Something You Didn't Know About Me...

I almost didn't graduate. And why? Because we found right at the end of the final semester that I was flunking typing.

Yep, that's right. I wasn't going to graduate, because I was flunking TYPING!

My senior year I spent a lot of time goofing off. And it just so happens that typing class was in the fourth hour, which is when lunch occurred. And I started skipping it everyday, so that I could spend the whole hour and a half hanging out with friends during lunch hour.

So I was way behind in my typing class, and hadn't attended it in weeks. When my mother found out the situation, she called for a meeting with the guidance counselor (I can't remember her name for sure now. I think it was Mrs. DeSalvo. I just know that she was a really nice lady, and I heard some years ago that she died of breast cancer. Such a shame.) and my typing teacher. Mrs. DeSalvo mediated and my typing teacher agreed that if I spent the next several days making up a bunch of typing assignments, she would give me a chance to improve my grade.

So for the next...three days? week?...I spent every free moment (including those precious lunch hours) in her class typing. I even had to skip the senior celebrations, like the "Senior Walk", where seniors marched through school and barged into classes and acted loud and riotously.

And I pulled it off. I don't remember how much I raised my grade, but I raised it enough to graduate. I found out three days before graduation that I would be joining my classmates on stage to receive my diploma. After I got my diploma, I had tears of relief streaming down my face and I'm sure I looked like a total dork. Everyone else was smiling and cheering, and I was crying. I remember one of the jocks was sitting behind me, and he tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Congratulations." I can't remember whether it was Paul Diego or Chuck Larson that did that. Your memory begins to fail you as you get older. (Come to think of it, I'm gonna say it had to be Chuck Larson. We were seated alphabetically, and Diego would have been before me-- not behind me.)

So that is the story of how I almost didn't graduate, and it was all because of typing.

Oh, by the way...I now type 72 wpm. Not bad for an almost flunkie!