Youth Has Already Paid A Steep Price For College, Future
Life handed R.J. Reiswig the right ingredients for quick and easy failure, but somehow he bungled it.
Idaho’s high dropout numbers say most kids in R.J.’s shoes would have slammed the door on school years ago. Instead, R.J.’s planning to head to college after graduation in a few months and no one had to talk him into it.
“I always knew I would keep going after high school,” he says. “I knew I’d go to college.”
R.J.’s life abruptly changed after his father, popular Coeur d’Alene High teacher and coach Bob Reiswig, died five years ago.
Grief gutted his family. R.J. was 12 and planning, like most boys that age, to knock the socks off college basketball team recruiters one day.
His father’s sudden death brought reality into sharp focus. R.J. abandoned dreams that year to succeed Michael Jordan. But he didn’t give up on college - not even after life at home grew so uncomfortable that R.J. moved out. He was 16.
If he thought about quitting school, which is legal at 16, he gave it fleeting consideration. His parents had taught him from birth that education is as vital to him as sleep and a good diet.
Occasionally, he didn’t do as well as he could. His focus blurred a bit during his freshman and junior years, leaving him with a B-minus average this year as a Lake City High senior.
“I could have done a lot better,” he says, but then he might not have had time for basketball, friends, fun. Those things are important to this easygoing kid with a smile that can melt hearts. He likes people and believes he’d make a good doctor.
He even spent a shift with an emergency room doctor recently to prove to himself that he’s right for the field he plans to study.
Money, it seemed, was his only problem.
He’s managed to save a little money from the Social Security survivor checks that support him. Counselors told him his independence should net him a decent financial aid package.
He’s applied to Boise State University and the University of Idaho, in-state schools where tuition is the lowest he could find and his chances of acceptance are strong.
Only Gov. Phil Batt and the state Legislature can derail R.J. now.
Batt’s budget for higher education is so meager this year that college officials are talking about raising fees and admissions standards.
Either would threaten R.J.’s chances to continue his education. He worries, but he’s gut-sure that something will work out. It has to, he says.
“I see my future as being better than my past,” he says.
Seems like he’s earned at least that much.
Wake up call
Coeur d’Alene’s Rita Reed nominates Amy Reagan, who owns the Java Java espresso hut on the corner of Appleway and Ramsey as the live wire of lattes. I second the motion.
“No one in her right mind is as lively and energetic as she is at 6 in the morning, which is probably why she is known as ‘The Nut in the Hut,’,” Rita says. Apparently Amy has painted that title on her new car.
When Rita had to drive to Spokane for school, she stopped by Java Java first because “Amy woke me up almost better than her lattes.”
Forget the latte. Give me a double Amy.
Meltdown
Forget the chocolates this Valentine’s Day. Lake City Playhouse’s “From the Heart - A Valentine Musical Revue” contains no fat but plenty of sweetness. Songbirds Julie Powell and Darcy Wright soften every heart and melt all resistance.
Take someone you love Feb. 6-9. Call 667-1323 for tickets.
What’s the goofiest thing you’ve done on Valentine’s Day to impress a potential lover? Ask Cupid to shoot your tale at Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814; fax to 765-7149; call 765-7128; or e-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo