Commentary: End of year wrap-up

As I look back on the past 13 years of my life spent at FC, I can say with certainty that I would not trade it for anything. The knowledge I have gained and the relationships I have formed will carry with me for the rest of my life. This school impacted me more than I ever imagined and for that reason I am grateful.

My journey started in Lynda Tapley’s kindergarten class with my best friends at the time, Julianna Rosik, Marisa Jonigian and Tyler Breedlove. One thing I continue to appreciate about this campus is the close knit community it provides. Although it comes with its faults, it gave me the opportunity to keep my friendship with my best friend, Marisa, for the past 13 years. If either of us decided to leave FC, our relationship would not be anywhere near as strong as it is now.

As I entered high school, I felt a sense of comfortability since I already knew majority of my peers. I valued the small size of each class because it provided the opportunity for me to gain personal relationships with the upperclassmen. Due to my participation in sister-to-sister and the Calvin Crest trip, students like Allison Camden, Katelyn Miller and Annaleah Madison served as mentors to me. At any other school, the chance to enjoy a friendship with an upperclassmen as a freshman is considered a rare occasion.

My first couple years of high school, I limited my time to two activities: school and volleyball. In my family, any grade below a 90 percent is unacceptable and volleyball is the only sport I perform well at. With my class schedule full of honor classes and a foreign language, I failed to leave much time for anything else. I participated in both varsity and club volleyball, which meant I played the sport all-year round with only a two week break over summer.

Sophomore year, I chose to join a class called student leadership. My main incentive for joining the class came from my desire to make my high school experience more exciting. I like to think that I possess a large amount of school spirit and that I am pretty decent at event planning so I gave the class a shot. Leadership helped me to find different ways to participate as a servant leader in my community through events such as FC Serve Day where I volunteered at Kepler Elementary in downtown Fresno twice. I was also given the chance to assist in some of my favorite occasions such as Sadies, Homecoming and Spring Formal. In my opinion, I learned the most about myself from this class. I discovered that I enjoy planning events and trying things that people have not tried before or are hesitant to try. A good challenge is something that I thrive off of.

Performing well in unfamiliar situations came in handy my junior year when I joined the journalism class for the school’s online newspaper, The Feather. The adviser for the class, Greg Stobbe, encouraged me in his own way to join the paper after being in his class freshman year. Writing was not one of my strong suits and Stobbe assured me that joining the class would help. The first article I ever wrote for the paper was about the trip I took to Paris, France along with my mother, a couple other students and Stobbe the summer before my junior year. It gave me the opportunity to write about my experience and express myself without any of the guidelines that come with a homework assignment.

Journalism provided the most opportunities for me when it comes to success in my future career. My senior year, I became the opinions editor for the paper, which came with more responsibility and more reward. This past March, the head staff traveled to New York City where we competed in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association competition and received the Gold Crown. We then went on to receive the Pacemaker from the National Scholastic Press Association in Los Angeles. I had the benefit of going on both trips and it was amazing to see all of our hard work recognized.

FC has provided a second home for me for the past 13 years and the people here are similar to a second family. As excited as I am to go on to the next chapter of my life, it will not be easy for me to say goodbye to all my friends, teachers and mentors that have poured into my life.

Olivia Quebe will be attending Cal Baptist and will be studying Public Relations. 

For another senior reflection read, Senior reflection: Andrew Moore.