Graduating is hard. Everyone says that graduation is so great, that you feel so good once high school is over, and that you finally get to know what freedom feels like. But, for me, the reality is that I’m about to go into the world all by myself. I’m about to move out of the home I’ve lived in for eighteen years. I’m about to leave my friends and my family behind in pursuit of a career. But, to add to all of this, I’m graduating from Providence, and that just makes it that much harder. Yep, you heard me: Going to Providence makes graduation much harder.

Now you’re probably thinking, “But aren’t you supposed to be saying something good about Providence?” Let me clarify. Providence is more than a school, it’s more than a community, it is a family: a close-knit family with the shared goal of Christ-likeness and godly education. Going to Providence means that, when you graduate, you have to leave two families behind: your blood family and your Providence family. There is something different about Providence: I don’t know if it’s the small size of the building that forces us to brush shoulders on the way to class, or if it’s the smallness of the classes that brings us together. But whatever it is, I know that it is special, and I will miss it dearly. So, to all the Providence Family, thank you for thirteen wonderful years. And to all those considering Providence as a potential second family for your own children, I hope that, vicariously, you have seen what it’s like to have grown up at Providence.

Written by Cole Butaud, class of 2015