freshman year

August 2001

Grateful that Brian and Tammy let me go freshman year to Sam Houston High School where my junior high classmates attended until the new high school closer to their home opened the next year for sophomore year. Brian and Tammy drove twice the distance to get me to school.

This gave me a year to have an adjustment cushion, to continue learning beside classmates I have known since 6th grade. I was competitive all across the board - academic, arts, athletics.

I enjoyed pushing the limits of my capabilities. I wanted to be the best of everything, and to do everything.

I ran cross-country, which I loved for its individualistic focus, developing a deep kinesthetic ownership for my body and performance. I often had tendonitis, enjoying a routine of warming my knees in the training room beside football players, then icing it after practice. I would earn the top spot with fastest time for both girls and boys at the district meet. I can still see the team motto “too cold to hold, too hot to handle” airbrushed on our t-shirts.

September 2001 was when 9/11 happened and I remember studying in the locker room.

Dance and drill team would incorporate precision with artistry. Studying and reading became my favorite hobby after school, so much I remember my dad Brian had a “talking to” with me to spend more time with the family.

I collected insects for a collection for biology class, wrote an essay on entropy, gorged on Edgar Allan Poe, did push ups and situps as part of my nightly routine before bed, got involved with the youth group at church. My life was full and busy.

I had classmates, but not really close friends. The ecosystems I built were where I felt belonging, not the individuals within them.