16 May 2006

Three Years In a Shoebox, Four Years On a Bookshelf

Today is the last day of my senior year. As with the end of each school year, I have turned in everythign: my JROTC uniform, my textbooks, and my library books. My locker has been cleaned out and is now back to the valiant shade of school-gray.

Looking back at four years of high school, I realized something. What do I have to show for it? All of my ribbons, medals, ranks, and other various uniform items from JROTC, three years, worth of memories, are sitting in a shoebox in my room. Four years worth of yearbooks and FCA ministry material now sit on my bookshelf. I can't help but think: Is this all I have to show for my time in school? A few books and ribbons?

Or is there something more? Is there something more to high school than just the activities that I was involved in and the classes I took? In fact, there is. Over four years, I have great memories. Everything from the pseudo-philosophical conversations at Bible study ("They will know we are Christians by are kilts") to the random with friends (filming hobos in Colorado) to the just plain weird in class (Mr. Wisner's analysis of the Smurfs as Communist). I can look back on high school and say that I not only learned the curriculum, but I also learned about life. I can discuss both the impact of World War I on the Vietnam War and why it's a bad idea to eat six Zebra cakes in under five minutes (don't ask).

Rock on.