Seniors from Warner Robins' Northside High School walk the halls of Westside Elementary School recently.
Caption

Seniors from Warner Robins' Northside High School walk the halls of Westside Elementary School recently. / GPB

 One Last Look At The Old School

 

They say you can’t go home again. So maybe you should take a good long look before you leave?

That’s what seniors from Northside High School in Warner Robins did recently when they took a field trip to their old elementary and middle schools.

At Westside Elementary, students lined the halls to see the graduates. When Northside students walked in wearing their blue caps and gowns, students and teachers erupted.  At the head of the line is Alexis Monroy. This was her school.

“This school means so much to me because this is where I came from.” she said.

She was happy to come back as a good example for these younger students.

“That way they don't say hey I don't think I'm cut out for this and then end up dropping out last minute,” she said. Monroy could think of about five classmates who did just that. Monroy is headed to Middle Georgia State University to become a nurse midwife.

Westside principal Cynthia Hammond said for Monroy and others from this neighborhood, this is a real achievement.  Kids here have some challenges.

“ Because we do have a community of working parents,” Hammond said

“Some of our parents work two and three jobs.”

This visit helps.

“It gives my students something to focus on , or a goal to look towards forward to,” Hammond said.

The teachers and staff loved it, too. When the seniors pass the back door to the front office, one teacher squealed.

 

https://youtu.be/DhVtrl0ETwQ

 

‘Oh! Look at our kids!”

Larry Thomas Junior is a Westside proud alumnus, planning on studying audio production.

“It mean the world to me to come back with my cap, with my cords,” Thomas said.

When he was at Westside, this seemed far off.

“I was kind of like a little trouble maker. Nothing major but I was in and out of ISS,” he said.

His advice? Pick your friends wisely. Do your work.

 

“Like, this was just me a couple years ago here,” he said. “It is going to be y'all in a couple of years.”

And like Northside’s class of 2017, these Westside Elementary students will be leaving home before they know it.