Sit On It, Frankie Avalon

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Sid Beverage was the name of my high school principal. He's been dead for a couple of years. One day, in the fall of 1990, he told me, "You have no chance for graduation. You simply cannot graduate. You should just drop out now and get on with failing in life."

Did I mention he's now dead?

I did drop out. That very minute, in fact. I walked right out of his office and out the front doors of the school. Before the end of the week I had arranged to take my ACT test and interview with an admittance committee at Weber State College.

I scored a 29 on the ACT and met with the good folks in Ogden later that month.

"What was the last book you read?"

"Err... A Brave New World", I fumbled.

"Do you speak any foreign languages?"

"I can speak English backwards. Ees? I od ti lla fo eht emit! Ti si nuf!"

I felt under-qualified. I was 17 and had failed out of public high school. I had also already auditioned for a scholarship in the theater program earlier in the year and had received no response. I had no reason to feel that this was anything other than a long shot.

I would learn later, from a professor who I came to respect as a mentor, that his vote eventually broke the tie in that committee. He said he saw an intelligence and potential in me that reminded him of himself. I was too young to appreciate what that meant and I never did very well in college either.

I was accepted into and participated in the musical theater program that winter. And though I fit in culturally there better than I have anytime before or since, I didn't do well academically. I participated in the shows and even landed some choice roles but I just couldn't get my shit together when it came to homework, punctuality and plain-old hard work.

I eventually left school for, what I thought was, a practical and promising job as a bank teller. And though I never finished that degree, my times at Weber State were some of the best I've ever had. I only wish I knew then what I know now about alcohol, coffee, sex and the truth about Mormonism. I mean, its not like I was an angel, but I sure had a lot of guilt about perfectly normal and expected behavior.

I also wish I had honored the gesture of that theater professor who had seen in me what it took me another decade to see in myself. That said, I'm glad to have eventually found it and recognized what it was he was talking about.

And though I have no diploma and no degree, my life is not a failure and Sid Beverage is still dead as a post.

---

Permanent Link: Sit On It, Frankie Avalon
Filed under: Misc

---

---