While working on this post, I dug out my high school yearbook from 1998, the year that I graduated from Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts. Flipping directly to my senior photo – in which I am posing in front of a burning building on the campus of the school, giving the thumbs up – I was forced to confront the fact that I was an asshole in high school. In captions that surround that photo, I quote Tool lyrics, recite the Busch beer slogan, and make reference to my love of the Insane Clown Posse. It was that bad.
Two Tool tattoos and three ICP concerts later, I guess I’ve somehow pulled out of that tailspin. At least, I think I’m no longer the kind of colossal chode that I was back then. Somewhere around fourteenth grade, I started watching foreign movies instead of VHS dubs of 120 Minutes, listening to indie rock instead of nu-metal and – probably most importantly – making friends with folks who weren’t teenage alcoholics.
But I still regret being such an ass to my first-ever roommate, the long-suffering Tim Chuang, up in room 212A of Prudhomme Hall. This story is a belated confession and apology for my ultimate failure of kindness, which still keeps me awake from time to time, shivering under blankets that are – thankfully – my own.
I just love your guts!
A ’93 grad, dating a ’91 grad…we ABSOLUTELY loved your story about life in Prudhomme. Thanks for sharing! If you’re on FB, look for our NELA LSMSA group. We get together a couple of times a year to have dinner and hang out with other LSMSA alum.
Pretty sweet jams!
I think this is the first time I have ever seen the word “chode” written out before! I applaud your many and varied ways of calling yourself a terrible person (asshat, asshole, chode), Chris!