Craig: The Adolescent Years

Moving can be hard for any kid but moving right before the start of junior high was brutal. It was hard being shy and trying to make new friends which probably explains why I didn't have any. But that didn't stop me from acting like a headcase and living through some memorable moments. Here are some highlights from my time in Oceanside, which ironically isn't next to the Ocean.

7th Grade: Nobody knew my name so I answered to 'glasses' for the first six months. Eventually, I made a few friends and soon realized that was only because they needed one more person to make even teams in their after school football games. No joke, here are some of the things that my supposed junior high friends said about me in my yearbook....

Mike Marino said, "One day you'll be announcer for the next champion basketball team and
everyone will love you. (Yeah right)"

Brian Jones said, "Work on your game cause it, 'needs work'."

And Liz Rodriguez said, "Hopefeully we won't be in the same classes together next year."

I kid you not. Those were all real quotes. I think my spanish teacher may have said something nice about me but I can't read it because it's in spanish.

8th grade: I couldn't play an instrument or draw so I wound up having to take chorus to fulfill my arts requirement. Unlike American Pie, I don't use it to meet girls. Like everything else, I get made fun of. The worst part: They wanted to make me a soprano. Probably the most traumatizing experience of my whole life and believe me there have been quite a lot of them.

9th grade: Story of my life. I try out for the basketball team while wearing tennis shoes and on the first play of the first scrimmage on the first day, I sprain my growth plate and can't try out anymore. Lesson learned: Next time splurge the extra $20 for hightops. Other lesson learned: Stop thinking your athletic and stick to chess club.

10th grade: May have been around the time when I finally went through puberty. Although some people would argue that I still haven't. Other highlights include getting rejected by a girl who said that she didn't have time for a relationship...the next day she started dating someone else and becoming the manager of the baseball team.

11th grade: Became sports editor for the school newspaper, Sider Press. Even won a prestigious award from Newsday for sports reporting. I should't have though because I made up half of the quotes in my stories since I was afraid to talk to the athletes out of fear that they would stuff me in my locker like they always did.

12th grade: The height of my high school popularity as I shatter Brian Feldman's nose in three places, turning him into a human mummy, after he stalked my friend Lauren. A week later I started dating Katie. A month later nobody knew who I was again.

I then moved to Boston to attend Northeastern University where I...