December 14, 1985. The semester was over for me at M.T.S.U. and I managed to flunk everything but English since I quit going to every class except English around the start of November. I kept attending English until one day I was admonished for talking so I stood up and gave my professor a Nazi salute and then walked out to never return. I got an incomplete in that English class at first since Ms. Hames did actually like me, but never followed up on it so it became an F also.
I crashed and burned for a myriad of reasons. I was socially awkward to begin with and trying to make new friends in the college environment was tricky. I did make a couple of friends, but they lived on campus and since I commuted I never felt like I was really their friend. Sure, I should have just concentrated on my studies, but college freshman courses were so boring. I flunked because I didn't complete the work, not because it was difficult. I think I was also still ticked off that I had to stay in Murfreesboro and attend M.T.S.U. instead of going to Memphis State.
It was just a weird time. I was the proverbial "Half a Boy and Half a Man." I feel like I had a superiority complex mixed with an inferiority complex. I thought I was a cool, yet knew I wasn't. I should have just saved money and stay away from college that fall. I would go back in a few years thanks to the Pell Grant and I would eventually graduate so the college story has a happy ending.
The rest of 1985 is a blur. We were still living out on Shacklett Road. I was working at Mazzio's. The new high school basketball season had begun and I went to as many Riverdale games as I could. The team wouldn't go undefeated in the regular season this time as they stumbled right out the gate, but they would end up making it to the semifinals of the state tournament in the spring of 1986. I was still spending all of my free money on records at Cat's Records and other stores. Thus ends this over a year long review of the past which I hope you enjoyed.
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