3 ms·

I'm interested in hearing a few of these stories.

nooron 12y ago
If you email me at jordan at birnholtz dot com, I will get right back to you. Hell, if you email me right now with your phone number, I'll even call you. I think these stories are worth telling, but I'm not going to compromise the privacy of my very close friends in the public forum without their consent.
- enraged_camel 12y ago
  Couldn't you anonymize personally-identifiable information?
  - nooron 12y ago
    Reasonable question. I don't think I've made my motive for not sharing publicly very clear. That you'd parse their identities is a secondary concern to me (as I don't think you could). I'm more concerned about their feelings, since they could easily find this post (as my real name is tied to this account). While I think it's alright to anonymize and subsequently discuss my friends' lives in private, 1-to-1 discourse, I'm not ready to make their lives part of the public record with out their approval. Does that make sense, enraged_camel?
avn2109 12y ago
Well, I was a poor white kid from flyover country. I slacked off all through high school while hating the cruelty and boredom, and did my best to get terrible grades. I knew nothing about test-prep, and buying a Kaplan book would have been a stretch. But my HS's counselor gave me a SAT fee waiver so I took the test and got near-perfect scores. That made me feel like I should apply to good schools, and I liked Thai food and the New Yorker mag so I applied to Columbia. I wrote them an admissions essay about living in an Indian tipi and having a single mom, and submitted an application photo of me standing in front of my tipi. CU admissions ate that up and the rest is history. However, I did have a supporting, loving, literate mother and I avoided becoming a meth addict/pot smoking loser. Both of those things really help avoid small-town stagnation.
- ProAm 12y ago
  Well now we need to see the photo. Good story.
  - avn2109 12y ago
    Unfortunately that photo was on a spinning-platter hard drive and I knew nothing about backups. Of course it's still on one of Columbia's servers somewhere but liberating it would involve an unbelievable amount of red tape.
- gnarbarian 12y ago
  I think the fact you lived in a tipi and managed to not smoke pot is a greater accomplishment than perfect SAT scores. You're probably the only one!

If you email me at jordan at birnholtz dot com, I will get right back to you. Hell, if you email me right now with your phone number, I'll even call you. I think these stories are worth telling, but I'm not going to compromise the privacy of my very close friends in the public forum without their consent.

enraged_camel 12y ago
Couldn't you anonymize personally-identifiable information?
- nooron 12y ago
  Reasonable question. I don't think I've made my motive for not sharing publicly very clear. That you'd parse their identities is a secondary concern to me (as I don't think you could). I'm more concerned about their feelings, since they could easily find this post (as my real name is tied to this account). While I think it's alright to anonymize and subsequently discuss my friends' lives in private, 1-to-1 discourse, I'm not ready to make their lives part of the public record with out their approval. Does that make sense, enraged_camel?

avn2109 12y ago

Well, I was a poor white kid from flyover country. I slacked off all through high school while hating the cruelty and boredom, and did my best to get terrible grades. I knew nothing about test-prep, and buying a Kaplan book would have been a stretch. But my HS's counselor gave me a SAT fee waiver so I took the test and got near-perfect scores. That made me feel like I should apply to good schools, and I liked Thai food and the New Yorker mag so I applied to Columbia. I wrote them an admissions essay about living in an Indian tipi and having a single mom, and submitted an application photo of me standing in front of my tipi. CU admissions ate that up and the rest is history. However, I did have a supporting, loving, literate mother and I avoided becoming a meth addict/pot smoking loser. Both of those things really help avoid small-town stagnation.

ProAm 12y ago
Well now we need to see the photo. Good story.
- avn2109 12y ago
  Unfortunately that photo was on a spinning-platter hard drive and I knew nothing about backups. Of course it's still on one of Columbia's servers somewhere but liberating it would involve an unbelievable amount of red tape.
gnarbarian 12y ago
I think the fact you lived in a tipi and managed to not smoke pot is a greater accomplishment than perfect SAT scores. You're probably the only one!