Finding my Stride

By Junior year, I finally got a handle on High School and began to find my place.  It was no longer something I was just surviving.  On paper, I had a very difficult schedule that year.  The school was structured so that we had half our classes on one day, and other half the next, giving us three two hour blocks of class.  The way my schedule worked out, I had Pre-Calc, Calculus, and Physics in one long "math day."  The calculus teacher wanted me to try to take those first two classes concurrently, to demonstrate that they weren't articulated as much as they should be. (That they didn't build off each other)  The physics class was taught by another math teacher, in his first year teaching that class, so we did very little practical experimentation, and a whole lot of theoretical computation.  Ironically' based on my strengths in that area, that was my "easy day."  The other day was Honors English, Honors US History, and Multimedia (which was my only "fun class," although that doesn't mean it was easy).  Those classes are the ones that actually resulted in homework and assignments that I couldn't just finish during class.

The Thunderpaw Multimedia class gave me something to do after school, and a consistent group of people to work with.  It was a student led class, with a teacher who was fairly hands off, supervising the process more than teaching at all, which worked in the innovative environment that he had cultivated within that organization.  Most all of the members of that class were hand picked as self motivated individuals, and the system resulted in a tremendously productive organization for its size.  The class was led by a number of "managers" who were skilled in different areas like video editing, graphic design, and web development.

I was initially assigned to the Live Broadcast division, which was managed by Steve, who became my closest friend in high school by the time we graduated.  I totally re-engineered the system that we used to shoot the schools football and basketball games.  Ironically this didn't actually directly involve "computers" back then as much as it would now, and our system was mostly composed of re-purposed linear editing hardware.

Do to that role, I ended up going to a lot more sporting events and being much more involved in other school activities that year.  Even though I wasn't officially involved with student government that year, I helped Steve bring the Student Body Spirit Rally's to a whole new level.  And somehow I also got involved with helping put on the school dances, due to my knowledge of sound systems, but that is a longer story.

Outside of school, the highlight of the previous summer was learning how to sail small boats at Scout camp.  I got to go on a 50-Mile backpacking trip in New Mexico for two weeks at Philmont the following year, which was quite an adventure.  I made the transition to indoor soccer, which I continued playing, in various capacities, through the end of college.  I also worked as a soccer referee, which was my primary source of income throughout High School.