly missed it as Chicago traffic made a 3 hour trip into a 7 hour trip) I basically drove all round the country visiting lots of historical places, which I just couldn't get enough of how old everything was. The only place we didn’t' go was Northern Ireland and downtown Dublin, which was a shame because I wanted to see the Giant's Causeway. The most noteworthy thing in Ireland by far was the BEST mushrooms I'd ever had. I'm not kidding you one bit, these mushrooms were like eating a mushroom for the first time again. I also had the best strawberries from a stand in Waterford and I discovered the electric pepper grinder which I used at every dinner. I'd also like to note that fishing in the Celtic Sea was magnificent as I caught up to 4 fish at a time. I ended up with some big number like 30 fish. But of course, I wouldn't have really been out of town until I got complete lost in downtown Waterford. I mean totally unaware of where I was going and completely alone. I had turned back to buy a shirt and went back on the wrong, mean looking street. I spend the next hour with no money and no idea how to get to where I was to meet my Dad, lost in a foreign city. I barely made it back on time as I found Jenny and Brenna just 3 minuets before the city bus arrived to take us home.
Personally and socially this summer revolved around school. Summer school that is. Max became a vegetarian, Jon turned 18 and oh yea I liked Phil's sister. Yup, this was a SMART thing for me to attempt, and I did attempt it. Not very successfully, but I did attempt it. I didn’t' actually go thought with it though, part of it was I never got a clear green light from her, another part was although I liked her it bugged me that she was in fact younger then my sister (by a few months), making me two and a half years older then her. She also lived in Noblesville and I would not get a car until August 11th. In the end I figured it just wasn't worth it, especially since it would complicate things with my friends a LOT.
And so my senior year came into existence as I spent most of my August sitting around Jon’s house burning incense and listening to Type O Negative. And occasionally filling pokeballs up with rocket powder and setting them off like bombs. I also remember wanting to totally change the way I dressed to early twentieth century. "Historical Romanticism" is what I called it, but I didn't have the money or the clothes to buy and the idea fizzled out within a week or so. It was obvious I was listening to too much dark cabaret.
School started again, I had some new and a lot of old teachers, even though Catt had dropped Japanese I still had to bear her presence everyday in Sociology, which was pretty much a disappointing blow off class. Not really challenging or interesting at all. But I always had an A in there. Everything else was fine, ICP was taught in reverse this year and I really enjoyed and respected my new teacher in that class, which was good timing as soon as I left one male-role model good teacher class (World, and AP World history) I landed in another. I enjoyed my time in there so much I was his aide the second semester. This was the first time since freshman year that I had a math class that wasn't geometry. I had many friends who said that it was a constant in the universe and I must be lying. My Algebra II teacher was the most cheerful person I probably ever will meet. I still failed her class. So I continued to the second semester again anyway, because I was to retake semester one everyday after school in the computer lab. This killed any chance of me getting a job until the summer, or having a personal life. Japanese became increasingly annoying as the three seniors, Max, Lauren, and I were the only bearable people in there. (and Birdie) This is why Max and I decided to take the AP Japanese exam, even though we weren't in an AP class. Our teacher didn’t' know enough Japanese to help us at all and we were left to work on our own in the hallway as long as we could keep up with the normal class work. Of course we didn't keep up, because both our workbooks had been stolen by KYLE, though I was the only one who believed it, Max just thought I lost them. So we took the AP Japanese exam in May, after spending a LOT of time on it. I was going to seminary at 6am, school from 7 - 3 math till 5 and Japanese studying till 7 or 8 at the library with Max and Alex. So with all this build up what would you expect me to do? Perform well, get a perfect score? No, instead I whistled for a cab and when it came near the licence plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror, if anything i could say that this cab was rare but I thought "naw forget it" Yo homes to bel-air!
That’s what I said on my AP Japanese oral, it cost my mother 80 dollars and me hours and hours of my time. And I bel-aired it. It was the only way to top my previous bel-air in English the first semester when I did the whole rap in front of the class for a presentation. But it didn’t' stop there, I then recited with my partner who was a Chinese girl the whole pilot. We got an A and the respect of everyone in the room.
In government class, which was mostly me Zack and Hax sitting around talking about Pokemon Diamond/Pearl or late 80's early 90's cartoons/tv shows that don’t 'air anymore sprinkled with a rant from me at least every Friday and usually every day, had the best project I have ever done or will ever do. We dubbed over the entire first episode of THUNDERCATS for an our political party project, calling ourselves the THUNDERCRATS. You can view it here:
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4521893053572498606
Finally my crown jewel of accomplishments academically my senior year was the AP European History exam. If I hadn't studied more for any test then AP world history, then I never studied so much in so little time then I did for AP European. I was supposed to be reading the textbook all year, as the school wasn't offering the class. Two weeks before I finally started reading and didn’t' stop until I was dreaming about it and then kept on anyway. I nearly failed chemistry because of it, I nearly failed government because of it. I didn't do a presidential hat and turned in my shoe with American flags stuck in it because I was so absent minded about every other class except AP Euro, which wasn't even a class at all. But you know what? It was worth it. I did it for personal pride and I don’t regret it at all because I got a 5/5.
On the social and personal side it was an eventful year. Stephen moved away in the fall, we had an epic level send off party that involved sacrificing several action figures to the fire god who had blessed us with foxfire (wormpoop) that was probably illegal to set fire to. Clay was gone for several months on the Appalachian trail, I had my first experience with one friend dating another friend, Lauren and Kyle. (this is noteworthy, sorta. Lauren will get her own section at the end of this) In September I wrote a treatise on what I felt was wrong with the treatment of students academically, that I slowly worked on and it still isn’t' actually done. More ideas for stories came to me, and I even wrote a commentary for an Innkeeper’s Son. The most noteworthy book I read was The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which I didn’t' finish actually, but that’s pretty common for me. I spent the winter months studying his ideas and his life. Completely mesmerized by him, the same way I as by Varg Vikernes in early Junior year.
In February my car, a black 1993 Chevy Beretta died on the side of the road. She had enough left in her to make it two blocks home. She was named the Batcar and she is still missed. I drove so many of my friends home when I wasn't allowed to in that car, I even stood on the roof in nothing by my rugby shorts (which might as well be tough boxers) in the middle of January at 9 something at night after I had ran across the dodge ball competition floor like that. She was a good car.
For the first time since 8th grade I was in Quizbowl. And boy was I glad to be back. Jeff, Eli, Justin, Jennifer, Rachael, our coaches, Fred, and Denny. Denny had a stroke in the middle of our last away match in January. It was a very powerful night, I spent most of it trying to figure out just what had happened, playing phone tag for info all night after showing up at the hospital and being told he was airlifted downtown. It was the first time in my life I had to accept that it was very likely someone I saw on a regular basis was going to die, or probably was. It wasn't fun. Thankfully Denny didn’t' die and is now walking and talking and remembering just about everything. I remember feeling very guilty at the time, as I had sort of made fun of him through out the school year. Not seriously taunting, just playing around sorta, but it involved standing in front of his locker and not letting him get his stuff. But it was never mean-spirited and he always (ok usually) got his stuff. In fact I wrote a letter to him while he was comatose that I cannot account for. I don't know where it is, someone somewhere found it in the school. Nothing I can do about it now.
This leaves us with the end of the year senior events, as for the first time there was something a bit more to the month of May then AP Exams and finals. Prom was May 4th I think, I had never gone, never really wanted to go. All my friends who had gone said it sucked. But somehow, I slowly warmed up to the idea and totally sold my mom who was desperate for me to go. I got her to pay for everything, buy me new clothes, and only take 5 pictures, all because I waited until the last possible day to buy tickets. That day during Japanese I called her and said if she wanted me to go she had only a few hours to consider my demands or it would be too late. I had everything to gain and she had everything to lose. It was so perfect. Now as for who I was going with, that was a different story. As it was planned for a while I was going with a group, a group of girls. So the joke became that I was being a polygamous Mormon with several prom dates. I found this so funny it was one of the reasons that motivated me to go at first. The problem was that it sorta fell apart. I'm not sure why, but from how people were driving that day and when they wanted to go two of the three girls were sorta leaving the group and going in the same car at a different time. This left me and Lauren the only two members of our group left, except now it was much less of a group. I'm very suspicious of how this turned out, but since I have no evidence I'll leave my conspiracy accusations to myself --- ALEX!
Although I was disappointed my I wasn't going to be walking around prom with three women and all the great jokes it would have created, I wasn't crushed by any stretch of the imagination. However, though I don't know how much some of my friends will believe me, I did NOT like Lauren at this time. Because even though she was no longer going out with Kyle, I was still thinking of her as "off limits" because of Kyle. Not to say I had earlier been forced to brand that label on her out of necessity, that’s just how I felt, or didn’t' feel. So because we were going as friends, we both agreed that Stake n' Shake was a great idea for dinner. We were alone with this idea, as my parents hijacked the whole thing and sent us off to a nice Italian restaurant downtown. Ok, so worse things could happen to you then being forced to eat at a nice place for free, but we still insisted on going there afterward.
One might be wondering why I'm putting so much detail into this one night, well that’s because.... I'm not sure when it happened but sometime between that night and May 23rd I started to not only become closer to Lauren as a friends but I developed feelings for her as well. This might have something to do with the fact that the big vat of guilt I'd been sipping since late 2005 was running low. Or it might have had something to do with a comment made by Kyle of all people the next day "So are you and Lauren going out now?"
"No."
"O rly, you should go out with her."
"well, I'm not."
That’s not word for word, especially my words as I don’t' remember what I said aside from "no". Or maybe its too complicated to point to a single watershed moment, but it wasn't an immediate change, I slowly warmed up to the idea and realized that in fact that would be a great idea. But what made me go for it was her behavior. I could sorta tell she liked me, but it wasn't as obvious as its been with other girls, so I didn't go for it right away. I also didn't dive right in because of AP tests and finals. So I asked her out to see the third Pirate movie, and we went and had a good time. We continued to be friends who just happened to talk a lot every evening until the day after graduation (graduation really wasn't that eventful, it just happened that’s about it) when all of a sudden everything I ever wanted landed in my lap.
First I graduate.
That means I get to go to a college that isn’t' a community college.
Then I get a computer.
Then I get a ton of graduation money.
And I FINALLY had success with women.
That’s why May 29th, 2007 was the best day ever.
In the coming summer months not a whole lot has happened. My Dad got married, that’s probably the biggest thing. I finally got a job doing computer work for a tire distributor downtown, I have a nice new 2001 Intrepid and next week I'm moving out of my parents house, into my grandmothers house and will start college there. I plan on transferring to another school after the first semester. Clay has moved downtown, Jon has moved to Carmel. Max, Lauren, and Alex are moving to Muncie.
Whew, 731 days in about 2 hours of writing.
So immediately after that last post school started and my two essays were finished and got top marks. They were for AP World History, which was probably the most eye-opening class I've ever taken, if not for the information then for the essay writing skills and thought process. The class did have its down side however, as I was so wrapped up in studying for the national exam in May I completely dropped all attention to other classes. My thoughts were "its just integrated chemistry physics/English/Geometry, Its easy/I'm good at it/I've taken it before." Tsk Tsk, not so. I failed all of those classes that semester and had to spend the rest of the summer in summer school (dropping out because I wanted to go to a Dream Theater concert ). However I got a 5/5 on the national exam which is the highest score possible, putting me in the top 12% of the students who took the test nationwide. In other news I did write an essay for English on the history and impact of Black Metal.
That was my Junior year academically, personally and socially it was if possible more rocky.
I made some new friends, due to lunch new lunch and new seating in Japanese class where I met Sabrina and Baldy (later christened skinhead #1) and at lunch "Bones McCoy". It turned out that Bones, Max, Clay, and I would start the schools first student led club, Anime club. (it was a train wreck really...)
In late September I had a sort of personal epiphany that I don’t' want to disclose on the open internet that had long reaching consequences on how I thought about myself and others. I have a theory that this was somehow connected to reconnecting with my old flame Satomi that same month, though she told me she wasn't coming back to a relationship she did want to talk. This was ok with me, because I had a tall glass of denial sitting next to me at the time. About a month later I didn’t' hear form her again, she changed her email address (which was pretty normal for her, she gets a new one every few months) and I have yet to hear from her. So I was out of denial but I remembered that there was a vat of guilt that had been brewing for years I could enjoy for the next year and a half or so. Nothing important happened in the spring of 2006 as I was consumed by my schoolwork. But I did read some good books, My Antonia which is in my top 5 favorite books was read. Along with On The Road and The Great Gatsby which I thought was a tad overrated, especially if your familiar with F. Scott Fitzgerald's other work like me and you realize its all the same story. I also read the gospel according to Larry, which was the next step in the chain reaction started that late September in regards to how I thought about my self and my world.
Things picked up in the summer, it started with a weekend trip to Utah which was a makeshift family reunion for my dads side as the official occasion was my aunt graduating from medical school. I remember my uncle gave me a hard time about screwing up geometry. It was good to know someone was concerned though.
I had a weeks or so of just screwing around when the night before summer school (June 5) started (I had argued against this tooth and nail claiming it would be better if I did and online course) from my mom informing me that I was indeed going to summer school the following day. The following day was one of the worst in memory. Summer school sucks, and I had to go. Keep in mind that I've taken this same class before, LAST summer. I had a bunch of plans that didn’t' go through involving seeing the omen remake and stuff. Ok it wasn't that bad but I didn't have fun on 6 6 06. Nor did I find an emo to punch in the face.
The summer did pick up, I did VERY well in geometry because I seated myself away from the losers in that class toward my own table. As much as I didn't like it at the time, not having my friends Stephen and Jon be in the same class as me, as they were taking it next month, probably helped me out a lot. The teacher was really great too. I ended up with a B in the class and took my final while watching BATMAN BEGINS. I'm not sure how that worked out but it did.
That wasn't the end though, because I had another session of summer English to attend. Summer English was full of the sorts of people you would assume had failed English, dull people, unmotivated people, and qwerky/awkward people who probably had ADHD or some derivative. I used to be in a lot of classes like this in middle school and earlier in high school, but I had somewhat moved my self away in recent years. This class was very important, not about what I "learned" according to the curriculum, which was literally nothing. But my interaction with these supposedly bottom of the barrel, unintelligent kids helped me realize as I was at the time that peoples situations are obviously not determined by how smart they are, or how talented they are exclusively as the rest of society would have us believe. I realized that there was nothing different about these people except the experience they had with school. These kids were smart but had been discouraged and they thought of themselves as dumb or worthless or at least not suited for what was highly valued in a school setting; academic achievement. Because these children DIDN'T do well in elementary school they were not identified early as "gifted" or more accurately "important enough to receive a better education then some" and were not given the opportunities that others were as early as third grade. The schools were creating a class system based on achievement early on, claiming a sort of Reagan - esque idea that when they show improvement then they're own hard work will get them where the other early identified students are now. They didnt' take into account that kids are a product of their peers, if a persons friends smoke, the likelihood of that kid smoking increases. The same principle can be applied to academic performance, if you take "smart kids" and put them together in a separate classroom or give them separate classwork to do they will begin to associate with those kids around them who are like them, and disassociate from kids who are unlike them in this regard. Children are now given praise from adults and a community, and so this peer pressure system keeps them in check right from the age when that begins to really matter 9/10 years old or 3rd/4th grade. But the crux of the argument is that this is a poor way to handle students because the standard children are held to and the environment they learn and work in early elementary school is absolutely nothing like the rest of school and certainly not like real life. So the argument I made was that because only a certain kind of student works well in early school it does not mean that they should be exclusively put in a positive cycle so early as the age the rest of the class would have caught on would be a little older and after a change of scenery like say entering middle or high school. But by that time they are caught in a downward social spiral just as gifted children are caught in a upward positive cycle. Both kinds of students miss out on a lot, but this concept is detailed in a piece I would write in September.
Ok back to the rest of the summer, I read a very good book about a guy who lived off the land after graduating college and did a book report on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya that involved a whole presentation and me NOT actually reading the original lite novel. This was also going on at the same time as the internet neutrality debate, so I also wrote a paper defending neutrality titled "Internet : Serious Business". 24 hours after summer school ended I was on a plane bound for Dublin to see extended family. (we nearly missed it as Chicago traffic made a 3 hour trip into a 7 hour trip) I basically drove all round the country visiting lots of historical places, which I just couldn't get enough of how old everything was. The only place we didn’t' go was Northern Ireland and downtown Dublin, which was a shame because I wanted to see the Giant's Causeway. The most noteworthy thing in Ireland by far was the BEST mushrooms I'd ever had. I'm not kidding you one bit, these mushrooms were like eating a mushroom for the first time again. I also had the best strawberries from a stand in Waterford and I discovered the electric pepper grinder which I used at every dinner. I'd also like to note that fishing in the Celtic Sea was magnificent as I caught up to 4 fish at a time. I ended up with some big number like 30 fish. But of course, I wouldn't have really been out of town until I got complete lost in downtown Waterford. I mean totally unaware of where I was going and completely alone. I had turned back to buy a shirt and went back on the wrong, mean looking street. I spend the next hour with no money and no idea how to get to where I was to meet my Dad, lost in a foreign city. I barely made it back on time as I found Jenny and Brenna just 3 minuets before the city bus arrived to take us home.
Personally and socially this summer revolved around school. Summer school that is. Max became a vegetarian, Jon turned 18 and oh yea I liked Phil's sister. Yup, this was a SMART thing for me to attempt, and I did attempt it. Not very successfully, but I did attempt it. I didn’t' actually go thought with it though, part of it was I never got a clear green light from her, another part was although I liked her it bugged me that she was in fact younger then my sister (by a few months), making me two and a half years older then her. She also lived in Noblesville and I would not get a car until August 11th. In the end I figured it just wasn't worth it, especially since it would complicate things with my friends a LOT.
And so my senior year came into existence as I spent most of my August sitting around Jon’s house burning incense and listening to Type O Negative. And occasionally filling pokeballs up with rocket powder and setting them off like bombs. I also remember wanting to totally change the way I dressed to early twentieth century. "Historical Romanticism" is what I called it, but I didn't have the money or the clothes to buy and the idea fizzled out within a week or so. It was obvious I was listening to too much dark cabaret.
School started again, I had some new and a lot of old teachers, even though Catt had dropped Japanese I still had to bear her presence everyday in Sociology, which was pretty much a disappointing blow off class. Not really challenging or interesting at all. But I always had an A in there. Everything else was fine, ICP was taught in reverse this year and I really enjoyed and respected my new teacher in that class, which was good timing as soon as I left one male-role model good teacher class (World, and AP World history) I landed in another. I enjoyed my time in there so much I was his aide the second semester. This was the first time since freshman year that I had a math class that wasn't geometry. I had many friends who said that it was a constant in the universe and I must be lying. My Algebra II teacher was the most cheerful person I probably ever will meet. I still failed her class. So I continued to the second semester again anyway, because I was to retake semester one everyday after school in the computer lab. This killed any chance of me getting a job until the summer, or having a personal life. Japanese became increasingly annoying as the three seniors, Max, Lauren, and I were the only bearable people in there. (and Birdie) This is why Max and I decided to take the AP Japanese exam, even though we weren't in an AP class. Our teacher didn’t' know enough Japanese to help us at all and we were left to work on our own in the hallway as long as we could keep up with the normal class work. Of course we didn't keep up, because both our workbooks had been stolen by KYLE, though I was the only one who believed it, Max just thought I lost them. So we took the AP Japanese exam in May, after spending a LOT of time on it. I was going to seminary at 6am, school from 7 - 3 math till 5 and Japanese studying till 7 or 8 at the library with Max and Alex. So with all this build up what would you expect me to do? Perform well, get a perfect score? No, instead I whistled for a cab and when it came near the licence plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror, if anything i could say that this cab was rare but I thought "naw forget it" Yo homes to bel-air!
That’s what I said on my AP Japanese oral, it cost my mother 80 dollars and me hours and hours of my time. And I bel-aired it. It was the only way to top my previous bel-air in English the first semester when I did the whole rap in front of the class for a presentation. But it didn’t' stop there, I then recited with my partner who was a Chinese girl the whole pilot. We got an A and the respect of everyone in the room.
In government class, which was mostly me Zack and Hax sitting around talking about Pokemon Diamond/Pearl or late 80's early 90's cartoons/tv shows that don’t 'air anymore sprinkled with a rant from me at least every Friday and usually every day, had the best project I have ever done or will ever do. We dubbed over the entire first episode of THUNDERCATS for an our political party project, calling ourselves the THUNDERCRATS. You can view it here:
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4521893053572498606
Finally my crown jewel of accomplishments academically my senior year was the AP European History exam. If I hadn't studied more for any test then AP world history, then I never studied so much in so little time then I did for AP European. I was supposed to be reading the textbook all year, as the school wasn't offering the class. Two weeks before I finally started reading and didn’t' stop until I was dreaming about it and then kept on anyway. I nearly failed chemistry because of it, I nearly failed government because of it. I didn't do a presidential hat and turned in my shoe with American flags stuck in it because I was so absent minded about every other class except AP Euro, which wasn't even a class at all. But you know what? It was worth it. I did it for personal pride and I don’t regret it at all because I got a 5/5.
On the social and personal side it was an eventful year. Stephen moved away in the fall, we had an epic level send off party that involved sacrificing several action figures to the fire god who had blessed us with foxfire (wormpoop) that was probably illegal to set fire to. Clay was gone for several months on the Appalachian trail, I had my first experience with one friend dating another friend, Lauren and Kyle. (this is noteworthy, sorta. Lauren will get her own section at the end of this) In September I wrote a treatise on what I felt was wrong with the treatment of students academically, that I slowly worked on and it still isn’t' actually done. More ideas for stories came to me, and I even wrote a commentary for an Innkeeper’s Son. The most noteworthy book I read was The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which I didn’t' finish actually, but that’s pretty common for me. I spent the winter months studying his ideas and his life. Completely mesmerized by him, the same way I as by Varg Vikernes in early Junior year.
In February my car, a black 1993 Chevy Beretta died on the side of the road. She had enough left in her to make it two blocks home. She was named the Batcar and she is still missed. I drove so many of my friends home when I wasn't allowed to in that car, I even stood on the roof in nothing by my rugby shorts (which might as well be tough boxers) in the middle of January at 9 something at night after I had ran across the dodge ball competition floor like that. She was a good car.
For the first time since 8th grade I was in Quizbowl. And boy was I glad to be back. Jeff, Eli, Justin, Jennifer, Rachael, our coaches, Fred, and Denny. Denny had a stroke in the middle of our last away match in January. It was a very powerful night, I spent most of it trying to figure out just what had happened, playing phone tag for info all night after showing up at the hospital and being told he was airlifted downtown. It was the first time in my life I had to accept that it was very likely someone I saw on a regular basis was going to die, or probably was. It wasn't fun. Thankfully Denny didn’t' die and is now walking and talking and remembering just about everything. I remember feeling very guilty at the time, as I had sort of made fun of him through out the school year. Not seriously taunting, just playing around sorta, but it involved standing in front of his locker and not letting him get his stuff. But it was never mean-spirited and he always (ok usually) got his stuff. In fact I wrote a letter to him while he was comatose that I cannot account for. I don't know where it is, someone somewhere found it in the school. Nothing I can do about it now.
This leaves us with the end of the year senior events, as for the first time there was something a bit more to the month of May then AP Exams and finals. Prom was May 4th I think, I had never gone, never really wanted to go. All my friends who had gone said it sucked. But somehow, I slowly warmed up to the idea and totally sold my mom who was desperate for me to go. I got her to pay for everything, buy me new clothes, and only take 5 pictures, all because I waited until the last possible day to buy tickets. That day during Japanese I called her and said if she wanted me to go she had only a few hours to consider my demands or it would be too late. I had everything to gain and she had everything to lose. It was so perfect. Now as for who I was going with, that was a different story. As it was planned for a while I was going with a group, a group of girls. So the joke became that I was being a polygamous Mormon with several prom dates. I found this so funny it was one of the reasons that motivated me to go at first. The problem was that it sorta fell apart. I'm not sure why, but from how people were driving that day and when they wanted to go two of the three girls were sorta leaving the group and going in the same car at a different time. This left me and Lauren the only two members of our group left, except now it was much less of a group. I'm very suspicious of how this turned out, but since I have no evidence I'll leave my conspiracy accusations to myself --- ALEX!
Although I was disappointed my I wasn't going to be walking around prom with three women and all the great jokes it would have created, I wasn't crushed by any stretch of the imagination. However, though I don't know how much some of my friends will believe me, I did NOT like Lauren at this time. Because even though she was no longer going out with Kyle, I was still thinking of her as "off limits" because of Kyle. Not to say I had earlier been forced to brand that label on her out of necessity, that’s just how I felt, or didn’t' feel. So because we were going as friends, we both agreed that Stake n' Shake was a great idea for dinner. We were alone with this idea, as my parents hijacked the whole thing and sent us off to a nice Italian restaurant downtown. Ok, so worse things could happen to you then being forced to eat at a nice place for free, but we still insisted on going there afterward.
One might be wondering why I'm putting so much detail into this one night, well that’s because.... I'm not sure when it happened but sometime between that night and May 23rd I started to not only become closer to Lauren as a friends but I developed feelings for her as well. This might have something to do with the fact that the big vat of guilt I'd been sipping since late 2005 was running low. Or it might have had something to do with a comment made by Kyle of all people the next day "So are you and Lauren going out now?"
"No."
"O rly, you should go out with her."
"well, I'm not."
That’s not word for word, especially my words as I don’t' remember what I said aside from "no". Or maybe its too complicated to point to a single watershed moment, but it wasn't an immediate change, I slowly warmed up to the idea and realized that in fact that would be a great idea. But what made me go for it was her behavior. I could sorta tell she liked me, but it wasn't as obvious as its been with other girls, so I didn't go for it right away. I also didn't dive right in because of AP tests and finals. So I asked her out to see the third Pirate movie, and we went and had a good time. We continued to be friends who just happened to talk a lot every evening until the day after graduation (graduation really wasn't that eventful, it just happened that’s about it) when all of a sudden everything I ever wanted landed in my lap.
First I graduate.
That means I get to go to a college that isn’t' a community college.
Then I get a computer.
Then I get a ton of graduation money.
And I FINALLY had success with women.
That’s why May 29th, 2007 was the best day ever.
In the coming summer months not a whole lot has happened. My Dad got married, that’s probably the biggest thing. I finally got a job doing computer work for a tire distributor downtown, I have a nice new 2001 Intrepid and next week I'm moving out of my parents house, into my grandmothers house and will start college there. I plan on transferring to another school after the first semester. Clay has moved downtown, Jon has moved to Carmel. Max, Lauren, and Alex are moving to Muncie.
Whew, 731 days in about 2 hours of writing.