Growing up within Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, everyone knew the three schools in the district rather well--G.A.R, Meyers and Coughlin. Through the years, there was talk about people going to knock the schools down and merge all three high schools into one; we all laughed and said that will never happen. Except now, it is happening.
Soon, my Alma Matter, James M. Coughlin High School will be demolished. A school that is the OLDEST in Pennsylvania, making the main building a whopping 107-years-old. This school has survived the test of time. It is time to bid farewell to a place that we swore we hated, and now realize we loved and had so many memories within. Coughlin has been a piece of my family, from my twin and I attending, to my father, and to his father. There were many other families that had the same legacies through Coughlin.
So, I would like to say my final goodbye to a place that I will dearly miss. Coughlin was a place where you thought you heard people time traveling, always asking "are you going to the 70's?" "nope, I'm actually headed to the 20's" and so on. It was a place where your sports team were like your second family.
I will miss the mashed potatoes and soft pretzels during lunch. Everyone loved when the weather broke and we got to play ping pong during gym. I'll miss sprinting to beat everyone to sign up for Almost Anything Goes, and then pretending like we were in the "Hunger Games" leaving everything out on the gym floor trying to beat the under or upper classmen (we always had the best team).
I'm going to miss being able to go back and visit. To walk through the halls and remember all the memories I made with my friends and all of the football and basketball games we went to screaming our lungs out.
I'll miss being excited for The Breidlin to come out and sign everyone. There are so many things that I will actually miss about my old high school, but it makes me excited for this new generation to have a fully functional school.
They are destroying the school we once knew, but they can never destroy our memories, our lessons, our history at Coughlin High School. Once a Crusader ALWAYS a Crusader!
