With fall — and the start of college — looming ominously in the very near future, those of our number in Brookfield High School Class of 2011 still left in this hometown is dwindling. Indeed, I've said my goodbyes to most of my friends as we are scattered across the country, not to return to Brookfield. (Until, in all likelihood, Thanksgiving.) As such, a flurry of Facebook status updates about Brookfield has appeared on my newsfeed, some lamenting the fact they can't bring friends from high school to college and others celebrating it. One thing, however, is universal: we're leaving our …
It's not summer until you've made a to-do list of all the productive things you want to accomplish, and then promptly ignore it. Forget learning Japanese, give up on finishing The Faerie Queene and let's not even start on that screenplay you've been mulling over for years. If it's summer, it's just not going to happen. But really, who needs productivity? They give you (well, at least us students) time off so you don't have to be productive. When people asked me what I had planned for this summer, I proudly said “nothing.” And I have lived up to that expectation of defiant laziness. I'm not …
I think a part of every carefree child of summer dies when “back to school” sales start blossoming and quickly out-compete swimwear advertisements. The call for us to buy new pencils, new binders and new paper is the call that harkens the end of freedom. Or so it is for high schoolers and below. For the soon-to-be-college-students among us, those sales mark the beginning of unprecedented independence and responsibility. Because it isn't just basic school supplies that we have to purchase... our thoughts are now consumed with how best to decorate our sparse dorm rooms, who will bring the …
Uncle Ben told Peter Parker that “with great power comes great responsibility.” I'm no Spider-Man, but the powers I've acquired (or have had thrust upon me) since turning 18 do require a heightened sense of awareness and care on my part. Fortunately for the world, I'm not the only hope of a city terrorized by crazy arch-villains. I'm just a guy who now realizes that with the freedom of adulthood comes a lot of not-so-nice fine print. Like laundry, for example. Who would have guessed it that laundry can become inexplicably gross if left in the hamper for days on end? Similarly, I found out …
It had to be done — or so the dentist said. My wisdom teeth weren't hurting anybody... they just sat in the back of my mouth like any good vestigial molars would. And now this guy, whom I'd met hardly five minutes before, is telling me that they need to be removed? Can I have a closer look at that license of yours, please, sir? As much as I felt like Calvin on another eventful trip to the doctors, I knew there was wisdom (pun impacted, I mean intended) in his words. I didn't want to end up being a thirty-two-toothed (-teethed?) freak and get inflamed gums like all those pictures on the wall. …
The final installment in the Harry Potter film franchise hit movie theaters a few days ago. This is also the week that my mother chose to have us start cleaning out my room together. Is it just me, or am I quickly losing grasp on my childhood? It's not just me, judging by all the Facebook statuses of my friends wishing they could magic Harry Potter into lasting just a bit longer (although Warner Bros. did a good job of milking the series for all it's worth by splitting the final book into two films) and how they are preparing their rooms to be turned into their mothers' knitting sanctuaries. …
We didn't plan to have our Dutch uncle Tjebbo over to our house during the same weekend as the women's World Cup quarter final, but it worked out that our family's reigning soccer aficionado (a title that used to be mine) was with us to celebrate the US women's victory over Brazil. Not that we watched much of the match — we were busy playing soccer ourselves. When I saw him on the Fourth of July, I suggested that we get my friends together for a quick game. He hadn't seen me play since middle school, back when he would bring his cleats and sports attire every time he came to visit because he'…
I didn't think I was so popular. But as it happened, I still got invited to a more-than-my-fair-share of parties celebrating the beginning of summer and the Class of 2011's graduation from Brookfield High School. Mostly, however, they were just about relishing in the company of friends who won't be seen for the next few months — and indeed Dan (of Thor and Blues Brothers fame) has already left Brookfield to start his training at the Air Force Academy. Thus, the parties are bittersweet: filled with smiles and congratulations, but tinged with the knowledge that our lives will soon be drifting …
Mr. Bivona, superintendent of Brookfield's schools, recently asked the top 10 seniors about our experience at Brookfield High School (BHS). He wanted our input as to what worked in our four years and what we thought could be improved upon. Since I have recently graduated, and am thus still filled with the gamut of emotions resulting from the end of my high school career, I can say with certainty that I will look back at BHS fondly. There will always be problems in a public high school — not enough money in the system, too large class sizes — and my transition back into BHS from my fall …
So here we are at the O'Neill Center at WestConn in Danbury. This is Brookfield's graduation, by the way, so if anyone is here looking for Brewster's, I'm sorry to say that was this morning. But actually it's really fitting that we get to graduate at WestConn because we're showing our support to a certain, you know, current WestConn professor but former calculus teacher back in Brookfield.... A few years ago I couldn't wait to hurry up and graduate already. Now that the big day's finally here, I wish I had failed a class or five so I'd have a little more time before I would have to learn how …
I had remembered my harmonica but had forgotten my toothbrush. Isn't that how it always goes? I was safely at my aunt's house in Fairfield when I came to this unfortunate realization — made even more embarrassing by the fact that I cannot play the harmonica. I suppose that in my haste to grab small items of both sentimental value and practical use, the mouth organ seemed appropriate: if worse came to worst, I could wander the streets with the comfort of my trusty instrument, wailing the blues. Looking back, it was silly to think I was in imminent danger of being homeless. But my first …
With my project finished and written up, I was this close to qualifying as an Eagle Scout. The only caveat: I had to pass my Board of Review, which might have been more difficult for me than many other Eagle candidates. It's not that I was more prone to buckle under pressure or less qualified — it's just that I am not explicitly “reverent” (the final point of the Scout Law), since I don't belong to any church or indeed any particular faith. This was a problem that I had been well aware of before I was even close to becoming an Eagle Scout. Before I could advance through the ranks, I had to …
Maybe I should have written this article two weeks ago, when the education budget failed by a vote (and then nine votes on recount). Not that I pretend to think that anything I say will convince a Brookfielder to support the schools with more money — and indeed I am not in a position to do so, having no expertise on the subject of budgets and taxation. Having gone through the public school system for 13 years, however, I have felt the effects of budget crunching: bigger classes with more harried teachers, decaying textbooks, fewer chances for exploration outside of school on field trips. From…
Despite the doom and gloom that shrouded this week (both weather- and zealotry-related), no amount of rain or apocalypse could dampen my spirit. After all, I've been school- (and AP) free, I get to go hiking, and I had plenty of fun relishing the crowning moments of senior year. Not that these moments were always the traditional activities associated with graduating from high school. Although Hollywood has etched into my brain a portrait of lascivious debauchery involving sex and drugs at prom, my version of practicing the freedom that comes with the end of school is decidedly tamer. (The sex…
Friday afternoon I felt a bit like Mel Gibson at the end of Braveheart: bloodied but unbowed. I hadn't just been disemboweled and neither had I inspired my country to fight tyranny, so finishing high school seems like a measly achievement in comparison, but still it is no small accomplishment. That's not to say my AP tests were a walk in the park — by the last few tests, I was feeling a mixture of “I've already taken lots of these so this one is no big deal” and “I really, really don't want to be here right now.” I felt shellshocked coming out of my last test, proceeding to my regularly …
In my last piece, I hoped against hope that I would still be able to recognize fun when it came knocking. I needn't have worried. Fun certainly did come to call — literally, when Dan called me at 10:00 Thursday to finalize our plans to see the midnight premiere of Thor. Vikings. Gods. Mjolnir. Natalie Portman. What could be more fun? We had tossed the idea around a few weeks previously, when we decided it would be epic if a crowd of teenagers dressed as Norsemen raided the movie theater at midnight. I wasn't sure if it was actually going to happen until that phone call after I had already …
Having officially enrolled in college, there is nothing I would like better than to lounge about in this beautiful spring weather, lazily skimming stones on Lake Lillinonah with my friends. I can't do that quite yet, however, because school is not yet finished — no matter what my brain tells me. In the coming two weeks, I must complete six dreaded AP tests, spending my time not relaxing under the sun but toiling away for the better part of three hours. I guess it just never registered that the time would come when I'd have to take the tests when I signed up for the courses last year. I can't …
I woke up on April 21 and was pleasantly surprised to discover that I was as youthful as always: no liver marks, no mysterious aches and pains, no feeling of despair at having lost my innocence. You see, it was my 18th birthday. I did not dread the day by worrying that it spelled the end of my childhood, but neither did I excitedly count down the hours until I had that flighty legal freedom. In fact, it was much like any other day — birthdays are funny like that. Still, I could not escape the thought that I am a man. I was eager to go slay a mighty lion as my first rite of passage. Alas, …
I knew it was Record Store Day on Saturday — I read Rolling Stone and various other music review sites that list all the goings-on in the musical community: Panda Bear changed the release of his album Tomboy so it would be closer to April 16; Mike Gordon of Phish put out his solo debut on vinyl for the first time; Radiohead recorded two new tracks; LCD Soundsystem (whom I saw in concert on their farewell tour the other week) covered Franz Ferdinand (my first favorite band) for a 7”. That said, 7” really doesn't mean anything to me: my music consists of condensed mp3 files, not physical vinyl …
Logging on to Facebook on Thursday night, I was welcomed by a post from my friends which read that tomorrow would be “Formal Friday: Operation Blues Brothers.” Never have I been more pleased with the powers of social networking. Formal Friday is a leftover from last year's graduates, who took pride in wearing classy suits from time-to-time. They asked my friend George to continue this tradition of elegance on the final day of the school week, and it has since blossomed into a school-wide phenomenon of impeccably dressed teenagers. (As one of the staff has commented, it's odd to see the …
