High School Underground: What a Life...

  Yesterday, as I was walking on my way to the choir room to act out my scene from Hamlet for English class, and passed by the quad where the yoga class was stretching, I realized something: I really like Santa Cruz High School.

 For all the complaining about pressures and the way a lot of kids act, I really have it pretty good. I mean, where else can someone go and take two classes while still managing to be able to graduate a semester early?

 Just yesterday my English class acted out our Hamlet scenes we had been working on for the past two weeks. To my surprise a couple kids had gotten really into it, including one kid who dressed in white lace and sang in front of the class for his part. Yeah, his part- it was a six-foot-something guy dressed in a white lacy outfit singing and dancing in front of the entire class.

Now that’s commitment.

What was even more impressive than this display of dedication was that no one was shunned by the class or mocked for their acting. I think it’s because of us being raised in Santa Cruz that we have such a tolerance for weird. The only laughter there was had been for the singing kid, but I think that was the point. Then again, with Shakespeare it’s hard to fully grasp what every line is saying…

After our plays I was put in a significantly better mood, and was happy I would be with my class for the next two years, and even happier that I had lunch next.

 I went to lunch with the usual gang. We floated to the Santa Cruz Roasting Company like we always do, despite always trying to find somewhere else. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), the luring price of only two dollars for a bagel draws us in every time. At lunch we talk about classes, which ones are good and which ones we’d rather die then sit through for another eight days (only eight days left of being a sophomore!).

We talk about weekend plans-the good kind of weekend plans. The ones where we’re actually interested in since when we aren’t busy we are automatically hanging out with each other.

 We also talk about teachers, the cool ones who aren’t convinced that if they don’t show strictness they won’t be listened to.

I’d like to clear that up, in case there are any teachers reading this. If you want kids to listen to you, and respond to you, but not walk all over you, then yelling and commanding doesn’t help anything. Sure, they won’t talk more, but it also gives you a bad reputation with every kid in that school, which is then passed on to freshmen. So if you want kids to respect you without fear, then here’s what you can do; don’t yell, show authority, but let them know that you’re a person as opposed to some lecturing robot who shuts down over the weekends (if you let a curse word slip kids will immediately warm up to you), and for the love of all that is holy do not try and be “hip” with our slang unless you’re doing it as a joke.

  After lunch I went to World Civ. (Intensive), and this is when I realized how lucky I am. Not only was my teacher gone,  meaning we had a substitute, a creature which hardly knows what to do with itself, who we can easily take advantage of, but that means that we watched The King’s Speech, and had no homework.

 The end of that day did end with a rather dark cloud however, because now I think I may be going crazy. You see, I’m a little sad there is only eight days left.

 I know, I must be insane. Silver lining on that dark cloud? In eight days, I’ll have three beautiful months to regain my sanity.