J's Quick 3
A bi-weekly journey into the rabbit hole that is my mind. I choose 3 topics that are interesting to me and discuss my thoughts on them. Topics range from personal experiences to real news to pop culture.
J's Quick 3
The Portfolio
Nostalgia hits different when you pair it with a dash of self-reflection, doesn't it? Well, buckle up as we zip through a time when my engineering dreams took a detour into the business lane, all thanks to a tricky dance with mathematics. And if you think that's juicy, wait until you hear about my early job escapades, my reverence for Rosa Parks, and the origins of my "Crazy J" moniker. We're cracking open the vault to my teenage world, from parody writing to a controversial poem that, in hindsight, packs an emotional punch.
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Hey yo, what is up everybody? What is going on? It's your girl, jay, and welcome back to the show. I hope everyone is doing well out there. I'm doing good. I don't have any complaints. Right now. Things are what they're going to be. I think the what is it called? Retrograde, something is in something, some planet is inside some other planet Sounds very, very adult. I don't know, but something, something is happening. I think it's over. Something, something is happening, I think it's over. So I'm, I'm feeling pretty okay.
Speaker 1:Um, I uh, the the solar eclipse happened. Um, what day was that? Um, last last Monday, yeah, this week. So last Monday, the Monday that just passed was the solar eclipse. So I don't know where you guys are listening from, because I have listeners I know all over the world, but where I was, I did not see anything because it was cloudy. I saw like a glimpse, like a small glimpse, right before it was totally covered. Um, right, the the clouds broke just enough for me to be able to see it, and I couldn't even use my glasses, because if you put the glasses on, I couldn't see anything. So I had to take the glasses off just so I could see that because the clouds were so thick, but some of them broke, just enough for me to see the little bit of it. Almost looked like a thumbnail. It was getting close to covering all the way up and I know I was at work, I got off. I think I was getting off at one yeah, I was getting off at one and I think the eclipse was supposed to start doing this thing at 135 or something like that. And you know, then it takes however many minutes to like close up or cover it up, and then you know, open up or whatever.
Speaker 1:So I was rushing home because people were making it seem like it was going to be this like crazy thing, like it was going to be traffic all over the place and you can't get food or water and get your gas and stuff. Now you wouldn't be able to use your phones or anything like that. So I just wanted to get off and get home Because they were like, why don't you just stay here, then you can see the eclipse and then you can leave. You know, after that and I was like, because this is work and I want to be here, so I want to get off when I'm supposed to get off and I will make it home and my boss was like, are you sure? Because it might be, you know, tough getting home. I was like I'll take my chances.
Speaker 1:So I took my chances, got home as I was driving, like it really looked like a storm was coming, because it was, the clouds were so thick and heavy and stuff. But also, as the eclipse is happening, because I live about I live about 35 minutes away from my job when there's no traffic. If there's any traffic, it gets longer and longer. So as I was driving home, I could see it getting starting to get a little dark and with the clouds it looked like it was about to storm. So I'm hurrying up trying to get home. As soon as I pull into the driveway it starts to get, you know, darker and darker.
Speaker 1:And so I jump out of my car, get my glasses, because I had bought some glasses when I get groceries the other the day before and I go outside in the front, I look, you know, as I'm driving through the neighborhood, everybody's outside and stuff like that. So get to my house, I look up, of course I can't see anything. And I look up, of course I can't see anything. And I told y'all, you know I couldn't see with the glasses, and I was able to see a little sliver. And then I went inside the house Excuse me y'all, my voice is going out Went inside the house, got my dogs because they were like you know, the animals are going to be going crazy, just be careful.
Speaker 1:And so I'm looking at my dogs and they're not caring at all what's going on. They want to go out because they've been in the house all day, so I let them out out of the backyard. I went in the backyard and then it gets not completely dark, because it was already dark because of the clouds, but it got. It got pretty dark or whatever. And so I just stood out there, kind of like wished on a star. I don't know what you're supposed to do during the eclipse, but did my little wish on my star, let my dogs feel whatever solar energy they were going to feel was waiting for my superpowers. None of us got it, not me or my dogs and then we went. We went inside the house and then by the time I got back in the house it started getting lighter and then it was over.
Speaker 1:So I don't know if it was anyone that's listening that actually got to see the eclipse. I know in Dallas they got to see it pretty, pretty well. I saw it on the news as it was happening and it looked. It seemed like it looked pretty cool. I don't know if y'all have seen the. The the show heroes that I think used to come on NBC. That used to be my show, but it's about normal people having superhero powers or supernatural powers or whatever, but it was because of a eclipse somehow was involved in that, but anyway, that's what it looked like. They were showing it on TV and I was like man to see that in person probably would have been cool, but I didn't get that opportunity and it is what it is. But anyway, saw the eclipse. I hope you guys saw it, or I saw a piece of it, hope you guys saw it, and that was. That's all that I have going on this past, these past few days. So we're just going to go ahead and get started with the show.
Speaker 1:So I have been okay with my voice the whole entire day. It's only when I turn this mic on Now my throat is scratchy a little bit. I'm having to clear my throat a lot. It feels like I was drinking something and I got choked. I did get choked earlier today when I was eating, but that's been long, long past and I didn't have any issues with that. Now I'm on a mic. I'm starting to sound a little raspy, but I hope it's not too bad for you guys.
Speaker 1:So today's show I'm calling the Portfolio, and the reason I'm calling it that is because I was in my closet here in my studio where I store like everything that my mom sent me from my childhood home is in that closet and has been traveling with me since I lived in my apartments and all that other stuff. She continues to send me stuff because she's like you have a house now. I'm not the storage unit. So every chance I get I'm going to keep sending you stuff until everything that you have that was here is gone and you can have it at your house, because I want my space at your house, because I want my space and it's cool.
Speaker 1:So I have a bunch of just random boxes in my closet that I don't really have anywhere to put the stuff. It just has to stay in boxes, because what is the point of bringing them? I do have like DVDs and VCR tapes and cassette tapes and stuff like that which I could like get a little cabinet thing and put them all in. But I don't even have a VCR. I mean, I do have a VCR but I'm not going to watch VHS tapes, I'm not really going to listen to cassette tapes, unless you know, something crazy happens that most of the music I can find on a streaming service so it's no use of, like there's no use in like bringing that stuff out, so it's in a box and then I have like books and other, just other random stuff. So if you guys heard the episode Britt and I did when we we were doing SW's top 10 songs, you would have heard me talk about me and my roommates in college doing an intro on our answering machine to Rain by SWV.
Speaker 1:So I went in the closet to try to find, because I'm like I'm sure I have it because it's in the boxes of all this stuff that I had since high school and college and all this other stuff I don't throw away. So I found the tapes, but there are many tapes and I could not find the tape recorder. Like I used to have a little small hand or handheld tape recorder that I would bring to me to class when I was in college and that's how I would like record my lectures and stuff like that. Back in the day y'all we didn't really. I mean, I had a laptop, but it was not something you travel with, it wasn't something like you bring to class. Most of us had either the tape recorders or a digital recorder in class if we wanted to record the class in case we missed notes or something like that. So that's what we had. We didn't have laptops or phones that can record or anything like that back when I was in school. I know I'm dating myself, but that's just what it was.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I thought I still had that tape player somewhere in there and I'm still looking. I didn't find it. But what I did find was this book, kind of like a binder almost, and it says my first name and then it says portfolio. So I was like, let me look in here and see what's actually in this thing. And as I began to look at it I was like this might be interesting enough to make it an episode, because I enjoy being able to look back and be nostalgic, and I got a lot of good feedback when I went through my senior book. So I decided I'm going to go through this portfolio, I think.
Speaker 1:I think this is either I believe it's 10th grade, it's either 10th or 11th grade, I don't really know, cause there's no real indication. There's a lot of older stuff in here from like when I was in the seventh and eighth grade, but it's also stuff in here from when I was in the 10th grade. So I'm not really sure what year this actually is from, but I know I was probably in high school. So I'm going to go through it so you can see what was in a young Jay Buggs mind back in high school, and I think it's cool to kind of look back. So you're going to hear the pages turn, as as Jill Scott says. So let's jump into it.
Speaker 1:So this says and I believe I did this I did this for a project, some kind of project in one of my classes. I'm sure it wasn't something that I just did by myself or like I just wanted to do. It was for for something. So this says table of contents. First thing is a resume. Next thing is a self of contents. First thing is a resume. Next thing is a self-portrait. Third thing is a parody. Fourth thing is a response on, I guess, something I had to read Thanatopis. I'm not sure, I don't even remember reading that, but okay, then it says the relationship and then it says self-assessment. The next thing is awards and honors. The next thing is reports and best current work, and then nine is the last thing is the special interest. So we're going to go through this as much as it makes sense. Some stuff I'm not going to go through because it's just random reports and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:But let's check it out, let's see what was going on in my mind back in the early 90s. All right, looking at my resume, I did not have a job. So I think my mom just had me write down what I was doing in school. I didn't have a job in high school guys, because my mom would not allow me to work, because she wanted me to put school first and not be distracted by anything. But she also didn't give me money, like she was very scarce with the money. So it was pretty, pretty tough. I'll have to ask for things and then she would decide if she really wanted to do it or not. And then I'll be like I can just get a job and get it myself. And she was like no, cause, you need to be in them, school books and not, you know, whatever else. So it was. It was a tug of war in my household as far as things like that. But anyway, the resume. It says my occupational goal is to be an electrical engineer.
Speaker 1:My education Benton Harbor High School, ninth and 10th grade. So this had to be, like I said, around 10th or 11th grade Coursework English Geometry, algebra 3, world History, biology, chemistry, algebra 1, pre-calculus U three world history, biology, chemistry, algebra one, pre-calculus, us history, physical science. I don't know why I wrote it like that and why I have algebra three before algebra one, but hey, that's what's there. Extracurricular activities is the church youth group, which makes sense it tracks because I grew up in a very, a very strict religious household and Michigan youth and government I believe I talked about that before.
Speaker 1:Michigan youth and government was an organization in high school that we had in which it taught us how the government works and every year we would get to go to the Capitol State Capitol in Lansing, michigan and while the Congress people or Congress was out on a break, we would get to spend the week in in the Capitol like performing Capitol duties. So we would pretty much you will be assigned. So it was all the, all these different schools around around Michigan. Right, we would meet up there and then we would be assigned different things. You, you would like pull like a card or something or like they would just randomly randomly assign you things and when you get your name badge you would see that you're a representative or you're a Senator. And if you get your name badge you will see that you're a representative or you're a Senator. Um, and if you were, you know what committees you were on and things like that. So pretty much we would literally go through a whole week of what, uh what a government session would be. We would vote for a governor, we would vote for the Lieutenant governor, we would vote for the Sergeant at arms like all the people that like run, run the the house and sit in, and stuff like that, and then we would perform these duties.
Speaker 1:I remember I was on the Department of Transportation Committee, so it was my job to pretty much come up with different bills and things that we wanted to present, because I was also a representative. I remember I think both years I was a representative. I don't think I ever was a senator, but either way, one year I was on a department of transportation. So it was our job to come up with like different bills that hopefully would turn into laws, like is dealing in, dealing with, like public safety or something like that. And you would literally have people come in that were lobbyists to try to get their points across, to get you to you know, vote or make a bill based off what, what they're, what they were trying to get you to do as a lobbyist. So I did that and then, once we made, once we figured out what we were going to present to be bills, of course we would go to the chambers, bring that up, talk like anything. So pretty much the way the government is supposed to work. That's what we did for the whole week or whatever. But outside of that we would get to meet other high school kids from all over. Most of the time. Side of that we would get to meet other high school kids from all over. Most of the time we kind of navigated to the kids from Detroit. We became friends with a lot of them, we would hang out, you know different things, whatever. It was a good time. But that was Michigan Youth Government. I really, really enjoyed that class and I thought that was dope to teach young kids about laws and how things are made, and I wish they kind of had something. I don't know if they still have anything like that these days, but I don't think they do. I think civics is probably as close as you're gonna get, but I thought it was a dope thing to be a part of.
Speaker 1:Anyway, my hobbies on here are writing, music and computer works. What are computer works? I don't know. My mom made me write that. And then my work experience the summer of 1990, I was a bookkeeper at Christ Construction Company, which is my dad's former construction company. He owned it and that was my resume.
Speaker 1:So my self portrait. So I believe from reading this prior, I believe it was like a fill in the blank type of thing, like they gave you how they wanted you to start, different sentences and then you just fill in the blank, but then you take that whole thing and you type it up. So this is what my self-portrait is. It says hi, my name is what my name is. And here is a self-portrait of myself. My favorite color is blue. The darker the blue, the better it is. I love any kind of food, but if I had to pick one food it would have to be pepperoni pizza.
Speaker 1:My favorite musical instrument is the keyboard. There are many things I can do, but I think I have a hidden talent that has yet to be found. My favorite sport is basketball. I cannot write or sing very well and by right I mean like handwrite, because my handwriting is horrible. But I cannot write or sing very well. But I'm working on them. Most people like to tease me about my musical interests, like music artists or different music. One of my unique mannerisms is that I have a nice laid back attitude. My pet peeves are people who are fake and people who don't show or give respect that is due. I plan to pursue a career in electrical engineering, recording engineering or acting, because I feel like that. These are awesome careers that I can be successful in. Spoiler alert I did not do either. I didn't do any of those.
Speaker 1:I did go to college. I started college as an electrical engineering major and the math was not mathing and I decided that was not going to be my you know my forte. So I switched it to business and then also I was going to go to. After I graduated college I started to have interest in this school called Full Sail, which is in Florida, right outside of where Disney World is sale, which is in Florida, right outside of where Disney World is. I think it's Winter Park, florida, and actually it's a really notable school. A lot of people that work on Disney movies and stuff went there and got their degrees and stuff to work on the animation or the production or whatever. It's a big time thing.
Speaker 1:I applied to go there. I got invited to come out to tour the school, went out there, um, I wanted to go for recording engineering shocking right and um, I don't know why did I not go. I ended up I don't remember it might've been cause I couldn't afford it, cause my mom was not going to. They weren't going to pay for any more school for me once I graduated, um, and I had actually my by the time my junior year rolled around. I was not. They weren't paying for school for me. I had, um, enough scholarships and I had become an in-state student. So with my scholarships and work, study and stuff like that, I actually was paying for school and they didn't owe anything outside of that Like they were done, other than my school loans or whatever. But I still had that that. I wanted to try to do it, but I just didn't end up doing it. But that's pretty cool to look back to see. I didn't realize that I wanted to be an actor or actress, but yeah, that's pretty cool to look back to see. I didn't realize that I wanted to be an actor or actress, but yeah, that's pretty cool to look back.
Speaker 1:Anyway, my strongest character trait is the ability to stay determined and not let anybody change my mind. I admire Rosa Parks because she was determined to fight for what she thought was right. My biggest fear is not being able to achieve any goals I have set for myself. That's pretty. That's pretty accurate. My eyes are brown like iced tea. My hair is dark. My eyes are dark brown like iced tea. My hair is dark brown like cherry, oak, wood, what? My skin is brown like sand. I can compare myself to a VCR, because if anyone missed anything on TV, they could ask me and I could give them a playback. I am most like a fly, because I'm always bugging somebody.
Speaker 1:I would describe my walk as different. I don't know why they asked about our walk, but okay, I would describe my walk as different but normal. What If I would create a nickname for myself? I would call myself Crazy Jay because everyone calls me crazy. Everyone did call me crazy, not crazy in a bad way. They'd be like girl, you're so crazy, that type of crazy. And actually people did call me Crazy Jay. Some people wrote that in my yearbook. Most, most of the people that call me that was, I think I get that name in like seventh or eighth grade. Don't nobody call me that, please don't do that. But um, that was like an old, old, old nickname, um, from back in the day, um. So the next, the next portion of this is a parody. I wrote several of these.
Speaker 1:Just growing up, I used to spend time in my room trying to make music, trying to write short stories or books or whatever. I like to write, I like to read, I like to make music, I like to write music. Those were some of my hobbies and one of my favorite things to do, which I got this from Russ Parr, the Russ Parr radio show. I don't know if y'all know who Russ Parr is, but when I was growing up we listened to WGCI, which was a Chicago station. Even though I'm from Michigan, I live very, very close to Chicago and because we were very small town, we usually got Chicago stations on TV and the Chicago radio stations will come through on the radio, and so, anyway, russ Parr would come on. I want to say Saturdays. We got Wendy Williams at a certain time and then it was either before or after that. Russ Parr and Alfreda's would come on.
Speaker 1:Alfreda's, every week she would do a parody song of whatever. So she would take like a popular song like that's the way love goes and I actually might if I can find it and I keep saying this, if I can find it, cause it's just in boxes in my closet. It's just a matter of me like going to dig through them If I can find one of the parodies that she did. I remember her doing one on that's the way love goes. I forget what the parody was, but she would do those every week and so I became inspired. So I would listen to songs and then make parodies of them, kind of like Weird Al Yankovic. Young kids y'all don't even know who that is, but people my age y'all know who that is. He was a parody singer. He took a lot of popular songs and also made them into parody. So I became very inspired by that.
Speaker 1:So I did a parody of At your Best, you Are Love, performed by Aaliyah, written and remixed by you know who, and I'm not going to read it out of respect, because I was young y'all we already know like the whole story of Aaliyah and Robert, and looking back at it now, that was not cool. But as a young kid I don't think I really knew the magnitude of what was going on. So because of that I will not read this parody. But those of you that are cool with me, if y'all want to know what the parody says, I will let you know, but I'm not going to read it because it's just, it's not in good taste per se. There's another piece that I am going to read that probably isn't in the best taste, but I feel like it's a little lighter than what I did for At your Best, but I did. It is in there. So the next one is the relationship. So this is what I wrote. So again, y'all disclaimer I am not, in no way am I excusing or making fun of domestic violence. I was 15, 14, 16, somewhere around there Again, did not really realize the magnitude of things. So just take this as this is a young kid writing this back in the early 90s. Times have changed, okay. So don't send me no angry feedback or anything like that, just go with it. I just want y'all to see kind of how my mind was working back then. All right, the relationship by me.
Speaker 1:There is this female by the name of Lisa. She burned her man's house up because he just couldn't please her. She slapped him in the face, he punched her in the eye. She also cussed him out. Then she began to cry. All this happened because he came home too late. When he came home, she didn't hesitate to tell him how she felt. You know what was up.
Speaker 1:But to her misfortune, some more bad luck. She couldn't control him. He went into rage and probably hit her as many times as her age. Y'all, please, I'm sorry, just go with it. He stormed out of the house for a 20 mile walk. What is going on is what she thought.
Speaker 1:So she pulled herself together and tried to let it ride, but with the bruises and pain she couldn't let it slide. So she took some matches and burnable things, started a fire. Quick, nice and clean. It didn't take long before it started to blaze. The smoke came out like a thick black haze. She gathered her things and went on her way, thinking to herself he won't forget this day. She went outside to watch it a while. On her face was a mysterious smile. But she was not satisfied. Oh no, not by far. So she went and vandalized his expensive cars. By this time she felt she was done and got in her bins and went on the run bins and went on the run. Where she went then and what she did after, no one knows, but it filled me with laughter, see, because when Andre came back he thought he was jamming, but when he saw the house, his heart he was grabbing. The house was totally burned, nothing more, nothing less.
Speaker 1:Left Eye turned herself in. Andre became homeless. They were both on the news every hour all the time. Andre told the press that something was wrong with Left Eye's mind. It didn't take long before Lefty was released. She volunteered for AA so some of her pain could be eased. Now she's back with her group and a new album and video are out. She's trying to leave her troubles behind, but they always seem to come about. Meanwhile Andre is getting into the music business himself and the outcome looks shady. I hope they both go on with their lives and work something out, because this relationship is crazy.
Speaker 1:So that was the relationship by me written, obviously, about the situation with Lisa and Andre. And again, I understand that there was some domestic violence going on. I was a teenager, didn't really get the magnitude of what's going on, so if anyone was triggered by that I do apologize. But again, this is the 90s, I was a kid. But I have to say, outside of that, y'all have to give it to me, like I this, like the poem, the creativity, like I wrote all this by myself, so I have to give myself some snaps for that. So now the self assessment, it says I think this was just why I did this, or whatever it says, the occasion of my self-portrait is to allow other people to know more about me. I didn't use any particular process to write my self-portrait. I learned that I can see myself in a different way. I like the self-portrait because it gives you a chance to describe yourself the way you see yourself. Okay, I selected this piece because it is you a chance to describe yourself the way you see yourself. Okay, I selected this piece because it is a good opportunity to let others know about you.
Speaker 1:The reason I chose to do At your Best for my parody is to make people laugh and bring them up on a certain event. I wrote a song with the first and third lines rhyming. I learned that I can turn any event into a song and make it sound just like the song itself. I liked writing my parody because it allowed me to use my mind in a fun way. I selected this piece because I feel that it shows some of my writing skills. The reason I decided to do the relationship was to inform people of a strong feeling within myself in a comical way. I wrote this piece in poetry form. I learned that when you have a strong feeling of something, it's easy to put into words. I selected this piece because it was my favorite piece of writing that I wrote myself completely from scratch. I like this piece because it makes me feel good to be able to look at other people reading my work and enjoying it also. So that was it.
Speaker 1:That was it of that, and then the rest of this is just some certificates. So I see that I was awarded this doesn't say what year, but it had to be seventh or eighth grade. I was awarded a scholarship to study at Michigan Tech, which was a technical school that taught you I think it was like engineering, because I was wanting to be an engineer back then. So it was like robotics or something like that. Have an award. Oh, this is. This is freshman year of high school. I was awarded a certificate for my badminton tournament that I got second place in me and my friend Tonette. Shout out to Tonette we got second place in the badminton tournament. Y'all don't want to see me on on on badminton. Y'all want to see me? Um, I also got an award for school service. What, and that was before high school, I don't know what that was for. Okay, I have another award here, for.
Speaker 1:This is to certify that I have maintained an exceptional standard of scholarship and has duly earned this honor academic achievement. It must've been like my grades or whatever, for seventh grade. Here's another one for my school. My junior high was called McCord Renaissance Center. I went to Stern Brunson for kindergarten through first second grade, which is no longer a school. Then I went to Gifted and Talented Academy for the gifted and the talented for until sixth grade and I went to McCord seventh and eighth grade and then I went to just our regular high school. We only had one, and from a small town for high school, anyway. So this says this is my diploma. Hereby, let it be known, upon the recommendation of faculty of McCord Renaissance Center, an eighth grade diploma has been conferred upon me in recognition of the satisfactory completion of the academic requirements of the Benton Harbor Area High School Board of Education. Blah blah, blah, blah blah. Then I also have an honor roll certificate for the first semester, I wanna say, of eighth grade. I have another certificate. This is a scholarship that I was awarded in junior high to study at Dance Arts Academy.
Speaker 1:I used to dance, dance like tap dance. Well, I got, I got the scholarship for tap to go to the Dance Art Academy to learn tap, for I think it was two years. I did that in the summer, so I took dance during school and in the summertime I would go to dance dance art and take a tap. So I danced for, I mean, two years and some change total, but it was like two full years, because I took two semesters of it in school and then I took it during the summer for both years or whatever. So that was cool. Then I have let me see this is my National Junior Honor Society certificate the Hazel May chapter and my little card. I also got an honorable mention for mathematics and science had to be for science because it couldn't have been for mathematics. Then okay, here we go. Then here is a report card that I got.
Speaker 1:This was 10th grade, 10th grade, the first semester of 10th grade. So on one side they have the course description, then they have the teacher and it is how many credits you get per class, and then it has on the other side the grade and then it has a spot for comments and then a spot for absences. So let's see, let's see what was popping with me in the 10th grade, first semester. So I had honors English, 10th grade English with Miss Chambers I got a B. Spanish one. With Mr Ollers I got a B Spanish one. With Mr Ollers I got an A. Multicultural history with Ms Churchwell I got an A. Algebra three with Mr Woods I got a B. Honors biology I don't remember this name, ms Chenault's, I know it was a lady, I think I got a C and in computer literature, ms Sunblad, I got a B minus. So my GPA that semester was a 3.5. A 3.5. And let's see what these some of the. They left some comments. So under honors English that I got to be in the comment is a number one, and number one says should ask for extra help. That makes sense. That makes sense.
Speaker 1:I did struggle in English with writing. Although I really liked to write it was I don't know I found it hard to like get out what I wanted to say and make it make sense and like have all the right punctuation and all that other stuff. So I struggled in that, even though I had a B, it wasn't until I got with two of my teachers, miss Holmes and Miss Richburg, that they actually took the time with me after school. I would stay after school and they would literally like tutor me and just like help me write. They would make me like write a bunch of different things. I had like extra homework every day to try to get me you know good at, you know writing and understanding all that stuff. Anyway, they did great. Shout out to Miss Richburg and Miss Holmes. Um, so yeah, needed extra help.
Speaker 1:Spanish one alers. I got an A right. When you look at the communication, though cause I did not go to that class, it says zero. Often absent or tardy is the comment. I literally did not go to that class. I don't even know how I got an A.
Speaker 1:I was very, very charming in high school. For the most part I did my work, but like Spanish, I'm not. What do you want me to do? What do you want me to do, mr Allers? I would show up, pass the test and then I would leave class. I would go find something else to do A lot of times I would ask him we had like a viewing room across the hall from his class, like where you would go to watch film or whatever.
Speaker 1:For you know, special classes can go in there and watch film. I would go in there, I would bring my VHS tapes of whatever I recorded, like Martin or In Living Color or like Living Single or something, and I would play those in there and I would get other students to come over and then we would just spend the whole class watching it in there and not not being in class. So, yeah, that explains the often absent or tardy. But then under absence he doesn't have anything. So I don't know if I was just absent or just not, like if I showed up and left, that probably didn't count as an absent. I don't know if I was just absent or just not, like. If I showed up and left, that probably didn't count as an absent? I don't know, but I do know I was not in that class.
Speaker 1:Very much the multicultural history of Ms Churchwell, even though I had an A in that class as well. She also put down that I was often absent or tardy and I had one absence. She put down often absent or tardy and I had one absence. She put down. So it had to be tardy. And again, I'm a good kid. But also, if my friends are, we had three stories in our school If my friends are on the first floor, I'm going to be on the first floor with them and then when the bell rings I'm going to sprint up all those flights of stairs to get to my class that's on the third floor and yeah, I'm probably going to be late. And we had this thing like if you were late, like if you were in the hallway you didn't have a pass, you would automatically go to the principal, you would get written up, you would get what they call a demerit or something like that. You would get written up and have to go to principal's office. So I found a way to like I knew it really wasn't like security guards, because we had security guards in our school. It really wasn't like security was going to be upstairs too much on the third floor because nobody really was up there Like the teachers that had that upstairs classrooms, the third floor classrooms. It was nobody up there, like everybody hung out on the first or second floor. Anyway, I didn't get caught. I never got under married. I never got in trouble for being late, but I definitely was late a lot.
Speaker 1:Um, algebra three that I got the B in, of course, the cat, the uh comment is should ask for extra help, cause I definitely needed that in honors biology that I got to see the same thing. I should ask for extra help. And I feel like in this class this class was on the third floor I think I remember this. I don't know if kids still do this, but this was back in the day where you would get a like an animal and have to dissect like a real animal. So we had we had a fetal pig one time and then we had a frog another time Like literally, you have to cut this frog. I would never be able to do that today, but for whatever reason, I was into it in the 10th grade. We cut that thing open and you had to, like tell the different parts of the anatomy, like the heart or the lungs or the intestine, whatever, right. I remember making my frog into left eye, so I made like a little paper condom thing to put over the eye and then I made him a hat and some boots. This is what I was doing to class. This is why I got a C. This is why I got a C Okay, computer lit. I got a B minus and I got a nine for the comment the nine says lacks concentration in class. I don't even remember if I went to that class, so it probably that's probably right.
Speaker 1:And then I have a little piece here of letters. So back in the day when we had the magazines Word Up Fresh you know the white kids had the Tiger Beats and Team Beat or whatever it was called we had fresh write on word up stuff like that. So I used to write letters like snail mail letters to these magazines and hoping in hopes of getting my stuff in the magazine. And I did. And I actually posted this on on Twitter a while back when I first found this book. But I'm going to read you the two letters that I have in here that were published in Fresh Magazine.
Speaker 1:So the first one says Baby Pics P-I-X. It says I have a suggestion for Fresh. How about having an issue with baby pics of all the hot stars such as TLC, boyz II, men, jodeci, etc. Their fans would love to see how they looked back. Then Go ahead and do it. You won't be sorry, and I think they did end up doing an issue of that. I don't remember if they did or didn't, but yeah.
Speaker 1:The second one is called Females Coming Up. I don't know why I like to use this females word, but that was my jam Females Coming Up. I just like to give mad props mad with two Ds props to all the new female artists out there, like Da Brat, sista, lady of Rage, entice and Simply E. They are doing a great job of making noise in the nine four and I say it nine four, letting folks know that this is a year for females to come up. Thanks to all of you for continuing to let the sisters be heard, stay real and keep up the good work Signed by me. Oh man, I can't believe I even had that in there.
Speaker 1:The rest of this is just like some of my work I guess I had to put in here like stuff that I got. I wrote a paper on a greenhouse effect, got an A on that. This is my. Is this Spanish? No, this is something else. Whatever it is, I got an A on it. Pre-calculus I got an A on it. That's probably my only A, because me and math don't go together.
Speaker 1:And then I had a list of books and magazine articles that I had read. Books I know why the caged bird sings, the old man in the sea that was definitely for school. Romeo and Juliet was for school. Julius Caesar was for school. Durango Street I think I read that on my own. The 101 Dalmatians I read that on my own. And Fat man from Space I read that on my own. I don't remember what that was about. It was a sci-fi book, though.
Speaker 1:I used to spend weekends at the library, y'all. I was such a a. I was a borderline kind of nerd like my. My best friends were popular, um, but my mama wasn't having too much of like doing popular stuff, so you had to be in in the books. So, um, to keep myself out of trouble, I just read a lot of books and then I would love to go to the library to go check out books and see what was new and things like that. As I was growing up, like by the time I got into high school I was still reading, but not like I was when I was like in elementary and junior high.
Speaker 1:But anyway, magazine articles Ebony Tony Braxton talks about men, sudden stardom and undying and the undying rumor. Fresh Snoop, murder pays off. Fresh TLC love them or leave them. The best of R&B the brat, no, posing no pretense. Black Beat, aaliyah, the success and the controversy, yo Trouble Stalks the Stars. And then Ebony, again, battered women how to get and Give Help, yeah, fresh, the Best of Rapping. R&b. Black Beat, yo, word Up. All those were magazines back in the day.
Speaker 1:And then I think last in here, I got a certificate from my church for a scholarship. They gave me a scholarship um, partial scholarship for college. And then I have my welcome to PV and AM, a&m university um completion of general studies as a freshman um certificate there. So yeah, I think that's it, that's in here. So it's very interesting.
Speaker 1:I know it was kind of like a random thing to have an episode about, but I thought it was pretty dope to kind of look back and as I'm looking I see another picture of this. Was this was my 30th birthday. A friend of mine made me a collage and, oh my God, I am so drunk in all these pictures. Why did they do that to me? Oh, but yeah, I thought it was cool to look back, seeing that thing like just what I wanted to be when I was growing up and the fact that I had a fear, or I say my biggest fear is not being able to accomplish my goals. It's pretty cool to be able to look back and say that you know, it's not, it's OK to try and maybe not make those things. Your life pivots as you get older and what you think may happen when you're a child doesn't necessarily always happen as an adult.
Speaker 1:But I can look back and see that I was super creative, my mind was very expansive, I was smart and, yeah, I knew. I knew I wanted to do something in entertainment and I keep going back to that, the fact that I have a podcast, the fact that I'm doing YouTube videos now and stuff like that, like having people having an audience and stuff, really kind of full circle moment to, when I see stuff like that, because maybe I'm not a recording recording engineer, but I know how to produce a podcast. I know how to edit video. I know I know how to create a show, something similar. I'm not an electrical engineering, I'm not an engineer. I'm not an electrical engineering, I'm not an engineer.
Speaker 1:But I learned things along the way that I can still pull some stuff apart. I used to fix VCRs back in the day and I know how to break apart my remote and see if I can get that to work. I did a lot of that. That's the reason why I wanted to be an engineer. Because my mom was like girl, break one more thing open in here. Like no, we're not doing that, put that, put it back together and go sit down somewhere. Cause I spent a lot of time breaking stuff apart, trying to like see how it works and see if I can get it back together. She was like you need to go to school for that and leave my stuff alone. But it, that didn't, that didn't happen. But you know, life, life be life and things happen and I think the biggest thing is just allowing the pivot to happen. And you know, do the best with what you got.
Speaker 1:Not, I'm not at all like sad or I don't feel. I don't feel any way, for you know, looking back at this, you know, sometimes people look at things and they're like, man, I really didn't make it, I really didn't do what I wanted to do. You know what happened and there was a certain point in my life probably about 10 years ago, 10, 15 years ago where I I did feel like that. But as I'm getting older, I realized the value of like just being alive and just surviving and, you know, accepting and celebrating the small things. And what's small to you is actually big to other people.
Speaker 1:You know I'm saying the fact that I'm independent, I have my own house, that I pay for my car, my, you know, a job, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And some people look at me from back home and be like, oh, you're so successful, you have all this stuff or whatever you know. So I think it's all about perception and if you look at it in a positive way not to say that we can't always grow and learn and keep pushing and keep striving to be better but if you, if I, look at where I came from and look at all the things that I've been through, I feel that I'm successful and I feel like the young girl that wrote this stuff, the young girl that had those dreams. I think I think she'd be. I think she'd be proud of me. Now she might be mad because you know I'm, I didn't get to work for Video Soul and I didn't get a job at BET Maybe. Maybe a little disappointed that I wasn't one of the head writers of Word Up magazine. But outside of that, I think I think the the young, the young Jay would be would think I'm pretty cool. So anyway, that's all I have for this episode.
Speaker 1:I thank y'all for listening to my random episode of my portfolio. I hope you enjoyed it. Um and uh, I'll talk to y'all. Talk to y'all later. Peace out.