There I was, out of over 13,000 applicants, one of the 450 freshmen entering the school in September 1983. I was the only St. Stanislaus grad from ‘83 entering the school that year. It was a fantastic opportunity in so many ways. Besides the great opportunity to be enrolled in probably the very best high school, public or private in New York, with some of the best teachers that you will find anywhere and the absolute cream of the crop of NYC students, it was also a chance for me to start all over with a new bunch of classmates, many of which from completely different backgrounds instead of the mostly all Catholic classmates I had for eight years. Also the new teachers, some of them would be highly enjoyable and interesting, and others, who I would despise on a daily basis. I would also find out quite a bit about myself, as a teenager and the first real opportunity to experience the idea of meeting girls and maybe having a date or two.
Realistically, I knew that my chances of dating were very slim because of one very basic problem, I was very painfully shy. I could hardly look any nice girl in the eye, and talking to them? I was deathly afraid of that. I did make a couple of female friends early on, but maybe they were only really classmates that I happened to sit next to. I also made several male friends, but our conversations were usually very short, because a period was only 40 minutes, and with all the classes and studying, and traveling that most of the students had to do, from all five boroughs of NYC, and a whirlwind of different students all around, a far cry from the 21 classmates I had in 8th grade. I also think that being so different from the kids that I was used to, spooked me out a bit. I didn’t really understand where most of these new classmates came from, and that made me end up feeling fairly outcast and inferior, in some ways.
Grade-wise, I held my own. I did ok in Ms. DiBellis’ Algebra class(I had her both semesters), Dr. Bindman’s and Ms. Evans English classes, Mr. Tiseo’s Italian class(I did have a slight advantage there, being half-Italian) and gym was always an automatic 95 or higher. The other subjects, especially the Science class, which was biology, freshman year, was a bit more challenging for me. I usually ended up with a 70-80 mark. I use the excuse that we were not taught science very well at St. Stan’s and I had to play catch-up at Stuy. Now I know that some of you will say, wait a minute, isn’t Stuy known as a math and science school? Well yes, but the entrance exam was Math and English, which were probably my two best subjects. That’s why I passed the exam. I didn’t do really well in History either. It seemed like a lot of facts and figures to remember and Mr. Lugo, who I had fall semester was someone I didn’t really like too much. I barely passed that class. I did a little better with Mr. Hendricks in the spring. I ended up with an 83.5 average for freshman year, which as a B- average isn’t bad, but with all the brilliant students in the class, I was certainly in the bottom half. The one joy that I had was being able to make the bowling team in my freshman year. I didn’t get to really compete in the matches too much because only the top eight on the team usually got to play. I bowled when someone else couldn’t make it. We did win the PSAL Manhattan championship, but I didn’t really make a difference. I knew that I had three more years to shine, though. With all the all other extra-curricular activities at Stuyvesant, I didn’t really participate in anything else, which I regret. I was in the choir at St. Stan’s from 3rd grade through 6th. I can’t explain why I wasn’t involved in the Concert Chorus, the Gospel or Renaissance Choir. I guess my shyness really prevented me from being active.
Sophmore year brought 300 more students to the class, from all the graduating junior high schools in the city. As the year started, I did attempt to be a little more active at the school. I joined the computer club for a while and started to hang with a bunch of witty, creative and very funny people. They were unofficially known as the “Lunatic Fringe”. I wasn’t really part of the crew, but I did attempt to hang around them a bit. I wasn’t as witty as them, but I held my own, in my opinion. My grades were pretty much the same as Freshman year. I finished with an 84 average as a Sophmore. I can’t explain how I got through Chemistry class with Ms. Bulgaris, considering I barely could figure out what the heck she was talking about all semester, and I cut that class quite a bit, just from boredom. I absolutely loved Geometry class with Mr. Jaye. It was fun and I did really well on his tests. I was distracted by the beauty of a certain English teacher I had, but of course, being very shy prevented me from even looking at her an inappropriate amount. Speaking of attraction, I started to notice a certain female classmate a lot(I’m choosing not to mention her name), but once again, other than a few small talk conversations either in the auditorium or at lunch, we didn’t really get to know each other very well, but she has stuck in my mind, ever since. She is someone that I would refer to as the lady of my dreams. Luckily, that’s over with now, but I freely admit that it was an unhealthy torment for me, for a long time. I was in a few classes with this girl, and I was certainly distracted by her presence. It’s hard to explain, it was just something about her.
There were also a few girls that hung out in my neighborhood, who had my attention at that time, but they looked at me as a good friend, but not someone that they wanted to be involved with romantically. That was a dilemma that plagued me for a very long time. Before I was so shy and not very popular, I didn’t really give anyone a chance to know me very well, which was a huge mistake.
At least my activities outside the classroom gave me some joy that year. The Stuy bowling team went all the way to the PSAL Championship match. We bowled against Susan Wagner HS (from Staten Island) and I had the highest score, a 193, but our team lost the city championship by 6 pins. That was a heartbreaker. I still agonize over why I didn’t bowl a 200, to this day. Those lanes were easy at Maple Lanes in Brooklyn. Oh well. I was still proud that we went all the way to the city finals, and I still have that medal somewhere in a box.
As I moved on to junior year, the fall semester, for me, would be my favorite semester of the eight. Two teachers I had, made the Stuy experience a lot more enjoyable for me. One of them would be fairly predictable, for those who know about Stuy and the legend of Frank McCourt. I had him for creative writing and it was amazingly enjoyable. He had an incredible sense of humor and his stories were absolutely captivating. I was among many of his students that strongly suggested that he put all of his stories together in a book. His incredibly sad and disturbing childhood stories became the amazing bestseller “Angela’s Ashes” and I honestly cannot say that I am surprised by his success at all. That’s how riveting a story teller he was in class. He also was a tremendous inspiration to students who wrote. I never really considered myself to have any skill in writing, before his class. Since then, I’ve always had the itch to want to write something, but I never really acted on it until the last few years, with my blog “Late Blooming Stuy Guy” and what you are reading right now. Back to the class, the boost I received by the experience was the way that Mr. McCourt allowed everyone a chance to shine. He wanted everyone to come up to the front of the class and read what they wrote each week and the positive response from my classmate for my writing made me feel great, and that newly found confidence affected my work in every class from then on, at Stuy.
The other teacher that brought me a lot of joy, was a lady that was a very important part of my early childhood development. Her name was Ms. Latham, yes the same Ms. Latham that lived across the hall from me and was my babysitter from time to time. You can imagine how excited I was when I found out that she was promoted to teach at Stuy and I would have her as a teacher, but, I would realize that it would be also very stressful for me, because I knew that I had to really excel in her class to not disappoint her. It was trigonometry and I was focused on not letting her down. I also had the circumstance of having “The Lady of My Dreams” as a classmate. I knew that Math was her best subject and I would probably be competing with her to get the highest grade in the class, and I was right, as I finished with a 98 in the class and she had a 99. It was a great experience and I was happy to have another chance to thank Ms. Latham for her role in my childhood.
I also had Mr. Rutkowski for Music Appreciation, which was interesting because he was also my Bowling coach. The funny thing is he didn’t show any favoritism towards me, but he didn’t really need to. I’ve always loved music and did well in the class, anyway. It ended up being a very good year grade-wise for me, with a 92.5 average. I knew getting into an Ivy League school was not going to happen at this point, even with a 1220 on the SAT, but I felt that I was certainly smart enough to be at Stuy and that I belonged and I was proud of myself.
In the summer of ’86, I had a new job. I worked down the block from my building on Avenue A at a place called Kim’s Video. It was a fun experience, but it was weird, in the sense that my co-workers were mostly punk rockers and I certainly didn’t fit in with them. The owner was a nice Korean guy that had an interesting taste in videos. They would rent all the latest releases, but some very odd choices as well, like Eraserhead and Attack of The Killer Tomatoes. Considering how the neighborhood would change due to gentrification and become a super trendy area, he was ahead of his time with his taste in movies. I would work there for more than a year, and would get to see a lot of movies for free.
I would return for Senior year and feel a myriad of emotions. Excitement, that we ruled the school and were just a year away from college life. Also that I had become a little more confident that I could get along with classmates and have stronger friendships, but also sadness that I wasted the first three years being so shy and hesitant to talk to everyone. I was also realizing how amazing the Stuy experience really was and in some ways, I wished that I had more time to be there. I had a few interesting classes that year, like Mr. Phillips for Statistics. I enjoyed the class (had a 97 in it) and found him to be a lunatic. I swore that if he told that silly “sneaker story” one more time, that I would vomit. I don’t even remember what it was about, but I know he talked about it a little too much. The spring semester would be a breeze, only four classes, including gym, but I had to deal with hell on Earth for Pre-Calculus, Mr. Fisher. To say I despised the man is a huge understatement. He was the nastiest, dirtiest piece of crap that I’ve ever met. I tried for weeks to get transferred to another class, but no luck. I had to deal with him and just get through it. One morning, I was not feeling well and did not study a certain few pages of problems. With my luck, he calls me up to the blackboard to solve one of the problems. I wasn’t sure of myself, and hesitated to answer the problem. He yelled, “Go sit down, you moron” and the class laughed. I was totally embarrassed and wanted to go home. I was angry the whole rest of the semester and put a damper on my graduation excitement. I did end up with an 85 in the class and after scoring a 93 on the final exam, I told him; “Am I still a moron?” Surprisingly, he laughed and shook my hand. I guess I should feel lucky.
As we approached the final months at Stuy, I had a tough decision in terms of college. I was accepted at Pace, St. John’s, SUNY Albany and CUNY Baruch and Hunter. I did not make SUNY Binghamton and NYU. I knew that The CUNY schools would be the most affordable, but a bunch of my friends from childhood were going to St. John’s and they had a good Accounting program, which would be my major. I decided to go to St. John’s.
As the spring semester, and my Stuy days were winding down, I was surprised by the number of classmates that would come by and wish me luck, and those who were willing to sign my yearbook. It made me realize that even though I was shy and not very outgoing, others realized that I was a nice guy and that I was part of the class. I truly wished I had another year to get to know these people a little more and it dawned on me that I was lucky to have those four years there.
Graduation day arrived and it was cool to have the ceremony at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. The one thought in my mind was “Darn, I’m going to miss these people”, Though I knew there would be reunions in the future and with 750 classmates, I was certain to run into some of them as the years go on. It really felt good to be a Stuy graduate. The question would be: What would I do with that experience?
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