I love some of the questions Chubs asks me, I can tell he is interested and specially when we eat alone, we can get on a topic pretty good. He asked if my high school experience was like most he notices in movies and shows he watches, where the nerdy kids get bullied and the protagonist suffers through most of the four years. I told him no, I enjoyed my high school years a lot, but probably because I was in band and it was such a huge part of me.
Our high school was perhaps 400 students in total spread throughout all four grades, 9th-12th. The band at that time was over a hundred strong, and considered one of the best in the area. Naturally, when you are part of a winning system, you walk around feeling like a winner. I considered playing football, I did in junior high, started on both offense and defense, so I must have been ok, but the football teams went through new coaches every couple years, maybe they'd win 2-3 games, that just did not sound like a recipe for positive self-esteem.
I was also one of the better musicians, and I was so obsessed I didn't care to do anything else but figure out ways to get better all the time. Then in my second year they asked me to transition over to drums since they didn't have anyone capable of playing the tri-toms, three drums tuned to different pitches which can then make a tune to follow, not just rhythm. My senior year they even asked me to play a contra bass clarinet, which sounded like a foghorn and was probably eight foot tall.
Outside of music, I had two long term girlfriends, one during my 9th and 10th grade, the other from 11th grade until today. We did normal couple stuff, pregnancy scares every other month, Pizza Hut most weekends, swimming in assorted pools, and rivers.
I also graduated top 10, so I wasn't a dummy. I don't remember having time to sit down and feel sorry for myself. If I was home, I was playing basketball or tennis with my brother, when we put the game consoles down. I was constantly trying to wash a car, cut some grass, clean a room for money for my pizza addictions, it helped that my 2 best friends were also big, there was never any shaming about weight that I remember. I was getting laid every couple days, I never built up stress.
Being in a small town has its positives. At one point, someone went and stole my jacket, my mom was a teacher and I used one of her drawers to keep my stuff instead of a locker. She found out and went all crazy mom on the idiot. He returned it before I even had a chance to react to what had happened. I have always had an almost sheltered life I feel. Everything works out in my favor, I have never cried that something is "not fair", life owes you nothing, take it as it comes. Meet every challenge head on, overcome it and that will probably make you a stronger person.
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