I'll be darned, but I STILL see Abe Lincoln's profile in this background.
I believe that I left off with me starting my senior year of high school. As I have said and hinted at previously, I was never one of those students that had to really study in order to understand and grasp concepts that were being taught in class. This is something that I found to be a double edged sword as I started my senior year. I started the year ranked in the mid 50's in my class out of some 200 students. The young lady I was dating at the time was president of the school's chapter of the National Honor Society and many of the friends in the group that I was a part of were also either members or very soon to be inducted as members. I felt in some way that I wasn't quiet measuring up to the standards that they were setting. Many of them were in classes that were advanced and I simply didnt plan out my high school courses in order to be able to take and advanced classes. As a result, it was going to be rather hard for me to make up any kind of class rank during my last year, but I sure wanted to at least try.
I took a psychology class my senior year which I found to be one of the most enjoyable classes that I have ever taken. For me, it came very easily and I was fascinated by much of it, even though it was just scratching the surface. I do recall being embarassed once in the class to the point that my face felt as if it was on fire as I blushed. The teacher was discussing how genetics may play a role in people's behavior patterns. For instance many people in jail and who run afoul of the law, tend to have a particular chromosone pattern compared to most of the people that dont get in trouble. He went on to further illustrate his point by saying that if a murderer was to get a prostitute pregnant and each of them had that genetic predisposition, there would be an increased liklihood that the resulting child would be more inclined to get into trouble as well as he aged. At which point I muttered quietly to the girl sitting next to me, "If the mother is a prostitute, you wont know WHO the father is..." The girl thought this was funny and did an over exaggerated gasp to get everyone's attention, followed by, "Joe, I dont believe you said THAT!!" Of course, at that point, everyone in the class stopped and turned to look at me and I had to repeat what I said over again as I felt the heat rising in my cheeks to the point where I felt as if an egg could be fried on my forehead. The class laughed loudly at my remark and the teacher just shook his head. I guess what made it seem so funny to most is because that's not something that someone would have expected me to say. I was always considered to be very quiet and somewhat reserved. So for me to comment on something that was of a somewhat off color subject seemed completely out of place for me. I figured out there's nothing wrong with being yourself at that point. Yeah, to many of the people there it seemed out of character for me, but that was my sense of humor and my way of looking at things. It took me a long time to feel comfortable being me. That psychology class went a long way towards accomplishing that. You're the only person that you will spend every second of the rest of your life with. You certainly better like the person that you are, or at least be very comfortable in your skin.
I admit to being more then a little disappointed when the musical production for the spring was announced to be "Once Upon A Matress". The story is basically a comical look at the 'Princess and the Pea' fable. For my senior year, I really wanted to do something a little 'heavier', but figured that I would at least look into the play itself a bit more. I found a recording of the Broadway cast which starred Carol Burnett and listened to it over and over again. The lead male, Prince Dauntless, had much more singing then I would have liked to have had, but I thought that I still could probably manage it. With a few minor reservations, I signed up to audition for the role. On the plus side, the girl that was trying out for the female lead, was someone that I got along well with and really enjoyed working with her, so that helped to ease some of my apprehension.
We also found out that the high school concert and marching band were going to be performing at King's Island outside of Cincinatti, Ohio in the spring, so that was something to really look forward to as my senior year would draw to a close. There was no longer a real 'jazz ensemble' at the high school, but that was probably a good thing for me. Between the musical, school work, marching band and concert band, my time was pretty well filled up.
That December, just a few days prior to the Christmas Dance that I was going to with the young lady I was seeing at the time, the announced the girls that were going to be on the court for the dance. My girlfriend was announced as the representative for her district. I was more then a bit surprised as I had no idea that she was even going to run for it. I immediately felt bad too, because for her flowers, I had only ordered her a simple wrist corsage rather then a large arrangement. It was going to look pretty dinky in relation to the flowers that the others girls on court were going to have and I didnt have the money to just change my order either. Well the night of the dance came and Kris wasn't elected queen, but we still had a pretty enjoyable evening. She was my queen for the evening whether she won or lost. Part of me wishes that I could go back to that night and do it all over again. Not to change the outcome in any way, but because a lot of those times seemed to go by way too fast. Sometimes I dont even think that we really knew each other that well, or at least what each other wanted. I'll get more into that later on.
Needless to say, the start of my senior year of high school was one of the busiest times of my scholastic career and in many ways some of the most rewarding. I just wish it would have gone by just a bit slower.