We are now in the final quarter of the 2023-24 school year, so graduation is around the corner. The ceremony is on Saturday, May 18th at 10 a.m. in the Baldwin Junior High School gym. This year, there will be 97 students graduating. Many seniors are looking forward to the upcoming graduation, but others have mixed feelings about graduating.
“I feel very bittersweet about graduating,” senior Jayden Westgate said. “I’m ready to go to college and start a new chapter in my life, but I am also sad to close this chapter and say goodbye to all of my peers whom I have grown up with.”
“At first I was sad because I knew I was going to be leaving my friends, but now I can not wait to graduate,” senior Alexandrea McBride said. “I am scared to start a new chapter of my life without my close friends, but I am very excited about it.”
Seniors have made lots of great memories these past four years at BHS.
“My favorite memory was meeting Perla Backberg, a foreign exchange student from Sweden who soon became one of my best friends,” McBride said.
“The highlight of senior year for me is all of the senior nights for all the sports,” senior Talan Torrez said. “It is a way to recognize our great senior class.”
“It is surprising how easy it is being a senior, you can just leave school whenever you want, at the right moment and no one will do anything about it,” senior Mason Hadl said. “I guess it’s just our prerogative.”
“My favorite memory from high school would probably be from my sophomore year when I won the match to qualify for state by one point,” Westgate said.
Many teachers have made BHS a fun and positive environment for their students and have greatly impacted them.
“I think that Mr. Cullins has impacted me the most because he is also friends with my brother so we had an immediate connection,” Torrez said.
“Mr. Medrano had the biggest impact on me because in his class he helped me figure out what I wanted to major in,” senior Lucy Gardner said. “I will always remember Medrano calling all of the hard tests a behemoth.”
“Mr. Cullins has deeply influenced me and I’ll always remember him as a very smart war hero of our country, and as a rich man too,” Hadl said.
Although Seniors are sad about graduation, they are also looking forward to their life in college.
“I am most excited to play college basketball and create new beginnings for myself,” Torrez said.
“In college, I am most excited about learning new things and meeting new people,” Gardner said.
“When I attend college, I am looking forward to the S.M.P program, being with my friends, enjoying campus to the fullest in every possible way, and everything in between,” Hadl said.