Like the universe, the community we create around us is ever expanding and shrinking. New people are accepted into it as the old respectfully bow out, and those who remain are left surrounded sometimes by a new sea of faces. At OCHS the community is the school. It is the people we teach and the lives we change. It is something that can last forever.

The way our minds work and how each individual experiences and process the daily events in Olde Columbine is unique and different. But the community I see is not only in the students who attend the school and the teachers who teach here, but the community is also in the walls that surround us and the air we breathe. There are so many memories in the school that not every student will be a party to, but if someone were to take the time to listen, the building will always have a story to tell. After all, as the students and teachers come and leave, and the faces and personalities change the school will still be here. It will be keeping our secrets and remembering the paths we lead through our time here.

To me community is not just a material thing like the students and the staff and the families who have tread our halls, but it is the memories we made in the school that we will carry with us throughout our lives. I do not believe that our community is the people here and now and the bonds we make and break. I believe it is much deeper, it is a feeling we will always have. As long as the feeling of trust and hope and passion and love stays with us, our community will last however long we choose to remember it.