Before he knew it, summer was over, and it was early September and today would be the first day of classes for Mike at Columbia. He was very nervous. He rode the NJ Transit train to Hoboken with his father. He didn’t say much, and John let his youngest son be alone with his thoughts. He knew that this was going to be an emotional challenge for him. Not academically, Mike had the brains to deal with the subject matter. It was the age difference. He was only 14 and most of the freshman were 18 or 19. Mike was 5’10’ and 160 lbs. with black hair and blue eyes. He was in good shape from soccer, martial arts and a lot of time in the outdoors. That was all to the good. But it was far more of a psychological issue for the young man.
When they got to Hoboken, both John and Mike headed stairs to the PATH. John took the Path to the World Trade Center wile Mike squeezed on to the one for 33rd street. 20 minutes later the Path ended at 33rd street and Mike climbed up the stairs to walk the one long block to Penn Station. He went down and took the IRT uptown to 116th Street, Columbia University. He’d already figured out where all his classes on Monday were. His sister Julie had given him a tour of the campus and had drawn out a map and directions to each class. Mike was going to be studying Chemistry. Since Mike had taken a college level Chemistry course and had tested out of the introductory course, he had two options – Track 2 and Track 3. He chose Track 3, which meant he’d start with a yearlong course in Organic Chemistry and an intense laboratory course. The classroom was a built like a small auditorium and Mike picked a spot about halfway up.
As his fellow students filed in a few did a double take when they saw the young teenager in their midst. Nobody commented on it and they just took their seats. The professor introduced herself and gave the students the outline for the course which included the texts, supplemental reading, when tests were scheduled and another items. He looked around at the other people in the room. There were about 30 other students only a smattering of woman and minorities. Mike was too nervous to care. As with Chemistry he’d scored well enough during orientation that he’d got to pick an honors track for Math. His other classes were core classes. Columbia had key humanities courses that everybody had to take. Those classes' populations were a lot more balanced. Not so many white guys in them.
After the first couple of weeks Mike was riding the subway down to Penn Station and he realized two things. First, he could do this. He may be the youngest, but nobody was giving him any problems. Second, he was enjoying this. All the classes were challenging, yet he was sure that he could ace them. The one he was having the most difficulty with was the Masterpieces of Western Literature class. Some of the things just didn’t compute. If he remembered Julie had aced that and called it an easy ‘A’. He needed to talk to her.
Luckily for Mike, Julie came over with her fiancé Bill on Saturday for diner. Before diner she sat down with Mike and started to go over the material and more importantly how he had to look at. For a while, Mike was still puzzled. Remember what the story said or how something looked was not a problem, he had a very good memory. How to interpret the story, that was the thing that was throwing him. Julie patiently worked with him and after about an hour Mike started to catch on. He used the insight she’d given him and spent a good portion of Sunday working on it. Finally, the light started to go off for him. He kept rolling with and getting better and better at it. The idea was not just memorizing what was in the course, but to get some insights out of it. At the end of the semester he had managed to salvage an ‘A’.
The first semester Mike got straight ‘A’s. Out of them all Mike worked the hardest on the humanities course. Over the course of the year, he spent a lot of time in the Science and Engineering Library or the Butler Library. During the next couple of months a group of five students including Mike formed a study group. The first one to join Mike was Joe Grabowski, Joe G as he was called. Joe was a good 6’2’’ with broad shoulders, blonde hair and a Slavic face. He’d played football in high school and wanted to get his master’s degree in chemistry and work for one of the big chemical companies. The next one to join was Rita. Rita was tall and thin. Her hair color varied with her mood. When she’d told Mike she was gay, Mike had a been a bit confused. Joe explained it to Mike while Rita laughed. The next two in were Ajay a young Indian American and Lori an Asian girl. They often congregated in one of the study rooms in Butler.
It was late March when Joe came up to him and asked. “Mike you going to sign up for the intramural soccer league. It’s by class and you can sign up for the freshman.”
“Joe, I’m little young for that. I just turned fifteen and all those guys are eighteen or nineteen. If I got on a team I might never play.”
“Bad attitude, Dude. Look your almost six-foot-tall, you’ve still got to fill out, but you are far from a ninety-eight-pound weakling. You told me that you went to soccer camp and played in leagues. So, if you were in high school could you make the team?”
“Yeah, I could probably make varsity. I may be a sub for the year, but I’d make it. I’m good enough.”
“Well then you’re good enough to play with these guys. You may look at a couple of guys who played varsity in high school, but I wouldn’t expect anybody who was all state or anything like that. Sign up, get in the swing of school. College is more than just studying.”
Mike reluctantly agreed to sign up. Even signing up was in a way a bit off-putting. The people in charge of the signups looked at him funny. They probably couldn’t believe that he was in college, but they accepted his ID.
Two weeks later, on a Thursday afternoon found Mike on the sideline for the first soccer game. His team’s name was the ‘Red Barons’, which Mike thought was sort of dorky. Since nobody had played together the game was pretty ragged and Mike watched. As he watched, he realized Joe was right, he was good enough to play with these guys. At the start of the second half one of people on his team twisted his ankle and had to come off. Mike got sent in to replace him. He could tell that his teammates were skeptical.
Mike held his own playing in the offensive end. Part way through the second half Mike could see the opposing team getting ready to make a pass near him. He anticipated it and intercepted it near the sidelines. He took off with it, dribbling quickly straight down the sidelines towards the other goal. He could see the goalie coming out to cut off the angle for his shot. He noticed one of his teammates in the middle of the field and the goalie would have no chance to block his shot. Mike made a pass over there, one of his better ones. His teammate controlled it and put it in the goal. The team started cheering and Mike got a lot of high fives as they headed back for the kickoff.
Mike didn’t care that the game ended in a tie. He was just glad that he played well and was accepted. When he got home his parents could tell that he was excited. He told them about the game and his big assist. Mary and John were very pleased. The next day on campus, more people just said Hi to him. Joe asked him what had happened, and Mike told him. “See I told you that you could do it. Good job. Now you won’t be the weird high school kid who is in college. You’ll be the weird high school kid who plays soccer.” Joe laughed and Mike shot him a look. They went on to study.
The next few Thursday’s went with Mike playing soccer with his intramural team doing well and then going out pizza, but no beer as they were all under twenty-one.
When summer rolled around, Mike had it all planned out. A three-week soccer camp, two weeks with his uncle Sol and the rest of the time reading and finding soccer pickup games or hanging down the shore. He was also going to read some of the political philosophers like Locke and Hobbes. He’d gotten interested them in the humanities classes and this was a good time to read them. They were dense and the writing a bit strange, but interesting all the same.
Sharon was home from college and working as a lifeguard at a local swimming pool. One day she came downstairs waiting for her ride to the pool. She was dressed in a blue one-piece bathing suit.
“Sharon” asked Mike “Don’t Bay Watch babes w
ear red suits?”
“You think I look like a Bay Watch babe?” But as soon as the words were out of her mouth Sharon knew she’d stepped in it.
“Nah, you serious?” deadpanned Mike.
“You little creep, I’ll get you Mikey” as she threw her towel at him.
Mike was laughing so hard that he couldn’t dodge it. Just then Maria, Sharon’s ride to the pool came in. “Hey what’s going on here guys?”
“Little Mikey was being a twerp little brother. Let’s get out of here before I kill the little creep.”
Maria smiled and waved at Mike. “Goodbye Mike, behave now.”
“Goodbye Maria, you’re looking good as always.”
Maria smiled and when they got outside asked what had happened. Sharon explained it to her. “Sharon you walked right into that. No little brother could have resisted that.” Said a laughing Maria.
“You’re right I did, but it still annoys me.”
“You know he’s going to be a cutie when he grows up Sharon.”
“Yuk, he’s my little brother, don’t tell me stuff like that.” Then they got into Maria’s car and drove off to the pool.
When the left, his mother scolded Mike. “Mike you have to be careful about kidding girls about their looks, they can be very sensitive.”
“Sensitive, mom? Are we talking about my sister Sharon, the girl who even the guys from nerd school thought was hot? And my friends from college always hope that she’s home so they can talk to her. That Sharon? I don’t think my jerking her chain a little is going to do anything to her confidence.”
“Well still you should be nicer to your sister.”
“Ok mom, I’ll try. I’m heading up to the high school to see if I can get in a pickup game. Before you ask, I’ve got water, Gatorade and an orange, so I’m good. See you later.” With that he headed out the door.
The rest of summer went by as he expected. He started to fill out and started to lift weights. There was a full set of weights in the basement that his brother had used, and his father still did. He stuck mostly to using the dumbbells. He didn’t have anybody to spot for him and he was mostly interested in getting stronger, not become Arnold.
Sophomore Year.
At the start of his sophomore year Mike was sitting on the steps of the Low Library just watching people go by, when Rita walked up and sat down next to him. “Hey Mike, you sitting here girl watching? Can I join you?” Said Rita with a smile.
“Not really just sitting here just chilling and watching people go by. But be my guest.”
“I know you’re interested in girls Mike, so you’re not girl watching?”
“There are some really good-looking girls here, but they’re way too old for me. Now if there were some hot high school freshmen or sophomores walking by, I’d be interested. My sister told me I’m at an awkward age. Girls I could date are mostly interested in older guys. She told me that my brother Jack, who was a Jock and good looking really didn’t have a girlfriend until late in his Junior year. That’s good to know but not much help. You?”
“In high school I was the ‘Scuzzy Lessie’ and pretty much shunned. I was a bit too open about my sexual preferences. I took a lot crap from the Jocks and the more popular girls. We girls can get very nasty. Now things are better. There are people who give me crap, but more girls are out of the closet so I’m doing OK on the girl front.”
Mike looked at her. Having gone to what he called ‘nerd school’, he had some appreciation of being an outcast. Although going to the school had saved him from the worst of it. “You know Joe and I have your back, right?”
“Thanks Mike you guys are real friends. Let’s head off to class. You do anything interesting during the summer? By the way are you lifting weights? You seem to be filling out. If I didn’t go for girls, I might be interested.” Mike smiled at the compliment. They got up and started to walk to class talking about inconsequential things like friends do.
That year went by like the first. Mike did very well in class and was easily on track to meet his goal of graduating magna cum laude. He hadn’t gotten a ‘B’ so far and now that he got the mind set to handle the core curriculum, he was pretty sure that he could continue that streak. The study group had grown into a circle of friends. Mike was closest to Joe and Rita, but still very friendly with the others. The other students had accepted Mike as one of them and he often talked with them after class.
Classes were now routine. Nobody in any of his classes looked twice at him. He’d been accepted as part of the college scene. Lots of people knew about the high school kid who was in college. There was another one concentrating in Math. Mike occasionally ran into him. His name was John. The two of them talked and compared notes every once and a while. What Mike did was to start to establish a good rapport with his advisor Dr. Sandra Goodman.
Dr. Goodman was a matronly woman, whose hair was going gray. She had two children of her own, both older than Mike. She was perfect for him. Mike was totally honest with what he wanted to do. She gave him solid advice on what courses to take so that he could achieve his goals.
When March rolled around, Mike signed up for soccer again. This time there weren’t any odd looks. He grown to a shade over six feet and started to fill out. Everybody had seen last year that he could play, so the Red Barons were happy to have him back. Thursdays became soccer day and Mike enjoyed getting all sweaty and dirty and the pure physical release it gave him.
That summer Mike was sixteen it meant a couple of things. First, he got his drivers permit. His parents enrolled in a Driver Education Course at Montclair High. They had a summer course for kids who went to schools that didn’t have the course. It was almost mandatory in New Jersey. His father was secretly thrilled that he didn’t have to teach him to drive. The course took him through the city streets that were easy, then out on to Bloomfield Avenue that wasn’t so easy. The final obstacle was the Garden State. A road where the 55 MPH speed limit seemed more like an advised speed than the legal limit. He learned to drive in crowed traffic going along at 60 plus, with the not infrequent crazy driver who cut in front of people. He couldn’t drive by himself but if he had a clean driving record, he could drive at 17.
The second thing was that he could get a job. He still went to soccer camp; but got a job as a counselor at the same camp for the eight and ten-year-old kids attending the camp. He was paid the minimum wage and it wasn’t for the whole summer. But it was the first money he’d ever earned on his own. He had his own money to spend. A big mile post was past.
Junior Year.
Junior year was going along, and the study group found them taking a long lunch at a Chinese place on Broadway. As usual Rita took the lead. “I know that I want to be a research chemist for a drug company so I’m going to have to get either a masters or PhD. I’ve got a couple of possible graduate programs picked out. What about you guys.”
Joe went next. “I’m going for my masters, no need for a PhD. I’m hoping to stay here at Columbia and finish it up, then go work for a chemical company. Next.”
“I want to get into Materials Science. The best place to do that is MIT. I’m hoping to get in there.” Was Mike’s reply.
“What about you Lori?” asked Rita
“Well I want to get my PhD, probably at Berkley. Then go back to Shanghai, work for one of the big companies, get married and have my one child. Having a US education and speaking English fairly well is a big boost.”
“How’s that one child thing really working out?” asked Joe.
“In the cities it’s pretty well adhered to. In the countryside, it’s much different. For people their children are their old age insurance. So, it’s very difficult for it to work there. As a result, our population is still growing”
“Yeah, I can understand that. I’m only worried that all this stuff, climate, population and all that is going to come back and bite all of us in the ass.” Joe commented.
“Well I guess it’s my turn.” Said Ajay. “I want to
go to law school and be a patent attorney. With the science background I’ve got a leg up. I’m looking at NYU. They’ve got a top program and I can stay in the city.”
“Well let’s all study hard and I’m sure we can all get where we want to go.” Said Rita as she turned back to her food.
The summer between his junior and senior year Mike turned 17. Three big things happened. First, he got into a research internship with a local chemical company. That was important for getting into graduate school. The second thing was he got his drivers license. His mother drove him up to Lodi in Bergen county to take his test. They used the sedan rather than the Caravan. After he passed the test, first thing Mike did was to drive the family down to the shore for the weekend. Like any teenager who gets his license, Mike thought this was one of the biggest deals of his life.
Third, his father gave him a delayed birthday present, a 3-year-old silver mustang. The car had come off lease and the dealer who was a friend of his father and told him that it would be available. It was perfect. Mike was on top of the world. He drove it carefully and made sure to keep it clean and polished. John knew all about teenage boys and cars. How they often obsessed over them, cleaning and polishing them. It had something to do with girls. Apparently, it even effected geniuses. Having a car and a license made it easier to get to his internship. The practice navigating North Jersey rush traffic gave him a lot of practical experience and a healthy respect for being alert while driving.
Senior Year.
When he got back to school, his friends gave him a bit of ribbing. They’d all been driving for some time and while they enjoyed it, it wasn’t as big a deal to them as it was to Mike. This was his senior year and he was concentrated on grades and getting into MIT. The last thing on his mind was girls. After a study session, Joe approached him. “Dude, I’d like to ask you something. You can turn me down and I won’t mind.”
Through the Gate: The Chronicles of Cornu Book 1 Page 11
