Saturday July 19, 2014
Today is my 20th high school reunion. I wish I could go. I had the good fortune to attend The Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics and Humanities my final two years of high school. It is a public, residential boarding school for juniors and seniors on the Ball State University campus in Muncie, Indiana. Students live in one of the dorms and take accelerated high school courses that are on a collegiate level.
Attending ‘the Academy’ was an incredible experience for me. It was the first time I ever felt a sense of community. It was a whole bunch of nerds, and everyone was accepted for who they were, no matter how weird or insanely intelligent. My courses at the Academy taught me to think creatively and critically. They taught me to make connections between subjects and disciplines. They taught me how to read literature on multiple levels. My courses taught me how to write and how to integrate diverse views with my own. I am so grateful to have had such an amazing experience.
Because it was such a close-knit class of 120, and there were few cliques or feelings of exclusion, I would love to catch up with everyone now. I know many people have been doing truly amazing things with their lives. However, it is very appropriate that I’m off riding my bike on reunion day, because I was always off riding my bike instead of socializing outside of class times in high school, too! Luckily, facebook is a great connector, and I’ll be able to view lots of photos from the reunion when they are posted.
