Sophomore

I am, currently, writing a story about a high school student who is a sophomore. The story is far from autobiographical, but I started thinking about high school and, specifically, my sophomore year. This year also marks my 20th year anniversary from graduating high school (more about reunions later).



Sophomore year is such a strange time. You have passed the middle school test, and you got through that scary and stressful time called Freshman year. You don't have to worry too much about college, other than getting good grades. You still have the same friends from middle school and/or grade school. Whatever extra curricular activities you participate in, you meet people through those social interactions who become your friends. As a sophomore, you are, basically, gliding along. Having fun. Playing sports. Hanging around. Riding bikes.



For me, the one thing I remember about sophomore year is that this was the time where I developed my political ideology. I didn't think too much about politics, government, and how those two things influences our lives. I remember a couple friends of mine (apparently more astute than me) talking about how bad Ronald Reagan was as President. How he was stupid and would sleep during meetings, as well as sharing their other, negative opinions. I kept thinking that he was the President. Having a report due about a historical figure, I picked Reagan. A long story short, for the past 10+ years, I have had a portrait of Ronald Reagan hung up on my wall, over my bed. Enough said.

Back to my story.

With Sophomore year being a year of hanging out and, basically, taking a bunch of stuff in, I am trying to capture that with my character as he goes through this strange time.

In regards to reunions. My friend and I had a friendly argument about whose responsibility it is to find out about your high school reunion (my 20th this year). She said it was my responsibility to find out if, or when my high school reunion is taking place. I would agree if my reunion was during the 1980's or the 1990's. In this age of Facebook, MySpace, Classmates.com, blogging, texting, tweetering, and, I would hope, one of the main tasks of the organizers of the event, getting people to go, I would have zero responsibility to find out when and where the reunion would take place.

I don't know if I miss high school or if it had that much of an influence on my life. It was a weird time.