I have been a student at Palestine High School all four years of high school. I have been here through different teachers and even a new principal. Each year was the same and totally different at the same time. Each year of my high school career I was involved in different extracurricular activities ansd sports. So, here is how my four years of high school at PHS went in a nutshell.
Freshman Year
Freshman year was a weird year. The summer before freshman year I wasn’t even sure if my first day of high school would even be at a school or online because of Covid. We ended up being able to be at school in person, but with some rules and restrictions. We had to get our temperature taken at the door before we came in and had to be wearing our masks at all times. That didn’t stop my freshman year from being fun though; we made the most of it. Freshman year I was involved in volleyball, softball, and Drama Club. My first year of Drama Club was definitely one to remember. The first play I was ever in didn’t get performed for an audience, but instead was recorded. The practices for this play were definitely pretty chaotic! With people getting quarantined for two weeks at a time, we had a lot of missing characters at practices or we would just call them up and they would say their lines over the phone. The phone thing sounds like a good idea in theory, but it never really worked out all that well. The play ended up being very fun and I’m glad that we were able to push through and perform it, even if it was just for a camera. Volleyball and softball are usually during different times of the year, but with everything going on with Covid they ended kind of running together a little bit. Little freshman me had a very busy schedule during my second semester. We would have play practice at 7 a.m. before school and then after school volleyball practice from 4-6 and softball practice from 6-8. Looking back I’m not really sure how I did it. My favorite memory from freshman year is when our softball team won our regional championship. With a very small team of only 10 players, 5 of them being freshmen, it’s definitely a very rewarding feeling.
Sophomore year
Sophomore year is when I got to start having more of a typical high school experience. While during the first half of the year we were still wearing masks we got to ditch them in the second half of the year. Sophomore year I met two new people that had moved to Palestine and had started to go to school at PHS. I got pretty close with Zoey Rinesmith and Addi McNair. Addi and I have been friends ever since. We definitely caused some trouble and talked WAY to much in class–sorry Mrs. Hyde. Sophomore year is also when I started going to FCA and made so many more friends and deeper connections with some of the people that I was already friends with that were going to as well. Scott and Michelle always made sure we were taken care of.
Junior year
My Junior year we got new students again, one of them being Bridgette Woodward. Bridgette and I became friends very quickly and have been inseparable ever since. I didn’t play any sports junior year and focused more on working and making a little money. I went to FCA almost every week junior year and made some pretty good meals in the Mendenhall’s kitchen for everybody. Junior year for our Drama Club trip we went to Beef and Boards to go see their production of Footloose. Let me just say it was AMAZING and the food was AMAZING. When the year was over and it was time for graduation, I was definitely shedding some tears. My best friend graduated high school and I couldn’t have been more proud of her.
Senior Year
Senior year. This year has been filled with many memories and some I will keep with me for a very long time. Homecoming week this year was definitely an interesting one. Ahlya and I spending hours and hours in a shed working on the senior float for the homecoming parade, which we got first on!! Jag day was a tough battle between us seniors and the sophomores and for a while we weren’t sure who was going to come out on top, but seniors won, and rightfully so. I went on two trips with Mrs.Hyde in the same week one for Drama Club and one for English IV. This year for Drama Club we went to see Mamma Mia at the Fox and it’s was PERFECT! For English IV we spent the day in Chicago going to museums and walking around the city, and literally running back to the train station where we almost missed our train back home. Senior year has been a pretty smooth ride and I’m definitely ready to get out of here, but it’s a little bittersweet now that’s it’s over.
If there are any underclassmen reading this, trust me when I say you’ll have so much more fun if you just do your homework, show up, and find ways to enjoy it. Join clubs, play sports, go to the dances, and take Homecoming Week seriously– it’s all a part of the fun. Even if you don’t think that it’s something you’ll be good at, it never hurts to try. Don’t wish away your time here because it will be over before you know it.
