Drive Up a Mountain

If I've ever emailed you from my personal account, then you've seen this quote in my signature:

Once you drive up a mountain, you can't back down.

Once in the past few years, I was lovingly teased about this by an old high school friend. She recognized it because its a line from our senior musical, Footloose (of course I suppose Footloose was something before it was the CLHS class of 2003 musical).

I started blogging about something else today and it made me think of that quote so instead I thought I would explain it.

Like I said, that was a line, a chorus really, from Footloose. And that year I took the hardest damn English class ever. Senior AP English with Mr. Parks. I actually got an 8 on one of his tests; I never have reconciled with The Canterbury Tales. Despite having always taken PreAP or AP English, I really considered downgrading to regular English after that less than stellar grade.

But I didn't. I don't remember why but I'm guessing it wasn't some noble, admirable reason like wanting to meet the challenge. It was probably too much paperwork or would have interfered with my off periods or something like that.

Stuck in this impossible class - the man had "Abandon hope all ye who enter" tacked above the door - I needed motivation. Large doses of motivation. When rehearsals began and the boys sang "Mama Says" with some of the most provocative dance this 17 year old had ever seen, I started paying attention and quickly learned the words, including the line "once you drive up a mountain, you can't back down."

It resonated. I had gone three years and something months of AP English, damn it. I was on the other side of the proverbial mountain top. I could not back down. Maybe it sounds a little dramatic but that piece of advice from someone's not-entirely-there-upstairs fictional mother made me determined to finish out my high school years of AP English.

(I feel it necessary to interject here that Mr. Parks turned out to be one of the best teachers I ever had, partly because he was hard as hell, and I really liked him. He had multiple masters degrees and still taught public school English. In addition to the "abandon hope all ye who enter" above the classroom door, he had notes tacked to the ceiling that said "you aren't listening" that brought you back to reality every time you spaced out. He challenged the crap outta us...until about the end of February. He knew after that would be spring break and college acceptance letters and none of us would care about anything besides prom dresses. He crammed all the work he wanted from us into August-February. And then he read Hank the Cowdog to us for the remainder of the year. God bless him.)

Now whenever I'm in something sticky I tell myself "you've gotten this far" and that it is no time to start backing down the mountain. It isn't the Dali Lama or George Washington, but for seven or eight years now it has been my inspirational quote.

I hope next time I email you and you see that fun quote you think

1. "I can do it!"
2. and tonight I gotta cut loose, footloose. Kick off your Sunday shoes...