Catching up with the class of 2005

Custer High School's Class of 2005 was the first group of local teenagers I had the pleasure of knowing when I joined the Chronicle staff back in January of that year.  In observance of the fifth anniversary of that acquaintance—and I suspect it was much more momentous for me than it was for them!—I contacted as many of the '05 seniors as I could find on Facebook and elsewhere last spring.

As I am accustomed to doing, I asked them some questions, and I heard back from 10 of them! So they are the lucky 10 who will receive mention in today's column.

I asked them where they have spent the last five years, what lies ahead for the next five years and what is one thing they have learned about themselves since high school.

"How much I truly love home," said April (Genovese) Johnson.  "Now I understand how lucky I am to have grown up in the Black Hills.  It's so cliche, but there really is no place like home. It took me a few years to learn and appreciate that!"

April graduated from SDSU in four years with a B.S. in athletic training, then passed her boards to become a certified athletic trainer.  On a summer trip to Virginia Beach three years ago she met Josh Johnson, and she married the guy last August.  He is a youth minister there and also works at a credit union, and April works at a physical therapy and sports performance business while providing training services to sports teams around the Hampton Roads area.  April hopes to be accepted into a doctorate of physical therapy program, a degree which will take three more years of study.

Justin Hammer told me the most important thing he has learned about himself is what he enjoys doing. "I have really enjoyed college. I discovered I really enjoy school," he said. "More specifically, I really enjoy learning about the past."

Justin earned his undergraduate degree in anthropology and history at Wyoming, and now he has finished his first of two years toward his graduate degree in history at USD.  This summer he is working as a Forest Service archaeologist, and he and classmate Katie Carson were married last Saturday. Justin hopes to find a permanent job as a historian or an archaeologist after completing his degree next May.

Austin Bishop, who married Becky King of Hastings, Minn., two weeks ago, will be the ag program and FFA teacher at Selby starting this fall.  He has spent the past five years at SDSU, changing his major four times before settling on agricultural education.

"I have learned that my values and morals are staying the same as the foundation that my parents set for me," Austin said. "I also have learned that friends are the ones who will come, no matter the situation."

Whitney Griffin said that limiting what she has learned since CHS days to just one thing is difficult, but she settled on this: "I have learned that I can accomplish far more than I ever thought possible. The person I was in high school was only the beginning of who I am today, and I'm sure I'll say the same thing five years from now."

Whitney has been at Montana State-Bozeman, majoring in business with an accounting option.  This spring she finished her master of professional accountancy. As a break in the summers from her academic rigors, Whitney worked at the Purple Pie Place in Custer several times, but last summer she worked for an accounting firm in Anchorage.

For the next five years Whitney eyes working for a public accounting firm but also seeing the world and picking up skiing and other outdoor activities. “I promise you,” she added. “Accounting is not as boring as many people seem to think it is!”

Andy Ford says he has learned that nothing comes easy, especially an engineering degree, and that hard work definitely pays off. Andy started college at Bozeman, transferred to the School of Mines in fall 2006 and has been there since. He will graduate in December. A workshop with Daktronics taught him a lot about what lies ahead in the working world. He also did an internship with Halliburton last summer and has been back with them this summer in Grand Junction, Colo.

He anticipates finding a job doing something he enjoys "or at least something I can tolerate." But he wants it to be a place where he will have opportunities to expand his knowledge and grow as an individual.

Donny Lynch says he learned in these past five years something current high school kids should probably take to heart—"the choices you make in high school follow you through life." Donny earned an associate degree in the welding tech field and has been working for a local business as its welder. In the next five years he hopes to be able to buy his own house and perhaps secure a state job.

Jen Steever said she feels as if she just graduated from CHS the other day, but she already has her college degree. Jen went first to BHSU but transferred to Wyoming for the next four and earned her B.S. in nursing. For four summers she has worked as a wildland firefighter with the Forest Service. "One could not ask for a better summer job," she exclaimed.

Jen will start work next month in the progressive care unit at Wyoming Medical Center in Casper, but she plans to take photography classes at the same time.

"The one thing I have learned about myself is to not be afraid of what lies ahead," Jen said.  "Someone very close to me said, 'If nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies,' and that quote has helped me grow as a person."

John Fischer's advice, based on what he has learned since CHS days, is to "never be afraid of living or working in new places, even if it seems intimidating at first."

John has been at Nebraska-Lincoln studying music education for five years.  He spent part of a summer working at an outdoor adventure camp in the Rockies, and one summer he established a music program at a Job Corps center in rural Arkansas. He had the chance to travel with his students to several spots in the southern U.S.

He graduated from UNL last December and did substitute teaching in the Lincoln schools until May.  Now he has begun a two-year stint working for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students as a campus missionary, after which he anticipates a career in education or some form of social service working with young people.

"I have learned that anything is possible in life," said Megan Young.  "I never thought I could move away from home."

But she has been in Colorado for three years after two years at BHSU.  She is currently returning to college and looks forward to a career as an elementary teacher.

And then there is Steven Young, who didn't need many words to tell me what he has learned about himself in five years—"enjoy the little things."

 Steve has been in the U.S. Marines since high school.  To say he has done his share would be an understatement.  He has been to Iraq three times, seven months each the first two times and three months the last time. Now he is aboard a ship headed to Japan on a seven-month tour. He says three of the next five years will be spent in the Marine Corps.

"Then I'll be a bum," he says facetiously.

Thanks to the '05 grads who responded.  It was good to catch up on their lives. They always impressed me as a group who were going to go places and do great things. Thanks to them for the memories!