ALL HAIL TO THEE, OLD CHANDLER HIGH...
Two Indrelunases now Changrape Chandler High alums
Lately, I've encountered a lot of different things:
things that are different than they were,
things that were different than I thought they'd be,
and, perhaps most scarily, the idea that I myself might be different than I used to be and what that means.
But it's nice to know that some things really do never change, like the fact that "In 1918, Chandler High School graduated its first class of seniors. There were three." Also comforting is that CHS principal Terry Williams still uses the three-seniors-in-'18 factoid as the opening line to every speech he gives and every speech he ever will, forever and ever, amen.
I heard the classic, barely changing Williams speech tonight as my brother Michael graduated from Chandler High. He has the distinction of being a member of Chandler's 90th graduating class, as well as its second-largest to date... that and all the individual distinctions that predicate one's being all stoled and tasseled out with the fancy honors regalia.
Anyway, I'm proud of him for making it through four years of Chandler High ridiculousness. (I only had to put up with three, remember.) And I'm also kind of excited as well as somewhat weirded out by the fact that, for the first time ever, my brother and I will be going to the same school simultaneously come this fall.
One other constant that I was glad to see tonight is that Chandler High still gives out actual diplomas at graduation rather than sending them in the mail afterward.
And now that Michael's got one of those fancy Chandler thangs, he's got a ticket to four (or maybe more, if he follows my lead) years at ASU, the first semester of which he has to spend with me not too far away. By the time he's approaching another graduation years from now, he too might start to look back on how he's changed in college, but it sure isn't my role to kick-start that process. I think I'll just work on ensuring that he picks up The State Press every once in a while — because if your own brother doesn't read the paper you edit, something's probably amiss.