10 Days in the Life of a High School Senior

I haven't been on this blog forum since I left for a retreat. I applied, back in the Fall, to go on the retreat as a Senior leader, and got sloted as a substitute. Meanwhile, one leader took up the offer on an all-expenses weekend trip to a certain educational institute in Tennessee (Vanderbilt). This was to occur on the same weekend of the trip, and so one substitute- Al- got placed on the trip. One week before departure, the adult planners found out that more people were going on the trip than originally thought. Enter myself; so that's how it went down.

In those four days,I was unplugged. No internet connection; no cell phone tower in range. That was pretty nice. Then reality said that I was out two business days!
There was some catch-up to play; Merchant Marine Academy matters to handle; b-ball playoff games to watch (including two-hard-won matches and my first witnessed overtime success). That pulls us straight into this weekend.

On Friday, I spent the entire stretch from 7:30am to 10:40pm on campus at school save a 15-minute milkshake run before the start of the at boy-girl mixer at 8pm. Come to think of it, I was in class only to 2:45pm. After this, it was orchestra, a final physical activity for the Academy, play practice, and to get some meaning out of the next 2 hours, Vespers at the monastery, enjoying a meal with the monks, and cracking down on some homework. This was all before that aforementioned mixer. Theme: Country club. I'd say I won 3rd place in the attire category; my polo, Nautica, and neatly ironed dress khakis were a bit traditional to Sean's and Matt's argyle sweaters and pastel shirts, and chill attitude. The ratio was decent, but a number of our female guests seemed more interested in effeminate parlance between themselves than in mixing. Compared to earlier dances, companionship was a little harder won. I got what I wanted from it, and went home in high spirits. I was home a few minutes after 11pm.

On Saturday, my schedule read: r+r from mixer, Violin, lunch, shopping on the Pike (if you're from DC/MD, you'd understand), haircut, parallel parking, league playoffs. Yes, Abbey Basketball made it to the championships to play the near-invincible Cov Life. Cars filled up the three level parking structure- and that with plenty of carpooling; amazing for a high school event. The league held the event at a Gallaudet University venue, and charged us to watch the game. There were a lot of people shelling out $2 or $3 to watch; that included a healthy majority of Cov Life's student body.

Don't get me started: at halftime, my team was up by 10 healthy points. We held the lead from 2nd quarter straight though 3 minutes left. Then stuff happened. Cov Life broke loose. Some of our fans lost the Abbey's trademark classiness for a few minutes. They won on a 3-point made after an extended hold, 57-60. I sort of anticipated it, because this was the team that had chiseled out 8 points against us in the last 40 seconds in a regular season game. By the way- I didn't know that was possible. So, games shouldn't come down to the final 40 seconds. But when they do, teams typically are respectful: not messing up the opponent's foul shots by jeering, for one. Regarding this game, I never felt sick in my stomach like I did when I got home from this one. I was pacing at home past midnight, unable to sleep over my uneasiness with Cov's behavior. We've had tough losses before, but never have I witnessed such sore something-ship from a high school game. In my dreams, I relived entire plays from the game; I felt the enthusiasm of taking the second quarter as our own; then, snapping out of that dream, I realized that the game was over. Out of all of this, one point of pride for this year's Abbey Hoops is that we've never suffered a loss that was not "tough".

I spent a good 3 hours doing backlogged math packets this afternoon, but it sure feels good to be caught up with math. If I would not have been so bothered by last night's 9pm championship chutzpah, I probably wouldn't have the desire to crack down so hard on homework. Anyway, parent-teacher conferences are coming up. Backnote: I resisted the temptation to pack math homework for the retreat. That would be considered a "distraction from duty" as a Senior leader.