How writing saved me from high school — by Sharan Newman

Apart from a couple of brilliant teachers and a couple of very strange ones, I’m a little fuzzy on what I did in high school.  This was because most of me wasn’t there.  I was in my own world of stories and poems, reading of course, but mostly writing.   A friend took this photo of me then.  I wasn’t aware of it at the time since my mind wasn’t on this planet. 

My high school has long since been closed.  The building has had many uses but no changes and now seems to be in stasis, waiting for the next phase.  Rather a nice metaphor for the life of a writer.

I have no idea if I was in the right clique, or any at all.  I had a nice group of friends and didn’t feel the need for others.  If I wanted excitement, I found it in the stories I made up.

 Two events do come to mind, the assassination of Kennedy, which I made into a fantasy story, and the visit of scientist Linus Pauling, who hadn’t graduated from the school because he didn’t have enough humanities credits.  Since he’d already been admitted to college, it didn’t really matter.  He came in 1967 for his fiftieth reunion.   His story cheered me because I nearly flunked Algebra II because I wrote stories instead of listening to the teacher.  I admit that now I’m sorry, even though, like Peggy Sue, I haven’t needed it since.

So I don’t have any lingering traumas or triumphs from my four years at Washington High School.  In my senior year, I did get two poems published in the local paper, The Oregonian.  I got a dollar each.  The first check I cashed, the second I still have.  From then on I considered myself a professional writer.  So for those of you who also dreamed your way through adolescence or who have children now doing so (without drugs, etc.)  don’t panic.  Personally, I think that living in the world of people I created both prepared me for my career and saved me from the terrors of high school life.

Comments

[Susan Russo Anderson]

Interesting post, and it's making me think of my high school, the now-defunct Marywood School for Girls (do such schools still exist?). Interesting too, your comment about living in your own world, how that saves us all. I'm thinking of a comment by Françoise Dolto who used to remind her audience how glorious it is to be human: we are free because we can be anywhere in our head.

[sharan newman]

Glad to know I wasn't the only one. Thanks!

[Dean James]

Sounds like a perfect way to go through high school. Wish my four years had been more like that!

[Priscilla]

Reading and dreaming stories got me through the years before high school. I recommend both!

[Ann]

I'm with you all on this one. And I love the quote from Dolto ... it's soooo true! I'm going to print it out and tack it up on my office wall, for inspiration. :-)
P.S. Sharan: That B&W photo of you could've been me, except my hair was longer and I carried a full-sized binder around with me *everywhere* to write in.

[sharan newman]

I think my hair was in a braid. it was fairly long then. Dean, sweetie, I wish you could have gone to high school in Portland instead of Mississippi!