As senior Erika Trisch sorts through the various memories of the past four years, she finds it of immense difficulty to pull just one to label her favorite. Instead, she opts to share a couple. 

“Can I choose multiple,” Erika questioned. “Okay, so one of them’s definitely got to be getting voted on prom court because I was absolutely honored. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ It was just so amazing. And the other one was the senior retreat. We all just spent the day together and it was insanely fun. And then we all had a senior skip day the next day so we still got to rest.”

Specifically, Erika notes one moment of this trip that stands out among the slew of events the retreat brought the seniors.

Erika convinced her height-fearing best friend, senior Thea Slot, to take the zip line with her aside from her better judgment. 

“I somehow convinced her to go up with me,” Erika explains. “It was like a janky little zip line and would shake every time you were up there. She was freaking out. The only way down was through the zip line. So once we were up there I counted 3, 2, 1, and I thought she wasn’t going to[jump], but she did.”

Erika remarks on her FHC experiences similar to how she does ziplining: she jumped right into it. She knew that the only way she would truly enjoy herself and have an impact on others was if she fully immersed herself in the school.

“I participated in a lot of school activities,” Erika remarked. “You know, these four years just flew by. So the best advice I could give to someone just starting high school is to get involved in as many things as possible because when they say it flies by, it really does fly by.”

Self-growth has not been absent throughout Erika’s high school career as she feels she walked in a nearly completely different person than she is walking out as.

The act of simply aging has allowed her to grow immensely and know what she wants to carry with her. 

“I’m a completely different person than what I was,” Erika said. “Not only did my hair change colors, because I bleached it, but also, I feel like when you’re freshman, straight out of middle school, you’re still a baby. When you come into high school, you’re scared of the upperclassmen. Everything’s new and as you get older and keep going through the grades, I feel like you build a connection.”

While FHC has helped Erika grow as a person, she knows that she has a lot more to learn to turn into the adult she is on the path to becoming. College provides the opportunity to continue to learn. 

“I honestly think college is gonna teach me a lot,” Erika said. “I feel like this is my first time living on my own, and I think that it will really teach me a lot and actually give me a lot of responsibilities because I am kind of a victim to having my parents do a lot. So I’m hoping that this next chapter kind of helps me start on my own personal path.” 

As the 2023 school year comes to a close, Erika is excited to be attending Ferris State University to study pre-optometry in hopes of being a doctor someday. As she embarks towards the next four, she is grateful for what FHC has taught her in preparation. 

“Honestly [FHC has taught me], that people aren’t what they seem like,” Erika said. “I feel like we come in and we have a lot of misconceptions about people and, when you actually sit down and take time to get to know them, you realize that they’re really cool people.”

Erika hopes that this will help her on her journey as it has these past few years. However, as excited as she is to see what is to come, she has some uncertainty about what the future may hold. 

“In some ways, yes [I feel ready to leave],” Erika said, “but I don’t think anyone’s ever ready to fully leave. I feel like every single person I’ve talked to at least is a little bit scared. You are never fully ready, but you never know if you don’t try. So we gotta go out there eventually.”