Many Seniors Together Since Paste-Eating Days

When I tell people I am from Deer Park, their first response seems to be, “Where on God’s green earth is Deer Park?”

It’s true - Deer Park doesn’t show up on most maps, our population resembles that of the John Denver fan club and our entire student body is roughly the size of most other schools’ senior class alone.

But out of these few numbers, there seems to be an abnormally large concentration of “life-timers” - a huge percentage of our 1997 graduation class has been together since kindergarten (some would attribute this to the fact that Deer Park is a hole but I think it’s mostly because, deep down, we love this place).

We’ve shared nap times, sung our way through Mrs. Coe’s music class and spent the week at Camp Reed in sixth grade. We had more than our share of field trips to the Imax Theater (with roller skating afterwards, of course) and marched our small numbers in the Junior Lilac Parade.

More recently, we have cheered together at homecoming football games and dressed up for the prom. We ordered our caps and gowns and addressed a kazillion-and-one graduation announcements.

Perhaps these events don’t sound that out of the ordinary. They are nothing new and definitely do not make our class unique. The fact that we have done all of them together and have known each other since we ate paste, however, does.