I just had one of the best, most surreal weeks ever! I got to experience the first day of school
at Poky High all over again—25 years after my senior year. The red and the blue,
the football team, the class yells, the Indianettes breaking their arrows with
the crescendo of traditional fight songs, and all of the buzz still have me
smiling. This time I went with slightly
less acne, a few more pounds, a presumably more hip hair style and surprisingly
the same amount of first-day jitters.
I’ve gotten to know second year principal Lisa Delonas through
volunteering with my alma mater’s gay-straight alliance club last year. Even
after going through the paperwork to volunteer and getting all of the
approvals, protocol requires me to check into the office each time. Frankly, I
love this protocol. The ladies in the
PHS office are as nice as the ladies who were there 25 years ago. Their energy
and genuine care for students always has me parting in a better mood. I wish high school could feel like that for
everyone.
When I first met Mrs. Delonas, it was liberating to step into the
principal’s office as a grown up. The last time I sat in that visitor’s chair
at Pocatello High School, Dr. Carole McWilliam was shaking her finger at me for
wasting time trying to weasel out of physics. And while this engineer has since
thanked Dr. McWilliam for that, I’ve also appreciated the physics-free nature
of my talks with Mrs. Delonas.
The first thing I noticed in Mrs. Delonas’ office was a bumper sticker
on her bookshelf. I saw that same sticker when I showed up at Poky for the
first day of volleyball tryouts. It was on the right side of Valerie Draper’s
brown Ford Tempo. “PHS Where everybody IS somebody.” I believed it then and I believe it now.
Last spring while we were not talking about physics, Mrs. Delonas asked
if I would welcome this year’s students on the first day of school and help
kick off the year’s theme: Living the Legacy. Would I? Absolutely!
High school was easy for me to love. I was athletic and played the trombone.
I was friendly and not prone to anxiety or depression. My haircut and mannerisms may have prompted
“dyke” and “fag” to be scribbled on my campaign posters during a successful bid
for student body president, but it didn’t faze me. What did faze me, however, was
the type of human beings who attended Poky with me. I invited the entire class
of 1991 to rejoin me on this year’s first day of school.
Many locals couldn’t miss work, and out of town classmates extended
regrets, but our class still wanted to contribute. Many sent well wishes and financial donations
so we could have Stuart’s Media Group digitize, brighten, and reinstall our
class picture that hangs near the main office. We also wanted each student to
have that same bumper sticker that Mrs. Delonas keeps in her office, so Stuart’s helped us with that, too.
My 10
classmates who joined me at Poky this week to hand out almost 1,000 bumper
stickers while I spoke were a coincidental and serendipitous representation of Poky’s
enduring diversity. We had athletes, band members, drill teamers, cheer
leaders, class-skippers, and over achievers, but none of these people were necessarily
my friends in high school. I can’t help
but wonder what I missed in not knowing each of these people better 25 years
ago.
I begged this
year’s students to take risks on building friendships. How are friendships forged? Somebody makes
the first move. Somebody offers the first smile with eye contact. Somebody
opens the door. And there they were, sitting on the bleachers at PHS--where
everybody is somebody.
As students accepted bumper
stickers (extras are in the office), I hope they saw the Class of 1991’s
smiles, and I hope they could see glimpses of their current and future selves. We
not only made it through Pocatello High School, but we thrived and we still
swell with Poky Pride.
I hope this year’s student see that when somebody’s gotta do it, they
can be that somebody. Once they let their classmates and teachers; the
athletes, choir, band and drama members; the math geeks, debaters and every
other somebody at PHS surround and support them, Poky Pride will consume them
and that pride never dies.
Twenty five years later, Poky’s class of 1991 is counting on you
students today. We won’t be back at Poky tomorrow, but you will. We’ll go to
work and continue raising our kids and living about in our community letting
our Poky Pride permeate the other areas of our lives. You are living the legacy
now. Live it. Love it. Be it.
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