Been there, and
By Kenneth Nishiguchi
would go there againSOME can remember high school. Some try to forget it. My problem is that I cannot forget my alma mater, Kalani High. Sure, it was not all roses. Sometimes it was stinkie-poo, plain old stinkie-poo. But in the end, the whole experience was worthwhile.
Before I continue, I have some teachers -- who probably can't believe I just called the high school experience worthwhile -- to apologize to. So Mrs. Furukawa, Mrs. Aoki, Mrs. Iwasaki, forgive me, I was a stupid freshman.
To others -- V, Tanaka, Doran, Asato, Miyashiro, Aki, Naratez, Harano, Butterfield -- thanks, I was an even more stupid senior. I owe you guys my life.
I want other students to avoid making the same mistakes I made. I was always late to class in '95, so I paid my dues. By the time I graduated, I must have had a hundred hours of detention time under my belt.
I spent almost every other day after school mopping and sweeping. That ended up really helping me with my summer job at Chuck E. Cheese. The detention experience taught me discipline. More importantly, it taught me the importance of showing up on time.
Eventually, I grew to appreciate the joys of "volunteering" my time for the sake of my school. I felt like I wanted to give something back to the school for putting up with me.
The original title of this piece was "Volunteering is its Own Reward." I did not perform these duties for bragging rights or because I was on some weird guilt trip or something. I sure as heck did not do it for the shallow reason of beefing up my academic record, which to this day isn't exactly college material.
I remember I turned 18 the day I was serving time, no, working, at a class fund-raiser. We sold huli huli-style chicken and I had the job of handling the raw chicken. This gave me the confidence to function in food-service jobs. After scooping raw chicken, pizza looks real good.
The memory I recall most fondly was helping Mr. Doran at swim meets from 1996-'97. He was my senior English instructor and he knew I had nothing better to do with my spare time.
(I noticed that Kalani remodeled its swimming pool after I graduated and it looks spectacular. I'm happy that our funds did not get wasted by the Department of Education.)
While at the pool I got to meet a lot of girls from other schools. I never ever called my pool duty "work." Basically, helping out at the pool was a fun way to spend the weekends. I'd also get to swim myself after the meets were over.
I know now that volunteering your time is one of the best things that anyone can do. It's either that or going to the mall every day. I wish to point out that the mall gets extremely boring after a while.
To today's mall rats, I beg of you: Change your ways, now. Get involved. Don't be like me in 1993. Start making a name for yourself, in a good way. Jump for the stars. Run faster toward the elusive finish line.
Do not make trouble. What you give, you receive 10 times over.
Meet people. Eat, drink, be merry! Enjoy your high school years. Believe me, with college, taxes, working, getting booted out of the house, parenthood, drugs and worst of all -- jury duty -- awaiting you after graduation, you'll need all the carefree, happy memories you can accumulate to sustain you through the joylessness of adulthood.
I'm still fairly young, so I imagine that even worse fates await me. I do not know what else to say without crying my eyes out. I have grown to love Kalani High School.
Go Falcons!
Kenneth Nishiguchi graduated from Kalani High School
in 1996 and bides his time these days sleeping and working.Rant & Rave is a Tuesday Star-Bulletin feature
allowing those 12 to 22 to serve up fresh perspectives.
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