Si Senor (with accent over the i and tilde over the n)

         At the end of ninth grade I signed up for both Latin II and Spanish I to take my sophomore year of high school.

           This prompted a summons to the guidance counselor's office.

            Mr. Wilson was my counselor all through junior high, which included ninth grade. The only time I had ever talked to him before this end-of-ninth-grade meeting was in seventh grade when he came to our English class to introduce himself and explain what he did at the school. At the end of the class, when the kids were leaving the room, Mr. Wilson stopped me and asked, “Are you related to Bernard Des Soye?” That was my Uncle Bernie, one of my Dad's older brothers. He was also my godfather. I knew his name was really Bernard, but I pronounced it Ber nard with the accent on the nard, but Mr. Wilson said it Ber nerd with the accent on the Ber and the second syllable like nerd. It sounded so funny. But I said yes he was my uncle, and Mr. Wilson said he had gone to school with Bernard in South Bufffalo.

            That was the extent of my interaction with my junior high guidance counselor until that final month of ninth grade almost three years later.

           When I got to his office that spring day of ninth grade, Mr. Wilson said he was concerned about my overdoing it sophomore year. It was unusual for someone to take more than one foreign language at a time. He worried that the classes could bring my average down if I was spreading my study time too thin – and that could hurt my chances for college. He strongly advised that I drop either the Latin or the Spanish and replace it with a study hall so there would be time for me to work on the other, difficult, classes I would be taking.

           I despised study halls.

          But I decided to follow Mr. Wilson's advice because he was the big person, and maybe he knew what he was talking about. I dropped Spanish and kept Latin II.

          At the end of tenth grade, I signed up for both Latin III and Spanish I to take my junior year of high school. There was no concern expressed over my choice by whoever my new guidance counselor was. 

         The grades from Spanish I and Latin III brought my class average up.

270 20150927 Si Senor (with accent over the i tilde over the n)