Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying Grades and Love Girls and Music
After middle school, my family moved to Vallejo, California. You'd think a move into a more affluent and better funded academic environment would do wonders for someone who was thriving scholastically in the barren wasteland of the OUSD. Guess again. Vallejo was absolute culture shock. I don't exaggerate when I say I had no real friends until high school. High school was the first time I enjoyed the company of people my age, and suddenly I was playing catch up to my social maturation.
Grades took a backseat to girls, friends, and rock and roll. Teachers took less notice of a student performing well. District money was spent on lighting for sports fields, and renovating auditoriums. Our campus was originally a medium sized middle school, turned into a high school crowded with portable classrooms, and a lot of shifty kids. The student body at large was apathetic. All around me, students squandered opportunity, totally ignorant of how good they had it. Coming from Oakland I found this particularly offensive. Someone was beaten so badly they had to be airlifted. Arrests weren't uncommon. All while all this was happening all I wanted was to talk to girls, listen to music, pass with a C, and leave this backwater town.
And when I do I'll never come back.
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