"You take a deep breath/ and you walk through the doors/ it's the morning of your very first day"- "Fifteen" by Taylor Swift
While I am no longer one who listens Taylor Swift, on my first day of high school her song "Fifteen" was running through my head for pretty much the whole day. This was August 9, 2014. That would be a decade ago Friday, August 9, 2024.
This fifteen-year-old had no idea what would occur in those four years; much less did she know what would occur within the first month and a half of that academic year. I have a good feeling she had no idea that a decade later she would look back and realize the good and bad of that year in some ways pales in comparison to the blessings and sufferings which followed in her in the subsequent years of high school and then continuing in college (covered in the Coached by College two part series) and then afterwards in my post-college life. So these words I will share with you, are as much for this young teenager as much as they are for you. So to begin I will begin my reflection of my freshman year of high school, reflecting on something that occurred a few weeks prior which was my first Pride of the Irish band camp.
Band is something that I joined right away, as well as cross country. I played clarinet (yes, like Squidward, though, I hope much better). I was extremely awkward at the time, to be fair seventh and eighth grade wasn't the easiest, especially with my diagnosis of Dyspraxia in 2013, and a rather bad bullying experience, so my awkwardness was perhaps, understandable. Yet, in the grace of God two juniors, Jack Darnell, a saxophone, and Kelly Haas, a French Horn, took me under their wings. I would become somewhat good friends with them. Although, as expected, I have largely lost touch with them. But their early kindness to me, largely set the tone for my experience in Band and in high school, for the most part.
Though I will say, my experience in cross country was somewhat different. I often felt a little outside not because I wasn't Varsity or JV. There were perhaps, a few girls who I got along with, particularly those in my class, but I didn't make more than acquaintances during my time on the team, which actually was cut short because I chose band over cross country the following year. So let's get to what happened in the first month and a half of the school year.
In the gallery pictures 2-4 relate to a situation or rather two situations of tragedy which the school experience between August 26, 2014 and September 26, 2014. On August 26, 2014, the first of two student took his life. This was a member of the senior class, which my sister was a member of as well. This young man had a younger brother in my own class. The strangeness of the event was that this young man was known for his kindness and his smile. Yet, as someone who had experienced depression, I now know that depression, which this young man may well have had, often gets hidden behind a smile. The school came together around the senior class, and as each year the senior class choose a song to symbolize the class, the senior class would switch from the initial song choice, which I cannot recall, to the previous year's song "Love Will Hold Us Together" by Canadian Catholic singer and musician, Matt Maher. Though, I do not know if it was after the loss of their fellow classmate, or after the sad loss of a classmate of the junior class.
I wonder if I thought this would be the only tragedy the school would face that semester or that year. Not even a month later, on September 10 or 11th (probably not a coincidence this is the anniversary of the twin towers destruction that another tragedy would occur, if was this date that it occurred), over the PA system during the first period of the day, for me that would be band class (band was class at Cathedral not simply an extracurricular), it was announced that another young man of the junior class had taken his life. On this particular day, I remember comforting a fellow bandmate who had been with this individual the prior evening, before the suicide. My most vivid memory surrounding this event, ok besides the one just shared, is that the band director, Mrs. Kathy McCullough, stopped our practice, had the whole band say a prayer together. I do not know if Mrs. McCullough is Catholic, but regardless in that moment, she directed the attention of the band exactly where it should be, at time of tragedy, which is God.
Two events would flow from this are photos 3 and 4. The first event entailed the Archbishop Timothy Dolan (now the Cardinal Archbishop of New York) came and visited Cathedral. I don't remember exactly what Archbishop (Cardinal) Dolan. Yet, I do remember that the t-shirt which is shown in photo 3 being worn by him and the entire Cathedral community was wearing, was given to him. The back of the t-shirt is photo 2 of the gallery, and was a painting or drawing done by a student, who was a sophomore or junior. The event was a visit for Matt Maher. During the assembly in which Matt Maher came and performed some songs, he received the same shirt which had been given to Archbishop (Cardinal) Dolan. He, of course, sang "Love Will Hold Us Together", but even more meaningful was the he learned the hand motions which Cathedral students created to go along with the lyrics.
While these tragedies colored the first month of high school, but some positive experience as well in that first month. Here, I have to say that the bullying of years past almost prevented one of the most positive moments of my whole high school career from happening. Each year, at least at that time, a certain segment of the upperclassman held what was called the Freshman Dance. During this event, I would witness, Nicole, my future best friend for high school, dancing. I thought her so good, but because I was terrified of crashing and burning in some way. But luckily, the Holy Spirit broke in and had me say hello and compliment her. This was the springboard for a friendship which has come and gone in waves over the last decade.
Other than band and cross country, I would get involved in theatre. Nicole and some others whom I met did theatre. I believe I may have done some work behind the scenes (as that was all people were allwoed to do). Though the first theatre experience I remember was the rookie showcase that year. My rookie showcase director was Grace Dittoe, whom I did lose touch with after she left Cathedral. She did her job well. My scene was one of several minor scenes within our show. I played a young girl on some date with someone (don't get me started on the ethics of this). I remember having an anxiety attack during a rehearsal once, but even so I ended up working things outs. In the same showcase, my sister had a short play as well, though I regrettably don't remember what hers was about. I did at one point sign up to be on tech crew for the Spring Musical, but I backed out cause I still wasn't the best at time management and had probably too much on my plate. I did go to see it for my sister was in it; although, I still marvel at how the people who wrote the program could have misspelt our last name given that my sister had done theatre for 4 years.
While theatre, was an inconsistent experience, at least that first year, other than band, the other constant extracurricular was Newspaper. I joined student journalism immediately upon starting high school. My eldest Sister, Samantha, was part of The Megaphone staff during her time at Cathedral. In part her time on staff laid the foundation for my subsequent participation because her time inspired me to write to my elementary/middle school principle to begin a newspaper at St. Matthew Catholic School. This newspaper was sadly a flop. But then in high school, I dove write in. I will be honest I can not recall which stories I wrote that year, though I do think that year was the one where I was the pro for the Face Off segment, arguing that Peeps were the best Easter candy. I was so passionate about student media which is probably a bit distraught when the supervisor, Mr. Tony Willis (who joined the cult, aka as became Catholic that year or the next) suggested I take intro to journalism instead of being officially in the Newspaper class, in the spring of my freshman year. Yet, that class would make such a better journalist.
The classroom was an interesting place that year. First, I remember in English class, reading Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Some members of the class helped perform the play in front of the class. I was the narrator, once having to read the text after getting my braces tightened. Another is that in teaching us about some facts about the school, my first semester theology teacher, shared how the boys of the school, when it is still all boys, were allowed to go and spray down the Ku Klux Klan who were marching down the streets of downtown Indianapolis (Cathedral's first location was in downtown; the Klan was anti-Catholic in addition to being racist). I also vividly remember this teacher, who was former seminarian, giving us a tangential lecture, about why the song "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction made no sense. I remember also once my hsitory teacher giving us a rant about the travesty of breakfast for dinner. In history, I remember a demonstration of how tight the slave ships were by myself and some other classmates went to the front of the room and were arranged as slaves would have been. I remember giving a presentation on Turner's Syndrome (I chose this topic because I had a family member diagnosed with it within the last year or so, at the time).
That year, I would go on the March for Life for the first time I vividly remember chanting "Hey Obama, yo mama chose life". While I would not attend for the remainder of high school, I love that I did it freshman year, because my sister, Veronica also went. The band would take a trip to Great Wolf Lodge and Cincinnati. That was a rather fun trip as we stopped at King's Island along the way. That year I also fell in love with trying ethnic food from around the world, thanks to the International Food Club (a few memories from that club are pictured in photos 6 and 7. With all that, I can call my freshman year overall positive. Though the one thing I would change, if I could, is I'd do the intro to journalism class before I joined the newspaper, but can't change the order that happened now. So in closing, here's a link to the first open house I played for the Pride of the Irish: https://fb.watch/tUVw02Od6f/
Come back next time to see what my merry little life brings.
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