Every graduating class from Saint Stephen’s has a number of “Forever Falcons”: students who started attending SSES in kindergarten and have gone to school here every year since. The Gauntlet asked Forever Falcons from the class of 2019 to share there best, the worst, and the weirdest memories of growing up on the campus, that has become a second home to most. 

What was the best part of growing up a Falcon

• “The best part is having a home.” -Fisher Lindsey
• “Being a family because you’ve known everyone for 13 plus years.” -Kat Kelly
• “The best part about being a forever falcon is that all the teachers know and trust you.” -John Whelan
• “I would have to say seeing the growth of other forever falcons was pretty amazing. I remember everyone when we were all little and dressed in our little red, yellow, green, white, and blue shirts. And now everybody is developed, expressing themselves, and when seeing kids wear shirts with different colleges on it you realize we made it. We beat SSES after 14 some years.” -Chase Thornton
  

What’s the worst part of growing up at SSES?

• “The worst part is people never accepting how you change as you grow up.” -Fisher Lindsey
• “Going to college will probably be a little scary because we haven’t experienced going to new school in forever.” -Max Runde
• “Probably not being able to experience being a new student and starting fresh ina. New place. -Kat Kelly
• “The worst part is that my classmates remember the dumb things I did when I was little.” -John Whelan
• “The worst memory I have from Saint Stephen’s is from fourth grade. I accidentally spilled my smoothie on a computer. I remember Mrs. Dunn was super mad at me and I felt super guilty even though it was a complete accident.” -Truman Carlsen
  

What is the strangest part of growing up at SSES?

• “How different the school becomes over the course of your time here.” Fisher Lindsey
• “I think the strangest part about growing up as a forever falcon is that when you see someone in the hall you know their whole life story and their families whole life story. Even if this is strange, it is really cool to have a family away from home with people that you have known since the age of 4.” -Kendall Miller
• “ the strangest  memory was going to Preston Harllee’s ranch when we were in pre-k and kindergarten. -Truman Carlsen

From these thoughts, one can see that the relationships and experiences of a Forever Falcons are unique, and they’re forever. There are certainly the ups and downs, but we all have memories that we wouldn’t trade for anything.