Years At Cheney High Pass By Extremely Fast

We officially became known as the Class of 2000, at least to ourselves, toward the end of our eighth-grade year.

There we were, sitting in the cafeteria of Cheney Middle School, and counselor Gail Harding-Thomas told us who we were.

“The next four years are going to fly by like nothing,” she said. Of course, nobody believed her at the time.

But look at us now, ready to be unleashed upon the world in eight days. Heaven help us!

It really has flown by that quickly.

Our freshman year we were saddened by the death of Paul Shelley, the brother of our classmate, Amber. Paul Shelley’s death taught us that though incredible, our class was not invincible, and certainly not immune to tragedy.

Our sophomore year, we brought the humanities program back to life in a class packed with refreshing insight on current issues and historical fact.

When we were juniors, we were faced with new challenges, a new English teacher coming in after first trimester, new emergency drills introduced in the wake of the Columbine shooting, and a fight with this year’s juniors over the location of our prom. We attempted to petition the final vote for Fairchild Air Force Base and lost.

This year, we’ve gotten closer to the junior class, both in a friendly aspect and a competitive aspect, particularly where school spirit is concerned.

Cheney’s Class of 2000 has seen a vice principal retire, a band director transfer and another take his place, a new spirit tradition start between us and West Valley High School, and much more. We have been through a lot of firsts and a lot of lasts.

In this, our final year, we realize that the world as we know it is over, as stated in our class theme song, and that as our class motto states, “With every ending there is a new beginning.”

Are the 222 of us ready for it? I think so.