By JASMINE MOREHEAD
Staff Writer

SYRACUSE — You hear them coming? The screams of warriors as they roam through this world. You can feel the passion, taste the pride, see the strength and smell the endurance. Warrior blood is in their veins. Recently, Wawasee High School has experienced grave loss. In the past three years the world has lost five of our mighty warriors.

These warriors will forever be remember in the hearts of their class as well, in the halls of the high school. The lives lost are memorialized by hanging plaques with their names and graduating years. This helps our school remember the ones who have fallen and to acknowledge that, yes the loss of their lives touched everyone, also that it brought their graduating classes closer together. In the process of grieving many students turned to one another to help get through their loss, therefore making them strong and making them true warriors.

Wawasee has nothing but warriors, people who go through the toughest of obstacles and come out stronger than they were before. That is exactly what the students at Wawasee High School are, warriors. Lots of people say Wawasee has experienced grave loss, which is true but we have also experienced great strength.

We lost three students in the 2012-13 school year, Casey “Kc” Ochs, Kalee Skaggs and Ruth Marner. In 2015, Wawasee lost two students, Chelsea Fetters and Christopher Prater. The loss of these five wonderful students sparked something in our school. Yes we had lost kids before, but there was something different about these five kids. They changed the way Wawasee worked. They changed every student.

Making us grow together as a school, team and family. Wawasee is different from any other school in Kosciusko County. Wawasee is much more than just a school. Yes, Wawasee has many different activities, clubs, classes, sports and students. But there is one thing that connects them all, they are warriors, with passion and endurance to make it through anything. That same passion and endurance the students have the teachers have as well. Teachers push their students to do more or better than what they believe they can. The teachers help them achieve in school and in their futures.

Wawasee is strong as a school, but its students are what make it strong. The students are connected in a way that most schools might not be. The students are warriors, they bleed green and gold. You will see more school pride and more bonds with the students at Wawasee High School than you will ever see at another school.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Jasmine Morehead is a high school intern from Wawasee High School)