22.Graduation

Towards the end of my senior year I became very anxious to walk across the stage. During the second to last week of school it really started to kick in that we would not be returning to Thomas the following year. During the last week of school there is a common tradition at Thomas where the seniors do a senior prank. On the night before the last day of school my friends and i decided we had to pull a prank. We put all the soccer nets that were around the building on soccer fields in the Parking lot so put could not enter the school. Along with this our class was planning a beach day on the last day of school. We hooked up a bunch of hoses and gathered different things that we could use for beach day. In the morning a group of about one hundred kids showed up on the field where beach day was taking place. After already talking with our principle, beach day was a go. We cooked hot dogs and hamburgers on a grill and brought a bunch of drinks. It was the perfect way to end our senior year. As graduation came around people began to feel sad about leaving Thomas where they had so many great memories. At my graduation, I remember the different emotions in the air. Some people were crying while others were laughing and having a good time. As everyone crossed the stage it really hit me, i was done at Webster Thomas High School. At the end of our ceremony, close friend of the entire class and also the president of the class gave a speech. In this speech they gave us a challenge. They said we would have to hold our arms in the air next to us for 3 minutes. As everyone was wondering what they were doing this for a song came on. Lean on me, at this point i could hear people start to cry. For me a was a great was to end my graduation ceremony.

21.T-Birds

Over the summer of my junior year my friends and I decided we wanted to make our senior year the best we could. A few weeks before school started we started calling people and asked them if they were interested in joining a student cheer crowd for our football team. After rallying up about 40 to 50 kids we began to make our t-shirts. After our t-shirts were complete we went to the first football game. Knowing that everyone who was at that game who wasn’t a t-bird at the time now wanted to make a shirt and join. This cheer crowd connected many people in our school who would not have hung out with each other if it were for the t-birds. Before the games we would all meet at Boulters parking lot which is a huge warehouse across from our school. Here we would spend all morning grilling hot dogs and hamburgers and then walk over to the game as a group. This group ended up being a huge part of the school. Which teachers and our principle loving what we did, they decided to make it into a club at our school and had t-shirts made for us. When it came to our homecoming game it was very close. With plans of charging the field, we decided to do so. As Thomas stopped the opposing team on their last possession in overtime we lumped and ran over the fences and began to make a huge dog pile in the middle of the field with the players in it to. This is one of my greatest high school memories that I will never forget.

19.Willink Middle School

Ever since I was a young kid I loved physical activity and playing sports. In middle school I learned what it was like to play on a modified and freshman sports team. With many of the kids playing their first year at these sports in middle school it was difficult to watch let alone play on the same team as some of these kids. Doing many activities including soccer, basketball, football, baseball and skateboarding, I kept myself very busy. I had some great coaches that knew how to have fun and some that made me want to quit. Skateboarding was something I did for fun with kids in my neighborhood. The summer going into seventh grade I remember building at 7 foot tall half-pipe in neighbor’s yard. After the half-pipe was complete was would spend days and nights skating on it. Even if kids did not skateboard they still enjoyed coming to the ramp and watching us skate. I remember how nervous my mom was when she saw me start skating thing I was going to crack my head open. As I got older and entered high school I stopped playing football and basketball and concentrated more on soccer and baseball. My freshman year I played soccer and baseball and enjoyed both. The next year I decided to stop playing soccer and spent a lot of time playing baseball. Through middle school I developed many close friendships that seemed to get closer as I got older and stuck with them until now.

18.Growing up in Webster

As a kid growing up in Webster I always enjoyed spending time with my friends in my neighborhood. I remember spending all of my childhood running around the neighborhood playing wiffleball in backyards hockey in the streets and football in open fields. Often times we would play with the same group of neighborhood kids. At night we would meet up with other neighborhoods around us and get big games of hide and go seek in the entire neighborhood. Going to Klem Road North Elementary school I was friends with a lot of kids from other neighborhoods too. Getting bus passes to other kid’s houses was always very fun to do. Often times I would go to friends houses on Fridays eat dinner there and then spend the night. Some of my greatest memories as a kid growing up consist of going to friends houses with a large group of my friends and we would spend all night watching television and talking about what went on throughout the year. In the winter I would gather a group of my friends to come to and go sledding at Webster Park which was a very popular sled hill in Webster. My friends and I would get together make jumps and see how high we could go off of these jumps. When it came to Middle School I was the first class to complete three year there seeing that the middle school was just built. Middle School was very different from elementary because the fact that we were given lockers to keep our stuff in. This also was a huge transition because you meet many new people and say goodbye to many others. Since Webster has two middle and high schools often times they choose a group of elementary schools to go to one and a group to go to the other but my school was split down the middle due to where they lived in my town.

13.Mothers High School Years

Webster Schroder High School was the only High School in Webster at the time that my mom had gone there. With very lenient rules my mom remembers high school as some of the best times she has had. Some of her best memories come from her senior year in 1982. After driving to school in a 1976 Camaro, my mom would attend a few classes, but spend much of her time hanging out around school or would leave school with a group of friends and hang out at different places around Webster. She was a varsity tennis player and played on the team until the end of her senior year. Her high school dances, prom and ball were held in her high school cafeteria. While attending Schroder High School my mom remembers how different it is from high school today. With a smoking lounge right next to the cafeteria it was not unusual for someone to smoke inside the school building during their school day. At night my mom would get ready in her jordache jeans get her hair all done up in a perm and go through cans of hairspray to keep her hair nice and curly. Since Disco music was very popular in the early eighties my mom would go to club 2001 or Club 747 and disco dance. Another popular hangout for high school kids was Flaherty’s. Flaherty’s is a tavern in Webster. This was a very big hang for kids at the time from the ages of 16 up to about 21 everyone would go there. After her High school graduation ceremony in her Schroeder’s gym, my mom decided to go to Monroe Community College as well as work part time as a mortgage originator at Nothnagle Home Securities. My mom decided that she really enjoyed working in real estate and decided to drop out of MCC.