Johnson will miss the comfort she found among her WC teachers.
Worthington Christian graduating senior Grace Johnson never walked to class in a straight path. There was a series of distractions and conversations.
Johnson, who will study nursing at Cedarville University next fall, rarely made it down the hallway without stopping to talk with a teacher.
“I always gravitated toward my teachers, and I’m a huge, huge talker,” she said with a chuckle. “My friends always tease me, asking, ‘Do you have to stop and talk to every teacher?’”
Amiee Decker, who was Johnson’s teacher in kindergarten, said Grace wasn’t always so outgoing.
“She was a quiet but kind girl. As a young child, she was always sticking up for her peers that were hurting,” Decker said. “She comforted them and often the first to give them a hug. She was just one of those kiddos that you could consistently count on.
“And then she entered middle school. She must have found her voice. Her confidence grew as she was growing into the lovely young lady that she is.”
After 13 years at Worthington Christian, those relationships are what Johnson will miss most—and what she wonders about most—as she prepares for college.
“That learning curve will definitely be a challenge; there’s always been someone (at Worthington Christian) helping me along the way,” she said. “I’m not sure if I will have that close relationship with my professors as I did with teachers here.
“I’ve been told this so many times by people who have come to our school from a public school: ‘This is all you’ve known.’ I’m not going to have this little box I’ve been in since kindergarten. Now I’m being pushed into this new world where I have to learn as I go.”
Having attended Worthington Christian since kindergarten, Johnson said her teachers helped guide her through the storms in her life.
She doesn’t mean that metaphorically, but meteorologically. Growing up, she had an intense fear of lightning storms and tornado warnings.
“Now it sounds silly because a bunch of kids have that, but I had this huge, petrifying fear of storms,” she said. “It had such a strong hold over me. Whenever there was a storm, I’d think something bad was going to happen to me, my family, or my friends. That fear would be completely overwhelming, and I couldn’t think about anything else.”
Her parents, Ralph and Misha Johnson, informed the school about their daughter’s phobia. When dark clouds rolled in, Johnson would retreat to the office—a safe place where she could cry and face her fears without judgment.
“My dad would read Scripture and pray with me and tell me to put those fears on God,” Johnson said. “I’d say, ‘Yeah, I know that, but that fear was something that controlled me.”
When she reached fifth or sixth grade, something began to shift. Instead of being overwhelmed, Johnson started turning to her faith on her own. She found comfort in reading her Bible and praying in the middle of the storm.
“Fear is not something we should be controlled by,” she said. “God is greater than any fear that I might have. I can also share that now with others and (guide) them through their fears, too.”
Since those days, Worthington Christian Director of Spiritual Formation Jake Ferrier said Johnson has become a rock for her classmates. She served as a Head of House, a cheerleader, and a worship leader.
“Grace is a tremendous leader and has been a wonderful gift for WC,” he said. “Her heart to see discipleship and worship happen throughout our school is an awesome encouragement to me.”
An aspiring pediatric nurse, Johnson wants to soothe children dealing with their own worries and uncertainties. Her interest in the medical field grew over time, influenced in part by her sister-in-law, Marissa Sawyer, and solidified in the classroom.
However, taking anatomy, she said, “sealed it for me.”
“I realized this is definitely what I want to go into because I’m just so interested in health and the body,” she said.
But for Johnson, nursing is about more than knowledge or skill—it’s about presence. Her college essay was about the challenges nurses face.
“I feel like there are some nurses out there that are doing it for the money and just go through the motions,” she said. “The hours aren’t great, and it can get very tiring.
“You have to have compassion and want to be there, especially with pediatrics. You’re working with young children who have their whole lives ahead of them. I want to be one of those people who bring joy to their patients and are able to lift them up.”
The same student who once stepped out of class to escape the storm now hopes to step into hospital rooms and help others face theirs.