NOCCA Level One - people (pt3)
Friday, June 10, 2005
The first morning of school i really didn't have any idea what to expect and i had no idea who would be in my class. I hadn't talked to anyone else about going, since i had just auditioned in the last two weeks. Really, i didn't have the first clue about any of it. I can remember sitting in the basement as people started to arrive and i was relieved to recognize quite a few faces.The level one class was only about 30 students, which is pretty small when you consider that this one class theoretically drew from every school in Orleans Parish (like counties to the rest of yall.) As it turned out, for whatever reason, kids from McMain represented a disproportionate number of students. McMain was definately the closest school geographically. Perhaps because of proximity students at McMain were more aware of NOCCA, therefore more prone to audition. Who knows. Either way, it worked out to my advantage: i had a group of friends right away with which to ease the transition into something new and unfamiliar.
We wound up forming a pretty tight group of friends, most of whom i've lost contact with at this point. For the sake of future Google searches, i'll do something gratuitous here and list a few names which may help me to get in touch with some of them (or them me):
Liz Barrios
- Pronounced Bahr-O-Wah. Last i heard she went to Pratt in NY. Liz had strikingly purple hair. When i went to McMain to register for classes with my dad he saw her across the yard and asked sarcastically, "that one of your friends?" It was.Jessica Boudreaux
- My wife's best friend for many years. I genuinely liked Jess, but my friendship with her was also of a definate strategic advantage in gaining exposure to kim on days when kim and i weren't explicitly hanging out.Otis Shipman
- Otis was a cool guy, quite adept at riling up Jess and Liz with his misogynistic jokes. I heard Fugazi for the first time in his car, though when i recognized Ian MacKaye's voice and asked him if it was the guy from Minor Threat he had no clue, which lost him some punk points.Louis Schmidt
- The only person in our little group not from McMain, but ironically he went to Brother Martin, the (Catholic, all-boys) school i had gone to before McMain for 8th and 9th grades. Louis is the only person i'm still "in contact" with, though it's been about 2 years now since we've talked. (Let this serve as a reminder, self.)I have this feeling that there is one pivotal person that i'm not remembering. If so i'll edit later.
This NOCCA thread is stretching way further than i expected it would. I've barely gotten to anything interesting yet. I thought it'd be a nice addition, though, if i could dig up some of my artwork that i did during that period, so i'll try to get to that soon too.
Previous NOCCA entry
Continue to part 4 ->
posted by j. Permanent Link
