One of my last projects
in my sophomore art class was to make a self-portrait. I was sent to the next
room and walked in curiously. A tall man with salt and pepper hair stood with
his back to me washing his hands in the sink at the back of the room.
“Hello? I need to use the light table,” I said.
The man turned around and smiled. I could now see that he
wore oval-shaped glasses and thought how they just seemed to add to his
character.
“Hello, the light table is over here.” He pointed to a
small white table in the corner of the room.
For the remainder of that year, I completed my project in
his room.
“ Mr. Herman?” I asked him one day as I finished up
my self-portrait. “My brother won’t teach me how to use Adobe Photo shop. Is
there a class I could possibly take next year?”
“Yes, we do
have a class that teaches Adobe Photoshop.” Mr. Herman explained. “ But it only
lasts two semesters.”
I smiled, “ Thank you, Mr. Herman!”
It was now
the beginning of my junior year in high school. I walked into a room that was
vaguely familiar. It was Mr. Herman’s classroom. Only the room was moved around
just a tad. There was a podium in front
of a group of tables.
“Pleas sign
your name on the chart and class will begin,” Mr. Herman said.
So I took
out a pen from my book bag and signed the chart that was being passed around.
“What do
you think CS stands for?” Mr. Herman asked. He stood in front at the podium and
smiled at the students sitting at the tables.
One of them
raised a hand and said, “Counter Strike?”
Laughter
rippled around the round. Counter Strike, at that time, was the most popular
computer game to play. Even Mr. Herman found this answer funny and laughed.
“CS is the
official Computer Language computers use amongst each other to communicate.”
As the day
progressed Mr. Herman explained how computers used numbers to communicate with
each other instead of words. Later on
enduring the class, we had a choice of the computer we would use to do our work
and so began my relationship with Mr. Herman. I picked the seat furthest from
him and closest to the door.
“Class,
your project is to create a moving truck in Flash,” Mr. Herman told us the
began his the next morning. He then explained how most web sites used Flash in
the interface their web site.
I followed
the instructions, but Flash was more complicated and hard to work on. I pushed
it away and worked on another project. I began to talk more to Mr. Herman,
about little things like how the cutting machine worked.
I’m not
talking about a tiny cutting board. I’m talking about a huge machine that cut
stacks of one hundred fifty to two hundred fifty pieces of paper at a time. But
the paper-cutting machine didn’t have a safety device to keep it from cutting
off any stray fingers. Later on in the year, Mr. Herman had one installed.
As the year
progressed and I asked my questions about the equipment in Mr. Herman’s room we
became closer to one another. Some of my projects were excused just because I
helped Mr. Herman complete some of his daily tasks. I began to enjoy the
moments I spent just talking to him, and found every way possible to spend the
most amount of time in his class.
Later on in
the year, I bought myself a new laptop. This came in handy for the second
portion of my junior year and the Adobe Photoshop class that taught us how to
manipulate photos. This was the class I had been waiting for and I already had
Adobe Photoshop installed onto my laptop and a USB flash drive to transport my
work.
Listening and intently watching during Mr. Herman’s
demonstration on projects, I began to catch on a lot quicker. I actually
completed my work in Adobe Photoshop. But in my free time I also began to fool
around with a video-making program called Ulead Video Studio. Then it was Mr.
Herman’s turn to ask the questions.
“Hey, what
are you doing?”
“I’m making
a video for my you tube account. My brother loaded it in my computer and I
figured since I completed my work, I’d work on my videos.”
I looked at
Mr. Herman with a bit of a smile. I was a little nervous, but I had wanted to
show him my project. I wanted him to be proud of me.
He smiled
and asked, “What’s the name of the program?”
“It’s
called Ulead Video Studio. Do you want to see my first project?”
“Sure.” Mr.
Herman said with a smile as he sat down beside me.
I handed
him the earphones and he put them on. Then I pressed play and he watched my
whole video.
“That was
good.” He said and took off the earphones and went back to his own tasks.
The class
was assigned a project to create an image that would be heat pressed onto a
shirt. I used Felix The Cat on mine. With Felix it simply said, “ You never
know who likes you…” on the front and “ Until you open you eyes,” on the back.
Soon after this I began to come to
his class in the morning time. Before the bell for homeroom even rang. “So, Mr.
Herman, what are you going to do today?” I said as I began to draw on the
freshly inserted white boards with his markers.
“I’m
getting a Green Screen and dividers to put back here.” Mr. Herman was at the
back of the room, moving stuff into a compartment where he stored his
equipment.
“What’s a
Green Screen?” I asked.
“It’s a
system that allows you to put a different background or foreground and allows
you to add neat camera effects. You can even take your own personal pictures
and insert them into the system.”
Mr. Herman
then brought me a piece of paper that said “VIDEO PRODUCTIONS” on the top with
a brief description stating that it was going to teach students how to make
professional videos.
“By next
year, I will have twenty-three digital cameras,” he said. “I am planning to
open a Video Production class. But I have to get at least forty-three people to
sign up for the class or else the class won’t make it. I’m inviting you to sign
up for this class because I thought you might like it.”
I smiled
and signed my name after the twenty-three students who had already signed up,
thus sealing my fate for a very interesting senior year.
The first
day of my senior year, I could hardly wait. I went back to the same routine and
stepped into the classroom I loved the most. Mr. Herman stood near a table in a
tight white sleeveless shirt. He had a hair drier in one hand and a semi wet
T-shirt in the other. He was blow-drying it.
“ Good
morning, Mr. Herman.” I could feel some blush rushing to my face and could only
hope it wasn’t noticeable.
At this
point in time, I had honestly developed a crush on Mr. Herman. I had become
fond of him and practically idolized him. I knew he was older than me and
believe me, nothing extreme happened. It was nothing more then a close bond of
friendship.
Mr. Herman
smiled and slipped the semi-wet shirt on, still blow-drying it.
“Good
morning, Daphine.”
“What
happened?” I asked as I laughed a little at him drying his shirt with a hair
dryer. I had never seen anybody dry anything but hair with a hair dryer until
that day.
“Mr.
Charles turned the hose on down in the mechanic shop before I picked it up and
it got me all wet.” Mr. Herman chuckled.
I laughed
along with him and it began our year together.
During
Video Productions class I had the advantage. Once again, completing my work on
time, I became a mega help to the students in the room who didn’t understand
how to use Video Studio. Mr. Herman embarked on this class without fully knowing
how to use Video Studio. So my seat went from the furthest away from him, to
sitting right next to him. With my free time, I taught Mr. Herman a lot about
the different things you can do with Video Studio.
Then came
the Green Screen, the most exciting new thing he ever invested in. I was proud
to be one of the first to fiddle around with it. I was the object at least five
studio lights were pointed at.
“Is it
working?” I asked one of my friends.
“No, we
need to make it tighter,” Kyle said, smiling as he and Heather began to pull
the lime green fabric against the wall tightly and stapled it against the wall
this time. The green screen was now in play and able to be used for the
projects to come.
One of the
best things I remember about Video Productions class was when I took a hall
pass and a camcorder and then went outside with it. This was not particularly
allowed, the doors of the school automatically locked, but I used a pencil to
keep it open. I then went and sat under a tree for the whole period. I was
relaxing and taping birds flying around in the air. Of course, I brought the
camcorder back and put it away when it was almost time to pass class.
Near the
end of the year in May, I showed Mr. Herman my Photography Course and told him
that I had enrolled in it. I negotiated with Mr. Herman, and he let me do some
of my Photography Course in the morning class I had with him. Then in the
afternoon I would go to his room and do my class work during study hall.
The last
day of the month of May, the only thing my class in the morning time had to do
was to watch a movie called “Seabiscut”. Some of the students were obnoxious
and noisy to the point that Mr. Herman turned the movie off. He told them to
write a story that could be turned into a movie. He then told me that I didn’t
have to do it.
So I began
to write a plan for a story called “Silentity.” A story about a little girl
that had previously lived in the house a young couple had purchased. A mystery
surrounded the little girl’s death that screamed to be told. I finished the
short form story plan of “Silentity” and gave it to Mr. Herman. Almost
immediately, he was captivated by the descriptions I had written and encouraged
me to begin writing.
After this,
I spent my last twenty-seven days in school writing as much of “Silentity” as I
could. Showing the half I’d written to Mr. Herman, I smiled proudly. He began
to read it intently.
“This is
really good, you should show this to your English teacher. You’re really good
with your words.” He smiled and handed me back my story.
Later that
day I did show my English teacher the story and he also was impressed. But
unfortunately, it was the end of my senior year.
The last
time I saw Mr. Herman was at my graduation. Clean cut and stylish, he wore a
navy blue shirt and trousers and a maroon colored tie. He smiled and
congratulated me and watched me accept my Diploma.
There are
many types of love. But I can say that I loved him as a friend. At graduation,
it made me sad to leave because I knew I would miss school. Mr. Herman will now
and always be one of my idols.
~ I miss you ~
