Actually, high school wasn't that bad. High school was even
enjoyable in some sense of the word. The classes and
teachers were quite good. I did the IB (international
baccalaureate) program- a set of courses we had with the same group of 15
of kids. We got to bond over literary yell-fests, exhaustive testing, and
dinners, parties, and a rockin' float our senior year for the Lancer Day
parade. Among the great teachers I had-
- Mr. Ogdon- My
terrific mole-day celebrating chem teacher and fellow lover of music.
- Mrs. Barnes- My energetic senior English teacher who let us vehemently
argue (like, stand up and scream) the
finer points of literature, throw parties and reenact Hamlet with fencing
foils.
- Mr. DeBarthe- My 20th Century World History teacher who had us dress
up as leaders and hold a mock-press-conference for the class and had us
talk about current events (always fun)
- Mr. Nickels- The joke-cracking, sarcastic geography teacher, who
assigned us really cool projects, like designing tours and dialogues
between famous "world citizens".
- Mr. Runyan- The energetic math teacher who made calculus at 7:30 AM
fun
- Mr. Paris- Teacher of Theory of Knowledge, my favorite course. It
consisted of debates on various topics, presentations, movie-watching, and
other such random activities. Whee!
- Mrs. Henry- My challengingly fun Spanish teacher. Intimidating, but
enjoyable, especially with my offbeat sense of humor catching her off
guard, and my purposefully sarcastic bad grammar.
But enough about academics (after all, it only occupied 80% of my
time). I spent my time doing the following, in no particular order:
- Theater- Lots of fun, highlights including dying in our Sweeney
Todd (I got sent down the chute...wheee!) and directing my own production
of Jude the Obscure (my favorite novel).
- Choir- Yeah, I sucked. I got the loest possible rating at
state. But, I love the music. Highlight- singing in Carnegie Hall with
the choir, and seeing Helmuth Rilling conduct Brahms Requiem, Schicksalied
and Nanie!
- Categories- Kind of like college bowl. Run by Mr. Paris and broadcast
on public access TV, we competed and had fun (2nd in state!). Best
moment- Jonathan Yu's response to Hamlet's nationality: Denmarkian.
- StuCo- Not that we did that much, still it was fun planning school
events. This also means I'm responsible for reunions, I
think. Great.
The best part of all these years (and the reunions) are the people. Here
are some of the folks who didn't terrorize me.
The "Group"
Nick Blount- The world's most indecisive and laid back person. He enjoys
staying up until sunrise and sleeping late (really late). He's currently
out in oregon, fresh from Reed College, studying physics at U of
Oregon.
Chris Blount- Nick's twin. Proponent of veganism and all things
Japanese (anime especially), he's a newly graduated Haverfordian, and is
currently seeking employment. Join the ranks.
Eric Seidel- German-speaking Austrian guy. One of the more decisive and
active members, he sings and studies math at Lawrence University. He's
ungraduated (a year behind after AFS in Austria), and now lives in
Houston. Too far.
Anne Kaufman- My fellow enjoyed of dancing to 80's pop, singing (very very
good singer), outdoors, and is generally up for going to do
whatever. Very fun to hang out with, and she throws these terrific
bonfire parties at her house. She's a math graduate of KU, beyond
that...?
Amy Eiler- I've known her since middle school. A graduate of Beloit,
she's majored in French and Chemistry. I don't really know what she wants
to do, and I don't think she does either. She's back in KC, living with
her sister and boyfriend Jared.
John Miller- A nice, quirky little guy who enjoys jazz, physics (which
he's studying at K-State), movies, and plenty of other things. Also very
easy going.
Stephen Yarbrough- Our liberally poltically aware minister-in training
70's-loving, harmonica-playing addition. Every greoup's gotta have
one. Haven't seen him much recently, but he's certainly happy pursuing
his dreams at seminary in Indianapolis.
Kate Schurman- Independent, she has moved on, working somewhere here in
Kansas City, opting out of school. Loves to go dancing with us and, oddly
enough, to Chuck E. Cheese (formerly Showbiz Pizza).
So, all the easy going, indecisive people, what to we get done. Well, we
do spend a lot of time deciding (or not, rather) what to do. But we watch
movies and play lots of games- hearts, cribbage, rummicube, scrabble, and
for all the other guys, computer games and role playing games. I don't do
that. But that's the majority of our activities, though we otherwise hang
out, go eat, have parties, swim in Eric's pool (not now, obviously), and
try to come up with interesting things to do. Here are some entertaining
pictures of stuff we do.
get along home