Insights into the Life of a Teenage Boy

I sat down looking and the golden arches of my Victorian mansion. I turned to my grand piano and revealed the keys from the oak cover. I slid the papers into the holder and set my finger upon the cool ivory covered wood keys and took a deep breath. I struck the first key and the rest began to just follow like a flowing river. The sounds of Beethoven’s Fur Elise bounced off the high ceilings and traveled through the mansion. It was only a matter of seconds of this ruckus that my mother barged through the door. I imagined she was hear to listen to this masterpiece, but my dream was shattered as she spoke above the music, “Honey, it’s time to wake up.”

I opened my eyes and responded with my ritual “ok” and she left the room. I sat in my bed staring into space thinking of the day to come. I went through my checklist of things to remember. The day of the week, Monday; first period class, English; is my bag packed, yes; time, 6:30 AM; time to shower, yes. I turned my body to the left to exit my bed and placed my feet on the red carpet squeezing it between my toes. I stood up slowly letting my legs awaken themselves and hold the weight of my body. I walked to the bathroom and crossed through the gateway into the area of my morning ritual. I grabbed my toothbrush and turned on the faucet letting water run over it. I flicked it at the sink watching the water droplets fly off and proceeded to grab my toothpaste. I turned the toothbrush on and applied the florid to my teeth and imagined I could feel the florid destroying plaque and the gum disease, gingivitis, causing germs. I questioned in my mind if this twice-daily process really does things besides making your breath smell nice. Is brushing your teeth an act of societies control over us, or does it truly work? I finished and spat out the remnants of the toothpaste in my mouth and took a handful of water and washed out my mouth. I looked to my right and looked through the glass panels of the shower and then looked to my right. I grabbed a clean towel and walked towards the shower throwing the towel onto the hook outside the shower and striped myself of the clothing I had on.

I opened the shower door and walked through the next gateway I must pass through. I turned the water on and felt the water warming my body. I shivered as the hot water ran down my body and down the drain. I requested from my data storage for a copy of my schedule. My brain was especially nice today and received the file from my unconscious. English 4, AP Art History, Morning Meeting, Drawing, Lunch, Statistic, Clay, Yearbook scrolled through my eyes allowing me to visualize my day before it started.

I would leave my house at 7:20 after eating breakfast and park my car in the small independent school at 7:30. I would arrive to English 3 minutes early as estimated to my usual arrival time. I would sit in class, as my teacher would go on analyzing literature to its fullest extent while I sat wondering why. He would present with a question and I would think, remembering on the reading I did the night before, looking for an answer. One would present his opinion, then another, and a few more. It was now my turn to speak up and I choose to question the trivial matters of which the man lived and wondering why he decided to do what he knew was wrong just to prove he was right. The teacher would ask a follow up question where the class would discuss with the big hitters in the class continuing to answer the question regardless if they decided to do the reading or not. The bell would end signifying the end of class and it was time for art History.

I would walk to art history with the one sophomore in the class who I called by a roman version of his name. We would partake in trivial banter on whether we had read the chapter, knowing full well before hand that neither of us had yet. I asked him before we enter the class if he was reading for the lecture and stopped paying attention knowing his answer would be no. The teacher arrived into the class and turned on the projector. The other guy in the class controlled the projector while the teacher lectured and I took notes. I wrote about the unique aspects of Greek sculptures and why the use of the column is so important. I looked at the time between slides and writing whenever I had time and watched the clock slowly tick towards 9:30. I looked up and saw the teacher end the last slide and counted the number of pages I took, 7 1/2 pages of notes, a new record for this class. I walked out of the class and once again conversed in trivial banter with the sophomore. I dropped my books by my backpack and walked around to morning meeting.

Morning meeting began the same as always. I placed down the word yearbook in the clubs section for announcements and took a seat with my friends. The student body president stood at the podium and called out teacher announcements and went around the teachers who had signed up. Then sports, and student announcements followed in the same fashion. He then announced clubs and a mentioned the name of our friendly club informant. He stood up and said hi everybody, and the student body responded Hi and the informant’s name. He announced the clubs meeting that day and took away part of my announcement. A few clubs were called before me and the president called out the word yearbook and I stood up. I spoke clearly over the crowd announcing Yearbook was meeting and that it is very important for photo staff to show up so we can give out your announcements. I sat down and watched the rest of announcements go by as morning meeting ended. I left the room and headed towards drawing.

I walked back up to the art center and into the drawing room. I grabbed my drawing box and opened it. I looked through my 4 different erasers and grabbed out two of them. I looked through my pencils and took out 4 of them and took out my sharpener. I walked towards the seat I was at for this drawing project. I looked at the image I was drawing and deemed it ready to start adding tone into it. I started to shade in the darkest regions and lightest regions. I heard the banter of classmates complaining about their drawings from the other class and passed it out of my mind. The teacher walked in and walked around the room helping kids see things they hadn’t quite understood before. I started to add in the different medium tones and thought about my 10 scale and finding where I could fit all 10 in. I remembered how the human eye can only see 6 tones of gray and wondered why they use 8 different grays when we can only see 6. As I pondered this, the teacher told me about something that I didn’t hear and responded ok, knowing he would tell me again later if I hadn’t fixed it. I looked at the clock and it read 11:20, and stood up. It was time to clean up and I packed my pencil box. I cleaned my hands in the sink and walked out of the class towards the office to sign out or lunch.

I arrived at the office before the rush came in and only needed to wait for 3-4 people before I could sign out. I signed out and meet up with my friends. We decided on a fast food place to get lunch, because we knew we could never make it back in time from a different type of place. We piled into a car and drove off. We arrived back at campus with food 20 minutes later and signed back in. We ate food on a bench in front of the library that was known as out bench and finished right before the period ended. I walked to my backpack to grab my books for statistics.

I arrived at statistics class 2 minutes before class and no one else had arrived yet. I had a short political discussion with the teacher trying to understand how he could choose her and how she could expect people to believe what she said. As the rest of the class filed in he responded with a simple, it doesn’t make sense. We began class talking about graphs and different types of curves. Sometime during the class someone figures a way to make a comment about one of the girl’s ACT tutor and we get sidetracked talking about her tutor. The teacher breaks us from the conversation quickly and we go back to statistics. We end class with new material that we will see in the homework and we walk out. I drop my books on top of my other books and walk up to clay.

I walk into clay and put on my old t-shirt and smock. The music starts and a sophomore and I start dancing, making fools of ourselves in front of the class not caring who sees. I add a side to my clay piece and we dance when we can’t work because we are waiting for something to take hold. The teacher chastises our choice in music but we don’t care. The teacher helps me attach part of the vessel that I couldn’t attach by myself. The class converses about nothing just to pass the time and pass it does. Class is coming to a close and we clean up all the clay and wipe everything down. I wash my hands and need to run to start the yearbook meeting.

I arrive in the computer lab late and everyone looks at me like they do every Monday and Thursday. I take attendance and give out assignments to the photo staff. I leave the layout staff to the design editor to do what she wants with them. I tell the text staff what their assignments are for the week and then meet with the editors to check in. We catch up on all work needed to be done and we finish anything we needed to finish from the last meeting. As the photo staff comes back with pictures we upload them and start sorting them. The clock strikes 3 and people disappear leaving me to clean everything up before we leave. I walk out 5 minutes later and pack my bag. I meet up with my friends and we walk down to our cars.

I arrive home 12 minutes later and come inside. I sit down and watch TV to relax before starting my homework for the day. I get up after 30 minutes or so and grab my bag and go to my room. I start with English and read my assignment for the next day. I then do my statistics problem before my mom calls to me for dinner. I walk upstairs and say hello to my brother who has just arrived home. We sit down and eat dinner while watching TV. An hour or so later I go back downstairs and read a few pages of art history. I then go into yearbook for the next 2 hours thinking about what needs to get done, who I need to meet with, and what my plan for the first semester is. My dad gets home later that night and I go up and talk to him for an hour or so. It is getting late so I head downstairs and get ready for bed. I lie down in my bed and fall asleep. . .

I walk out of the shower and dry myself off. I get dressed and walk upstairs. Its 7:05 and I put my shoes on. I sit down to breakfast, a burrito and begin eating and talking to my mom. She asked me, "do you plan on being home late today?" and I respond "I shouldn’t." It is now 7:15 and I am finishing my burrito. I finish and walk into the pantry. I take a swig of some orange juice and the pour myself a glass of water. Like clockwork I walk out of the house at 7:20 and my mom telling me "have a good day and to drive safe." I get into my car and say to myself, “Time to start my day.”