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We recently went to my 10 year high school reunion. I wasn’t going to go, but then Nils pep-talked me into it.
I’m really glad I went, but I am still the same shy person I was. So it is still tough to have conversations with strangers… yet I still thrive on genuine human conversation, and during the time I was at the reunion, there was a lot of that going on. I wonder what our lives will look like in another 10 years.
“You’ve got to realize the world is a big place—try not to be so up tight.”
After his frank indictment of my character, I stared blankly at Mr. Mortenson, my high school physics teacher and tennis coach. His classroom had the idiosyncrasies of a long-occupied room: a non-standard office attached to the back wall, lined with 20-year-old physics instruction adjuncts and old tennis rackets. We had just handed in another assignment, on which I was accustomed to acing, but had flubbed a sign or made some minor error. I’m sure I looked crushed by my mistake and was redoubling my efforts and asking questions to get the concept right. I really didn’t like any grade less than 100%.
I should be studying right now. I wonder what I’ll remember from this time of my life when I look back. Will I remember freaking out in my first year? Will I remember the endless parade of exams in my second year? Or will I focus on my very first patients and my learning to be a clinician in my third?
I’ve saved a bunch of articles from the beginning of the summer, and now I am making my way through them. The first: Advice for High School Graduates from The Conversation Blog at the New York Times. The blog is like sitting around a dinner table with two knowledgeable, witty, opinionated folks: David Brooks and Gail Collins, both columnists at the Times. In this piece, Brooks requests help from Collins, as he will soon make a commencement speech at a high school. He laments some sizable gaps in the education options available:
I recently wrote about the absurdity of using social networking photos as indisputable evidence in a piece called Puritanical, Tyrannical, Overreaching Public Schools. I centered my argument around events at Eden Prairie High School, events which have been essentially repeated at Woodbury High School (my alma mader). I’ll keep writing the same journal until something changes, I guess. Here’s the story this time around: instead of controversial pictures being reported to the school by an anonymous meddling informant (as they were at Eden Prairie), they were shown by a student at Woodbury High School as part of a health presentation about underage drinking. The common reaction is: “wow those students sure are stupid for putting these pictures online, then presenting them to a class.” Such a statement is an oversimplification of the situation and it conflates stupidity with naïveté. Allow me to explain.
You may enjoy the discussion at Slashdot about an Eden Prairie, MN school attempting to punish students for pictures of the students drinking found on Facebook.
Hot on the heels of my extensive discussion on happiness, I must change topics a bit and point out a 2005 study by the American Chemical Society, specifically, “Senior Research Associate Janel Kasper-Wolfe of ACS’s Department of Member Research & Technology under the general guidance of the ACS Committee on Economic & Professional Affairs.” Fascinating, you say. Read on! So … what in this study could be so interesting, you ask? Well. This is an analysis of the starting salaries received by chemistry graduates in 2005. Possibly an ironic subject matter given my last post? Yes. Interesting? Without a doubt.
On campus today, I saw a kid with a sweatshirt that said “Holy Angels Football.” I thought it would be funny if they renamed the school “Holy Angles,” just for the comedic effect for the football team name. “Holy Angles Football” sounds funny … like they have the perfect angles … or something. Though, the name would work best for a pool league. “The Holy Angles Pool Players League Of Awesomeness”.
Valedictory Address
Alex Micek
June 8th, 2003
Friends, relatives, distinguished guests, and the class of 2003:
We are gathered here today to honor the passing on of a time in our lives called “high school.” This ceremony marks its final passing from our lives. Now, we all have had vastly different experiences in high school, but one thing we have all been exposed to is CliffsNotes. Yeeup, CliffsNotes, those handy reader guides that summarize the characters, plot, symbolism, and important details of a book or play. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to a guide that you haven’t heard of: the CliffsNotes guide to high school. Please remember, that all CliffsNotes take time to say “Opinions expressed in these Notes aren’t rigid dogma meant to discourage intellectual exploration” and the same is true here; take what you want. This is a summary of high school on its own terms.
Got a new mouse today. It’s optical so no dumb trackball lint problems. I can use it on my shirt, too! And picked up some new anti-virus software. Still reading Heretics of Dune. I fear as I have been reading the series that I have not made enough guesses or connections about the plot. Because of this, the information presented later on which was intended to clarify guesses has been passed over by me and only taken at face value. This may detract from my understanding of the plot and the books themselves as a whole. Then again, the time that has passed between books has been long. This could be my problem. A re-read may be in order. I’m awakening from the dream of summer and looking forward to the coming school year. School creates more stress, work, and scheduling than I normally have to deal with. The best plan may be to keep reading books throughout the year; escape literature has a value more than distracting the mind. It seems to enrich while diverting. Time for me to skeedaddle.