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It has been five years since I graduated from Cleveland High School, so when I went to cover the 2024 graduation, I felt a little bit melancholic and nostalgic.
In 2019, times were simpler. It was just before the COVID pandemic when my classmates and I said goodbye to our high school years.
As I stepped into adulthood, life got more complicated, but I found out who I was and now I feel truly happy. Though high school was fun at times, there were some things I wish had never happened and some things I know were meant to happen.
2019 was the year I met my husband. Well, really re-met, because he and I had been in school together since about second grade. I wish he and I had realized how great of a match we were before our senior year. There were a few relationships that ended badly that I wished had never happened. Worse than that, I lost a best friend because of high school relationship drama. I lost sight of what really mattered, became sad and ultimately gained some serious health problems because of it all.
But I realized that we might not have survived high school if we got together before we did. During that last year of high school, I realized something for the first time about him. I could see a future with him. The others had been temporary for a reason. Not to say the relationships didn't matter, because I learned something about myself with each one.
2019 was also the year our school had a shooting. A boy in my year fired a shot into the ceiling. I remember that day because it was Valentine's Day. I wasn't at school when it happened. It was scary at first because all that was released was that a school shooting had happened, which was concerning because the track record of school shootings in the nation generally had violent injuries and deaths involved. When I learned what had actually happened, I was relieved no one was hurt.
Now, shootings are unfortunately just the norm in this nation and the school has more security.
It's funny the things that we took so seriously back then are superfluous now. Having a boyfriend, what grade you got on the math test, who was taking you to the dance, getting a good GPA, making sure homework is complete, studying for finals and waiting for weekend shenanigans all seem so insignificant.
That being said, life is good. As my dear husband likes to say, it was all just character development. I would not be who I am today without high school.
