A BIG Question

So what was I? A jock, a freak or a nerd?

This was the question that I, along with probably every other child ever born, pondered long and hard while in High School, although maybe not in exactly those words.

I know growing up is a confusing time for everyone. New and strange thoughts are appearing in your brain out of nowhere, filling up your head, exciting and scary feelings are flowing through your body, making you do the dumbest things, and weird and bizarre things are happening to the very skin you live in. It’s something we all go through.

Jocks were the guys into all the sports. If you were a stoner or musician, you were a freak. If you like to read, were one of the guys in the photography club or some Science club, or you ran the AV equipment in class, you were a nerd. I know now that it isn’t a matter of you having to personally choose to be one or the other and that they were all mutually exclusive, but back High School, it certainly seemed like it was, and you were lumped into one or the other whether you liked it or not.

So what was I?

I played on the school baseball team and in Little League. I went out for basketball, and I ran on the track team, but I also loved music and was in the school band (I played violin and clarinet in elementary school, later in Jr High I was a drummer in a rock band) I listened to both rock and classical music.

I also love photography, and even got into ham radio a little bit. I also loved a good snowball fight, and got into my fair share of late night mischief with the guys.

Some of my friends were the ‘four-letter’ sports guys. I also had friends who had the long hair and skipped classes to go to the park for an afternoon to do who-knows-what. I had friends in the Physics club and I loved going to the Museum of Natural History.

There were times during the school year that I was one of those guys who had to wear a nice shirt and tie to school on game days. Other times it was jeans and a tee-shirt. I wasn’t smart enough to be in the math club but I had a blast with the model wooden bridge building contest the Physics club held every semester.

And I wasn’t one of those whiny, moping ‘nobody understands me’ types. I also wasn’t one of those silently weird people whose eyes dart all around and seemed to think everyone is after them. I had no hidden agenda. I had no problem figuring out whether I liked girls or boys. (I was, and I admit still am, somewhat confused about how to deal with females, but I’ve known all along that I LOVED them!) All in all, I seemed pretty “Normal.”

So what was I....a jock or a freak or a nerd? Even today I’m still not sure what I was back then. But I think I know what I am today.

More later...