Connections

As the end of the year approaches, room 139 has been buzzing with activity centered around one very special project: the Senior Edition. Working on it, the pressure is always on, since the margin for error is even slimmer than usual. By trying to make sure the senior class has something special to take with them, we have narrowed down our formula over the past few years to a set of pages that many have come to know and love after seeing them over the years. These include the mock elections, the map; and, my special pet project, the web.

The web connects as many people as possible through trivial events or memories, usually from childhood. Although many are hesitant to offer up suggestions at first, after digging deeper they each become a fountain of stories, spewing memories from as recent as the year before to as young as infancy, with different people they have shared the halls with for upwards of a decade.

Most of the time, these stories begin with people they consider to be friends, but gradually shift to tales with people they no longer interact with regularly. And it got me thinking.

Many of these stories had been lying in the brains of their owners for years, dusted with cobwebs in the corners of their minds. Many of the relationships discussed had similarly faded into the background, as growing up and apart separated many childhood friends. Prior to this, none of the people I interviewed had ever paused to think about those they had left in the past few chapters of their lives. Yet, when it came down to it, they unearthed those memories happily and felt connected to those old friends again.

Following the pattern of the web, you can also link yourself to just about anyone in your grade, which is something I really love. Looking over the stories may draw some laughs, but it will also put you next to people you haven’t spoken to since grade school. In either case, you end up with people you only associate with your past, and find yourself seeing them as the people you’ll end your high school career with.

On the brink of graduation, I think this is something many people overlook. You feel close to the people you spent your last few years with because they are in the forefront of your mind. But there are still those people who helped shape you into who you are, and when it comes down to the end of the line, we still acknowledge them.

While working on it, I’ve realized the web is something more than just a few lines, connecting some pictures with some funny stories. It brings all of us together one last time to relive the past, go through the last few chapters of our lives with each other, and thank each other for the memories while getting ready to make some new ones.