Thoughts on high school, favorite classes or teachers, a good high school anecdote?
My thoughts on New Trier are mostly positive. It was a great public school education. It was an extremely competitive environment for me given my desire to attend a good college. How many other high schoolers compete with 1,045 other students for Top 10 percent honors? I can only thank my inner circle of friends at the time --- i.e. Tom Gladden, Peter Henry, Simon Lincoln, Jamie Lane, and Bod Dold. Without those guys showing me the way that sports and academic excellence go hand in hand who knows where I would be now!!!! Another vivid memory that I share with my children till this day is me ringing the doorbell of Rich Rusnack's garage thinking that it was his house only to have Rich over his intercom telling me to look towards the beach. When I looked towards the beach and saw his house I almost fainted! I worked a lot harder on school that year and everyday after that moment in life. Having said that, I would love to go back and change a few things that I did in high school. First, none of my friends and I had a clue about relationships which at the time fell wayside to sports and academics let alone fear of rejection or some sort of communication with the opposite sex. If one of us was Romeo, then they sure did a good job hiding that skill set from the rest of the blind mice. Second, I wished that I played a "life sport" or something that I could excel at at age 42 --- i.e. I can not call my neighbors to play a game of contact football :) Finally, I can only hope that my children have a similar experience as I did with an ever present stay-at-home father trying his best to guide them through the mine field of high school.
