My greatest high school memory would have to have been when I made a long board in woodshop.  It was towards the end of my sophomore year in high school, and Mr. Barker had announced that for our final project we, the students, were able to make any project we wanted; as long as it served a purpose and we were going to have to write a review on it when we had finished the project.  I remember it as if it were yesterday, at first I had no idea what I wanted to do my project on, but eventually it came to me.  Earlier that year another student had made a skateboard and even though I was not a big skateboarder at the time, I had decided then that that was exactly what I wanted to make.  Before starting my project, I needed to decide what wood or woods I wanted to make it out of.  I asked my friend at the time, what he would suggest would look good and after a long period of discussion, I made up my mind; I was to use poplar and walnut.  It then took a couple of days to glue the wood together in a pattern with a piece of poplar in between two pieces of walnut.  After I had my glue up, I drew a cool looking pattern on the wood, which I then cut out using the ban saw.  When I had my board into the shape I wanted, then I used the router to route the edges and make them round instead of square.  It was a master piece in the making; it looked great, almost as if a professional had made it.  This was how my board staid, well over the summer and into my junior year.  There was something missing however, I had forgotten to put finishing on it; shellac, that was what it needed.  When applying the shellac, I couldn’t believe it; it went from a work of art to an even better work of art.  The shellac had made the colors darker and bolder.  It was like the cherry on top; my board was finished.  It was finally finished.  I will never forget that board which now is displayed in my room as if it is displayed in an ageless museum, where time will not change or falter it.