St. Michael’s: Understanding ourselves: a senior’s perspective
What is the best thing a senior can walk away with after high school? Is it a strong appreciation for the learning received, hoping to apply it in the near future through college or in a trade school? Could it be a serious boyfriend/girlfriend or a strong connection to the school through friendships and experiences? Perhaps the best thing to walk away with after high school is a closer association with and understanding of God through prayer and the careful listening to those individuals who came before.
As the senior graduating class of ‘07 well knows, not an hour goes by in school that doesn’t include the element of prayer and thanksgiving. Every single class begins with an invocation to Our Lord, ensuring that God shares a piece of all parts of our day and not just a couple.
Academics and real student life at St. Michael’s have never taken a back seat despite the faculty’s emphasis on religion and spirituality. The seniors have enjoyed – more for some less for others – years of advanced math (Algebra I, II, geometry, pre-calculus), science, history (world, western civilization, U.S.), art, English (American Lit., English Lit., Ancient Lit.) government/economics, and Latin in addition to four years of theological studies (apologetics, church history, moral theology, ethics etc.) and one year of philosophy/ logic.
We may not be able to recall all that we learned, but the 720-plus days spent pounding all these concepts into our heads by the nuns, lay teachers, and priests has not gone to waste! I’ve been around my senior class long enough and talked to enough past seniors to know this.
But what did we do for fun? Where are the sports, the thrills and excitement? To start with, St. Michael’s is part of the 1B league in baseball, softball, and basketball and recently the boys baseball team won both the district and league titles. We lost our first game at state, a huge disappointment for everyone, especially we seniors that played on the team, but we had a heck of a season and got a nice consolation prize by winning the state academic title with our cumulative team g.p.a. at 3.77.
Our senior class has a lot of heart and faith. We carry this through much of what we do and I think it really shows, not just in athletics. The seniors loved working with the various younger classes this year, conducting psychology tests on patient and eager grade-schoolers as well as presenting numerous physics experiments to whole classes. Those part of our leadership programs, Catholic Association of Student Leaders and The National Honor Society, had a blast working at and organizing their own activities, like the ROPES course up in Wenatchee and the Teacher Appreciation Day here at school.
There’s always that feeling that there could have been more done this year to make it more memorable. Maybe something really bizarre should have happened, like last year when my class was finishing up the yearbook in the computer room only to have a raging thunderstorm crash the whole deal, stranding us at the Mount. The Food Day was a blast, as well as the costumes and entertainment for Spirit Days, and the games and fun for the other events that happened this year. Maybe it would have been really sweet to have had a karaoke tournament. Who knows?
What I do know is that in our years together as a class, we seniors have discovered and experienced so much as to fill many more pages and that our thoughts would speak volumes. If there is one thing that we can agree on that we’ve received more than anything else is direction. All of us know where we’re going. Most are headed off to college with careers and hopefully future families of our own in mind with some in other directions. We all love God and undoubtedly all will keep their faith and persevere in the end. We may not be perfect, but we have a connection to Christ that will not easily be broken. We are ready to face the world, and hopefully the world will be ready to face us!