- I went back to high school last week, and it was just
like I remembered it.
-
- It was Hell.
-
- Some kind folks at Paradise High asked me to speak on
Career Day. Say a little something about my life in Hollywood that would
let the students know that big things are possible in this world if you
plan right and work hard.
-
- Brimming with confidence, I walked into the auditorium
for my moment. I knew exactly what I was going to say. I was going to talk
about the importance of education, of developing good study and work habits.
Of setting goals and learning what it takes to reach them. About how good
it feels to say, "I did it!"
-
- Then I saw those faces before me. Maybe a hundred teenagers.
Fidgeting, frowning, as miserable as could be.
-
- A girl right in front of me was playing with her long
hair. Sweeping it up off the back of her neck, twirling it overhead, then
dropping it back down with a headshake from a thousand Clairol commercials.
-
- A boy a couple of seats west of her was dozing, his head
on his chest. No, wait. He wasn't dozing. He was faking it, lowered eyes
darting all around. He looked like an old man on a train ride to the cemetery
for his own funeral.
-
- Behind him a girl glared. I knew what she was thinking
as clearly as if I'd heard the words. "You think you know something
I care about? Show me. If you dare."
-
- Eastward of her a group of guys leaned in at each other.
Laughing. They glanced up at me and the teachers at my side. Shook their
heads. Laughed some more.
-
- "Simmer down, everybody!" said Mrs. Evans the
Guidance Counselor. "Mr. Brody has a lot to say."
-
- She was right. I did have a lot to say.
-
- But not what I'd planned.
-
- Being there in that room, seeing those teenagers, feeling
their restlessness and resentment, I found myself reliving my own high
school days. High School Larry B! Lean and sneering and - lost.
-
- "This place creeps me out," I said to the group.
"Being in high school after so many years reminds me of how I felt
the whole time I was there.
-
- "Reminds me of how terrified I was."
-
- The group of guys stopped laughing. They looked at me
out of the corners of their eyes.
-
- "I was terrified a teacher would call on me. I was
terrified a teacher would talk to me. I was terrified a teacher would look
at me. And I was just as terrified that the other kids wouldn't talk to
me. That I'd have no one to eat lunch with. And that I'd say something
really stupid and everyone -- all the teachers and all the kids - would
laugh."
-
- The glaring girl's face softened. Was that an involuntary
nod?
-
- "I went through high school daydreaming. I pretended
that everything was happening not in real life but on TV. I watched my
own version of 'High School Hi-jinks' and tried to stay safe. Tried as
hard as I could not to call attention to myself and be the guest star."
-
- The boy who'd been pretending to sleep pretended to wake
up. He looked around the room, but his ears were cocked toward me.
-
- "There's one inescapable thing about life,"
I said. "Everything ends. Even high school. I made it out of there
- alive - in spite of a close call with the assistant principal right before
graduation. And I used the daydreaming skill I'd developed to get me someplace
I loved. To make TV my real life as a writer and producer.
-
- "I know it seems impossible now. I know you feel
like you're serving four years to life, but you can do it. You can survive
this. You can go out into the world and succeed."
-
- There was more, much more. A lot of questions from the
audience. (My favorite: "Do you know any stars?") A lot of smiles.
Even some "Thanks, dood" that made my week.
-
- And a realization I'll have forever.
-
- I've been in the middle of divorce, fire, earthquake.
I've been sued, swindled, robbed. Swung at and shot at and stabbed.
-
- But the one thing I could never, ever go through again
is high school.
-
- It takes real courage to walk through those doors and
face P.E. class and pop quizzes and girls who just can't stop playing with
their hair.
-
-
-
-
- Copyright C 2007 by Larry Brody. All rights reserved.
-
-
- Author Larry Brody's weekly column, LIVE! FROM PARADISE!
appears on his website, www.larrybrody.com. He has written thousands of
hours of network television, and is the author of "Television Writing
from the Inside Out" and "Turning Points in Television."
Brody is Creative Director of The Cloud Creek Institute for the Arts, the
world's first in-residence media colony. More about his activities can
be seen on www.tvwriter.com and www.cloudcreek.org. He welcomes your comments
and feedback at <mailto:LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org>LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org.
Brody, his wife and their dogs, cats, horses and chickens live in Marion
County, Arkansas. The other residents of the mythical town of Paradise
reside in his imagination.
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