Yesterday was probably the last time I will see my high school as it is today. Very soon, it will be no more. And so, I took my opourtunity to take a final tour of El Cerrito High School with my handy-dandy digital camera. Explore the sights, the sounds and the smells of the place that consumed 3 and 1/4 years of my life, and at least 10 years of my mom's life.
Flocks of alumni have arrived to check out their alma mater (two terms I don't fully understand) and they came in old ass fucking cars. I like old cars, its something I've inherited from my father. But damn, I dont know if I like an old car souped up to look like a new car.
You see? That's ugly.
But there were also some interesting things there...
Such as Corey's van
A big red wagon
And a surf board?
Then we left, 'cause we didn't know anyone who went to El Cerrito High School before I was born. We went to Berkeley and I got some inserts for my shoes that supposedly make walking more healthy or some shit.
-i would like to point out at this time that i lost about an hour's worth of writing here. If the rest of this post is angry and bad, it's cause i'm pissed. i'll try to recreate it.-
I went home and felt kind of lazy, not really wanting to do anything more that day. But then I thought, I might never get to walk through my high school as it exists today again. So I'd better go. So we did.
First thing I saw was Mr. Holland's classroom.
And there are some development tanks beyond that etched window.
We then walked all around the school. We saw:
The front lawn.
The courtyard known to some as the pit.
The Cafeteria (they can make a retarded dance out of anything)
And this little area near the cafeteria. Mom was a 4 year old in texas when that bench was put in...but its still nice.My junior year:
You can see my algebra II and math analysis classroom there on the top.
In my junior year, I was in a regular English class. It was not a challenging class, and it was filled with all the kids who the counselors thought couldn't handle A.P. English or whatever it was fucking known. (Not many things made me feel worse than hearing people talk about their i-search or whatever it was as if I had to write one, as if everyone had to write one. The first 10 times I heard people talk about them, I had no idea what they were talking about. I eventually figured it out due to deductive logic, but to this day it makes me want to bash my head into the wall. And I don't mean that metaphorically.) But anyway those kids weren't the brightest bunch of people you could know. There was this one guy in particular that made me feel quite uncomfortable, he had awful skin, and was always talking. Usually talking shit. I can remember him describing this video he saw on the internet, something about a woman having a literally explosive orgasm. It just wasn't very fun. And then there was that damn book with
Bïgger Thomãs.The feeling of being in a remedial class. The feeling of anoyance and disgust. And all of this being compounded with a depressing story that went nowhere and just amplified those feelings to a level never reached before.
It's a bad idea to put a class like that on the top floor of a school near an open staircase.
I would look there at lunch time, thinking.
What can I do to get out of going to that class?
What can I do stop the feelings?
If it weren't for my mom I might not be here today.
It was around this time that I was convinced by
Sarah to stay home and tell my mom about how bad I was feeling. I did. It was the first time that year I had missed a class. I hadn't missed a class since my freshman year. But it did introduce me to
The Community Project, which would lead me to meeting Danielle and joining
Peer Counseling. All good things...
Look! It's mom in front of her old classroom.
ECHS
Mom at the school's entranceNeaar the main office they had this CG video playing on a laptop, showing what the new school will look like. It was kind of nifty but I don't believe that it can all fit there! It's insane! And they're gonna turn TechFuture's nice garden into a fucking parking lot! That sucks ass, dude. Oh well... After this we decided to go walk towards the gym and the football field.
I would have liked to go into the gym, but mom didn't want to. She used to be the coach for the Freshman girls basketball team, and there are a lot of bad memories in there. Aparently, they never won a game. But oh well. It's not mom's fault, it's those damn girl's fault!
But I didn't have the fondest memories of the place either, so I conceeded. We continued on to the football feild. The tenniscourts were gone and replaced with portable buildings. Which was weird. They did look nice though, why couldn't they have rebuilt the school while
we were there?
We passed the upper basketball courts.
That was where our graduation rehersal was held. It was the place where I last saw a lot of my former classmates...memories...
We did eventually make it to the football feild, only to find we missed the big party they had there. They were packing up...There was one interesting girl there though doing something on the other side of the field...
Holy shit dude.
If you look in that shot, you will see what we all saw while we had to run around the track during P.E. A Cemetary. Nothing like running a mile and being reminded of death at each lap.
This is also where the parade we skipped ended.
Ride em, cowgirl.
Strong girl.We then went for the long trek back to the car. We passed room 229 (or something like that.) A portable building. I had 4 classes in that room. As a freshman, it was an algebra classroom. And then it was also the home of all three of my japanese classes. I remember, as a freshman, the teacher forgot to show up and no sub was hired, so we, with the help of a credit card, broke into the room and chilled for that period. And people wonder why I cut so much in 9th grade. We also broke into the cabnet and i'm sure quite a few graphing calculators were lifted...but I had nothing to do with that, and I didn't steal anything.
But the trek continued. Before we left, I had one more place to check out.
Mr. Holland's room. Where I learned everything I know about photography, and spent most of my time at El Cerrito High.
Hey look, if i had jumped, those flowers would be for me!
Also down there was the radio station, another place that occupied quite a bit of my time...I wonder what will happen to KECG when they tear down the building with the radio tower...
When I waited for rides, I would always stand on this circle...it reminded me of Super Smash Brothers Melee.And then we left. So many memories. Many good, more bad.
Oh, did I mention I was wearing my P.E. shorts ad boxers while on this tour? my way of showing school spirit...
Oh well.
Next post: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Review! Pictures! Fun times will be had by all.
