My name is Joshua Bailey, most people call me Josh. I am a senior in Wheat Ridge High School.

I’ve not done much in my high school career, but like most people I’ve suffered through classes and bad grades. I found some awesome friends, lost some good buddies, and poured my heart into graduating. Throughout my career, which is nothing short of unique, I’ve done so much. Simply to name a few, I stayed at a friend’s house for the first time. I have gone to so many unique festivals, and played so many new video games and met so many new people. High school has truly been a constantly shifting and twisting ride of struggles and laughs and sad moments and trying to stay afloat. With the support of many teachers and many friends, I’ve made it to the end. So this is my senior goodbye.
I guess I’ll start by going year by year, and talking about the coolest and wackiest things I’ve done or seen, because it was fun, and I don’t want to forget some of it. So I guess I’ll start with freshman year. And one of the biggest things I will never forget was the amount of space I got when we moved. Our current apartment has so much room. And having that has given me so much more opportunity to further do the things I love. I got a second laptop in freshman year. And I played so many video games on it. I actually broke the dang thing, nearly burnt it in half, wasn’t the first time. I made friends, Lief Dent, Dylan Rice, and more. I love ‘em to death. But most importantly, I had a Spanish class. It’s there I met 3 people. I met my favorite teacher of all time, I met my top-two homies, and, through failing the class, I met Julles Marquez. Julles has supported my newspaper career so much, whether she likes it or not, and I think it’s only right I mention her here.
Without much other fun stuff I guess I’ll move on to sophomore year. Previously I mentioned one of my best friends and how I met him in Spanish 1, Jaden Holmes. Without him, I don’t think I would’ve had half the motivation to finish high school or had half the fun. Jaden truly made my sophomore year. He introduced me to Gio, my other top-two homie. With those two, I found my motivation to graduate, to put in the effort and succeed. With those two, I’ve done a bunch of stupid stuff; I once rode a skateboard for nearly three hours for a slice of pie. But I think the best part about that night was hanging out with those two. Jaden’s dog, Rocco, is probably the stupidest, and most lovable dog, I’ve ever seen. He’s big, he’s a lap dog, and he’s kind of stupid. But what he lacks in brain he makes up for in heart. Gio’s dog is also pretty stupid, but he’s also a lot bigger. When he ran off like an idiot once, you could see how much Gio cared about his dog by the amount of worry whenever he was in school, because he couldn’t go looking for him. He found him nearly two towns away. But between those two and their dogs, I don’t think I could find better company. Gio and Jaden made up the majority of my sophomore and junior years. But now that I’ve introduced them, it’s best I move on.
Junior year was a blast. This was the year I dived into newspaper properly, and I will never in my life regret it. Newspaper taught me so much. I met some friggin’ awesome people, and the best part was I had buckets full of fun doing it. I don’t remember much from most of the classes; admittedly I’m the kinda guy who doesn’t pay much attention unless I’m interested. But godd*mn do I vividly remember so much from my junior and the senior years at the Haystack. And by god, did I love nearly every second of it. Through failing grades, family stress, and teenage angst the Haystack was there, giving me things to do to keep it off my mind, or being able just to talk and relate to people. By and large, one of, if not the most, useful class I’ve taken in my 12 years of schooling is newspaper. I’ve done math, science, reading, English, College Bound English and so much more. So much that’s supposed to prepare me for life outside of school. But nothing really taught me like the Haystack did. More so junior year than anything else. When I had finished my first semester at the Haystack, I came to the realization that, if I didn’t graduate, I’d have wasted SO much time in classes, school, effort at home. And in my mind I thought “well might as well pass right? It’s not too late, we got this.” And I buckled down, like all those boomers tell ya to do when you complain about the economy they ruined. I digress. Newspaper was probably the catalyst for my graduation, and to be frank, even if I weren’t in newspaper, had I met some of the people in newspaper, it would’ve been the same thing. Anyway, the Haystack is awesome, check it out!
Now then, I guess I’ll talk about this year. My senior, and final, year of high school. The struggles, the classes, the work, the whatever else has all led up to this. Without a doubt, one of the hardest years of school I’ve ever done. Eight classes, almost all of them done, and it was difficult. Coupled with that were the good times. A couple of those included, but are not limited to; getting wings with the boys, grabbing some pie with the boys, getting pizza with the boys, cruising around with the boys, and watching Avengers endgame with the boys.
Without a doubt, my high school career has been one of the longest and also the best times of my life so far. Quite honestly, I don’t think there will be anything like it in my life. Between the friends I’ve made, the experiences I’ve had, and the things I’ve learned, this has without a doubt been a very unique and tricky few years.