I stole this book from my high school. That’s right. On the last or second to last day of my senior year, I strolled into a storage room and grabbed an armful of the books that had piqued my interest but that I never got to read in any of my classes. I called it “postgraduate studies.” And yet, I’m 23 and just now reading the first of them.
I stole a lot of things from my high school. Software serial numbers, athletic uniforms and equipment, food, textbooks, a chair or two. Pretty much anything that wasn’t bolted down. Wait, actually, I took a toilet seat once, and that was kind of bolted down. That’s what happens when you let the “good” kids wander around the high school after hours for extra-curricular activities. Most administrators will tell you all about the kids who cause the most trouble and damage. They’ll say it’s the pot-smoking, tardy, class-failing, delinquint, red-headed stepchildren who fuck stuff up for everyone else. But the truth is, it’s the smart kids who steal shit. It’s the after-school academics who vandalize, who do the annoying anonymous things that make administrators’ teeth grind. Because, if you get second place at a state academic competition, it’s like you’re their own child. Once you do something publicly that the principal can brag about over burgers at Applebee’s with the other area principals, you’re practically untouchable.
And I always kind of resented that. What was the point of the gob of petty crimes I committed in grades 9-12? Besides amassing and distributing an interesting collection of school property? I don’t know. Maybe I was just trying to see if anyone was paying attention to the kids who seemed to be doing all right.
At least, that’s what I experienced. Not to say that I didn’t get in trouble. I did plenty of stuff to piss off the wardens while they were looking.
What does this have to do with Montag and the other characters of “Fahrenheit 451″? Jack shit. But let’s be honest. There’s not much I can add to The Conversation about this book. I just hadn’t read it before.
Next book, “Hell’s Angels” by Hunter S. Thompson.
[This article is part of the 26 Books project that I'm doing this year.]
it must be a Zeigert tradition to steal as much shit as possible from this school.
i’ve got two chairs, a couple lunch trays, and a some random plastic things that i stole off the front of the computers. oh, and i stole a milk crate from the janitors closet. not to mention all the books i still have.
but, i’m on the look out for more. believe me, though… my goal is to get a table. that, or a janitor’s cart. it would make my four years of high school totally worth it.
corey.
How about grades that will get you into college? Would that make high school worth it?
Does it count as stealing if we stole the candy the band used as a fund-raiser and then turned around and sold it to kids at school at a discount and then spent the money on recreational drugs?
what about if you “borrowed” chemicals from the chemistry lab to make…umm….homemade chemical exothermic devices?
Personally, I always appreciated your theft of the software. I felt less guilty about it when you gave it to me, versus me stealing it directly myself :-)