looking for a little help for the future.
This is the time of the year when high
school seniors might be looking back in
the last dozen or so years of their lives.
For most, that K through 12 carr
comes to a close as soon as this week.
So we wanted to talk to a few of those
outgoing graduates specifically about the
last few years and about the next few.
Our first stop, Midvale, Idaho,
which is known for two things,
being halfway to halfway,
Oregon and the home to former Senator
Larry Craig. Well, now they can.
A graduating class that wouldn'e
big enough to field a baseball .
That's right,
We spoke with half the graduating class
of the halfway to halfway high school.
Smack in the middle of Washington County.
At the edge of the valley for
which it's named, sits Midvale,
Idaho, a place where fewer than0
people and a lot of cows call h.
Agriculture's roots run deep he,
as does the high schools.
Which has served the community since 1911.
There isn't much to it,
just 90 lockers, A handful of
classrooms and two state title banners,
one in the last three years.
It also has one of the smallest
graduating classes in southern Idaho.
So we sat down with half of
them to ask a few questions.
Do I just look forward about
where they've been, just a litt,
and where they're going?
I don't like this beginning
with what's it like?
I've never done this before, so.
Living in such a small town, its
just kind of slow. My name is Mn
Hansen and I am 17 years old.
Everybody kind of knows everybo.
Everyone's really like,
pretty much related to each oth,
like whether through family,
through marriage,
or it's like through blood.
But we're all pretty much relat.
Everyone
knows everything about everyone else.
It's the most, I guess,
stereotypical thing you could s.
But it is the most accurate thing. It's
just the same thing.
It's like predictable.
It's just the same thing every .
You know, You wake up,
you go to school,
you go to practice and you come home,
and then you just do
that until you graduate.
Class of 23?
Yes, class of 23 sounds a lot
bigger than it really is.
How many are graduating
with you? 8, Just eight.
Just 8-4 girls and four boys.
Crazy, huh? Not here. To us,
it's kind of just a normal day.
In a school where most have seen the same
faces in class every day since preschool
it one time with the same
people, that is very true
downside. We're like brothers and sisters,
you know, good days, bad days.
My name is Trenton Hicks.
I'm 18 and I'm in the
graduating class of 2023.
Sometimes you want to give each other a hug.
Sometimes you don't want to touh
each other with a 10 foot pole.
You went to high school
during a pandemic. Yeah,
so it was my freshman year.
I remember it was spring break,
and I remember sitting in my room and
my mom telling me that we weren't going
to go back to school because of COVID.
It was, yeah, my freshman year.
So I remember I was like,
am I not going to go to high scl
for the rest of my high school career?
My name is Menon Tyler and I'm 17 years old.
My mom's kind of a clean
freak and a germaphobe,
so I I wasn't able to see any of my friends.
At all during COVID,
I think it was like July before
I got to actually do stuff.
And I just remember seeing
people who were always so calm
about things and very collected.
And they were like, freaking ou.
And I was like, whoa,
this is crazy.
I was like, there's a bad
sickness going around.
I'm like, oh, well, there's theu
and all that can't be much different.
And then it shut everything down
and you couldn't go anywhere.
You couldn't go to school,
couldn't see people.
Was it hard for you? Yeah.
Don't let me go to online school again.
That's all I got to say for that one.
I did online school and then I o
did driver's Ed at that time anI
was able to do all of that from home,
which was nice because I think it helped
my grades a little bit because they were
a little more lenient with the pandemic.
My name is Hadley at Nip and I 7
years old. I really think that y
overanalyzed the pandemic I lik.
For some people I do think it
could have been a big deal,
but for others I feel like.
Like, it could just be a normal,
like a normal thing. You know,
we came back the next year,
the next fall, and like,
nothing happened.
We didn't have any restrictions.
Like, we didn't have to wear a .
We didn't have to stay like
6 feet from anyone.
So I guess it wasn't any differ.
We just had a really long spring break. It
was definitely different,
but it was kind of, it was way e
normal compared to what a lot of
other kids had to go through. Is
weird to think that in like 15 years are
going to write like a history book on this.
And like, I'll be like, Oh my gosh, like.
I when my kids talk about it, I'll be like,
yeah, I live through like, liket
is going to be weird to think a.
But I guess I've never really thought
about that until just now.
Next year, you're going to be 1.
I am. There's an election.
There is an election.
Have you thought about that?
I mean, you're going to
be in your first election.
I am. I've. I remember
thinking when I turn 18, I get to vote
and that is the coolest thing e.
But then especially this year that I'm
getting closer to turning 18 and being an.
Technical adult, I guess. I'm like, there.
I actually have to make a good
decision based on what I prefer.
And then I also have to consider
other people's opinions.
And I was like,
there's a lot of thinking to th.
I'm still trying to figure out what I'm
going to eat for breakfast tomorrow. So
like in government when we talk about
like election and stuff, I just,
it goes one like through one ye,
now the other, because I don't
know anything about politics,
I don't really care for them.
So like, I might vote, but I do,
I don't really care for it.
That probably sounds really bad.
But like, I don't know,
never thought about it.
Are you worried about having
to make those decisions
and what they might lead
to? I'm terrified, I really am,
because personally, I feel likeI
don't have a lot of knowledge on that.
And I think especially in smaller schools,
there's a little bit of a bias,
which is I'm not saying it's bad or good,
I'm just saying that's what
it is when you grow up.
In a small community and school.
And so I think that there's definitely been
a little bit of lack of education for.
And I think a lot of people
my age can agree to that.
Or what your parents tell you when your
family gets together and talks politics,
what are they talking about?
I don't really know.
I just always hear Joe Biden's
name and like COVID and like,
I like the shot, like the COVID shot.
That's all we talk about.
I don't know. I just,
it's just so boring to
me. But. Yeah. Like, I never,
I never asked about politics that much,
but I'd always listen to my pars
talking about the elections and
everything and talking about
how how this person is doing in
the election or this person.
And I just kind of learned,
like, this is the best way,
not not the left side. So
have you thought much about,
like, being able to participate
in your first election?
I've thought about it a little .
I feel like it was kind of
rigged the last election.
If I'm going to be honest,
I am grateful enough that I grew
up with a family that kind of.
Educated me in different aspect.
I definitely was raised to understand
other people and get that your life is
not the only thing that's happe.
There's way bigger things and different
cultures and races and just ides
and religions and there's so may
different things and I'm exciteo
like one-on-one experience that. What
about the world that you are inheriting?
What about what you're heading ?
Are you? It's terrifying.
It's absolutely terrifying. It is so scary.
I think that one social media makes it
way more difficult and scarier than it is.
But I also think that there's a
lot of things that social media
doesn't cover that are even sca.
I'm scared to have kids and a family and
raise them because things seem difficult now.
Who knows what it will be like n
20 years 1510? It's just crazy.
What's the outlook? For the class of 2023,
I've never really thought about that either.
Where do I see myself?
Everybody asked me that.
And I like, I don't know,
because I want to say
that I'll be succeeding.
But at the same time, I mean,
I just never know. OK, so
you're going to go to college.
What's it going to be like leavg
this place and going to the
big city of Pocatello? I'm I'm
scared. I'm going to be complety
honest. I'm really scared. I'm
also excited on the part where
I get to meet new people and
hopefully I kind of find my crod
I guess, and kind of see what
what life is like outside
of Midvale. So it's exciting.
Are you worried about the futur?
Not really. And I mean,
I want to do this on my own andI
want to get my license and I wat
to be get my the, my dream job.
And just live out the rest
of my life doing it until I
don't want to work anymore.
I have a plan, but I'd like,
don't have a plan.
I have a five year plan,
but not like a right now plan, you know?
And I feel like if you're
more worried about like what's
going to happen in the future,
I feel like you're not even goig
to know what's happening right .
When I have kids,
I don't want them to be like, o,
like what did you do when this happened?
I don't want to be like,
oh, I don't remember, like,
I want to tell them like, what happened,
like what life was like when I s
a teenager and not be worried a.
All this political stuff that's
happening in the world,
if you don't think about it,
then it doesn't get heavy.
That's a good point.
Don't think about it doesn't get heavy.
Just kind of focus on the now.
Marin says this summer she's going to
continue to work for the Forest Service,
but she's excited to move in with her
sister in Rexburg and attend BYU Idaho.
This fall.
She's going to study zoology and
wants to be a wildlife biologis.
Manone was going to or is
going to Weber State,
and she wants to study criminal justice and
sociology and wants to get into family law.
Hadley is headed to Pocatello
to attend Idaho State,
as you Heard, and she wants to
be an occupational therapist.
Trenton,
who told us he'll be the first n
his family to graduate high sch,
wants to get his pilot's license
from Treasure Valley Community
College and work in the area.
Neither of the three girls we spoke with,
though, said they see themselves
moving back to Midvale anytime .
Class of eight in Midvale?
So how about a class of 528
in Boise later this week?
We're going to be speaking to s.
Of them from one of the largest
graduating classes in southern Idaho.