Graduation brings reflection on the good ol' days

It's been 12 years since I entered the public school system here in Moses Lake and now I'm finally being set free. Graduation is on Thursday and I'm more excited now than I've ever been. It's starting to feel real for the first time all year. As the date gets closer and closer, I start to reflect on all the good times that school has brought me, as well as the not so good times. But all in all it's been a pretty good ride and I'll be ready to let it go when Mr. Balcom hands me my diploma on Thursday evening.

First through third grade was a blur of two-hand-touch football games at recess and cafeteria-style turkey gravy at lunch time. Even though it was created in bulk for 300 screaming kids, it is still the best runny gravy and pre-packaged turkey poured over just-add-water mashed potatoes I have ever tasted.

It's hard to remember much about school from those years except for the fact that long division made my brain hurt and I wasn't very good at arts and crafts. Every single pair of tiny scissors in the entire room were made for right handers and I, being the only left handed kid in the universe at the time, couldn't cut correctly to save my life.

Fourth grade took me to North Elementary where Mrs. Rosenow taught us how to read chapter books! How exciting! I also figured out that it takes about seven months to get all the way through "Where the Red Fern Grows," when your teacher only reads 10 minutes to you a day. I thought that little boy would never chop down that tree!

Recess brought us baseball games on the hilly plains of North Elementary's playground. You had to get pretty creative if you wanted to make a baseball field when you had no backstop and no real equipment besides a giant blue plastic bat and a tennis ball.

Corey's brand new jacket that his mom bought him from Sears was first base. That patch of dirt out in the middle of nowhere was second, and Andy's shoe would be the sacrifice to become third base with another stomped out patch of dirt posing as home plate.

Games would last for days. With our recesses only being 20 minutes long it was hard to play a full game. I don't know how we remembered the inning or the score throughout the week, but we managed to do it.

Fifth grade brings memories of end-of-the-year water balloon fights and learning about how Christopher Columbus wasn't really looking for America when he stumbled upon the "new world" (I know, it was a shock to all of us). But the recollection that really comes to mind is the time that I decided I had to raise my hand to ask for permission to go to the bathroom to get rid of my lunch via vomiting. Needless to say I didn't quite make it all the way, but I did learn that emergencies did not require permission to vacate the classroom.

My class was the very first to be a part of the new middle schools in Moses Lake and being the pioneering class to make it to the "big show" was not an easy task. I started styling my hair with this fancy new invention (to me at least) called styling gel. My entire wardrobe was replaced with new and expensive clothes from Abercrombie and Fitch. I mean, come on, I had to be cool! I couldn't have people thinking I was a loser.

I played a lot of kickball in sixth grade and since there were no more recesses (oh the humanity!) we resorted to playing during class. My class probably spent more time on the kickball field than in the classroom, but do you think we cared at the time? No folks, we did not!

I also made a pretty nifty scarecrow in the timeless classic "The Wizard of Oz." My class was the greatest cast of reject sixth grade actors I have ever seen, but again, I was learning things. I found out that it is not safe to wrap a human being entirely in aluminum foil (even if he has to play the tin man) and until this day I still know all the words to "If I Only Had a Brain." You can probably bribe my mom with cash totaling over $1,000 and she might give you the cherished video tape of the play, but you'd have to be a pretty crafty businessperson.

In seventh grade I learned all the Greek gods in English class and discovered the joys of physical science. Apparently things fall to the ground because of gravity and if you tried to count all the gods of ancient Greek and Roman times you'd probably give yourself a brain aneurysm. Also I would like to point out that my seventh year of grade school was highlighted by an undefeated season of "B" team basketball for the Chief Moses Braves. I'm still proud of our team for dominating every puny squad that tried to step up to our almighty second string basketball skills.

In eighth grade I entered the joyous world of pottery as well as realizing the amazing ins and outs of algebra with Mr. Curtis, who, until this day is still the best math teacher I have ever had the pleasure of taking a class from. The eighth grade passed by fairly quickly and before I knew it, I had finished the middle school portion of my academic career.

By this time I was so excited to become a "high schooler" I could hardly contain myself. Coming up to the high school was the single greatest thing that had ever happened to me. Everyone was so cool! They were all so big. Even if they weren't really that large in stature their omnipotent presence overpowered my small and meek freshman spirit.

The freedoms that high school life brought were unbelievable! I could go off campus for lunch and, and, and … OK, well I guess that's about all the privilege that my great assent to high school brought me, but I still felt pretty cool nonetheless. I mean, come on! You can imagine me strutting my stuff through the hall on the way to honors biology (oh yeah, I was that cool) carrying my sleek Jansport backpack like it was the trendy thing to do. I was lucky I didn't get beat up all year, but I managed to use my street smarts to make friends with the right people and avoid pummeling at all cost.

After escaping the treacheries of my freshman year, I was beginning to think that three more years of high school was going to be impossible, but I got along pretty smoothly my second year. I got my driver's license, started my first band, won the Battle of the Bands competition at the high school and all around had a pretty good time. Even though I decided that a career in science was out of the question for me after my bout with chemistry class, I would say that sophomore year was pretty productive.

My junior year got off to a late start because I decided to make the trek out to Big Bend Community College to participate in Running Start. This meant that school would not start until late September and I thought that was probably the sweetest thing on the entire earth! So when everyone was getting into the full swing of school I was just beginning, and what a year it was.

An hour and a half into my quasi college career I met a man named Red Shuttleworth, who would change my outlook on school forever. He taught me how to write a college paper and, on a daily basis, would discuss with us the comings and goings of his son's Irish wolfhound. There was never a dull moment in that class and it was a great start to my experience out at the college.

The rest of the year was a breeze and before I knew it, I was a senior in high school as well as a sophomore in college. Getting ready to graduate from two schools at the same time was no easy task. Scholarship after scholarship had to be filled out and turned in on time. Final decisions about where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life had to be made and after an entire year of deadlines and decisions, I think I'm a more prepared person for what will come next.

So I've finally brought you up to speed on what has happened with my life for the last 12 years. Needless to say it was an abridged version, but I think you've got the gist of how incredibly awesome my life has been. As I come to my last week of high school I realize what a long time has passed since I was a fresh, young buck carrying my power rangers lunch box to my first day of first grade. I also realize how quickly the time has passed. The next few years of my life will hold new experiences and surprises, but I will never lose the 12 years I've spent in the Moses Lake school system.

And when I walk up on stage in my cap and gown to receive the piece of paper I have been working for all these years, (even though they really don't put the diplomas in the leather case they give you), a condensed version of my school years will no doubt flash through my mind (especially because I have written this handy article that outlines all of my memorable experiences, making the recollections easy to draw from in my brief moment in the graduation spotlight).

It's been a long, wild ride, but three days after you read this I will be officially free, along with my other 398 classmates (assuming that they all managed to graduate), and we will be off on our next set of endeavors. But, no matter how far we get from this town that we've grown up in, and no matter how different we may be from one another, we will always have Moses Lake in common.

Justin Lange is interning with the Columbia Basin Herald. We wish him and every graduating senior in the Basin the best of luck!