If you were to go into the JLab at any point in time during the school year and look upon the back wall, you would be met with a peculiar sight. Mounted there on the wall are various pictures and objects of Xavier students and faculty. Collectively, it has been dubbed as “The Shrine” by those that curate it and it shows our connection to Xavier and our desire to leave our mark.

The Shrine started out with myself and my fellow seniors Cody Clemenson and Jack Renning messing around during print days for the The Xpress and deciding to print out some photos that were lying around on our desktops. At the start, it was only a few pictures including one of Jack and one of Mr. Camacho and eventually the students and faculty of the month, but by the time of spring break before quarantine, the shrine had grown drastically with multiple new additions. Alongside photos, others made additions in many different forms, such as someone in one of the other classes to frequent the JLab cutting out hearts to put on The Shrine and Ellie Tanko taping up one of her lunch cards. The most unexpected addition would be in the form of Mrs. Augustine and Lauren Ulveling taping up a DVD of the movie “Mean Girls” with the cover altered with my face as well as Cody’s and Jack’s in place of the characters’ faces.

 What started out as a simple joke between three friends to entertain ourselves had quickly grown to become something much more than we ever would have thought. The Shrine helped strengthen our connections with one another as well as with our classmates through finding something to give us a smile or a laugh while we worked. 

Though those of us that made The Shrine what it is today are leaving, I only hope that those that come after us share the same desire to leave a mark, whether that be adding to The Shrine (if it shall remain intact) or doing something else.