I remember my first day at Trinity, a lonely, scared and confused shadow roaming the halls in search of answers. I spent the day going from class to class meeting teachers like Mr. Moody and Coach Bryant, but at the end of the day my choice to come to Trinity had little to do with the faculty or any other aspect of Trinity boasted by recruiters. After spending the day with little to do except play calculator games, I beat PEGS (in PuzzlePack). That did it for me. After hundreds of grade school math classes trying to beat the game, the environment that Trinity offered allowed me to open my mind and think clearly and I knew this was where I needed to be for high school. For many students, looking back to their first moments in the halls of Trinity is tough and often painful. But trying to remember why they chose to come here is simple. Senior Chris Smith shared his story about shadowing at Trinity. He was excited about being at Trinity, but still wasn’t sure if it was his final choice, but after some time with Mr. Gene Eckert, his mind was quickly made up. Chris was in Eckert’s world civ class and, after answering more questions than the rest of the class, knew he was in the right place. Most of all, Chris felt that “The environment of the class I was in, everyone was just joking around and having fun and I liked that.” Senior Baxter McClave didn’t even shadow here, but knew it was “the best choice”. He was planning to either attend Manual, CAL or Trinity and after shadowing the former two and being disappointed by both, there was only one choice – Trinity. He got a secondhand look at the school by talking to friends, students and graduates. Their insight assured him that Trinity was the only place to be. “Trinity had a thing called brotherhood that I wanted to be a part of.” Some students chose to come here for far different reasons. Junior Jared Ferko was more concerned with safety than anything else. “Trinity was safer than my other school, I went to a public school and it was scary there.” After shadowing he had made up his mind. One key factor that pushed him into the Shamrock Nation was our ID card system. “The safety of the students was important to me, and the ID card system was a big plus.” Not to mention the Catholic ties, “I’m Catholic, and my parents wanted me to come to a Catholic school.” Atmosphere, safety and brotherhood are all important reasons for choosing Trinity, but let us not forget about convenience. Senior Matthew Goodrow came to Trinity for ease more than anything else. “I came to Trinity because it was the closest school to my house.” Also, “My cousins came here and they were really happy with it.” Though his shadowing experience wasn’t the best, he maintains that “it wasn’t a bad day.” There are a myriad of different reasons for choosing to attend Trinity, but as soon as you walk in the door on the first day of freshman year, those seem to fly out the window. It is the reasons why we stay here that are the most important.