My parents are moving out of the house we lived in when I was in high school. To cut down on what they’re moving, my mom went through the house and priced a bunch of stuff for sale, but she also went through my old stuff trying to decide what I might want to keep. I got a package a week or two ago with some stuff from scouting and some cool art from middle school and early high school. If I get a chance, I might scan or photograph some of it and post it here.
Today I received the second package with some items from high school. I haven’t even gotten past the first stack of papers and I can’t believe some of the stuff that’s in here. On top of the stack is some English assignments. Knowing the person I am now, it’s hard to believe this stuff came out of my head. Here’s a sample of a poem I wrote with a partner in Senior AP English:
There once was a knight, a most distinguished ladies’ man,
When it came to the ladies, he always had a plan.
But it wasn’t always this way,
He used to be shy, back in the day.
He had once lived in Seattle,
And fought in many a ghetto battle.
His legend of victory spread far and wide,
Mention his name, grown men run and hide.
It goes on for a page and a half! This one is supposed to be cheesy and funny, but I can’t imagine writing four lines like this now let alone a page and a half. I particularly enjoyed these tidbits of truth about a fellow classmate we snuck into the paper under the guise of a squire who followed the knight around:
His phrases of “Sega” and “MACK-10” rang through the hall,
If it were up to the knight he wouldn’t say it at all.
….
At the age of thirteen, he proposed to his teacher,
He told her he set it all up, even the preacher.
She laughed at his proposal and gave him an A,
You see it was April Fools’ Day.*
Then there’s the “Polonius Parody” for which I received 15/15 points.
I wish you good fortune on your journey.
Remember this advice:
Be all that you can be (in the Army).
Keep your mouth shut if you’re about to say something dumb.
Have fun with your friends but don’t overdo the partying.
Try to avoid pissing people off, but if it can’t be helped, make sure you kick their tail.
Be a good listener, but there’s no doubt–don’t speak.
Listen to advice, but make your own decisions.
Don’t go overboard on your wardrobe, but it’s ok to show off that sterling silver Ruff Ryders pendant every once in a while.
Be a tightwad with money. If you let people borrow they’ll make you regret it. And if you borrow money, they’ll make you regret it.
Most importantly: Eat Wheaties for breakfast every day. Oh, and sleep a lot.
Good luck. Peace.
After a few more pages – my senior AP Calculus Final. In big bold letters on the front page:
Think.
Ask yourself questions.
Listen to what you’re saying.
That is still excellent advice. I looked over the test where I filled the pages with line after line of my work on each problem and noticed a distinct lack of red marks. I have to say that I have never felt smarter in my entire life than the two years I spent in Mr. Boast’s classroom learning pre-Calc and Calculus. I seriously considered majoring in math for a while because I enjoyed it so much. The final was curved to a max score of 105 and I got a 100.
If I could change one thing about the path I took through college it would have been to take more math classes. I was so good at this stuff in high school, but I practically threw that knowledge away. The business degrees all required calculus, but since I got full AP credit based on my AP Calc test score from high school, I never needed more math. The closest I came to it at K-State was a few statistics classes that were more about data than math. Along with the test was a full page of notes covered with hyperbolic identities, derivatives, integrals, and inverse trig functions. It makes me sad that I can’t decipher more than a few lines anymore, but I’m still proud of what I was able to do with it in high school.
Well, I’ve barely scratched the surface of this box. If I find any other interesting goodies, maybe I will also share them here. One other thing – I had really tiny handwriting in high school.
*Note today’s date. This is what you call irony.
