Its now been almost 9 years since I graduated from James Ford Rhodes HS. As chatter builds toward our 10th anniversary reunion, it got me to thinking about the past some. I wanted to take a break from all the political post of late to reflect on those years here.
Loathed: How arrogant I was in general. Most of the things I loathed fall under this category. A few knew of this, and those who did know it hard
Loved: FIRST Robotics. If you asked me the day I graduated what was the best thing about HS I would have said Robotics. It has not changed. I had responsibility making sure our robot followed all the rules of the competition on the systems team.
Loathed: My attitude toward my teammates on the Math team. In Middle School I was part of what I deemed the “Dream Team” at Whitney Young in 8th grade where we kicked butt and took 1st place. In 9th grade at Rhodes I was with hard working people and we took 3rd place. They were ecstatic, I was pissed and yelled at them and talked about how we have to work harder to win the following year.
Loved: My Relationship with Ms. Coulis. I often teased for how much stock Ms. Coulis took in me and how she was my favorite. I have no shame in it. It is a great thing when a teacher really invest in a student. Through the work she gave me, she pushed me. It’s a great thing when a teacher looks out for all her students and wants them all to leave with more than they came in with.
Loathed: My Relationship with Lisa in terms of class rankings. There are few outside my closest friends growing up who dealt with my arrogance more than Lisa. She came to Rhodes in 10th grade and told me something to the effect about how she planned on getting straight A’s. My response to her: You’re not going to be #1 in class, I am. I still have no problem with my goal going into HS on being valedictorian. I have a huge problem with how I tried to knock people down or at least “put them in their place.” Truth be told, she would have been valedictorian if not for the non-honors A’s she received in 9th grade due to going to a non-honors school.
Loved: My Relationship with the Diverse population at Rhodes. I remember noticing an interesting phenomenon at prom. You could predict the color of skin of the people on the dance floor based upon how far they were from the speakers. The white people were furthest away from the speakers and it faded to Hispanics and black people who were the closest to the speakers. How did I notice this? Because while spending most of the time with my good friends who were mostly white, I spent at least a good ½ hour moving through the entire dance floor hanging with a diverse group of people, a white speck among my African-American friends. I always had a good relationship with a diverse group of people at Rhodes.
Loathed: My calculator gimmick. People often used to say the only reason I was so smart in Math was due to my calculator. I now think they knew this wasn’t true but just liked getting my goat. Well one day I had it with this a proposed a contest. I put everyone’s name into a hat and pulled one out. The person I pulled was to use my calculator and I would use none and beat their score on a quiz. Its just a classic example of the height of my arrogance.
Loved: Gary standing up for my calculator. Gary is still my best friend and he was during HS. I didn’t get in trouble often but once I did for playing with my calculator in an English class in 9th grade while the teacher was talking. This made me want to cry but Gary asked the teacher to give me back my calculator and he would serve detention or whatever was needed. The teacher gave me back my calculator and said I had a really good friend. I knew it then and I know it now.
Loathed: My Valedictorian speech. It was too long. I wish it would have been more uplifting and less self serving. I missed a great opportunity to build up the class of 2003.
Loved: Meeting my ultimate goal of being Valedictorian. While I feel horrible about how I treated people in many cases and my arrogance, I think having a lofty goal to propel me to a good college after being rejected by Western Reserve Academy and St. Ignatius for High School was a great thing. I ended up going to RIT and loving it there. It would be there I learned I was not the only guy God gifted with a mathematical mind.
