It’s ‘Rona Szn

Dear Marist,

What else can I possibly say besides thank you. Thank you for helping mold me into the man I am today. Thank you for giving me a welcoming place to go to five days a week, most times more. Thank you for introducing me to so many amazing people, new friends and teachers alike.

I came to you as a fourteen year old boy and walked out an eighteen year old young man. You were there through it all. You were there on my first day of high school when I didn’t know what to expect. You taught me what it means to have a work ethic through all the sleepless nights doing homework. You showed me what it means to live my faith, and how to connect with others. I’ll miss the retreats, decorating the chapel, and even the all school masses. But most of all, I’ll miss the people.

I don’t know what I did to deserve meeting some of the best friends a guy could ask for: Matt, Ben, Nik, Pete, Zack, Brian, Paddy O’, just to name a few. I came into Marist with some close friends, but I walked out with a brotherhood (K147 hold it down). I also leave Marist with an endless sea of mentors who have guided me on my journey: Mr. Glennon, Mr. Nicholson, Mrs. P, Mr. Lesher, Mr. Butler, Mrs. Giacobbe, Mrs. Cozzie, Mr. Harper, Deacs, just to name a very small amount of people in the building who have impacted me throughout the years.

With the people came the experiences. Honors math Brown’s Chicken and cream soda soirées, open houses, football games, homecoming, turnabout, bus rides down to ISU for state championships… Fireworks, Brother Rich playing bongos, coach Topps telling us to “CLEAR OFF YOUR TABLES!” These memories have been branded into my mind with a hot iron and they are not something I will soon forget.

Marist, you have given me everything and more. I guess this letter is my little way of thanking you. However, like a kid grows out of his clothes, I have almost outgrown you. It is almost time for me to move onto new things. As much as it pains me to say that. If time allowed me I would stay forever in some Neverland type dream where no one grew old and no one left, but real life isn’t like that. But I know when I come home, you’ll always be waiting for me. Students four years, brothers and sisters for life. Roll with the changes, Redhawks, and I’ll be seeing you soon. This is Tim Dahill, signing off for the last time.

#life2020 #marist #redhawks #brothersandsistersforlife

Expect the best, prepare for the worst. Expect the best, prepare for the worst. Maybe if I say it enough times what I expected will start to come into view…

JB Pritzker announced that all schools will be closed for the remainder of the year. Who would’ve thought our last times walking through Marist High School would be in March. The ironic thing is I made jokes with all of my friends on our last day in the building, saying, “Happy last day! It’s been real knowin’ ya!” What I would do to be able to actually savor that moment. To appreciate everyone around me and reflect on my high school journey. Poof. Gone. Our four years of hard work seemingly just stripped away. After expecting the best, reality decided to sucker punch me flat on my face.

“Imagine, for a moment, that you are in a hot classroom. First day. High school. You are sitting at a table. You are trying to learn Spanish and the teacher is a man calling himself Stephen (pronounced Steven). There are three other people sitting at the table with you and one of them is a really skinny kid que se llama Pete. You might be getting some flashbacks of fear now. If so, that is okay. Now, stop imagining.” This was an excerpt of the Kairos letter my friend Pete wrote to me. He was the first kid I met at Marist. One of the most stand up guys you’ll ever meet. I’m honored to call him a friend.

There are so many people, so many memories, so many experiences I wish I could share in the confines of 400 words. Dances, football games, late night drives, beach trips, bonfires, fireworks, parties… it goes on. This last month has felt like another four years all over again, except without my favorite people.

It’s the little things I’ll miss, too. I miss having nothing to do after school and saying hi to Mrs. Cozzie doing JUG. In the three years I’ve known her she’s never given me a JUG for my stubble. But I promise you she’s grilled me for it plenty of times. If she could see my beard now she’d probably smack me with a newspaper. I miss chatting with Mr. Harper about current events, talking to Deacs during lunch, listening to new tunes with Mr. Butler. The school itself may just be a building, but something special happens in the halls of Redhawk High.

Hey blog. I have nothing in particular to talk about, so I’m going to use this as a particular “organized chaos” to talk about everything going on in my life right now.

Snow?! Really… snow… way to kick us while we’re down mother earth. This is awful. Now we can’t even go outside during this national time-out for bad behavior. It feels like the entire population of earth was walking through a dark alley and got jumped by bi-polar weather, a worldwide pandemic, and an extended school year for the seniors. When can things go back to normal? We just want our lives back, and I’m starting to think they’re not going to be given back to us - we may have to take them back.

If that wasn’t enough, my friend Flynn got his car stolen sometime in the early hours of the morning. He lives right down the block from me so it could have just as easily been any of our cars. Mike and I along with a couple other friends have been on the police scanners listening to see if it would turn up. Mike’s dad still works in our district (22) so he’s been keeping an eye and an ear out to see if he could locate it. It was weird listening to the scanner. The sounds of the radio clicking on and off unlocked a tidal wave of memories of when I was little. My dad’s old beat used to be in the neighborhood and he would come by all the time. I remember being little and standing up on the little extra step of the Chevy Tahoe as I peered in the car to talk to my dad and his partner. I miss those days. That feels so far away now.

I have been biding my time recently with watching a show called JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. I took a long hiatus from watching it because the first season and a half is pretty boring, but Flynn told me to press on so I did. Once it picked up I could not stop watching. It’s a constant action filled acid trip of bright colors with an original plot. The plot centers around the Jostar family, who have extraordinary abilities that manifests itself in what is called “hamon, and later “stands.” They use their abilities to fight a family curse that they try and lift throughout generations of their family. The battles are insane and I went from season 2 to season 4 in around 3-4 days. If you can get through the first one and a half seasons, it’s a great watch after.

#life2020

Hey blog. Another day of nothing out of the ordinary, but what we now consider ordinary would be completely unheard of just a couple of months ago. Seniors, these are supposed to be the best days of our lives, and the longer this quarantine lasts, the more I don’t believe this to be true.

I needed an oil change in my car pretty bad so I had seldom been driving until I got an oil change yesterday. It’s not like I have anywhere to go, but I believe it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. So today I took my Buick Rendezvous out for a spin. I already know what you’re thinking, “Wow! What a crazy cool hot rod… he must get all the babes in that car that’s totally not for old people.” Yes, yes… it may be no jade green 1985 Monte Carlo, Mike… Or it may not be a cherry red 1976 Corvette Stingray, Golab… But for what it’s worth it scoots me around and has never failed me.

I took out the car, now running fresh as a spring chicken, to LaGrange Road. On the way there I chose a route with plenty of straights with minimal traffic so I could just open it up a little bit and make sure everything was in order. My favorite stretches of road lie between Cicero and Ridgeland on 115th, Roberts Road to LaGrange on 111th, and 111th and LaGrange to 87th (even though I only went to 95th). I would’ve went farther west on 95th but I forgot to tell my parents I was going out so I didn’t want to worry them too bad.

Driving gave me a chance to clear my head and evaluate where I am right now in life. Wherever I wind up in life, I just want to be happy. I think that’s the goal for everyone. I hate the looming expectations, the dread, the stress, the anxiety. We all want to make the right decisions, but we don’t know until after we’ve made them if they were the right ones. Hindsight is truly the only thing that has 20/20 vision. Right now my life just feels so out of my control, and I hope to soon be able to reclaim that.

As I was feeling all these almost overwhelming things, my favorite artist U2 came on the radio. Now, some of you will definitely think I’m crazy, but sometimes I feel like God talks to me through the radio. Whenever I’m not in a good frame of mind I always seem to find something to lift my spirits or something that fits my current situation. The rest of the car ride home were hits that I love and gave me a sense of comfort. Some of these include: Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits, Time after Time by Cyndi Lauper, and Against the Wind by Bob Seger. Keep your head high everybody, and remember, control what you can, and don’t stress about the rest. I’ll talk to you all when the next trio of blogs are due.

-Tim

#life2020

Hey blog. It’s currently 6:05 AM . I’m sitting down to a breakfast of eggs, mixed greens, and orange juice. Today was the first time I got to see the sun rise.

It all started two weeks ago when my long time best friends, DJ Wagner, Sean Joyce, and a couple others started waking up at 4 in the morning to ride their bikes. Why do they do this? I have no idea. But they always keep me on my toes which is why I love having them around. They had been nagging me for about two weeks to join them. I felt bad, so last night I finally caved.

I woke up to my alarm at 3:55. It’s not very hard for me to wake up when I have other people expecting me, but if I were to do this myself there was no chance I would’ve gotten out of bed. I already had my clothes and a bag ready for me so all I had to do was suit up, brush my teeth, and put some deodorant on.

I don’t know how often y’all go out at 4 in the morning, but it is so cold. Nothing like going from a nice cozy 72 in the house under your covers to a breezy and crisp 43. It definitely helped wake me up (even though I had two layers on). My friend DJ was a little late to wake up, but I was met in front of his house by none other than another long time best friend, Bill O’Connell. Of course, he had not even been to bed yet. This whole quarantine thing has made several of my friends nocturnal. We then went to go pick up other childhood friend Trevor Tovey. From there, our adventure had started.

There is no more peaceful time than when late night becomes early morning. It is astonishingly peaceful and serene. However, I was half asleep for the first half of the ride, and I knew if I was not moving, I would have fallen right back asleep.

We biked from Mt. Greenwood to Oak Lawn to the Wolfe wildlife trail behind the Marianos. For once, the trails and surrounding ponds were not infested with geese, which NEVER happens. If anyone knows where they go at night, please let me know. They are not in the trees, I promise you. We checked.

On the way back I got to see the sun start to rise. In my 18 years of life, I have never been up to witness a sunrise, not once. And honestly, there's no one else I would have wanted to share that with than those guys. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go pass out before they ask me to do it all over again.

#life2020

Hey blog. I find myself back in bed, typing away on my laptop with that same backlit keyboard helping me keep my home row finger placement. Accept this time I’m listening to Marty Robbins, not lofi. If you think you would enjoy rootin’ tootin’ six shootin’ cowboy ballads, give him a try.

I’ve been trying to keep myself busy the last couple of days. But what else is new? I found some cool stuff under my bed from a monthly subscription box called Lootcrate. I would get t-shirts and knickknacks and little projects to work on. I found a model of the Millenium Falcon from Star Wars that I spent about 2 hours putting together. Folding metal and fitting pieces together with less than a millimeter thick insertion points was tedious work. I’m mostly happy with how it turned out. I also found a DIY spectroscope that separates visible light. White light contains every color in the visible spectrum and what a prism allows you to do is seperate them. Have you ever seen the cover to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon? It’s like that. I just used some cardboard and part of a dvd. The picture I was able to get doesn’t do it justice. You’ll have to take my word for it that it is crystal clear.

Today was another beautiful day. I’m happy I was able to take advantage of it with an hour bike ride and stopping to visit my friend Mike on the way back. He was telling me about the new engine he got for his 1985 Monte Carlo, aka the Jaded Dragon. He was also trying to show me the workings of a 350 Chevy that he pulled from a ‘91 Trailblazer. I understood most of it, but there are times when you just have to nod and let him go.

Dinner tonight was pretty good. I made pork chops with a new dry rub I’ve been perfecting for chicken and pork. It has a nice bite to it, but there is more work to be done. After dinner I decided to resurrect a very old childhood pastime of mine, Club Penguin. It's not even that I’m desperate to find things to occupy my time, but this quarantine is actually giving me time to enjoy my life and break from routine. Looking back now, I had actually been wishing for that all year because I hated the monotony of school. It felt like my life was on pause, and I was just waiting for it to be over. I guess I got my wish after all. Oops. My friend Matt and I hopped on Club Penguin and played this card game called Card Jitzu. It requires no skill at all and I used to be really good and now I suck. Matt, if you’re reading this, I will beat you.

#life2020

Hey blog. My shorts are finally starting to fit in with the weather! Yesterday was absolutely beautiful. Everybody and their mother found their way outside yesterday. Just goes to show how many people care about this quarantine thing. It’s BOGUS. I mean, I understand be safe and blah blah blah.... But come on, no one really cares. People still go out and try and enjoy their life, despite what we are constantly being told by the media. Don’t let the man keep you down!

If you didn’t go outside yesterday on the first 70 degree day of the year, I honestly feel sorry for you. I’ve been enjoying myself so much the last 48 hours or so, but I have an unholy amount of homework for this weekend. Seniors should seriously get a pass. There’s no point to this garbage anymore. If I keep getting this amount of work, I’m straight up not going to do it. We get more than we would in school. It's ridiculous. Seniors, who’s with me on this?

Pushing my stupid busy work aside yesterday, I went out with my friends Pat Flynn and Mike Egan. We biked around and found our way to our friend Brian Kovaka’s house. He has an adorable little bulldog. We invited him out to get some fresh air, but he wanted to play it safe because his diabetes causes him to be “immuno-comprimised.” We then went to 7-11 for slurpees. Thankfully it was open. If I agree with the government on anything, it’s that slurpees are essential. But much to our dismay, the damn machine was out of like every flavor. Man, I was so angry. Flynn reconciled this with getting a pizza so, silver linings I guess.

I made cheeseburgers for dinner for my family, and after played a little Minecraft before laying down for a quick nap. Flynn got our next D&D campaign story ready for us so we all hopped on at 9. I’m really getting the hang of it and it’s been really fun! My class utilizes stealth so my team prioritized that to initiate attack. Everyone else then comes in with magic and badassery. Then our friend Nik comes in and grapples the remaining enemies and uses them as slaves (to put it bluntly). I forgot to mention that on the bike ride Flynn was hyping up this campaign so much and expected us to die, but we cut through it like a hot knife to butter. He was pretty mad, and is now taking the next week to come up with something much more challenging. We all worked together as a team, and had fun doing it. We’re catching on, and I expect we will keep getting better the more we play.

#life2020

Hey blog. It’s currently 10:08 P.M. I lay in my bed typing this on the laptop that Golab tuned up for me. My backlit keyboard helps me keep track of my finger placement. I have some chill beats on in the background. They’re called lofi, and I would recommend giving them a try sometime (shoutout to ChilledCow on Spotify and Youtube). It’s a good vibe.

I have nothing in particular to write about, but this blog has really helped me organize my feelings which I have trouble with sometimes. Good job Ms. Scanlon, you made me want to do my homework. Gold Star!

I got an email from Mr. Butler, my astronomy teacher, today. He replied to a previous email I sent just saying hi and checking up. I miss him a lot, honestly. His classes are the best and he shows me a lot of new music. He’s just an all around great guy, and it’s a shame this whole Kung-Flu may have already taken our last weeks of school from us.

I honestly didn’t do much today. I helped clean a little bit, pushed all my homework for the weekend, and played lots of Minecraft. I’m making a sick treehouse on Flynn’s realm. I don’t mean to brag but… who am i kidding? Yes I do. It’s SICK. Absolutely Ill. So damn sick you’ll have to wear a facemask if you get within six feet of it. My veteran skills of playing Minecraft when I was twelve are finally paying off.

I also played with my dogs a little bit today, two yellow labs named Grizz and Elsa. They’re brother and sister and they are the best companions you could ask for. Elsa is super smart but also really goofy. Grizz is just a big lazy oaf, but when we were choosing a dog to adopt he walked right up to me and sat on my lap, so the rest was history. Elsa was such a goofball today rolling in the grass. Grizz decided to stay up on the deck and lay in the shade.

Guess who was in another “treat yo’self” kind of mood today? Me, that’s who. I made myself an awesome ribeye on the grill with some fresh green beans and corn. Let me be the first to tell you, that SLAPPED. I wish my Dad was there to share it with me. Also, let me also be the first to tell you that if you like your steak cooked any more than medium, you’re doing it wrong.

I’ve got some exciting things in the works for this weekend. Another D&D campaign led by Flynn and mayhaps a biking expedition. Stay tuned. Stay safe.

#life2020

Hey blog. Everything in my life is perfect! It’s amazing. I’m in such a good mood and nothing can change that!

APRIL FOOLS. Oh my God if you actually believed that you’re a fool. As I currently write this my head is about to explode. I’m going to attempt to use this medium as a way to vent in the nicest way possible.

I can’t wait for college. I really can’t. My family is going to make my head explode. Do you know how draining it is watching your special needs sibling? Most of the time, she’s great. She has plenty to do and it’s smooth sailing. This quarantine has made her restless and she gets irritated very easily. You would think because I work with special needs kids and adults for a living that I could handle her very easily. But 99% of the special needs people I work with LISTEN, and she does not. I’m convinced I’m going to die of a heart attack caused by high blood pressure because of the stress.

Okay… I’m gonna stop before I get in too deep. Deep breaths… deep breaths… Happy thoughts. Count to ten…

Okay! Everything in my life is going just dandy. My schoolwork is complete. My friend Matt Golab (shoutout) tuned up my laptop so I could hop on Minecraft with the boys. We even had a board game night last night over Discord and I learned how to play dungeons and dragons for the first time. While that may not sound very “cool” and “hip” and “totally gnar gnar” the game is what you make of it. And let me tell you, it was pretty damn funny.

I created my character, McLovin the rogue. I even gave him a fake Hawaii driver’s license. If you don’t get the McLovin reference, please watch Superbad. You’re missing out. Barely into the adventure, Mike’s character (who I will call “Burningtoast 123’s character because he’s a boomer and couldn’t figure out how to properly name his character so that was the characters actual name) starts whistling along this trail and straight up gets us into a battle with a pack of wolves. Flynn told us this campaign had 3 total battle encounters, 2 of which were optional. Of course we fought through all 3 because we were loud and haphazard. Luckily we completed our mission and everyone survived. Flynn’s crafting up the next story for Friday, so this should be interesting.

#life2020

Hey blog. The last day and a half have felt like an eternity. I feel like I’m in some sort of hellish purgatory mixed with a Groundhog Day nightmare. If I don’t have things to do to keep my mind busy I often get in my own head and get very sad. I isolate myself from my friends and am left to my own devices. I’ve noticed I’ve been on edge lately, and so has my mom. The only thing that’s been keeping me sane is playing my favorite band almost nonstop, U2.

I discovered U2 when I was around 15, weirdly the same age my dad found them. They’re his favorite band too. Since then the rest is history. It’s very hard to put into words what this band means to me, although I can give you examples. I could ramble on and on about them forever, so I will try to keep it around the minimum word length.

There are certain songs that almost never fail to bring me to tears because I find them so moving. If you gave me almost any U2 song I could tell you what album it’s from. I can tell you the years when each album was released. (Happy late 33rd to their most successful album, The Joshua Tree!). Lyrically, I know the motivations of many of their popular songs off War, The Unforgettable Fire, and The Joshua Tree. I have watched hours of footage of their interviews on youtube. I can even tell the year an interview or concert takes place by looking at what Bono is wearing. Some say I’m obsessed, but I just like to consider myself passionate. I find their music to be extremely moving.

Originally a small Irish band from Dublin, Ireland Larry Mullen Jr. (drums), Adam Clayton (bass), David Evans (lead guitar, known as The Edge), and Paul Hewson (Bono, frontman) were just four normal teenagers. That all changed when Larry Mullen put up a flyer on the bulletin board at school that he was trying to form a band. Originally calling themselves “Feedback” and later “The Hype”, they practiced in Larry Mullen’s kitchen, eventually working their way from small gigs to their first record deal at Island Records. Their first two albums, Boy (1980) and October (1981), flew under the international radar until making strides in hits like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Year's Day” in their third album, War (1983). They would build off that success in The Unforgettable Fire (1985) and eventually reach superstardom and earn album of the year and the title “Rock’s Hottest Ticket” with their 1987 album The Joshua Tree.

I would like to keep going but I won’t bore you for that long. But, if you are looking for a new and unique sound with songs that tell beautiful stories, you know where to go. U2 is unlike any other, and without them, I don’t know where I’d be today.

Hey blog. I have good news and bad news. I got Oberweis last night! So expensive, but man, they make a mean chocolate milkshake. It even comes with the little chocolate wafer straw thing! However, this is where my luck would run out.

Another day of busy work and sitting around. My legs constantly feel like when you stretch them for the first time after a five hour car ride. I barely even see my dad anymore, who is one of my best friends. The city has him working anywhere from twelve to eighteen hours a day, as if this pandemic hadn’t taken enough things away from me already. I used to think the saying “work yourself to death” was just an expression but not anymore. For his sake, I hope this all passes by sooner rather than later.

As we were finishing the chicken parm I made for dinner, I got a call from none other than Mike Egan.

“Ready for another run?” He said.

“Born ready,” I replied.

“Good, be ready in five,” He said. And just like that I sprung into action, grateful I again had a reason to leave the house. It was a rather cold and rainy day, but I was dressed in just shorts and a short-sleeve hoodie. This is how I normally dress to lounge around the house because it’s comfortable, even in winter. Summer is when my outfits really shine because I can come and go as I please without having to change into something more ‘appropriate’ for the conditions. However, in an obvious protest to the cold weather (despite it being late March), I kept what I had on and threw a flannel colored blanket over me like a medieval cloak and rushed out the door. I think subconsciously, if I wear summer attire long enough, my fashion statement will force a change in the weather.

And just like that we were off to fetch Mike’s family dinner at Gyro Grill at 159th and Harlem. My years of learning Greek swears from Mike was about to pay off.

“If you say anything stupid while we’re in there I’m going to drop your body in the Cal-Sag with cinderblocks tied to your ankles,” Mike said. Maybe I spoke too soon…

As I gazed upon the magnificent mountain of food that was only meant for a family of four, Mike also added a couple Greek sodas for me to try. I tried a licorice flavored pop called Ouzon and wow, it was different all right, but a good different. We also got Oberweis on the way home because we were in a very “treat yo’self” kind of mood.

Upon returning home, we would find that our luck had run out, and the angel of death did not pass over us this time. Mike’s mom has the app on her phone that can track his movements 24/7 and my house is a couple blocks east from him, completely opposite of the way he had to go. We will have to plan better next time for our next master plan, but for now, Mrs. Egan, if you’re reading this, thank you for the milkshake. It was delicious.

#life2020

3/24

Corona-cation hasn’t been much of a vacation as much as it has been the seventh circle of Hell. Just this morning I was running around my house like I was being chased by Wile E. Coyote attempting to make breakfast for my family while looking through a Mariana’s Trench of Canvas folders for the days assignments. If I’m not organized with my schoolwork I became stressed very easily so I have to compile everything from every teacher and it is a giant hassle between the emails, announcements, modules, Zoom video conferences, and whatever else I’m sure I’ve already missed.

Today was legitimately the first time I’ve been outside in a while. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to go out and do things, but the weather has been as cold and depressing as a diabetic kid trick-or-treating so I’ve resorted to becoming a hermit. Also, because of the quarantine situation no one is leaving to do anything which is a major bummer. However, today my luck changed.

My excursion started with walking to the store with my friend Flynn for some things to make dinner with. It’s crazy how big of an event walking to the store is amidst a global pandemic. No March Madness. No movie theaters. No fun. This is what it’s come down to for some actual human interaction. After leaving the house we saw just how much of a ghost town the south-west side had become.

As if seeing ONE of my best friends for the first time in ages for a Jewel run wasn’t enough of a treat, I got to see ANOTHER one of my best friends, Mike Egan, or as I like to call him, BIG. He sprung me from the house after being told specifically not to see any of his friends, because that’s just the kind of rough and tough rebel he is. So, first we picked up dinner for his family. However, in order for myself to stay incognito I had to hide in the back so his mom does not see me when he comes home with the food. I kid you not, I felt like a German Jew hiding from the Gestapo in 1945. To make matters worse, she came out to help Mike. With my back pressed against his rear passenger side door, I peered upward to just make out his mom out of the corner of my eye. I almost had a heart attack, but luckily the angel of death passed over me and I live to see another day.

The rest of the night consisted of picking up Mike’s new computer and having a chat with Dean O’Neil and Mr. Brennan, who both called to check in on Mike and I. When I got home, I found out my sister had flooded my parents bathroom. I haven’t seen my mom that mad in a long time. The angel of death again passed over me. We will see if I’m this lucky in the upcoming days.

Until next time,

Tim

#life2020