Memory Day: Sixteen Years Ago Today

June 6, 1996 was the last full day of the school year at T.C. Williams. Being a senior at a public school where senioritis started manifesting after Advanced Placement tests at the beginning of May, I had been coasting for quite some time. My biggest worry was probably whether the twenty-one students with higher GPAs (measured to the hundredths place) would screw up, forcing me into one of the speech-giving roles at graduation. (This is probably how Ray LaHood feels, anytime the President and Vice President hang out).

My breezer of a schedule included the following highlights:

• First period: We had a substitute in Music Theory I who didn't know anything about music. Free period!


• Second period: Ever since the AP Physics C exam, we had spent class time watching the entire Star Wars trilogy with Dr. Patel. This was our reward for getting 5s on the exam.


• Third period: In Mrs. Buckbee's AP English class, our final project was to give an old-fashioned book report on any book we wanted, which is dangerous leeway. I had given my report a couple days earlier on Salamandastron from the Redwall series by Brian Jacques (obviously far below a 12th grade reading level), and received an A in spite of the fact that I couldn't finish it without laughing at the ridiculousness of all the talking badgers and stoats and how the plot of every book was the same.


• Fourth period: The jazz band concert had long since passed, so our lunch period was once again our own.


• Fifth period: Government class was a video, but I can't remember what it was on. I didn't take the AP Government test though, because it did not count for credit in Virginia and I only overachieve when there is a payout.


• Sixth period: We were actually still learning new things in Calculus, because only a tsunami could stop Lou Kokonis from ending the learning. However, my early journals only report that "Calc was a waste." so I obviously did not retain the knowledge.


• Seventh period: In band, we practiced playing Pomp and Circumstance over and over and over. Except -- I was a graduating senior and would not be performing in the band, so I was free to go home early (and did so).

After school, I got on the dial-up modem with Chris Sharp and played Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. Later on that night, my grandfather rolled into town with a $100 graduation gift. He stayed for a week, forcing my college-age sister out of her room and onto a futon in the home office. You would think that the graduate would be the one sleeping on the floor, but my grandfather wholly preferred her bigger bed.