Put seven different Jefferson High seniors hailing from across the county in a room and start asking questions—there isn’t much they’ll agree on. Except one thing: After four years of high school that included 18 months or more of pandemic disruption, remote learning, tumultuous returns to the classroom and what felt like a missing year, they’re ready to be finished.
“I’m just ready to be done,” Zach LaForge, of Helena, said, remembering “rough patches in this school,” but also some supportive teachers. “I’m just glad to be done, put it all behind me.” Montana City’s Isabel Gilbert concurred: “I’m just ready to be done too.”
In their final week of school before graduation this past Sunday, The Monitor gathered the seniors together to reflect on their time together—and unexpectedly forced apart—and to look ahead.
Wade Rykal, of Boulder, said he was feeling “pure joy” at the upcoming graduation, and that “I’m just ready for something different.” All seven said they yearned to move out into the world beyond Jefferson’s walls.
“I feel a sense of accomplishment,” Logan Gillmore, of Jefferson City, said. “I accomplished everything I wanted to in high school.”
Gillmore got into his college of choice—Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah—but before he starts classes there he’s headed to Ecuador for a two-year mission as a member of the Mormon Church. Rykal planned to work a “job on a marina and fish all day long”—after track and field state championships, of course—and then he’ll attend college. LaForge was prepared for “going back to work, full time,” and noted that “a lot of people, more than others, went out and taught themselves work ethic” during high school. Gilbert was ready for a summer of family trips before heading to Angelo State University.
Gracie Leiva, of Boulder, envisioned a summer of “working, hanging out with friends before we all go our separate ways.” She’ll attend Montana State University in the fall. Shayna Williams, of Boulder, planned to work at Murdoch’s ranch store in Helena before attending Pima Medical Institute in Dillon to become a veterinary tech. And East Helena’s Leo Anderson will wrestle with club teams and wrench on bikes at Big Sky Cycles in Helena before heading to MSU Northern this fall.
The seven were split on what they’d miss about JHS—or whether they’d miss it.
“I’m going to miss certain aspects,” Gillmore, a thespian and the school’s mascot, said. “Especially this year I devoted most of my time to extracurriculars.”
Williams observed that “Sunday’s probably going to be the last time we see each other all together. The world’s so big,” but LaForge countered that “I guess if they’re your real friends they’ll make time for you in life.” Leiva added, “you just won’t get to see them everyday.”
Gillmore reflected that “high school graduation is not a celebration of graduation—more of a celebration of all the stuff we did.” Leiva added: “I feel like it’s more of your start of adulthood than an accomplishment.”
“I’m just ready for something new, something different,” Gilbert said.
The eclectic group of seniors already had something quite different: A global pandemic interrupting their high school years.
“It still feels like we skipped a year,” Anderson said, as the others voiced agreement that the pandemic hung over their experience. Gillmore said the shutdowns “really made me appreciate how much I enjoyed doing things. I kind of always took that for granted, being able to do school activities like theatre and sports. Not being able to do that really sucked.”
“I feel like we were kind of ripped off a bit that we missed a good portion,” Leiva said. “It feels shorter than it was.” She and Gilbert agreed that they “didn’t like it at all,” and Rykal remembered feeling “cut off from people.”
Williams said that returning to the classroom with relative normalcy this year was “much better than last year.”
With the feeling of a missed year, they said, the end of their high school careers seemed like it came especially quickly.
“It does seem really fast, I won’t lie. I still remember my first day,” Gillmore said. Anderson observed, “It mostly just feels like, holy shit, it’s over.”
Or, LaForge said, “sounds like most of us are not going to miss—well never mind, I can’t say that.”
