Tara Yanez, a senior at Foothill, was surrounded by music, sunshine, and celebration at the 2013 annual Senior Pride Lunch as she thought back on the time when she saved a little boy’s life.
“The lunch is a reminder that we’ve worked really hard, and it pays off to get to this point and think back on what we have actually done,” Yanez said. “It kind of keeps you going, like Captain said ‘the last two feet in the race’ and it is encouraging when you see what you’ve already done compared to what you still have to do.”
The lunch is an event that is aimed to celebrate seniors and make them remember and cherish their high school memories, and for Yanez, it did just that.
The medical missions that she has taken and is still taking to Sierra Leone, Africa are no easy task.
“We see about 1,500 patients every trip. Each trip is about 10 days. And we see everything, like wounds, HIV, Malaria, everything you could possibly imagine, and we just try to help out as much as possible,” Yanez said.
Yanez said that one of her most memorable high school life experiences was when a young boy with a fatal bone infection was brought under her wing.
“His leg had an increasingly worsening bone infection that needed a really big surgery, and at first we thought it had to be amputated,” Yanez said. “Our team was able to raise enough money to save his leg and even his life. He would’ve probably died of blood disease.”
For other seniors, like Maija Saarinen, a foreign exchange student from Finland, it brought to mind fond memories like performing at Back-to-School Night, or getting a good grade on a writing assignment that was written in her second language.
Even though it had been hard for Saarinen to adjust to life here in America, she said Foothill had many qualities about it and events that made it easier and funner.
“It’s been hard adjusting to life at Foothill, but these events make it a lot of fun.” Saarinen said.
Saarinen said that one of her biggest accomplishments in high school was completing some of the poems she had written for her English class.
“They take so much time because I have to use the dictionary to look up words. I make a lot of mistakes, so when I finish them, it feels like a huge accomplishment,” Saarinen said.
She said that she enjoyed being around the people at the lunch, and that the environment made everyone feel closer and more involved with each other.
“I like the way people are here, like closer, like the quad. In Finland, we don’t have anything like this, the whole environment is different,” Saarinen said.
Even though it had been hard for Saarinen to adjust to life here in America, she said Foothill had many qualities about it and events that made it easier and funner.
“It’s been hard adjusting to life at Foothill, but these events make it a lot of fun.” Saarinen said.
ASB Adviser Melanie “Captain” Lindsey said the lunch is meant to build up senior pride and community spirit.
“The senior class definitely has a unique flavor,” said Lindsey. “They are very likeable.”
