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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 10, 2020)
June 10, 2020 Page 17 Grads Reflect Days Now All the Same c ontinued froM P age 9 Jefferson, O School of Mine My reflections are on the friends I’ve made, both students and teachers. Jeffer- son changed me, for better or for worse. In middle school, when I told class- mates I was going to Jefferson, I got asked “Aren’t you afraid?” or “You know you’re gonna get beat up, right?” Those people made me worried, but when I en- tered the halls of Jefferson, I was instant- ly greeted with warmth and a kind out- stretched hand. People are wrong about Jefferson, nobody here fights you just for being the wrong person. Instead they nur- ture your difference, draw it out and help you be who you want to be. I’ve been asked what is my biggest re- gret is from my years here, and I always say the same thing, “I regret that I didn’t participate more. I only went to one dance the entire time I was there and it was the best experience I had. I tell them that if I could go back to that first Home- coming dance way back in 2016, I would have gone. Jefferson was more than a school to me, it was a community. A place where I felt I could be myself without being judged or bullied. From the friends I made, to the teachers that taught me, to the classes I took, Jefferson was almost a second home. I am grateful for the time I spent at Jefferson and the support that I’ve received. --Atticus Wilson Series of photos collected by Brennan Fadel and Lola Pedegana. Bringing that Demo Pride Setting an Example It has been an honor for the past 3 years to call myself the captain of the JHS Men’s Team. It has been a wild 4 years. As a team there were games where we had big wins and games where we had terrible losses, but we never let the losses define who we are. We are a team that never dies, even in the last moments of every game. I wore the JHS jersey with pride, pas- sion and heart. Every game was spe- cial, not because of the score or team we played, but because of all the students, teachers, family members, and community members supporting us even after the final whistle. To all of our sporters I would just like to say thank you for always bringing that Demo pride. And thus I say farewell and good luck to the future of this amazing program at JHS. --Antonio Veaudry I lasting legacy in my personal life would be having children who are open-minded and kind. The word “kind” is often used synonymously with caring or sweet, and although I do want that for them, I want my chil- dren to be their own kind; someone of a unique disposition. I am still young and have learned little of what the world has in store and I also know that I am not a perfect person and that no one is, but when the time comes and I do have children, I will teach them the good and bad our society and teach them that there are infinite walks of life and that with ev- ery encounter and every issue that ar- rives, there are equally infinite ways to approach them and I want them to approach it in their unique way. --Da-Nae Monroe Waking up in the morning has never been fun, but these days especially so. It seems like just yesterday that when I would wake up and dread going to school. Now I dread waking up knowing that the days are all kinda the same. I fill the time up by making and practic- ing music, reading and doing some other things. It’s always the mornings that seem the hardest though. Knowing that the day is probably gonna be just like the last and wishing it wasn’t and hoping at some point someone says something that things are getting better and that we will be able to go back to life as we knew it. This pandemic has definitely made me appreciate some things a lot more. It has also provided time to and reflect on how my high school years went and just who I am as a person in general. I’ve actually en- joyed that part of the quarantine strangely enough. Hopefully though this ends sooner rather than later. --David Uppinghouse c ontinued on P age 20 Zach Brandt takes notes during a visit to PSU.