The long, winding road of the Class of 2025

Do you remember your first day of high school? A new building, an unfamiliar crowd, a vague sense of approaching dangers and opportunities. Perhaps in your gut, jabs of terror.

Jefferson High School’s class of 2025 remembers. Their journey began on Aug. 24, 2021: a sunny morning, though a thunderstorm would pass through that afternoon. After the ice-breaking games of the previous day’s orientation, classes began and anxieties grew.

“The first couple weeks, it was a huge adjustment phase,” said Melanie Zitnik, who has just moved back to Jefferson County from Billings. Grace Quigley, who arrived at Jefferson from Clancy Elementary, added: “I remember being really nervous that I wouldn’t find a friend group.”