My Story, pt. 2a
aka middle school and my introduction to columbia
**edit 1: added post script**
**edit 2: added info about baseball**
Needless to say, moving anywhere is a little scary. That and it's going to be my first time in middle school, no idea what to expect. I think that was the first time I've ever been nervous about school (I was looking forward to going to elementary school....). I won't even pretend to remember my teachers or my schedule since I can hardly remember my freshman schedule, but I made it through my first two periods ok. Since everyone was new, there were a lot of "ice-breakers" and "getting to know you" activities so I started to learn some names. However, then it was lunchtime. Everyone knows somebody, but here I am knowing nobody. I remember going through the lunch line, buying my lunch, then wandering out into the cafeteria going, "Oh man, what now?" or something along those lines. I just remember being in this big sea of people and not knowing any of them. Then the damndest thing happened. As I'm wandering along aimlessly looking for an empty table to sit at, somebody calls my name. I look over and there's Anthony, calling over to me, inviting me to sit at the table with him and all of his friends. He probably doesn't remember it, but I doubt that I'll ever forget it. A bunch of people at that table I'm no longer friends with or have moved, but I'm still friends with Anthony and Josh and Alex Kempler and Danny and probably a whole lot of other people I'm forgetting. It was one of those moments where, looking back, you realize that things could have been so different except for this one moment. Here I am in a strange place, I know nothing, I'm hopelessly alone, and suddenly I have friends. People I can hang out with. This was an entirely new concept to me. In Waynesboro people didn't accept you unless you had grown up with them practically, and not even then. I was there since preschool, and I was still an outsider. Yet here I am in Harpers, totally unknown, everyone with their own friends...and I'm accepted. It remains one of the best feelings I have ever had.
That was also the year I met Dr. Shumway. A couple times a week instead of going to what was it, Academic Enrichment or something like that? I would go to the music room and play the violin. Well, wouldn't you know it, the first day that I was supposed to go, I go to the wrong period. Or something like that. At any rate I end up with the 7th and 8th graders. Doc Shummy checked his roster and told me that I was in the wrong place, but since I played the violin he'd listen to me and see what I had. Turned out, according to him, that I was in the right spot anyway. He stuck me in the upper orchestra, which was a little weird because I was the only 6th grader in there. Well, Kyra might have joined us later in the year, but all my violin-playing friends (who weren't my friends yet) were in the lower orchestra, which was a little awkward for me because I didn't think I was that good. But somehow I never felt outclassed or discriminated-against because I was just a 6th grader.
That spring/summer I was really excited about playing baseball. I worked in the batting cages all winter and was actually starting to foul off some of the 80 mph pitches, and I was creaming the 60 mph ones. So I'm signed up, put on a team, and I'm really excited. It was arguably the worst sports season of my life, which is saying a lot if anyone knows what happened with me and junior year sports. The quality of competition was...almost non-existent compared to what I was used to. There was a player who threw so slowly that you could actually see the curve on the ball. I think I swung twice before the ball crossed the plate. It was terrible. And the fields were far too big. I hit this one ball once that in a park designed for our age group would have been a home run, no problem. I hit the ball so far that I was able to jog around the bases for an inside-the-park home run. I actually had to go down to the 40 mph cages to be able to hit the ball - since I was used to the faster pitches I was swinging way too early. I think I batted about .500 that season, no joke (for those who don't know: in the MLB batting .300 is considered excellent and only a rare few have ever batted above .400 for an entire season). I made up my mind right there that I was done with baseball. I couldn't handle the level of competition; it was far too low. I had to find another sport. Then my dad took me to a lacrosse game. The next summer I signed up for my first lacrosse camp and the rest is history.
That's about it for 6th grade. I can't recall much else that was really important to me that happened that year. I met some great people, had some fun times. Life was good, and it made me realize how comparably bad I'd had it in Waynesboro.
Will write more later. For now this is part 2a
P.S. Ms. Stevenson, aka Stevie Wonder, aka "Mad Dog". That class was a riot. The YMCA. Stealing stuff. Switching seats. I still think that's the most fun I've ever had in what was supposed to be an academic class.
**edit 1: added post script**
**edit 2: added info about baseball**
Needless to say, moving anywhere is a little scary. That and it's going to be my first time in middle school, no idea what to expect. I think that was the first time I've ever been nervous about school (I was looking forward to going to elementary school....). I won't even pretend to remember my teachers or my schedule since I can hardly remember my freshman schedule, but I made it through my first two periods ok. Since everyone was new, there were a lot of "ice-breakers" and "getting to know you" activities so I started to learn some names. However, then it was lunchtime. Everyone knows somebody, but here I am knowing nobody. I remember going through the lunch line, buying my lunch, then wandering out into the cafeteria going, "Oh man, what now?" or something along those lines. I just remember being in this big sea of people and not knowing any of them. Then the damndest thing happened. As I'm wandering along aimlessly looking for an empty table to sit at, somebody calls my name. I look over and there's Anthony, calling over to me, inviting me to sit at the table with him and all of his friends. He probably doesn't remember it, but I doubt that I'll ever forget it. A bunch of people at that table I'm no longer friends with or have moved, but I'm still friends with Anthony and Josh and Alex Kempler and Danny and probably a whole lot of other people I'm forgetting. It was one of those moments where, looking back, you realize that things could have been so different except for this one moment. Here I am in a strange place, I know nothing, I'm hopelessly alone, and suddenly I have friends. People I can hang out with. This was an entirely new concept to me. In Waynesboro people didn't accept you unless you had grown up with them practically, and not even then. I was there since preschool, and I was still an outsider. Yet here I am in Harpers, totally unknown, everyone with their own friends...and I'm accepted. It remains one of the best feelings I have ever had.
That was also the year I met Dr. Shumway. A couple times a week instead of going to what was it, Academic Enrichment or something like that? I would go to the music room and play the violin. Well, wouldn't you know it, the first day that I was supposed to go, I go to the wrong period. Or something like that. At any rate I end up with the 7th and 8th graders. Doc Shummy checked his roster and told me that I was in the wrong place, but since I played the violin he'd listen to me and see what I had. Turned out, according to him, that I was in the right spot anyway. He stuck me in the upper orchestra, which was a little weird because I was the only 6th grader in there. Well, Kyra might have joined us later in the year, but all my violin-playing friends (who weren't my friends yet) were in the lower orchestra, which was a little awkward for me because I didn't think I was that good. But somehow I never felt outclassed or discriminated-against because I was just a 6th grader.
That spring/summer I was really excited about playing baseball. I worked in the batting cages all winter and was actually starting to foul off some of the 80 mph pitches, and I was creaming the 60 mph ones. So I'm signed up, put on a team, and I'm really excited. It was arguably the worst sports season of my life, which is saying a lot if anyone knows what happened with me and junior year sports. The quality of competition was...almost non-existent compared to what I was used to. There was a player who threw so slowly that you could actually see the curve on the ball. I think I swung twice before the ball crossed the plate. It was terrible. And the fields were far too big. I hit this one ball once that in a park designed for our age group would have been a home run, no problem. I hit the ball so far that I was able to jog around the bases for an inside-the-park home run. I actually had to go down to the 40 mph cages to be able to hit the ball - since I was used to the faster pitches I was swinging way too early. I think I batted about .500 that season, no joke (for those who don't know: in the MLB batting .300 is considered excellent and only a rare few have ever batted above .400 for an entire season). I made up my mind right there that I was done with baseball. I couldn't handle the level of competition; it was far too low. I had to find another sport. Then my dad took me to a lacrosse game. The next summer I signed up for my first lacrosse camp and the rest is history.
That's about it for 6th grade. I can't recall much else that was really important to me that happened that year. I met some great people, had some fun times. Life was good, and it made me realize how comparably bad I'd had it in Waynesboro.
Will write more later. For now this is part 2a
P.S. Ms. Stevenson, aka Stevie Wonder, aka "Mad Dog". That class was a riot. The YMCA. Stealing stuff. Switching seats. I still think that's the most fun I've ever had in what was supposed to be an academic class.