Some of you that have gone into my room have seen this award at my desk:
So every year in High School orchestra Mr. U would pass out ballots to vote for the best Freshman/Sophomore/Junior/Senior in orchestra, as well as the “Most Improved” overall. These certificates would then be presented at the end-of-year banquet. After a couple years of understanding this system, I actually rigged it.
But how!?
Orchestra is during 0 period. Which means 95% of the students there don’t want to be there and are super groggy and sleepy. Also, due to the leniency of Mr. U, a lot of kids showed up late. So, rather than pass back the ballots or place them on empty chairs, I hung onto them. It’s not like anyone was enraged about it, they could care less. It was too inconvenient for them to pull a pencil out at 7 in the morning. I’d say about 10% of the orchestra actually cared about their vote. And since I made up 60% of the vote, I had all the power.
I didn’t know the extent of it the first time around, so I gave the “Most Improved” award to Jessie during our junior year. She actually resented me for it, she didn’t think I could pull it off.
I also have a vague memory of giving “Best Sophomore” to Chris Chang, can’t confirm. If I did, then I’ve been rigging it for 3 years..
Anyway, come Senior year, I was initially going to give myself “Best Senior”, but I gave it to Eddie instead.
Considering my path of the violin and orchestra (see previous post), I figured it would be nice to top off my high school years with the “Most Improved” award; I probably was actually the most improved (over the course of 7 years). Zero to hero, just like that.
Wait, why didn’t you give yourself best Sophomore, Junior AND Senior all those years!?
I’m not greedy.
