The rest of the night was a gentle unwinding compared with what we
had done up until that point. After we were ordered by an officer of
the law to sit in the front seat we drove out to an abandoned
railroad tunnel that cut through a mountain and ended in a
precipitous decline. It was a cool view and nice to be hanging out
with some cool older kids who were there to lay on us some wisdom
about how to deal with some of the stress and rigors of student body
officer-ing. I pointed out in a jokey way that we were essentially
powerless token participants in the grand scheme of things. Maybe
because they didn't want it to be true and maybe because it was true
they didn't like my line of thinking and explained all of the real
good and difference we could make. They told us we could be the good
examples that all of the other students looked up to to model their
high school experience. I thought they were delusional. 90% of kids
gave not a fiddlers flying fart who the student body council was let
alone look up to them but I had learned a lesson from my previously
shot down comments and held my tongue. That for me is actually kind
of a big deal. We wrapped up our little love-in and headed out of the
canyon to go get some hot chocolate at a little greasy spoon truck
stop called the Cobble Stone. I went home in the morning thinking of
all the awesome stuff we were going to do when we ran the school,
having been tricked for the moment out of my knowledge of our
inconsequential pull around the old high school. I made a list and
brainstormed and got downright giddy. Being young and a lot more
adaptable than I am now I was too excited to sleep and I called a
friend who was just getting off work at that ungodly hour and we went
climbing.
