Quite often on Monday mornings I would help Harrison get his welding gear and materials up to the Rattling Jack Welding Shop. This building was maybe 300 yards from the residence hall, but in the winter months the pavement was often slick with packed snow or ice. Harrison’s welding boots, which were protective in the shop, had bad traction in winter conditions. Several times he tumbled on his way back from the shop, and this often sent him into a loud tantrum.
Since I was there on Monday mornings anyway, I decided to try mitigating this as much as possible by helping him get to and from the shop. Typically I would walk with him to the shop and carry his bucket, which had grown quite heavy with “coupons,” scrap metal, and other metalwork projects. Then I would meet him after class to help get his gear safely back to his room. This also allowed me to check in With Geoff and Charlie, the welding profs.
After getting Harrison to the shop on time, I had a couple hours of free time, and often used this to go skiing. I nearly always had the cross-country trails to myself on these mornings. A couple of times I even found first tracks on the freshly groomed Mineral Belt Trail. Sometimes I would be joined by Kendra Jeronimus for these morning ski outings. Mary and I have known Kendra since our early days of pack-burro racing and we’d had many adventures together over the years. Kendra and I would occasionally push the envelope with the clock. In these cases I found myself double-poling like a raving lunatic, sometimes even skating downhills on my classic skis, thrashing, and racing to get back to the welding shop before Harrison got out of class. Often it was close but somehow I always made it back in time. During one of these episodes I realized I was more concerned about Harrison freaking out because he was expecting me to be there, than him actually crashing on his walk back to his room — a manifestation of my own neurotic mind.
On Monday afternoons Christie was lining out assignments for Harrison in their weekly tutoring sessions. There were modules with small assignments and readings in both Interpersonal Communications and English Composition. This helped Nate and me guide him through the assignments. Nate would accompany him to the online Interpersonal Communications sessions and I supported him on English assignments. Typically I could use questions to draw out ideas that would form an outline for writing assignments. As someone who had been a college writing instructor myself, I recognized that he possessed good writing skills, but needed help with organization in order to spark a flow of ideas.
In one of my conversations with Harrison’s English prof, Jennifer Irey, she told me that she had brought up the subject of Harrison with the class early on in the semester. She simply told the students, “This is Harrison. All your life you are going to meet people like him.” She encouraged them to be accepting, understanding and respectful in their dealings with him. I found this approach quite refreshing. She was up-front with the class about Harrison’s challenges, and honest about her expectations of the other students in interacting with him.
Prof. Irey also kept me informed about Harrison ’s progress. One day I received an email from her describing how Harrison had a “great” day in class. She had divided the class into groups to discuss essay topics. She reported that Harrison engaged with the others, and in turn, the students shared ideas with him. This email was a huge turning point for me in terms of the constant self-doubt I had been fighting.
This semester I also gave a presentation to Prof. Irey’s class on personal essays. It was a wonderful experience discussing writing with Harrison’s classmates and also see him there in the audience. The class was very interactive and I fielded several questions. A few students approached me after the class ended to ask more.
• • •
It had snowed overnight and there was still a light sprinkling sifting down through the trees along the CMC trail system. It was workout day, and Darren also had two women recruits visiting. The workout was mile-repeats on the groomed snow of the fit loop. Darren asked me to time runners on their loops while he gave the recruits a quick tour of the trail system.
Throughout the workout, we alternated the starts and recovery periods between the men and women’s team. Harrison was crushing these loops. I had just sent the men out for another lap, as the women were sprinting to finish. Zoe was in the lead and as she approached the finish, she yelled, “This sucks!”
I laughed because it was just so Zoe.
But then she continued with a sardonic expression, “I’m on my period! They shouldn’t make us do this when we’re bleeding!”
While Zoe had a point, there was something comical about her candid and blunt delivery, adding a memorable comic relief to a workout that otherwise might have faded into the blur of so many others.
Notes from The Blur
On Valentine’s day the team met at Darren’s classroom before heading outside in the cold. While we were waiting, my teammates seemed more rowdy than typical and were horsing around. One of the guys poked Brooklyn in the shoulder. She seemed a little annoyed. I felt like it was disrespectful of boundaries for him to do that. When he turned and walked toward the restroom, I rushed at him, playfully making a scary roaring noise and chased him to the bathroom. Shortly after, Evan came out of his office to see what the commotion was about. The racket also attracted the attention of Ben Cairns, the campus dean. Evan had a talk with me about the disturbance.
I was worried I would get written up again for this. The next day I stopped by Evan’s office to ask him to add his signature to a birthday card for Brooklyn. We talked about the incident again, and he reiterated that it was not appropriate behavior in an academic building. Despite my worries I did not receive a conduct report. However, following this, the team was no longer allowed to meet for practice at Darren’s classroom.
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