Back when the United States was preparing to invade Iraq, Charles Barkley uttered the following astute observation:
“You know the world is off tilt when the best rapper is a white guy [Eminem], the best golfer is a black guy [Tiger Woods], the tallest basketball player is Chinese [Yao Ming] and Germany doesn’t want to go to war.”
Add to that conundrum this: A “C” student with self-esteem issues and attendance problems in his teenage years being inducted into his high school hall of fame.
Friday morning, I’ll be doing the same thing my Salt Lake Tribune columnist-colleague Robert Kirby did 13 years ago: I’ll go to the principal’s office at Skyline High School.
Like Kirby, as he acknowledged in his column about that day in 2004, I was summoned to the principal’s office frequently during my high school years. But those were not pleasant experiences. That meant I was in trouble.
Again.
This time, I’ll be checking in at the office, then head to the gymnasium for the homecoming assembly, where I will be inducted into the Skyline Hall of Fame and have a plaque with my name and image placed on a wall near the main office next to some impressive people.
Yes, life is full of surprises, and it’s too bad some of my high school teachers from the 1960s are no longer with us. I’d love to see the look on their faces at this event.
When Kirby wrote about his induction into the Eagles’ elite club, he said he was breaking a vow he had made to himself when he graduated in 1971: that he would never go back into the school.
I had a different attitude about that. I loved returning.
Two of my children graduated from Skyline in the 1990s, and they both had good academic careers there. When they were involved in evening performances through their various activities at Skyline, I looked forward to entering the school, reminiscing about my days there and regretting I didn’t apply myself better and appreciate the gift I was given.
Skyline would host a parents’ night when all the departments would display the results of their students’ achievements. I remember the shop classes showing off an automatic sprinkling system they created; marvelous arrays from the physics and chemistry whizzes and all sorts of entertainment from the visual and performing arts folks.
I wished I had participated more in the activities I later enjoyed watching my kids do.
At Friday‘s assembly, my grandson will be there as a Skyline freshman. His older sister graduated from the school last spring and now is a first-year student at Saint Mary’s College near San Francisco.
Like many of her classmates, she earned a scholarship, something common among Skyline graduates every year.
I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but I received a great education despite myself. When I went to college and began maturing enough to take it seriously, I was surprised to discover the classes weren’t as hard as I had imagined, and I actually did have the basics down to help me succeed at a higher level.
I’ve mentioned in past columns Skyline’s iconic decadeslong journalism teacher Clarann Jacobs, who was an inspiration to me and many others.
When I was president of the Utah Headliners Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists in the 1980s, we presented Jacobs with our annual Service to Journalism Award. During our research, we calculated more than 70 Skyline graduates had chosen some form of journalism and/or communications as their profession.
But that’s my little world of Skyline, my alma mater, and journalism, my vocation.
Any of you out there reading this column could come up with similar memories and inspirations germinating from your high school years — even Olympus grads.
We didn’t realize it at the time, but those years were among the most important of our lives. That is when we were discovering ourselves and learning how to fit into social organizations.
I suspect I’m not alone in awareness years later of the importance of those high school days.
No matter what school you attended or what academic field you pursued, you probably had your own Clarann Jacobs to appreciate as you reflect on your life and achievements.
When I attended my 50-year reunion at Skyline last year, we gathered in the outside courtyard. While standing there, sharing memories with a bunch of old people, I noticed the stunning view of majestic Mount Olympus towering over us.
I never noticed that when I was a student eating lunch in that same courtyard.
What a shame.