1994: When I was 17...
Dec 28 '05 (Updated Feb 14 '06)
The Bottom Line Well, it's life or something like it I guess.
Well, I decided that my first Epinions article in almost two years would be a general non-fiction entry inspired by sarahlovesadam's entry in this fairly old W/O challenge.
Like the many others who have participated in this write-off, I have to say that I strongly agree with artemisadorned's idea behind this write off, when she said "I thought it would be interesting to reminisce on those good old days or your recent past. 17 was such a crazy time in everyone's life. Anything goes..."
Now, I don't know if 17 was a wild and crazy time in my life, but let's see if my mind can actually remember what life was like 11 years ago... between April 15, 1994 and April 14, 1995.
1. Who were your best friends, or were you a friendless geek? What was the most interesting fun that you had together?
I'm not sure I had any best friends. High school kinda sucked for me. So I guess that would make me a friendless geek. I was fairly close to a girl named Amanda who was a year younger than me at the time.
I also developed some good friendships with some of my teachers. Two history teachers, an English/Drama teacher, an art teacher, and a teacher-librarian - a fondness of films and storytelling bonded my relationships with all of them. If it wasn’t for the English/Drama teacher I’d never have been introduced to Hitchcock. If it wasn’t for the teacher-librarian, I’d never have grown a fondness for seeing three or four movies in a row. If it wasn’t for the art teacher, I would never have discovered my fondness for working with video and film.
2. What was your favorite food? Have you out grown your fondness for it? Was this food involved in a food fight?
Lasagne. I don't eat it often anymore, but I don't know if it's because I'm not fond of it anymore. Mainly, I just don’t eat much pasta of any kind anymore outside of oriental noodles. Luckily, this food was never involved in a food fight at anytime, before or after I was 17.
3. Did you have a pet- real or imaginary? Were you the teacher's pet. Maybe you were the animal- fess up!
Real pets. A sheltie-collie dog named Jamie, and a female canary named Autumn. We may have still had a male canary at that time named Johnny, he lived to be about 13 or 14 years old, but he passed away around that time – although it may have been after I was done high school, when I was 18 or so.
4. What was your most memorable, life changing moment - in school or out. Did it involve any psychedelics?
At 17, hmmmmm.. well in the spring of 1995 I was lucky enough to go on a symposium for students at Saltspring Island. They choose students from various areas – the arts, sciences, math, English, etc. etc. etc. I got chosen for my interest in filmmaking that I’d shown in the art courses I’d taken. Documenting the trip was the task of me and two other students (it was originally one other, but for some reason a very attractive young woman ended up joining us), filming various aspects of it, and working late into the night to edit the events into some kind of a cohesive narrative. We ended up filming the other students and even ended up finding out where the hippies on the island lived and we may or may not have shot some footage of them. Anyway, the girl in the group and I talked about movies a lot and she recommended this one movie Natural Born Killers, and said I had to see it. So we trudged up to find the only video store on the island and they had it available to rent. That night, while many others were partying it up (perhaps even drinking and smoking some ganga), a small group of us were watching this incredible fast-paced movie play out on the small screen of our hotel room (we watched the VHS tape by playing it in the VHS camera we were using to document the weekend – using the simple coax line-out that it had on the side of the camera). Every now and then people would be knocking at the door, wanting to know what we were doing and our decks were all connected so people were hopping decks on the outside of our room, as a way of getting between rooms. That, combined with the smoke in the air, combined with the adrenaline of the movie that was playing made me irritable to interruptions – I wanted to watch my movie. I remember verbally scolding people for making noises and they backed off and in the end we got to watch our movie. So yeah, watching Natural Born Killers was a life changing moment. I was amazed with how a film could be so vivid with such out-there wild performances, with such amazing visuals, with a story that literally held a mirror to our crazy society, that it’s safe money that I was changed that weekend. Thanks hot blonde girl – wherever you are. I’ll never forget you for bringing that movie into my life.
5. Were you still a virgin at 17? Are you still?
Sadly, yes. I was still a virgin at 17. Did a bit of fooling around before then but nothing major. Luckily I’m not still a virgin at 28.
6. What was the most wicked thing you did? Did anyone find out? Were you grounded or just thrown in jail?
Didn’t really do anything wicked at 17. Although I did streak through my neighbourhood with my cousin at like 14 or 15 at 2 or 3 am in the morning.
7. How many guys or girls did you date when you were 17? Do you still keep in touch with them? Is your current mate jealous?
Didn’t really date anyone. I had a huge crush on a girl that I got to hang out with a lot in the library as I used to volunteer in the library. She was in grade 8 when I was in grade 11. Which put her at only 2 ½ or 3 years younger than me but I felt a bit ashamed to have a crush on someone so young but looking back on it now, at like 28 I’m dating someone 22 so if you rewind that back 10 years the girl I’m with now would’ve been 12. Which in itself is weird. After Amanda and I fell apart, when I was 18 and in my first term at University, taking 2 courses, I did call up this girl who was in grade 10 at that time. Later that fall I’d be moving downtown and I found out she was moving to an area not far from downtown Vancouver. She seemed really glad I called but I never got the courage up to call her again. Looking back on it now, with how we all grow up so quickly, our age differences were miniscule and I should’ve kept in touch with her cause I truly believe we could’ve had something special. My current mate knows about this story, we shared all our past loves and losses in a long conversation that happened a number of months ago.
8. What was your favorite subject in school? Or are you a high school drop out? Did you get to skip a grade because you are a genius?
Well, I liked art – whether it was drawing or painting or writing or fooling around with a video camera.
9. What was the make and the condition of the car you drove. Were you guilty of any traffic violations or worse? Were you randy?
Drove my Dad’s maroon Chevy Lumina, which could go from like 0 to 60 in a few seconds. It was nice. We kept it in really good condition. I don’t think I got any traffic violations at 17, but when I was 18 I got one or two speeding tickets.
10. Did you know what you wanted to do with your life? Did you aspire to be a beauty queen, fireman or a Dentist? Or just be plain old brilliant and discover...
I knew I wanted to get into filmmaking somehow. But I wanted to go to College and get some kind of a back up.
I thought a computer technician diploma would be a good thing to get as a backup but I SUCKED at math and science in high school so when I got to College I had to upgrade that and that took about 2 years to do – but I aced my math and science which made me feel good. Unfortunately, the program was everyday from like 9am – 3pm and VERY hard – you learned digital electronics and all about the circuits and components and transistors etc. etc. etc. I got very sick early on and missed out a week and a half of classes, which put me super behind. I eventually flunked out of that computer thing but not before 6 others flunked out before me.
So I changed tracks, deciding to finish a Marketing Management Diploma as while I upgraded I took some general arts and some marketing courses. When I finished that, I learned it was easier to transfer from my College to a University with an Associates Degree so I thought I’d get one of those (as at the time I wanted to go to film school at a local university). During my work on the Associates I got sidetracked into student politics so it took me four years to get a two-year degree. But I’ve also found that I’m close to a Business Management Diploma so in early 2006 I’ll have an Associate of Arts in Writing (with concentrations in English and Political Science), as well as a Business Management Diploma.
This summer I’m going to start working as a production assistant on film sets, get my days towards joining the Director’s guild of Canada. While I work on film sets, I’ll finish a Bachelors of Business Administration in Marketing online as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Writing.
But that brief little synopsis takes me past 17 and into today, and for that I’m sorry.
11. Where did you live? The city, rural America, suburbia, out of this country... or in your own private, little world?
White Rock, British Columbia, Canada. A kind of rural-suburbia just outside Vancouver, British Columbia, close to the border with Washington state.
12. Sisters and brothers are, were, still are..... How many? Were you an only child? Do you wish you were an only child? Did you see to it that you were?
I’m an only child. I’m glad I’ve been an only child, no one to share stuff with ;)
But we’ve always had a lot of animals in my life – horses when I was young until about 12 or 13 when we moved from Williams Lake, BC (in the interior of the Province) to White Rock. We’ve also had an assortment of cats, dogs, canaries over the years. We recently got a new 11 week old maltese-poodle puppy and it’s like having a baby really, so much work! So our dogs are my brothers and sisters.
13. Did you get into the college of your choice? Were you college bound? Did you end up with a great job flipping burgers? Are you famous now because of the choice you made then?
I got into the college I wanted to go to. Been going there on and off ever since. I volunteered with Community Police during my early college years, putting in over 2500 hours from 1997 – 1999. In 2000 I got involved in student politics, being elected as a student representative to the University Education Council and in the following year to the Board of Governors. I held those positions for four years. I also volunteered with the student association, then got a staff job organizing events. I then quit that job about a year and a half ago to run as an elected official. But this past year, a new slate came to town and they cleaned house – firing long time staff members, doing a lot of stuff illegally and me and a few others have been very outspoken against the wrong-doings and have been punished for it. But even some within the new slate have spoken out against others in the slate and a storm is brewing against them…
14. What was your favorite music, group, singer at 17? Do you listen to them today? Did your parents ever break your records? Did you play an instrument or in a group?
I listened to a lot of country music at the time, although my tastes were shifting. Garth Brooks and Dwight Yoakam topped my favourites at the time.
15. Tell us about your prom... Theme, date, outfit. What dance was popular then. What was your "after the prom" fun. I dare you to post a picture of yourself, your date.
Didn’t go. Just went to the ceremony, got my high school graduation diploma, took some pictures with family and we left. Probably just part of being a friendless geek.
16. Did you belong to any after school clubs or sports? Were you ever in the newspaper because of these activities?
No clubs, etc. – just working on video stuff. I would be in the editing suite most nights from 3pm until the janitors left at 11pm or later. I also worked on displays, rotating about 11 showcase windows every 2 weeks with new displays, on various topics from current events, to current entertainment films and older films (I remember a display on Hitchcock garnered a lot of attention. The Creative Writing teacher brought his class down to look at it and had them reading it – that was cool to see that). The principal of the school had me come back and continue doing displays the year after I graduated. That was cool too.
17. The biggie and final question... Would you ever do it all over again if you could. Remember the drama and the hormones and the angst before you answer.
I dunno. Once is enough maybe? If I could go back with what I know now – that would be a whole different question. But doesn’t everyone say that?
Read More About Me...
Steve's responses to his: DO YOU KNOW CANADA QUIZ Write Off... (New!)
Bon-Appetite: My Entry in the Food-Lover's Write Off (New!)
What Lies Within: A Memoir (New!)
The Weight is Over: I'm going to look and feel great this year!
On my involvement in 2 Non-Profit Organizations
The Knowing Me, Knowing You Write-Off Survey
My thoughts on writing utensils...
WHICH WEATHER CAN YOU WEATHER?
All About Me...
And, if you haven't already done so, please participate in my DO YOU KNOW CANADA QUIZ write off...
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Member: Steven Lee
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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