Reflection Time
It’s time to reflect, I started this at 22:22:22 and that’s a good time to start when I’ve got a presentation due tomorrow that I still need to work on. There are two days left in school, and this is going to be possibly my last entry before my last day of school. So I might as well write now, before it is all over and the historic landmark of my life has passed.
SIS. What can one say about SIS. Prison? Hell? The Pit? It will never be the commons, it’s a pit, you gotta call it that! Tuna Can is what Mr. Foti called it. He even showed our class his picture, which he rarely shows, of SIS drawn, with Tuna written on the side of it. What a funny place. It was a prison, and it was hell. 2nd worst time of my life. The two best teachers there I thought were Mr. Foti and Mr. Edmond. Not many people like Mr. Edmond, but although he was strict, I liked him for some reason. And Mr. Foti didn’t care about anything. I do remember Mrs. Whitehead, who suggested my change from Trumpet to Euphonium in 7th grade, which I loved and intend to stick with for who knows how long. And then Mrs. Freudenberg ruined band, but luckily people like Ryan Kartheiser, Chris Hillard, Robin Jeffers and many others made it worth while to stick with it. Had my first big crush in middle school, and my first heart break. Christine Reis, much different girl now than she used to be. I really liked her back then, shame that nothing turned of it, real shame that she basically dropped out of my life at that point. But hey, high school erases the past that is created and branded on you at SIS. In High School, it’s all new.
First day of high school, I have Zero hour, so I miss the seniors hazing in the parking lot. Then, I don’t know not to walk threw the front hall before first hour, but hey, that didn’t matter either. Since I was 4’0-4’2, all the seniors towered over me, and no one even saw me walking threw all of them. It was hilarious.
Freshman year: Well, Tech was the only worthwhile thing of freshman year that I can remember. The only class I bothered to stay awake in, other than German. Ah yes, German. Good ol’ Herr Klaffenboeck. How could I forget. One of the best teachers I’ve ever had. He retired after my freshman year. Horribly strict teacher, but man did you ever learn. What most schools take 4-5 years to teach, he could teach in 2-3. And the rest of the time you just spent learning the language. Unfortunately for me I spent that time forgetting it since he was gone. But speaking of German, that was the place I was when I heard of the attacks on September 11th, 2001. That was one of the saddest days of my life, and that day has probably taken off several years of my life as well. For saddest does lessen ones life, whereas laughter lengthens life. Yea, it was crazy because my uncle lives very near there, and I had no idea until about 5 or 6 that night if he was alright or not, which he was thank God. Then there was my Mrs. Shasko experience. The teacher who refused my 3 pages worth of notes on a 5-6 page chapter on the second day of school. How can you refuse a kids homework, the second day in high school, and tell him that it’s unacceptable and he has to do it over again. No, so that’s when my war against her began, and it still goes to this day. Wrath. Pure and utter Wrath.
Sophomore year: Not too many memories from then. With Herr Klaffenboeck gone, we got a joint class which Frau Havas attempted to teach, but failed. I also met Marcel that year. Not sure when we met exactly, but I know it was in one of Hannah Scott’s chat rooms. Yes, we met in a chat room, not in person first, even though she had been in some of my previous classes. This year also contained the worst period of my life. And I still have yet to figure it out to this day:
Starting around December or so, I went into a month long, maybe even more, clinical depression. I believe that’s what it was, but that is only a self diagnosis after I pulled myself threw it. My energy level dropped enormously, I had trouble climbing to the 3rd floor of the Administration building. I was cold all the time, even when wrapped in 3-4 layers. I would shake for no reason. And I was just plain sad. I was depressed beyond belief. And then I came up with my brilliant idea which pulled me from it. Back in SIS, I forgot to mention this, I played my only school sport, Cross Country. I love running, and I wish I could do it more, but I found out that I have Achilles Bursitis and Achilles Tendonitis plus several other problems with my legs that destroy my legs after I run. But running always made me happy, and it still does. I still endure the pain from now and then just to get that rush of endorphins that I love. But anyway, so I start out during lunch toward the track, and I tell myself, running makes the pain go away. Middle of winter, I think it was like December 15th or 20th or something, we weren’t on winter break yet though. So class ends, I go to the track. I take off my winter jacket and put it on some bleachers. Then the snow started to fall. There I am in jeans and a t-shirt with snow falling all around me. I step onto the track and I run. I ran through all of lunch straight. No eating, no stopping, no picking up my coat. I just ran. I probably ran 3-5 miles in that time period, I don’t know though, because I didn’t care about distance, I just cared about the running. Then, my watch went off; I finished my lap, grabbed my coat, and walked to band. I then sat with my coat zipped up all the way, trying to keep my hood on as long as I could before I was forced to take it off my teachers, and I shivered. I shivered and didn’t talk at all until the 3:15 bell in Mrs. Schillers Chem Study class. Then, the second that bell rang, I jumped out of my seat for some reason, got a burst of heat throughout my body, and I hurried on to tech. And the reason I did all of the above, because I missed the good times that I had been having in tech. A couple months ago I found out that Mr. Catlett and Mr. Pruett were watching me closely that year during that time actually. They were worried about me and kept checking in with other students to try and see what was going on with me. And that makes me love both of them more than they could ever know. And I intend on talking to Mr. Catlett about it before this year is over, and I don’t have much time to do it, but I will, I’ve made a promise, and that I cannot break.
Well that’s the main points of my sophomore year. Oh wait, no it’s not. Oh dear god. How could I forget. Heh heh heh… Les Miserable. Ah yes, that was the year of Les Miserable. This was the first time that I truly realized that I had sold my soul to tech. Considering I had forgotten to turn in my sheet for crew for that show. And the day crew list came out, what was I? huh? Ah yes, Assistant Stage Manager Stage Left. Ha, didn’t even sign up and I got that position. And boy was it hell. But it was also the best theatre experience that I’ve ever had. And yes, I did lose my mind several times during that show, along with John Horstman, our ASM Stage Right. The turntable. The revolutionary fights behind the barricade. Man, the barricade, John and I built those starting back in January. I will always remember that show, it saved my sophomore year…
Well, onto junior year. That summer we went to Scotland for Drama. We took Bat Boy the Musical to the International Fringe Festival in Scotland. It was a blast. I saw some of the best theatre, and some of the worst theatre that I’ve ever seen. But it was worth going. I will never regret it. Then, that school year I got quite close with Marcie. Marcie=Marcel for those of you who have never heard her called that. Anyway, I asked her out in October or November. Can’t remember which. All I know is that she finally said yes to me on November 15th. Wait, actually I think I’m wrong on that. I think it was November 9th to tell you the truth. Because, well, I’ll get to that later. So we started dating. I loved her dearly the entire time, even though we had many rough times. I still do love her, but the love I once felt is nearly gone I think. Anyway, that year was also Proof and Into the Woods, my first two stage managing jobs. Great shows if I do say so myself. I had a lot of fun doing them and I enjoy stage managing a lot in high school, even though I do lose my temper at times and make people fear me…which I’m very sorry for. I’m sorry for everyone who I’ve made fear me, because I hate yelling and I hate it when people are afraid, but I just lose it sometimes. And to stage manage, you have to lose it sometimes I’ve learned… So that was basically my junior year if I remember right. Oh yes, I remembered this while doing my senior year: First fire of the Auditorium Building. Smaller fire, only took out one wall of the Costume room. I started Xanga near the time of the second fire, so if you go to my first entries, you can read of that one there. The first fire we got back into the building in time to perform Into the Woods which I stage managed and which was a very well done show. We really showed people that not even fire can stop our drama. We proved even more so this year.
Senior year. Last year of High School. The final of it all. If I’m right, I’ve got entries on here of that, I’m going to go check real quick on that. Yes, I did document my first day of senior year earlier on. Here is the link: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=yoyomankind&nextdate=9%2f1%2f2004+23%3a59%3a59.999 Not too descriptive, but it gets the point across. Anyway, we had a second fire in our Auditorium. This one was much worse, and the building has been closed for the entire year now. My life, Drama, the second home that building was to me, was burned and I lost it for my senior year. But you know what, the hell with that damned arsonist, we showed the sucker that there ain’t nothing that can stop us. We did Little Shop of Horrors at Dominican High School. Opening night looked like normal matinees for the high school. The other 3 performances were packed. No one thought it was going to be Shorewood potential, and everyone in that show rocked the house. You guys have no idea how happy that show made me when I saw the audience double on the second night. You guys were amazing. Then, we put on two very powerful shows in the winter: The Heidi Chronicles and The Laramie Project. The Laramie Project is a very controversial play, and even most theatre groups won’t do it, but man did our actors show others up. We did phenomenal for that show. And now we are working on Hello Dolly, which tomorrow is Open Dress rehearsal for it, where we will pass around a donation hat, since we are expecting it to be a full house performance. And then we close on Friday, the night of the last day of my high school carrier. The first 4 showings of it occurred at The Pabst, which is a very famous theatre in downtown Milwaukee. It was quite possibly my second most exciting drama experience in my life, the first being Les Miserable still. In my gaming world, a group of us seniors started up a Counterstrike Clan, which died out a couple months ago, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. This year wasn’t all fun and games though. December 15th, and this is why I thought of 15th instead of 9th before, was the day Marcie broke up with me. It was during a tech day that she came with, and I could tell she wanted to talk and we talked, and she broke up with me, and my life was shattered for a little while. Now, it wasn’t all her fault, in fact, I don’t blame her at all. I should have been alright, but at the time, the world decided to screw me over, and they took away all my friends at that point. I didn’t have anyone to turn to, for everyone who I tried to turn to, had something else a bit more important going on. And so I had to sit and wallow in my own sadness for a while until I was able to mend myself. And I don’t blame others for this happening, although I used to, but I rather just blame my horrible luck. How horrible things like to happen to me when I least need them to. But that is how life goes. Moving on, I am done with over ½ of my finals now, because of AP Classes, and as of next week, I will only be taking 1 or 2 finals. I intend to spend the rest of my finals week going to see movies with friends of mine, and starting off to a great summer before Graduation. Graduation is on June 9th at 8:00PM I believe. And that day will officially end my high school carrier.
I will end this post now, even though I have tons more I wish I could say. It is now 23:41:23 and I am leaving you for now. See ya after my last day of class.
SIS. What can one say about SIS. Prison? Hell? The Pit? It will never be the commons, it’s a pit, you gotta call it that! Tuna Can is what Mr. Foti called it. He even showed our class his picture, which he rarely shows, of SIS drawn, with Tuna written on the side of it. What a funny place. It was a prison, and it was hell. 2nd worst time of my life. The two best teachers there I thought were Mr. Foti and Mr. Edmond. Not many people like Mr. Edmond, but although he was strict, I liked him for some reason. And Mr. Foti didn’t care about anything. I do remember Mrs. Whitehead, who suggested my change from Trumpet to Euphonium in 7th grade, which I loved and intend to stick with for who knows how long. And then Mrs. Freudenberg ruined band, but luckily people like Ryan Kartheiser, Chris Hillard, Robin Jeffers and many others made it worth while to stick with it. Had my first big crush in middle school, and my first heart break. Christine Reis, much different girl now than she used to be. I really liked her back then, shame that nothing turned of it, real shame that she basically dropped out of my life at that point. But hey, high school erases the past that is created and branded on you at SIS. In High School, it’s all new.
First day of high school, I have Zero hour, so I miss the seniors hazing in the parking lot. Then, I don’t know not to walk threw the front hall before first hour, but hey, that didn’t matter either. Since I was 4’0-4’2, all the seniors towered over me, and no one even saw me walking threw all of them. It was hilarious.
Freshman year: Well, Tech was the only worthwhile thing of freshman year that I can remember. The only class I bothered to stay awake in, other than German. Ah yes, German. Good ol’ Herr Klaffenboeck. How could I forget. One of the best teachers I’ve ever had. He retired after my freshman year. Horribly strict teacher, but man did you ever learn. What most schools take 4-5 years to teach, he could teach in 2-3. And the rest of the time you just spent learning the language. Unfortunately for me I spent that time forgetting it since he was gone. But speaking of German, that was the place I was when I heard of the attacks on September 11th, 2001. That was one of the saddest days of my life, and that day has probably taken off several years of my life as well. For saddest does lessen ones life, whereas laughter lengthens life. Yea, it was crazy because my uncle lives very near there, and I had no idea until about 5 or 6 that night if he was alright or not, which he was thank God. Then there was my Mrs. Shasko experience. The teacher who refused my 3 pages worth of notes on a 5-6 page chapter on the second day of school. How can you refuse a kids homework, the second day in high school, and tell him that it’s unacceptable and he has to do it over again. No, so that’s when my war against her began, and it still goes to this day. Wrath. Pure and utter Wrath.
Sophomore year: Not too many memories from then. With Herr Klaffenboeck gone, we got a joint class which Frau Havas attempted to teach, but failed. I also met Marcel that year. Not sure when we met exactly, but I know it was in one of Hannah Scott’s chat rooms. Yes, we met in a chat room, not in person first, even though she had been in some of my previous classes. This year also contained the worst period of my life. And I still have yet to figure it out to this day:
Starting around December or so, I went into a month long, maybe even more, clinical depression. I believe that’s what it was, but that is only a self diagnosis after I pulled myself threw it. My energy level dropped enormously, I had trouble climbing to the 3rd floor of the Administration building. I was cold all the time, even when wrapped in 3-4 layers. I would shake for no reason. And I was just plain sad. I was depressed beyond belief. And then I came up with my brilliant idea which pulled me from it. Back in SIS, I forgot to mention this, I played my only school sport, Cross Country. I love running, and I wish I could do it more, but I found out that I have Achilles Bursitis and Achilles Tendonitis plus several other problems with my legs that destroy my legs after I run. But running always made me happy, and it still does. I still endure the pain from now and then just to get that rush of endorphins that I love. But anyway, so I start out during lunch toward the track, and I tell myself, running makes the pain go away. Middle of winter, I think it was like December 15th or 20th or something, we weren’t on winter break yet though. So class ends, I go to the track. I take off my winter jacket and put it on some bleachers. Then the snow started to fall. There I am in jeans and a t-shirt with snow falling all around me. I step onto the track and I run. I ran through all of lunch straight. No eating, no stopping, no picking up my coat. I just ran. I probably ran 3-5 miles in that time period, I don’t know though, because I didn’t care about distance, I just cared about the running. Then, my watch went off; I finished my lap, grabbed my coat, and walked to band. I then sat with my coat zipped up all the way, trying to keep my hood on as long as I could before I was forced to take it off my teachers, and I shivered. I shivered and didn’t talk at all until the 3:15 bell in Mrs. Schillers Chem Study class. Then, the second that bell rang, I jumped out of my seat for some reason, got a burst of heat throughout my body, and I hurried on to tech. And the reason I did all of the above, because I missed the good times that I had been having in tech. A couple months ago I found out that Mr. Catlett and Mr. Pruett were watching me closely that year during that time actually. They were worried about me and kept checking in with other students to try and see what was going on with me. And that makes me love both of them more than they could ever know. And I intend on talking to Mr. Catlett about it before this year is over, and I don’t have much time to do it, but I will, I’ve made a promise, and that I cannot break.
Well that’s the main points of my sophomore year. Oh wait, no it’s not. Oh dear god. How could I forget. Heh heh heh… Les Miserable. Ah yes, that was the year of Les Miserable. This was the first time that I truly realized that I had sold my soul to tech. Considering I had forgotten to turn in my sheet for crew for that show. And the day crew list came out, what was I? huh? Ah yes, Assistant Stage Manager Stage Left. Ha, didn’t even sign up and I got that position. And boy was it hell. But it was also the best theatre experience that I’ve ever had. And yes, I did lose my mind several times during that show, along with John Horstman, our ASM Stage Right. The turntable. The revolutionary fights behind the barricade. Man, the barricade, John and I built those starting back in January. I will always remember that show, it saved my sophomore year…
Well, onto junior year. That summer we went to Scotland for Drama. We took Bat Boy the Musical to the International Fringe Festival in Scotland. It was a blast. I saw some of the best theatre, and some of the worst theatre that I’ve ever seen. But it was worth going. I will never regret it. Then, that school year I got quite close with Marcie. Marcie=Marcel for those of you who have never heard her called that. Anyway, I asked her out in October or November. Can’t remember which. All I know is that she finally said yes to me on November 15th. Wait, actually I think I’m wrong on that. I think it was November 9th to tell you the truth. Because, well, I’ll get to that later. So we started dating. I loved her dearly the entire time, even though we had many rough times. I still do love her, but the love I once felt is nearly gone I think. Anyway, that year was also Proof and Into the Woods, my first two stage managing jobs. Great shows if I do say so myself. I had a lot of fun doing them and I enjoy stage managing a lot in high school, even though I do lose my temper at times and make people fear me…which I’m very sorry for. I’m sorry for everyone who I’ve made fear me, because I hate yelling and I hate it when people are afraid, but I just lose it sometimes. And to stage manage, you have to lose it sometimes I’ve learned… So that was basically my junior year if I remember right. Oh yes, I remembered this while doing my senior year: First fire of the Auditorium Building. Smaller fire, only took out one wall of the Costume room. I started Xanga near the time of the second fire, so if you go to my first entries, you can read of that one there. The first fire we got back into the building in time to perform Into the Woods which I stage managed and which was a very well done show. We really showed people that not even fire can stop our drama. We proved even more so this year.
Senior year. Last year of High School. The final of it all. If I’m right, I’ve got entries on here of that, I’m going to go check real quick on that. Yes, I did document my first day of senior year earlier on. Here is the link: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=yoyomankind&nextdate=9%2f1%2f2004+23%3a59%3a59.999 Not too descriptive, but it gets the point across. Anyway, we had a second fire in our Auditorium. This one was much worse, and the building has been closed for the entire year now. My life, Drama, the second home that building was to me, was burned and I lost it for my senior year. But you know what, the hell with that damned arsonist, we showed the sucker that there ain’t nothing that can stop us. We did Little Shop of Horrors at Dominican High School. Opening night looked like normal matinees for the high school. The other 3 performances were packed. No one thought it was going to be Shorewood potential, and everyone in that show rocked the house. You guys have no idea how happy that show made me when I saw the audience double on the second night. You guys were amazing. Then, we put on two very powerful shows in the winter: The Heidi Chronicles and The Laramie Project. The Laramie Project is a very controversial play, and even most theatre groups won’t do it, but man did our actors show others up. We did phenomenal for that show. And now we are working on Hello Dolly, which tomorrow is Open Dress rehearsal for it, where we will pass around a donation hat, since we are expecting it to be a full house performance. And then we close on Friday, the night of the last day of my high school carrier. The first 4 showings of it occurred at The Pabst, which is a very famous theatre in downtown Milwaukee. It was quite possibly my second most exciting drama experience in my life, the first being Les Miserable still. In my gaming world, a group of us seniors started up a Counterstrike Clan, which died out a couple months ago, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. This year wasn’t all fun and games though. December 15th, and this is why I thought of 15th instead of 9th before, was the day Marcie broke up with me. It was during a tech day that she came with, and I could tell she wanted to talk and we talked, and she broke up with me, and my life was shattered for a little while. Now, it wasn’t all her fault, in fact, I don’t blame her at all. I should have been alright, but at the time, the world decided to screw me over, and they took away all my friends at that point. I didn’t have anyone to turn to, for everyone who I tried to turn to, had something else a bit more important going on. And so I had to sit and wallow in my own sadness for a while until I was able to mend myself. And I don’t blame others for this happening, although I used to, but I rather just blame my horrible luck. How horrible things like to happen to me when I least need them to. But that is how life goes. Moving on, I am done with over ½ of my finals now, because of AP Classes, and as of next week, I will only be taking 1 or 2 finals. I intend to spend the rest of my finals week going to see movies with friends of mine, and starting off to a great summer before Graduation. Graduation is on June 9th at 8:00PM I believe. And that day will officially end my high school carrier.
I will end this post now, even though I have tons more I wish I could say. It is now 23:41:23 and I am leaving you for now. See ya after my last day of class.