"Feeling This" - blink-182

In High school, however, everything seemed to change. In 9th grade, my friend and I met the likes of someone I’d never seen before. He was tall, listened to loud, scary music, played Pokémon, and spoke out against the teachers' religious beliefs. Day after day in our guided study, we'd sit there in awe and wonder as he stood there, pacing back and forth, talking about religion as a joke, a fairytale, and that human kinds only use in the world is procreation and life... that we're only here to get the best out of life, and make more little us's. My friend was the first to fall into this kid’s temptations, pronouncing his newly found Atheism, I for one wouldn’t be seduced by such a thing...

... And that would be the late, great Mr. Petti. Anthony Petti will always be the greatest man I ever have known. He was like a third father to me: The one who believed in God, love, and didn't drink. He showed a general interest in me, and showed me that teachers could become friends, people you can trust. Mr. Petti was the first person in my life to make it seem like if I put my mind towards something, I could accomplish it. We had to do our final projects, and I couldn't choose between playing guitar and stand-up comedy (a new-found love of mine.) He insisted, if I chose to, to do both: A hybrid performance of guitar playing and instruction, and a comedy routine. I thought it was a great idea, and never gave it another thought. The projects, preformed in front of the class, we to be around 3-5 minutes long: Mine was 30.

The class cried with laughter as I told them the correct and incorrect way to hold, play, and perform with a guitar, along with taking shots at fellow student members. Mr. Petti was practically howling with laughter, and it gave me a small sense of accomplishment.

That also opened up a little bit of self-confidence I was previously missing due to years of ridicule. At this point, people around me were dealing with the fact that I was fat, and later they were to deal with the fact that I had a mullet. I have no idea what made me think a mullet was cool, but then again, I also started wearing bowling shirts then too, and that hasn't stopped either. And with the society's acceptance of my grotesque appearance, I was then to try and open up myself to a crowd willing to listen. I began my stance as the "funny guy"; this began in Mr. Petti's class, and worked its way into other outlets. Because of Mr. Petti, kids in all other grades knew my name, who I was, and liked me because of Mr. Petti's knowing me. Later in 10th grade I would play a traditional Mexican song in Spanish II, with countless other teachers coming to see, I pulled it off with only a few errors, and a crackling voice from nervousness. In 11th grade, I’d play a Spanish version of "Hotel California" for my Spanish III class, and a recently recuperating Mr.Mucha: Who'd recently gotten into some form of accident. Again, I nervously preformed the song with few errors.