This is the story of Charge. You might first wonder why he has such a weird name. Who would name their son Charge, a couple of flower children who want their son to be in touch with mother earth? Alas, no, the man responsible for this atrocity, this folly of first names, is actually his brother Jeff.
Jeff was nearly five years old in the summer of 1975 when Mary
Louise Schmerker brought John Talbot Schmerker into the world. Summer means baseball and in Houston baseball means the Astrodome. Young Jeffrey Otis had never been to the "Eighth Wonder of The World", and the hospital's proximity to the Dome did nothing to deter Jeff from lobbying my father to take him there. Shortly before I was born, my father relented and made the short trip across the street to see an Astro's game.
Jeff loved the Dome. Jeff loved the people, the smells, the noises, the crack of the bat and the cry of the fans. There was one cry that he liked especially, the rally cry of; " Da Da Da Da, Da Da!!!, CHARGE!!!". What was first a mere annoyance, Jeff, yelling "Charge" until his lungs burst and throat went dead, became an "America's Funniest Home Video Clip" moment a few months later at my Baptismal.
Jeff was supposed to say my name at my Baptismal, John Talbot Schmerker. Jeff, however, had different plans. Jeff was a hyperactive blonde, ADHD before his time. In front of family, friends, and the Lord Himself, I was nearly baptized as, "John Talbot Master Charge Visa Schmerker". Wow, that was a close one. Jeff said it, but my parent's quick reaction saved that from being my confirmed name. Luckily only "Charge" stuck, and not all the other stuff, I would probably have credit issues if Visa had stuck.
Luckily I was much too beautiful to have such a traumatic event scar me for life. I had these huge eyes and eyelashes, so large that my lashes would stick together and I would fuss until mom could separate them for me. Jeff, tired of the attention I got for things like that, tried to sell me in a Burger King one time, luckily I didn't go well with fries and a shake.
Growing up in SugarLand, a small suburb of Houston, was fun. We spent many afternoons playing in the lake behind our house or in the bamboo fields across the street. Sometimes my mom and I would go out to pick the wild berries in the fields, sounds country hick I'm sure but these are some of my earliest and fondest memories. My parents are from the Northeast, so snow skiing was a big part of our recreational lives. When Mount SugarLand was lacking sufficient snow cover (this was pre-snowmaking) we would drive to Colorado and ski for a week at Steamboat or Silver Creek. When I was five, I broke my leg (thanks dad) when I skied into a fence. Hey, I was only five, give me a break!
Family car trips were a major way of life for the Schmerker family. In the spring we would drive to Colorado for skiing. Those weeklong forays into the mountains were tame compared to our month long summer trips. Those summer trips were the substance of legends. They will probably be recorded in History texts decades now. Imagine 30 days in a car covering six thousand miles and two dozen states. While that may seem torturous, they were extremely memorable and educational. I am fortunate enough to have seen 48 states and a large majority of the National Park System. Have you ever looked in the front of a Rand McNally Atlas? They always list 100 places that are supposedly the must American sights. Well, I have seen them all. Fourth of July in Philly, been there. The Geysers at Yellowstone, seen them. Mt Saint Helen's before and after the blast, done it. It is quite a blessing to have seen all of these places and major props go to Mom and Dad for making Jeff and I go to all of these places. They gave us an adventuresome spirit that propels us even to this day. That spirit is why I am writing this piece from KamiSuwa, Japan, near Nagano.
In my younger years, I attended Lakeview Elementary School. Lakeview was originally the town's college back in the early part of the century. The facilities were extremely old and outdated, but I remember liking it a lot because it felt like a little town, lots of buildings and walkways as opposed to today's single unit featureless schools. I usually walked to school or my mom would drive me for the first couple years. It was across the train tracks so I think she was a little nervous letting me go by myself. Lakeview was where I got into my first fight (I lost, but it was a one on five battle, so I lost honorably) and where I had my first crush. I learned how to cheat at kickball real good as well, leave base a little early and trap the fly balls on the ground with your body to make it look like you caught it. It is actually interesting to think back to my school because it is very plain to me that my elementary school was segregated. I am sure of this because my yearbooks show all of the white kids together in their classes; everybody else separated into other classes. It makes me sad to think that happened in my hometown, I guess you grow old hoping for the best from your past, but hindsight is 20/20.
Middle School took me to SugarLand Jr. High. I teach Middle School now, and I always try to see the kid who most like what I was like. I usually look for the kid with a "kick me" sign on his back! Not really, but I wasn't the style king in my younger days. I have this naturally curly hair that could not be tamed very easily, so it usually went crazy. This did not make my day at all! When I was in Middle School I took up year round swimming. I had been swimming since I was five, but that was just in the summers. In Middle School I started swimming year round for First Colony Swim Team. Now that was interesting because the pool was outside, and in the winter the workouts would be brutal because the air was so cold. Swimming was great though because it taught me discipline and perseverance. It also taught me to make good use of my time, because after 8 hours of school and 3 hours of practice, I had to make myself do any work, and I had to do it. Major shouts of praise go to my mom for helping Jeff and I pay for this swimming habit. She helped us roll and throw thousands of newspapers a week to support our swimming and baseball habits. Without her selfless dedication and sacrifice, we would not have been able to experience these rewarding times. Love you mom.
The day before I started High School at Clements High School, I went to a church service with my friend, Michael Bourne. I had been going to this church for a while, but on this night something different happened. I had attended church with my mom for quite a while, but it was never personal, it was go to church because you are expected to. This night, I went to church because I chose to. On this night I made the most important decision of my life, I decided to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. On that night, I took stock of my life, and everything I held dear, and everything I wanted and strived for, and they were all for me. I looked at God, and the fact that he sent to me a Man in the image of himself, who was fully God, but fully man. This man, Jesus, lived the life that God required, perfect and without failing, he then died to all the worlds sin, past, present, and future, that I might not have to. Then, three days later, he rose form the grave, to win victory over that death of sin. To me, that was a truth I could not ignore or deny. There are many religions in the world, many beliefs and gods, but only one of them claims that the body is imperfectable, only one acknowledges that God standards for us are too high to achieve by ourselves. It had always bothered me that religions placed emphasis on the goodness of the believer, that somehow you could get to heaven by being good. I always asked, "What is good, and what is good enough?" Jesus made it simple for us. I can't be good enough for God, but Jesus was, and to believe that Jesus was God, and that Jesus died for me because I was not good enough, that is truth. That makes sense, because it does not rely on me, because I know I am not good enough and could not be good enough.
High School was a world of changes. I made a lot of choices in High School that were crucial to the rest of my life. I still remember the first time I was offered a cigarette. I don't know why I said no, but I did. I also remember being offered alcohol for the first time, but I refused. I have no idea why I answered the way I did, but those two simple decisions have basically shaped the rest of my life. I thank God every day that I made those choices the right way. I also remember the first time I realized I had to study, because I had to make an 80 on an exam to pass a class, or I would have to retake the entire class. I swam for three years, making all state my senior year. I was involved inn several groups with church and school, but it was mostly to keep me busy. For me, to be in a school with 3000 students was a huge change and very intimidating. My Middle High was big, but I knew most of the people. Clements High School was not the closest school to me, and most of friends did not go there with me. One my huge shortcomings is that I am very slow to meet people, and large situations make me very withdrawn, so to go to that huge place and not know anyone made me reclusive, and it took several years to come out my shell. The second most important thing that happened to me in High School was meeting an ugly guy with long hair, Darius Sitzman.
I met Darius at the church where I became Christian, but I did not start hanging out with him until my senior year of high school, his freshman year at The University of Texas. Darius and I hit it off really well because we were so different, yet shared a lot of the same hobbies. So that made our hanging out wit him comfortable, but exciting since we complemented each other. Going to the University of Texas was probably the best place for me (especially considering the alternatives, but we won't go there) because it was HUGE! I had always been afraid of large groups, so why I went to such a large place is beyond me, but it helped me to be my own person, since there were too many people to try to be like. Also, I had been sort of sheltered, so to be in a city so liberal like Austin opened my eyes to what the rest of the world is up to.
At the University I was super involved with Beta Upsilon Chi, a Christian Fraternity. Beta Upsilon Chi (BUX) was a great group of 50 guys committed to growing together in Christ while surviving in an alien world like Austin. Being a Christian and living in Austin could be seen as an oxymoron, so having these like minded guys around you made it more tolerable. Don't get me wrong though, I had a great time in Austin. Austin in awesome because it has so many opportunities for outdoors people, artsy people, party people and lazy people. I love that town! School itself was interesting. I got into UT based on an SAT score and good looks, because my high school GPA wasn't anything to brag about. Look at it this way, I didn't even know High Schools ranked their students until I saw college applications requesting the information, that was a shocker. I was not a study hound; I wasn't even a study mouse. My first semester at UT, as an undeclared major, I almost flunked out. After that shock of almost failing my first college semester, I learned how to study, and before I graduated, I raised my GPA to a 3! Yeah! I wasn't even a B student in High School, so to do it in college was a major coup! I went through about six majors at UT, finally settling on Education. In case you don't know, the current education of future educators is rather useless and time consuming. I know that's not PC, but in most cases you have professors telling you how they taught class 10-20 years ago, which has zero relevance to the current crop of students you will inherit.
Coming out of UT my choices of where to go were Austin and Dallas. Austin was a choice because it was what I knew and where I was already established. It was comfortable; I had a church, friends and an established social life. Dallas schools paid a ton more, but otherwise held no allure to me. As prayed about where to go and began interviewing, it became clear to me that there was only one logical choice, I had to drop everything and go to where I was least comfortable. Why not? It worked for High School and College!
My first job was in Arlington. I took over math classes for a teacher who left to have her child. My school was not exactly Disneyland. Nichols Jr. High has a great staff and a willing heart, but they face quite a battle. A large number of students at Nichols are at school because it's safer there than anywhere else. God used those six months to teach me how fortunate I was to have grown up where I did, and how little I knew about the world in my own front yard. Teaching the students who truly did not know, and truly did not need to know, and truly would never need what I taught helped me to understand that my role as a teacher is not just facts, but also relationships.
My second and current teaching job is at Wilson Middle School in Plano, Texas. Plano is a diverse city, leaning towards upper middle class. It has its super wealthy areas, home to the Cowboys, Rangers and Mavericks. It also has its more meager living areas, home to the good people who hold the less glamorous and respected occupations. Together they all come together at Wilson. Most schools capture a single economic range, but Wilson gets them all. For me that is best because I love the diversity and the individual differences.
My moving to Plano also brought about a change in churches. I had been attending Prestonwood Baptist, slowly being swallowed by the size of a 10,000 plus member church. For whatever reason, it was not a good place for me for whatever reasons. I was blessed to find a place like Northwest Bible Church. NBC was more my size and speed, and I found myself fitting in there much better, I love my singles class and the atmosphere it holds.
I guess that is the long and the short (literally) of my life. I left a lot of stuff out, and I wish I could tell you all everything, and I will, just ask me when you get the chance. If you haven't already, check out the real story, how Melissa and I met! Thanks for reading this far, God Bless! Charge
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