2001-2002 – Senior Year high school

Going into the summer of 2001, starting my final year of high school was probably the one of the most exciting times of my life. I had finally gained some confidence and opened up more. I wasn’t as shy and reserved as I had always been. I had spent all summer hanging out with my friends and Linze before she left for college. We had dated in the fall of my junior year, and had broken up just before Christmas of 2000.

Linze and I had reconnected after school ended and met up a few times at different graduation parties. I never really saw the relationship going anywhere after the summer ended. She was going away to Ashland University and I was starting my senior year, and I had a few other girls I was interested in once school started. After band had started that July, we still hung out when we could between our work schedules and band practice. When band camp started though, I started hanging out with another Lindsey more and more. I had dated this Lindsey earlier that spring and we remained friends through band and through the summer but my focus was on the other Linze at the time. I think Lindsey and I had a connection in band because we were both in similar situations. We were both dating people that had just graduated high school and we about to leave for college. The possibility of attempting long distance relationships were both in our futures, and we both didn’t know if that’s what we wanted.

As band camp ended and school began, Lindsey and I were spending more and more time together, so much so that our friends could already see that we were quickly becoming more that just friends. The problem, at the time, was that we were both, technically still with our other significant others (both of whom had left for school). It was only a matter of weeks before both relationships had ended and we could date exclusively.

During all of this between the two Lindsey/Lindz’s, school had started and life went on as normal. My classes were keeping me busy with work and band thrown in the mix. My day at school was great, I started every morning that fall semester with Astronomy class. This class was great for two reasons: 1. It was an easy class, not a lot of homework or hard tests, and it was an interesting class with an awesome teacher. 2. I was taking the class with a few of my really good friends. After Astronomy class, I had Algebra 2, which at the time I hated because it was a math class. Band and lunch followed Algebra, both of which were great because Band was life at the time and all of my friends were there. I finished my day out with Senior English, which was the hardest class I took that semester, but wasn’t too bad because of the teacher and the other students in the class.

School started at the end of August, and just as we were getting back into the routine of classes, work and band, September 11, 2001 arrived. The day started off as any other day would. Lindsey and I hanging out by the lockers outside of my Astronomy class waiting for the bell to ring. That day’s lesson in Astronomy was about Sun Spots, and we went outside with a special telescope to look at the sun to look for these Sun Spots. I remember specifically as we were looking up in the sky, someone pointing out a plane that, at the time, seemed to be making an unusual turning maneuver. At the time this time, we all brushed it off as nothing. We didn’t find out about what was happening in New York or Washington D.C. until the next period. For some reason that memory sticks out in my mind, that plane we saw that morning could have very well been the plane that turned around over the Cleveland, Ohio area and eventually was brought down in the fields of Western Pennsylvania. We went back into the school and changed classes and about 10 minutes into the Algebra lesson, the Assistant Principal came on over the loudspeaker and made everyone aware of the unfolding events and wanted all teachers to stop their lessons and turn on the TV’s in the room. At the time, I remember being in shock at what we saw, but still not knowing what was going on and not taking it as seriously as we should have. We didn’t have any lessons in class for the rest of the day except for English. Our teacher said when we went to class that we had seen enough for the day and went on with her lesson as planned. Later that week she had changed her mind and rather than have a lesson that Friday we all sat in a big circle and discussed how we felt about the situation and how it would affect our lives. Band practice was canceled and everyone was sent home at after school. I remember in the days after, no one really knowing what was happening to our country and how to grasp what had just happened.
Nothing like 9/11 had ever happened in my lifetime, or my parent’s lifetime for that matter. The last major attack of the country on U.S soil was Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and that was over 50 years ago. We as a nation had so much access to what was happening; we were able to witness the events as they unfolded rather than reading about it in a news paper or hearing it on the radio. In the weeks following the attack, American Flags were flown everywhere and all kinds of patriotic songs hit the airwaves, and playing the National Anthem at football games on Friday nights took on a whole new meaning. I know that when the attack happened, it didn’t really hit home to me what had happened. All the lives that were taken, the fact that two of the tallest buildings in the world were just taken down by commercial airliners didn’t really get to me. It was the one year anniversary of the attacks when it really hit me, and really hit me hard. I remember sitting in front of the TV watching the History & Discovery Channel programs on the attacks and just being so moved at what I was seeing. It was like I was seeing it for the first time, even though I had seen the very same footage one year earlier.
After the 9/11, Lindsey and I started to really build our relationship. She was having a hard time dealing with everything that was going on in the news, at the time there were all kinds of threats dealing with Anthrax being mailed to random people, and all kinds of other rumors with concerning terrorist attacks. I remember her telling me that I was one of the few people that she trusted and that meant a lot to me at the time. By then end of September, early October we had began seriously dating, she has always said that our Anniversary of when we started dating was October 4, 2001. I don’t know if this was the official date, but she has always said it was so I went along with it.
As the school year progressed, the end of the football season was quickly approaching and that meant that marching band would be ending as well. This year, was by far, the best year of band yet. My friends and I were all seniors, we had a new, young band director and it seemed like every football game or band show we played we nailed the routines and music perfectly. Every year, at the last game, the band seniors were allowed to pick their own music and help with designing the routine. This year though, we went all out and asked if we could do things a little different than years past. We wanted to pick our own music, design the routines and dress in Halloween costumes since that final football game was the day before Halloween. The band director loved the idea and we chose to use music from ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. After a month’s worth of practice and marching, the show went off just as planned. It was decided that we had to march the pre-game show with our regular uniforms on and instead of going back to our seats we would go back into the school and change out of our uniforms and into our costumes. Then we waited behind the stadium until right before half-time to come back out on the field so the audience wouldn’t know what was going on. The audience was blown away by the show and all of the theatrics that went on. It was the perfect end to one of the best times of my life. Even though it was officially the last game of the season, the football team made it to the playoffs that year, but I missed that final game because I had my wisdom teeth removed a few days before. I wish I could have been there for that last game, even if I wouldn’t have played, but my parents wouldn’t let me go.
After marching band ended, concert band season began and we all had to do tryouts for it, just like we did every year. I remember practicing especially hard this year because it was my last year to try and make the Wind Ensemble (the top tier band). I had always considered myself to be a pretty decent trumpet player, I had a good range and could read music pretty well, but like my social life, when it came to playing by myself in public or for the director I would tense up and get nervous. All throughout high school I had never had a great tryout experience; my nerves got the best of me every time. This year was different though, I was more confident and know the tryout piece well. When the time came for the announcement of who got into what band I waited patiently as the names of were read. Unfortunately my name was not called for the Wind Ensemble, but it was called for the 1st Chair 1st Trumpet in the Symphonic Band (the middle tier) band. At first I was very upset with the director and how could he not put me in Wind Ensemble, especially since there were a few players that made it in, that were not as strong of players as me. However, after a days thought about the situation, I realized that our director felt that he needed a strong player at the top of the symphonic band. I also didn’t mind it because he sat me next to one of my best friends, Josh, and Lindsey was two seats down from that. By making me 1st chair, the director also made sure that in all three concerts that year he gave me solo’s in at least one song per concert. I dreaded it at the time, but looking back on it he helped me with my confidence by being able to stand up and play with a band backing me in front of 1000 or so people.
As Fall semester ended and Spring semester began, I had to make the decision on what I wanted to do after high school. At the time it wasn’t a hard one since I knew that Lindsey had one year left of high school and because I didn’t know what I wanted to do at college, I decided to go to Lorain County Community College for a year. I did this for a couple of reasons: 1. I wanted to wait for Lindsey to finish school to see where the relationship was at that point. 2. I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. 3. Community college was a cheap and easy way to get a few classes out of the way and it let me stay at home and work and see Lindsey.

Knowing that I was going to LCCC in the fall, I had set up my final semester in school to be a very easy one. Looking back on it I should have taken more classes and pushed myself so that college classes wouldn’t be as hard. My day started off with Psychology, which was awesome because it was a piece of cake class and my two best friends, David and Ben were in the class with me. 2nd period was a study hall in Senior Lounge that I also shared with David and Ben. Study hall was followed by a combination of Band, Study Hall and Lunch. This was supposed to be followed by a Finance class that I elected to take because it was easy, but after one day in there and seeing all of the other slackers in the class, I decided to drop it for Drama. I had never done any plays or been a member of the Drama club throughout school, even though both of my parents participated in it. I decided on Drama because it was once again an easy class, and I had a whole bunch of friends taking the class that were I knew from Band, including one of my best friends David B. That semester ended up being one of the best times I have ever had in school. There was very minimal work and I was practically hanging out with my best friends all day.

Winter turned to Spring and as it usually does in Ohio, and everywhere else, everything started coming back to life. The cold weather and clouds were gone, and the sun and warm weather were slowly starting to arrive, and before we knew it, Senior Prom was right around the corner. I of course didn't have a hard time finding a date since I was with Lindsey. We decided to go in a group with a bunch of my friends from band and their dates. I really don't have a whole lot to say about the dance for two main reasons:; 1. I don't dance. Well let me put it this way, I will dance if I have enough alcohol in me, but back then I didn't drink so therefore I didn't dance. 2. Prom was super expensive and after going it really wasn't worth the price. I think I had more fun after Prom when we all went back to my parents house and had a mini-After Prom party. Stayed up almost all night watching movies, playing games and just hanging out. The next morning we all got back together and went to Hinkley State Park to go hiking and have a cookout. It was a pretty fun day, we hiked some trails for a while, had a cookout, which I will never forget because me and my friend Jake attempted to start the charcoal grill with bug spray and got yelled at by Adam for being idiots and not knowing how to start a fire. We then went to go canoeing on the lake and Lindsey and I decided to stay behind to relax and get away from the group because they were kind of driving us crazy. And finally to finish the day off, Adam and my other friend David had to break into the canoe shop to get their drivers license's back because the people who ran the canoe service took them to hold them as a deposit on the canoes, and decided to leave and go on break while everyone was out canoeing.

Throughout my Senior Year, I worked at one of the local pizza shops in Amherst call Magic Pan Pizza. I started working there in May of 2001. At the time the only people I knew that worked there was my friend Ben, who at the time I hardly knew, and a few other girls from church. As time went on though, I got to know everyone else there, and most of them were pretty cool people. We were all younger, and knew that this job wasn't going to be forever so none of us really took it too seriously. We used to do all kinds of stupid things there, its a miracle we didn't burn that place down. Although one Friday night, the manager at the time, Paul, almost killed us all when he forgot to turn on the oven's ventilation fan. None of us realized it all night until it was almost closing time when we all started getting headaches. See, because the fan wasn't on, all of the exhaust fumes from the oven were circulating inside the building rather than venting outside, giving us all Carbon Monoxide poisoning. Thank god we all were ok. Paul didn't last at Magic Pan much after that and was fired after he got a bunch of DUI's and busted for drugs. I worked there through the summer after I graduated and took a manager's position, Paul's position actually, and was one of three managers at the shop throughout my first year in college.

As the last semester of school sped by my days consisted of school, work and trying to spend as much time with Lindsey as I could. Her mom was very protective of her and she could only come over and hang out at certain times and wasn't allowed to do as much as I was. Most of the time we had to wait until it was the weekend and she went to her dad's house. He was more relaxed on her curfew and when we could hang out. We were young and in love and couldn't see enough of eachother. I knew from the begining that she was the one for me. She understood me, I felt comfortable around her, and she brought out the best in me. She still does as a matter of fact. But as the last week of school approached she was unsure about what would happen to us. We both didn't want our relationship to end, but she knew what it was like dating someone older that wan't in high school anymore. I remember on my last day of school, going to leave after my last final and saying goodbye to her. You would have thought that I was saying goodbye forever, she wouldnt let go of me in the hallway. I told her that we would be alright and make it through whatever obstacle came our way, and that I wouldn't let anything happen to what we had togther. And as I write this today, we have made it through some really hard patches, and are still standing stong, side by side.

Now as finals ended, my friends and I were riding high, and thought we were kings of it all. Because we had such an easy schedule and we were all in the same classes, and we were allowed to leave after our finals were done, we just went back to mine or Ben's house and hung out for the rest of the day. We had cookouts, and played kickball in the street like we were little kids again. We went to graduation rehersal that Friday morning and went through all the things we would be doing for real that coming Sunday. And before you knew it, graduation day was here. It was a hot sunny day in early June of 2002. Our graduation ceremony was at the Lorain Palace Theater because the school gym wasn't big enough to hold all of the people. I think it was even hotter up on stage then it was outside, and we all couldn't wait for it to be over. Speeches were read, some people were sad, some were happy. I think, at the time, I was more happy to be done with school that being sad about it. It really didn't hit me until a few months later that I would never be going back and that I actually missed it. I had some of the best times of my life that last year of school and wish I would have been more outgoing and not so shy though my first few years there. It was a great time in my life and I will never forget it.