Nov. 8, 2011: the day Tri-Town residents collectively decided that it would be worth their tax dollars to enhance the experiences students would have at Lake Central High School for decades to come.

Jan. 6 7 8, 2014: Finally, the day has come. Students, teachers, administrators, custodians, construction workers, electricians, technicians, plumbers and architects have spent years preparing for this day and hoping for it to run smoothly.

Let’s be honest: with two snow days and the fire alarm going off fewer than 24 hours before the building would officially open for the semester, it could appear that nature is telling us not to go through with this new building.

But we are LC.

That is not meant to come off in a bad way. In 2011, when the transformer blew and the building had no electricity, we still found a way to manage for the following week. A truck-size generator and a couple of power failures were only small hurdles. Lake Central still functioned, and students still learned. We overcame what immediately seemed like a huge obstacle of not having power, and it was fairly seamless.

In more recent news, we started the Block-Matrix schedule in 2013. Students and teachers alike believed it would be terrible. Some students thought it was the administration’s conspiracy for ruin our lives (however, our corporation financial advisers would have a very different, and very real explanation for the change). On the first White Day, we were scared of 5, 6, 7, 1. The next White Day came, and we went from Period 7 to Period 2. The last White Day of the first semester came, and we were still alive. We all survived the Matrix, even though people were hugely skeptical of the system.

The point is—we are LC. We come across adversity, but we can work past it.

First we had to lose the track and prepare for the construction of the $130 million project. Then we had to cope with losing parking spaces and relocating offices. In November, teachers started packing. In the past few weeks, we’ve had to locate classes, memorize new room numbers, new locker combinations and soon, we’ll be configuring new routines to adjust from going to A-Hall and instead going to the C300 level.

It’s a lot of change mixed with a lot of adversity. But LC has a decent track record for adjusting accordingly.

The building received its occupancy permits a little late.

The open houses didn’t go as planned because of weather.

We’re starting the semester two days late.

The fire alarm went off shortly before opening.

But we can do this. Because we are LC.