Sunday, January 13, 2013

< RM > story - Sparky - Charlie Brown

Sparky - Charlie Brown

A story is told about a boy
named Sparky. For Sparky
school was all but impossible.
He failed every subject in the
eighth grade. He flunked
physics in high school.
Receiving a flat zero in the
course, he distinguished him-
self as the worst physics stu-
dent in the school's history.
Sparky also flunked Latin,
algebra and English. He didn't
do much better in sports.
Although he did manage to
make the school's golf team,
he promptly lost the only important match of
the season. There was a consolation match;
he lost that, too.
Throughout his youth Sparky was awk-
ward socially. He was not actually disliked by
the other students; no one cared that much.
He was astonished if a classmate ever said
hello to him outside of school hours. There's
no way to tell how he might have done at
dating. Sparky never once asked a girl to go
out in high school. He was too afraid of being
turned down.
Sparky was a loser. He, his classmates...
everyone knew it. So he rolled with it. Sparky
had made up his mind early in life that if
things were meant to work out, they would.
Otherwise he would content himself with
what appeared to be his inevitable medioc-
rity.
However, one thing was important to
Sparky - drawing. He was proud of his art-
work. Of course, no one else appreciated it.
In his senior year of high school, he submit-
ted some cartoons to the editors of the year-
book. They were turned down. Despite this
particularly painful rejection, Sparky was so
convinced of his ability that he decided to
become a professional artist.
Upon graduating from high school, he
wrote a letter to Walt Disney Studios. He was
told to send some samples of his artwork,
and the subject matter for a cartoon was
suggested. Sparky drew the proposed car-
toon. He spent a great deal of time on it and
on all the other drawings he submitted.
Finally the reply came from Disney Studios;
he had been rejected once again. Another
loss for the loser.
So Sparky decided to write his own auto-
biography in cartoons. He described his
childhood self - a little-boy loser and chronic
underachiever. The cartoon character would
soon become famous worldwide. For Sparky,
the boy who had failed every subject in the
eight grade and whose work was rejected
again and again, was Charles Schulz. He cre-
ated the "Peanuts" comic strip and the little
cartoons boy whose kite would never fly and
who never succeeded in kicking the football -
Charlie Brown.

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