Blogging My Autobiography - Chapter 16

Between my junior and senior year, I made a decision. Up to that point I had been a complete geek. My classes were honors English, chemistry, physics, honors math and history. I was a good student but found I wasn’t completely satisfied with my social situation. I wasn’t happy with the direction my personality was headed either. Besides, I was getting no dates. I had several girls as friends but, well no emotional involvement. I determined that part of my problem was, I was boring, too much in my own head. I needed to break out.

So, I dumped all of my science and math classes. I had enough to graduate as a junior. I kept the English class because I wanted to take AP English. I took another class called American Problems. This was a contemporary history class where we discussed the issues of the day and compared them to the lessons of the past. It was, intellectually, the best class I had in all my academic career. Our teacher was very dynamic and a Utah Teacher of the Year. My understanding of economic theories, social change and who drove it, politics and our government all expanded in that class. You didn’t dare miss either, because everything that was said was important and interesting and might be on the test. We were allowed a cheat sheet for every class. You could put as much as you wanted on an 8x10 sheet of paper, both sides. What a great study incentive. The teacher was smart enough to realize that we would need to study to make the cheat sheet. He was effusive in his praise to those that did well which made the culture of the class slightly competitive. We all wanted to show how much we learned. It was very satisfying, especially against the backdrop of the times we lived in.
Two of the girls I met in Drama and as a part of my expanded world.

While I was expanding my social consciousness and world awareness, I also took one speech and one drama class. I joined the speech team and the drama team. I tried out for the school play and got the part of the villain in Woody Allen’s Don’t Drink the Water. It was so funny we could hardly learn our lines because of the laughter. What an experience that was! Being on stage was a rush like I never had. Applause is truly a fantastic drug, especially to a shy boy like me. I started to come out of myself and be more present in the world. I am the one on the right in the goatee.

On the speech team, I competed as a radio speaker. Basically we were given copy to read and were judged on our ability to speak clearly and convey the emotion the copy required, even if it was no emotion as a news reader would. I did well since I was a voracious reader of books and knew the words. Beethoven was bay-toven to me, not beet-hoven as some pronounced it. We had a tri-state meet with two of the surrounding states and I took 4th place. It would have been a good career for me, I think, but I let myself be talked out of it. More on this and other career issues in a later post.

On the drama team I competed as a pantomimist. We made up little routines and stories that we would put across in mime, that is with no speaking. This was not street mime like you see in France with the white face or robot mimes in New York. This was telling a story without using words. Our routine was a doctors office routine with all the jokes we could think of around that situation. My partner was a girl who was great. She reacted extremely well and we won the regional competition which included kids from all the biggest schools in our state. After that, we were looking forward to the State Championships when the teachers, in the wisdom, broke up the team 2 weeks before the meet and gave me a new partner. They felt my partner would do better in another category, Retold Story. She did fine, but we could have taken State. My new partner was fine, but we did not have enough time to connect and she really didn’t throw herself into the performance. We did not place at the state meet, though we were told that we just missed the top 3. Very annoying situation, but I was glad for the experience.

My original partner!

So, how did this affect my social standing? Well, I can say there are a lot more girls in drama and speech. They are a lot more fun and more willing to get a little crazy than the “popular” girls. Since I was a part of that theater group, dates and parties were a lot easier to come by. Actors like parties, it’s true. Was I happier with myself? Totally! I had come out of my shell and was better prepared for the next stage in my life.