Sophomore year began on a low note. My grandmother had passed away, and my grandfather wasn’t far behind. I had spent the summer drowning myself in console RPG’s, and didn’t take too kindly to reality reasserting itself.
When school began, I picked up The Gunslinger, the first book of the Dark Tower, an epic by Stephen King. I ended up spending every free moment reading it, even in class. This didn’t seem to detract from my grades, so I continued to read. Now and again a teacher would ask me a question while my nose was buried in a book, and I’d be able to answer it. After a few times, they stopped bothering me.
My lunch hour did not coincide with that of any of my lunch companions from the previous year, so I took to spending the lunch hour in the library, where I enjoyed the quiet a lot more than I ever enjoyed the long lines and the unhealthy food.
I didn’t have any friends my Sophomore year, but I also didn’t have any enemies. I kept to myself, and the world kept to itself. It was like a ceasefire agreement that I was perfectly happy about. In early Fall, I finally cut ties with Jason. After trying to throw me in a freezing pool on a 40 degree day to impress some girls, I decided that maybe it would be best that I threw him to the ground and left. I never spoke to him again.
At some point during the year, I began writing. I can’t really say what inspired me to pick up the pen, just that it felt like the right thing to do. The work produced during this time is too horrible to mention. I had the misfortune of finding a bit of it in my files when I was getting ready to move to Chicago, and had to throw it out.
Some writing is meant to never be read.
Also, at some point during this year, I was flipping through the channels, and stopped on the Sci-Fi channel, seeing a cartoon. It was strangely animated, and full of violence and despair. I had never seen anything like it. When it was over, I did not know what I had seen, but knew I wanted to watch more like it. And so, I was exposed to anime.
For awhile it was limited to catching an old anime movie at 2:00 in the morning on the Sci-Fi Channel. It wasn’t until I met Craig that I really started to get into it.
But that’s a story for another chapter.
Zaida | 01-Nov-07 at 2:21 pm | Permalink
Reminds me that my sophomore year really sucked… Yep. All my friends were suicidally depressed drama queens. I was the most mentally stable one of the group. And THAT’S saying something!
David N. Scott | 01-Nov-07 at 8:42 pm | Permalink
Hm. I think Sophomore year was a transition between boring A student Dave and drame dude / class skipper Dave. Not sure.
Nothing really comes to mind, I must say.
Ah, the Gunslinger(!!).
Too bad about the last few books. I think SK just wanted em done, especially the last two. When it gets to the point that some of the most iconic creatures in the author’s universe are being disposed in handful-of-page vigenettes done so fast you can completely miss it…
Sheer beauty up through Wizard and Glass, though. Like nothing else.