Eleventh Grade: Stephen Everhart

Teachers jobs are to inspire your creativity. They bring out the best in people. Mr. Everhart gave you all the inspiration and now he has one last thing to say:

“In terms of composition, they are one of the most memorable fiction-writing groups I’ve ever taught.  Brady Brower, Isaac Woomer, Lizzie Ake, and Reed Keller all produced publication-quality fiction of a complexity and nuance that you don’t often see at the high school level. In terms of character, I’ll remember the class of 2019 as one of high integrity and compassion. For the most part they were an honest, hardworking group that I always trusted to do the right thing, whether that meant telling me when they were mistakenly given points that they really had not earned, treating a sub with due respect, or letting me know when a student was having a tough day that I would not otherwise have been aware of. They were classy that way. I enjoyed working out with these guys ever since they were in middle school.  It seems like yesterday I was looking down at them to chat, and it killed them to squat a pair of 45’s.  Now they’re looking down at me and pushing 8 to 10 plates in some cases. In track, I’ll always recall Zach Kohler hitting the 9:50’s in the 3200m and having his brother Joey as the best one-two distance punch I’ve ever coached. I’ll also remember Mike Nagle as the hardest working athlete I’ve worked with in many years. Be relentless. Don’t wait for Someone Else or The System to make it happen.  Take a deep breath, visualize it, and do it—whatever it is. And don’t let go until it’s done. ‘Birthing is hard and dying is mean, so you better get yourself a little loving in between.’ Langston Hughes”.