By: Max Peebles
MONTCLAIR, NEW JERSEY - With each passing Montclair High School graduating class, another generation of students are baptized into a life outside the New York City suburb.
Walk through the halls of the 100 year old high school and you’ll find many students who yearn for a life outside of New Jersey upon graduating, as was the case with the class of 2016. Many of last year’s seniors couldn't wait to leave high school and the town, even in the twilight of their high school glory days.
These same students, most of whom are away at college, now feel a bitter sweet nostalgia for the hometown they grew up in and for their days back in high school.
“I miss walking through the halls and seeing people I’ve gone to school with for a long time,” said Jane Fallon, who graduated in 2016 and now attends St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.
Jackson Barnes, who now goes to Syracuse University, showed that same sentiment.
“I miss the cliché stuff like the people we grew up in the town with our entire lives. It was cool to become friends with the people you didn't know but knew who they were in the high school,” Barnes said.
The clichés of high school is something Ian Barnes, who now attends the University of Michigan, also misses.
“I kinda miss the drama, like if something happened you knew about it. The cliché high school stuff such as the beef between other students or who was going out with who. It made days at school more entertaining,” Ian Barnes said.
Going to school with many of the same people for years goes beyond the familiarity aspect for some graduates. This holds true for Emily Pollack, who now studies at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.
“We (MHS students) shared experiences, there was a shared understanding of each other and our environment. Our perspective was the same to a certain extent… I think in college there’s a limit to how well you can know someone because you don't have that history,” Pollack said.
While many of these former Montclair High School students didn't personally know everyone in the school, they knew the bits and pieces of many of them.
“You could draw details and assumptions about who they were based on where they went to elementary and middle school, who they were friends with, what neighborhood they lived in, or what sport they played because of the culture of Montclair. There was a certain culture for each of these things in the town,” Pollack said.
And it is the town of Montclair which only adds to the nostalgia and uniqueness of their hometown that these graduates have.
“Aw I miss the town… The good food, I could just get in the car and drive five minutes for a really good meal,” Fallon said.
“I miss the food so much. There’s so many good places, you could go anywhere for a good meal,” Ian Barnes said.
In addition to the good food, Jackson Barnes mentioned the cultural diversity of the town which is very unique to Montclair and the high school.
“I miss that because it taught me how to accept different people and knowing different people with different backgrounds than you,” Jackson Barnes said.
One reason why college kids miss their high school days is because of “the reminiscence bump.”
Frank T. Andrew of The Washington Post, and a psychology professor at Knox College, wrote that memory researchers have identified something which they describe as “the reminiscence bump,” which shows that our strongest memories come from things that happened to us between the ages of 10 and 30.
Lizbeth Hoke, a psychology professor at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, explains another reason why college students yearn for their hometown.
“You’re negotiating things you wouldn't have to think about at home. Stress on college campuses is a big issue. You don't have the resources you do at home in college that were very close,” Hoke said.
One of the reasons Jackson Barnes wishes to go back to Montclair is because of these resources he has back home.
“The support. You don't have the same support from friends and family when you're at college,” Jackson Barnes said.
For Pollack, what drives her back to Montclair is the familiarity and memories she has in the town.
“I know the people and I’m comfortable, every where I go has some kind of memory or some kind of sentimental value. It’s home,” Pollack said.
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