I can never resist having my say when it comes to my dear old high school. Washingtonian magazine has put out an article about TJ in its October issue. Let me preface this by saying that I have not read the article (it isn't available online) but it is reported to be positive. This is in response to the comments left on the magazine's websites and the various criticisms I've heard over the years. It is by no means my full opinion, it's just a little bit of what I feel is necessary for the world to know.
I loved TJ more than I could possibly explain to someone who has never walked through the decrepit hallways to see all of the books, sports equipment, and backpacks on top of unlocked, rarely used lockers. I can't explain to you why the racial make-up of each entering class, so often cited by TJ’s many opponents, devalues the rich intellectual diversity found there. I can’t explain to you how gratifying it is to put TJ on my resume, 5 years later, and have prospective employers and grad schools be impressed. What I can explain, however, is that when I went to TJ I was a teenager. I skipped class. I stressed about homecoming dresses. I cried about boys. I played sports. I quit sports. I joined clubs. I quit clubs. I despised math homework. I just had a longer bus ride than my friends who were doing the same things. The most well-rounded, level-headed students I’ve ever met came out of TJ - as have some of the laziest and some of the craziest. TJ has its overachievers. It has its underachievers. More than anything, however, it has a group of bright, intellectually curious kids who managed to avoid the "school hating" phenomenon common among 14-year-olds the world over and who push themselves exactly as hard as they need to in order to become the people they want to be. Sometimes that means being a published researcher at the age of 16 and the first student to ever graduate with an undergraduate degree in 1 year, sometimes it means doing the bare minimum to graduate and joining an outdoor adventure group that treks all over the world, but usually it means doing homework and taking tests and stressing about being a teenager exactly like everyone else.
