{"id":56690,"date":"2011-08-14T21:09:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-15T01:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/56690\/15-minutes-fame\/"},"modified":"2011-08-14T21:09:00","modified_gmt":"2011-08-15T01:09:00","slug":"15-minutes-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/56690\/15-minutes-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"My 15 Minutes of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

All of the talk recently about our school days has got me reminiscing now, too, LOL. So here is my high school story that I would like to share with the class. I originally posted it back on MySpace “back in the day”. <\/font><\/p>\n

Andy Warhol said that “everybody would have their 15 minutes of fame” and I never really thought that I would have mine but somehow, in spite of my low expectations, I actually managed to have a few minutes…..at least on TV. (I’ll save the rest of that story for a future blog.)<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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I graduated from high school back in 1990. I was my class valedictorian and I also graduated a year early and with honors (I was a brainiac in school). For many years, our local WABC affiliate sponsored a series of TV commercials that ran every summer on their local TV stations saluting the valedictorians from the 5 boroughs of NYC. It was called “The Best of the Class” . They would invite all of the local valedictorians to Lincoln Center in Manhattan to film them in front of the huge fountain outside of the building. They filmed a large group shot of everyone but then also taped cameo shots of two valedictorians at a time and their name and school would also be featured on the screen. I couldn’t have been happier that finally, after watching these commercials every summer for years, that I was finally going to have my chance to do my very own. Yes, this was surreal to me.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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Well the big day came and my scene was shot. The whole experience, in fact that whole time in my life, was so exciting for me. Prior to the taping, I had received a letter that gave me a phone number to call in order to find out when my spot would air, which was supposed to be around June 21st or so (I can’t remember the exact date.) My parents and I were so excited that I was going to be on TV that we started calling everyone we knew, from my family to neighbors to people we knew back when I was in grade school. I couldn’t wait.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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Meanwhile right about this same time, Nelson Mandela was freed and they decided to throw a parade to honor him……on the same day I was going to make my big TV debute. (You just gotta love timing sometimes, LOL) As what always happens when they pre-empt the regular shows to air special coverage of an event, the entire schedule and the commercials that went with them got totally messed up. Still I lived in hope that MAYBE my spot would somehow still air. So we all waited around the TV for the exact time they said the spot would air. Finally my big moment came……and went. Yes, I was pre-empted. I was crushed, but all was not lost just yet. I called WABC the next day and asked if the spot was going to re-air. The good news was that yes, they told me it would still air afterall. The bad news…….it was going to be on July 4th at 11:25 PM. Considering most people on this day are either away, at some kind of fireworks event and no where near a TV, or are at home but probably asleep at that time, I really doubted my big moment was going to be seen by many people at all. We didn’t re-call any of the people we had called before and I’m pretty sure the only ones who saw it were my parents, my aunt and uncle, and my next door neighbors. Yes, I was very bummed.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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So I guess you could say the whole experience was a truly surreal one for me, first because I couldn’t believe I was going to be on TV…..and then because after everything I was only seen by a handful of people. At least I have the memories of a great day that I will never forget and it was a truly wonderful experience for everyone who did watch to see me on TV, especially for something like this. It did feel so good to have everyone so proud of me. I just wish the timing of everything could have been better. Oh well, I guess that’s show biz!<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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BTW, here is a picture my Mom took of the taping, so at least all of you can see some of what was on the TV.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All of the talk recently about our school days has got me reminiscing now, too, LOL. So here is my high school story that I would like to share with the class. I originally posted it back on MySpace “back in the day”. Andy Warhol said that “everybody would have their 15 minutes of fame” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,2,11],"tags":[4052],"class_list":["post-56690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-other","category-people","tag-nostalgia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}