Jerrod Farless knows just when someone needs a hug. The Solomon High School Senior is emotionally intuitive and can read most people well. He cares deeply for others and is keenly observant of when someone he loves is struggling.
Jerrod always notices when someone is holding back tears, and he meets these displays of emotion by uttering “Come here!” and opening his long arms for an enveloping hug. He’s become the type of person who is comfortable supporting those in need and he’s unflappable in the face of strong emotions. He would make an excellent counselor or teacher.
For now, Jerrod is completing the machinist program at Salina Area Technical School. He plans to work this summer at Machine Tool Technology in Salina, and then go into the SATC welding program in the fall. Jerrod realizes that the machinist program isn’t as appealing to him as welding, but he understands the wisdom in completing both programs in order to make himself more employable one day. And, what he has learned this year has allowed him to aid others at Solomon.
“I enjoy that Jerrod is so eager to step in and help with any hands-on projects,” Zach Douglas, Jerrod’s SSAG teacher, notes. “Jerrod has helped in my classroom during SSAG (a study hall) to better design the [Big Read T’s] production space with his technical skills learned at SATC.”
Jerrod has always been helpful and he’s not afraid to be himself.
As he has grown taller, Jerrod has also grown more confident and comfortable with himself. Over the years, he stretched physically while growing into someone who isn’t afraid to unmask his eclectic personality.
He’s tall and lanky, face having outgrown the cherubic cheeks of his youth, but his impish grin has never faltered. He’s sassy and idiosyncratic. Sometimes he’s quiet and observant, other times he’s quirky and likes to make weird noises.
“My favorite was actually from eighth grade,” he said, when asked about his favorite high school memory. “Remember when I could make the phone noise and every single time it got you?”
Jerrod is referencing one of the many classroom phones with myriad obnoxious ring-tones I’ve had over the years and one of the many pranks I’ve fallen for in my growing decrepitude.
“You would go back to answer your phone because you fell for it every single time,” Jerrod laughed, hazel eyes, crinkling, reveling in his mirth. “If you didn't answer it you would say, ‘Who was that?’ because you never put it together that it was me.”
In addition to having an ornery streak, Jerrod is also brutally honest.
When asked what he wanted his legacy to be at Solomon, he shrugged and said, “I don’t want to have one.”
“I like being in my own shell,” he continued. “My class will know me, some of the juniors will know me. What’s the point in a legacy? It’s just for you to make yourself feel better.”
Sass and honesty all rolled into one.
Jerrod is pretty self-aware and although he likes being “in his shell,” he also realizes that he let fear hold him back for years.
His advice to his freshman self would be to branch out more and meet more people. These statements are contradictory, but they are also honest.
“I have a really good relationship with my class, but I always hang out with the same few people,” he notes. “I want to have more true friends.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald once made the point that intelligence has to do with the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at once, while still being able to function. Jerrod likes being in his “own shell,” whilst simultaneously wishing his younger self was more outgoing. He wishes he would have been willing to “do more,” during his high school career, even though he likes being “in his shell.”
Jerrod is one of the most genuinely kind people to grace the halls of the Solomon Schools. He’s caring, confident, and delightfully zany. He’s learned a lot about perseverance over the years and this has helped him become more comfortable with the young man he is becoming. His senior quote reveals just how much Jerrod has grown and attained wisdom over the years.
“Even if you think you might lose, you’ll be fine as long as you don’t give up. Suppress your limits, then a path will open up for you.”
Photo courtesy of Jerrod Farless.
Editing by 21st Century Journalism Class