if these walls could talk

if anyone could tell the story of my life, it would be the walls of Coronado High School. if the school had ears, or hidden sound devices (which is entirely probable), the stories these walls would tell would be my greatest testimony.

i graduated from here after spending every waking moment of 2002 and 2003 here. and now, i sit at a teachers desk, threatening referrals and encouraging kids to make better choices and for heavens sake, do their crossword puzzles, dangit.

if these walls could talk i would be out of job, because within these walls.... oh man.
within these walls i made out with myles raymond between classes, and lied to avoid tardy lockouts. i pranced around in clothes that were half my size, and wrote award winning essays about Tartuffe. i took sleeping pills in biology and copied cole stafford's homework in u.s. history. i talked back to my teachers and refused to do my homework. i fought with my boyfriend over love notes i wrote to other guys, and within these walls i discovered that whitney was my very best friend. i spent almost 9 hours a day at this school, rehearsing for plays and memorizing lines. i wrote test answers on my chuck taylors and got caught sleeping in the back of josh's truck during class. i got awards, and i got detention, but mostly, i grew up.

because in these halls i watched my theater teachers eyes fill with tears as i told her about my newfound relationship with God. i prayed in the storage room for every show or performance i ever did, and i ditched class to read my bible in the sound booth. within these walls i experience my first heart break, my first love, my first sense of accomplishment.

it was within these walls that i sat in shock with my classmates as we watched september eleventh unfold, listened to the radio broadcast of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and watched Barack Obama speak in the football field three days before he was elected president of the United States.

this place has been filled with people that i have loved with all of my existence. there have been teachers that have shaped my life and there have been students that have taught me to be the kind of teacher that shapes lives. within these walls i have learned almost everything i know about being a teacher, a friend, a speaker, a student, and a person.

Coronado High School, thank you for being one of the few constants in my life.