A time to remember

Published 1:31 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

(Editor’s note: The following discussion between Mount Si High School seniors Brendon Haggerty, Lauren Dunford, Rachel LaFond-Widmer, Dylan Seubert, Katy Young and Chance Babcock was moderated by journalism instructor Susan Fergueson.)

As you prepare to leave Mount Si, we’d like to look back over your four years here. What sticks out most in your mind, and what did going to Mount Si mean to you?

Dylan: What sticks out most for me is athletics and being able to compete. I just love doing that kind of stuff.

Chance: What sticks out for me is I really like a lot of the social activities the school puts on, especially Last Blast. I was kind of freaked out when Last Blast was threatened to be canceled; and assemblies are really fun. I really enjoy that aspect.

Rachel: Well … I don’t know. The whole academic part of it, I didn’t feel very challenged or anything and I never did very many sports like a lot of other people, but the drama and choir aspect of it, I felt that was, like, my entire high-school experience. And I didn’t do it the entire time I was going to high school, but it was still a really enriching and good thing for me to do. It was really fun and added a lot.

Katy: All the friends you meet and people you get to know, that’s probably the best part of high school.

Brendon: I think that something that should be mentioned is that our class has lost some people and it’s been a really tough thing, and that sticks out for me. Along with the good times there are some rough times, too.

Lauren: The past four years of my life have revolved around high school and being involved in the activities. Dances on Friday nights or whatever, Leadership Camp, Sprit Night – totally just being involved and meeting new people. This was four years of my life I didn’t want to miss out on, so I took advantage.

Chance: Exactly. High school is, I think, for almost all of us, it’s been the most important thing for the past four years. We go here six hours a day for, what, nine months a year – it just consumes most of your life.

Rachel: Another thing is … as I’m getting ready to get out of high school, I’m just coming to realize that we’ve had so many opportunities that we’re not ever going to have again. In this high school, there are so many things we can do, so many things that are available to us that we’re going to have to work for later.

Lauren: So many things we can get away with!

(Laughter)

Brendon: I’ve always felt that you get out of it what you put into it.

What did you learn at Mount Si, either inside or outside of class?

Dylan: I learned that in high school you have to live for the time, so you don’t look back with regrets. You have to take advantage of this time while you’re free, because in the future you’re going to have a job and not be able to do all the stupid stuff you do right now. You’ve just got to live without regrets.

Rachel: I kind of learned how to keep an open mind. It wasn’t so much a high-school thing as a life thing during this period. You can’t take people for what they look like on the surface or even how they act on the first meeting. You have to get to know them and you shouldn’t judge people because everyone has something to give. If you don’t accept that, you can miss so many things.

Katy: I think a lot of us have learned that. I’ve watched our class go from our freshman year when we were completely separated – I’m not saying we’re all together now, but we’re more together than we ever were, and that’s awesome. I think a lot of us have come to the realization that we can’t be so judgmental, and that people are pretty cool once you get to know them.

Brendon: I’ve learned that you have to have priorities in life, and that one of those definitely has to be having a lot of fun. But you can still live a life of integrity and be a moral person about … uh …

Chance: … take whatever path you want to go in life, but have fun with what you’re doing. That’s the most important thing.

Lauren: (Chris) Jackson is the best frickin’ teacher in this building.

(Laughter)

How did you change over the four years of high school?

Brendon: I’m sure no one’s the same exactly as they were as freshmen.

Rachel: How much time do we have?

(Laughter)

Brendon: I’ve gotten taller.

Lauren: I think for me, I had a couple of really good friends move away or graduate over the past four years. Trying to cope with that and make new friends – not necessarily to take their place, but expanding and trying to meet new people, and trying out all the activities that could interest me. I expanded my horizons, I guess.

Dylan: I know my group of friends and I, we’d separate ourselves from everybody else. Now all of us have realized that the year is coming to an end and our high-school career is coming to an end. That’s how I’ve changed; I’ve gotten closer to everybody in the class.

Rachel: I think a change that’s probably come over all of us is that we’ve relaxed a lot more. We’ve learned to let the little things slide, and what’s really important in life. You don’t get in fights and not speak to people for months like when you were freshmen, it’s just, like, “whatever.”

Brendon: I’d say I’m more tolerant. I think I’ve reprioritized. I know more of what I want out of life.

Chance: I think I’m more tolerant, too. I was a lot more high-strung when I was a freshman and sophomore, and I’ve really mellowed out. It’s a good thing … I’m not all stressed out all the time.

Katy: I think you start out as a freshmen immature and kind of scared and bewildered, and as you go on through your high-school years and you become a senior and it comes to the end of the year, you kind of find out who you really are, what you want, what you believe.

What will you miss the most?

Katy: People.

Chance: Yeah.

Rachel: I’m going to miss the teachers. I’ve grown attached to quite a few teachers. Like you (Lauren) with Jackson, I have Mr. Dillon, I call him Uncle Bill. I’m going to miss all these people a lot.

Chance: That was what I was going to say. Teachers that are totally amazing and have changed our lives in ways that we’ll probably never know. They made us realize things that we like and don’t like, and they changed us.

Brendon: I’m going to miss walking down the hall and being able to say “Hi” to almost everyone I see, and going out to the parking lot and hanging out – that small feeling. I’m going to a university where there are 30,000 people and I’m going to be lucky if I see someone I know just walking around.

Katy: This is more of a community.

Brendon: Yep.

Lauren: I’m going to miss the $2 lunches.

(Laughter)

Dylan: I’m going to miss my coaches. This year, the wrestling coach, (Bruce) Caldwell … he got ill. When that happened, I realized how much influence those kind of people have in my life. I’m going to miss them, just joking around and teasing with the football and wrestling coaches.

Lauren: I’ll miss the activities the high school provides, and the teachers. They have a huge impact on your life.

What are you looking forward to the most after graduation?

Dylan: Spending the last summer with everybody that’s here, all my friends. This is probably the last time we’ll all be together in the Valley, and that will be hard.

Katy: Meeting new people and starting a new life.

Lauren: No curfew.

(Laughter)

Brendon: As much as I love the Valley, I want to get out for a while. I want to look around and see what’s out there. It’s a big world.

Chance: I really, really do want to get out for a little while, and then come back. It’s nice here.

Rachel: I think it will be really nice to have my own place. It’s not the no-curfew thing, but just to be able to go and relax and have my own place and also to have a place where I can challenge myself academically. At a university, there are so many more resources than at the high school that you can challenge yourself with.

Lauren: This is what we’ve been waiting for our whole lives … ge