Dear Lake Central High School (LC),
I want to apologize for hating you all throughout high school, because despite the bad, there was good. I won’t miss the crowded hallways and the rush to get from the freshman building to the pool in less than five minutes, but thank you for the exercise all my freshman year.
I will always crave those waffle fries with that fake cheese sauce. I still don’t understand why lunch went from $2.00 to $2.05, but I guess having five thousand students give an extra nickel a day adds up. Also, I am sure those who used to trick the special needs students who sold popcorn at lunch by giving them a nickel instead of a quarter have either found peace or karma.
Being out of high school for a few years now, I look back on all the memories I have from Lake Central, all the good and bad, and I am thankful for everything you have given me… and not given me.
I sit back now and remember all the fun and silly things I have come to miss from Lake Central. Those two for a dollar cookies were amazing. Everyone would wait in line all of lunch, and even skip the beginning of class for those things.
If you were roaming the halls when the bell rang, there was that woman who would yell at you if you did or didn’t have a hall pass and threatened every one passing with a Friday school.
I know I hated you at the time, but you helped me become punctual, which has help greatly in my work life. If you didn’t have detention, you would be rushing out of LC to either walk the line of a million buses to go home or walking over TacoHut to do other things.
Everyone wore those “You think you’re Yancy, huh?” t-shirts, it makes me wonder where he is at now and hope he is reaching his full potential in football. Football and homecomings were major, those were the the days everyone would paint their face blue and white and make homemade shirts. I still think it was dumb that LC made the cheerleaders wear pants under their uniform, they were school-issued uniforms in the first place! No matter what, our pride was always strong when it mattered.
Now that I am in the real world, I always feel rushed and as if I am forgetting something, which, luckily, LC gave me the same feeling every day I attended. Those super small lockers that rarely opened and always made you late to class taught us patience, or taught us to always to have a plan B. Having pool class in the middle of the school day, rushing around and having less than ten minutes to shower, do your hair, and dress, then rush back to the freshman center, taught me how to get ready quickly. Thank you for the practice!
Even though Tonk could be the scariest person ever, he was the best role model. He knew how to push someone to their limit. I am sorry for getting mad at him, he just wanted what was best.
There was an array of teachers, some not as awesome as others. I want to give a shout out to those who, even though they had thousands of students, treated each student as an individual.
We all went through some sort of phase and thank you for those teachers who looked past our black eyeshadow, sagging pants, or glitter lip gloss. Though other schools saw us as "STD Central," I still remember LC as the school full of diversity. I am thankful that our school was so overpopulated, filled with every race, color, gender, clique, because it helped prepare for not only college, but life. I don’t view any one based on appearances because LC gave me the opportunity to be friends with all sorts of people. Not everyone was besties, but we were all classroom friends. When something tragic happened, which, unfortunately, seemed to happen often, we all were able to come together.
I know during my high school days, I hated LC and couldn’t wait to leave and never return. Now, when I drive past, it isn’t even the same school anymore. Mr. Clark’s iconic classroom is now a parking lot, the trailer classrooms are now gone, but at least the athletic fields have improved. Though there were about a thousand kids who graduated in a class, I know we all somehow knew one of another, and I hope we all do well and I guess we will reunite in a few years, back at lovely LC.
Sincerely,
A former student.
