A Door Was Closed Now Opened

So A lot of you do not know me. Even those that do, a lot of you have many things that you do not know about me. This is my story that has stayed behind closed doors for the past four years of high school. Before I dive into the story of the past four years, I should probably tell you a little bit about myself. I grew up in Monmouth and went to school there till seventh grade. With very few friends being left behind at Monmouth, I moved to Oak Hill and met the friends that I have now. I call us “The misfits”; we could all fit in with other groups, but there was something that set us apart from the other groups, so we found each other and formed our own group. It has been that way ever since. I cannot say that we haven’t had people come and go for their own reasons, but those of us that remain we make it work. The story I am going to tell does not have a lot to do with them but knowing them helps you understand who I am. You probably know Mason Rivet, Anthony Green, and Hunter Spencer better than me, to name a few, but those are my people and knowing who they are as people I hope gives you a better idea of who I am.

To tell you the story of the first few years of high school, I have to take you back to summer before eighth grade. It starts with a conversation that I did not know was going to be so serious. When they sat me down my dad looked at me and told me that my aunt had gone to a doctors visit with my grandfather and that things did not look so good. He told me that doctors said not to count on him being there for Christmas. That was the start of everything for me how my first year at Oak Hill started. Then it came and went just like that. My grandfather was still alive and I had more time with him, I was so happy and relieved. I had gotten another Christmas with him and just got to spend more of my life with him. I was not ready to say goodbye but then again is anybody ever ready to say goodbye?

Freshman year started off normally. I went through the same things that most other freshmen went through. I went to classes and had to adjust to my new slightly heavier workload, but my challenges also came in having friends in class. I was new to Oak Hill still I had my small group of friends and that was it, so I spent the next couple of months spending time meeting and socializing with new people, and getting to know my teachers. Academically this was a good year for me. I was a mid to low eighties student unlike my previous eighth grade year which stood at low to mid seventies. But come the end of freshman year after being told continuously that my grandfather had 6 months left to live, on June 4th 2017 he passed away, and three nights before my dad fed him a whoopie pie and a sip of pepsi as his last thing he had to eat and drink  before he passed. Following that we just had a small get together of my family on my dad’s side and my nana’s children to hold a “Celebration of Life”. This was not a funeral for my grandpa because that is not what he wanted. He always said he lived a good life and wanted it to be celebrated and not mourned. His other request was that his ashes would not be buried until he and his wife, my nana, would be cremated and laid to rest together. That was how my Freshman year ended. To this day, I live my life for my Grandfather because if I do that then I know as long as I and people are around to remember him, that he is never truly gone and I will never forget him. He holds a very special place in my heart, one that nobody else could fill. I will forever cherish and hold dear to me the love of my grandfather. 

Sophomore year was when the second death happened. Just a few short months after my grandpa passed away so did a close family friend who had been a friend of the family since long before. This man was so close he was like family, so I missed a day of school to go to his funeral and it was a very hard and emotional time for me. For those of you that do not know, I am not a very emotional person. During this time I thought about why I had not gotten so emotional about my grandfather’s passing and came to realize it was because it’s not what he wanted. I never told anyone about these things or at least very few people because I did not care for or want the pity I’m sorry’s or how are you holding up talks and questions. Those never mattered to me. To me they did not know or really care about my grandfather or family friend and that’s just the thing how can you tell the difference in who meant it and who never did. Following that just being a lot to deal with in a short while sophomore year academically wasn’t the best but I passed besides Geometry but I have a blog post about that if you would like to know more about that.

Junior year was a pretty standard year, well until that summer that is. All through the summer after sophomore year and through junior year my nana spent time in and out of the hospital because of her falling it was just something that kept happening because she had bad balance. Following all of that in the summer after junior year she passed away and a funeral service that was very nice. My nana’s ashes and my grandpa’s were combined in an urn and laid to rest just like my grandpa had wanted. Having so many deaths in such a short time was hard. Especially knowing that some of the interactions I had with my nana I would never have again. I still to this day miss her asking how I was doing and I would always say good and she would smile and ask me for what and I would say nothing and smile back and tell her I loved her. It was all just so hard having to deal with these losses to my family and people that were as close as family.

Senior year the final step in this four year process. Although there is one down part in this part of the story, here is where a lot of the positives come into play. For starters, over the past few years I had been taking the final steps in Boy Scouts to achieve the highest rank in scouting that of an Eagle Scout. After all this work I had finally made it there. I got recognized and received this award on November 17th 2019 but that was the date of the ceremony. I had actually completed everything for the rank  two months before in September and waited to have the ceremony till I could pay for my sister to fly from Utah to come to the ceremony I was planning with my mom and scoutmaster. What my family did not know is that I paid for her husband to come as well and we surprised the family with him the next day after they flew in because they got here so late at night. The other notable thing that happened was I stayed on top of my work this year and got good grades while I was at it. No passing English in two weeks so I could go to my sister’s wedding in early summer or this or that. It was just good I raised my grades to all be above a 88 in the first semester and above a 90 in the second although, sadly it is now pass/ fail and I will not get fully recognized for this achievement, I am still proud of myself. 

Overall, even though this speech highlighted a lot of downs, high school was a fun time for me, and I would not trade it for the world. Many of you can probably relate to having ups and downs in school and losing people that are close to you whether through death or growing apart, but I just wanted to let you know through all of this that you are not alone. Finally as I close this speech for those of you who have been here since the beginning, thank you for taking this ride with me, let’s keep it going. To those who have come and stayed or come and gone I am thankful for my time with you and the time in the future to get to know you. If you read or listened to this having no prior idea as to who I was, thank you for taking the time to get to know me. Class of 2020, Teachers, and Administration of Oak Hill High School, Thank you. 

Photo on Foter.com