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What’s that all about? Why the strong, vivid memories from my early 20s? Why do we have such acute memory clarity from our teenage years? Psychologists claim the answer lies in what they refer to as the Reminiscence Bump, a time during a person’s late teens and 20’s. It’s said that memories during that time are more deeply encoded into our long-term memories, more than any other period in a lifetime. That’s why adults in their 40s and beyond have enhanced recollection for memories from their teenage and early adult years.
As we finish the final quarter of this school year, our students are encoding what will become memories. At VCHS, we want those to be powerfully profound and positive. We often say that we like to work hard with academics, athletics and the arts but also play hard, celebrate and have fun. That’s a big part of our culture.
In the weeks ahead we will hold Wacky Tacky Week, a one-of-a-kind VCHS tradition and Prom will follow that Saturday. All Shook Up, our annual musical, will be another blockbuster production with over 50 students involved from cast, crew, set design, and tech. Our seniors have some final rites of passage to look forward to as they wrap up their final days of high school. Senior Salute next week, Senior Capstone speeches, Baccalaureate at Beaver Creek Chapel, and Graduation at Ford Amp will all be exciting experiences that hopefully will create positive memories, forever.
Teenagers are oftentimes teased about their undeveloped prefrontal cortex brains but there’s a flip side superpower. Teens have an advantage over adults. The experiences they have today will become deep memories that will last a lifetime.
Steve O'Neil
Head of School
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