Details, Details

Surfing on Cardboard comes from a distinct memory from middle school which anybody who attended Albuquerque Academy would remember. 6th grade is all about getting aquatinted with the school and making new friends, but 7th grade takes you in a completely new direction. Torn between two pods, Red Chile and Green Chile, students have completely different memories of that year. For me, I was in the Red Chile pod. My friendships from 6th grade slowly faded away as we were separated by pod, which meant we didn't have any classes together, the root of middle school friendships.

The most distinct memory I have comes from the Red Chile pod camp-out on the Academy campus. I can still smell the Mac & Cheese we cooked on Dane's mini stove and the hot dogs we roasted on the George Foreman grill. That night, we all brought cardboard boxes to make forts out of to sleep on the soccer field, under strict supervision of course. About 8 of us guys tried to make the best fort, which yielded some meaningless prize, but our fort just fell to pieces and we just slept under the stars. The night was filled with sophomoric crushes, truth or dare, and other adolescent games that involved both sexes. However, the picture that still hangs on my wall today is a memory I won't soon forget. While the girls of the pod spent their time gossiping, we boys were messing around with spare cardboard pieces, riding them down hills as if they were a new skateboard or the grass hills were the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Peknik, our science teacher, was messing around with a new camera lens and snapped a photo of all of us in mid-air, cardboard under our feet. That night, we were kings of the mountain and this picture proves it, as we fly higher than the Sandias in the background.