Congratulations Class of 2015 | A Look Back at Life that Got you Here

Thursday, June 11th is the final day of high school for about 350 Mount Si seniors.  Then on Friday, June 12th at 6:30PM, they will enter Wildcat Stadium as students and exit as graduates… waiting for life’s next step.

Being the parent of a member of the Class of 2015, memories have flooded my mind for weeks as I prepare to enter a new chapter of my child’s life – one where her reliance on me will diminish and new life experiences will await her.

The reality is, I have two and a half months left of our normal home life…. simple moments of sleepy morning hellos, meals and jokes at the table, watching TV on the couch with her.  After that she’s off to the east coast to pursue her dreams. We will still be here… supporting from afar.

Graduation is a symbolic step toward adulthood for the child and a forced letting go…. a wondering of where the time went for many parents.  We are proud, happy, sentimental and sad –  all at the same time.

Graduation is a classic collision of conflicting emotions.

So… if like me you are remembering all their firsts, and no longer able to ignore that your house might be short one person in just a couple of months, here are a few of the milestones that happened as the Class of 2015 entered the world and made their way through 13 years of public education and a world of technology.

They were….

Born When:

• Microsoft was the darling of wall street; Disney movies on VHS (not DVD) were the best entertainment
• President Clinton started his second term
• Many families moved to the Snoqualmie Valley when North Bend, not Snoqualmie, was building subdivisions
• Most parents had no cell phones and computers were just entering homes as a luxury
• Microsoft invested $150 million to save Apple, allowing Steve Jobs to create technology that would dominate their future
• The first DVD player hit the market for $1000; the first iMac computer launched
• Timothy McVeigh was convicted for the Oklahoma City bombing

Learning to Walk When:

• Mother Teresa died
• Titanic debuted and set box office records
• Monica Lewinsky became a household name, leading to impeachment proceedings for President Clinton
• Ted Kaczynski, ‘The Unabomber’ was sentenced to life in prison
• Bombings at the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya were linked to Osama Bin Laden
• The first home was built on Snoqualmie Ridge

Potty Training When:

• Google was founded and Sesame Street launched “Elmo’s World”
• The Euro was established as a new currency
• The Dow crossed 10,000 for the first time
• Bill Gates was named the wealthiest man in the world
• The Columbine School Shooting happened, taking the lives of 12 students and one teacher
• Star Wars began its second trilogy and Napster debuted
• JFK Jr. died in a plane crash
• The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team won the World Cup

In Preschool When:

• The world population hit 6 billion
• The Dot Com bubble burst
• ExxonMobil merged to form the biggest corporation in the World
• Seattle had WTO Protests and imploded the Kingdome; the Nisqually earthquake hit
• The last original Peanuts comic strip was printed and Dora the Explorer debuted
• Bush defeated Gore, including a contentious re-count in Florida
• Hilary Clinton was the 1st First Lady to win public office, elected to the U.S. senate
• The United States Government had a $5.6 trillion dollar budget surplus and the Bush Tax Cuts started
• California Adventure Park opened at Disneyland
• Planes flew into the World Trade Centers and Pentagon; the hunt for Osama Bin Laden began; the U.S. invaded Afghanistan
• Anthrax was scaring America; The Office of Homeland Security was established
• Gary Ridgeway, The Green River, killer was finally arrested
• The Olympics visited Salt Lake City; Apple launched the iPod

In Elementary School they were:

• In kindergarten when the Snoqualmie Valley School District passed a capital construction bond that built two new schools where some were the first 3rd graders and 6th graders to walk the halls of Cascade View ES and Twin Falls MS – and also built the stadium where they graduate this year
• Kindergarteners when the Iraq War began and Freshmen when it ended
• 1st graders when Saddam Hussein was found in a hole in the ground; Friends ended its TV sitcom run; Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook; and Harry Potter and his magic ruled the library
• 2nd graders when the Indian Ocean tsunami hit the day after Christmas, killing 230,000 people
• Beginning 3rd grade when Hurricane Katrina hit, devastating the Gulf Coast region
• 3rd graders when Twitter was created and the first Tweet was sent
• Ending 4th grade when the first iPhone hit the market and when Americans began sending and receiving more texts messages per month than phone calls
• 5th graders when Netflix started streaming movies; Apple launched the App Store, paving the way for their cell phones to “have an app for that” and creating the world of Instagram and Snap Chat

In Middle School they were:

• 6th graders when the economy crashed; the U.S. banking system nearly collapsed; and the bottom fell out of the real estate market; the first U.S. African-American president was elected; a December snow storm pounded the Snoqualmie Valley and brought a white Christmas; the swine flu outbreak hit; Twilight and New Moon were the biggest selling books in the country and made vampires cool
• 7th graders when the iPad launched; when the seventh most deadly earthquake hit in Haiti; and the Deep Water Horizons oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, creating one of the largest oil spills in history
• 8th graders when Osama Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan; a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the east coast of Japan, taking over 15,000 lives; and the U.S. military policy, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” was repealed

In High School they were:

• Freshmen when Principal Belcher took the reigns of Mount Si High School; a January ice storm knocked out power to the Snoqualmie Valley for days; police officers and SWAT team members descended on Peter Keller’s bunker on Rattlesnake Ridge, making the national news; the world population crossed 7 billion
• Sophomores when President Obama was re-elected; bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon; Edward Snowden squealed on the NSA; Pope Francis took over as the head of the Catholic Church
• Juniors when SVSD 9th graders moved to up the street to the Freshman campus; the ebola virus epidemic started; Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappeared; the Seahawks won the Superbowl; a natural gas explosion rocked North Bend; and Snoqualmie Police officers began patrolling North Bend streets
• Seniors when the Snoqualmie Valley passed a $244 million school bond to re-build Mount Si and build a sixth elementary school; the local housing market began booming again; the Seahawks returned to the Superbowl, but lost in the closing seconds; ISIS became enemy #1; after 50 years, the U.S. and Cuba to resume normal relations; a major earthquake hit Nepal

These are great kids shaped by technology; loved by parents; mentored by teachers; FRIENDS; welcoming; leaders; survivors; and forever connected to the Snoqualmie Valley – their home.

Congratulations Mount Si High School Class of 2015. Good luck where ever your next journey takes you!