By: Jason Rogers –
The melodic rhythms of the LSE band bounce off of every wall in Prasch gym. It’s a pep rally, and the whole school is gathered in one room. Trumpets ring, tubas blare, cymbals crash, and just about every student is standing in front of their seat, clapping along to the fight song.
That’s much too dull for Zen.
Amongst this sea of teenagers, all conforming to society’s expectations, stands one outlier: LSE sophomore Zen Boerger.
When the fight song is being played at a pep rally, expect Zen to be on the Prasch track, or on the steps of the bleachers, virtually anywhere but his seat, dancing and stomping along to the rhythm.
“He’s very energetic. He likes to talk a lot and make people laugh,” said fellow sophomore Tyler Messersmith. Messersmith first met Zen in sixth grade at Pound Middle School, and the two have been friends ever since.
“If you haven’t really talked to him, you’re probably gonna think, ‘This kid’s weird,” explained Messersmith. “But once you get to know him, when you see him in the hallway you’re like, ‘Zen, what’s up!”
Zen’s former Oral Communications teacher Mr. Bender had similar comments about him. “Zen is one of those guys who’s always up to something, or thinking about something, or will come running into my room with a big idea and bounce it off me, and then take off and I won’t have even answered yet,” said Bender.
While Zen seems to always be entertaining people at school, he’s not that way 24/7. “I act very different at home,” said Zen. “I’m very sarcastic, I don’t care what’s going on, if I can stay home I will. I just do what I want to. But at school, I put on this persona of a more positive side of Zen than usual. But me overall, I’m a mix of both of them.”
When he was in preschool and kindergarten, he was a completely different person. “Before school, I was not a very social kid. Even when I first got into school in kindergarten, I was a terrible kid. In preschool, I got kicked out of one and moved out of two [schools], and in kindergarten I got in three fights,” said Zen.
While Zen did struggle in school when he was younger, he didn’t have it as easy as some other kids. “When I was born, my mom was fifteen and my dad was fourteen. My dad left me with my mom. My mom, needing help, went to her mom. And so I lived with my grandma and my mom up until about fifth or sixth grade,” said Zen.
He then began to turn to his friends, since his mother and grandmother usually worked, and he developed the social side of him that many see today.
Suddenly, around fifth grade, Zen made a conscious decision to become a better person. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore. I want to be better.’ So I started working a lot harder in school. I don’t even know how I made that decision,” he said.
Zen has also found that his academics have improved since this decision. “My grades started going to A’s and B’s instead of C’s and D’s, and I started to become a lot more happy with myself,” he said. “I can’t really explain it, but the more social I’ve become, the better I’ve become at school.”
Zen still gets good grades, and he loves coming to school, but he does have his criticisms of it. “I would like school more if it gave you a feeling of achievement or completion after the end of each day,” he said. “I just don’t get that feeling as much as I’d hoped I would when I first started school, and it kind of gives me a disappointed view on school. It’s good to get an education and learn this stuff, but I don’t feel a sense of achievement in it.”
Since Zen didn’t feel any sense of achievement in doing his school work, he began to seek for it in talking to his peers. “That’s another part of the reason why I’m so positive here,” he said. “It makes me get that sense of achievement if I brighten someone’s day. I get that feeling of, ‘Wow, I did something today.”
All things considered, when Zen is dancing at the pep rallies, or singing his toast song, he’s doing it to make people’s day better.
“I want other people to be happy. I don’t want them to be angry at the world like I was when I was young. I want them to be happy that they’re alive at this moment, and they’re going through life, and they’re having fun, and people care about them,” he said.
Jokes aren’t the only way he can help people who are sad, though. “I want to be known as the guy you can turn to when you’re having a bad day, or when you need some school help,” he said. “I want people to be able to depend on me. Some problems I may not be able to help with, but I might be able to talk with you about it, because in talking about it, you can get some of it on the table with me, and I can also learn what that feels like. Not 100%, but I’d get a better understanding so I could help you and help others in the future as well.”
So next time there’s a pep rally, and the band begins to play the classic fight song, look for Zen. He’ll undoubtedly be somewhere in the gym (definitely not his seat), dancing and stomping along. And when you see him, don’t look at him as an outcast or a weirdo. Look at him as a person with a big heart and an even bigger personality.