Ah, senior year of high school. Some people's minds never leave their glory days. Baby, when it comes to high school, I was born to run. Perhaps I haven't run as far as I should yet, but my efforts are slowly focusing on moving further along than my present situation. However, all the time I wasted not challenging myself (practically my entire secondary education career, and half of my college career,) has added up to quite a bit of wasted time.

To think all of my time during high school was a waste would be wrong, for while I was within the halls of Boardman High, I did make the friendship of some cool people. As far as it pertains to this shirt, one of the groups I ran with I (and in reality, only I ever) affectionately called "The Box," was also involved in the writing of the school's yearly literary magazine. I called them "The Box" because one morning before first period, they aligned all of their bookbags in a right angle with a wall forming another, thus preventing people to walk across their little area. I was allowed access to the box because I was cool with them, but I still made a stink about trying to exclude people. From that day forward I referred to them as "The Box" to differentiate from an "Inner Circle" I had as another group of friends. One might say I was a floater throughout social groups because I was able to be down with multiple subgroups that didn't get along with each other at the same time. I was able to be one of only two honorary males allowed in The Box. The magazine was called "Etc." for as long as I was able to find out. Most members of The Box worked on the Etc. staff, and because of this I was privy to some information that I cared to overhear.

Suffice to say, I don't remember a whole lot about the Etc. that came out that year. The one clear memory I have is of a drawing by some kid named Ray Rupp of a turtle with half of its legs cut off reaching towards the heavens on a city sidewalk. My description does more justice to the drawing then most people would after viewing the work. It is that piss-poor. No offense to Rupp as a person, just as an artist.

Now, one of the members of The Box had artistic talent, and still does in spades, she would be Jess. Sadly, my picture of the shirt is not that good (as part of the idea of the free shirt archive is that it is a parody of self-important collection website that traditionally have bad photography on them). She is the person who designed this t-shirt; this is so far the only shirt where I know who the artist is in real-life.

The Box has another member whose story is more prudent as to the acquisition of the shirt itself. Hello Carolyn! Carolyn was responsible for selling Etc. at some event that was going on at Boardman High one day, as the Etc. had just been published and they had to move the product. A selling point was that one Etc. had a prize-winning piece of paper that could be redeemed for a free Etc. shirt. I had been badgering for a free t-shirt ever since I had found out that the Etc. had shirts for sale. Hopefully, people know by now I'm not going to just buy a t-shirt. The badgering, which wasn't intended to do more than be annoying, paid off. Carolyn handed me the piece of paper and told me to come back with it in ten minutes! I did, and the shirt has been mine since.

Sadly, this shirt is not in the perfect condition it was handed to me in. I went to the a perfect circle show at Kent with Bailey and Jamie and in a slight scuffle with other ticket-holders I was pushed against a sign causing a noticeable rip in the back part of the shirt. It is by far still wearable, but it was a kill nonetheless.

Note that The Box never referred to itself as "The Box." In fact, use of that term makes it sound as if they traveled in a pack. They did not. It was more a confederacy I named out of my own convenience. Furthermore, know if it were a box, it kind of collapsed after high school. However, individually I will never forget any member and wish them well. Certain things I regret that I did to only some of them, but making their acquaintance I will never regret. I wish I had stronger contact with most them because I consider them still to be friends. At the same time, I certainly would not want to intrude on their new lives too much. I don't miss high school, but every person I lose in this world affects me.