This is the story of a guy looking back into his past, where he used to be his high school’s meteorologist. It’s a short and disjointed story with video footage of an 18-year-old version of said guy, which isn’t that much different from the present day version.
In what seems to be a long time ago, I used to be a high schooler.
As many of you already know, I attended Bridgewater-Raritan High School which resided in the typical upscale township of Bridgewater, New Jersey. No, my family wasn’t what you would call upscale. The typical New Jersey township is split into two sections, the valley and the hills. If you lived on the hills, you were rich. If you didn’t, you were not. I say this because every New Jersey town I ever visited fit that mold. For every magnitude of elevation, you would have a proportional number of garages. But I digress. :)
In that high school, which seems like I went to only yesterday, I did a lot of things. It was sort of like the first whack against my extremely dense introverted shell. I tried running for freshman class president, even though nobody knew me. Ran on the platform of, “I’m not popular like the rest of the candidates,” and got 2nd place. I found my love for business there amongst other things. I also made some awesome friends whom I’ve unfortunately lost touch with.
But one thing that may have slipped my mouth at one time or another was the fact that I was my school’s meteorologist. Yes, our school had a news network on closed-circuit television complete with news, sports and (obviously) weather. I joined the crew in my freshman year and immediately loved being there. One could say that my interest in graphic design stemmed from that place.
By the time junior year came around, I decided to try my luck at standing in front of the camera. It wasn’t awesome, but I did have a lot of enthusiasm. But I tried to add a lot to the program in terms of maps, graphics and other little quirks which the students responded well to. Every week, I’d come in dressed in a suit and tie, just like my predecessors. I tried to predict the weather as well and on some occasions, I was surprisingly accurate, more-so than the guys on TV. ;) Senior year came and I obviously wanted another year. So I got my wish. We also added a co-host, Jean Lutkenhouse, who obviously boosted the viewership amongst the guys. All-in-all, it was an awesome experience that I remembered quite fondly.
Fast-forward to the present day. A few weeks ago, I decided to email my old advisor, Richard Rowe to see if he still had the master of Weather Center Live. He did and transfered it from VHS to DVD and sent it over. Well, that’s what I have to show you today:
That’s 18-year-old Bryan and Jean. This is also provided as it was shown to the students, VHS tracking and all. As to not over-emdbed this post, here’s a link to the tag on Viddler. What you’ll see above was what we would refer to as a “normal” episode. If you happen to be bored enough to look through them all, you’ll find gems such as:
- Bryan getting a bat thrown at him.
- Complete and utter video mixer breakdown.
- Choreography mishaps.
- Many things that any normal person would refer to as, “embarrassing.”
As Jen says, “It’s never as good as you remember it, right?” I would have to agree with that. At any rate, enjoy and get a good laugh out of it. :)
I used to live in Bridgewater!! :)
Small world my friend. Small world. :)
Bryan must be a pimp when he was in High School :)
Nope, I was the exact opposite. :P
Epic win.
You da man, Bryan! Thanks for sharing this.
That was classic! :D
I got the impression this video was more ‘Weather Presenting’ than in-depth Meteorology (but it was High School, so that makes sense). I’ll admit to this - here on your site - that I actually studied Meteorology for some of my degree at University (what does that tell you about me eh?!!) Haha!
I actually wanted to get into it after doing this Matt. I was seriously thinking of it until I remembered how much science wasn’t really my thing. It was such a compelling subject and definitely something I enjoyed talking about, but obviously business had more of a hold on me. :)
Not too terrible for a high schooler! I did cringe once or twice, though. But, lived through it right? Good for you, the courage it took and the effort you made!
You were a cutie pie in high school! That took a lot of guts, good for you!
I expect that the experience of doing the weather on the school’s tv network helped to develop the self-confidence that you now have. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger! Kudos!
High school is a hard place to find your self-confidence but good for you for reaching out to find it. An opportunity like this should be available to all high school students. Could do wonders for when they are left out in this hard cold world.
For a teenager, you did pretty good! I agree with KeeKee, it would be good if opportunities like this were available to all high schoolers. Good for you for having the courage to stand in front of the camera and let the student body watch you report the weather!