Bit of Ivory

Today Murray High had an Open House. Over the past two years they’ve been building a new high school. I was very happy to hear this, as the old building was a wreck. It was a badly-planned mismash of additions. The roof leaked, the heating was so uneven that it could be 80 degrees in one classroom and 60 in the one next door. The auditorium and stage where absolutely tiny. The halls were narrow, dark, and poky, and were lined with the most hideous green tile imaginable. It was time for a new school.

On the other hand, am I very sad to see the old school go. I spent hours in that place. During the musical, I spent nearly 18 hours a day there. Choir concerts, English classes, basketball games– lots and lots of memories. After the school year ends on Tuesday, they’re going to move everything into the new school and demolish the old one. This was a chance to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new. I wasn’t about to miss it.

The new school is beautiful. Wide halls with tall ceilings; windows in every classroom; a wonderful new auditorium with a gigantic stage; a big, bright choir room with lots of practice rooms and a special room for the bell choir (which makes my sister very happy, since they won’t have to set up and take down the bells every day); a large, state-of-the-art little theater; actual dressing rooms for the stage; scenery storage close to the stage rather than down in the Dungeon; a big bright commons area instead of a poky little cafeteria and so much more. It makes me quite jealous, actually. I’d love to go to school there. If I were thinking about being a teacher, I’d want to teach there.

They’ve got a program where alumni can buy a brick from the old school for $100 dollars and have their name engraved on it. It will be built into a wall just inside one of the entrances. My siblings and I are thinking of contrubting $25 each to put all our names on one.

In the old cafeteria they had all of the alumni’s permanent records. Well, the ones who had graduated 5 years and back. They let you dig through the boxes and find your file, and take it home. It’s funny to look back at all my grades. When I’m not so tired I’ll type in some of my elementary teacher’s comments. they’re hilarious.

By the time I finished walking through the old school–pausing for a moment outside my old AP US History teacher’s classroom and my Honor’s Junior English teacher’s classroom– and the three-story new school, I was completely exhausted. I didn’t stop to say goodbye to the choir room and the auditorium, which had been my real home while there, because they were torn down two years ago to make enough room for the new school. Anyway, I came straight home and lay down on the couch, and I haven’t really gotten up since.

But it was worth it. I got a piece of the green tile.

(Now before everyone thinks I gacked it, they had a box in the commons. “Free to a good home.”) All of us kids took one.