After successfully passing the FC senior project and finishing their last high school finals, the senior class of 2013 made their way to Southern California for the annual Senior Trip, May 18-20.

The seniors met on campus at 8:50 a.m. on Saturday morning, loading all of their luggage on the charter bus and letting the excitement of the trip set in. They were also able to pick up their yearbooks in English teacher Molly Sargent’s classroom and began reminiscing about the year while looking through all the pictures.

This year, the chaperones included Principal Todd Bennett, Bible teacher Robert Foshee, choir teacher Michael Ogdon, secretary Vickey Belmont and parent of FC alumni Cooper Belmont, Stacey Belmont. Once the class received some instructions from the chaperones, they energetically loaded the bus and left for their first destination: Huntington Beach.

Upon arriving at the beach, the students were given about four hours to hang out and were told to meet back at a certain destination at the end of the time period. While some students made their way to the sand to play beach volleyball, others decided to go shopping at the various stores. During this time, the seniors picked a mixture of places to eat lunch and dinner before heading back to the bus.

Due to going through a stressful week of finals and senior project, senior Kaelene Presson appreciated the time she had to relax and enjoy time with friends during her time on the bus and walking around the beach.

“My favorite part about senior trip was going to the beach because it was really relaxing and just being on the bus with all of my friends and talking,” Presson said. “That was really fun because we got to catch up after everything was all crazy with tests and just got to relax and hang out.”

Though the seniors will take part in sober grad night after graduation, May 23, Senior Trip was the final big trip that the class took together. Presson thought that it was a great time to spend with her classmates and a fun way to end the year.

“I think senior trip is important because I don’t know the next time I’m going to see a lot of these people,” Presson said. “I know that I will probably see my super close friends every week or so, but with getting ready for college and getting a job, it was really fun to have one last big group event to enjoy together.”

As one of the chaperones, Vickey felt that she really did not have to watch the students. Due to it being all seniors, it was a more relaxed position that allowed her to enjoy the trip herself.

“Well, to be a chaperone of ‘young adults’ is not really a job,” Vickey said. “We were there as support for the female population and to handle any issues that might come up that would best be handled by another female.”

With the whole mixture of students in the class, Vickey’s favorite part about the trip was observing the different interactions between classmates, and seeing their personalities come out in the various activities.

“My favorite part of the trip was just watching all of the seniors interact with each other,” Vickey said. “They are all such a wonderful group of individuals with huge hearts but different personalities. Not one time did I see someone wondering alone by themselves, feeling left out. There was something on this trip that was interesting to each person, as we did the activities different individuals would surface as leaders. It was very fun and exciting to experience.”

Along with going to the beach, the students went glow-in-the-dark bowling on Saturday night. On Sunday, the class attended a church service at Rock Harbor church in Costa Mesa, followed by going to the Angels versus the Chicago White Sox baseball game at the Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

On Sunday evening, the class went to dinner at Koki Teppanyaki Grille located in the city of Tustin, and then attended The Fantasticks musical at the South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa. For their final day in Southern California, the seniors spent the whole day at Disneyland. After a fun-packed day, they loaded the bus at 10 p.m. and made their way back to Fresno, where they arrived on campus around 2 a.m., May 21.

Though she went as a chaperone, Vickey saw the importance of Senior Trip in that it allowed the students to solidify their bonds with each other and to create lasting memories.

“I believe that this trip solidifies the seniors’ relationships with each other though experiences,” Vickey said. “As they started the year, they experienced Calvin Crest and came together watching others in their struggles and triumphs. This trip was somewhat the same only with activities that some may never encounter but they will always be able to look back and reference these trips.”

While the trip provided the chance for the seniors to enjoy themselves together at the beach and Disneyland, senior Juan Ruelas not only saw the trip as a recreational time, but also as a stepping stone to adulthood.

“My favorite part about Senior Trip was Disneyland because we had all day to hang out with our friends in the most magical place on earth,” Ruelas said. “I think it [senior trip] is important because it marks a turning point in our lives where we have the freedom and trust from our parents to go out with our friends out of town and spend the night having fun, but also being responsible at the same time.”

Compared to Senior Retreat at the beginning of the year, Ruelas found that Senior Trip was quite different. Though the two trips had contrastive sides, Ruelas felt that the Senior Trip did provide a more personal time with his classmates.

“It’s a lot different than Senior Retreat because we aren’t as close to all of our classmates as were were during senior retreat because we weren’t always doing everything together,” Ruelas said. “Usually we branch out into our own little groups and see each other when we eat or pass by, but for the most part, we all kind of took our own paths. However, we did get to know our classmates on the more intimate level as we sort of lived together for three days, so it definitely brought us closer as a class.”

For more features, read the May 21 article, Profile on the salutatorian: Jessica Healy.