A Carpe Diem Moment: My Name on a Plaque at North Central High School, Indianapolis, Indiana

March 7, 2018

I got into a fun exchange with my sister, on the way home from work the other day. Out of nowhere, she just sends me this photo of a plaque. And it’s got my name on it!

Apparently, I won some award back in 1992 – the Arion Foundation Award for Outstanding Musical Achievement? And it’s posted somewhere in my old high school: North Central High School, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

I learned that Stacey showed Jahnu my name, and he was blown away. And after the performance, she got to show my name to Jasmine as well.

I felt pretty cool about the whole situation (though I really don’t remember anything about this at all). Weird that my name is on a thing somewhere, in a display, in my high school.

After reflecting on this whole incident, I started to think about my mortality. My birthday is fast approaching (two days from today), and I’m going to be 44. And so of course, this whole “name in a display case” thing made me think of the Carpe Diem scene from Dead Poets Society:

Oh, and in his classic speech Robin Williams says “the world is their oyster,” too. Fantastic.

I joked with Liz that I dislike birthdays, because it just peppers the world with reminders of death and mortality everywhere. The impending day seems to highlight these little moments.