The stops in time that Conroy includes in his memoir are important moments that occur only once or during a short period, but they have an effect on the rest of his life. While many some people are lucky enough to have several chances, for most people, there are some decisions that you can only make once, and once you do, you must live with the consequences of the decisions for the rest of your life. This is why Conroy refers to these events and decisions as moments in time, when time is actually stopped, and you live in that moment for the rest of one’s life. I have chosen Conroy’s last days in school (and summer school) and his loss of virginity as being the most illustrative of the stops in time in this paper.
There are many reasons why a high school diploma can change one’s life for good or for bad. In high school, many students have a choice to go to community college, technical school or university. University is certainly the most promising, and usually the first choice for the brightest and the most ambitious students. However, in order to attend university or community college, a good high school diploma is important. Since college entry is competitive, the better the performance in high school, the better the chances of going to a good college and even getting a good job. When you go down this path, your life goes on as expected, but if you do not, time stops for you, and you are forced to live in that moment for the rest of your life. Dropping out of high school or getting a bad grade means that you have ruled out a proven path in succeeding in life. Hairston-Ridgley (2010, p.103) says that getting a passing high school grade gives a student a sense of accomplishment and opens doors for social and other opportunities for them. Going to college for instance, helps students make and keep good friends and form helpful networks. This fact is portrayed clearly by Frank’s failure in high school, which in turn leads him down a path of self-destruction and time-stopping moments.
One such moment leads him to not only losing his virginity, but also engaging risky sex. Losing virginity on its own is in many cultures, a stop in time. Virginity is considered very special both for men and women. In Christian and Islamic cultures, virginity is seen a mark of innocence and purity. You either have it, or you do not, and you may only lose it once. Once you do, time stops for you and you cannot undo it. In this Memoir, Frank did not know the girl and only met her briefly, but because of the fact that he was failing in life and had a poor social circle, he admits he did not know the girls and she was not very beautiful, but the best chance he had to having sex. There is so much that could have gone wrong, and stopped time here. He knows that he could get HIV but says he could buy a prophylactic to stop that, but that would stop time. There are many other sexually transmitted diseases that he could have contracted, which would also affect the rest of his life. Even most importantly, the possibility of a pregnancy would have given him a child, which will once again change the rest of his life. These are the moments that change your life once and for all. It is like being borne in a new life and a new reality, in the same way that he imagined many different worlds through his readings of magazines from England. If he had done well in school, he would have had a different reality, and his life would not have been defined by the moment that he got bad grades.
Regardless of the way that one chooses to look at Frank’s memoir and the way that he wasted his life on road trips, unfruitful relationships and other experiences that only destroyed him, it is easy to admit that this is a powerful story that many people can appreciate. If I was to write my own memoir, I think I will write about the moment that I became independent from my parents. In the same way that Frank tells of his realization that his mother had lost power over him, I had a different memory. My memory was being let to do whatever I liked, and have my own regrets. It is that moment that I came to realize that this is a great future that I had been preparing for. It came without warning. I only realized that it had arrived when no one told me what to do. Instead, it is like everyone waited to see me do something wrong before then they will talk about me in silent voices when I left the room. I would wake up, and not know what to do, and whatever I did was wrong. Lucky for me, however, time never stopped. I still had things like school to look forward to, all the time.
Works Cited
Conroy, Frank. Stop-Time: A Memoir. London: Penguin Books, 1977. Print.
Hairston-Ridgley, David. You Can't Drop Out of High School and Drop Into a Job: Avoiding the Ocean of Economic and Social Instability. New York: AuthorHouse, 2010. Print.
