Hey Freak!

So, I was thinking about high school. How much I've changed. It's kinda weird to remember the things you've done, especially things you did so long ago. I dunno... maybe it's hard for me, because I still think of myself as "growing up" rather than "getting old."

Anyways, here are a few random things about me in high school that you may or may not believe, but I can assure you, I did 'em.

37. My high school had done away with the "Student of the Month" award for a time, but they brought it back my senior year. And I was the first Student of the Month of the new batch. Remember, this was way back before the advent of the "My child is the blah blah blah" bumper stickers, so all I got was a plaque.


38. I was on the cross-country running and cross-country skiing teams. Now, before you go and think that I used to be athletic, let me tell you... I sucked. I had no endurance. But a lot of my friends were on those teams, and they were really good, so... I joined the teams, too. And sure, I may have been one of the worst people on either of those teams, but... hell, at least I was doing something physical. I wasn't a typical geek - I loved math and computers and all that nerdy stuff, but I also liked to play. I liked physical activity. I made sure that I had P.E. every semester. I may not have been very good at anything, but at least I tried. I participated. I played.


39. I never had detention. I was a good kid back then - I obeyed all the rules, and did my best in school. I was one of those "perfect attendance" geeks for quite some time, all the way up to my senior year. Plus, I was friends with the principal. I wasn't a rat or anything; he was just my social studies teacher back in 7th grade, and I did pretty well in that class. Except for one time that I vividly remember... we were watching a boring ass film (I don't remember what it was about), and I was sitting in the seat right in front of the teacher's desk. And I was sound asleep. From what I understand, he very nicely and quietly tried to wake me up by saying my name. Louder. And louder. Still asleep. Then he took a ruler and smacked it down on my desk. I think that woke everybody up. Isn't it funny, the things you vividly remember? It's so random sometimes.


40. I was also on the soccer team. I'm listing this one separately, because I was a little better at soccer than I was at, well... anything else (except volleyball). When I was 16, I tried out for an AK all star team, and actually made it. That summer, we went to Finland, Sweden, and Denmark to play in some tournaments. We never made it out of the first (round-robin) round, but hey, at least I can say that, yeah, I've played internacional futbol.


41. So, volleyball. Yeah, pretty much the only sport I was good at. Sure, I may not be the tallest person, so I really worked on all the fundamentals because my net play wasn't as strong as some others. It all started in... P.E. I had a bunch of friends in the same class, so we all learned volleyball together. Then we'd start playing at lunch, when they had an open gym. Then we'd start playing after school, when we didn't have anything else to do. We loved it so much, we started a high school club team (there weren't any boys volleyball teams in AK), and tried to get people from other schools (there were only 6 high schools total in Anchorage at the time) to play, too. Ah, fun times. There were a few sand courts downtown, so during the summer, we'd play all night, just about every night. Now, remember, up there, during the summer, the sun doesn't set until like, 11pm or so... so we played a lot. Until midnight or 1am, some nights. I continued to play organized volleyball well into college, and managed to be on a AA rated (in USVBA) team. I haven't played in forever, though, so I probably suck now. Well, except at passing and defense. We practiced passing and defense so much, there's no way I'll ever forget how to do that stuff.

OK, I think that's enough talking about myself for now. I hate talking about myself. I dunno, maybe because I'm afraid that everybody'll find out that yeah, I'm pretty boring. Oh well.

You may wonder why the numbers start at 37... well, I figured I'd throw this into my 100 things category, since I haven't updated that in a while. And I would have had more high school memories, but I already covered the fact that I was in the Rubik's Cube Solving Club and that I played the violin back here. Yeah, the Rubik's Cube Solving Club. Yeah, I played the violin. Hey, someone had to.