A comment on yesterday’s post got me thinking about my high school experience.
Before I start, let me backtrack and be completely obnoxious, inappropriate and egotistical. I’m very smart. I don’t always have the best common sense, and there are some areas where I lack knowledge, but I have an excellent ability to learn. I learned to read at two and a half. I retain more information than most people, I can multi-task better than anyone I’ve ever met, and I read 3000 words per minute.
I’m not telling you this to brag. I’m just creating the setting for this tale.
So. Here I am, this smart-ass brilliant 12-year old kid who’s a year younger than everyone else in 8th grade (I would have been two years younger if my parents hadn’t been too damn afraid to put me in kindergarten at 3), and I’m discussing high school with my mother. She tells me about this brand new, two-year old program at Spruce Creek High School, four towns over, called the International Baccalaureate program. There was an article in the paper about it, and even though it was part of a huge public school, you had to apply to get into the program itself. I don’t even remember what scores they needed – PSAT probably – but attendance was very limited. It had a different focus on learning than any other program, and unlike AP, it required a full commitment – you couldn’t pick and choose classes if you wanted to get your IB diploma – the diploma that would typically allow you to skip a full semester worth of credits in college.
My parents asked “Did I want to go?” I was hesitant, just like I am with any new venture. Even today, the thought of change and the unknown stalls me to a standstill. My mother encouraged me to shadow a student for a day and see what I thought. I loved it.
My 13th birthday became a memory. Summer started to turn to autumn. My first day was visible on the horizon. I had my bus assignment memorized. Be on the corner of Knollwood Estates Drive and Hidden Hills Drive at 5:45 AM. As I was coming from almost 20 miles away, that school district had set up a special busing system that would pick up kids from all over the various towns at ungodly hours and get them to school by the first class at 7:27 AM.
I stood there, shivering despite the heat. With the exception of a short-lived stint in seventh grade that ended up with two bullies, a beating, my ass, and the ground, I had never been to a public school before. This was a huge transition from the security blanket of my private school, with only 11 people in my 8th grade class, people I had been with since first grade. My backpack weighing almost as much as I did, Walkman in hand, I waited for my bus.
“This is going to be awesome,” I halfheartedly told myself. “I can’t wait for some of these classes!” Yes, I’m well aware of the extreme level of geekiness in that sentiment. Here’s another tidbit of nerdliciousness for you to chew on. I used to sit at lunch with my friends and we would see who could correctly identify the highest number of elements in the periodical table in order. We would try to stump each other with calculus. I am geek, hear me roar.
In my head, I painted tapestries of grandeur. We would descend from the bus in full view of the student population. A hush would go over the crowd. “Those are the smart kids,” someone would whisper while others nodded wisely. The teachers would make notes of our eager shining faces. The administrators would know that we were the good kids. The seniors would be impressed by our collective rising star.
In the still of the morning, I heard the hum of a diesel engine. “This is it,” I straightened my shoulders and awaited my destiny.
And my jaw dropped in horror as the short bus rolled up. Replete with wheelchair ramp and handicapped symbols, typically used to transport the mentally retarded and physically disabled, my chariot awaited. The door squealed open. “Yer one of them smart kids, right?” The driver’s voice broke through the dark interior.
“Any recognition is better than none,” I thought to myself and boarded with a sigh.
Enjoy this post? Try these:Two Truths and a Lie
It’s not about gay teens committing suicide. It’s about committing suicide for the WRONG REASONS.
Memes are so 2007
Yes, but did you have your helmet with you?
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@Kris, and my safety pencils.
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Twitter: Amanda234
says:
Sorry I can’t stop laughing at the periodic table thing to comment on the rest of this
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@Amanda, my friend Barry and I would routinely do that. He’d win sometimes, and I’d win the others.
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Twitter: VerdantDude
says:
I have the ability to retain enormous amounts of information as well.
But it generally of the ultra-useless variety. Comic book issues, movie quotes, one-hit wonders. Stuff like that.
I’m the guy that you call when you hear “Spirit in the Sky” and you wanna know who sang it.
“Norman Greenbaum”, I’ll reply. Then I’ll tell them that Doctor & the Medics did a version in the 80′s as well and it sounds just like the original. Then my friend on the other end of the line usually hangs up. Some people don’t appreciate that kind of thing.
What were you saying?
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@B.E. Earl, see, pop culture, unless it’s from the 90s or later, is not something I ever was exposed to. That’s why I’m so bad at trivia.
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When is Chapter 2?
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@Ren, heh. Don’t know if that’s worth writing!
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I come from a long line of nerds. My kids have been in their school’s IB program so I’m very familiar with it. My high school did not have it available way back when because I’m a virtual dinosaur within the blogging community. Instead I became very bored and became a delinquent. Knowing many of the IB kids … the short bus seems totally appropriate. Intellectually gifted but socially inept … Not you, of course. Or me. But all the other nerds ….
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@Twenty Four At Heart, oh, I was a social retard for a while. Still am a bit!
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Twitter: an_bhean
, August 25th, 2009: 1:47 PM
@Avitable, me too. That was why I always thrived at “nerd camp” – Duke’s summer programs for gifted kids. Surrounded by other equally-awkward, comparably-nerdy kids, I found my kindred spirits. Being around smart people at college and in grad school was sometimes comparably rewarding.
That periodic table game sounds like fun!
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@Robin, oh yeah, I think I knew that you went to the TIP program. I was going to go but had to work instead.
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God you’re such a nerd.
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@Sarah, I prefer geek.
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Say it loud, say it proud.
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@MariaV, exactly. I’m extending my protractor in the air triumphantly.
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I wasnt clever enough to be a nerd and I wasnt cool. I think I was ….a geek? I revelled in my ability to be contrary and not care. My friends were books. I got over it! Now my confidence is such that I am actually cool even if I have to say so myself.
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@Momcat, I love books. If I could choose one thing to do forever, it would be reading.
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Twitter: Bellaventa
says:
For starters, you are completely obnoxious, inappropriate and egotistical all the time….no need to backtrack. Then again, if you weren’t that way, I wouldn’t read.
With that being said (::wink::), we had programs like that in my school district – except our school budget wasn’t large enough to have a little bus for the smart kids, so they blended us with everyone else, reserving the little bus for the special ed kids. We just went out on more trips than anyone else (i.e. Germany, London and NYC….).
By the way, I learned to read when I was 2…so I beat you by 6 months. Ha!! It makes me feel a little giddy inside, I can’t help it.
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@Robin, fucker.
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Wow, you really embraced your smartypants geek, didn’t you? I was really smart (wait, still am!) too however my school didn’t douche it up and call it a Baccalaureate program…we just had GATE and AP Classes. Ahem anyway, I managed to remain cool throughout high school and never let anyone know just how braniac-like I was.
Of course, I may have belted out the periodic table of elements once while getting tapped from behind by half of the football team.
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@Hilly, we had AP, too. IB was just a different type, where it was a “you’re in or you’re out” program and you took all IB classes or you took none. The curriculum was pretty intense for some of those classes, too. I didn’t mind not being cool, though.
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I was in the AP program and honestly, it was not that hard. I think I’d have loved a school like yours!
But your story – ever bit of it, explains a lot about you. Especially the short bus!
Hahahahaha – seriously – that is funny!
And it only makes me like you more. GAH I am a sucker.
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@Sybil Law, I took one AP class and taught myself better than the teacher. Fucking Mr. Desert and his shitty Physics class!
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@Avitable, Wow, Mr. Desert. Good memory.
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@Valerie, I remember almost all of my teachers. Don’t you?
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Oh no, tell me you somehow passed the driving test at 14, stopped riding the short bus and got asked to go to the prom at 15. Being gifted and all.
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@OHmommy, I started getting rides to school with friends who were older and eventually got a car. But I rode that bus for at least two full years.
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OMG Avitable, I should have suspected. I graduated in 1993 from the IB program at Atlantic High School in Delray Beach, Florida. Your post brings back so many memories…..
The funny thing about my high school is that the IB program was a magnet program. Our school was on lock down all day with security at the gates, a police officer and drug dog roaming the school and gansters gathering at the gas station across the street starting at 2:00 pm. Now that was an adventure for a bunch of geeks!
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@Carolyn, so you graduated the year before me. Our school had security and several drug arrests and one or two cops who hung out there constantly. It was quite a culture shock!
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@Avitable, I don’t remember that at all!
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@carla, oh, we didn’t go to the same school. I’m just saying that you graduated a year earlier!
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@Avitable, I know we didn’t go to the same school, but maybe Carla did?
I’m actually surprised we *didn’t* go to the same school because I remember multiple drug arrests! I was afraid to go into the lunch room alone!
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@Carolyn, oops. Got my replies fucked up. Yes, Carla and I went to the same school. She was obviously even less observant than I was!
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@carla, you don’t remember that? The cops and the security with the gate being locked during the school day? And there were a couple of arrests over by the portables one day, too.
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Twitter: msmegan
, August 25th, 2009: 10:11 AM
@Carolyn, Hey, I went to Boca High! Of course I graduated in 1985, but still. Hi neighbor!
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@Finn, well hi there! So….were you like a rich kid then?
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I *HEART* geeks. I am psych major who works in higher ed but come from a long line of doctors, lawyers and aerospace engineers, but they let me eat at the adult table at family gatherings despite my obvious mediocrity.
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@MIdLifeMama, you’ve obviously used your psych degree to manipulate them into seeing you as an equal!
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I have a bit of inner nerdiness myself. But I have never ridden The Short Bus, so you have me beat by miles.
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@Karen, lots of miles riding around with a wheelchair ramp next to my seat.
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the early morning wake-up for the bus ride was the worst. I always got B’s in 1st period because my brain simply couldn’t function that early. Really, there was no one trained in child psychology on staff – a guidance counselor, anything – that could have said in the planning meeting “wait…this means they have to get up at 5:30 am, no way!”??? To this day, this busiest I ever was in my life was in High School. Up at 4:30, class until 2:00, sports practice or club meetings until 5:00, work from 7:00 – 10:30, homework until 1:00. Lather, rinse, repeat. The overloaded schedule taught me more about being successful in life than anything I learned in the IB classes.
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@Zach, I am an early morning person so that was never a problem. I also did the swimming team and did early morning practice, so I had to be there by 6 some mornings!
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I think it’s nice the way that the adults tried to shelter you from the knowledge of your condition. I’m sure every short bus driver was taught to call his little flock of ‘tards “the smart kids”. But you’re a big retard now and its time to stop kidding yourself. :p
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@Grant, this is probably true and explains the helmet I’m wearing.
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Twitter: hismuse
says:
I mean I knew you were a geek but I thought you were more of a Star Wars kind of geek not a smart geek, you just got a lot more attractive. But then I learned last night that I would sleep with Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory so obviously I find Asbergers sexy.
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@Robin, you do, eh? Well, that’s good to know!
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Derivative dy = 3r^2 dr/3
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@Clown, heh. We would do those too.
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Twitter: LeSombre
says:
I can totally picture you standing there grinning – beard and all.
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@LeSombre, the beard didn’t come in until at least 15.
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That was hilarious.
I was 11 for a couple of months while in 8th grade. Yes, just at the peak of puberty for most kids, I was a pimple-faced, skinny, bespectacled, bucktoothed 11 year old geek with no boobs in sight (still waiting, sadly). Not pretty.
My kids are in the Junior IB program, and the local high school also has IB. So should we run? Just kidding, you are brilliant.
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@Karen MEG, it feels (at least here) like the IB program lets anyone in now, so they don’t quite have the small classes and great education that they used to. Hopefully that’s not the case everywhere.
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Twitter: msmegan
says:
The short bus, huh? Perfect.
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@Finn, it’s pretty fitting, eh?
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Twitter: missbritt
says:
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA
Oh my God. This was so perfect. I am ROLLING here.
And also?
‘”Any recognition is better than none,” I thought to myself and boarded with a sigh.’
*sigh fucking sigh*
No.
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@Miss Britt, I know, I know. Negative attention < no attention < positive attention. Blah blah blah.
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Twitter: Faiqa
says:
And this post completely explains why Adam Avitable and I were not better friends in high school. While some of us basked in the geekfest, others of us sought to distance ourselves from the sad periodic table spouting kids in the recesses of the cafeteria… oh, who are you kidding, you ate lunch in the AV room, didn’t you?
Plus? You left out the part where the earth shook and the heavens opened up and you sept like a newborn child because you got to meet the coolest person on the planet.
Yes, ME, you fucker.
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Twitter: an_bhean
, August 25th, 2009: 1:54 PM
who are you kidding, you ate lunch in the AV room, didn’t you?
Hey, nothing wrong with that! Actually, we ate in the satellite class room, because several of my friends took Japanese in there (via satellite/phone-in).
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Twitter: nycwatchdog
says:
I used to sit at lunch with my friends and we would see who could correctly identify the highest number of elements in the periodical table in order. We would try to stump each other with calculus. I am geek, hear me roar.
You weren’t a geek.
You were a nerd.
Who rode the short bus.
Somehow… it doesn’t surprise me.
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@NYCWD, I was a science geek. And math geek. And language geek. And computer geek. And a nerd.
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Twitter: perpstu
says:
I’m giggling about the periodic table trivia game. I memorized the periodic table in seventh grade to keep myself from falling asleep in the most boring class ever created. Sometimes it sucks being the smart kid in public school.
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@perpstu, memorizing it just made everything much easier.
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I read your blog and don’t usually comment, but I had to after reading this entry. I, too, went to Creek, but I wasn’t in IB. I did the AP and Honors thing, but wasn’t motivated enough to do IB. I was too interested in boys!
How did the rest of your 1st day go?
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@Kim, oh, I was interested in girls and dated several through high school. All the nerdy ones.
What year did you graduate?
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@Avitable, I graduated in 97. You?
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@Kim, 1994. My sister, Meagan, graduated in 97.
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@Avitable, My husband graduated in 93 and was a band geek. I was a chorus nerd.
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@Kim, I don’t think you’re a nerd if you’re in chorus. Isn’t chorus kind of cool?
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And now I want to know how it all went!
Because of course writing out your entire high school experience is easy in a blog post or two.
xo
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@Princess of the Universe, maybe I should start doing that. Hm.
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Twitter: themuskrat
says:
And? What happened next…did you like it there? Did you stay? *holds breath*
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@muskrat, just for that, I’m not telling you now! Harumph!
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Twitter: themuskrat
, August 25th, 2009: 3:30 PM
@Avitable, Dick! I really am curious. There’s an IB charter near our house…we’re considering sending Maddie. Teaches mandarin Chinese and everything.
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@muskrat, I loved it. It was an amazing experience, and it gave me college credit. Plus, I’m still friends with most of the 33 people I graduated with.
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Twitter: themuskrat
, August 25th, 2009: 10:38 PM
@Avitable, I knew there was good in you. Thanks for sharing. Perhaps if we’re still trapped in this ‘hood in 2 years (God forbid), we’ll send her there. It’d be nice to NOT spend $20k/year on private school.
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@muskrat, definitely worth it!
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Twitter: s_csr
says:
Well shit, if you had posted this on Thursday or Friday, you and Mike could’ve had a periodic table of elements dance off. He’s got that thing memorized too.
And seriously, I’m practically in love with B.E. Earl over that whole Norman Greenbaum thing.
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@Sheila (Charm School Reject), well, I don’t remember that shit anymore!
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Twitter: HeadlessMom
says:
I’m quite impressed. I have a friend that teaches IB and get to hear her stories sometimes.
No smarty pants here. Just your average cheerleader, who preferred socializing and football games to studying. Kinda explains a lot, come to think of it.
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@Headless Mom, cheerleaders are never average.
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Twitter: poppycede
says:
Was it our comment exchange? How come I get no recognition for influencing you?
WHY?!
Because you hate me.
And because you’re mean.
and stuff.
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@Poppy, it was all you!
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I remember the IB program. I was just one of those normal GT kids. Still, it was pretty intense. Every time I ran into a group of kids from IB it was like the Jets versus the Sharks. Instead of switch blades we had protractors. They always thought they were ‘soooo smart’… Bastards….no offense.
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@KL’d, that’s because we were! No offense.
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@Avitable,
I’m going to concede to this now, because if it’s something I’ve learned in the past – it’s that persistence, peskiness, and straight up douche-baggry are some of the fundamental assets in being an IB kid… “ohhhhh when you’re a Jet you’re a Jet all the way…”
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Twitter: momofali
says:
So, it was smart of me to be dumb?
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@Momo Fali, it was genius.
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The short bus? Really?
3000 wpm is amazing, I wish I could read and retain like that – that is amazing. I love to read, but am not that quick.
And we memorized the periodic table, because our teacher was more interested in watching the Gulf War than teaching, so that was one of our tests – a blank table. 1 point per element – the next year after her husband came home she was one of the strictest teachers, would have loved to have her that year, they did some awesome experiments.
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@Fantastagirl, absolutely the short bus. And memorizing the periodic table seemed useful at the time!
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Twitter: hellohahanarf
says:
it is wrong how hard i laughed, here at work, about the great and powerful avitable on the fucking short bus. wrong, but true.
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@hello haha narf, I know, right?
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Twitter: elizabethbarone
says:
I read this on my phone the other day while waiting (forever) at the doctor’s office. You should write more about your younger, nerdy self. I had similar problems as a kid. I mean, I didn’t get skipped up or anything, because we pretty much decided not to after they sent me to a fifth grade reading class when I was in third grade. It was so intimidating, being a smart little kid surrounded by all of those bigger kids. As much as I don’t like to admit it, because I used to get teased so badly as a kid, I do love learning.
(All of that to say, “write more about the IB Program!” Heh.)
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@Elizabeth Kaylene, I’ll try to see what else I remember.
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Twitter: coalminersgd
says:
And you call me a geek? Shuh. I’m thinking you’re Supergeek.
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@Coal Miner’s Granddaughter, you own a stormtrooper costume!
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And the geek shall inherit the earth.
My 6 year old, on the way to the beach yesterday was singing Yoda…and followed it up by singing the star wars song by Weird Al. The looks she was getting were hysterical. She’s a full on geek.
We encourage geekiness in this house. Sounds like you were a really smart kid. I’m glad that you had the opportunity to explore it. I loved learning, once I got out of the house and was away from certain elements, I was able to concentrate and discovered that I was actually quite smart. I wish though that I had discovered these powers earlier and had been more career oriented.
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@Jennifer, I love Weird Al. Always have.
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Haha. When we were in the “gifted” program at Campbell, for a while we took the short bus too. It stopped at Hillcrest. I remember there was this really cute little Down Syndrome kid named Ryan who would always yell, “RAILROOOOOOOOOOOOOAD!” whenever the busdriver stopped and opened the door at the railroad tracks. Good times.
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@Shane, so you were on the short bus with someone who actually should have been there? Hm.
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@Avitable, There’s an incredibly fine line between gifted and retarded.
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Awww, you were a short bus kid!
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