Catherina Robinson, or Cat as her friends call her, is right in the middle of her blended family, with four younger siblings, and three older step-siblings. As a junior, she takes classes in US History, Chemistry, Algebra II, Psychology, Business English, Advanced Photo, and Jobs for Maine Graduates where students learn about taxes, budgeting, handling a checking and savings account, writing a resume, interviewing for jobs, and how to write a resignation letter. Outside of class but still in school, Cat has performed in school musicals, been the manager of the winning wrestling team, was a member of the 2022 yearbook committee, and is a class officer in student government, raising money for her class’s senior trip. After school, she also manages to squeeze in shifts working in the kitchen at Moody’s Diner. Cat’s dream is to live in a small town with her boyfriend Jame (CK) and have three kids and a dog. She pictures settling down either in Waldoboro or very far from it, which she imagines as Pennsylvania. But Cat also dreams of being an independent woman like her grandmother who is one of the hardest working women she knows and doesn’t worry about a man taking care of her.
I never had any intention of being good in academics. As a freshman, I was all over the place, up and down the walls with no direction of what I wanted to do with my life. I talked all the time. And I wanted to be friends with everyone and anyone, and I didn’t take into consideration what that could cost me academically. I was skipping classes, falling behind in them, even failing some. I was your stereotypical teenage girl – careless and only wanting to have fun. But now, a good day is when I have all my assignments turned in, am acing my tests and am communicating back and forth with my friends. A bad day is when I feel overwhelmed.
Mrs. Economy (CK), my geometry and now my Algebra II teacher, was the person who opened my eyes. She taught me that the world has greater possibilities than Waldoboro, much as I love Waldoboro. But she also was noticed the times when I was struggling and put the brakes on her teaching, stopping to review the concepts until I had a clearer understanding of what we were doing. She just knew how to connect with me in those moments when I really needed help the most.
In math class, my absolute favorite thing is the slope-intercept equation, y=mx+b. It was the first thing I understood when it came to algebra. I wasn’t understanding it, and my oldest stepbrother taught me how to do the equation. That was the first time I truly sat down with him and had a conversation about math which is his favorite thing in life. And it was also one of the biggest things that helped me and my oldest stepbrother bond. Yeah. The slope-intercept was what made me fall in love with algebra.
What I like about math is finding that last missing piece. It’s the biggest thing in algebra, finding what x equals. I think that’s why I also love chemistry because we also do equations like that. And so, finding the missing piece seems to be the revolving thing that I love to do in school.
And now I’m looking at my life in a way that I never thought could be imaginable. Going to college is my biggest goal in life now, and I never had any intention of going to college as a kid. But since sophomore year, I’ve been on the honor roll consecutively. That’s a really big thing for me. And I’ve won several micro-scholarships, too. So, college and being a high school teacher, teaching math or chemistry, those are my goals now.
But as much as I love the idea of college, it terrifies me. Being the first person in my family is a big thing. I don’t know what to expect or what to do, and sometimes I stay up at night thinking about what am I will do when I get to that point. College debt scares me, too. Not to mention everything else in the world that is happening now.
The shooting in Texas upset all of us — students, teachers, everyone. I’ve read everywhere about it. It’s heart-shattering. I wish there was something we could do to prevent these shootings. Certainly, there’s more people could do, but for some reason we’re holding back.
Back in 2019 or maybe 2020 we had an actual lockdown at Medomak, and we were locked in our classrooms for a couple of hours. This Texas shooting brings it all back. It’s a little cloudy, but I think people thought there was a gun on campus, or maybe that someone’s gun was missing. I was in the restroom it happened and when I got back to my classroom, everyone was shaking and crying. It was awful.
It’s a scary world, and I hate how it has come into our education. School should be a safe place. But people fear it now. We practice drills, but only at the beginning of the year. So, it’s kind of… well, if it really were to happen, we’d definitely learn in the moment…which is terrifying.
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