When I started "From the vault" I thought I would just write about my misadventures. I've since come to realize that to do so would only tell one dimension of my life, and wouldn't give much insight into who I am(not deep insight, anyway). So, since telling a handful of drunken party stories(I think I've told about 12% of them), I'm more in the mood to talk about subjects like this. Besides, all these subjects tie together in the end. Partying basically ruined my academics(duh?!).
When it came time for me to go to Pre-K, I told my mother I didn't want to do it. Most parents would have sent their kid anyway, since they have to go to work and handle a dozen other things. My mother was different. She didn't work, so she didn't have that problem. Plus, I was a favored child in many ways since I was the shy, quiet one. As I got older my favored status seemed to grow stronger. I don't think it was because of anything I did, but more of what my older brother Mike, and my younger sister Ashley did, that made me mom's star. We'll talk more about Mike and Ashley's junior rapsheets in the future.
So, I skipped Pre-K and waited for kindergarten to actually start my schooling. My mom still believes my lack of Pre-K only enhanced my shyness when I got to kindergarten(I think there's truth to that). Of course, kindergarten is pretty much finger-painting, and lincoln logs, so there really isn't much to sweat.
Elementary school(1-5), was a little different. I had friends in elementary school, but I was still quite introverted and quiet. Also, at the time I became what you could categorize as "husky", as clearly stated on the tag in my jeans. I did quite good on my report cards though, and didn't really have any trouble except maybe keeping up during gym class. I was even offered a spot in accelerated learning classes(I said no thanks, and my mother allowed me to make the decision). Things went smoothly for me up until about the end of 4th grade. That's when the math actually became work for me(mostly because I started to quit doing the work, and no one at my house made me). I still get a little ticked-off when I see a deck of flash cards.
Then Middle school came, and my downward spiral came into full and vibrant technicolor. I actually began to slide in 5th grade. I remember my teacher sitting me and my best friend at the time, Norman Cromwell, down and giving us the facts about our inferior efforts. I brushed it off at the time, but should've listened to what he was saying. I went through 6th grade maintaining a C average(I wouldn't see the Honor Roll again after 5th). And with my older brother flat out flunking the 7th grade, a year out in front, I was happy with a C, and so was my mother. At the same time, I learned how to become more disruptive in class, and how to get detentions at least once a week. It got so bad, that once in the 7th grade, I was given a suspension for having so many detentions(the Vice Principal held up a stack of detention slips stating he had a "phone book on me"). I wish I could say that was a turning point towards straightening up my act, but no one was really making me feel like I was going down the wrong road. I mean, I was hearing it from faculty members, but what pre-teen from a broken home, and attitude problems, listens to teachers? Before leaving middle school I would go to summer school to finish 8th grade, and go into high school with about a C- average.
Then, I went into just straight apathy. At the beginning of high school I met a new friend, Freddy Evans, and met a new substance called marijuana. The three of us spent many hours together after school, and on the weekends just tokin' away, and listening to music and bong water bubbling. I was so stoned and lazy at the time, I had calculated how many classes I could fail each year, and chose the ones I was gonna sleep through. It might have worked if I hadn't just straight-out did nothing in my junior year(I passed only three classes).
Academically, high school was a bust for me, but socially it was outstanding. The husky jeans were gone, kind of(I had began lifting weights in the 7th grade, as I was growing taller and thinning out a bit). And people actually wanted to hang out with me, which was new. I gained a lot of friends through the Art Club, and my off-key sense of humor, drawing farmers with their sheep, and other such artworks. Plus, potheads seem to stick together, so I was never lonely.
When senior year came around I was forced to wake up, however. I used to spend my summers with my dad in Florida. So, when I came home from Florida my mother had some interesting news for me. It seems I was supposed to go to summer school again, but my mother never told me. She figured since I was in Florida already, I should just enjoy my summer with my dad and complete the 11th grade again when I got back(yeah, bad figuring). I was completely devastated. I couldn't believe what had been done to me by my own mother.
I went to my school, and did some of the best negotiating on my own behalf ever seen. They told me I had no choice but to repeat the 11th grade because I needed 7.5 more credits to graduate, and 7 credits are all you can earn for a year. If I had gone to summer school, and earned 1 credit I could have gone on, but since I did not... I could not. Then, I came up with an idea that I still can't believe they went for. I said to the school that if they let me continue onto the 12th grade, I would pass all 7 classes(something I hadn't done in any of my previous three years), and THEN go to summer school to get the .5 credit I would lack for my diploma. They thought about it... and said OK! I basically offered up the plot to a bad Adam Sandler movie, and the Board of Education said OK!
Well, somehow I pulled it off. I went to summer school after senior year, and got my diploma. I came close to failing(I had to turn in homework in English class on the last day of school just to get a D-). Afterwards, I went on the warpath, and got wasted everyday. My father made me enroll in the local community college, where I flunked all three of my part-time classes. He got so pissed at his stoner son, that he brought me down to Florida, and watched every move I made. For his efforts he was rewarded with a son who was a certified AutoCAD Drafter and Blueprint Reader. Since then, I've worked as a Land Surveyor, and been quite successful so far.
Not much of a student(1.37 GPA!), but I still enjoyed my time in school. I'm trying to make plans to go back soon, and possibly do something in graphic arts. We'll see what happens.
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