Senior Goodbye: Charlie Connelly

Before entering high school, I was made aware of every single high school cliche under the sun. Having to get work done “at the eleventh hour”, knowing that effort and result is a mutual relationship, and the overused “don’t blink” all seemed like vacant axioms to the then naive impending freshman that I was. We all enter new chapters of our life with a sort of swagger that exudes overconfidence, when in reality we should understand that cliches and their implications exist for a reason.

Today, I sit in front of this keyboard a now humbled senior, well versed in the intricacies of the high school experience all thanks to those that have helped me reach my utmost potential. The staff here at RB has not only guided me up the proverbial “ladder of success” academically, but have in the process, formed some of the most meaningful relationships I have ever had in my life. These teachers, Mr. Forberg, Mr. Dignan, Mrs. Cassens, and Mr. Beasley to name a few, have not only been my educators, but they have been my altruistic mentors, making me feel as if I could do anything I truly put my mind to. As teachers have touched my life in ways I never thought possible, so have the peers I can now call friends for life. The relationships that I have built here at RB surpass anything that I could have ever anticipated, and I am nothing but thankful for those inseparable bonds.

In the modern, social-media world, everyone is immensely consumed with the overwhelming notion that their voice reigns supreme–that their metaphorical “footprint” is one that should be remembered. For myself, I would much rather stay away from such vanity. As I leave high school, I wish not to be remembered for any grand moment of popularity. I simply want to be remembered as the guy that was there for the modest acts–like a smile in the halls when somebody needed it.

While I can’t say that I have escaped the cliches that umbrella the high school experience, I can say with confidence that my high school experience was certainly atypical in the best of ways–and I will forever be in debt to those who made that possible, because it certainly wasn’t me.

To quote W.C Fields,”If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle them with bull.” In my time here at RB, everyone may be under the assumption that I accomplished the former, however I am certain I mastered the latter.