Bill O’Reilly was the host of The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel from 1996 until he was unceremoniously removed from his post in 2017, after the number of sexual assault law suits settled by O’Reilly and Fox News through the years became known to the public in a New York Times article. Bill’s catch phrase was “the spin stops here”. From what I can tell , the spin most definitely did stop in 2017, but during his his 16 years hosting the #1 cable news anchor, I watched countless hours with my mom. I learned a lot from these times.
Sure I learned all about conservative politics, but the world, through Bill O’Reilly’s eyes, involves a lot of killing. He has written multiple New York Times bestsellers about Killing (Fill In The Blank). Some of them aren’t even people. He’s given the inside scoop on who killed Jesus, Reagan, and, even, England and The Rising Sun. The only person or thing on that list that is dead is Reagan, and even he wasn’t murdered. I’m talking about a guy who knows how to take a spin, stop it, and then spin it right back at millions people of people. He made millions off of these books about killings. This let me know there were some things I could learn from him.
I have always been one to jump headfirst into things, sometimes without thinking. This started when I was a young teenager. I would get myself into situations that I clearly had no business being in. A lot of different aspects of my life were great. On paper and to others I was a very successful kid with a very bright future. There were many warning signs that my story could turn into a tragedy. Anytime these signs began to show to my parents or others, I would figure some way to spin my story in a way, that would soften the blow. I went from great highs to great lows back to great highs. People told me to trust in God, but I found I that it was much easier to trust in myself and call it Christianity.
I started going to Hillcrest Christian School (HCS) in 2001. I was going into 9th grade and was tired of going to a small 1A private school. I was ready to see the world at the 3rd biggest private school in the state, at this time. I graduated with 92 people. I know that my not be a lot to you, but to my scared 9th grade self, it was huuuuugggggeeeee. My 8th grade class, at my old school, had around 23 people in it. I was pumped.
The summer after 8th grade was weird for me. I had gone to some 1 week, summer Farm Bureau camp; it wasn’t very fun. I was glad to get home. Until, on the way home, my parents brought up some strange charges on our home phone bill. On top of all that, my brother had gone and done a little searching on my mom’s computer. He found some stuff that no one was supposed to see, especially an 8th grade kid.
I was embarrassed. Still to this day, I remember seeing the pine trees on the side of I-20 through sobs and tears, as we headed west towards Clinton. I knew I could not unsee the things I had seen, and everybody else knew it too. I felt like a pervert.
Throughout high school, anytime I would get grounded, I could almost always figure out a way to get ungrounded before the allotted time ran out. I wish that was the case for my adventure into the underbelly of Al Gore’s internet. I received no good time or probation; i served everyday of my sentence day for day.
Starting at HCS, I was the new kid in a class full of ridiculous, cocky dudes, just like me. If y’all remember being 13-17 in the early 2000’s, then you know all plans for the weekend were made on America Online’s instant messenger, AIM.
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I wanted to be popular. I wanted to be social, but this was very hard. My parent’s had grounded me from the internet for my whole 9th grade year!!!!! OMG…I still cant believe I survived. Looking back, I’m lucky I only became a heroin addict. I’ve watched every episode of “Dexter” at least 3 times. He had a tough beginning too. It caused him to become a serial killer, who channeled his urges into killing only bad people. He became a serial killer; I didn’t. You’re welcome.
I would see everyone on Monday morning talk about doing things over the last weekend. I would be involved in the conversations before the weekend, but when time to lock plans down came, I couldn’t jump online to know whether to be dropped off at the movie theater or Xan’s Cafe.
If I wanted to be popular, as a fledgling 9th grade boy, at a new school, a school filled with young buttholes, then I was going to really have to step up the social game when physically at school, because my dad was not going, when it came to letting me get online early. I used all my social prowess to get my name out there with my people, but it was hard. I kept this attitude my whole high school career.
Things got easier for me in my search for acceptance in 10th grade. I started dating a girl who was a year older than I. She was in the popular clique. I was now hanging out with the right people. I also started drinking. Do not for a second blame this on peer-pressure. For most of my life, I have been the peer who was doing the pressuring, not the one being pressured. Fitting in was easy, but I wanted more. I wanted more attention. I wanted to be a politician. All politicians know how to spin a story.
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