Although things and people may function for a purpose, their capabilities are rarely limited to this role. The best way to learn and appreciate life is to deviate from one’s path and venture into the unknown; to realize that everything that surrounds us is not defined by its title or name.

Just as the hallways inevitably provide a place for studying and eating, although they are a place for transportation, each person that walks through them has their own passion or talent besides what they do in school.

Debra McBride – Junior counselor: Thank You For the Music

Here at CHS we have a very central theatre and music department. The music wing is always filled with students expressing their many talents and passions. Indeed, music has impacted the lives of many, but its influence stretches beyond the boundaries of the choir room, all the way to the counseling office.

Much like Mamma Mia’s Sophie, CHS’s counselor Debra McBride began singing in rounds and harmony before she could even read.

Thanks to the guidance of her older sisters, McBride has had a passion for music as long as she remembers. Whether or not she is singing, music is always a source of energy and relaxation when she is tired or stressed. However, for McBride, singing was much more than a hobby or pastime.

McBride was a formally trained and recognized singer. Her vocal studies as a lyric soprano in college prepared her for several great performance opportunities. She participated in several choral concerts in Central America including a televised performance at the National Theatre of Costa Rica.

In her first solo performance with a live symphony, she shared the program with the current Concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony, David Halen.

McBride feels very fortunate for her experiences but humbly admits, “although I never mastered the dancing, I did my best unwith a song and dance ensemble performing for our troops”.

She was honored on numerous occasions to sing for weddings, funerals, games and conventions; however, performances shared with her two daughters, both singers, and her son, who plays the drums, stand out as her favorites.

Today, music is a huge part of her life. She embodies the idea that music will accompany you no matter where life takes you. “Although singing has certainly provided extra income over the years, I’ve never thought of myself as a professional singer,” she said. “Instead, I consider myself a professional educator who likes to sing.”

Kurt Kleinberg – Math teacher

He’s our very own mathematician with a sick beat. That’s right CHS, Kurt Kleinberg was in a boy band. In fact, his musical career started with a theater program much like the one we have here as CHS.

“It was during a chorus show when I was put into a quartet when I really found my love for singing and dancing with others,” Kleinberg said. “Me and a couple friends really got into it, and by the time we graduated I started to choreograph for shows and I was dancing exclusively.”

After winning a prestigious singing and dancing competition, Kleinberg spent two years after high school performing in places like Hard Rock Café and other pop venues.

“We did mostly boy band music like In Sync and Backstreet Boys. I’m not afraid to admit that, in fact, I still love that music today. We sometimes wrote our own songs.”

For some members of the band, music was a stepping stone for later successes. One of his fellow members became a producer of the hit TV show “Glee.” Now a math teacher, Kleinberg has found a way to bring his passion to CHS.

Kleinberg’s musical talents were revealed last year during his guest appearance in the school musical, “Footloose.” Though, his boy band days might be behind him, Kleinberg’s love for pop rock continues.(NOT SURE HOW TO END IT..HELP)

Omar Bala – Custodian

Omar Bala is recognized by most students as a CHS custodian, but aside from his work in the school, Bala has a multitude of unknown talents.

Bala started his musical career in his home country, Albania. He even performed at the Clayton World Language and Cultures day, playing guitar and singing a traditional Albanian song.

His love for music started at a very young age.

“I used to sing with friends and family when I was young,” Bala said. “I love music, especially romantic and classical music.”

His talents are spread among a number of instruments.

“I started with playing trumpet in school,” Bala said. “Then I started violin, then a little bit of guitar. I played a lot of instruments, but I never really mastered any of them.”

Along with his musical abilities Bala is also athletically talented, playing soccer, and fishing while in Albania. But above all of these talents, Bala holds a special place in his heart for the game of chess.

This is a love he has shared with some lucky students at CHS, playing with the chess club on occasion.

“There are a lot of very talented kids here. But they are young so they play fast,”Bala said. “I beat [the] kids here because they are just beginning. Maybe in a few years they will beat me.”

Winner or not, Bala believes that chess is a great mental challenge for high school students.

“Chess is related to your imagination. It’s good for your brain, and for everything,” Bala said. “Einstein says that imagination is more important is more important than knowledge. Because knowledge, is limited. Imagination is limitless.”

John Ryan – English teacher

Like most students, John Ryan’s first wrote poetry as an elementary school kid, eager to use a big word that he had heard, type it up on a typewriter and sign it with his well-rehearsed signature.

Although young John’s “Halloween” poem may not currently be locatable, the English teacher always carries a notebook filled with “one line here, two lines there, a stanza that dies … and some of it, three or four years old,” as well as fully developed poems that can be found published on the internet or on various magazines.

And certainly, he carries both his passion for poetry and his insightful view of life.

Ryan explains that unlike journalism, poetry is hard to write on demand. “Poetry is something that goes dormant for a while,” Ryan said, “the urge to write a poem [leaves], then it comes back.”

He became active with poetry in the 90’s after receiving an honorable mention in a poetry contest. At first, poetry was a personal endeavor for Ryan, who shared it only with family and friends on special occasions such as when he wrote his wedding vows in verse.

Mostly, Ryan writes about sensations, events, and people that you just “don’t have a box for.” He is interested in “ambiguity and the gray areas of life; moments that you can’t quite explain but you want to explain,” and values poems that “reveal something intimate about a person or a relationship; that allows the reader to feel.”

Ryan finds most inspiration for his poetry when he is in motion, and believes that there is a specific correlation between the nature of his motion and his writing. This is because “you put yourself in a different contemplative mode when you are cautiously biking or driving versus calmly walking.” Interestingly, lines that he has thought of while biking have often developed into stories, while lines that come to his mind while walking often form his poems.

After making a collection of poetry in his MFA program at UMSL, he published for the first time, a moment that was very gratifying after its long process. “I have a stack of rejections like that,” he explained with his hands wide apart.

But it was all worth it. Poetry has not only provided Ryan with a hobby, but also with a unique insight that influences his teaching, his appreciation of literature, and his view of life.

Ryan finds that too many people shy away from writing poetry. His advice? “If you can get a draft down of a poem or a story, don’t get in the way of yourself. Just write it. You can revise forever. At some point, it will be finished.”

Ryan’s Poem:

This poem describes an odd occurrence that Ryan’s dad witnessed in passing. “My dad was very fascinated. He is scientifically minded; he’s an accountant”, said Ryan. “I thought ‘wow, this is an omen… this is a portent. It is like out of the Odyssey.’ So I presented it as a mythical occurrence without an explanation, where death, as if a human, is itself confused.”

On Seeing a Crow

On seeing a crow
Fall at least forty feet to his death,
Just like that,
Right in the middle of the boulevard,
With no warning, no flapping of wings,
Indeed, without a car in sight, either,

The low morning Sun gaped:
He should have made
The scene more flamboyant,
But the rays were diffused
Into a soft, unending yellow ether,
Not pink, orange or red–
Jaundice, not passion for life
Or death.

How is it that the harbinger of death
Himself could fall?
Who gave the command to kill the messenger?
Death is not capricious;
Rather, he orchestrates with an eye towards greatness
As an artist and decomposer.

Who can say?
Maybe the orders were mixed up.
Maybe the crow decided to disobey.

© John J. Ryan