Yes, I’m a lifer at FC. Usually when I tell people that I have gone to this school my whole life, they picture me literally going to school in a glass dome where I am totally cut off from the outside world. Or maybe people think something along the lines of, “good for him, sticking it out for 13 years.”

Well I can safely say that I did not merely trudge through my years at the school, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve played sports, sung in concerts and have written numerous articles for The Feather Online during my time at FC.

I’m going to be honest though, there were times I really didn’t like it here. But overall, I can confidently say that I wouldn’t change my decision to attend FC.

If anyone knows me at all, they know that I love baseball. I know many people just throw that word around, “love.” But I truly love the game of baseball. If I could live on a baseball field I would, and because of this passion, baseball has been a central theme at FC for me.

There were times when I thought about transferring to a Clovis school to play baseball for them. People always told me that there was no way I could go to college if I stayed at a small Division 5 (DV) school like FC. Well, they were wrong, and I will go further than that: playing at a school like FC has its benefits over playing at a larger Division 1 (DI) school.

For one, I am a much more well-rounded person because of my campus experience. Now that I look back on the most memorable parts of senior year, I think of several moments: the ACSI choir trip (which was both exhausting and hilarious) the King Pageant, playing football for the first time and playing my senior year in baseball.

If I were to go to a DI school, I would not be able to do most of the events that I just listed. Baseball would be my only activity: no choir, no journalism experiences — just sports. I would not trade this experience for any other school because FC has truly shaped me into a well-rounded student.

In addition to being well-rounded, the coaches I have experienced here actually care about my safety and future as an athlete. Coming from a baseball player who has battled arm injuries for the past three years, I am very thankful for coaches that care about my health and didn’t force me to pitch when my arm hurt.

If this were to occur at many Clovis schools, I would most likely be benched and not able to play. Yet here I can play other positions, which has lead to my success as a hitter, allowing me to play college baseball.

Aside from sports in high school, I have learned to appreciate literature, which is something I thought I would never hear myself say. Yet through journalism and Molly Sargent’s Advanced Placement (AP) classes, I have read more newspaper articles and books than I can remember, and I have genuinely learned to enjoy them.

Once again, politics is something that I used to find boring and pointless. I figured that it was something that people just always disagreed on, and that would never change. However, now I am partially studying politics in college because it is something that I have been exposed to through journalism.

It would be remiss of me to not mention all the hard times I had during journalism. Let’s be honest, Stobbe is not the most patient adviser. But he is efficient and I would not be nearly the writer I am today without his help.

Journalism did not merely teach me to write about upcoming events at school. Journalism has taught me the art of critical thinking, which is an essential skill in the real world. With news agencies constantly telling us how to think and why everyone else is wrong, critical thinking is a survival skill in life beyond high school.

If I were to tell a freshman version of myself that I currently find great joy in reading, not only books, but essays and newspaper articles, he would probably try to physically assault me. But I am not ashamed of it. I only have my teachers such as Stobbe and Sargent to thank for opening my eyes to the world of English.

Many might think that I am trying to impress my teachers by thanking them so much but they both know that I am anything but a teacher’s pet and my gratefulness towards them is completely genuine.

These are the reasons why Fresno Christian is so great: my life is not controlled by baseball or academics but it is a mixture of both. While I am currently counting down the days until school is out, like any other senior, I will look back on my days in high school with fondness, with some regret, but chiefly fondness.

Senior Trevor York will be attending Gordon College in the fall.

For more columns, read the April 27 article, Letter from the editor: The pain of goodbyes.