I Want a Live Video Feed

Today is September 11. Our school chose to have a commemoration assembly, which I feel is really great. Some other schools didn’t have anything, and I love how we can come together as a community to get through difficult times.

But all that aside, I would like to comment on something our principle said. Early in the assembly, she said we would be connecting to a live video feed to observe a moment of silence in synchronization with the rest of the world. I was really excited. I pictured satellite dishes put up on the roof; all ten tech guys swarming to get this “live video feed” up and working. I was envisioning ways in which the time could be kept perfectly synchronized, since satellites have a small propagation delay. Wow, my first ever live video feed.

“In a few moments, we’ll be connecting to that live video feed”, said Mrs. Cosgrove. Yes. Live video feed time. I figured that she said that to stall because the tech guys hadn’t figured out how the complicated live video feed equipment worked yet. Finally, the moment had arrived. The projector screen came down, and… Channel 4 News was on.

All that talk was just that… talk. There were no satellite dishes and the tech guys were probably sitting on their lazy asses in the tech room. No one calculated how to remove the propagation delay or get a dish on the roof; they just plugged the cable wire into the projector. Wow. I could have turned on Channel 4 at home. I was disappointed.

Now George, why do you care so much? It was a stupid live video feed. But this isn’t just about the video feed.

Back in the way back when, when I was an itty-bitty freshman, I was entranced. Bergen County Academies was magical. They had everything, a computer network that worked, a cnc mill, a lathe, a circuit board making machine, teachers that cared about you, and a phenomenal college acceptance rate. I was walking in heaven, except I wasn’t dead. I loved this place.

Now although the computer network works, everyone’s computer network works. Only 3 or 4 seniors know how to use the mill and lathe, and I may be the only student who has used the circuit board machine for a personal project. And as far as having teachers that care about you, well I’ll say many are really great and honestly do care. Don’t let me stereotype all the teachers when I say this, but I’ve had several who give up and really don’t give a shit. And many great teachers have been fired while we pray others horrible teachers will get fired(or at least deported to a far off country such as Ireland)

I was talking to a freshman today on my long walk home from my bus stop(yes, even the bus company has gotten worse. I will probably write a story about it sometime) She appeared as your typical academy student, but she lacked one major quality. The excitement. She was already complaining about how long the day is. She’s been in school for four fucking days. She didn’t have that spark me and many other friends of mine had as freshman. She lacked the fervor and anticipation. And that is really sad. I wish everyone could enjoy there freshman year as much as I did, before realizing the academy is full of scams like the “live video feed.”