To many, high school is a very memorable experience. You sort of have your “first time” for everything. You get your first job, first relationship, first heartbreak, and it shapes who you are. For a lot of seniors graduating in the Cornell Class of 2019, they have spent their entire academic careers in this one building.

They have gone from young children naive to the wonders and terrors of the true world to adults who are ready to take on the world and blaze their own path. Many might wonder how a school so small can have a much larger meaning than any large, rich school, and that is it. Many students get to have their entire elementary, middle school, and high school experience in the same building with the same people.

The word for it is simply memories. From Fun in the Sun Day in elementary to goofing off in class in high school. It has always been in the same place with the same people. Through the rough times, students have triumphed and risen above to realize that while the school gets a bad reputation they had gotten more out of attending Cornell than they would have as just another statistic at a larger school.

Most athletes played with the same teammates every year for multiple sports and learned how to be brothers even without sharing any blood. They fought together, ate together, traveled together and learned how to be the best that they can be together with the help of Cornell’s coaches who some even coach multiple sports.

Students have teachers multiple times over their high school career, so bonds have been formed that will likely hold on for many years. Students can see that these teachers care for them, and they care about them, too. The small numbers are what brings Cornell together. Everyone has a bond in some way shape or form.

As these seniors move on to big city lights and college campuses, it will be hard to forget where they came from, when that place is so remarkable.