{"id":51,"date":"2004-09-01T10:27:36","date_gmt":"2004-08-31T22:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/?p=51"},"modified":"2025-03-20T17:56:46","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T04:56:46","slug":"school_days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/2004\/09\/01\/school_days\/","title":{"rendered":"School days"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I know US schools are portrayed in a bad light in the media, a lot worse than NZ schools, but I didn’t expect it to be this extreme. I’m glad I didn’t go to Friendswood<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was very introverted at school. I didn’t fit in with the other nerds, knowing I was looking for something different. I wasn’t geeky enough to be with the geeks. I wasn’t cool enough to be with the cool kids. As a “B” student, I wasn’t one of the smart ones, but I didn’t have to study to get there; if I’d known how to apply myself, I see that more “A”s could have come my way. Instead, I read lots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was a bookworm from a young age. My mother once said that one of the smartest things she did for me was get a library membership. I was always asking “why, ” which meant I could find the answers. Perhaps that explains why I analyse things too much, especially movies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My reading consisted primarily of science fiction. Fantasy came later when I was at varsity<\/a> in Christchurch (I loved Scorpio Books<\/a>.) I also read some of my older brother’s books. I didn’t touch his westerns but he had some Adults Only<\/em> books. Thinking back, the few I read were pretty trashy. I also read his copies of Penthouse magazine. (It turns out I really was reading the articles! It’s a pity the advice column added to my confusion.) When our mother found one hidden, she told him that he wasn’t to hide them, he was allowed to read them, but he wasn’t to leave them lying around the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think my reading of science fiction and fantasy was some sort of escape. I’d always “danced to a different tune”. It was not until I got to university that I started really making friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a\u00a0school<\/a>\u00a0reunion a few years ago, I was told<\/span> that some of the other kids had made a bet that I was gay. I wish I’d known then. It’s a pity it took 20 years for their bet to pay off. I know of only one other kid from school who’s gay; she was one of the cool kids yet was willing to include me in things. I run into her from time to time here in Auckland. I can think of a couple of guys from my final year who are probably gay; one will still be dealing with issues of religion; the other, I have no idea what he could be doing now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am so<\/strong> different from the kid I was at school. I am much more of social now, and I am much happier being me within this skin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know US schools are portrayed in a bad light in the media, a lot worse than NZ schools, but I didn’t expect it to be this extreme. I’m glad I didn’t go to Friendswood. I was very introverted at school. I didn’t fit in with the other nerds, knowing I was looking for something […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"1","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-background"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":89,"url":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/2004\/09\/22\/family\/","url_meta":{"origin":51,"position":0},"title":"Family","author":"Brian","date":"22 September 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I tuned in halfway through to TV One's News Debate: The State of The New Zealand Family. The debate needed to be about parenting, not families. I grew up in a loving family. It wasn't a nuclear family, not after my father died when I was six. My mother raised\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":117,"url":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/2004\/10\/15\/birthdays\/","url_meta":{"origin":51,"position":1},"title":"Birthdays","author":"Brian","date":"15 October 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"On the day I was born Elvis Presley had the both the UK top single with \"Good Luck Charm\" and the UK top album with \"Blue Hawaii (OST)\". Thanks to Alistair for the link. Nine days later and Blue Hawaii had been knocked off the top. I don't know if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/category\/entertainment\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69,"url":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/2004\/09\/10\/bourne-supremacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":51,"position":2},"title":"Bourne Supremacy","author":"Brian","date":"10 September 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I am too analytical when it comes to movies. I'm also addicted to blogging. While watching The Bourne Supremacy I was thinking about how I would write this up. For this reason, I resisted posting until twenty hours after the movie. 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The CGI work on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/category\/entertainment\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42,"url":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/2004\/08\/26\/thursday_night_curry\/","url_meta":{"origin":51,"position":4},"title":"Thursday Night Curry","author":"Brian","date":"26 August 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I went to dinner with the Thursday Night Curry in Auckland group tonight. It's only taken me three months since I was first invited. Due to the IT background of (most) of the participants I was expecting it to be quite geeky. I would now like to confirm that I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Day to day"","block_context":{"text":"Day to day","link":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/category\/verity\/day-to-day\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":71,"url":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/2004\/09\/12\/downhill-from-the-start\/","url_meta":{"origin":51,"position":5},"title":"Downhill from the start","author":"Brian","date":"12 September 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I got my first comment spam today. The only thing to be happy about is the delay it has taken. It was on my old blog. I saw it because I have an RSS feed of the HaloScan comments I used with Blogger. It's been quickly deleted so I hope\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Day to day"","block_context":{"text":"Day to day","link":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/category\/verity\/day-to-day\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1019,"href":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions\/1019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shadowfoot.com\/footprint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}