One of my longest-standing friends (circa 1998) recently found a copy of our high school yearbook. The text message I received was:
“LOOK what I found!!!! hahahaha U knew EXACTLY what u wanted back then!”
And then I saw the image:
The photo, of course, is me as a small child. The caption, which I don’t recall writing but must have, was the most beguiling thing I’ve seen in a while. Allow me to explain:
Hypnotists = I think this refers to when a hypnotist visited our school and it was the comedic high point of that year. I didn’t participate, thankfully, so it seems weird that I would mention it.
stupid classmates = pretty self-explanatory. I was an outsider in high school and very bitter about it. I still am…a little.
Mr. Pitre and the drama kids = this was my (tiny) social clique and Mr. Pitre, the school’s Drama teacher, was our de facto leader. He’s still one of my closest friends and mentors today.
short memories of St. Joe’s = a not-so-subtle implication that there won’t be many memories I take from high school. Sounds like teen-aged Josh, yep.
plans to study creative writing = this is the part that Agatha was referring to – I did study creative writing at university! And how prescient: I didn’t actually start the UBC Creative Writing programme until 3rd year.
develop musical genius = now, this is interesting. Technically, I started working in the music industry at the beginning of high school – setting up all ages shows at local community centres for my band and my friends’ bands, successfully convincing bars to let my band play there despite being under-age, and organising my school’s first Battle of the Bands competition, which became an annual event for many years. This continued in university and I ended up organising concerts, running events and hosting open mic nights at three different on-campus bars – always adjacent to my playing as a solo artist or in bands. After university, my involvement in music became more serious – I started working full-time in the industry and the band I was in toured all over Canada for a couple of years. While it’s safe to say I didn’t develop my musical genius after graduating high school, I did develop as a musician and music industry professional. I would even go so far as to say that my career has been centred around presenting emerging musicians and new music to live audiences and, in some instances, developing artistic careers. So, my younger self was pretty accurate!
No, shorts = okay, I have no idea what this means nor do I understand the comma usage. If anyone from that time in my life knows what this means, please tell me. It must be an allusion to something I’ve long since forgotten. It must.
“Word to your mother” = clearly I am employing the age-old trope of quoting hip hop lyrics ironically. I didn’t listen to hip hop then, so it’s an odd way to end my yearbook profile…but I guess the whole thing is pretty odd.
The purpose of this post was not to dissect the cleverness (or mostly lack thereof) of my 18- or 19-year-old brain, but instead to reiterate what Agatha said – and it’s really important: The things I wanted to do 10+ years ago aren’t that different from what I’m doing now. Okay, so my silly yearbook profile doesn’t fully convey this but it’s absolutely true: the things that interested me, the things I was most passionate about – music, writing, theatre, friends, amusing myself – those things are still fundamental to my life. If I ever get down about my career path – and I do, primarily because of the lack of significant income and stability – I think back to being much younger and WHY I got started. I haven’t forgotten or forsaken those passions. They made me who I am and still do.
That’s pretty cool.
