Today I would like to talk to students. You old duffers will just have to read something else. As I read West Bend, the sports coverage, and other school news, I envy an area that has smaller high schools. I went to Leo high School which Mrs Google tells me has an enrollment of 1,368. When I went it was a much smaller school. My grandkids go to Carroll high School which has an enrollment of over 2500 students.
I have friends at Hicksville High School, and Mrs Google says they have 57.5 students per class. 25 of them graduate. Just kidding. When I graduated from Leo we had 32 students in our class. My wife went to Milford high School and they had 29 students. (Milford, Indiana is south of Goshen and Elkhart.) Our nearest high school Harlan, was only 2 miles away, and athletic competition was fierce. Our Allen County Athletic Conference had eight schools all within Allen County Indiana. Our grandkids at Carroll play many schools in Indianapolis.
When you graduate high school, for all practical purposes life is over. These are some of the best days of your life. When I was in high school we took a senior trip to New York City, and Washington DC, a practice which has long since been eliminated. Our senior trip is something that I remember vividly.
I graduated from the greatest class at Leo ever, the class of ’56. (1956) We worked all four years having car washes, anything where we could raise money for our senior trip. I still remember Radio City Music Hall, and The Rockettes. Also a quiz show hosted by Bill Cullen, in New York City. In Washington DC we saw all of the government buildings and met with our congressman. I remember the Lincoln Memorial best.
True story. On a free afternoon in DC, a cute redhead asked me if I would go with her to the art museum. I don’t even know which museum it was. Now I wasn’t really interested in art but I went with her and we had a wonderful time together. 50 years later at a class reunion the redhead, and her husband, thanked me for accompanying her to the museum of art. Of course I had completely forgotten about it.
The senior trip was special because these were the people you had spent 12 of the most formative years of your life with. This would be the last time you were together as a group and some you would never see again. We were going out into the world to make a name for ourselves. I have never seen my closest friend, since the day we walked down the stairs out into the world after commencement. I had heard he moved to Minnesota.
The best you can hope for is to contribute to society, and to help those that you come in contact with. I asked a close friend what advice I could leave; Follow Jesus, love all, and do not compromise God’s truth no matter the cost.
I would say seek Christian friends, find a fellowship that follows the Bible, the simple truth of John 3:16. Whoever believes in Him, Jesus, will have eternal life. God came to Earth to save us, who have strayed from Him.
—James Neuhouser
