| AN INTRODUCTION TO "DUBIOUS ALL-AMERICAN" |
| High school is a funny thing. In your pre-teen years, you yearn to be in high school. You dream of parties, friends, prom, state titles in sports and graduation. However, once you enter high school, you immediately long for that damned piece of paper known as a diploma which signifies academic accomplishment. You hold it on a pedestal of bittersweet fervor. You hate it and love it at the same time and you keep a mental countdown to the second of how much longer you have to endure the dull routine of high school. Then the day arrives: graduation. You are excited and overwhelmed with joy at the arrival of such a day. You put on your robe and tassels. Relatives and loved ones trek long miles in order to witness the momentous occasion. They call your name on the public address system. You stride across the platform to receive your diploma; the longest walk of your life. People clap, cameras flash, memories are engraved forever in your mind. Optimism is extremely high. Classmates who picked on you or stole your lunch money in third grade and jocks who towel-snapped you in seventh grade are now seen as equal. You are more than friends with all of these one-time strangers: you are classmates. A year later, it hits you. Past crushes are getting married. Your old high-school friends start reproducing offspring as fast as jackrabbits. The infamous high school clan from the past grows apart. People you once held as close as possible disappear. College. Jobs. Family. The military. For the past year since graduation, you've been living in the "real world." You are introduced to the all-too-simplistic routine of work and sleep, and you find yourself longing for high school amidst the revelation that being an adult sucks. No matter how much you hated it then, you remember high school with the fondest memories. This book was written to help you relive your high school years; the greatest time of your life. It was written to bring back some of these memories, to assist you in remembering what greatness was, and, if you happen to still attend high school, to make you realize what an important and impressionable four years you are living compared to the rest of your life you have yet to live. Nonetheless, this is also a story written about much more than high school. It was written about a character, Ethan Wilkes, who was forced into the real world much earlier than he should have been. It's a story of friendships, relationships, good times and bad times. It's a story of high school adventures, but it's also about secrets, dreams and life lessons. It's a story about a boy trapped in the past of a man, about things being made and things being broken. This is a book about life itself. |