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Out of the total 54 students who graduated Barrow High School in Barrow Alaska in 2008, thirty one moved out of town for college, nine moved out of state, and 1 ran away to Maine, that one being Alfie Delgado.
Ever since he was nine years old, Alfie had decided that he was going to leave not only his small town (an approximate population of a little over 4,000 residents), but he was going to leave the only state he has ever been to. While he did love the icy cold weather year round, the fresh snow covered mountains, the fact that if he broke a bone there was always ice around to ease the swelling, he just felt as if there was more out there for him, as if the world is waiting for him to leave his mark elsewhere. As his classmates and friends rolled their eyes every day when he mentioned his desire to leave this small town in his dust, he would return home every day after school and lock himself in his room for hours as he drew up plan after plan on ways to leave. He would draw maps which usually had pictures of him digging a hole to the center of the earth and attempting to find a new place to live there, he would draw beaches, which he had only ever seen pictures of or seen in TV shows or in movies, he would draw animals he wanted to see, which usually resided in the hotter places of the world. He was always a dreamer, as are most young children, but unlike his friends and family, he was determined to make his dream a reality, and not let it just die a dream.
College is where it should all start. Get good grades in elementary school, junior high and high school and eventually, you will be a perfect candidate for any college of your choice, that is all it would take to get out of the dark and depressing hole known as Barrow, Alaska. It is extremely difficult for a kid to make friends in high school if all he can concentrate on is his grades. His peers call him names such as geek, nerd, loser, he is picked on and shoved into lockers, the jocks pee in his shoes and the cheerleaders laugh as they make fun of his hair. Luckily for Alfie, no one has skin nearly as thick as his, and because of his desire to leave this rotting hole behind, he was never affected when his classmates attempted to make his school life a living hell, which is why it only lasted up until freshman year.
By the time he hit fifteen, Alfie had a whole new outlook on life. He did not care what people thought of him, he did not care what his classmates did to him, he did not care how many girls made fun of him because he had long hair or because he did not care about sports. All he cared about was the endgame, that was where his main focus laid and that was what made his classmates respect him. A week into freshman year, Joel Michaels, the biggest bully in school decided he would make Alfie his number one target. As the bigger boy approached the smaller one in the hallway, prepared to do the predictable shove the smaller kid in his locker trick and laugh, Alfie turned around and knocked him down, in front of the entire freshman class. From that day on a new respect was formed, and suddenly Joel went from being number one, to following Alfie around like a lost puppy, admiring his new found balls and begging him to teach him how to not care what people think of him. Alfie’s pure lack of interest in every single person in his class only seemed to further fuel his classmates and their desire to win his friendship. Who would have thought the geek who spent all of his time studying, would suddenly become the one his classmates admired most?
Alfie hated the constant attention he received just for knocking some jerk on his ass but somehow it seemed to impress his guidance counselor and principal, who one day during his sophomore year called him into the office and suggested he run for president of his class. They were both well aware of his goal to leave Alaska and find an amazing college elsewhere and reminded him that while his grades were nearing perfection, he still needed to toss in some extracurricular activities. As much as he hated the idea of running his class, he knew that would be just one more thing to put him in the right direction. He needed activities, so running for president seemed easy enough, he knew it was an easy win, and it was just that. He ran unopposed and for the next two years was the president of his class. He hated the extra work and even more, hated the extra attention, but it was important to not let his school or his class down.
As it came time for graduation, it was no surprise to anyone that Alfie was the second in his class. His parents were a little disappointed that he did not make valedictorian since they honestly believed that was important to him, but it really was not. He was just happy to have nearly perfect grades (he received a B in Spanish, but he really did not let it bother him too much.) After graduation, everyone approached Alfie and asked him the most important question to ask a recent high school graduate. ”Where are you going next year?” They were all shocked to hear he had chosen to attend a place as random as Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire. really? Out of every school he probably could have gotten into, why pick such a random one? The truth is, Alfie had a system when it came to picking where he would apply. He knew his grades were good enough to get him into almost any college he applied to, so he decided that rather than suffer through the agonizing pain of reading pamphlet after pamphlet, he would just approach a map, close his eyes and point. His finger happened to land on New Hampshire. He then had his father fan out a list of every school in the state, closed his eyes and pointed to a school. Which happened to be Keene. The decision was made. The application sent in, the acceptance letter received. The simplest decision he had ever had to make.
There was a lot more to Alfie's desire to flee his small hometown than he allowed for everyone else to see. His whole life, Alfie has had a sick obsession with testing his own mortality, as someone who claims that he does not care about anything in this world, he was obsessed with outliving everyone he had ever met. The young boy had decided that part of the reason people die is that their bodies are not used to the feel of a bullet, fire, a car colliding and so on. He was convinced that the body going into shock is why they cannot survive these horrible acts of violence which are why since he was sixteen years old, he had begun to prepare his own body. Alife told himself that if he prepares his body for these forms of pain, if any of these things were to ever happen to him his body will be prepared and he will be able to survive. In the mind of a logical person this is insane, but to Alfie it was the truth.
By the age of nineteen, he had walked into oncoming traffic, jumped off a roof, stabbed himself, burned himself, the only thing he has not yet done is get shot (but this is on his list still). His biggest experiment though was what he knows is the main cause of deaths in America every year. Drugs addiction. By the age of fifteen, he had secretly begun to experiment with all kinds of drugs, starting of course with weed before working his way up the ladder to cocaine, ecstasy, acid, and eventually Heroin. Heroin is where he became stuck, just three times of using the drug and he became the addict he told himself he would never be. It became his number one reason for all of the insane things he has done in his life and one he just recently was able to accept as his own personal demon he may never over come.
Alfie had just begun his freshman year of college when his drug addiction became too much. It was during parents weekend when his father and mother arrived to find him passed out in the bathroom with a needle sticking out of his arm. After rushing him to the hospital he was shipped off to rehab in Farmington, Maine. Since he was just two days shy of his eighteenth birthday his parents were allowed to send him away. Of course a few days later when he turned eighteen he walked right back out onto the street. Since he had missed nearly an entire semester of classes and had gotten himself into multiple fights with many of his classmates he was kicked out of college and forced out on the street. His parents were furious with him for falling so hard so quickly and refused to believe that this was a problem long before college. He would go through spurts where he acknowledged his problem and ran to his parents asking for them to help him, in which case they would send him back to the same rehab facility where he would remain until his own stubbornness would take hold. By the age of twenty he was finally clean and from twenty until twenty-eight he started a whole new life for himself. While in rehab he found music to be his savior and learned how to play guitar with a fellow patient, music became the one thing that could keep him out of trouble. When he got out of rehab he joined a band with a couple of old college friends, they played the local scene for a few years, off and on while Alfie made ends meat slinging burgers at a local diner. By the age of twenty-eight, he had only relapsed once, entered back into rehab for a brief three-month stint, and emerged a new man yet again. Now at thirty-two years old he is back to putting his life back together, he moved to San Francisco to start over, recently having become the manager of a local band and standing by with a smile as the talented group begins to make their climb to the top. With the band keeping his focus, he has every intention of not falling back into old habits again. Hopefully, his strength will remain.
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