There was a time in my life when I had few friends and the kids my age really didn’t accept me. So, I always forced myself to work harder and be better than anyone else. It’s just this drive had a big effect on my life today!
In the last few chapters of my life story, I’ve been telling you about some experiences I’ve had one thing. I forgot to mention up to now is my school days. When I was young, I really loved school. There was always so much to learn and I was usually engrossed in some new subject. Later on, when I got into high school, other things like football were more important than the scholastics, but still I always kept my grades up.
It’s funny, and in grade school and junior high school I hated math, but I did very well in it, probably because it’s scientific in a way and I dug science. History never seemed too important to me because I didn’t feel it would have any value to me later on in life. How wrong can you be? Here I am right in the middle of history by playing a logger in 1880 Seattle! Whether or not I liked the subject, I always tried to apply it to the things I would do outside of school.
MY OWN OBSERVATORY
Like I said, I love science and one Saturday my family and I went to the Griffith Park Observatory and I really dug it. While I was watching the show they have at the observatory I decided I wanted one too. As soon as I got home that afternoon, I began thinking of ways I could earn enough money to buy a telescope. My first idea was to cut lawns, so I went all around the neighborhood for the next weekends and after school cutting lawns; and my mother also let me do small jobs for her like washing windows and things like that.
Before long I had enough money to buy a cheap telescope. But as you may have guessed, this wasn’t enough for me. I had to have a whole Observatory of my own! So, naturally, I went to work building one from cardboard boxes until I had my own little Observatory right in our garage. It was a real gas! I set the telescope facing right up to the moon and I’d spend hours in the evening watching the stars and the moon.
FIRST ASTRONAUT
Because this had really sparked an interest in space, I was terribly excited about the first astronaut going up! My mom was so groovy, she let me stay home from school the morning the astronaut went up and I watched the whole thing on television. It was fantastic! After the spacecraft came back down, they show the inside of the cockpit on the news one night and I remember wanting desperately to build the cockpit of an astronaut’s capsule.
The reason I spent so much time building all these things was because I never spent much time playing with other kids in my very early teens. Looking back, I think the reason I didn’t have many friends is because I didn’t really try to have them. I was so wrapped up in my own little world of fantasies that I was just content to be alone. It was during this time that I built the project I’m most proud of.
DISNEYLAND REPLICA
I had been to Disneyland many times and I always thought it was a magical and wonderful place. It was one rainy afternoon that I got the idea to build a Disneyland of my own. The first stages of the park were started with the little bits of wood and things I found in our garage. As I really began to get into the project, my dad would take me down to the lumber yard to buy the right kind of wooden glues and things I’d need to make it really special.
The whole project took several months to complete. I did it when I was 13 and 14 years old. This project was tougher than any I had done before, because it was very much smaller than the actual size. Before I’d always made things out of cardboard boxes which were very used to work with, but my Disneyland replica was very tiny so that the whole park could fit onto a series of huge boards. When I finally glued the last details on the front and painted the last little building, I could hardly believe I had done it. My parents were so proud, too, that they called the newspaper office and reporter and a photographer came out and did a whole story about it! Wow! My first taste of publicity!
PROUD OF MYSELF
There was something much more than a feeling of accomplishment that went along with completing the Disneyland replica. It was because of this that I began to think that maybe I had something to offer to the world two. I believe every person on this earth has something to contribute to our world, whether it be kindness, a special talent or anything like that. Everyone has some special little talent, all his own, going for him. Finally, I realize that I had something to. I was no longer a nobody.
Now that I finally realized, I felt I had to let the kids I know realize too. To make them notice, everything I did from then on, I forced myself to do better than anyone else. I became interested in baseball for a while. For me it wasn’t just enough to make the team, I had to work so hard that I skipped the Little League and was playing with guys much older than me. I’d catch the ball even though it hurt sometimes, just prove that I was as good or better than the other kids. I really took things to an extreme, but I don’t think it did me too much harm, because it began to bring me out of my shyness.
CHANGED MY LIFE
This great drive I had also had a good effect in that it made me realize that I could apply this energy to anything I wanted. It’s sort of like the power of positive thinking. If you really believe in yourself and believe that you can do something, you will do it. For a while I dreamed of being a psychiatrist, then a television cameraman, then a producer and then a director. Today I’m doing all those things in one way or another. I can play psychiatrist by analyzing the parts I play. I can be a cameraman by sitting behind the camera on the set when they’re not shooting. I produce some of my own songs and I can direct in my own mind as we shoot “Brides.”
I’ve often thought about what I could do today if I could choose any job in the world I’d like to do. And every time I think about it, I come to the same conclusion–I wouldn’t change what I have today. I’m doing everything I ever dreamed of doing all wrapped up in one job!
In Chapter 6 I’ll tell you about my high school memories and how I first became interested in music.
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