High School Taught Us More Than We Expected

Fields of wheat and grass surround Freeman High School and cradle our small school in a close-knit community.

That comfortable atmosphere, and our successful promotion from eighth grade, left us feeling that we knew everything that high school had in store for us. We did, however, have many experiences that forced us to grow in ways we had not expected.

At freshman orientation we were told about the huge changes we would have as “high schoolers” and heard jokes about buying elevator passes. Yeah, like we didn’t know what grain elevators were used for!

We took the grand tour of the school, down two hallways, so we didn’t have to add fear of getting lost to our fear of seniors.

Maybe we did learn a few things that fall: a tackle under the football lights sounds bone-crushing loud when carried by cold September air; decorating the hallway for homecoming never is as easy as it looks (it takes more than five people to do it!); and dances don’t really start at 8 o’clock (never get there until at least 8:45).

This didn’t seem too different from junior high, perhaps high school was going to be as easy as we thought.

Sophomore year we thought we were going to continue on with the fun experiences from the year before. We knew the routine and the names of every single upperclassman.

Well, some of us didn’t exactly know the location of the sophomore biology class, but we wouldn’t admit it. We just waited around to see the direction our classmates headed. Who would have thought to look in the wood shop building? Maybe the kids who took wood shop?

The real question, though, was how to get to driver’s education in the mornings. We learned something that year about cars and upperclassmen that wasn’t from a classroom. David Ward, a quiet senior who wore blue gloves when he ran track, was killed in an accident while riding in the back of a friend’s truck. It was a lesson that was terrible to learn, and one that we would have rather gone without.

We absorbed that profound change in our lives and tried to return to normal life at Freeman High.

More people drove cars and accumulated expenses our junior year, and fewer people went out for sports. Instead they looked for jobs to support their new, mobile social lives.

School spirit began to creep up on us, and we had some extremely elaborate hippies and nerds during Spirit Week. It made us wonder if, perhaps, some people had a little too much time on their hands.

We went to the biggest homecoming bonfire and our first prom. We took the SATs and tried to get the easiest schedule for next year, but it didn’t quite work that way!

The power of finally being the upperclassman, and all the closer to graduation became shadowed by another loss. Our wood shop teacher, Mr. Pearson, died. Two funerals in two years deepened the lesson we learned the year before. The world now seemed a little bit scarier.

With all the experiences, good and bad, we have had over the past years, it is almost hard to believe that we are seniors. Everyone told us time would only move faster, and it has.

We have applied for colleges and scholarships and have had more frequent and intense bouts of senioritis. The last ball game, track meet, and wrestling or tennis match has been played on our watch. Prom and our last “Masquerade Under the Stars” was a fantastic finale.

We have all been busy making memories and enjoying our last days before we finally have to “grow up”

High school has not been what we’ve done, but who we have become. We may look like preppies, punks, cowboys, and jocks, but not one of us will have graduated from high school exactly like we began it. Who knows, maybe now we do know everything - at least until next year.