Twice to the Right

I went to high school orientation for two of the children yesterday. There were scores of teachers and coaches, administrators and volunteers on the ready for us. We clamored into the crowded parking lot in this unfamiliar plot and headed into the spacious entrance to the newest high school in the state.

There once was a secret shortcut between two major roads that took hurried drivers to and from our little community. If you took a quick detour during the right time of day, it would save you at least fifteen minutes of driving time. Corley Mill Road is a narrow lane, covered on both sides by ancient oak and pine trees. The Corley family has owned the acreage on both sides of the road for generations and any attempt on purchasing a beautiful scenic lot had always been met with polite resistance… until now.

The designers of River Bluff High School took the history of the area and the tranquility of the rolling hills into mind when they designed the footprint of the school. It sits quietly behind thickly wooded acreage and is accessed down a double-lane drive bordered by a red brick and limestone columned entrance. The school opens up past a clearing in the trees and beckons the eyes toward its modern architecture.

It is the largest high school in the state and is on the cusp of technology. There will be no excuse for the lack of the best education and any athlete will be proud of the state-of-the-art facilities it will provide for generations to come. I walked into the gym and felt the same way I did when I peered around the double, metal doors in my old high school for the first time. Robert E Lee High was the biggest school I had ever walked into and every area was a new adventure for the senses.

My first day of high school was intimidating. The block walls of the hallways were freshly painted and the floors were clean and polished. The halls were lined with locker after locker… there was a subtle roar of voices from as far as my eyes could see and the clanking sound of the lockers opening and shutting still sits in my mind. I had two combination locks… both had the same combination. I had practiced opening them up the night before… saving the combination to memory. My books would be safe behind the spinning dial.

I found my locker with its fading metal number and lifted the lever to hear that now familiar slide behind its louvered cover. It was clean except for a dusting of rust in the back corners and I piled my textbooks inside… first in a flat stack and then standing up with the spines facing me.  I closed it shut with a hollow clank and slid my lock into the chrome handle.

I would follow the same pattern, day after day and year after year. My locker would soon be filled to capacity with paper and notebooks. It held love letters and pencil bags… binders and socks, gym clothes and a brown paper bag for lunch.

My kids don’t have lockers. The school is filled with interactive, flat screen monitors and computer work stations. They carry their books in the memory of their iPads. They are moving ahead of us in technology, but they may be missing some of the little things… like spinning their lock twice to the right before landing on the first number or finding a note secretly tucked inside of a messy locker.

    

                                                                         Shannon R Killman