TCA memories

In the fall of ’72, TCBC started Tri-City Christian Academy (TCA). I was in the first kindergarten class and I continued my education there until I graduated in 1985. My class was the first class to go from kindergarten to 12^th grade graduation. There were at least two others who graduated with me that I went to school with the entire 13 years of education at TCA. Most of the 13 graduates of 1985 had been my classmates for four to six years or more.

I have some very fond memories of TCA. I received a good education and a great foundation for future learning. Looking back there are things that I wish were different or better and things I didn’t like but I lived with it. Overall, going to TCA was a great experience for me and taught me a lot. Hindsight is 20/20 and I can’t change the past and I’m not sure I would want to change too much of it but I’ve made some choices in regards to my children’s education based on my experiences and I pray that they benefit from those insights.

I remember flying off the swings and seeing how far we could go. We used to play a game that I think we called “ditch-em,” where we ran all over the campus. It was our form of tag and capture-the-flag (which we also played). I was on the soccer team from fourth grade to 12^th. I tried playing on the basketball team but usually sat on the bench. I had no talent. I remember using the AWANA circle that was painted in the asphalt for a kickball game most mornings. I remember lining up and singing and saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I could go on and on but there are some great memories that were made on those seven acres (later to become 9 when they bought the land next to ours that had an old house on it).

I wasn’t the most popular but almost everyone knew who I was because of playing sports, being in the choir, preacher boy, and I spent a majority of my life on that campus. My best friend all through school was Andy. I very briefly dated one girl the fall of my senior year and I never really worried about having a girlfriend, although there was one that I had a crush on for years. I was sheltered and in a bubble. Which, at the time, I thought was a good thing.

For me, as with everything I’ve done, going to TCA had its negative and positive affects on me but overall I view it as a positive chapter in my background. I was a great experience and I will never forget the many years I spent going to TCA and the number of people that I met along the way.