The Bungee Cord Effect...

So, no matter how many steps forward I think I've made into my future, away from high school (two full years out now)...every year, on the first Friday in June, I find myself negating every one of those steps with one gigantic slide backwards.

My friends and I call it the Bungee Cord Effect.

My high school is small, under 600 students. I graduated with only 125 other people. It is drilled into our heads that "Our Upstanding Alumni" are extremely important to our survival. So, without fail, a shit-load of us come back every year to sing for graduation (the same music that has been sung at graduation for 42 years). Some of us go to Graduation Mass in the morning (my friends and I are among them).

My friends and I have it all planned, well in advanced: go to Mass, get together for lunch with other friends who don't sing and therefore don't go to Mass, hang out all day, go to Graduation, bullshit for the night. It's our own little reunion. But it started to get awkward last night. Last year, graduation was fun because it was many of our friends (Juniors when we were Seniors), and there was definitely the "I did this last year." "Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt." kind of feeling. But this year was, "Why haven't I moved on." Yet I know that my friends and I will again be in that sweltering choir loft again next year (only slightly more intoxicated given that we will all be legal).

One last thing about graduation, just to get it off of my chest. Two of my favorite teachers (on Calculus, that other my mentor/inspiration) are retiring this year. And what did the school do about this at graduation, given that the one (mentor/inspiration) is an alumna herself, her three children are alumni, her husband is an alumnus, and she has taught there fore over 40 years; and the other has been one of the most beloved teachers for all of the 15 years he has taught there? Shit. No mention of their dedication to our school, not snippet in the program, nothing. It would be understandable, that the administration did not want to draw attention away from the graduates, commendable on their part, really. But, no, we had to hear about and pray for (I went to a Catholic school) two teachers and an alum who are "really, very sick." So, it's obvious some people deserve to be recognized (on the the teachers was a real asshole to everyone, the other was our Dean of Student Discipline, and the alum had heart bypass at aged 5_)...but nothing was mentioned about the teachers who are retiring after making generations (my friend, his mother, and her grandmother, in one case) the "Upstanding Alumni" upon whom we depend so much. So much for priorities.

So, my friends and I made a sign and pissed off the prinicipal (what is she going to do, expel us?)...but I say, ah well....at least we got them in their glory days!

Happiness for y'all....and I'll try to keep you abreast of my life here in the armpit of the world: central CT...where we have no public transportation, no good movies, no theatre to seak of, no culture at all, really...and I such a city boy...fuck.

JCM