Recently, I was made Principal For A Day at my old Alma matter, Sheepshead Bay High School. When they called me and told me that they wanted me to be Principal For A Day, I accepted and then thought to myself that it would be a strange experience going back to my old high school again, seeing all of my old teachers again, but I wanted to.

I confess, I was never involved in anything in school. No clubs, no groups, no teams. I just went to school to learn. Maybe I missed out on something, but when I was a student, I never really thought about what I was missing.

When I went back to the school, I walked toward the front entrance in a black suit (I felt more out of place now then I did when I was a student.) I was greeted by Debra Viole. Ms. Viole was my dean and my health teacher, but she was, and still is, my friend. Seeing her brought me right back to high school. I had eerie flashbacks of being late for class or not doing my homework or forgetting my gym shirt. (Incidentally, Ms. Viole gave me a Sheepshead Bay High School T-shirt when I visited the school -- I’ll make sure I won’t forget it anymore.). Yes, they were flashbacks, but they were all good flashbacks.

Ms. Viole took me for a tour of my old high school. “But I was a student here, what do I need a tour for?” I asked. She replied, “Because since you graduated, a lot has changed.” – indeed.

The school that housed me for six hours a day is now more than just a high school. While they still have the Sharks, their winning football team, they also have a student meditation program, clubs for students of all races and religions, a mock Pathmark store to teach special education students how to stock shelves and ring a register, they even have an aviation program in which students can learn how to fly a plane and actually attempt to fly a real plane at the end of the class term. So much has changed, but one thing remained, my former teachers.

From Ms. Schwartz, my law teacher, to Mr. Goldman, my English teacher to Ms. Viole, they all remembered me, nine years later, they knew who I was before I introduced myself. Right there I realized that I was not just a student. I was not just a seat number, I was someone who they knew and chose to remember and felt happy to see. Nine years later, I didn’t feel out of place anymore.

So to all of the members of the Graduating Class of 1997, I have a message for you. High school is, and can be, so much more than four years of homework and regents exams. You only get to go to high school once in your life. So if you are graduating high school this year, or if you are entering high school in September, before you leave high school, make it the best four years of your life. Compile enough memories in those four years so that you need two yearbooks to fill them. Join SING and work for an office and join a club and make yourself part of something that will be a part of you for four years, and for the rest of your life.

You know, it’s funny. I was leaving the UA Theatre recently and I saw the Sheepshead Bay Sharks holding a fundraising drive on Knapp Street. When I rolled down the window and gave money, the team member said thank you, my response was, “Anything for Sheepshead, my Alma matter.”