i was younger, once, and i was in high school. for an awards ceremony, we had to prepare a short biography for ourselves. i prepared my biography and turned it in as usual, but then wrote a secret one. i had another kid give the slip of paper to the student speaker who would read them all aloud, counting on the fact that she wouldn’t review them before reading them.
come the night of the ceremony, the guest speaker was actually this kid who was elected mayor. youngest guy to be elected mayor in georgia at that time. i was pretty floored, as i was expecting one of our teachers. i was also extremely nervous about the possible ramifications. eventually, my name was called and i walked up to receive my award:
“tom vinh tran is a senior whose favourite subject is social studies and enjoys reading poetry and long… walks on the beach?”
dead silence. complete. dead. silence. forever. i wondered if i had gone too far. then one guy starts laughing-the young mayor. and it turns to belly laughs. i think he almost starts crying. the audience erupts, too.
the next year, about 6 kids submit joke biographies. they were all awful. awful. so i guess that is the real reason teachers shouldn’t let shit like this happen.
