by Gunnar Davis

Why am I proud to live in the Prairie City-Monroe Community? Oh man, this column could go on for a long time, that’s for sure.
This year has been one of the biggest roller-coaster years of my life. The big senior year, you know? There have been so many ups and so many downs. I’ll take you through why I love my community during the ups, and why I love my community during the downs.
My favorite part of the year so far was football season. During sports, we have the best fans in Class 2A in my mind. They show up to football games in sunny weather and in the worst weather possible. And they pack the stands. It was crazy. Most of the time at an away game, we had more fans there than the home team did.
I had just about the best senior season I could’ve had, and a big part of that is the people in the stands.
Everybody is so proud of being a Mustang, and that’s what I love about us. It’s not just football. Whether it’s basketball or a simple music concert, we’re known for showing up and being loud and supportive of our programs. You can really see the sense of pride that people take in being a Mustang.
The community is always there through it all. I think we do a really good job of rallying around each other, as well. This is where all take you through some of my downs in the year.
My mom was riding with me in the car last week, and she said to me, “You know, it’s kind of been a crappy year for some of you seniors.” I nodded and thought for a little bit.
The more I thought to myself, the more I agreed with her. We saw an old classmate of ours die of an asthma attack. Then, not long after, we saw an old friend of many of us seniors take his own life. And just recently, a father of one of the most loved kids in our class died suddenly of a heart attack.
I guess my mom did have a point.
But then I thought some more. I thought about how well the community and the students responded. We had tons of people there for funerals and visitations. We made big contributions to the families to show how much we loved all of them. The lines at the visitations for the families were clear out of the door. There are so many things that make me proud to live in this community.
So yes, our class has had some ups and downs this year. And yes, it’s been pretty wild. But I wouldn’t want to have my ups and downs anywhere else. I wouldn’t trade where I live for the world.