How I became the very thing I always laughed at.

I just discovered that my former high school has a Wikipedia entry.

In the words of actual high-schoolers, OMG.

Sweet Harold Jesus, this is funny.

Alright. Here's the intro...

"Saint Charles East High School is a public four-year high school located in St. Charles, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Community Unit School District 303 which also includes Saint Charles North High School which no one likes."

Awesome. Now please note that I graduated before the split, a.k.a. "Before the year 2000, one high school served all students within the District 303 boundaries." But my sister graduated from North.

Fun fact: St. Charles, Illinois, may be the most redundant town in America! It was bad enough when we were the Saint Charles Saints (creative, guys), but now the town is split between the Saint Charles East Saints and the Saint Charles North North Stars.

*sigh*

Moving on...

The rest is pretty dull. There's a blurb running down the big Black Mold Scandal of 2001, when they "discovered" this mold all up in the walls of the building that was "believed to be the source of some student and teacher illnesses" (over a span of decades). From what I hear, when they tore down the building, there were places where garbage had been stuffed into the walls in place of insulation. Just what I heard. And I think it's pretty dang convenient that they "discovered" it in 2001, coincidentally the first year that the NEW high school was open, after years of "investigating" the poor air-quality at the school. Sure, you discover that there's crazy shit running ALL through this huge building... but where are you gonna put 25,000 teenagers? Better hurry up with that new campus, home-skillet.

OH! And the other most-fun thing about my school? The fight song.

Here's to St. Charles High School
Bring victory back
Heres to our colors---
the Orange and the Black
RAH, RAH, RAH,
Here's to all the fellows
Who bear our name
Fighting to defeat the foe
And win this game
RAH, RAH, RAH,
RAH, RAH, RAH,
RAH, RAH, RAH,
RAH, RAH, RAH,
RAH, RAH, RAH,
RAH, RAH, RAH,
Saaaaaaint Charles!

As horrible-sounding and uncreative as that was (21 "RAH"s in a 16 line song?!), apparently now they've modified it for the new East campus. While they have jammed the word "East" into the first line (which was awkward enough to sing to begin with), the addition of "East" to the end of the last line does eliminate the irritatingly drawn-out "Saaaaaint". However, that did always add a spark of sarcasm to a totally lame cheer, so I think the change may still be for the worse. They have not, however, taken out the line that specifically lauds the "fellows who bear our name". *grunt*

Hey! A girl I graduated with was an American Idol Top 24 finalist. Who knew? Well, I guess people who lived in my town and watched American Idol. Anyhow, it was the season Jordin Sparks won, and from what I remember, Leslie Hunt was and probably is still way cooler than Jordin Sparks. For what that's worth.

The point of all this?
(Sorry. I got side-tracked by Wikipedia!)

I looked up my damn high school because the school motto had always cracked me up. It was "To Create Caring, Responsible, Life-long Learners". My friends and I always made fun of those signs in the classrooms, in a dorky, super dated orange type, laminated and stuck to the walls.

But I realized something.
I AM a caring, responsible, life-long learner.
Son of a bitch.
It worked.

I mean when you think about it, I was in school from the ages of 3 to 21, so a precedent had kind of been set. A person gets used to learning stuff. For a few years, I just felt odd and stagnant, but now I've realized my place as a caring, responsible, life-long learner, and I'm going to embrace it.

I'm gonna learn stuff.

I've been trying to teach myself a few things in vain over the last year or so, but I usually don't stick with it.

Maybe I will if I can write about it afterwards.

SO...
Anyone who reads this blog?
Prepare to hear a lot about this in the future.

And if you don't, be sure to give me crap about it.