Chapter 1: Elementary School Years (K-6)
All of my elementary school years were spent in Ridgewood, New Jersey. I remember going to school everyday at Somerville Elementary. This is only significant because there were a bunch of different schools, all obviously having to do with where you lived. I think there were like 5. But also, all of my friends went there. It was me, Peter English, Dougie Burek, Ryan Monroe, Cooper Shreve, Matt Myatt, Ned Winner, Frank Melli, Brian Wennersten and Michael Springer. Somehow every year, at least 2 or 3 of us were always in the same class. I guess I was well liked back then, by both my peers and teachers, as I was always chosen to be the lead in plays, and to represent the class at …show more content…
Coming into the middle of a school year is hard for everyone, but especially for a middle schooler. I remember my first day, and being sat at the "nerd" table because the guy showing me around thought that would be best. I didn't let that happen though. I immediately got up and sat at the "cool" table, and actually ended up becoming friends with those people. It was still pretty hard to make friends though, as in a small town everyone knows everyone else's business, and have their own clicks. In homeroom, when I sat down, two girls waked me around the room, ad told me whom I needed to bother with getting to know, and who not to care about. It kind of prepared me for what Chagrin was all about. A lot of people who base their worth off of what other people think about them. I ended up making a lot of friends, but kind of felt like an outsider for my middle school years, even though I was pretty much accepted. Everyone loved to talk about things they did together when they were younger, and how long they'd been friends. SO I just tried to blend in, and try and not get noticed. I'd always sit my older brother on the bus, and not really talk to anybody, until one day my friends Cade Otstot and Trevor Gile told me to sit with them and their friends. From that day on I felt like I …show more content…
The football team did really well, winning our first 7 games, and having 2 games that were voted games of the decade in Cleveland. Big deal for a little school like ours. Also, I actually got to contribute, and set the family record for kick return average; at 3.0 yds a return (I caught 2 onside kicks, and ran one 3 yards). This was the first year I actually got in shape for football, and took it seriously. It's the first time in my life I learned that whatever you put into something, you get out of it. I took the SATs untimed, a "perk" as my parents put it of having a learning disability, which to be honest put more pressure on me then anything. I over thought pretty much every question, and was in an isolated room by myself. It was kind of miserable. I didn't score as high as I would've liked but did enough to get accepted into 5 colleges. These were all small schools where the environment was geared towards learning at your own pace, and where they had good LD programs, as my parents made this a high priority. Funny, I had never been in LD classes in high school, but my parents thought I should do it in college. Anyway, I graduated, went away that summer to the Jersey Shore, as we had been doing since I was 11, where my summers consisted of being a dishwasher/bus boy at Uncle Bill's Pancake House during the day, and a Summer Place at night, and came back and said goodbye to all of my friends, before initially heading off to Muskingum