October Sky

Last night I watched a hero movie for us nerds and geeks, "October Sky." It certainly stirred up some intense emotions, because I understand when they talk about the "jocks" getting all the girls. In addition to that, back then I was caught up in the glorification of science as the answer for everything, too.
Like Homer and his buddies, I worked hard at science, particularly, at a science fair project, even winning the county science fair with the opportunity to go to the state science fair. Unfortunately poverty and racism kept me out of it. I couldn't afford a hotel room by myself and the other students going from here either already had a room mate or were female. However, a student from the Black high school had also won at the county science fair and was going to the state science fair. Furthermore, like me he couldn't go if he had to pay for a room by himself. Therefore, I naturally asked him to room with me.
While my mother saw nothing wrong with this and I saw nothing wrong with it and my sister was going to drive us, school authorities didn't see it the same way. One of the few times I was called to the principal's office in high school was to persuade me that I was doing some terrible thing by sharing a room with a black student. This was after all around 1964 or 1965.
After the school officials' interference, the other student changed his mind about sharing the room. As a result neither he nor I went to the state science fair. While I'm not sure about his academic career, I did manage to get academic scholarships anyway.
Sadly, in spite of the great promise of my academic potential. I can't say that I've accomplished all that much or made much of a difference in the world, certainly nothing like Homer Hickam. Even in my current field of religion and spirituality I'm not making a particularly valuable contribution to my world. And I haven't accomplished much with regard to the issues that adolescence is the time for resolving through learning the proper social skills.