Tigers Finding Meaning Behind Their Cleaning

As more people are cleaning during quarantine, they are rediscovering items that bring back fond memories. We asked some Tigers what they found and here are their responses: 

Freshman Travis Beggs has been trying to clean as much as possible because he feels overwhelmed when his room isn’t tidy. While cleaning, he found his first pair of wrestling shoes that were torn up. “They brought back a lot of memories, but my favorite is when my old coach gave us a speech. He told us that he hated sports as a kid, but joined high school wrestling and found how accepting and how much of a family they were,” Beggs shared.  With a similar sentiment Beggs shared, “I really understand what he was trying to tell us, and ever since I joined the Independence wrestling team I feel like I’ve been adopted by a new family.” 

While Maheen Ali, a freshman, was cleaning in her new house, she came across her old elementary and middle school yearbooks.“I flipped through them and remembered people I had forgotten about, and it’s kind of funny because a lot of memories came back,” Ali said. “Things like field trips and my old teachers,” she continued. Ali enjoyed the yearbooks so much that she sent photos of them to her old friends so they could reminisce together. 

Ms. Megan Andrews, a Social Science teacher, was recently cleaning her home; she did everything from power washing her back and front porch to organizing inside her home. While doing so, she found a box filled with letters from her former students. “It brought me back to laughing with them, being able to be around them every day, and [it] made me miss my students and Independence even more,” Andrews commented.  

Health and physical education teacher Ms. Madisyn Graham found one item that brought back memories. “I found a bunch of disposable cameras from elementary school that brought up memories from school field trips and sleepovers with my friends,” Graham said. She also found notebooks from middle school which “has been funny because there was so much drama for no reason.” 

Through cleaning Tigers have found comfort in their old memories and excitement for a brighter future.