Early next year my high school is going to be knocked down and replaced with a new one. Although this transition is necessary it's been harder than expected to say goodbye to a place that has so significantly impacted my life. Today the school hosted an event to celebrate the history of the building and the memories that people have formed there. We got to climb to the top of the bell tower and admire the view of the town below. Going away to college has made me realize how perfect this town is and how much I appreciate it, I only wish I had realized this earlier.
Taken from WellesleyWeston: "For some, the central Wellesley High School memory is of an athletic space: lining up outside trainer Patty Hickey’s cramped office for an ankle taping; the “broken in” smell of the “Upstairs” gym; the dead spot in the wood in the Larsson Gym where you knew not to dribble, just like the old Boston Garden. For others, the memory is artistic: the bicycle hanging from the ceiling in the Photography studio; the balcony sound and light booth from which to scan the whole auditorium; the view of students eating lunch in the courtyard from the second story windows. For so many members of the Wellesley High School community, the memory, and thus meaning, of their experience, whether as student, teacher, or a student who becomes a teacher, is linked with some idiosyncratic space—a nook, a cranny, a place where one found solace, inspiration, fellowship, ownership. As former English teacher Jeanie Goddard reflects: “…so many of us discovered how to be and how to teach and how to greet the world and one another” in this space, this Wellesley High School. In less than a year, the demolition of the 1938 building will begin, and students and staff will haul their materials into the new high school building next door."
