"Com-Boom-ity
We were separated into four different schools - among this three acer campus - but we were still supposed to call ourselves the Crater Comets. I'm guessing it is because even though we're separated into four "groups", we're still part of the Crater campus as a whole. I'd like to know how this was going to be possible when there was so much hate and disrespect on this high school's campus? Even worse, we didn't just have the stereotypes of a normal high school these small schools made the stereotypes even bigger and more obvious, making it even easier to disrespect each other. We had the “tree huggers and hippies” in Academy of Health and Public Services, the “jocks, preps and geeks” in School of Business, Innovation and Science, the “hicks” in Academy of Natural Sciences and the “emos, goths and theater nerds” in Renaissance Academy. Sure, all of these small school titles technically have "Crater" in front of them but with how all of the students acted towards each other, you would have never guessed. This small school program was supposed to bring Crater together and make high school a better community when all it really did was separate us more and more but, leave it to a bomb scare to make us realize that Crater High School is actually able to drop the stereotypes and just be there for each other.
March 3rd, 2010: fifteen minutes into the first period class, I’ve already been at school for a hour and a half, thanks to my early bird Chamber Choir class, I’m already tired and counting down the hours till I get to go home, to bad I still have a full day to get through. The substitute in my health class is taking attendance when an odd voice comes over the intercom. “All teachers on Crater campus take your class to the gym immediately.” This voice, which wasn’t the friendly voice of the lady in our office... or a voice of anyone on the Crater campus, was a recording and on repeat mixed with a unusual buzzing alarm... all students are now panicked. We left our class room and see our principal running around, we hear cop cars and ambulances and to add to the fear there’s a S.W.A.T truck parked on the campus, right in the middle of our court yard. Within five minutes at least 1,600 students are packed into the schools gym, but I can't find my small school then I realize it, we aren't separated into our small schools... why? I thought we hated each other, yet we're clumped together out of fear and compassion?
There’s “jocks” talking to “hicks”, there’s “emos” comforting crying “preps”. Is this really what Crater is like? I’m sitting in the bleachers, on the phone with my mom trying to find out what’s going on, I’m guessing its a senior prank of some sort but as I sit there and look around I can’t see the separation, I see a community. We’ve all been in school with each other since pre-school, we all used to be friends, we used to share crayons and get in trouble for not sleeping during nap time! All that disappeared when we got into middle school and trying to concentrate on being “cool”, but here it is again. In a time of need, the support, encouragement and compassion is back. I’m speechless.
Everyone is running around, I wouldn't say any of us were in hysterics. There was fear, mostly in the freshmen, but a lot of people were just so confused and lost and nervous they either were in tears or numb to emotion. I, even now, can't really remember how I felt before I called my mom. I guess I was scared since I automatically searched for my best friends to get a few hugs from. After I knew exactly what was going on though, I think I was fine. I went up to my English teacher, Mrs. Hillman, to see how she was. She didn't know what was going on, and she just wanted to have everyone calm down so she, as she often did, was making terrible jokes. The only thing I could think of to help her came spilling out of my mouth without thought: "steal the megaphone from Mr. Meunier and start a massive game of Marco Polo." All she could do was laugh and started thinking of other games that would be great to play as a massive school, such as freeze tag and "mother may I". After that I told my other worried friends exactly what was going on, so then we all separated and went to tell everyone else that they can breathe easy and stop worrying. After everyone was calmed down and the fake bomb was removed from the school some kids and parents were rather traumatized by the entire day so parents came and picked up students. Other students stayed behind, but there is still tension and fear in the air for the rest of the day, though all the students and teachers are making jokes about this lovely bomb.
Community can be defined by the dictionary, but it can’t be understood until it is seen and felt. I had been on teams, in clubs and with groups of people my whole life, but until this fake bomb scare in my high school... I was completely oblivious to what a community really is. Its a coming together of people, to support, care and love for one another especially in a time of need. Before any student knew what was going on there were tears out of fear and yelling out of being nervous, but most of all there was people trying to help calm them down. Community is never defined the same by everyone. I define community as being there for each other, as the Crater students were when some of us thought we were going to get killed, the next person might define community as a simple gathering of people in one place, a party if you please, no feeling or concern attached, just a coming together of people. You never know until you get many small parts of one big deal finally acting as if we're all in this together, and the stereotypes of high school don't matter... then a sign and an understanding of community really shines through the walls people build up through the years.As Albert Einstein said "This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." "
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