Thursday, May 28, 2009
The Hopkins' Moeller Era Comes To An End...
Last night Aaron's lacrosse team was knocked out of the state tournament and with the loss, our 6 years of having a student at Archbishop Moeller High School has come to an end. Aaron graduated last Thursday but with the lacrosse season still going, there was still a feeling of connection; that all ended last night. Aaron is moving on, high school is in the rear view mirror and hopefully a renewed sense of commitment will acompany him to St. Louis University.
High school is a wierd time for kids. I know I look back on my years of high school and realize I really didn't learn much. I went to an urban high school in Dayton called Colonel White and the teachers there were happy if they could simply keep the students under control. It just wasn't a very good learning environment. I got good grades but I don't think it was because I was exceptionally smart - all you had to do was pay attention in class and you couldn't help but pass. I do know my high school years did little to prepare me for college - it took me the better part of my freshman year to figure things out. Today, I can honestly say I haven't seen a former class mate from CW in about 15 years. I simply lost touch. I've recently reconnected with a few old classmates via Face Book, of all places, but I doubt it will rekindle any old friendships as they mostly live in different states.
Julie, on the other hand, still considers a group of her high school classmates among her closest and dearest friends. They still together from time to time, they talk on the phone, they have girls' night out several times a year. They take the effort to stay in touch. My best friend in high school was a guy by the name of Darryl France. He was a funny guy, we were both on the football team, in the senior play together - his brother Doug (or Bubba) actually played football for Ohio State and made All Pro as a member of the Los Angeles Rams. Darryl went to play football for Wilmington College; as many of you know, I went to Ohio State. I remember hooking up with Darryl the summer between our freshman and sophomore years of college and I haven't seen him since - I couldn't even tell you where he lives.
But back to Moeller. I think Aaron could have had a better experience there. I think he stayed true to his grade school friends but didn't reach out to hang out with other kids, as a consequence he had a very small circle of friends. He decided not to play lacrosse his junior year and that left him with far to much extra time on his hands. And I think the thing that Moeller sells as a reason to attend the school actually turned out to be a negative for Aaron - the lap top program. Aaron was basically addicted to his lap top! The problem was, he used it for everything but his school work - videos, youtube, watching highlights of the Lakers, music - I think for some kids a lap top is a great, for Aaron it was a distraction. We were really glad he decided to play lacrosse again his senior year - it cut down on the free time and allowed him to get to know some boys who I think became pretty good friends - hopefully he'll make an effort to keep those friendships going now that high school is officially over.
The good news is, high school really doesn't matter when you get to college. Everyone is back to square one and you get out of it, what you put in to it. My main objective this summer is to stress upon Aaron that you want to put a lot of effort into your college days. Get to know your classmates, your professors, make good friendships and good decisions - the next four years can be the among the best four years of Aaron's life if he takes the proper approach.
So we close the book on our days at Moeller High School. It's been an interesting 6 years. Our boys are now among the Men of Moeller; a fraternity that is taken very seriously by many of its members. Time will tell how seriously Judd and Aaron will take it. Right now I know Aaron is just glad that his time there is over. Now it's on to 4 more years at, quite frankly, a more important place. My hope is that over the next four years Aaron will experience a new awakening and have an experience that he'll look back on and smile about all the great times he had. He owes it to himself to do do this!
High school is a wierd time for kids. I know I look back on my years of high school and realize I really didn't learn much. I went to an urban high school in Dayton called Colonel White and the teachers there were happy if they could simply keep the students under control. It just wasn't a very good learning environment. I got good grades but I don't think it was because I was exceptionally smart - all you had to do was pay attention in class and you couldn't help but pass. I do know my high school years did little to prepare me for college - it took me the better part of my freshman year to figure things out. Today, I can honestly say I haven't seen a former class mate from CW in about 15 years. I simply lost touch. I've recently reconnected with a few old classmates via Face Book, of all places, but I doubt it will rekindle any old friendships as they mostly live in different states.
Julie, on the other hand, still considers a group of her high school classmates among her closest and dearest friends. They still together from time to time, they talk on the phone, they have girls' night out several times a year. They take the effort to stay in touch. My best friend in high school was a guy by the name of Darryl France. He was a funny guy, we were both on the football team, in the senior play together - his brother Doug (or Bubba) actually played football for Ohio State and made All Pro as a member of the Los Angeles Rams. Darryl went to play football for Wilmington College; as many of you know, I went to Ohio State. I remember hooking up with Darryl the summer between our freshman and sophomore years of college and I haven't seen him since - I couldn't even tell you where he lives.
But back to Moeller. I think Aaron could have had a better experience there. I think he stayed true to his grade school friends but didn't reach out to hang out with other kids, as a consequence he had a very small circle of friends. He decided not to play lacrosse his junior year and that left him with far to much extra time on his hands. And I think the thing that Moeller sells as a reason to attend the school actually turned out to be a negative for Aaron - the lap top program. Aaron was basically addicted to his lap top! The problem was, he used it for everything but his school work - videos, youtube, watching highlights of the Lakers, music - I think for some kids a lap top is a great, for Aaron it was a distraction. We were really glad he decided to play lacrosse again his senior year - it cut down on the free time and allowed him to get to know some boys who I think became pretty good friends - hopefully he'll make an effort to keep those friendships going now that high school is officially over.
The good news is, high school really doesn't matter when you get to college. Everyone is back to square one and you get out of it, what you put in to it. My main objective this summer is to stress upon Aaron that you want to put a lot of effort into your college days. Get to know your classmates, your professors, make good friendships and good decisions - the next four years can be the among the best four years of Aaron's life if he takes the proper approach.
So we close the book on our days at Moeller High School. It's been an interesting 6 years. Our boys are now among the Men of Moeller; a fraternity that is taken very seriously by many of its members. Time will tell how seriously Judd and Aaron will take it. Right now I know Aaron is just glad that his time there is over. Now it's on to 4 more years at, quite frankly, a more important place. My hope is that over the next four years Aaron will experience a new awakening and have an experience that he'll look back on and smile about all the great times he had. He owes it to himself to do do this!
# posted by Vince Hopkins @ 2:44 PM 
