Joy and Sadness in Anderson Valley

A little over a week ago I attended the Anderson Valley High School graduation. It was a wonderful event and an emotional one for me. I knew two of the kids graduating and that was part of it, but I was also affected by all the emotions from everyone else in attendance.

One of the students, the one who invited us to attend, is Angeles Flores; I have known Angeles since she was in grammar school and I’ve watched her grow into a smart, ambitious and wonderful adult. I was honored when she asked me to be her mentor for her senior project and thrilled to know that she wants to make real estate her profession. We spent many days over the past semester together, looking at properties, working on fliers and even opening a TikTok account for the business. Watching her graduate and learning of all her scholarships and other awards was really a joyful experience.

The other student is Trent Lopez. I remember when his mom, Denise, was pregnant with him. We worked at the now defunct Taylor Roberts. I’ve seen him grow up, mostly at a distance just because that’s how life is sometimes, but it was something else to sit there and listen to his well-done and quite humorous Salutatorian speech.

It turns out I knew a few other kids as well, just not as well as these two. I really enjoyed the excitement of all the families present. So many whoops and hollers, such cheering. The joy of all these people celebrating their kids’ accomplishments felt so good.

On the other end of the emotional spectrum was the very sad death of a young man local to our Valley. I did not know this man, to my detriment, no doubt. My very small part in this was simply to be riding my bike in Hendy Woods on the morning that his body was found; I wondered, on Facebook, why all the law enforcement and I found out. I felt the pain of this family all that weekend; for some reason, though I had finished my ride and came upon the activity only after, I have emotionally tied this death to that ride.

The good and the bad of living in a rural community; you get to experience all the joys of lots of folks you know. Some of those folks you’ll know well, some less so. And you get to share in the suffering when there’s a tragedy, even if you don’t know him or his family well at all. Good or bad, I wouldn’t trade the opportunity to live and feel all of this. It’s yet another reason I love living in Anderson Valley.