Attending
Eckstein
in September
Boys from Eckstein's awesome 2023 Basketball Team sporting school colors.
I made this observation (over on the left) on my previous website as an afterthought buried deep in a long article. When it is placed in the context of this body of work I noticed how important it would have been to learn much of what I write here at that time. I really don’t think many of the important things in life take that long to understand. You really don’t need decades to experience the world but for someone to highlight several main points a lot sooner.
I listen to an app that collects wisdom teachings from several people all in one spot. The founder’s reason for starting it was to provide a tool that wasn’t available when he was growing up so he had to go on long quests to find it. Too bad we couldn’t think about this topics earlier in life. Maybe I didn’t think of my teen years as being more important but it is clear now that is the case.
People spend most of their lives on one of two sides of the fence; having practically no knowledge of the world as a child or being an adult putting up with the doldrums of a pretty similar existence from year to year, one day after another. We just accept that learning can slow down at some point even when the extent of crippling ignorance remains so great. Being an adult is rarely as unique of an experience due to having less rites of passage. For the Covid lockdowns to turn life upside down and break this stagnant boring system apart is fantastic! Most of life is absurd anyways, you enter a career and independent living by thinking the society you grew up in makes at least a slight amount of sense. Then you live it and realize how nuts normality is.
What I liked about school was the thrill of getting to the end of a multi-year experience and then accomplishing something like a degree. I am glad this website project was like this too. It had a lot of work leading towards one big finale! It was a marker in the road which many years of pushing led up to. Focusing on bigger goals really has a big pay off!
Stream poured down the school’s hill
filling up the full width of the sidewalk.
Each weekday they’d spill
this flood of student’s joyous talk.
Embellished in mascot spirt pride
good things about the place they attend
not something they felt they had to hide
while walking side by side with their friend.
(Left) Shirts from various years including one from when they were the roadrunners. They switched the mascot over to Eagles when I was there.
Divergent Eighth
Grade Memories
Looking to revive memory of Junior High
so I rented from the video store Eighth Grade.
A main character that was also quite shy
little else was in common the deeper I wade.
Bo Burnham’s film was far too bleak
Most experiences back then are quite varied
and not just 90% awkward speak.
Why ignore all the awesomeness it carried?
Packs of kids fill the tables at noon
and in between nibbles and munches
today they’ll receive an added boon
as Skot compares two lunches.
“Contrast this meal made by his parent and
how unalike it is to hers. Is this a plus?
The range in how each guardian planned
but both still have the
same love for us.”
The stench of the school dumpster was wretched
but I badly needed my retainer among the disposed foods.
Janitor didn’t provide me a nose plug to lower this acrid
so the smell I continue to battle as its dominance obtrudes.
Counting the minutes to when I can have new air inflow,
when can I be in front of a dinner with sweet scents?
I’ll be sure to eagle eye that retainer case tomorrow
as this vitriol stench
g r a d u a l l y…
m e r c i f u l l y
relents.
