Dear Bingham,

I often think of the memories you carry, the memories you’ve built for me. I remember seeing you through my nervous eyes and hearing of you through my doubting ears. The thought of starting a three-year journey rattled my freshman brain. But, wow, was I wrong. I’ve simply blinked, and I don’t even have a week left. And, in that blink, I have lived a life I will never forget.

I remember driving my first drive as a student driver, and calculating gravity’s effect on a falling basketball. I remember buying my first Crazy Bread and feeling like a champion, and being a part of my first club. Those events changed my life. They formed the time-racing blink that took place in my three years with you.

It’s hard to explain the chills I get when I hear the school anthem or see the excitement on the drumline’s faces. That is something irreplaceable. I can openly admit that there were days I didn’t want to wake up and start the day, but it was always followed by an embracing culture of school spirit and comforting friends. 

There’s something about watching an orchestra concert, school play, or football game. The sense of belonging somewhere. That’s something I will miss the most: staying out late and feeling the freedom of being at a school that progresses, a school that doesn’t forget how to cheerfully triumph. 

Something I will miss the most is the faces of those students who add to your foundation. The cheers and sayings they chant that won’t die. 

I’ve been fortunate to swim with the raging blue and white river. I get emotional thinking of the plays I’ve been a part of on your stages, the late nights of playing video games with friends on your campus, the humility I’ve witnessed in your seminary, and the spirit I’ve lived with the student crowd on your fields. 

Through the eyes of your mascot, Melvin the Miner, I have seen the comfort of being with friends. All faces painted with blue and white paint, screaming cheers until their voices can’t anymore. I have watched a story being written with our excitement and our tears. I have seen the energy that constantly lives and the hope that fights in your sons and daughters. 

If I had the chance to go back and relive the life you gave me, I would embrace it. Bingham, you have literally changed my life. I’ve learned to love, laugh and cry with the right people. I’ve learned how to live my life with effort and with fun.

I remember a time when I was young, coming to a football game and looking up at the giants who created an environment of champions. I watched the players giving it their all to simply prove that Bingham stands strong. And now I have lived it. Every hour, every minute. And that is who we are. We are strong and we are champions. 

It’s hard to say how much I’ll miss the spring mornings of watching the warm sunrise with friends. Or staying out late, watching the sunset. As a senior, I had a chance to watch the first sunset of our last year. It was breathtaking to think that this high school experience is just a small part of our lives, but that it leaves such a blinding impact. 

I pray that your sons and daughters will not take you for granted. I hope that they will hold on to you as their siblings did before them, and that they will take every chance they are given to be present and breathe the fresh air of their memorialized years with you. 

Bingham, I will never forget you. I’ll always remember the blue and the white and faces so tender and dear. I’ll always remember the stars in the night that shine on your campus so clear. 

I’ll always remember in May and September, Bingham High has my happiest years. 

Thanks for being you, Bingham. 

-Cale Montoya