A Well-Known Name

Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is the legacy of my high school nickname Kotch.

Back in the Day

I was the most popular student in my high school class.

People chanted for me to take the field in football games. I ranked highly in all our senior year mock elections for the yearbook. Fans from other schools even rushed to take photos with me.

My legend spread farther than ever expected. In fact, I had never even expected to become a legend in the first place. But I somehow did all the same.

From the moment my friends first removed my last name’s “-er” ending, my name began to grow. The spread of my name was lightning in a bottle possible only at St. Mary’s.

What follows here is a few defining things that went along with my popular persona. They all contribute to people’s first thoughts when they hear that well-known name of Kotch.

The Bags

One question lingered for four years at St. Mary’s. What secrets are held in Kotch’s bags?

St. Mary’s has a beautiful, sprawling campus where the hallways are the great outdoors. And yet, there are only five scheduled minutes between classes. I had no time to go to a locker.

After all, why rush between classes on a warm spring day? Why not take my time enjoying crisp fall winds? Why give myself less time to carefully trudge through the snowy winter days?

I began to carry a second backpack.

The one on my back held my morning books. The one in my hands held my afternoon books. This solution was not uncommon. Plenty students carried multiple bags as needed. My only real distinction was carrying my second bag at all times.

I found ways to make positives of the situation. Sometimes I lifted my second bag up and down for some exercise between classes. Other times I used my second bag to carry snacks from home or the campus bookstore. When I started taking a bus to school, one bag became a pillow and the other served as a footrest.

Of course, the bus did drop us all off a bit far from the school’s fieldhouse.

So, during football season, I would also carry my duffel bag all day. Gave me a grand total of one bag on the back and another in each hand.

Over time, people grew curious.

They wondered what my bags could hold. I told them the bags merely held everything my locker could not.

That answer was not good enough for anyone.

Speculation ran wild. People had wondered about the bags for so long that the bags needed to hold something beyond belief. Rumored contents included mob victims, long-lost celebrities, and the Holy Grail. People were ready to believe I was harboring the Ark of the Covenant.

When my final football season ended, I lent my duffel bag to the school’s headmaster Glow. He used it for one of his famed games of “Let’s Make a Deal” after all-school mass one day.

Each pocket became a door to a fabulous mystery prize. Turns out that magic bag had been holding cash, gift cards, and specialty hot sauce all along.

The Planners

Aside from learning, what better use of class time is there than doodling?

My middle school years required planners. These little books were decent tools for keeping track of homework, tests, and events.

Naturally, I wanted to continue this good habit during high school. Thing is, my St. Mary’s planners had more space for each day than any of my past planners did. Old weeks left plenty of spots begging to filled.

I decided to use this space for some good-old fashioned doodling.

Drawing was one of my main ways to kill boredom growing up. Ideas for stories and characters constantly came to me. But describing these things proved difficult for me as a young writer.

I took for granted people would know what crazy things I was writing about. After all, I could visualize them in my own head without any help.

I took to drawing to improve my writing. I would sketch quick concepts and images. Describing these drawings of my ideas helped build my skills as a descriptive writer.

These practices became so common that sketches quickly overtook my planners. Characters were drawn over and over again each year. I still left decent space for homework and tests. But my planners were about creativity at least as much as they were about punctuality.

Over time, people noticed my art.

They were amazed to find stories attached to every character. My friends always enjoyed seeing the latest sketches. Seemed like everyone had some level of knowledge regarding the Christopher Kotcher Canon.

Even some teachers became fans of my work.

One good example would be my Honors Chemistry teacher. My drawings always excited him, and that was always a sight to see. (This was a man who climbed on top of chairs and desks during lectures.) He always said those little sketches in my planners showed a style all my own.

To this day, I still keep planners. Though now they do not have quite as many drawings. My writing has developed. I no longer need drawings to help me describe my characters.

Still, my old style lives on. I return to it from time to time. A few classic sketches can even be found around cKotch.Com.

The Yellow Coat

Before high school, I took my first vacation to “Up North” Michigan. Specifically, the Traverse City area. Cherry capital of the United States and neighbor to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Naturally, I wanted to grab a few souvenirs of this momentous occasion. I also needed a new windbreaker jacket at the time. Something for cold fall days not quite cold enough for a winter coat.

So, I bought a yellow jacket with black stripes. On the left side sat a half-compass symbol pointing north. The place “Up North, Michigan” was written beneath.

A simple design. One you could find anywhere, and one worn by many. Everyone in Michigan has probably seen this jacket at least once. Most probably know at least one person who owns one. And yet, in my hands, this jacket was the major relic of Kotch.

Over time, the yellow coat became a symbol.

The coat was something simple to me. Something to keep me warm without being too warm.

The more people saw me though, the more they saw my jacket. Ironically, that made it special. As my name grew, so too did the icon of the yellow coat. It was my uniform as Kotch.

I would wear the jacket to basketball games and earn countless cheers for it. Every one of my mock election photos features the yellow coat. One of my buddies once even donned the jacket to prank our friends into thinking they were seeing double.

After high school, I gave the coat to the St. Mary’s chancellor at the time as my first donation to the school. For a few years, that coat then hung in the headmaster’s office.

Of course, I could not go without my uniform for long.

I grabbed an exact duplicate to wear through college and beyond. This second yellow coat has already seen some wear but still retains the same old power.

Biggest proof came during a bad January cold spell. I wore a black winter coat that day. Students all asked where the yellow coat had gone. They could not stand seeing their favorite sub without his symbol.

A Lesson for All

I was the most popular student in my high school class because I was myself.

The quirks and traits which formed my reputation as Kotch came from me. Some may see this as a rare privilege. Maybe they are right in a few ways. As I said, the spread of my name was lightning in a bottle owed to St. Mary’s.

Still, there is a lesson here for anyone willing to learn it.

Any popular persona as Kotch was ultimately just my personality played for the crowd. I was always myself. I changed and grew here and there as anyone should. But these changes were always to become a better me. Not to become someone else.

People appreciate others being authentic. This likely stems from the desire to be oneself and naturally blend into the present moment.

Following this example may not be as easy, or successful, for everyone else as it has been for me. But I could never imagine living and enjoying life any other way.

Kotcher’s Call to Action

If you like my content and wish to see more, then you have a few options.

You could check out my book Five Strange Stories on Amazon. Five Strange Stories is enrolled in the Kindle Matchbook program, so anyone who buys the paperback can also get the eBook for free.

You can also check my Essential Posts page for links to some of my greatest posts to the cKotch.Com blog.

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