High School Friend: Stid

This will be my final high school friend essay. That's because I really didn't have that many friends worth posting about in high school.

I originally knew Stid as the son of Park Junior High School's Vice Principal. Stid was a sophomore when I was a senior. I had some encounters with him during the past two years because he was in the Choir in junior high and the Choir teacher would have those students take part in our musical productions. Stid also wound up in the Drama department. I requested he work with Led and me on learning how to operate the lighting and sound system at the auditorium.

One interesting thing about Stid was that he was eligible to take the English II Superior class. However, that year, they only offered one class and it was during fifth period, when Choir was scheduled. There were a lot of people who were in Choir in the ninth grade who qualified, but decided they would rather take the advanced class during sophomore year, so our choir lost a lot of good people who never came back to choir. Stid opted to remain in choir. (Niz also could have been in that English class, but she chose Choir over the five-point A.)

I'm pretty certain that, like me, Stid had Asperger Syndrome. We actually had a lot in common, but he wasn't too much into rock and pop music. He preferred classical and songs that came out of the 1930s and 1940s. We could talk about things we were both interested in for a long time. However, if he started in on something I had no interest in, I could get kind of agitated and try to stop the conversation.

Once he was droning on, and I just sat next to him and went, "Uh huh... yeah... right... uh huh...." Then he said something that got my attention. I asked him what he just said. He said, "Oh, were you just pretending to listen to me? Well, that's really inconsiderate of you!" But we still remained friends after that.

Stid was actually very creative and had written several comedy sketches and plays. Unfortunately, he was not open to any suggestions or criticism of his work. He would kind of tune you out if you said anything contrary to what he had created.

We still hung out from time to time when I came home from college. He was considering attending ENMU. I know he was originally going to major in Music Education so he could become a music teacher. The last time I saw him, he had come to try to get into ENMU's music program on a scholarship. The music professors I knew were very excited at the prospect of him become a student there.

He decided to attend Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX instead. I guess he liked it here, because he still there. He just got a 20-year service award. He works in the Academic Testing Services department. I have no idea what he does. From what I can tell, he never got married and never had children.

I wonder if he's aware of the possibility he may have Asperger Syndrome. I wonder how he deals with it if he knows. I may never find out.