Road Gave Us Strength, Hope
Class of ‘99 Special graduation edition
`Wow! I’ve finally got here,” is the first thought that goes through many minds this time of year.
Some people always knew that they would make it to graduation but others, like myself, never even imagined it. I can remember when I had no hope for the future, because I didn’t think it held a place for me. However, like many other people, I came to find out that I was in control of my own future.
A lot of people wound up here at Jantsch and Havermale Alternative Center because they could not succeed at a regular high school. It wasn’t because everyone was too dumb, everyone didn’t fit in, everyone was bad, or whatever else. There are different reasons for different people and, whatever the reasons are, does not matter.
What matters is that the teachers and counselors here, like Gary Allen, helped and believed in us when a lot of other people wouldn’t. And, because of them, we have become a part of the graduating Class of 1999.
Through the years of high school we’ve made friends, lost friends, met challenges, failed challenges and been through plenty of obstacles. Every day was a mystery; we never knew if we would pass a test or fail a test. We didn’t know if we would live to see the next day or if we would die before the next day, and we have no idea what would happen through out the day. We took it one step at a time.
We just knew in our hearts that as long as we went out into the world and did our best and helped others do their best, it would make someone along with yourself proud, and you would always be appreciated for who you are and what you did.
We can all agree that it wasn’t easy getting here, and we had to force ourselves through a lot of it. It was a struggle and many of us went through motions. At times it seemed to be way too much, but you think about how you’ve been strong enough to make it this far and then you put belief in yourself and you know you can make it the rest of the way.
As for hope for the future, we all have that. Some of us just go with the flow, some of us plan for it and others are just clueless. We all want to be happy and successful. I want to offer my classmates a challenge. I want to see the Class of ‘99 go out into the “Big World” and really make a difference. Our world is difficult and it is hard to face each day not knowing what is going to happen. There are crazy things going on everywhere and most of us are trying our best not to be a part of all the craziness, so if we can go out and make a difference in the world and affect the lives of younger students, it would be a tribute to our success.
Our efforts will be a solid foundation for our futures.