Commentary: End of year wrap-up

As a life member at Fresno Christian I have been awarded special insight into the machinations and culture of the institution. In my long tenure at this place I can speak with confidence on a number of issues regarding the school, as I have observed it intently for the past thirteen years of my life.

My most formative experiences have been influenced at the direction of the administrators and teachers of this school, and as such I am grateful for their example. I have learned as much from their failures as their successes.

From my observations of the other life members that have graduated from Fresno Christian, being a “lifer” often results in two outcomes. The first outcome is that the lifers are completely enamored with the school, and see nothing but the positives despite the obvious shortcomings. The second outcome is that the lifers are totally sickened and repulsed by the institution, refusing to see any good or learn any lessons from their decade long journey.

Most of the student body, regardless of lifer status, follows this example as well. There are two extreme impressions from the graduates that leave this place. I however want to leave Fresno Christian acknowledging it for what it is. It is simply a high school.

Fresno Christian is not the apex of anything in our lives. It is not the best or the worst, the lowest or the highest, it is not hot or cold. It is simply our high school, my high school. And I have had great teachers and awful teachers the like. I have had rewarding experiences gleaned from success and from failure. Lessons can come from both sides of the aisle.

I choose not to leave Fresno Christian believing it to be a gift from God as one portion of the student body believes, or to be a place of darkness as the other portion may. I believe it is neither. It is simply a high school, facing many of the same issues as other schools. My job as a student is to utilize all of these experiences and make them learning experiences, and I urge my fellow students to take off their blinders and do the same.

As I write my Senior Reflection I look back at The Feather and Fresno Christian with my blinders off, where I can appreciate the good and learn from the bad. While these experiences have been formative, the process has not ended. I am looking forward to the next season to add more depth, character, and wisdom to my life. — Rees Roggenstein

This season in our lives is important, but it is not be-all end-all of our existence on earth. This is the time of youth, which is free of responsibility and the expansion of new freedoms. It is a time of adventure and learning, but it is a time of intense emotion and change as we prepare for the next season. And that is what we must do, learn the lessons from the season that we lived and move on with new wisdom to the next.

Fresno Christian is a season of my life, as it is for many others. And as this season ends I can move on to the next, confident in the lessons that I have learned and eager to begin the next phase. My advice to my peers and the underclassmen is to not let emotion cloud this experience to make it better or worse than what it was, let this place serve you as it served me. Let the successes of high school serve as an inspiration, and let the failures serve as a warning. Take the knowledge and use it in the next season of your life.

The Feather Online has provided me with a great platform to use the knowledge I have gained in my years spent at this school. My ideas have been listened too, refined, and then shared with the public. But however great The Feather is, it is also a micro-representation of the school. It is incredibly successful, but not without its challenges.

There had been moments of complete collaboration throughout the year, a totally unified staff directed towards a common goal. And there had been moments of conflict, where the staff did not see or act as one, but rather a divided entity. Technical challenges frustrated and in some cases demoralized the staff, even causing some to lose faith. However, through hard work and determination the staff could refocus and overcome the challenges as they came. Proving stronger at the end of each conflict.

I am incredibly proud and honored to have served as a leader of this group; they represent the highest excellence Fresno Christian has to offer. Their abilities as students, their strong wills, and confident outlook for their futures fill me with pride as it should with the school.

Though I am not sure of the issues that The Feather will face next year, I have born witness to the character of the students taking the torch from us to carry on, as we did before them. They will carry on a legacy that has been passed down for nearly two decades. I feel confident that I am leaving The Feather in good hands.

As I write my Senior Reflection I look back at The Feather and Fresno Christian with my blinders off, where I can appreciate the good and learn from the bad. While these experiences have been formative, the process has not ended. I am looking forward to the next season to add more depth, character, and wisdom to my life.

Rees Roggenstein will attend Pepperdine Seaver College in the fall of 2016. He is currently majoring in English but hopes to change majors to Business Management at his earliest convenience. Roggenstein has expressed an interest in joining his family business, Forward Advantage, and eventually succeeding his father as CEO and majority shareholder. 

For another senior reflection read, Senior Reflection, Chloe Mueller.