Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Mary Bond has a few regrets as she winds up her four years at Sweet Home High School as the 2008 salutatorian.
“There are so many things I could have done,” she said, reflecting on her career as a Husky.
Maybe, but Bond, the daughter of Jeff and Debbie Bond, has been increasingly involved since she won an Art Week award as a freshman.
This year alone she was Homecoming Queen, played a lead role in the school play “Our Miss Brooks,” accompanied the Concert Choir, played piano in the Jazz Band, won the top award in this year’s student art contest, and left her mark on the wall of the school gymnasium – a Husky. Plus, she helped organize the food basket drive, served as football manager for a third straight year, and served as secretary of the senior class.
Oh, and she’s finishing with a 3.90 grade point average.
Bond said one thing has led to another in her involvement in student life.
“Art Week in my freshman year was really big for me because I won first place,” she said. She said she realized she had talent, so she started taking more art classes and won more awards in Capital League and Willamette Valley art competitions.
“I thought that was very cool,” she said. “Not only did I win the high school art show, but I thought maybe I could make a career or, at least, a hobby out of this.”
Bond won the grand prize in this year’s show with a “sentimental” painting of her dog, which had recently died.
Last year she tried the stage, appearing in a spoof of “Phantom of the Opera.”
“I’ve always loved dramatics,” she said. “I realized I wasn’t afraid of being in front of people.”
She said she figured she might as well run for student body office, and she was elected secretary for this year, which prompted her to try to get her fellow students to be involved in Homecoming and the food basket drive.
She’s also enjoyed working as a manager for the football team since she was a freshman, and she enjoyed going out for track and field until she got involved in drama – “I couldn’t do both.”
Bond, who has played the piano since she was in the second grade, said accompanying the choir was “really special.”
“It’s more than a hobby for me,” she said of her piano. “It’s a main component of my life. I couldn’t envision not playing the piano.”
She said she hopes to pursue music or fine arts in college, starting at Linn-Benton Community College.
Her dream, she said, is to play in an orchestra that records movie soundtracks.
“I’m actually taking up the violin again,” she said. “We’ll see where the Lord leads. Whatever I do, I want to be happy.”
Bond said if she were to offer advice to a freshman entering high school, it would be to “not be so scared.”
“I remember being way timid,” she said of her arrival at the high school. “It really got in the way of things I could have been involved in. Once I stepped out of my comfort zone, I wasn’t afraid when I was elevated to sophomore status.
“Never mind what those junior high teachers tell you about high school.”
So how about those regrets?
She said that, looking back, she wishes she had been more conscious of other students’ needs.
“I definitely wish I could have stepped out of my self-conscious, self-confident box,” Bond said. “How many people in these halls need someone to smile at them and ask them how they’re doing? When I was going through hard times, my friends were here for me. How many kids don’t have that?”