By Thomas Sellers Jr.
One of the best way to learn in life is through experience.
The next closest thing would be lessons from a person who has been through the battles instructing you on how to do better. For the Munford High School Class of 2021 Historian Chase Millican his mother Melissa Coleman has taken her lessons of humility to guide her son to academic success.
“It’s a major achievement even just being in the top 10 much less the top 3,” Millican said. “I knew that I’ve worked hard to being in the classes I am to accomplish what I have accomplished. But being the top 3 is a phenomenal experience.”
Millican will walk across the Munford High School Graduation stage with a 4.0 grade point average and 33 on the ACT. Heading off to The University of Memphis this fall, Millican said he will continue to rely on his dynamic duo for continued success in the classroom.
“Besides the hard work it was a lot in part to my mom,” he noted. “She was a big factor in raising me. My dad too but my mom was a big part of my foundation that has gotten me to where I am. The other huge part is my faith in God. My faith that He has a plan and a purpose for me. Throughout this whole year and everything, it got me through a lot of dark times and helped raise me up to better times.”
Since July 2020, Millican has attended 901 Church in Millington. The son of Clint Millican describes 901 Church as the best church he has ever been after years of searching for a spiritual home.
“It’s more of a gift to be able to have the chance Memphis is giving me,” he said. “Now I’ll be able to have an opportunity to stay there now. I will have more opportunities at 901.”
Attending 901 Church was the product of the current global pandemic. Despite many setback from the situation, Millican noted a few blessings have appeared over the past year.
“The day we were told that we wouldn’t be going to school anymore for 2019-20, that next week were going to take the ACT,” he recalled. “We were going to have this big test that would decide a lot of parts of our futures. Which college to apply to, how much we could pursue. We didn’t get that immediate opportunity.
“We were tossed into the middle of a pandemic, a season of isolation,” Millican continued. “Personally it brought both a lot of dark times personally and me realizing a lot of personals reflection. Then it brought growth and a lot of self-improvement during that time. I learned a lot about myself. I was alone with myself so I had to figure out a lot of things.”
The 2020-21 school years was modified and was a season of consistent change. Millican said if applied correctly, this experience will be a long term blessing for him and his peers.
“I feel like overall I am grateful we had what we had,” he said. “It’s not the senior experience you might see in movies or books or here before. But we had something unique. We had something nobody else has had in a senior year before so far.
“I feel like that’s something we’ll be able to take with us in the future,” Millican added. “We’ll be able to think back on it and say, ‘We were able to make it through that. It’s possible to make it through anything. How can we grow more from that?’”
Millican said his speech which is supposed to reflect on the past four years for his class will remind those in attendance the Class of ‘21 is a group of strong individuals.
“Despite the trials and everything we’ve been through this past year, I feel that we should be thankful both for making it through and that we had the opportunity to be a part of history,” he said. “We have the opportunity to change history after this point because we are the next generation.”
Millican will apply a lesson from his mother Melissa and be ready to help guide those who are coming behind him.
“She’s my best friend,” he concluded. “She really raised through her own mistakes. She led by example after her mistakes and wanted me to thrive despite her mistakes or disadvantages I might have had having a single mother. She raised me with a mind, ‘No matter where I came from I can accomplish whatever I want to accomplish.’”
