Bloomington High School, The Gothic, 1918, Page 43

Description:	SENIORBY MARGARET SCHUMANNOn the morning of the nineteenth of September, in the year nineteen hundredand seventeen. Senior roused himself from slumber and mechanically began todress. His first thought was how many sandwiches he could have for the hikethat Jim and he had planned the night before. He came to breakfast full of funand with as big an appetite as usual. His mother, noticing his corduroy trousersand hiking shoes, reminded him: School is to begin today. His heart sankwith a thud.Struggling through his breakfast as best he could (for his appetite had de-serted him), he changed his clothes, and after straightening his tie for the tenthtime, set off for school. The neighbors missed his customary whistle, but itsabsence might have been explained had they seen him mount the stone steps of alarge brick building--the Bloomington High School.Among the first to greet him was Jim. Together they found their way toroom nineteen, which was already filled with a hum of happy voices. What won-derful accounts of vacation stories were being told!Suddenly a door opened in the back of the room, and a tall, square-shoulderedman, clad in gray, walked up to the desk. Instantly the chatter ceased, and every-one scrambled for a seat (usually as near the rear of the room as possible, and outof the range of him who should direct the decorum of that room). This manhanded out cards, on one of which was the schedule which Senior was doomedto follow for the first semester. Senior glanced at the card which had been handedhim. and the first subject which he noticed was Physics. He had always wantedto know why a balloon didnt collapse, how to do the Cartesian dive, and variousother phenomena of which he had heard. Now he saw his opportunity for makinggreat discoveries.About noon Senior might have been seen in the midst of a crowd of bookbuyers in front of the book store, securing the necessary tools for the semesterswork.He worked diligently at his lessons. Nothing happened to break the monotonyof the daily routine of studies until Christmas vacation. Then he had two wholeweeks of freedom from books and a High School party besides.Just as he was preparing again to tread the thorny path of knowledge, helearned that he would have another week of vacation on account of the fuel sup-ply. Happy beyond words, he planned to make the most of it. For the life of himhe could not see any sense in Emersons essays, but now he thought he saw a prac-tical application of that last one--Compensation.When he returned to school a great surprise awaited him. There were to beno mid-term examinations! This was the best news he had heard for a long time,for the uppermost question in Seniors mind had been, To flunk or not to flunk inEnglish VII. Well, teachers were not quite so heartless after all, for he was al-lowed to proceed with the prescribed course of the next semester. Now he joinedhis classmates for another term of study, laboring zealously to reach that greatgoal--graduation.The final examinations came the last of May. With fear and trembling heawaited their arrival. What a blank his memory seemed to be as he read theQuestions handed him. But somehow they were all answered, and soon he receivedhis card, which read, Complete for graduation.Now looking into the near future. Senior beheld what seemed to him Utopia--but he soon realized that some of the happiest days of his life were over.
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloom/id/2859
Collection:	Bloomington High School

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