1. It’s “Menner High School” not “Mentor High School.”
If you hear someone actually pronounce the "T" in our school name, it is a dead giveaway that they aren’t from our school, let alone town.
2. Hearing that someone graduated from high school with only 100 people in their class is mind blowing.
Going to a small high school is something that I just cannot fathom. When someone goes to a small school there is a pretty good chance that they knew who everyone is and probably talked to everyone at least once. When I graduated from MHS I sat on the bus on the way to graduation next to a girl I had never seen before a day in my life.
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3. Being so excited for junior year to come because you didn’t have to stay the whole day anymore.
No more staying until 15-16!
4. Then schedule pick up day came in August and you had a 15-16 class.
Schedule pick up day was the most nerve wracking day in high school. You wanted to get the best schedule ever and when that didn’t happen, you waited in the endless line for your guidance counselor to come up with some lie as to why you can’t stay until 15-16.
5. Feeling so cool on the first day of junior year when you got to drive to school and park in North parking lot for the first time like a bad ass.
Look at all those people who still have to take the bus and get dropped off by their parents.
6. Having five minutes to get from class to class was such a struggle.
Going to a high school with 3,000 people in it makes navigating the halls a challenge. Especially when you get stuck behind the slowest person in the world.
7. Couples acted like they wouldn’t see each other for weeks rather than only fifty minutes each time they kiss before class starts.
How would anyone be comfortable making out in front on their teachers in the hall way…You’re going to class not war. Chill out for the love of God.
8. Going into school late and having to park in the very last spot in North Lot and then walking all the way to the front entrance was the worst.
What’s worth it more, getting to sleep in a little or doing that awful walk from the furthest corner of the parking lot all the way to the front doors?
9. Sports were taken very seriously.
Sports were worshipped like no other. What made it all worth it was the fact that all our sports teams were good so going to games were actually fun. Nothing beat Friday nights under the lights.
10. When you’re wearing any Mentor gear outside of Mentor and someone asks you if you go to Mentor High School.
No, I’m just wearing a Mentor hoodie for kicks and giggles.
11. Basically dying of a heat stroke during the first and last months of school when you were in any room other than an F wing room.
Mr. Wolski’s room in Upper C wing had to be the worst classroom in the whole school by far. I swear I would lose weight from sweating in his class when it was so hot outside.
12. Knowing what teachers to not walk by during those hot days because you knew your shorts were in violation of dress code.
Everyone knew who the teachers were that would send you to the office for breaking dress code. So on those days it was 90 degrees out and we got a little crazy and wore athletic shorts (gasp), we knew what teachers to not walk by to avoid getting in trouble.
13. The week of OGT testing in March aka sophomore appreciation week was such a blessing.
During OGT testing week, freshman, juniors, and seniors didn’t have to be at school until 9 and it was literally the best week ever. That extra hour and half of sleep was basically heaven on earth. Looking back now, I find this very pathetic considering I can barely make it to my 9:30 class twice a week.
14. Instead of doing a senior prank, seniors had a cookout in north parking lot before the last day of school.
Being allowed to do a senior prank would have been nice but the north parking lot cookout has become a nice little tradition seniors do every year to celebrate their last day of high school.
15. Knowing that if you’re teacher was out for the day there was about a 75% chance your sub was going to be Mr. A.
What a guy.
16. Finding a teacher who loved you enough to be an aid for them so you didn’t have to go to study hall.
I personally never did this because I enjoyed using study hall to study, but I also know that this was extremely common. Students would go to their favorite teachers on the first day of school getting an aid slip to avoid sitting in study hall at all costs.
17. Coming together as a whole when the community attacked our school.
I’ve never understood why Mentor High always got so much bad publicity. In my four years there, I only ever saw two fights and this isn’t something isolated at Mentor. Every school has fights. Every school has tragedies. Yet Mentor was always viewed as such a horrible school from outsiders. There was even a documentary made on how bad of place MHS is. However, whenever this happened, and it happened often, we always came together in support of our wonderful school and stood up to those who liked to talk badly about our beloved school.
18. The attacking goose made its presence known every spring in the back of the school at the south lot doors.
The fact that the school would have to put signs on doors telling students and staff not to use certain south lot doors because of that attacking goose...
19. You found a teacher you really connected with and used this teacher as your senior project advisor.
During my time at MHS I really connected with a few different teachers. Mrs. Boyle is the reason I love writing today and I laughed like no other in Mrs. Frei’s class junior year. Even if you hated school, Mentor had such a wide variety of teachers that there was one everyone seemed to really bond with at some point. Then when you found this teacher you used her or him as your senior project advisor.
20. Despising St. Ignatius and St. Edward’s with a burning passion.
Whenever Mentor played one of these two teams it was sure to be a blood bath. We hate them and they hate us. That is what made beating them, especially during the 2012 and 2013 football seasons, all the more rewarding. Those playoff runs when we beat Iggy’s and Ed’s back to back two years in a row was truly something special to a part of.
21. You belonged somewhere.
Everyone had their people. In a school with so many people it is possible to get lost, but with so many different organizations it was really easy to find where you belonged and who you fit in with whether it be in the band, a sport, a club, or just a random group of people with shared interests.
22. Once a cardinal, always a cardinal.
My four years at Mentor High School were truly very special. I loved my time there and I cherish my memories. I am proud to say I graduated from such an amazing school with amazing teachers, staff, and students. There is nowhere else I would have wanted to graduate from and I will forever be a cardinal at heart.
