Sterling Baldwin

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords

I attended Analy High school in Sebastopol. At the time I hated school with a passion, but there were a couple amazing teachers there who made it suck less. Shout out to Ms.Williamson who spent almost every single one of her weekends dealing with debate practice and getting students back and forth to tournaments. Much like a bad acid trip, many hours of debate can seriously alter how your brain interprets the world around you. My life was forever changed. In addition to debate I also spent a huge amount of time in the Analy theater, which was an interesting experience. From this I somehow got a master key to get into the building, since me and the other lighting guys had to show up at all hours. They had no idea how much mischief my friends and I got into because of that key. Although I hated going to school at the time, I made a bunch of friends who I still keep in contact with.

During the summer before sophomore year my mother and step-father moved down to a little surfing village on the coast of the Sea of Cortez in the Baja peninsula. I went with them, and spent an entire semester taking classes at a Mexican public school, even though I spoke almost no Spanish. Although I hated it at the time, looking back it was a Character Building Experience.

At the end of my time there I had some run ins with the administration that left a bad taste in my mouth. I contend that I was specifically targeted because one of the vice principles had a personal problem with me, I'm sure her story would differ. Years later I saw her smoking some pot outside of a music event and realized that what was to me an epic struggle, was probably a minor blip for her. After leaving the school in 2007 it took me a while to find my way back into a classroom.