13. Senior Year/Senior Prom Blind Date

Senior Year/Senior Prom Blind Date
I can’t really explain why, but I have always loved playing basketball. It really makes no sense seeing how I am so short, not very fast, and quite frankly, not very good at it… but it has always been my favorite sport to play. My best friend David ‘Tater’ Turner – A Great American and I spent many weekends in my back yard shooting hoops. I wish I could find the energy today that I had back then playing ball.
One Friday afternoon after school, Tater and I were playing ball when a conversation about Prom came up.
“Are you going this year?” he asked.
“I kind of doubt it” I replied.
I really didn’t want a repeat of what happened last year with my Prom. I have already mentioned that I had a great time at Katie’s prom, but mine was a complete disaster, and I was miserable for just about the whole time I was there. Plus, you add the fact that I had absolutely NO prospects for a date, it just made sense to me to skip it.
I explained this to Tater at length, and he responded with a simple retort -
“It’s only a dance dude. You should go and have fun, who cares about last year or even if you have a date or not”.
He had a point, but I really wasn’t interested in going.
We kept playing ball for a little while longer until my Mother interrupted us. She yelled out the back sliding glass door that I had a phone call.
“Hey Dave, it’s Tank from the station”.
Tank Sherman was the morning guy at the radio station I worked part time at, and hung out at full time.  Tank was a big burly guy with an amazing mustache and really curly hair.  He was kind of like Tom Selleck’s overweight distant cousin, with a thick southern accent.
“Do you remember a girl that came in the other day to pick up a CD? Her name’s Jessica” he asked me.
“Not really Tank, why?”
“Well she told me she thought you seemed pretty cool, and gave me her number for you to call her”.
At this point I thought this was some practical joke. It definitely sounded like a set up. I was really hoping he wasn’t recording this to use as a bit on the Morning Show for the station. I already knew I was lame and couldn’t find a date, but I didn’t need it broadcast on Mix 96 for the entire world to hear, especially those who went to my High School.
“Um.. I really don’t remember a Jessica, Tank. Are you trying to pull my leg?” I asked skeptically.
“No dude, not at all. I’m just passing on the message from her onto you.”
“Dude, you’re not recording this are you? Because that would not be cool whatsoever.”
“Simmer down Myers” he said with a laugh. “I’m just calling to give you her number that’s all. I’m not using this for a bit, but I wish I had been recording it now”
So he gave me the number, and after thinking about it for a few minutes, I gave her a call. She seemed like a pretty nice girl over the phone, so I agreed to meet up with her later that night. At that point in my life, I wasn’t aware of the three day rule to where you wait three days before calling a girl after you get her number. To be quite honest, I didn’t know any of the rules when it came to dating. All I knew is I could either -
A. Spend the night hanging out with Tater watching ‘Ford Fairlane’ – Starring Andrew ‘Dice’ Clay, for the 20th time, (we always admired the classics).
or
B. Meeting a girl that may be hot and let me make out with her.
Option B won in my decision making process.
So I made the drive out to Red Springs, a small town about 15 miles outside of my small town of Laurinburg NC. I was going to have a blind date with a girl I had met only once (except I really didn’t remember it).
Is it a blind date if you don’t remember meeting the girl the first time?
We met at the local McDonalds to hang out for a bit (her idea, not mine). So over a double cheeseburger and fries, I got to know the girl who won the Bel Biv Devoe CD from my radio station.
She was a junior at Flora McDonald private school. She was pretty with long brown hair and brown eyes. We liked a lot of the same music, movies, and other things that are important to teenagers when they are getting to know someone for the first time. We sat and talked for over an hour about various things such as school and friends and things like that.
When it was time to leave, I walked her to her car and on a whim,  I asked to go to Prom with me.
“Hey, my prom is coming up in a month or so… how would you like to go with me?”
She said yes on the spot.
So within the matter of 24 hours I went from not going to my Prom, to thinking about going, to having a date with a girl I had only spent an hour with at McDonalds.
Like David ‘Tater’ Turner-A Great American said – “It’s just a dance”.
I was going to Prom with a girl I barely knew, and I wound up having one of the best nights in my entire High School career.

12. You Only Get One Senior Year

You Only Get One Senior Year

“We only get one Senior Year, and I’m not going to let anybody take that experience away from me. You shouldn’t either. You deserve better than that.” – Megan Alba Biel
She was right. I was letting silly things get in the way of me fully enjoying my Senior year. I promised her I wouldn’t let that happen anymore, and I did my best to follow through.
Not long after Christmas break was over, auditions for the spring musical were coming up and I decided to try out. I sat out the previous year’s musical due to my own insecurities and “creative differences” with our Choir director. “Creative Differences” are just a nice way of saying that I didn’t really want to spend anymore extra time around him than I had to.
Every year I would audition in hopes of making it into “Scotland Singers”. It was an ‘audition only’ choir group that got to go on a lot of fun trips and perform. In my eyes it was the pinnacle of success in chorus (and I wonder why I wasn’t more popular in High School?).
There were two different levels of the HS chorus, and at that time, singing was the only thing I felt I was any good at. So naturally I figured I would get into SS fairly easily. I was wrong. Instead, I was elected to perform in “Concert Choir”. It was basically the choir where all of the folks who didn’t make SS auditions wound up. I have never really liked being second best at anything, especially things that I felt I was good in. But regardless, I failed the auditions every year, leaving me feeling down about myself and the entire process. In my eyes, the chorus teacher made it more of a popularity contest than a true audition process. Not to say that ones who made it in didn’t deserve their spots, I just felt many were overlooked and not chosen due to their social standing.
Finally however, toward the end of my junior year, I auditioned for the last time… and I GOT IN! The sense of pride and accomplishment made me feel really good about myself.
I told the teacher thank you for giving me the opportunity to be in the group.
Instead of telling me how much I had improved..
Or he was proud of me…
Or even congratulations…
He simply stared at his papers on his desk without looking at me and said -
“It’s always easier to make it into Scotland Singers when you’re a senior.”
It shouldn’t have been too big of a surprise as he never escaped the chance to make a joke at my expense to the rest of the class. He loved to make himself look better by belittling others, including me. I can’t tell you how many times I left his class feeling low about myself. That is to be expected by some of your classmates, but never by a teacher.
I realize it was just a silly High School Choir, and certainly wasn’t the coolest thing to strive for, but it was something I wanted badly. All I really wanted out of that conversation was an Atta Boy, or Good job, or at least” We’re happy to have you”. But I didn’t get it. What I did get however, was a very important lesson in life.
Sometimes no matter how talented you may be, or how hard you work, you still might never get a shot at doing what you really feel like you have earned. Even more so, sometimes when you finally do get granted your chance, it can be bittersweet. He also taught me that people in power can play favorites sometimes, simply …because they can.
All that being said, and getting back to my point…. I decided to look past all of that, and audition for the Spring Musical. We were doing ‘Oklahoma’ that year. I had figured out by now that I had no chance of getting the lead, but I really didn’t care (Jason got one of the leads, and did a much better job than I could have ever done.) I got a supporting small part with a few lines and no solos. A few years back that would have bothered me, but not this time. I chose to do the play so I could hang out with my friends in Drama one last time before graduation, and hopefully have some fun and make some memories.
The show was a much larger production than in previous years, and we wound up with a much larger cast than usual. Many spots were filled by folks who had not been in any plays in the past. Many of which were popular kids. That kind of intimidated me slightly, as I wondered how I would fit in to the new dynamic of people. I was so worried they weren’t going to like me. That they would make fun of me, or laugh at me behind my back. Ultimately, I was afraid that the addition of some of the ‘in crowd’ kids would make me feel like an outcast inside of my own circle of peers.
Within a few rehearsals, all of those worries were left behind as I found myself bonding with some of the same kids I found so untouchable all of the years before. It is amazing how an after school activity such as a school play, sports, yearbook, etc can make all social status’ become closer. We all worked as a team and became somewhat of a small family over the few months we were together. It was by far my favorite experience in a play to date. And the after party once all of the performances were over, was legendary… that’s all I’ll say about that.
On top of all of my new friends I made, I felt like I got the chance to reconnect with Jason and let some of the final bitterness go that I had felt from earlier in the year regarding Katie. Bygones were indeed bygones, and we went back to being friends like we had been so many years before.
I have to admit, there was a part of me that wished that Megan Alba Biel had been there to be a part of it all. But honestly, if she had been.. I don’t know if I would have been able to make myself so comfortable around so many people whom I saw on a daily basis, but yet were still strangers in so many ways. Of all of the plays I did in high school (including the couple I had bigger parts in), ‘Oklahoma’ was the only one that I kept the script from. I keep it as a reminder of how great life can be when you let your guard down a bit, and let people in… even if it does seem a little scary at the time.
We did numerous shows, and each time I looked out into the audience hoping to see Megan Alba Biel. I realized she wasn’t probably going to fall for me while I was in FULL ON DRAMA GEEK MODE. I hoped she would see me trying to make the most of my senior year, and trying harder to enjoy every last minute of it.
The minutes were indeed counting down, and I had Senior Prom to look forward to. Up until a few months prior, I hadn’t really anticipated on going. After all of the drama (pardon the pun) that went into my previous year’s Prom night, I had decided not to go. But life was a little sweeter for me as my Senior year wound down and I decided I would consider going. If for no other reason than trying to make the most out of my last few days of High School.
The only problem was… I didn’t have a date.
That would all change with a phone call from Tank Sherman – The Morning Guy at Mix 96 (the Radio station I worked for and spent the majority of my time at).

11. Senior Year/ Thanksgiving with the Family and The Macy’s Day Parade

Senior Year/ Thanksgiving with the Family and The Macy’s Day Parade


I never really understood why our marching band’s signature song for 1991/92 was ‘Georgia On My Mind’. Scotland High School based in rural Scotland County North Carolina, not in Georgia.  Our fight song always has been ‘Scotland the Brave’, and has been since my father played in the marching band in the early sixties.
However when it came time to be put on a national stage, the school’s band director chose to feature the song that had been getting the strongest response during various competitions and all of our home football games. It seemed strange to me that my rural NC high school chose to perform the State Song from another state.
That being said, when Janet Stubbs played her trumpet solo and the rest of the band followed with the powerful crescendo on the Ray Charles classic… It gave the audience chills, and made them long for Rhett and Scarlett, ripe peaches, and a freshly bloomed Magnolia.
Every home football game the marching band is introduced as “The Pride of Scotland County”, and on Thanksgiving 1991, they more than lived up to their name. I am sure every television set in Laurinburg was locked on NBC that morning to see friends and family members march down Times Square in their plaid kilts and traditional Scottish uniforms.
The Myers household was no different.

The smell of turkey, dressing, string bean casserole, and numerous other Turkey Day offerings filled the house. My family all gathered around our 25 inch console television to watch SHS marching band perform.
\My Grandparents were there, as well as my Aunt Janice and Uncle Randall. All of my cousins were there too, so we had a house full trying to find space on the couch and love seat to see the band. When they finally were shown performing, we all started naming off familiar faces.
“Isn’t that the Kurzenski girl that lives a few blocks over?”

“Look... there is Janet Stubbs, she’s such a pretty girl.”


I enjoyed seeing all of my friends and classmates on TV. The sense of pride I had for my school as well as my community could not be measured. I do have to admit, there was one particular girl I was looking for more than others. As I studied the TV looking for her.. My mother asked me a question.
“Which one is that Biel girl you keep talking about?”

Embarrassed that she called me out in front of the entire family, I tried to act like I didn’t know what she was talking about.

“Who are you talking about?” I said softly and mildly annoyed, the way teenagers do when they don’t want to talk about something.

“The girl I keep hearing you talk to Tater and Jason about.

“Whats her name? Jessica, Mandy.. something…”

“Megan. Her name is Megan Alba Biel” I said in an aggressive tone.

Like in so many other small towns across the country, when someone new and unknown is brought up in conversation, everyone involved starts to play ’6 Degrees of Separation (in a small town)’.
“I don’t know any Biel’s. What are her Parents names?” My Father chimed in.

“Um.. I don’t know.” I said.

“Does she have any brothers or sisters?” My cousin Sandy asked.

“I think she has a Sister”. I responded

“What was her Mother’s maiden name?”

“How am I suppose to know that?” I asked.

“What does her Daddy do for a living?” My uncle asked.

“I don’t know”. I answered increasingly frustrated with the way the conversation was going.

“For you to like somebody so much for so long, you sure don’t know a lot about her” my Mother said jokingly.
I didn’t want to admit it, but Mom had a point.
I felt my blood pressure start to rise in both embarrassment and frustration. Then my Aunt Janice asked the question that I knew was coming…..
“Honey, if you like her so much, why don’t you just ask her out?”
“SERIOUSLY… can we just watch the band on TV!” I responded, trying to get the subject changed or avoided totally, but they were on a roll and wouldn’t let up.
“Does she have a boyfriend?” My cousin Sandy asked.


“No, she just broke up with him.” I said.

“Well there you go... ” Sandy added. “You’re single, she’s single… You had better hurry up and ask though, graduation is right around the corner”

“I don’t think Megan Alba Biel is interested in going out with me” I muttered.

“Why not?” A couple of them asked, in what sounded like family harmony.

“I don’t exactly fit in with the crowd she hangs out with. She is entirely out of my league” I felt my heart sink a little as I admitted out loud  for the first time, what I had been thinking to myself for years.
 I felt defeated as I had been grilled by my entire family. A few seconds of silence followed, as my family realized they might have pushed the questions a little too far. Janet had begun her solo in the background as I stared at the floor.

My Grandma, who had been quiet throughout the entire conversation finally spoke up.
“I don’t think you give yourself enough credit. You’re a handsome, nice young man with a bright future and a lot to offer. I don’t think you should say there is ANYBODY is out your ‘League’. That Biel girl would be lucky to have a young man like you to go out with. If she can’t see that, then it’s her loss.”

I didn’t know what to say.
 I just remember thinking that Grandma was sweet, but they didn’t understand how things were. They all had lived in a different generation, and things were different now. Guys like me didn’t ask girls like Megan Alba Biel out.
Janet Stubbs had played her final note of “Georgia”, and the parade had moved on to the next float. The subject was dropped and we moved on to eat another delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

My Dad had taped the performance. Later I went back and watched Megan march in time down Times Square. I watched the tape alone, and rewound it a few times just to enjoy the moment, and to see MAB lighting up my television screen.

My cousin Sandy had made good point. Graduation was coming quickly, and after that there was no telling if I would ever see Megan again. That made me a little sad, but who knew what the future held?

I also had made a promise to Megan a few weeks before during our impromptu lunch at the BK Lounge that I was going to enjoy my Senior year as much as possible. In the months came afterward... I did just that.
 Graduation was coming quickly, and I made the most of the days that were left. From a the Senior Prom,  to a Senior Talent Show, and finally graduation… every moment left memories too sweet to be erased with time.
 More about that next time.

10. Senior Year/Lunch with MAB

Senior Year/Lunch with MAB


It was my second Saturday in a row I had to go to school for SAT tutoring. I did not want to be there, but by will of my parents, I was. To my surprise, the second week of studying brought a new study partner.
The girl I had spent the majority of my early teenage years dreaming about, the one and only Megan Alba Biel. Nearly four years of school had passed, and we only shared one class the entire time. I think we possibly shared two sentences worth of conversation as well.
I really don’t remember a lot of the actual STUDY part of that day, but I do remember that Megan was wearing a green short sleeve shirt, shorts, and flip flops.  Her nails were painted pink, and she fidgeted with her pencil a lot while sitting across from me.
I also remember being extremely hungry.
I was embarrassed by the fact that my stomach was growling so loudly and often.
“No breakfast this morning?” she asked me with a smile.
“Not really” I replied, turning a little red.
We helped each other with the study session, and finally got through it. As we were getting our stuff together to leave, she asked if I was going to get some food on the way home. I can’t remember if she asked me, or the other way around… but regardless, we found ourselves eating lunch together at Burger King not long afterwards.
I was unusually at ease with her as we sat down to eat. We talked about how bad it stunk to be at school on a Saturday, and about how much we each dreaded taking the upcoming test.
The topic of college came up, and I told her that I didn’t have a clue where I wanted to go or what I wanted to major in. She rattled off a few schools she was interested in going to, but said she didn’t know what she wanted to major in just yet.


I told her of my new found passion in radio, and about spending time at the station after the school. I knew that was my calling, I just wasn’t sure how I was going to get there.

She expressed her excitement over her upcoming Macy’s Parade trip to NY with the band. The time spent in a city that big can mean a lot to a small town girl. We talked more and more about the endless possibilities that laid ahead of us in the coming months, and years.
In the midst of the conversation, she threw me a curve ball.
“What’s been going on with you lately? You don’t seem to be yourself.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, not really knowing what she was talking about.
“When I pass you in the hall, you always seem to have your head down”.
I really didn’t know what to say. My first reaction was that I was shocked she even really paid that much attention to me. We just occasionally crossed paths in the hall, but it wasn’t like we knew each other that well.

I really didn’t want to get into the whole breaking up with Katie thing. So I just blew off it off, and tried to change the subject.  I put the focus of our conversation back on her.
“Oh, everything is fine” I said.  “Tell me about what you want to do when you get to New York City”.

I was talking about life with Megan Alba Biel over a double cheeseburger and coke at the BK Lounge, it all seemed a bit surreal to me at the time. I played coy for a little while, but eventually gave in and told her about the break up and how I hadn’t really been myself since.
She said she had recently broken up with her boyfriend as well, but she refused to let that bring her down that much. It hurt, but she wasn’t going to let it ruin her senior year.

“We only get one Senior Year, and I’m not going to let anybody take that experience away from me. You shouldn’t either. You deserve better than that.”
She made me promise that I would try to make the most out of my last year in High School.
She had said what many others had been trying to tell me for months, but I hadn’t listened. However, because it was coming from her, this time, and I was listening. It was the first day of me finally getting over what had happened months before. The light at the end of the tunnel had gotten a little bit brighter thanks to her.

Her eyes seemed to soften when she listened to me. Her smile was genuine and warm. Her laugh was the kind of laugh that made you want to constantly think of something witty to say, just so you could hear it again. The way my heart beat heavily while sitting there with her, yet at the same time, feeling unusually comfortable was a strange feeling.
Talking to her was easy. It was more natural than I ever imagined that it could be. It made me wish I hadn’t waited until my Senior year to actually HAVE a conversation with her.
I know this may sound kind of funny... but somewhere in our deep talk, I noticed a little mustard on the corner of her mouth. I chose not to tell her about it. The slight imperfection made her all the more attractive to me. It made her seem real, and not just the dream girl I had made her out to be.

I had spent years thinking about the blond girl across the classroom in 9th grade. She was the focal point of many a daydream for me during the long boring days of mundane classes and too often lonely lunch periods. All that time I had focused on how stunningly beautiful she was, without really knowing exactly who she was.
I began to realize that Megan Alba Biel wasn’t too much different than me.
She had dreams, like myself that were to big too be contained in our small town. She felt the excitement of the unknown that came after high school. She knew the future was wide open, and yet it was right around the corner.  The feeling is both exhilarating and terrifying.
Megan was more than just another popular girl.
She was even more than a pretty girl.
She was a real young woman.  She had thoughts, dreams and feelings that she was willing to share with me over an impromptu lunch. It was flattering for her to open up to me in such an honest way, and to allow me to do the same.
Like I had said many times before, Megan Alba Biel set the mark for everything that was beautiful to me. Only after spending over two hours with her at lunch, I realized that her beauty far surpassed her appearance. 

9. Beginning of Senior Year/ Top 40 Radio and SAT’s

Beginning of Senior Year/ Top 40 Radio and SAT’s

Somewhere between my Junior and Senior year, I quit working at Belk’s Department Store. An opportunity arose for me to work at the local music store, and I jumped on it. I thought I would spend the majority of my time there learning how to repair guitars, play guitar, and sell guitars. Instead, I spent the majority of my time with a weed eater or a lawnmower. When I wasn’t outside in the hot abyss of humidity hell, I was taking out trash, cleaning toilets, and shrink wrapping CD’s upstairs in the non-air conditioned attic of the store.
After about three months of sweating away about 10lbs that I really couldn’t afford to lose (at that point in my life anyway) and not as much as touching a guitar, I realized it was time for an occupational shift. I quit the music store, and took the first job I could find… Subway.
I figured working at Subway would be a cool deal. It was right beside St. Andrews Presbyterian College (the small local college in my hometown, full of hot hippie college chicks), so the scenery wouldn’t be too shabby either.
School had started, and while I tried to pretend I was getting over my break up with Katie, but I really wasn’t. I had a huge chip on my shoulder, and to be quite honest, I had a pretty bad attitude all around.
It didn’t take long for me to hate my new job. After about three weeks of going home with yellow fingers from cutting banana peppers, and smelling like onions, tuna, and meatballs.. I was beginning to contemplate another occupational shift.
On top of that, though the school year had just begun, I had a major case of senioritis.
I was ready to move on and move out of Laurinburg. The problem was, I had no idea where I was moving to, or what I was going to do when I got there. I assumed I would go to college somewhere, major in something.
I just had no clue where or what.
Everyone else seemed to have a plan, and I had nothing.

During the end of my junior year, our local FM Southern Gospel Radio station switched formats and went Top 40. The station changed its name to Mix 96. It was a very big deal to have something so cool in such an un-cool small town.

One day while still angry over the fact that I had just burned my hand baking crappy bread, and that I was only one hour into my work day, a big fellow came in to order a BMT. He had short blondish brown hair, and had a funny accent.

 It didn’t take me long to figure out who he was.

The guy I was making a BMT for was Shane Foley.

He was the mid-day personality for Mix 96. His thick Australian accent made him different from anyone else on the radio in our area.

Though it seems funny to admit now, at that time I still held Disc Jockey’s in celebrity status.   As a kid, I would sit by the radio patiently to hear my favorite song.  I often called in when they needed a “guest DJ” or for a contest.  When you’re an only child without a lot of friends, the radio becomes as close as a friend can get.

When I was through making his sandwich, I told him I recognized who he was, and even called him by name before he could introduce himself. He appeared to be flattered.

On a whim, I asked him if there were any opportunities for something like an internship or something like that. He gave me his card and told me to call him.

I took his card home with me and called him the next day. He offered to let me come up to the station to have a look around and meet the program director.

Later that evening, I drove to the station. It was there that I met Sammy Simpson, the Program Director of Mix.

We hit it off immediately, and after a two hour visit he invited me to come back anytime I liked. I took him up on the offer, and spent nearly every weekday evening at the radio station. Sammy hosted the night show at Mix, as well as holding down PD honors. I became fast friends with both Sammy and Shane.

I felt within the small, musky smelling walls of that tiny building, that I had found a place where I felt comfortable, and somewhere I belonged. It felt like home, like I had found what I had been looking for.

I didn’t feel the need to try to be cool, or popular like I did for the majority of my days at school. I was immediately accepted for who I was by people I admired immensely. In short, when I was there… I finally found a place where I WAS cool.

In just a couple of months I was working part time at the sister AM station, helping run NC State games on AM1460 WEWO. I also did whatever else they needed me to do. I cleaned my share of toilets and even used the weed eater a few times outside of the station. I didn’t mind as much then. I had found my calling, my passion and what I felt like I was meant to do.

My love for radio grew deeper as I learned more about what went on behind the scenes, on the other side of what had been a close childhood friend.

My love of broadcasting grew even deeper while at school. My favorite class was my Video Production class. The teacher who taught the class was Bob Bierbaum. He was hands down, my favorite teacher in HS. He helped me grow my imagination and creative side by supporting many of my ideas. Every day at school, we had daily announcements broadcast via television to each classroom. Mr. Beirbaum knew of my new found passion for broadcasting, and soon after appointed me one of the head anchors for ‘Scotland Today‘.

I tried to bring a sense of humor to the show, and a little bit of personality. A lot of what I learned from the station, just by watching Sammy do his night show, I copied and tried to implement onto the Scotland Today show. It was my favorite hour of the day while at school.

One assignment we had during VP class was to make our own music video. We could use whatever song we liked, and shoot in whatever format we liked. My friend Steve McNair (not to be confused with late Titan QB Steve McNair) and I came up with a great idea. We chose the song “Round the Way Girl” by LL Cool J (again, remember…. it was the early 90′s).

The format we chose was simple. We would take the video camera around and video tape various hot girls and use that as footage for the music video. So in other words, Mr Bierbaum allowed us to roam the halls of HS with a video camera, shooting hot girls, for credit. Is there any doubt why I loved this guy?

It is amazing how friendly popular girls become when you put a camera in front of them. Girls that never would have given me the time of day, suddenly were more than friendly to me (as long as I had the camera in my hands). I don’t think it was just because they wanted to be seen in the video, I really think (looking back), that by doing the project, it gave me more confidence in some way, and that made me more appealing.

Well that, plus teenage girls LOVE posing for a camera.

Regardless, the project was huge success. We got shots of every pretty girl imaginable in our school.

Every girl, but one.

Somehow, I didn’t get a shot of Megan Alba Biel. I tried a few times, but she kept turning away from the camera. I could not do a project featuring all of the pretty girls from SHS, and not include her. I eventually got a distant shot of her, but nothing close up.

She was self conscious for some reason, though I never could figure out why. In my eyes, she set the mark for everything and anyone that was beautiful.

After HOURS of staying after school and editing numerous tapes, we turned in our project. What started out be something silly and fun, turned into something that was time consuming and at times difficult. But in the end, the finished project was something we were proud of.

In the process, we learned a lot about all aspects of shooting, editing, and overdubbing video. Mr. Bierbaum taught us that by having fun, we can still learn.  Anything worth being proud of rarely comes easy.

 It was one of the many life lessons I learned from him. He never will fully comprehend the influence he had on me as a teen. I hear that not long after I graduated, he gave up teaching and went to Law School. That is a shame. The world has WAY too many lawyers, but way to few of good teachers. Bob Bierbaum was a great teacher.

Before I knew it, the school year was almost at it’s mid point and it was almost time to take the SAT’s.

Now contrary to what may be somewhat popular belief… I was NOT a nerd in school.

You see, nerds actually made good grades. Thus, I was not a nerd.

 School bored me to tears, and I simply did not apply myself like I should have. My grades were shaky at best, and my parents were concerned. So, before I took my SAT’s, they made me go to tutoring on a couple of Saturdays.

They held the radio station over my head, and told me if I didn’t apply myself, then I would have to quit the station and not be allowed to hang out there anymore after school. Thus, I went to Saturday tutoring.

The first Saturday came and went, and I really did try hard... but a lot of stuff still seemed over my head. We were seated two to a table, and the teacher passed out worksheets for me and my partner to go over. I had a hard time concentrating on stuff that I didn’t understand, and I daydreamed through the stuff that I deemed too easy (not unlike any other day at school for me). After three hours, I left feeling pretty bad about myself. I was concerned about the upcoming test, and I dreaded coming back the following week to do it all over again.

The following week, I went back to the same classroom, with the same teacher, and sat in the same seat. The only difference was, there were all different students in the class. I was the only repeat offender apparently. The other seat across from me remained empty until about three minutes until the class started.

Then my table partner finally arrived.

She sat across from me, and asked for a pencil.

 I reached into my back pack and gladly obliged.

I handed a yellow #2 pencil with hardly any eraser left… to Megan Alba Biel.

8. Summer .. Moving On

Summer/Beginning of Senior Year


To say that the summer before my senior year started a little rough, would be like saying the Titanic ran into a small patch of ice.

I had broken up with Katie Coleman, and due to the circumstances, I lost another good friend in the process. I was mean spirited and hateful toward Jason after mine and Katie’s break up. I blamed him for everything; simply because he was the easiest one to blame.
So there I was in the summer before what was to be the “best days of my life”, without my girlfriend and without one of my best buddies.

Thankfully I had my best friend since 6^th Grade, David ‘Tater’ Turner – A Great American.
Tater knew how down I was about the situation I was in, and he did his best to keep me busy and my mind off of how bad I felt. We spent many a summer afternoon in my back yard shooting basketball. We would go camping in his Mom and Dad’s HUGE back yard.
The Turner’s have tons of land filled with horses, fireflies (we call them ‘Lightening Bugs’ in the South), and lots of mosquitoes. We spent many a night around a campfire solving the world’s problems, and occasionally discussing our own.
The great thing about being from my hometown of Laurinburg, NC is that you are only two hours from the beach. Over many summers, I had gone with my family to Pirateland Campground in Myrtle Beach SC.  This summer was no different, and like the summers before… Tater went with us.
What had become a tradition of sort was that in the evenings, I would take my guitar down to the gazebo. A crowd anywhere from 10-30 teenagers would normally find their way to where we were, and we would have a big sing a long session on the beach. We sang loudly with sun burned bodies, stolen beer, and raging hormones.
It was at Pirateland Campground that I learned a very interesting fact about myself. Yankee girls really dug me. I can’t really tell you why…
Maybe it was the way I said things like “Y’all and Reckon”.
 Maybe it was the way I opened the doors for them.
Maybe it was because I didn’t call a Coke,  a Pop...
Whatever the reason, I always seemed to capture the attention of a girl from up north every summer.
After playing “Brown Eyed Girl” for the tenth time in the evening, Tater told me that a girl with curly brown hair had been eying me all night. I hadn’t thought much about hooking up with any girls at that time... I was still pretty down about Katie. However, he persisted and eventually I gave in and went to talk to her. Our conversation lead to a walk on the beach, which led to sitting by the dunes under the moonlight, which led to other things… I think I made it to 3 1/2 bases that night.
After joining the crowd later on, Tater asked me about it. I told him the somewhat graphic details (keeping some things to myself). He asked if within the past six or so hours if Katie had crossed my mind..
“No” I replied.
He smiled and then asked me the curly headed girl’s name.
………..
I stood there in silence and in shock, not believing that I didn’t know the girls name. He hit the ground laughing. Tater to this day still refers to her as “Whatshername”
Her name was Erin (I think).
A few months later, we were back at the campground. It was during that trip that I learned how summertime, and the Steve Miller Band can go hand in hand. It was also during that weekend that I answered a dare. Tater dared me to put Sun In in my hair after I joked about trying to change my persona for senior year. I bought it, I put it in my hair, and it turned bright red. I looked like a short, skinny, Ronald McDonald. My Mother was thrilled. My senior yearbook picture features me in a fake tux, with fake hair and a real red sunburn. I prefer to think of it being ahead of my time. I had highlights ten years before they were fashionable.
1991/1992 was a good year to be a Fighting Scot of Scotland High School.
It was announced during our junior year that “The Pride Of Scotland County” The SHS Marching Band would be flying to NY to be in the Macy’s Day Parade. I was excited and proud of my high school that year. I had a few friends that were in the Marching Band, and knew of one girl that would light up the TV brighter than the Tree in Rockefeller Center.
That would be Megan Alba Biel.
Even before school started, I began to rehash my dreams of asking her out. As badly as my heart was broken over the break up with Katie, thoughts of strawberry kisses from MAB still floated through my dreams like a feather lost in the wind. Sometimes fantasy can help you get over reality…
School started with a bang. We were seniors! I had a couple of classes with Jason, and things started off a little rocky between us (mostly because of me), but after a while... things settled down. I got caught up in the excitement of my last year in HS. A lot had changed since I first entered the doors of Scotland High School, and even more changes were coming. 

7. Yearbooks/Birthday/The Fallout

End of Junior Year/Yearbooks/Beginning of Summer

We got our yearbooks in late may, a couple of weeks before the end of school.
They were rather bland looking with a white cover and blue “people” on them and lettering in red.  Not exactly the most dynamic choice of design.   Inside there were tons of photos documenting the year.  I was just a junior, so my picture was black and white, though a bit larger than the thumbnail picture from the year before. I was significantly skinnier in my junior picture, though it still looked awful.  My hair looked messy and the light blue shirt I chose to wear that day didn’t highlight my pale complexion in a black and white picture.
 I had a lot of my classmates and friends to sign the book (Except one... More about that in a few).
Most folks wrote the standard cliché lines…
 “Great getting to know you in History Class”
 “Have a great summer”
And of course the old stand-by from most girls –
”You’re such a sweet guy… yada yada.”
While the notes were appreciated, there were only three people I felt like I HAD to get signatures from. I reserved three spots in my yearbook for the three special people in my life.
A spot for my best friend since Sixth Grade – David ‘Tater’ Turner – A Great American.   Though his love of boats and bass had taken priority, I couldn’t be mad at him for that.  Honestly he had taken a backseat to my new girlfriend, Katie.
One  for Jason  - Jason and I had become pretty close over out Junior year. I guess it would be fair to say that he stood in for Tater in his absence for a while.  We shared a lot of common interest, one in particular that would put a strain on our friendship eventually.
Lastly, one for Katie Coleman – The girlfriend, whom which my entire world revolved around.
Katie and I spent nearly every weekend night together during the last few weeks of school. She was excited about her upcoming graduation, and I was excited my senior year was right around the corner.


My Birthday/ The Fallout


I turned Seventeen years old on June 10th
On June 12th I got the phone call to meet Katie at her house… “We needed to talk”.I didn’t have a lot of experience with relationships, but I knew what those words meant.
I drove to her house with butterflies in my stomach, but not the good kind.  My mind was racing with thoughts of what I was going to say when she told me the news I didn’t want to hear.
I could play it cool, and say something like - “Yeah, I’ve been thinking we should end it too.  It’s been fun.  Keep in touch”, and then give her a hug as I walk out the door.
I could lose my temper. – “So this is how it ends huh?  Go figure!  You know what, you don’t deserve a guy like me anyway.  You want to date Jason now! Is that it?  Go ahead!  I don’t give a damn!”
She explained to me that she was going away to college and she didn’t want a long distance relationship. My mind quickly ran through all of the times I had thought she was flirting with Jason, so I immediately second guessed her.
This break up had nothing to do with moving away, she had her eyes on somebody else…

Someone who I admittedly I was very jealous of.
Jason had everything I didn’t.
He was more athletic than me.
He was a more popular than I was.
He always got the leading role in any play we were in.
I hear he even once kissed Kim Stone -Everybody’s Dream Girl and Cheerleader Extraordinaire.
And now, it appeared he had captured the attention of my girl.

I didn’t know what to say. I just told her I understood. I didn’t confront her about my suspicions (though I had brought it up numerous times in the past), I just let her talk…
I then begged her to reconsider before I left, but in her eyes it was over and done, and so it was.

I left hurt, angry, and felt betrayed.

I got in my car and drove home, trying to fight back the tears. But alas, they came… and they seemed to never stop. I pulled my car over on the side of the road and cried like I hadn’t done since I was a child.
I pounded the dash, hit the steering wheel, turned the radio up as loud as I could and I screamed. I was angry at the situation, angry at her, angry at Jason, and mostly angry at myself for allowing myself to get this upset.

I remember thinking to myself “This isn’t how most guys would handle something like this. I bet none of the cool popular guys get this upset over a break up… what’s wrong with me? How come I can’t be more like them”

That’s when it hit me.

I wasn’t upset just because of the break up. I was upset because I had finally met a girl that looked at me as more than just “A nice guy”. I was more than just a guy who was “Sweet, and so friendly”.. She made me feel like something more than just another “good guy”, she made me feel like a Man, like a somebody. I had that with her… and now it was gone.

In the end I looked for somebody to blame. Unfortunately, I chose the most innocent party in the whole situation. I took my anger out on Jason. I said and did things in the aftermath of mine and Katie’s breakup that I am to this day I am not proud of. I couldn’t be angry at her because I was still in love with her, and I was too naive to see the third person who was responsible was me.

My own insecurities, paranoia, and jealousy over her and Jason had really put a strain on the relationship. I am not sure if there ever really was anything between them, other than innocent flirtation. But my imagination, and own self doubt escalated whatever might have been there into something much larger than it really was.
The term ‘Loss of Innocence’ gets thrown around a lot.

 Most use it as a sexual reference. I disagree. I believe one loses his/her innocence when he/she has their first REAL heartbreak. I have been in love since my first love, but never so openly or trustingly. I fell head first with no thought of how it could end. There were times in my adult life when I wished I could find that trust again…

There is still a blank page in my Junior Yearbook with the heading that says – “Reserved for Katie Coleman”

My whole world revolved around Katie and when she left… she took my world with her.
As it always does, it felt like forever, but time heals all wounds.

It would take multiple trips to the beach (along with the a not-so innocent hook up with a Yankee girl from PA), the solid rock of friendship from my best friend David ‘Tater’ Turner – A Great American, the introduction to something that would become a MAJOR passion for me, AND an impromptu lunch date with Megan Alba Biel to help me move on, and to appreciate what was going to be the best year of my HS career.