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High School High
By Brian | April 3, 2009 | Share on Facebook
Both Jason and Ilya have partaken in the “My So-Called High School Life” meme, and since high school was all about peer pressure, well – here goes:
- Did you date someone from your school senior year?
Not really. I dated someone my junior year, and we broke up early in my senior year. After that, I was basically single until graduation. I did date a member of the next senior class when I was freshman in college, though. So I guess I just skipped my own senior year.
- Did you marry someone from your high school?
No. I didn’t meet my wife until a few months before she graduated college (and a year and a few months before I did – she’s fourteen months older than I am)
- Did you car pool to school?
Generally speaking, we took a stereotypical yellow school bus. Senior year, a few kids had both licenses and cars, so we’d occasionally drive to school together, but that was almost always because we had somewhere we had to be after school that required a car.
- What kind of car did you drive?
I quite literally drove my father’s Oldsmobile. Specifically, a blue, Delta88, “hardtop convertible,” which meant there was no bar between the front windows and the rear windows, so when you put all the windows down, you had one giant opening on either side of the car. Kind of stretches the term “convertible,” huh?
- What kind of car do you have now?
We have two. There’s the leased, 2008 Honda Oddyssey minivan for carting around the kids and their friends, and the beat-up, 1992 Nissan Stanza, which I affectionately refer to as my “train car.” It goes exactly four miles per day (two to the train station and two back). Seventeen years of (mostly) faithful service, and still under 90,000 miles.
- It’s Friday night… where were you (in high school)?
Home, talking to friends on the phone, and then later, watching Love Boat and Fantasy Island. Yeah, seriously. Saturday night was a little better, especially once I had my driver’s license.
- It is Friday night… where are you (now)?
Home with the family, or occasionally out rehearsing with my band, Midlife Crisis (I didn’t come up with the name).
- What kind of job did you have in high school?
Several, mostly involving data entry (computers were fairly new back then, and my facility with them combined with my ability to touch-type quickly made me well qualified for such jobs).
- What kind of job do you do now?
Senior Technology Manager, Global Markets Operations Technology, Bank of America.
- Were you a party animal?
Not in the “go out, drink, and cause trouble” sense, no.
- Were you considered a flirt?
Well, you’d have to ask others, wouldn’t you? My guess would be no.
- Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
Oh my, yes.
I took up piano at the age of seven, and then trumpet at the age of nine, when I joined the school band in sixth grade. From there, I was in school bands, pit orchestras, accompanist roles, and solo/small group performances straight through college. Today, I’m on an alumni board for The Unviersity of Pennsylvania Band, and still get back to Philadelphia to perform with them 2-3 times a year. That, plus the aforementioned Midlife Crisis (I didn’t come up with the name).
- Were you a nerd?
By almost any definition of the word, yes. Thing is, I don’t really see that as a bad thing…
- Did you get suspended or expelled?
No. I remember getting detention once, but I honestly don’t remember why
- Can you sing the fight song?
Sure. I could even hum you the trumpet part if you were so inclined. That said, the fight song was the Theme from the Magnificent Seven, so there are likely lots of folks out there who could hum it.
- Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)?
I’ve had many “favorite” teachers over the years. The one that stands out the most from high school is a history teacher named Bill Gorman (or “Mr. Gorman” as we called him). At the time, he taught high school as well as part-time at a local community college. In retrospect, he stood out because he treated the high school kids in his class (particularly the seniors) like college students. Classes were in discussion format, there was no text book, and we often strayed from the class material into current events and their relationship to the historical topic under discussion. Mr. Gorman would also encourage a relationship between teacher and student outside of the classroom. I remember him popping his head in the door of another teacher’s class and asking him/her if he could borrow me for five minutes, because he wanted to ask me a question or tell me something interesting.
At the time, this seemed very strange (and even, in some cases, inappropriate). Looking back, though, I think Mr. Gorman was the first teacher to treat his students as adults and not children, and that left a strong impression on me.
- Where did you sit during lunch?
The school cafeteria had long (cafeteria-style?) tables. I’d sit with a consistent group of friends who had lunch at the same time as I, and we’d sit just about anywhere.
What was interesting about lunch wasn’t where we sat, but what we did during that class period. Many of our classes had morning and afternoon sessions, and our lunch group was made up of people from both sessions. So the morning session folks would update the afternoon session folks about what went on that day (including, but not limited to the dreaded pop quizzes), and the afternoon folks would use the lunch period to prepare.
- What was your school’s full name?
Marlboro High School
- When did you graduate?
1987.
- What was your school mascot?
- If you could go back and do it again, would you?
Well, I enjoyed it, so if I could magically relive it, I guess I would. I’m not sure I would change much, though. Not even the things I wished I could change at the time. After all, life is pretty good right now, and all of that helped me get here, right? Best to leave well enough alone, I think.
- Did you have fun at prom?
Yes. In fact, we had two proms – the “Junior Prom” and the “Senior Prom.” I went to the junior prom with the girlfriend I mentioned earlier, and to the senior prom with a girl I was friends with since elementary school. Both nights were a lot of fun.
- Do you still talk to your prom date?
No. My Junior Prom date and I stopped speaking just after we broke up (mainly because I was ill-equipped to handle the break-up and took it out on her, I think). I wrote her a letter freshman year of college (this was before the days of e-mail, if you can believe that), but she never wrote back. As for my Senior Prom date, we just lost touch.
Whoever came up with the whole married name/maiden name thing did not anticipate the needs of guys trying to Google female high school friends.
- Who was your best friend?
My friend Mike and I were basicaly inseparable during high school, and remain good friends to this day.
- What did you want to be when you grew up?
Taller.
Sorry – that was the line I used throughout high school (I didn’t hit my current height of 5′, 5″ until close to graduation). In all seriousness, I can’t imagine I had any idea about a career choice at the age of eighteen. I think I knew that technology would play a part, and I gravitated toward the world of business (attending an undergraduate business school and all), but the specifics were far from fleshed out.
- Any regrets?
Meh. I did some stupid things that teenage boys do, and looking back, I guess I’d rather I was smarter, more mature, etc. (like severing all ties with my junior prom date, for instance). But to call those things regrets would be to ask a bit much of my high school self at this point, I think. I’ll go with no – no regrets.
- Biggest fashion mistake?
I was one of those kids who actively avoided the latest fashion trends, sticking with the very basics in terms of wardrobe, hair style, etc.. I always reasoned that if the previous fashion trend was ridiculous now, then the current fashion trend would be ridiculous soon. I’m still mostly like that today, and I still think I’m right more often than I’m wrong.
- Favorite fashion trend?
Not applicable (see above)
- Are you going to your next reunion?
I skipped the ten-year reunion (organized by the homecoming queen/head cheerleader), and learned after the fact that they had a huge turnout. I went to the twenty-year reunion (organized by the homecoming king/star of the football team), which had a much smaller turnout. It was fun, but I’m not exactly yearning for the next one. Plus, I can’t imagine anyone other than those two people organizing a reunion, and they seem to have done their duty at this point, so I think we’re probably done.
- Who did you have a secret crush on?
I think it’s fair to say I had a series of mini-crushes on the cute girls in the choir that could really sing well (that’s what comes from hours and hours of sitting in the pit orchestra watching the endless rehearsals). Nothing too serious, though, and no one who’s name I can even remember. The girls in the band were more accessible, and so the few I liked tended to know about it.
- Did you go on spring break?
In high school, spring break meant you didn’t go to school. It wasn’t until college where spring break meant “go away on vacation somewhere.”
Still here? Your interest in my teen years is Very impressive. . . and a bit disturbing.
Topics: Random Acts of Blogging | 8 Comments »
As for The Magnificent Seven, would you believe I’ve never seen the movie? Short of the song, I’ve never had a compelling reason…
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