February 26, 1997 Tuesday
Today I gave my short story “The Tale of the Two Deaths” to Mr. Beres. It will be sent to Western Illinois University and be entered in a literary contest. The winner will probably get some kind of prize, but that is not the reason I want to win. The winner also gets his/her story read at the end of the day. That would be so neat, and I hope I win. I think I really have a chance.
Tomorrow will be an informational meeting for anyone who wants to go out for baseball. I really don’t know how good I am, as I haven’t played in two years. A small voice says, “Go ahead and don’t go out. You still have the Cubs. And Hoke brings up the fact we can’t hang out anymore like we always do.” I will force myself not to listen to it, however well-meaning (and regretfully true). This is my last chance to play the sport I love, and if I don’t I will regret it forever. As far as “getting through it,” I’m a senior now and I got through it just fine as a sophomore. All I need is a physical and shoes. That’s all.
The following is Trisha’s note to me on the back of her senior picture:
Will-
You are a really great artist. Trust me when I say Go to art school and Be a cartoonist.
Trisha
I’ve thought a lot about what kind of field I want to go into. Anything in Business just seems too unattainable. I’m doing fine in Trig, but I wouldn’t be able to understand what to do if Mom wasn’t helping me most nights at the dining room table. I want to go into Art as well, but when I went to the Bradley University show two weeks ago I saw pieces that just made me wonder, “How can a pencil do things so beautiful and realistic?” I have an artistic talent (well, I can draw, but that’s about it), but it isn’t to a level of theirs. It isn’t something I’m jealous about, or anything like that. I am happy with my own ability, and am content with making, as I’ve come to term it, “good, occasionally better, but never perfect” artwork.
I am currently on page 83 of The Count of Monte Cristo. That might seem good, but it means I still have 93.3% of the book left (wish me luck)! I am also trying to plan a trip to Chicago with Hoke. We would go by ourselves and use the Amtrak vouchers we got last summer from the fiasco of our return trip from Colorado a year ago. I know Hoke would enjoy the train ride at least, and I would enjoy our destination: Wrigley Field. All I have to do this get this thing coordinated.
As a final note, the doodle below is something I sketched during a Scholastic Bowl meet awhile back. I have since answered correctly all four of the toss-up questions I’ve buzzed in on. So the drawing is sort of good luck.
Don’t ask me what it is, though,
No One Will Believe You 