My last few blog posts have been stories about my experiences. Unfortunately, most of my other vaguely interesting stories aren't exactly blog material- whether the story is too short, too incriminating or even just plain old R-rated. Which is why I am unfortunately departing from talking about my individual life and instead widening up the audience who can relate- to all of you! Amazing, I know. Except for transfers, of course. But if you are actually a transfer, at least you finally get to picture everyone's favorite year.
Something I don't miss:
Being prepubescent. I'm not claiming to be a full-grown man complete with beard, but at least I look nothing like the me from 3 years ago. I was short, had awful hair, and mediocre dress sense. If you knew me then, then you know. If not, then peep my Instagram (leave a few likes, too). But worst of all was my voice- it was so high-pitched that I'm amazed anyone besides dogs could understand me. Luckily, by the end of the year my body started going through some changes and I could finally stop striking out with every girl I ever talked to.
Something I do miss:
GREEN STREET. Obviously, we can still go to Green street pretty much any day, but it just feels different. For one thing, they took Antonio's pizza and Azzip away from us. Also, I feel like no one ever wants to go to Green at all anymore. Subbie year, me and my friends had what we called the "Friday lunch squad", which while being cringe-worthy, was fun, and appeased my weekly french fry cravings (pre-Jurassic Grill truck era). But now I'm just stuck with either trekking to Green Street by myself or settling for the same three food truck options every day. Also, Cracked wasn't super-duper overpriced like it is now.
Something I don't miss:
Lacking of any defined "clique". I mean, it's great to have social freedom and also to make new friends. But, at the same time, being thrown into a ragtag, broken-down "school" with 60 other scrawny nerds, most of whom you don't know, and being told to make friends is a little bit stressful. My fretting was for nothing though, as a lot of my current closest friends thought I was cringe-y and obnoxious subbie year. Truthfully, I was cringe-y and obnoxious, but it still hurt. Eventually, those people came around to liking me, thankfully.
Something I do miss:
The absence of an "only one headphone in" rule. This may be the dumbest, most insane rule of all time? What's the point? Subbie year me was able to happily place his earbuds in, jam out to some tunes with some degree of auditory satisfaction. However, now I just feel weirdly unbalanced with only my right bud in. Also, some songs just don't work with one in. For example, Kanye West's song "Runaway" features a background noise of "look at ya, look at ya, look at ya"- but when you have only one bud in, it is reduced to simply "look *pause* look". Which sucks. You're better than this, Dr. Radnitzer.
Something I don't miss:
The thing I miss the least is what I call the "milk incident". Basically, as subbies, my grade had a "gamer wall", as most classes at Uni at one point have. If you don't know, basically it's where all the gamers congregate in a line to play video games together. I was never a part of it, but regardless the wall's existence still had a tremendous impact on Uni. Basically, Geoffrey Ding, a guy in my class, accidentally left his bottle of milk at that long row of tables on the third floor. Now, this doesn't sound so bad; but within a few weeks, the milk had completely spoiled. The entire floor smelled of a disgusting rotten milk scent. The entire floor almost had to be quarantined, it smelled so bad. The worst part was the entire class of 2020 was blamed for Geoffrey's sloppiness. Well, maybe not the WORST part, the smell was definitely a lot worse.
Something I do miss:
Lastly, just being more comfortable with yourself. When you were weird in subbie year, it was more okay than it is as a junior, because then you were a "dumb subbie" and everyone else was ALSO dumb and weird. No one had expectations of you to be a certain way. When I asked a friend what they missed from subbie year, one of their answers was "cringe-y Henry". And to be honest, so do I. We all miss the old-us, at least somewhat. But unfortunately, the humble, pun-making, crazily-dabbing Henry is buried. Buried deep under heaps of mistakes, regrets, social constructs I blindly follow, and experiences which have stripped me of my innocence. I miss you buddy.
On a more positive note, I think the message to take away from my post is simple: Be yourself! Ha-ha, just kidding, that's too cliche. But seriously, just don't feel restricted by other people's expectations. Everyone thinks that they have to distinguish themselves as older or better than underclassmen by acting more mature. But by "mature", they mean either being boring or being sketchy. There's more to life than being edgy or "too cool" for most of life. You're missing out. I used to try to be the same way, until I realized your high school reputation is meaningless. Our goal should be to have fun, being the people that we are- dab-happy or not.
Something I don't miss:
Being prepubescent. I'm not claiming to be a full-grown man complete with beard, but at least I look nothing like the me from 3 years ago. I was short, had awful hair, and mediocre dress sense. If you knew me then, then you know. If not, then peep my Instagram (leave a few likes, too). But worst of all was my voice- it was so high-pitched that I'm amazed anyone besides dogs could understand me. Luckily, by the end of the year my body started going through some changes and I could finally stop striking out with every girl I ever talked to.
Something I do miss:
GREEN STREET. Obviously, we can still go to Green street pretty much any day, but it just feels different. For one thing, they took Antonio's pizza and Azzip away from us. Also, I feel like no one ever wants to go to Green at all anymore. Subbie year, me and my friends had what we called the "Friday lunch squad", which while being cringe-worthy, was fun, and appeased my weekly french fry cravings (pre-Jurassic Grill truck era). But now I'm just stuck with either trekking to Green Street by myself or settling for the same three food truck options every day. Also, Cracked wasn't super-duper overpriced like it is now.
Something I don't miss:
Lacking of any defined "clique". I mean, it's great to have social freedom and also to make new friends. But, at the same time, being thrown into a ragtag, broken-down "school" with 60 other scrawny nerds, most of whom you don't know, and being told to make friends is a little bit stressful. My fretting was for nothing though, as a lot of my current closest friends thought I was cringe-y and obnoxious subbie year. Truthfully, I was cringe-y and obnoxious, but it still hurt. Eventually, those people came around to liking me, thankfully.
Something I do miss:
The absence of an "only one headphone in" rule. This may be the dumbest, most insane rule of all time? What's the point? Subbie year me was able to happily place his earbuds in, jam out to some tunes with some degree of auditory satisfaction. However, now I just feel weirdly unbalanced with only my right bud in. Also, some songs just don't work with one in. For example, Kanye West's song "Runaway" features a background noise of "look at ya, look at ya, look at ya"- but when you have only one bud in, it is reduced to simply "look *pause* look". Which sucks. You're better than this, Dr. Radnitzer.
Something I don't miss:
The thing I miss the least is what I call the "milk incident". Basically, as subbies, my grade had a "gamer wall", as most classes at Uni at one point have. If you don't know, basically it's where all the gamers congregate in a line to play video games together. I was never a part of it, but regardless the wall's existence still had a tremendous impact on Uni. Basically, Geoffrey Ding, a guy in my class, accidentally left his bottle of milk at that long row of tables on the third floor. Now, this doesn't sound so bad; but within a few weeks, the milk had completely spoiled. The entire floor smelled of a disgusting rotten milk scent. The entire floor almost had to be quarantined, it smelled so bad. The worst part was the entire class of 2020 was blamed for Geoffrey's sloppiness. Well, maybe not the WORST part, the smell was definitely a lot worse.
Something I do miss:
Lastly, just being more comfortable with yourself. When you were weird in subbie year, it was more okay than it is as a junior, because then you were a "dumb subbie" and everyone else was ALSO dumb and weird. No one had expectations of you to be a certain way. When I asked a friend what they missed from subbie year, one of their answers was "cringe-y Henry". And to be honest, so do I. We all miss the old-us, at least somewhat. But unfortunately, the humble, pun-making, crazily-dabbing Henry is buried. Buried deep under heaps of mistakes, regrets, social constructs I blindly follow, and experiences which have stripped me of my innocence. I miss you buddy.
On a more positive note, I think the message to take away from my post is simple: Be yourself! Ha-ha, just kidding, that's too cliche. But seriously, just don't feel restricted by other people's expectations. Everyone thinks that they have to distinguish themselves as older or better than underclassmen by acting more mature. But by "mature", they mean either being boring or being sketchy. There's more to life than being edgy or "too cool" for most of life. You're missing out. I used to try to be the same way, until I realized your high school reputation is meaningless. Our goal should be to have fun, being the people that we are- dab-happy or not.
I actually love this post, like even though I'm not a part of your class somehow your experiences still feel so universal. I was also weird and had a mediocre at best fashion sense. Also WHAT is up with the earbud rule?! It's so unnecessary, and tbh I wear 2 still mainly out of spite which is a total senior perk cause Krad can do nothing about it- so you have that to look forward to.
ReplyDeleteI remember the spoiled milk incident. That was a nightmare. I will say, I think you left out "less stress" as one of the things to miss from subbie year, even if we didn't know it at the time. I thought subbie year was so hard, but now I just want to go back in time and slap myself and tell myself to enjoy all of the free time while I still had it.
ReplyDeleteGreen Street on Fridays were the days. I hate how Antonios and Azzip are both gone. Zorbras, Zas, and that one restaurant that started with M were all great. Unfortunately, our schedules have changed and we can rarely get the whole squad together. Hopefully bdubs will make up for it.
ReplyDeleteThe wholesome takeaway at the end was a really nice part of the post, but what I like more is the sense of nostalgia it brings. You did a really good job of capturing that feeling using words. The carefree year of being a subbie, being blissfully ignorant of the stress and responsibilities to come, that was the time. You say you don't miss the "milk incident", and I do have to agree with you on that one. But at the same time that incident is iconic, a memory everyone in our class remembers, something we can always have a laugh about; it really embodies the stupid, lighthearted carefree days we had as subbies just being ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI love this blog post! I enjoyed how you talk about the good and bad of Subbie year. I was reading this and I kept thinking "oh the good old days". If I would have known that you can fail Subbie year because it doesn't really matter, I probably would have. Anyway, great post and I really like your voice in this post.
ReplyDeleteI love this post. I think it is so relatable especially because everything you wrote about was related to Uni. I like how you organized your essay into repeating sections of what you miss and what you don't miss. I think that it gave your essay a unique flow.
ReplyDeleteI really like the way you portray your somewhat nostalgic feelings of subbie year. Though I'm not in your class, the way you describe some specific memories makes it very relatable for all readers. I remember in subbie year how my class also always went to Green Street, spending a lot of time at Coco Mero or Starbucks.
ReplyDeleteMan, this really brings back memories (especially ones where I was a head taller than you). I think there's this conflict going on between people finding who they really are but being restricted from expressing themselves because it's not cool to be weird anymore. I know that I've learned a lot about myself over these past 3 years, but it also seems like a lot of people who used to be my friends kinda settled down into different cliques and we drifted apart.
ReplyDeleteI was really able to relate to your comment about subbie hair being bad, though.
This was a really funny post Henry. I liked the different kinds of humor you incorporated. I completely related to what you said about your subbie year self- I was just as obnoxious and cringey as you said you were, with even worse dress sense. I agree with you on the earbud point- it makes all the 8d audio songs I downloaded pointless. I sort of disagree about Green Street though, as I've been going there even more starting from junior year; there are a bunch of really solid Asian restaurants that aren't very popular.
ReplyDelete