The Max Fischer Model of Getting into College

I hated high school even before I enrolled in high school. Part of my hatred stemmed from the angst that I had from my move to San Diego in 6th grade, and part of it was my sister telling me that high school was full of back stabbing insecure idiots. The fact that I was going to school with a bunch of affluent kids probably certainly didn't help matters, and this was long before I realized that I actually didn't come from a poor family, my parents just liked to make me think that was the case.

Whenever I tell someone that grew up in California that I moved from Minnesota, they tend to think that I must be ecstatic that I'm here, and that'd I'd be insane if I ever wanted to leave. Perhaps I'd agree with them if I didn't move to the community of San Diego that I moved to, where it was just beginning to be developed and where everything was built on a hill. So pretty much, the deck was stacked against me and I was stuck to toil for 4 years before I was, more or less saved by Orange County (which I've since realized is full of its own faults).

I tend to think I'd be happier going to high school in Minnesota even though the suburb I grew up in was starting to unravel as we left. I figured that at some point, I would've been sent to the same private school as Bruce, but my sister points out I would've gone to the same private school that she went to, which is one I didn't want to go to (her graduating class had 7 people in it), if I didn't go to the local public school. It was moot, but it was something I contemplated while I sat around this brand spanking new high school (7 years old when I enrolled in it).

I had absolutely no school spirit. I didn't goto football games, tried to ditch pep rallys, and didn't try to help fund raise for our class. But my list of extra curriculars, on the other hand, is pretty embarrassing: Academic Decathlon, Academic League, Science Olympiad, Key Club, History Club, and probably a few more that I can't remember. The only thing that was missing was the Bombardment Society. How I was able to balance these while ditching school to goto Jack in the Box is pretty impressive, in my humble opinion. I attended every meeting that I could, even though I couldn't make them all since they often overlapped. Still these activities were not enough for me. I felt like I needed something to put me over the top, and I finally found something, a music reviewing site.

My friend Ted and I decided to make an online "zine" where we'd review music and book interviews. He designed a nice looking site and it was able to land us an interview with Low, a band that I was (and still am) a big fan of. After landing Low, we'd e-mail other bands about interviews, name dropping Low to give us some credibility, and surprisingly it worked. Elf Power, Super Furry Animals, Creeper Lagoon, Mike Watt, Jets to Brazil and Sense Field eventually said "yes" to us, and we ended up wrapping up our site with an interview with Death Cab for Cutie.

I'm pretty sure the 'zine didn't get me far (or at least into Cornell or Northwestern, which is what I was aiming for) and I burned out on the music 'zine sometime into my 2nd year of college. I felt like I couldn't enjoy music as much as a reviewer, and I couldn't enjoy concerts because I'd be so stressed thinking of how I was going to write up the interview. (Perhaps this is why Pitchfork seems so grouchy all the time.) I don't regret giving it a shot, especially since there was barely any financial investment on my end. From learning about Alan and Mimi of Low going to their high school homecoming dance together, to Mike Watt telling me about his Dad thinking that being in a punk band made Mike a communist, I learned a lot behind these people that I admired so dearly. I still to this day see the fingerprints of these artists over my life. I even realize that a screenplay I've written pretty much embodies the principles of a song that Blake Schwarzenbach wrote (Boxcar, yeah I know it's the popular Jawbreaker song, but whatevs). (Writer's note: don't know who Blake is? Look up "underrated" in the dictionary. He was also the lead singer of Jawbreaker and Jets to Brazil). I'm glad to see that a lot of them have found success and hopefully one day will know that their stories have inspired me to tell mine.