April 23: Daily Reflection

Enjoy.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q9dHML7oadU" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

Today was the day I set out to get to the top of the mountain, and that's exactly what happened. I set out at 8:00 with 18 layers left to cut and no classes to interrupt this mission. Between 8:00 and 1:15 I left the room only to go to the bathroom and to get water. The last layers went quite quickly, and it helped that of the 4 periods meeting today, there was only one class in the room. AP Biology handed out class t-shirts (which, for the record, turned out AWESOME). By the time lunch rolled around, I had finished all but the last layer, and since nobody was in the room during lunch, I decided to save the last layer for after school when there would be other people present to witness it. Lunch consisted of a brief trip down to the theater lobby for some Music at Mid-Day, then some conversational refreshments in the galleria, then a classified political meeting with not-Ms. Boudreau in not-204.

The event that followed lunch was far and away the largest show of student autonomy on record. The Basketball War of 2010 was a clash so epic and dramatic that not even Gordon Hayward could possibly match the sheer intensity of this duel. The Phalanx of Phaculty led the scoreboard for a majority of the game, but Troop of Twelfth-Years, led by Kobe Bryant, pulled it together at the end of regulation to force an unprecedented overtime of this "senior-faculty basketball game", a title that would later prove childish and insufficient. In the two-minute overtime, a basket was added to each side, but alas a victor eluded the savage crowds. A highly improbable second overtime was thus forced, and YET again a victor eluded the crowd with a comparable frustration of a greased pig on a pogo stick. The crowd cried out for more, but the clock had struck 3 and other, lesser obligations were quickly approaching. Thus, a compromise was reached, and the gods would have it that the victor of this Spartan clash would be decided by the time-tested method of alternating free throws. Several brave soldiers from each squad approached the hallowed "charity stripe", a misnomer indeed. After what seemed millenia without end, the ruthless Mr. Bertha sunk The Shot Heard Round The World to end the war in a state of frenzy and utter chaos unseen since Freaknik '96.

I took my sorry self up to 324 and finished the last layer to a crowd of three: Mr. Reynolds, Avery, and Cooper. It was a joyous moment overshadowed by harrowing defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. A video was taken of the occasion, but that is not available to the general public yet. However, I can share with you some still images per the media contract with News Corporation. Enjoy thoroughly.

I'm breathing heavily just looking at it. Enjoy the long weekend folks.