Colonia High School has been part of my life for four years, and today I say goodbye to it for good. High school has been a waiting place for me for a long time– like it is for many students. It’s just us waiting for a new milestone after milestone, from getting your license to getting into college. I always wanted to be done with it so I could get started on the new chapter of my life. Unlike a lot of students with that wish, I technically had my wish come true. Like so many people, my life stopped with Covid-19. My last day of school was unexpected, a regular day in March.
There are so many classic senior activities I don’t get, from big things like a real graduation to smaller things like an end of year party with the Juggernauts. There’s so much I didn’t get, and that I’m going to miss for a long time: friends signing my yearbook, getting to see my classmates up on stage for graduation, and so much more. I won’t mince words: I’m sad about it, just like so many of my peers. It sucks. But there’s so much from high school that I can look back on with a real smile.
Colonia High Theater
Goodbye to Colonia High School’s stage crew. Thank you for teaching me so many life skills. Thank you for teaching me how to sew, how to take responsibility for your work, how to build a set from the ground up. My time as a member of stage crew helped me form so many bonds with people I consider my dearest friends. It’s also helped me form an appreciation for hard work. I put real effort into the musicals and plays, and it taught me about the value of pulling your weight, of working hard to get things done. We’d be there on Saturdays, and we’d be rehearsing for hours on weekdays.
More than anything, what I’m most grateful for is the experience of opening night. There were so many hours working on a set and rehearsing into a night. Opening night showed me the fruits of my labor. No matter how hard it was, how tired I was, listening to audience reactions always made it worth it. No other club has shown me the value of real hard manual labor, and I am so grateful to have been a part of it. May the traditions of Colonia High School theater live on for many years.
Colonia High Juggernauts
The Juggernauts are our fond term for Colonia High’s quiz bowl team. Goodbye to the Juggernauts, and everyone apart of it, from captains to adviser to my fellow team members. Thank you for all the nights of bad pizza at different schools and all the bus rides home. Being part of this club taught me about the value of being on a team, of the ways people with different skills and strengths can come together and lift each other up. The Juggernauts meetings were some of my favorite memories from high school. If there’s anything I regret, it’s only joining in my junior year.
The competitions we went to are some of my fondest memories from high school. I will always remember and be grateful for being part of such a great team, and for being welcomed onto it so easily. Juggernauts taught me so much about uplifting your team members and playing to your strengths. A quiz bowl team can’t be carried by one member, and you can’t do something all on your own. That’s something I’ll carry with me throughout the years, and it’s a lesson I’m so glad I learned among friends. The Juggernauts continue to improve every year, and though we may not have had a home competition this year, we will next year.
Colonia High School
Goodbye to Colonia High School. Thank you for all the good memories and all the bad. There’s so much I will miss about this place. From the friends I made to the teachers who expanded my horizons, I’ve been changed by my four years here. There are so many clubs I was apart of here that I’m grateful for– the Declaration Newspaper, for example. I will miss the Student Led Action Committee, the club I was president of and a founding member of. We did a lot of good work that I’m proud of, and I’m so excited to see what they’ll do next year. Thank you to Colonia High School for allowing us to do such things like a March for our Lives or a Pride Month event.
Colonia High School is a place that, though I am sad to see it go, helped prepare me for the next chapter of my life. I’m going on to Amherst College, and I am so excited to be a part of it. I won’t forget what Colonia High School taught me, and so this is goodbye. These four years helped shape me into a person I am proud to be.
