CHICAGO: If Hepatitis C Were Attacking Your Face Instead of Your Liver You'd Be Doing Something About It

2. satisfaction of someone else (professor), toward a meaningless end (grades and/or pat on the head from one's "elders and betters")

Ideally, the satisfaction should be shared by you and the professor, especially in classes you like. And I didn't see grades and pats on the head as meaningless, since they boosted my self-esteem and motivated me to continue doing good work. I would love to feel valued and inspired by my "elders and betters," to have the same kind of mentor I had in Gail Gr1ff1n at this time in my life.

Oh, I did some of that, too -- I mean, I frequently talked back to teachers that I thought were full of shit (and a lot of them were), but I also bought into the whole "these are the days you'll remember" thing. I was nostalgic for high school the day I graduated.

no one joined anything at our high school. our senior class advisor was this ancient social studies teacher who told us he'd never seen a more apathetic group in his life. we didn't even care enough about each to other to form cliques.

For me HS was something to be endured

same here, it was a prelude to a big nebulous something else. like a four year taxi down a runway. oh, and of course high school also means infidelity and bad lunches but that goes without saying, doesn't it?

I did join band though. That was good. Until they made me march, then I dropped out. Not because I was too uppity to march, but because I was seriously bad at turning corners.

HS Cons:
everyone knew my parents -- couldn't get away with everything
mouth-breathing idiots not entirely escapeable
most of my friends being older and graduating 1-2 years before me
growing sense of doom & depression in 12th grade due to having small friend base (silver lining - got even more into punk rock)

There are parts I remember fondly, there are parts I'd rather forget. On the whole, I did it, and now it's over. I'm glad I never went to graduation because there are a lot of people I feel good about saying "fuck off" to and never seeing again.

The driver's ed situation in more detail: There was supposed to be a two-hour Homecoming assembly at the end of the day, but at about noon it was cancelled because the school had received a threat of gang violence, and everyone was told that we'd remain in our 6th period class for the rest of the day instead. Since 6th period for me was driver's ed, I was like fuck this. (To be fair, I didn't realize that we were going to have a quiz, which I then received a zero on and had to scramble to get my grade back up to an A by the end of the semester, or else I'd probably have reconsidered.) I asked myself where I'd rather be during 6th period, and I thought, Well, EJ has another section of AP English right now. I showed up, explained myself, and she was like, "All right, JC, as long as you know what you're getting yourself into," and the class -- many of whom I was friends with (as opposed to the mouth-breathing sophomores in driver's ed) spent the rest of the day talking about current events and stuff.

(Ha, xpost: Dan and I both used the word "mouth-breathing.")

I should have mentioned that AP courses kept me away from the mouth-breathing teachers, too.

Word.

People who delight in not only knowing the answer, but in the subsequent delight in their teacher's faces when they present it so eloquently, as they always do.

What I hated was all the teenagers around me. I had 2 or 3 friends throughout my high school career, and even they didn't last. I didn't even take part in lunch, but instead sat in the library writing, stealing books and cutting pages out of the encylopedia. (I still have a color wheel from the World Book.)

Looking back this is probably bad because I was actually suffering from a pretty serious depression. Also religion was ruining my life because I would have probably joined some kind of club but I wasn't allowed to go to Saturday meetings.

xpost-- I had a good rep with the teachers too. I got to use the faculty bathroom.

The reason I had friends when I was a freshman was that I got the attention of the hippest senior whose name is T0r D@ahl (cool name even). He pimped me to the school full of assholes. Then he graduated and my 1 real friend moved away and I was a loser again. Goodbye yellow brick road;adlksfjf;askldjf.

I'll called in scared, "I'm afraid I can't make it today."

I had REALLY big hair in middle school. Like Kevin Ry5.

The rest of the time I looked like this.

Would you not go NAMBLA on that?

http://static.flickr.com/52/136277970_1b35557155.jpg

I am not one of those people who is forever wishing they could go back to school. I'm happy working and I don't think I ever want to be a student again.

So now I look like a Jew?

Yes, but that's not news.

Another reason I disliked driver's ed was because I was the youngest kid in my grade and so I had to take it as a junior instead of a sophomore. I felt like an idiot.

Once saved a baby porpoise that was beached on the shores of Malibu. When reporters tried to cover the story, he asked to remain anonymous.

A I D S H I V
i cannot wait to die
can’t you tell
can’t you tell
can’t you tell

never finish my degree chachi
never play with the Pogues
throw my head out the window and
cement my feet into the dark