Saturday, October 8, 2011

Growing Up

Growing up always seemed to be unfair in my household.  My two older brothers were close in age, only three years apart, but then I was born 6 years after them.  To say the least, I was always picked on because I was an easy target.  I got some glory for 8 years though because I was the youngest.  Being the youngest in a family of three was nice because even though I got picked on quite frequently and always got my video games beat before I even got the play them, I still got the most attention out of my parents.  Actually, come to think about it, I got a lot of attention from them too.  They would always invite me to play video games with them and even bring me along some times to hang out with their friends.  I was pretty much an imposter because I just did what they did without having to much say.  I picked up video games addictively because it was just a family traditional. I started playing Magic: The Gathering because my brother Sean saw it one day at Target and decided that it would be fun.  Whatever I could do when I was a kid to fit in, I usually took that route just so I had something to do after school. 

    I was never a fan of homework but who was when they were kids.  I don’t even remember doing homework until I started 5th grade.  A few projects before that I seem to recall but I didn’t start taking education seriously until I realized that I could probably better myself through knowledge.  Before I wanted to become a scientist in fifth grade, I wanted to be a monkey.  Seriously.  My first dream was shot down when I was six right after I told my brother who asked the question.  He shot it down with laughter. 
    My brothers, especially my oldest Kane, was always a go getter.  He was a nerd who would get beat up for it because in the 90’s being a nerd wasn’t cool like it is today.  He got straight A’s through elementary school.  He was also on the soccer team and the Marlins too which he excelled at both.  The Marlins was our local swim team.  He tried picking it up in high school but things didn’t work out and he decided to join the swim team.  He quickly excelled like usual.  This was a familiar story with my oldest brother.  He painted a picture of our family that no one but him could approach.  HE kept going with this too.  He would only take honor classes and fill his schedule with all the hardest classes on top of his swimming and water polo schedule.  Eventually he would end up with a few pool records that didn’t get taken down from the plaque until my school year.  Don’t get the wrong impression, I most definitely did not take that CLICK (all caps because of it’s short stature) off but my friends did.  He had a few team records for top 10’s of the fastest time’s in certain events for breast stroke.  Another other sporting achievements that he was an All American hull player for water polo.  A hull player is the center player who scores the majority of the points in a water polo game. 
    Not only was he an all around athletic figure but he also graduated above a 4.0.  I think he didn’t get valedictorian just because he could of graduated a year early but he wanted to stay and live out his sportsman glory.  He didn’t take any of these qualities to college because he took a different path.  Even though Sean wasn’t as prestigious as Kane, he still graduated high school with a 4.0 and did exceptionally well in swimming and water polo.  No records but he was a vital part of the team. 
    Then they both went to Eastern Illinois Universities with countless scholarships.  Kane got into radio broadcasting and got offered a job midway through his undergraduate but he passed it up so he could graduate a half a year early and get to work on his graduate degree.  Sean graduated a half a year late but got a teaching job which is pretty hard nowadays.
    But now on to me.  I started trying in school from 5th to 8th grade where I established an okay G.P.A. But when I entered high school, all my motivation drifted.  I tried to follow in the Click Legacy but it never really took off.  I was all in honor classes but I did average.  C average.  Somehow and for some reason I kept on taking honor classes which just devoured my class standing.  But I tried not to care so much.  Teachers would ask me if I my brother was THE Kane Click and I would have to look down and say “yes.”  I felt like I never got any recognition but I guess I didn’t deserve any.  I tried to pave my own path with friendships which were things that my brothers always strayed away from.  Life wasn’t just unfair for a second but what felt like my whole adolescents.  I was always trying to live up this standard that I never really cared about.  It didn’t strike me to the events already happened that I was following in their huge footsteps.  I thought since they were family, that I might have some glory in me as well but I think I over shot the mark on that one and now I am going to Columbia while one continues to go to school and teach and the other is a professor at Nebraska working on his dissertation.

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