I have never really spoken much about my high school years other than I was
Prom King and wanted to be a preacher. So, allow me to elaborate if you will. I still hold the
record for consecutive days of noon detention at Gans Public Schools thanks to my sister's
former basketball coach, Mr. Ellis, taking a liking to me. I would just keep talking and he'd
keep adding days all the while saying that he makes $70, 000 a year just to put people like me
in detention at "High Noon, son. Be in here at High Noon." LOL! He just liked doing that as he
really liked my family.....and, truth be told, he never actually made me serve all my time or I'd
probably still be there.
Anyways, junior high was mainly school dances filled with awkwardness and confusion. This is
where I first noticed that I was depressed but I didn't know what to call it. This lasted for a while
up until 10th grade. I remember being in a car listening to Back in Black by AC/DC when I first
became a Christian out of nowhere. I just had a moment I guess and asked Jesus into my life. Later
that summer, I went to the church camp at Falls Creek and had a blast. I remember kitchen duty and
trying to climb the mountain where they had erected three crosses so I could take pictures.
When I came back to school, I started a branch of Youth Alive on campus and every weekday
morning, before school began, I would stand in an empty classroom and try to preach the Gospel
or host guest speakers for the attendees. It started slowly but, over the final months of that year,
we went from 3 people to 16. We elected officers and I build a website. I applied for a received
an official charter for the group. I was so excited. We even went to Shake the Nations in Oklahoma
City to hear Reggie Dabbs speak and witnessed so many young people having so much fun. There
was a monster pizza party afterwards where I noticed that some kids were just there because they
had no where else to go and didn't really care to be there. At the time that I graduated from Gans,
Youth Alive had a roll call of 54 students and several teachers. That's not because of me but
because there was a place to hang out now and maybe learn something before school.
The next year, I began classes at Indian Capital Vo-Tech during the afternoons because I already
had all my requirements to graduate high school. I took Business and Computer Technology and
served as the Reporter for our chapter of the Future Business Leaders of America. I was really into
offices back then. I was also the Vice President of the Spanish Club, President and founder of the
Gans Young Republicans Club (I also founded the Young Democrats Club but wasn't President
because I wasn't a Democrat but wanted them to have their own group). I was even voted to the
Who's Who of American Students. I ran for and won Vice President of the Student Council and,
upon hearing my speech, the soon-to-be Student Council President exclaimed that he would, "try to
assist the Vice President as much as possible," to a fit of laughter and applause. I thought I had the
world at my fingertips and the future was mine. I was idealistic. I would later lose it all and the
good name as well. Oh, and I won Student Council President my senior year and was "knighted"
at my graduation by Harrison Fentriss (one of the teachers of Vo-Tech who drove the bus to Vo-Tech
every weekday at noon. He taught me everything I know about debating and public speaking. He
forced me to face my fear and to always question things. He said never listen to the media and form
your opinions on someone on a case-by-case basis. You can never know why a man does the things
he does....you can't see into his heart so do not judge him. God, I wish I would have listened to his
teachings in the time to come..) and awarded the Sword of Ehud (a Hebrew judge that slew the King
of Moab to once again free Israel from heathen rulers...). It's exactly a cubit's length and double
edged just like in the Scriptures. He made it and fashioned an elk's horn as the hande. He was
knighted in Scotland and was a member of Clan Coleman. I'm a member of Clan Macfarlane through
my mother's side of the family.
I was chosen by my classmates, whom I had grown up with, to speak at our Baccalaureate that
senior year and I spoke about many things. Among them were gifts, storms clouds on the horizon,
and the knowledge that the sun would still be shining in the morning after the storms had gone. I
can't believe how prophetic that turned out to be for me most of all. I would fall....oh Lord how I
would fall in the years to come. I have learned that it's not the fall that makes a man but the climb
back up. Many don't make it back up. I can sense that the new day has begun and I can feel the sun
rising once again though. I was given a standing ovation at graduation and, as I requested,
received my diploma last so I could see all of my friends graduate with my very own eyes before
making that long walk across the stage myself. It was one of my happiest moments...one that I
would replay in my mind over and over again during the dark times to come.
I feel much like Anakin Skywalker during this time. Young, idealistic, ambitious, well spoken,
confused, full of himself and his talents, narrow-minded, holier-than-thou, ruled by my emotions,
and headed for a fall like no one's business. I had such a sense of entitlement and knew I would be
able to just sweep in and make everyone's day. Pride cometh before a fall and boy did it. I'll have
to speak of that another day though. Darth Thorkin will have to wait. :P
-Thork
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