He's Not Last In My Class

Yesterday evening Marty and I went out for a couple of subs and a glass of red wine. Somehow I happened to mentioned that I went to Cornell University, though Marty already knew it. One thing led to another and Marty began talking about his high school academics. I somehow knew that he probably was not a particularly good student, but I had no idea how scholastically challenged he was. He confessed that he might have graduated last in his class. He is not sure, but he admitted that there is that possibility. He remembers getting a memo at the end of his senior year saying that he needed to pass certain final exams just to qualify for graduation. Marty half jokingly and half sadly stated that after four years of high school it came down to the final few days in his high school career as to whether he was going to get his diploma.

Like I said, I was surprised by the magnitude of his learning inabilities, but I was not surprise that some existed. When we are reading the same thing at the same time, I always finish long before Marty finishes. Sometimes he has to read things twice and even three times. His apartment does not have much in the way of reading material.

To be completely honest; sometimes I cannot believe he is as sharp as he is. On the other hand, while I watch things like Dancing With the Stars and Survivor, Marty watches The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, Nova and The American Experience. His DVR has nothing but educational stuff recorded on it. It almost embarrasses me.

Anyway, yesterday evening Marty stated that he believes that because of his lack of academic aptitude, his ex-wife too often ignored his thoughts and musings. His former wife is a medical lab tech and has a college degree, so maybe Marty isn’t altogether wrong about that.

Over the last few months I have talked about Marty with a couple of girlfriends who are yet to meet him. Though they do not know him, I think they might look down on him a bit simply because I cannot adequately describe him. It’s a little frustrating.  

I sometimes imagine a party where these girls are gathered together sipping wine coolers. I present my guy and then I step back and watch. What I would see would be after a moment of skepticism from the girls, they would become entranced by Marty’s humor, insight and perception. Off to the side, I would smile and think; well ladies, what do you think of him now? Of course I would already know.