In 2018, I am finally going to start a blog working through 365 days of impacts on my life. This is meant to tell the story of who I came to be in bits and pieces. This exercise is meant to show we are all shaped by the people, situations, circumstances, joys and sorrows that have impacted our lives. Sometimes we are influenced just as much through learning about what we don't want to be like, than what we turned out to be. Sometimes it is a stranger who makes a lasting impression on us, and we may never know their name. Sometimes it is those who've been the worst to us that actually teach us the BEST lessons. If nothing else, since I don't have kids, this will serve as an autobiography of experiences that have shaped my character since May 3 1965. I will try to include pictures where I needed. Some will not need pictures. As I enter my 5th decade, I can look back and say that In my teens (as most are) I was extremely insecure, unfocused and had stage f...
I went to Algonquin Middle School. You will notice the theme of all of my undergrad schools - they are Indian names, Algonquin, Iroquois, Chippewa. All of our schools were named after Tribes that hailed from the Northeaster portions of the US into Canada.
Algonquin Middle School was less than a mile from my house. I walked to school everyday, rain, sun, sleet, snow. Barefoot, uphill, both ways...just kidding. Algonquin was a great place to go to middle school and it is where I really started coming of age. Middle school was where I really started to figure out what my strengths and weaknesses were. Determining who I was going to be ultimately from a talent perspective - what I was good at both through high school and beyond. It was where I took Home Economics and sewed a chartruese terry cloth robe as a project. Middle School was where we had field day. Do you remember Field Day? Tug of war, relays, obstacle courses - the whole 9 yards. That was the best day of the year. Totally out of the daily grind routine. Then there was gym and the presidential fitness challenge. I always sucked at that. Oddly enough, I had trouble playing team sports - I was too rough. I had anger issues and would foul out in basketball. I was never really athletic - Christy got that gene in the family. I wasn't a good sport team player, but I was great at a team such as a choir. From an early age, I was artistic and could sing - these were my strengths. I was pretty good at science too. Math is not my forte'. All of this came out in Middle School. Many great friendships were started at Algonquin - and I was lucky to have lived so close to the school. Algonquin made a huge impact on me and cultivated the framework for my character to be as it is today.
