Jonah Brausch graduated in 2023 after a long and hard experience for him at Greenwood High School. Brausch shared his experiences and some advice he has for people currently at the school. The whole experience from his graduation was a blur. Getting home from Mayo Clinic in Minnesota the night before caused him to be fatigued in the morning. “I don’t remember getting my Diploma,” he says, “I have the thing it’s supposed to go in but I don’t actually have my diploma though. No wait, Mrs. Terry picked it up for me.” “I haven’t seen it with my own eyes. I don’t know if it exists,” he says while flailing his hands out. “First point of advice, make sure you see the diploma with your own eyes,” he claims.
Brausch says that his favorite part of Greenwood is the atmosphere and the help that the teachers gave to him especially when he needed it. His favorite year at high school was interesting to choose. Brausch thoughtfully said, “Hmmm, lets see, was it the year I was depressed, the year that I was in quarantine or was it – Wait actually it was junior year because we had just gotten out of covid and because my senior year was trash because I was chronically ill.” Dang, he’s had a rough time. Brausch’s favorite teacher was Mr. Spears because Mr. Spears teaches “All the good stuff,” Such as marketing, morals and ethics, accounting, and all the cool stuff. “He is also the coach of the academic team. Which is cool and NEEDS more funding. If any of the higher ups are listening to this. Give the academic team more funding,” Brausch says. When asked what class he enjoyed the most. Without surprise he chose Marketing with none other than Big Man Spears. “Because I got to have fun with my presentations,” he says. He used to make complex and funny videos and costume ideas for his presentations in the class.
Continuing, Brausch then stated what his advice for each grade would be. (Here is where the interview took a funny turn.) “Ummm let me think…. Freshman: Just get all of your required classes done. Because if you go into those classes as a junior or senior, you’re going to be surrounded by freshmen and not have a fun time. Sophomore: You’re not that cool. Settle down your ego. You went through one year of high school. It’s not that impressive.” As he says this laughing. “Junior: Pray.” He says Nothing else. “Senior: Buckle up, you’re about to go into debt,” Brausch states, laughing.
Where is he at now? He attends WKU and has a major in film. He then trailed off for five minutes about his friend in Germany that texted him (He gets distracted easily) . When asked what Greenwood has taught him he said, “Don’t believe what people say if you didn’t hear it from the person that actually said it,” which led him to his next life lesson of “Don’t trust anyone.” “I wanna know the full story before I do anything” he says. Some wise advice. Don’t jump to conclusions.
Covid affected everyone differently. How did it affect Brausch? “Well, pandemic, also it kicked my butt pretty bad because I got chronically ill in senior year after getting covid.” (Shoutout to long covid, really did Jonah dirty.) “More than 40 days I was absent or had to leave school early.” He then wanted to say one more thing. “Shoutout to Mr, Spears, Mrs. Gupton, and Mrs. Smith – the German teacher. Give them a raise… Please.” All in all, Brausch’s experience at Greenwood High School was in difficult times but through all the hardships and his perseverance he was able to graduate.
