Tag: high school

Sophomore Year in HS

After a nearly a thousand posts on my blog, I am republishing many of them out of posterity.

Some guy from my class (at LH) ran into my profile in MySpace and all of a sudden i remembered all this crazy stuff that happened that year.

I will just paste it…this should be fun for readers.

Hah! maybe this will help.

I was only at LH for my sophomore year. i spent a majority of my time in Ms Hogue’s art class or getting high and skipping. Because of a bad transcript error from my previous School District, I was forced to retake 4 classes I had already aced the year before, so I blew the school off for the most part and essentially tried to get the hell away from the school.

I lucked out in a few ways, as my deplorable actions in and out of school forced me to take another placement exam, which after the scores were released allowed me to threaten a lawsuit on the RISD and DISD for ruining my attempts at entering college early (and getting ahead on classes).

Now some interesting items…
A: I was in fact a total outcast in my sophomore year.
B: I was totally enamored with Tiffany Featherstone (definitely her name…as we traded hellos after I originally posted this) and never had the balls to tell her and stuck it out with my gf for the year before.
C: The highlight of my time at Lake Highlands was someone freaking out and telling everyone when he found out I did actually have a girlfriend and exactly how far we had gone in the sack on a regular basis.
D: During gym practice that year the cheerleaders decided it was cool to practice in the gymnastics area and totally distracted me, I planted totally wrong after an aerial on the rings and hyper-extended my knee in a very bad way. Since I had only a couple people in the school that i would even speak to willingly I ended up dragging myself to the nurses office instead of getting help. (You know…I was too proud to ask in front of LH’s finest πŸ˜‰
E: Sometime that year, I got into a tangle with a guy three times my weight and twice my height in the courtyard over a stupid cigarette during lunch.

Anyhow, as far as people I knew…I talked to Hunter and Tiffany on a limited basis during art class, ate lunch with a group of like minded stoners on a regular basis, and generally kept to myself. My history teacher hated my guts because i rarely showed up at her class ( I was on B lunch). I wasn’t allowed in the computer lab after the staff found out I got in trouble with computers the year before on Skyline’s Mainframe. I only remember a few people’s names from that year.

Now, one might think I regret that school year, but if it hadn’t happened, I probably would have gone through the next couple of years learning what it was like to live it up.

Anyhow, nice to know someone else made it out of that school..;)

-Tony
{{{DISCLAIMER}}}
Picturing me as a grown version of the person described above would be a sore mistake. While in high school I totally blew it off because I found out how little it was going to matter once I hit College. I played hard and tried to live life like it was my last day. I was neither clean, nor was I entirely nice at LH. Again, it was a long time ago and I was a whole 13 years old when i started high school. I learned a lot about people that year, and wouldn’t trade it in for anything…err…well…okay…I would have tried hard to ask Tiffany out…but that’s it.




All the best people are broken.

They are.

Let me quote Jenny Lawson (aka The Bloggess) again,

“All the best people are broken.”

Let it sink in.

You see, earlier today. I read an article about how some morally retarded school staff (That would be Trae Wiygul(Principal), Rick Mitchell(Assistant Principal) and a couple other staff members from Itawamba Agricultural High School) first decided that they wouldn’t allow Constance McMillan to attend prom because she was lesbian. After taking the school to court the first time, the school was told to allow Constance to attend the prom. The school district’s response was to cancel prom outright.

It gets even better. These cretins didn’t actually cancel prom. The district elected not to participate in a Prom, but they sure as hell had one. With the assistance of parents the students had their own Prom while Constance and only a few others were directed to a “fake” prom.

This wasn’t a solution Mr. Wiygul…it is called Segregation, and it’s the kind of thing that gets the nation’s attention, and I am not talking about a surprise appearance by the Harlem Globetrotters. You just got outed as a group of spiteful and ruthless bigots that couldn’t even play nice when you got your hand slapped.

Mr. Wiygul. Here. In the USA, we don’t really care for that too much…it’s why we made it illegal. Because it is hateful and violates the First Amendment. Of course, you know this already, because that’s what the courts told you…and even after that, you held a fake prom for her. Wow asshole, that was mighty “nice” of you. I don’t think you were big enough assholes when you tried to ban her from prom…let’s rub it in after the courts tell you you’re wrong too!

Now. This venting DID in fact have a purpose. Because, as usual, after events like these..the moral injustice of what happened served only to make stronger those that were wronged. You see…after all that…Constance McMillan was quoted “”That’s the one good thing that come out of this, [these kids] didn’t have to worry about people making fun of them” referencing that the kids at the fake Prom. We all need that.

That is the clear difference in perspective and moral stance to not be insanely angry (like I am right now) when given the justification and opportunity.

My first inclination and action after reading about this was gather more info, find out who pulled this crap, and make all public. If you know me, this isn’t the kind of attention you want from me…but then I remembered reading something:

“All the best people are broken.”

Empathizing with so many people exposed to hate, to what I regard as “the ugly people”, to so many wrongs. I get to catch my breath, and stay my angst. Clarity brings with it the burden of truth..and very luckily, I am reminded of the high road…and change my direction.

Constance has gotten a LOT of attention, and all in a very positive light. She landed a pretty swank scholarship, got to go on a bunch of TV shows and mot importantly…she got to prove to everyone that empathizes with her experience that there is satisfaction in loving and being loved for who you are, and that satisfaction trumps the hell out of the poor decisions of the administration, students and faculty that went along with all these shenanigans when they knew they were wrong.

So cheers to Constance, for fighting for the right thing in a hard evil backwards situation.
…cheers to Jenny for letting me know about this and coming up with UBER powerful mind-splitting quotes.
..and cheers to all the broken people. You all give me clarity.

-T

Linkage:
Jenny Lawson aka The Bloggess
Just Like Jesse James is selling some awesome t-shirts.
The Mecury News – Judge: No school prom but lesbian’s right violated
Huffington Post – Prom Shocker: Constance McMillan Invited to Fake Prom
La Figa – Hateful parents, teens conspire to throw fake prom…
HRC – Prom Shocker: Constance McMillan Invited to Fake Event…
The Advocate -McMillen: I Was Sent to Fake Prom




High School Daze…

This came from one of those silly MySpace questionnaires…so i filled it out…since I dont like to keep the archives on MS…here we go πŸ˜‰

Class of 1990
Body: Fill this out about your SENIOR year of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be!! REPOST with name of high school and graduating year

FYI – I dont have the traditional high school memories…;)

Did you date someone from your school?
A couple…one of the few people I still speak with now πŸ˜‰

Did you win any Senior Superlatives?
..a what?

Did you car pool to School?
Lived two blocks away…

What kind of car did you have?
Didnt…but I had a chauffer!!! πŸ˜‰

What color was it? How many doors?
See above

It is Friday night…where are you?
…with Chris…Bill…Todd…Curtis…and the flavors of the week..shooting pool at my house and most likely getting boozed up.

Were you a party animal?
Parents were out of town on weekends alot..brother and I threw ~50 parties from 88-90..mostly in 89…so…yes…I was…couldnt invite many people from school though because no one could keep their mouth shut.

Next door neighbor would was a local preacher and did some sermons on my brother and I πŸ˜‰

Were you considered a flirt?
Is this a trick question?

Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
Jazz Band with Richard…until the local idiots in school made it impossible for him to continue there…I almost left for Arts Magnet with him…couldnt belive people treated him so badly…

Were you a nerd?
…a Freak…who is now a very freaky nerd πŸ˜‰

Did you get suspended/expelled?
To busy getting jumped to get in trouble with DISD…

Can you sing the fight song?
we had a fight song?

Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)?
Mr Capps…cant say what was discussed but he was the first teacher (at Samuell) who had enough sense to speak with me like a person rather than some trouble-making loon all the troublemaking loons made me out to be.

Where did you sit during lunch?
I didnt …unless my brother was in the lunch room doing his stupid eating tricks πŸ˜‰

What was your school’s full name?
W.W.

Samuell High School

When did you graduate?
1990

What was your school mascot?
SPPPAAAARRRTTTTTAAAANNNNNNN!!!

If you could go back and do it again, would you?
If I went back…I would change everything…I made the best of what I consider some of the worst years of my life. Samuell High School taught me what hate was…

What do you remember most about graduation?
My girlfriend getting run off the Ray Hubbard bridge on the way there…

Were you in any clubs?
I was in the “I cant stand high school cliques” club. Only had a few people from school I could trust not to physically assault me from behind. Most of my friends were from other schools and universities…

Who was your Senior prom date?
Didn’t go…too busy throwing a party and not giving drunk jackasses from school an opening to jump me.

Did you have fun at Prom?
Believe it or not…I had an absolute blast not going to prom πŸ˜‰

Do you still talk to the person you went to Prom with?
I went out with all my friends the weren’t in my school…and I don’t think I speak with any of those anymore…

Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion?
I missed the ten-year. supposedly theres a combo 89/90 reunion…I might show for that…

Did you play any sports?
I swam…a lot.

Do you still talk to people from school?
Not really…