Chapter 12
High School - The Freshman Year
High school. I suppose the logical place to start would be at the beginning, but since it’s me here, we’ll start before the beginning. My entire scholarly career, I have been one of the top minds in my class. Elementary school teachers will tell you I will go far. I always did well, but never had the effort nor the discipline to be a 4.0 student. My first high school class was Algebra 1, taken at the middle school. I got B+’s and A’s. But the grades aren’t the important part. This little bit of excelling paved the way for the rocky freshman year (academically).
You see, when I got to the high school, I thought the classes were rather slow. First was Mr. Francis. He was my English 9 teacher. On the first or second day of class he told us that if anyone wanted to compact the class to see him. I did. He said I wasn’t on his list (because I got B’s and C’s in my eighth grade lit and language classes), but that he would do it anyway. So I did.
Geometry was really fine, but I truthfully couldn’t handle the class (as in the people) that I was with. Most of all was Brandon Dierickx. I just couldn’t stand being in the room with him. So I talked with Mrs. Scheetz, Mrs. Astor, and Mr. Hovey about compacting Geometry first semester and Algebra 2 second semester. They said OK. So, I got to work independently on my math in Mrs. Astors room, where I met a few seniors taking statistics (Sarah Kinney, Cody Allen, Mandi Berlin) and financial analysis (Parrish, Sara, Lindsey, and I’m sure there was someone else, but I can’t remember). So right there I’ve got a pretty tough year planned out for myself already.
That first quarter was the closest I ever got in high school to a 4.0. I got a 3.9, an A in everything except English 9, in which I got a B+. I was rather upset, and from there, sort of gave up on ever reaching that goal.
That was also back on the old regular 45 minute schedule (and just a side note, but block scheduling is so much better, I would never go back to the old stuff willingly). I was disgusted with study hall, it was a waste of time to me, so I went to PE every day second semester. Also second semester I took writing lab, and got a D. I also took health and got an A. (In retrospect I should have taken speech, not writing lab, I was more prepared for speech that year).
Meanwhile in the math department, I got an A in Geometry, and Algebra 2 was falling behind. I actually ended up working on it through the summer to complete it in time.
One thing I remember from chorus was on the first day, Mrs. Brummer told us that there would be no freshmen that were "back row basses." We were all to be tenors. I told her I could not sing tenor (just 3 months earlier I was a soprano), and she didn’t believe me. After a few days of complaining and begging, however, I got to go to her office and sing for her, and the next day I was sitting up on the back row, right beside Jeff Dawson, Brandon Meade, and Justin Wade. That was cool.
Then in band, I almost quit that first day, because the music was a bit overwhelming. It was way too hard in my eyes. But Mr. Franz convinced me that it wasn’t all that bad (the eternal optimist, isn’t he?) and so I stayed - and I’m still staying.
I was also in my first theatrical production, the musical, "You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown." I was of course Charles himself, and that was fun.
Also in world geography I was the guy with the 28 minute speech about my country. (also ranking 2nd and 3rd in all time length are 21 and 18 minutes, respectively).
And this was the year that I was asked to stand in for Simon Clements at the State competition for Academic Decathlon, because he was going to England. I had a lot of fun on the trip, though I was forced to sleep on luggage racks...
If there were any words of advice I could give upcoming freshmen, those words would be: !. Don’t procrastinate!!!! 2. Remember, sleep is vital to learning. 3. Mr. Francis once told me to slow down, because high school is supposed to be fun. I never listened. Although now I wish I had. My freshman year was very exciting, very strenuous, and very different from anything I had done before. Just take a break, have some fun, and do it while you still can, because these days won’t last forever, they are all numbered.