Sunset High School

Went here as a spectator for a «visitor» football team. The place seemed quite welcoming and pleasant. I had heard all sorts of things about being a visiting spectator for high school football events and this was nothing like any of that…

I call portland home for some reason. it’s not really my home though. i was born in korea and first moved to los angeles and went to elementary there. I moved to oregon and finished all my primary education, came back to so cal for college and have been here ever since. i’ve lived in la longer than anywhere else. yet why do i call oregon home? maybe i don’t want to be an angeleno. or maybe home is where you go to high school?
whenever i am home in beaverton, oregon. i tend to drive around my area to see how things have changed and i always drive by sunset. i slow down and lower my window and just linger and look at the sign about the new game, or school play and let it all come back to me.
how i remember high school and how it really was, is probably 2 different things. i thought i was a character, memorable. i remember speaking to mr. shlegal, a teacher i really got along with, a lot of time had passed but he didn’t remember me. he was sorry but told me class clowns like me come through ever year. i remember mr. coply my ap econ and ap history teacher. i saw him some place and he didn’t recognize me. i thought i was an econ and history prodigy but probably one of me every year…
though one person i swear does recognize me is my old wrestling coach, coach parker. haha i always got this notion he still holds a grudge when i quit the team my senior year. whats funny is i still wrestle and compete to this very day, but now its more like ufc (not useful funny cool but ultimate fighting championship) style.
i remember when westview was built and our school looked old and small and they took half our students and all our best athletes… freakin westview!!! i remember friends becoming enemies, friends being separated, because of new school boundaries…
i remember break dancing in the halls. listening to my walkman at all times. wearing my letterman’s jacket as a badge of honor and pride. pride… some kids hate their high school, or their experience. high school was rough. but needed to make me who i am. i made life long friends i still talk to, not a lot of people can say that. my best friend from then is my best friend now. my car from then is my car still. hey who says sam can’t keep a long term relationship! i even still wrestler dammit haha. i still got school pride. i remember blushing when girls used to ask me for my jackets or if i could show them a move, or for me to dance a lil bit.
i remember making home movies with my friends with hopes of becoming a filmmaker. i remember writing a lot. i remember picking on a lot of other people and smacking kids around. the bullied becomes the bully sometimes. i remember smoking behind the school, i remember drinking at my friends house and falling in love with liquor. I remember catcher in the rye and robert cormier books and the great gatsby and ethan frome and crime and punishment and so many more. i remember garretty and zinn.
i remember warm summers eating outside, laughing, and care free eating orange creamcicles. before i was an adult. i was a human being. it was almost idyllic, or thats how i remember it.
i remember what it felt like to be at home. i remember pride. sunset apollos.