(Note. Sometimes I forget things, such as the two academic related paragraphs I should have included in "Growing Up In 1971." Neither story is flattering to me. Nevertheless, here they are.)
In high school, I loved math and science. I also loved history and current events. What can I say. When I enrolled at Rutgers I was confident that I would be able to do well in calculus. I was wrong. It turns out, that a good understanding of trigonometry would have been quite beneficial. However, having missed over half of my senior year in high school because of my back surgery, I also missed over half of the year of trigonometry.
Thankfully, that year at Rutgers we were able to take classes the first semester on a pass/fail basis. Also, thankfully, a math whiz (Ramon) who lived across the hall in the language section of the dorm, volunteered to help me. A lot. So I was able to pass. But I also realized that would be the end of my math and science curriculum. Thereafter, liberal arts it was.
Another first semester class was English composition. I have no recollection if we were assigned a topic or permitted to discuss whatever we might choose for our first composition. The assignment was given the first week of classes. And I have no recollection of the topic I chose. I wrote the essay in a blue book and turned it in. I do recall that the grading was done by a teaching assistant, who corrected it in red ink. If I had to estimate, I'd say that the amount of red ink at least equaled the amount of the blue ink that I used. Then, the T.A. ended with this classic line: "This is crap!"
On the bright side, I learned to improve my writing during my years at Rutgers. However, at that moment, I remember saying to myself: "Well, Mike, you're off to a great start at Rutgers."
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