Man of the Land

Junior TJay Cable makes the rounds at Free State–and outside of Free State, where he takes his daily walks during lunch.

Chances are, you’ve seen him around–popping into classrooms during passing period, waving through the windows of closed doors, taking teachers by surprise as he slips into seats amongst dazed or giggling students. He has a Firebird’s standard seven classes a day, but he doesn’t limit his realm to the room numbers printed on his schedule.

“I’m just bored,” Cable said, shrugging. “I don’t want to be in my class right before the bell rings. So I’m like, forget it. [I’ll] walk around and say ‘hi’ to people.”

Thus begin Cable’s fabled wanderings through the building. He tends to frequent the social studies and foreign language hallway on the second floor, where most teachers know him by name.

“Most of the teachers that I run into in their class are just like, ‘Hey, go on and take a seat,’” Cable said. “Or they’ll be like, ‘Dude. You know you gotta get to your class.’ I’m like, ‘So? S***, I don’t feel like going. I feel like hanging out with you all.’”

He generally stays with a class for only a few seconds before taking off for his next destination.

Cable was in his own Survey U.S. History class when I caught up with him during sixth hour. Commenting on my interview style (which, I’m afraid to admit, echoes back in giggly pitches on recordings), he said, “My favorite part about running in classes is, I get to see exactly what you’re doing right now. Every other word, you’re smiling, giggling, laughing. Pretty much having a good time.”

For Cable, a good time generally involves a panoramic view of the open sky and the aroma of newly cut grass. When he’s not in school, he spends his best hours working outside, referring to himself as “the landscape man” of his family.

“I usually go by what my name stands for,” he said. “If you look my name up in the dictionary, it says, ‘Man of the Land.’”

But he wouldn’t reveal the name curious readers could find in a dictionary. His full name, he said, should remain a secret. At school, he goes by TJay–or, for readers who know his face but not his name, the guy who makes cameo appearances in unsuspecting teachers’ lectures.

With such strong connections to the great outdoors, it can be difficult for Cable to keep himself boxed up in the school building for seven hours a day.

“If I can’t get outside, then I’m probably gonna have a problem the whole entire day,” he said. “That’s why I take my little strolls outside, every lunch hour.”

It’s also why he often feels boredom pushing him out of his classrooms and into the halls.

“I can’t be in a classroom that’s just sitting there like everybody’s about to go to sleep, because then I’m gonna go to sleep. Or I’m gonna get mad and walk out.”

But there’s at least one class in which Cable doesn’t have to worry about falling asleep.

After enrolling in Interpersonal Skills this year, Cable has come to love the IPS program. His group goes for a swim at the Indoor Aquatic Center every Monday, which allows him to get up and move with his IPS friends.

“I got a li’l homie named Gavin,” Cable said. “You probably know him. My buddy. Every time he sees me, and I see him, we do–”

Cable began to dance in his seat, moving and jamming to his own own merry rhythm.

“–and that’s how we say ‘hi’ to each other.”

Cable’s unique ways of saying hello make him stand out at Free State. He extends his greetings to everyone, everywhere, at all times of the day–and he doesn’t wait for the bell to ring to begin his smiling campaigns from classroom to busy classroom. Five-minute passing periods can’t contain this man of the land.