Step Off!

3School Daze

Even though I basically worked throughout my teens, those jobs meant nothing more to me than necessary money in my pocket. Grade school on through middle and high school had a few distinct and defining moments for where my life was headed and how I would get there.

The truth was, by fifth grade I knew what I wanted to do for a living. I remember our class was chosen to put on a play for the entire school and parents, so what better choice than Alice in Wonderland. Actually it was some sort of bizarre mash-up of Alice mixed with a few random outspoken time travelers. Apparently, there was no drug testing for the schoolteachers back in the 1980s.

Every student had a role in the play, and I felt mine was a rather pivotal one. No, not The White Rabbit or King of Hearts, or even The Cheshire Cat, I had a role created specifically for me, but not for the reasons one may think. I remember approaching my rather hardass teacher Ms. Wilson and politely asking her for one of the leading roles. Without even looking in my direction, she let me know that there were some “really talented kids who can actually act” in the class and they'd be getting the bigger parts. But since she'd seen me wear a brown vest at the Christmas Show, she thought I'd be perfect to play a new character added to the play called “The Brown Rabbit.” The Brown Rabbit had one scene where he brought tea to Alice and The White Rabbit, and if my MTV-fried brain recalls correctly, his one and only line was, ...