This is Tommie: All bad things come to an end too.

Well, after the homecoming ball we didn't officially break up but the relationship was over emotionally. I took her as low as she could go. She still had the fact that she was smarter than me so that were her edge if she could beat me in school then she was ok so she put all her energy into being the smartest. Around senior year I wasn't attracted to brains I was attracted to tits. So her attempts to best me were null. I had been invited to the kingdom of cool, I had offically made it. I wasn't playing her game.

Well back to college U of M cost 21k a year that was expensive, I mean I knew I had a full ride but, I had to keep a 3.0 average (B average).

Some how my folks said why don't you look at a historically black college. See in the states White folks when thru three phases when it came to the education of Blacks

1. They didn't want blacks to read at all
2. If they did learn how to read then they could at their own school.
3. If it's against the law, then I guess they have to learn with us.

HBCU are what we got in stage 2. It's were in the 1890 till probably the mid 1980s where blacks when almost exclusively to get their college educations. They weren't allowed to go to White schools. Well Tennessee State University had an engineering school that had a 96% employment rate out of its graduates it was 8k a year I was eligible for a full ride scholarship if I went to this summer school program (man was that a joke) but, the thing was when I went to that school they had some of the most beautiful black women I had ever seen in life. If I were to die and go to heaven it would have been TSU. I was sold if I could get into TSU I would never ask for anything again.

Well, that was the final, final straw with Daria when I told her I was going to go to a Black school she was incredulous. I was like whatever. So at our graduation our Valedictorian, Salutatorian, and Senior Speaker were to speak. Well the school had a contest for the Sr. Speaker and of course I won. I'm an excellent public speaker, she was pissed that I beat her on that. So she had a hissy fit and they made a special speaking role called Star Student for the student with the highest SAT score in our school, which just HAPPENED to be her (my SAT score would have been off the chain if I took it 3 times too). Well, everyone that spoke had a well wishing speech except her she had some diatribe basically going off on all the people that slighted her in the past 12 years with a special nod to me. I mean she didn't say any names but everyone knew the people she was referring to. I remember when she came up with that speech I begged her not to do it because she was going to make people mad, and at this stage of the game it was too late to try and get back at everyone. She said she was going to change BUT she was going to win. I was so mad at her for that I didn't speak to her again. Well not again she sent me some letter during the first week of college just to insure I got her message. I didn't talk to her again until after I graduated from college and I could tell that the bitterness was still there.

And you know what? I can't blame her.

But, at the same time she didn't know what my ultimate goal. The whole point of me doing what I did in high school was to make sure my brother didn't have to go through the same things I did. I know he hated being Tommie's little brother and he was always compared to me in school by our teachers but, the way I see it at least he was compared to someone cool instead of a punk. I think that would have been worse.