The first thing I remember is being with many other people in a place that was something like a football academy.  It was like I was a teenager, probably high school age, as I recall a brief flash of a girl who was in one of my German classes, Lauren, was there — she was a year ahead of me, among the kids who were drinking and sexually active at the time.  Anyway, the main thing about the situation at this academy was how I was at odds with the instructors.  Basically it felt like I was getting in trouble for being myself — there were several instances of a teacher making a request or laying out an agenda, and I would express some doubt or confusion about the plan, asking why or resisting immediate cooperation.  At first I was given a warning, but then I couldn’t help but ‘push it’ too far, then suddenly was given ten hours of some mandatory disciplinary protocol, like detention.  The guy who ordered this for me had a strong resemblance to current football pundit, ex-player, ex-manager Graeme Souness.

I showed up to this detention appointment with him, which was more like a one-on-one personal meeting.  I got the sense that I wasn’t so much a ‘problem’ student for the staff as much as I was just precocious– pointing out problems or absurdities that they could not account for in the curriculum did not make their life any easier.  They didn’t want to punish me as much as help me find a perspective to take it easier, in stride with less friction.  So the two of us sat on a wall, overlooking a seemingly benign landscape of something like a park or harbor.  At first I was expecting some lecture about the expectations the school had for my behavior, etc, but it was more just about finding a way to be calm, even when feeling confined by the school’s traditional format.  As we sat there, my legs were shoulder-width apart, but that made the space feel cramped next to Graeme, so he demonstrated and suggested I cross my legs with one knee over the other, adjusting the contact point on the calf to make it suitably comfortable.  He just kept looking forward, saying “That’s it…” in an encouraging way.

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