New Year's Resolutions

It’s getting to the end of the year and it’s time for everyone to make a new year’s resolution. Every year we tell ourselves we are going to be better, we’re going to eat better, and be better people, we tell ourselves “New Year, New me”. These resolutions usually last a while, but we’re so used to our old ways, we just go back to them. Every year we tell ourselves we are going to work out more, so January 1^st and 2^nd, the gyms are packed, and slowly as the month goes on, there as less and less people going to them gym. Come February, the gyms are back to their usual amount of members. I know it’s hard to work out all of the time, my resolution was to work out more too, but that didn’t really go as I had planned.

New Year’s resolutions are very hard to follow. I feel like people, myself included, give ourselves these hopes that we will change and be better people and be healthier and happier, but it’s more complicated than that. Unless you make a plan of how you are going to execute your resolution and stick to it, then you most likely won’t see the change you wanted in yourself. Props to those people who can stick with their New Year’s resolutions because a lot of people can’t. Most people will give up because it’s “too hard” or it takes too much time, but if you really wanted to change something about yourself, you could. You are the only one that can change you, whether that means changing your body or your attitude, only you can do that. Excuses are the biggest reason for not making something happen. We use excuses to make it seem ok that we didn’t do something we wanted to do. It takes dedication to change and you have to really want it otherwise you will just give up.

My New Year’s resolution for 2016 is going to be no more excuses. I always find myself making excuses for myself and it’s not ok. You have to really want to do something/change something and be strong enough to carry out that action and not do it half way and give yourself the excuse that you tried, but that’s not good enough. For example, if your resolution was to lose weight and you’re at the gym and you only do half the workout, that’s not going to help you, just do the whole workout now, yes it sucks but you will be so much happier in with your results in the end if you just do everything now. Don’t give yourself the excuse of “at least I did half of it, instead of not doing it at all”, yes that’s true at least you did something rather than nothing, but just do it all right now. Your result will come faster if you do everything.

Reading

Reading is by far my weakest quality. I am not a very fast reader, because I have to read every word in order to understand what I am reading. I am the type of reader that has to go back and reread part of the passage or story if they do not understand what they are reading. I am also the type of person that will be reading and will start thinking about something else but continues to read and then realizes that they weren’t actually reading they were think about something completely different. At that point I try and figure out what I last read and then have to continue from there.

I do not like reading because I am not very good at it. I usually understand what I am reading but I still don’t like to read. My mom always tells me that it just takes practice and that in order to get better I need to read more. I don’t really mind reading books that I chose myself because I get the freedom to pick which ever book I choose. If I like a good and can get really into it, I’ll read for hours!

However when it is a book I have to read for school, they are usually not very good, in my opinion, so I have a harder time reading them. It’s the fact that I have to read that makes me not want to read the book. In middle school we had to read but we go to pick our books and we just had to record the pages that we read each day, I liked that because we had the freedom to pick whatever book we wanted. In AP Lang we get to choose our books, but they are from a specific list of AP approved books, those books do not exactly interest me so I have a very hard time finding one that I want to actually read and it usually takes me longer to read that book. I am a very busy high school student with two sports and a job on top of that. I have to go to practices, work, and still have time to work. I have a hard time finding time to read in general, but when it comes to books I don’t particularly enjoy, I usually put them off longer than I should.

Can anyone else relate to this??? I know I'm not the only one who doesn't like to read!

Christmas

Christmas is the happiest time of the year, everyone gets excited about getting together and celebrating the holidays. Children love Christmas because they get tons of presents every year, mom and dad put a bunch of presents under the tree and Santa bring even more presents on Christmas Eve when everyone is asleep. Seeing children at the mall sitting on Santa’s lap is the most heart-warming thing. I remember when I was young and thought Santa was real and he actually brought me presents, I even wrote him a letter and he signed it for me, granted he had the same handwriting as my mom, but I didn’t think anything of it. It was awesome waking up on Christmas morning and going out to see all the presents that Santa brought. Still to this day, I can never sleep on Christmas Eve. I get so excited to open all my presents and see what I got. I always wake up way earlier than normal that day just because I’m so excited and hardly slept that night.

As we get older we seem to have less and less presents on Christmas morning, but the presents actually get better, they’re more expensive so there are less of them. A lot of the time, year round kids want every cool new thing that comes out and we want them right at that time, but when Christmas comes around, we can’t think of anything that we want. Growing up we realize that we don’t need as many presents as we did when we were younger, but we realize that we want to buy a gift and give it to someone else. I’d rather see someone’s reaction of me giving them a gift and seeing how happy they are, rather than receiving a gift myself. Yes, getting gifts is always great and we should really appreciate them, but the gift of giving is better. Being a teenager myself, I wanted to get so many of my friends presents for Christmas because I love every one of them and I want them to know that, but I don’t have enough money to buy everyone something, but we understand that others our age don’t have that kind of money either, so we all just get together and have our own little Christmas party and have a $10 gift exchange so everyone ends up with a new gift.

I love the holidays because everyone is so cheerful and in a giving mood, it makes things so much easier if everyone around you is happy.

Christmas Kick

The varsity dance team at Kennedy High school preforms at football and basketball game, we compete at four competitions a year, and we also perform at our school pep assemblies. A popular tradition we do occurs every December at a basketball game, our Christmas kick!

The dance team learns this routine the week after we compete at our state competition. Our Coach, Mrs. Arends, choreographs this dance will some help from a few girls who were in a kick routine at camp. We choose a different Christmas song every year, but we wear the same “Santa” costumes. For those of you who don’t know what a kick routine is, it’s basically a dance where the girls are in a line with their hands on each other’s shoulders and everyone kicks the same leg in the air at the same time. There are low, medium, and high kicks, they vary throughout the dance.

The kick routine is very popular because there is a prize involved. The infamous competition is to guess how many kicks are in our routine! The person who guesses correctly wins a prize of $50. It is $1 for one guess or $5 for ten guesses. We dancers do not actually know the correct amount of kicks for the whole routine, believe it or not. Everyone always says just count the kicks and tell me and ill split the $50 with you, but it would take so much time to figure it out. Coach is the only one who knows how many kicks there are and she doesn’t count them until the day before or the day of our performance.

We sell the tickets to guess the amount of kicks at lunch during the school day and before the game before we perform. The money we raise goes to the dance team (except the $50the winner receives). The dance team is self-funded and we really appreciate everyone who participates in our Christmas Kick.

The best part is during our performance when they student section starts counting all of our kicks thinking they can count every kick. They usually get to 15 or 20 kicks and then we start to break off into groups and have girls kicking at different times and it throws of the students that are trying to count. It’s funny to listen to everyone counting while you are kicking and then you start to hear them get messed up and eventually stop trying to count.

Realtionships: Then & Now

Now a days, we wonder how people communicated before there were smart phones and texting. Think about current relationships today and now think about what they would have been like 50 years ago. I would love to have lived back then, things seemed so much more peaceful without all this social media. Everyone seems to know everything and everyone as soon as it happens these days, that’s how advanced we are. If you think about it, it’s kind of sad that we don’t really have a personal life, everything is posted on twitter or Instagram.

Relationships seemed so simple and genuine in the 50’s. Before cell phones you could just call up your girlfriends and ask what she was doing, you would have to walk to her house and actually go talk to her. Not having phones would really improve peoples’ social skills because they had no other option.

Everyone dressed up and always looked nice back then. They didn’t necessarily wear the most fancy clothes all of the time but they looked classy. There were no such things as crop tops back then and “sagging your pants” was a thing either. Men asked women on dates and took them out to dinner as well. He would pick you up at your house, perhaps with a flower, he would visit with your parents, the walk you to the car and open the door for you. Men usually paid for the dinner too.

I feel as though relationships lasted longer in the 50’s than they do now. Today boys will just “slide” into a girls DM instead of talking to her in person and asking her out on a date. Couples today will fight about each other “liking” a certain some’s picture on Instagram or “favoriting” someone’s tweet. Couples will even break up over that kind of stuff. Back then, those things weren’t even around so they didn’t have little things like that to fight about. Yes I’m sure they still had things to fight about in the 50’s, but not something as dumb as liking a picture! Another thing that goes along with this is that you didn’t always know where each other was. You had to true trust the person you’re with, believe it or not.

There are so many things that have changed just in the last 50 years that it’s kind of scary to see what will come in the next 50.

Music/Drama Department

Many extracurricular activities in high school are overlooked. We get huge crowds at football games because everyone goes. Football games have become more of a social event for some people rather than actually watching the game. This is the same for basketball and volleyball games as well.

Activities such as dance team, golf, and cross country are far less popular meets/competitions to go to. These events usually get a few students to come to them, but it is usually parents and siblings that are there to watch.

Other than sports, the music department here at Kennedy is far underappreciated! We have amazing instrument players and singers and actors that few students here realize. The students that are involved in these coral or musical activities and groups work so hard at what they do so they can continue to improve. Most of them have a band/orchestra class every day, the choir and show choir kids all have a choir class every day. There are also after school practices for these students as well, they spend hours a day rehearsing and preparing for their next show.

Our band doesn’t just play at football games, they also go to competitions throughout the fall. We have a spectacular band, who received place at two competitions this year I believe, and we have an amazing drum line. Most of these kids have been playing these instruments since probably at least middle school. They practice daily and learn new music all the time.

Our show choir starts learning their show the summer before the next school year starts, they work for a good six months before their show is complete and ready to compete. Competitions start in January and go for about two months, with a competition about every two or three weeks. Happiness is the top show choir here at Kennedy and they go to Nationals in Tennessee every year and usually do very well. We also host our own competition right here at Kennedy every February, called Raise the Roof.

The drama department also puts on their own shows a few times a year. Students try out for roles of the plays and they work very hard after school to rehearse their lines and create the sets and make it perfect before they have their show. Each student has to memorize all of their lines and remember what they are supposed to be doing when they say something. Our plays are great, we have very talented actors at our school!

Skipping Classes

I know not everyone loves coming to school. It’s not that we hate school, we just don’t always like the learning part. I know it’s very inconvenient to wake up early every day and go sit in a classroom for the next seven hours while a teacher talks at you and then gives you a ton of homework that you have to do when you get home as well. For these exact reasons, kids skip class. We’d much rather stay home all day ten go to class and get more work. We think “oh it’s just one day, I won’t even miss anything,” but in reality, the net day you just have twice as much work and you probably didn’t do anything while you were at home the day before, so you might as well have gone to school.

Skipping class is a very bad habit to get into. The more you start to skip classes, the less you actually like that class, and the more likely you will be to skip that class even more. Missing school really sucks because you don’t know wat you did in any of your classes while you were gone and now you have work to make up and you don’t know what you’re doing. Then, a test rolls around and you have no idea what is going on and you bomb it!

Trends

People, especially teens, always want to know what the latest and greatest is. We watch TV shows and read magazines and follow famous people on social media to see what they have and what they’re wearing. We would all love to have a million clothes and shoes like a bunch of famous people do, but we don’t. Stores know which young celebrities to advertise, in order to get certain people to buy their product. Marketing knows that we want to dress and look like these “perfect” celebrities, so they’ll put them in their commercials and persuade us to think that ‘because this person uses this product, if I use it I’ll look like them’ kind of thing.

Trends change all the time, everyone’s wearing new clothes and new jewelry and has a new phone constantly. These changing trends are what keeps many stores and businesses alive. They always try and get the new stuff in their stores before anyone else, so we go and buy it from them.

The media is constantly following and reporting what celebrities are doing and wearing. These reports keep us entertained, we love to see what new and what’s “hot”. The media will report everything these stars do, even the not so good things. These celebrities have a lot of influence on today’s society, so the things they do can influence what kids are doing these day because they want to be like the famous people they see everywhere.

Qualities of "Leaders" and "Followers"

Are you a leader or are you a follower?

A leader is someone who generally speaks their mind. They aren’t afraid to say what they are thinking. They aren’t afraid that people will judge them for speaking out against what was said.

A leader is someone who does what they feel is right and they are confident in their decision. They might feel as though the “right” thing to do is not the “cool” thing to do, but they know they should do it anyway. They aren’t bothered by what people might say about them.

A leader is someone who is trustworthy. They are will talk to anyone and are always willing to make new friends. If someone is lost, they will help them. If someone asks for their help, they will show them the ropes and stay with them until they are comfortable and can do the task on their own.

A leader is someone who is not worried about their image or how they look compared to others. They don’t care about looking good or impressing people, they are their selves no matter what.

A leader is not necessarily the most popular person or someone with the most friends, but they are generally the most humble ad have the closest friends.

A leader is a positive role model that people want to be like or be friends with.

A leader is someone who little kids look up to and want to be like when they are older.

A follower is someone who is generally more quite, they are not usually known to speak their mind especially in a group of many people. They tend to stick to themselves and kind of sit back and watch.

A follower is someone who copies what others do.

A follower is someone who doesn’t come up with their own ideas, but might tag along to what someone else said and agree with them.

A follower is not usually the most outgoing person, they don’t tend to do spontaneous things.

A follower is generally someone who doesn’t like to speak or present in front of large crowds, they’d rather watch someone else present.

These are obviously not all the qualities of “leaders” and “followers” and these are not always true for every leader or follower that you see. Every leader is different in their own way, they are all unique, it’s what makes them a leader!

Friends

There is much controversy on the topic of friends. Some may argue that it’s not about how many friends you have but that it’s better to have fewer, better friends.

I would say that you should have a lot of friends, but also have some closer friends. The more friends you have, the more people you have the chance to get to know and hang out with. It’s good to make friends with a lot of people because it will really improve your social skills and teach you about all the different personalities that people have. High school is the prime time to make new friends. You’e been in middle school the last three years with the same people and there are a ton more people you will meet going into and though out your high school career. All you have to do is be willing to meet new people.

Some people are okay with only having one or two super good friends, but for me, I’d rather have a lot of friends. Personally, I believe that you can have more than one “best fried”, I have many “best friends”. Everyone has a best friend for certain activities, one for every class, one on your sports team, etc… We all have more than one friend! All you have to do is be willing to open up to someone and talk to them, you might have more in common with them than you think. It might be awkward at first if you’re the one who says “hi” first or introduces them self first, but after that you could become best friends. You can’t judge a book by its cover!
 

You and your group of friends are probably al very similar because you probably all like the same things and most likely all have the same attitudes towards things as well. A new friend could introduce you to new things and change your perspective on certain things. It’s good for you to be around new people every once in a while, change is good.
 

Your friends will last you a life time, they are the ones who will always be there for you. You could get in a fight with your best friend for months and then talk one day and everything just goes back to normal. I know, because that exact thing happened to me not too long ago. Don’t shut out your friends, even if you are mad at them at the moment. I promise you will get over it and you will realize that you need that friend sooner or later!

Crowded Foyer

Some people can’t handle big crowds, can you? Do you start to feel uncomfortable or claustrophobic when too many people get too close to you? Imagine you go to a school with 1,800 other people and they’re all trying to get to another classroom at the same time as you. This is what happens at least six times a day at Kennedy High School. Every passing time there are hundreds of people trying to get through the foyer at the same time as. A key factor in advoiding this huge traffic jam is to not stop in the middle of the foyer and talk to someone. This is when you hold everyone up behind you and they start to get mad and just push you out of their way.

If you don’t like big crowds, then this shoving in the foyer probably scares you. Kids get so annoyed, usually with underclassmen, when they stop in the middle where everyone is actually trying to get to their class. Some people are so annoyed and don’t want to fight the traffic anymore, so they just keeping walking, they will bump into anymore and they don’t care. So if you want to avoid this, your best option is to use the back stairways if you can, avoid going through the main foyer if possible. If you’re not afraid to get bumped in the hallway or pushed, then you will be fine if you go through the foyer, remember to just keep walking and don’t stop until you get to where you’re going and you’re out of everyone’s way. Typically it’s the smaller kids that don’t like going through the foyer during passing time, because a lot of the kids at this school are fairly big and kind of tower over the little freshman or the eighth graders that come to classes in the mornings. Walking through the foyer isn’t as bad as some people think, you will get used to it the more you walk through there.

Black Friday

Black Friday is the craziest shopping day of the year. People stand in lines hours and hours before stores open, just so they can be the first ones in. When the doors open u, the customers run as fast as they can to whatever they are looking for and then run to the checkout when they have everything they came for. A lot of the times, stores don’t even have that good of sales, but hundreds of people still wait in lines for hours trying to check out.

We’ve all heard crazy stories of people getting run over by huge crowds of people trying to get into the store, but for a lot of us teenagers, we’ve probably never actually experienced this Black Friday Madness. Personally, I know that the year one of my friends turned 16, we would go Black Friday shopping. We all wanted to see what it was like. My friends and I didn’t even really care about the deals because we didn’t really have any money to spend anyways. My parents never go Black Friday shopping because they, like most people, don’t want to fight the crowds. Since our parents never brought us, we thought we ought to experience the chaos for ourselves. I remember when I told my mom that some friends and I were going shopping and she was like why would you fight the crowd at a sore when there’s not very many good deals, and I said that I wanted to see what it was like, if it was really as crazy as everyone says it is.

The mall is not too crowded on Black Friday, only because it’s mostly because there’s only clothing stores there and they have sales going on all the time so that’s not a huge deal. Places like Target, Walmart, and Best Buy though, are ridiculous! There are so many people running around, carrying huge boxes of things like TV’s, gaming systems and otherwise expensive products. People have multiple carts filled with more items than you can image, and then they will stand in line forever waiting to check out. The great part about Black Friday, is Cyber Monday! You get all the same, if not better deals, online and the best part is, you can shop all day from the comfort of your own home. There’s no hassle or crowds because everything is online and I think Cyber Monday is more popular, for that very reason. So, if you don’t like being in a big store with hundreds of people, I would wait till Monday and shop on online without all the chaos.

College Visits

After high school, most kids go off to college before starting their lives in the “real world.” College is not for everyone and that’s ok. You will not be judged if you decide to take a year off or you join the army, navy, air force, etc…

For the kids who decide they want to go to college, junior and senior year are very important. These are the years you should be visiting colleges. Most kids, like myself, don’t have a clue what they want to major in, so we visit a bunch of schools. Few kids know what they want to do when they “grow up”, so they can kind of narrow down their college visits to the ones that offer their specific program(s). Most colleges offer the same programs, but some specialize in certain programs. Iowa State University specializes in engineering and The University of Iowa specializes in medicine.
In order to go on a college visit, you have to sign up on the college’s website. You register for the day you want to come. You can register to go with a group of people or you can do individual tours. The first time you visit a college, most kids do the group tour and then if you decide you like that school and you are considering enrolling there for your freshman year, you may want to go back and do an individual tour so you can get a better sense of the campus and ask as many questions as you can think of. You can also look at the more specific buildings on the campus if you are on an individual tour. The group tours just kind of pass by each building and they’ll tell you what classes are in that building, and you’ll move on to the next one.

It’s very import to visit many colleges even if you really liked the first one you visited. You could end up like the next ones just as much, if not more. You don’t want to settle for the first school, you need to explore the other colleges and see what they have to offer there. As you visit more and more colleges, you’ll learn the things you want and don’t want at your college. You’ll visit on a normal day when all classes are in session and you’ll get a sense of how a normal day would be at that certain college. You’ll get to experience that college atmosphere and all the people around you. It’s also very important that you visit small and large colleges, you might think you want to go to a big university but you might learn that that’s not for you, that a small private college might be more suitable for you. It’s important to visit all the colleges you can so you can choose the best one for you. You will be spending at least the next four years there!

Coaches

Having a coach you get along with is amazing! There's nothing better than do the thing you love and liking your coach at the same time. A coach is like a second parent to you, you're with them 24/7 and you have to listen to them, except they aren't your parent. If you have a close relationship with your coach, you can open up to them and talk to them about anything. There is always stuff you want to talk about but don't necessarily want to talk with your parents about and being able to talk to another adult about it is great!

When you have a good relationship with your coach you will learn to like that sport or activity even more. You’ll like coming to practice because you look forward to see and talking to your coach. You might even become better at what you’re doing too! If you like your coach, you’re going to be more willing to listen to their corrections and apply them which will be very beneficial to you. If you don’t like your coach you are going to hate what you’re doing, you will hate going to practice and you will not want to listen to them.

I personally love track, I had a terrible coach that I hated and it was sad because he kind of ruined track for me. I never listened to him because I didn’t like him. I don’t like being told what to do, as is, but I especially don’t like being told what to do from someone I don’t like.

 

So for that exact reason, you should do what you can to develop a good relationship with your coach or coaches. If for some reason you think your coach doesn’t like you, talk to them and work things out, I’m sure they don’t actually hate you. Ask what you can do to get better. Teachers and coaches tend to like and help their students and athletes who show effort and act like they care about what they’re doing. So if you just put forth a little effort and have a good attitude, you will go far, in that specific activity, and in life! You’re going to be more enjoyable to be around if you are positive, it makes everyone happier and it allows for teams to work well together!

Drinking & Drugs

Kids refer to drinking and drugs for many reasons. Some kids feel the need to do these things that are illegal, because they are depressed and doing these things makes them feel better. Others might feel like they are unwanted or they feel lost in this world so the result to drinking and doing drugs, because it makes them feel “alive”. This is not an excuse to turn to these activities though; these kids that are in this situation can be helped.

Most kids these days turn to drinking and drugs because it’s “cool”, because “everyone is doing it”. I’ve heard many kids say they will never do these things, that they are so against in, but the minute their friends start doing it and they feel left out, suddenly their opinion of it changes and they now think it’s ok.

The kids that get involved in these activities seem to think that the people that don’t do those things judge them and think they’re bad people, but in reality they are probably just against doing that stuff. These kids might always think that you’re not “cool” and not want to hang out with you unless you’re going to drink or smoke with them.

Parents probably would never know their kids were doing things like this, unless they have caught them, either with alcohol or drugs, or when they come home under the influence. Kids have gotten very good at hiding these things from their parents and lying about where they have been or where they are going or staying.

It’s so easy for underage kids to get alcohol too; a lot of kids know other kids that can get them alcohol if they give them the money for it.

The same goes for drugs, especially weed. Weed is illegal, no matter your age, but kids can still get their hands on it. We have drug dogs that go through our school hallways and even the parking lots sometimes searching for drugs. Kids have actually gotten caught with possession too.

I don’t understand why people have to be drinking or smoking all the time. Some people don’t understand that you don’t have to be drunk or high to have fun!

"bad" Boys

Boys complain about girls being confusing and crazy and me being a girl, I totally understand that

because I don’t even understand the reasons I do half the stuff I do myself. But I also don’t understand guys a lot of the time. In previous blogs of mine about teenage girls I talked about the ways we think and kind of why we are the way we are, we are completely different from boys. Girls don’t even understand why we do what we do, how are we supposed to know why guys do what they do. We don’t know or understand their thought process, so we have to guess, this is where us girls start assuming things, as I talked about earlier.

We don’t understand why guys act differently when you’re alone with them and then they act completely different when you are in front of their friends. Or why they talk differently when they’re with “the guys”. Is it not cool to be nice when you’re with ‘the guys”? This confuses us and makes us mad. We want you guys to be cute like you are when we’re alone, when we’re in front of your friends too! What’s so hard to understand about that?

Another thing I don’t understand is why guys think it’s cool/okay to jump from girl to girl all the time. But if girls were to hop from guy to guy like boys do girls, she’d get called names and be label as a “hoe” “slut” etc... How is this fair? This is hypocritical!

Sometimes I feel like guys do things just so they are “accepted” by their friends, so they’re “cool.” I know that guys know it’s wrong to use a girl, but why do so many guys still do it. I don’t get how you can do that to someone. Girls are sensitive and become attached quickly. We’ll believe a lot of things you tell us, this is why guys lie. Guys know that if they tell us what we want to hear, that if they make themselves seem like a “good guy”, that we’ll open up to them and they can take advantage.

Don’t get me wrong, I know not all guys are like this! I know there are genuinely good guys out there that know this stuff is wrong and would never do these things, but unfortunately there are guys out there like this. By all means, there are girls out there that do these same things to guys too.

Teenagers: Complaining

Personally as a teenager, I can say that I complain about a lot of things. I think both girls and boys complain a lot though, but girls probably more than guys.

 I complain about everything. I don’t understand why we complain about things. Complaining about something isn’t going to make it better or necessarily make it go away. I think we just complain about things when we’re bored. We think of things that we don’t really like or that we’d like to see improved, and we just complain about them.

For me, I complain about everything, I complain when my head hurts, I complain about being bored, about wanting to go home, about not wanting to do something. In a way, I think it makes me feel better about something, when I complain about it. I know that doesn’t make any sense, but now that I think about it, I’ll be thinking about something for quite so time, I’ll think about how I don’t like it, then I’ll complain to someone about it, and then I’ll forget about in. For example, when I’ve been working all day, I’ll stand there and think about how much my feet hurt and how much I just want to sit down, and then then next coworker that comes over, I’ll complain to them about how I’ve been working all day and I haven’t taken a break and that my feet hurt so bad, and they’ll walk away, and ill forget about it for a while, 20 minutes later I’ll think about it again and complain again.

 Our parents are always complaining about how much we complain, but take a second and think about all the times you complain in one day. All the times you complain about being hungry, how you just want to go home, about how much time is left in class. We complain a lot more than we realize, it’s become natural for us to complain about everything!

Nap Time

In elementary school, up until a certain grade, every day we would get nap time. There was a specific time in the day where we would get out our cots and the teachers would turn off the lights and we were supposed to take a nap. If you weren’t napping, you were supposed to be quite so those around you could nap if they wanted to. I’m pretty sure only a few kids actually napped during nap time; I know I was not one of those kids. Most of us just wanted to talk and play games, we didn’t want to lay there and be quite, and that was like punishment to us back then.

In elementary school, we just weren’t tired during the day, but as we got to middle school, we would start to get more and more tired, and now that high school rolls around, we wish we had nap time. Kids are falling asleep in class they’re so tired in high school. We’ll literally roll out of bed and come to school.

These young kids in preschool through about third grade are getting probably ten hours of sleep a night because they have a bed time, so they aren’t tired during the day, yet they get a nap time. Whereas high schoolers probably get anywhere from 4-7 hours of sleep, maybe 8 if you’re lucky. High schoolers just simply don’t get the required amount of sleep for our age, yet we don’t get a nap time at school? We stay up late to do our homework after we get home from practice and or work, we’re up till midnight sometimes later doing thing and then we have to get up early and do it all again the next day. It’s a constant cycle of not enough sleep.

I think the education system has it mixed up, I think the nap time school be built into the high school day, not the elementary school day. Nap time in high school would be beneficial to the students, being able to catch up on their sleep, and the teachers as well. Teachers always complain about things needed to be graded, give us nap time and you’ll have more time to grade papers.

We should require all high school to have at least a 45 minute “nap time” during the school day. I don’t think any student would oppose to this idea!

Teenage Girls: Over Thinking

Teenage girls have many talents, one being over thinking. If you’re a guy reading this, this might help you understand a girl’s thought process, but probably not.

Guys think that girls are very complicated, well that’s because guys decide things in about two seconds. It takes them like .02 seconds to decide on whether or not they like something, and it takes girls about 10 years (obvious that’s a little bit of an exaggeration) to decide something. Boys are just like yeah this stripped shirt is awesome, I’ll take it! Girls on the other hand think, “How much is it? Is that too much? Is it worth it? But I already know two other girls with the same shirt! What pants would I wear this shirt with? But I don’t have shoes to match this?” Girls think about everything when trying to buy something as simple as a shirt.

Boys if you think I’m exaggerating all the questions and thoughts that go through a girls head while shopping, you’re wrong!

Yeah deciding on what clothes to buy is a big deal for girls, but girls over think 10 times harder when it comes to boys. For some reason us girls just assume there’s something wrong with us, that we’re the problem, and we always assume that the boy we like doesn’t like us. For example, if a boy isn’t respond to our texts, thousands of thoughts run through our heads, “OMG what did I do? Is he ignoring me? Why is he ignoring me? Am I being annoying? Did I say something wrong? I want to text him again, but then he’ll really think I’m being annoying? Does he think I’m too clingy? Oh no, clingy is bad! NO one likes clingy!” when in reality the boy is just busy and can’t respond at the moment.

So boys, if you don’t want your girl to turn into a psychopath and give herself an anxiety attack, tell her you’re busy and you will text her in a bit, don’t just not reply.

I don’t know why us girls always just assume we did something wrong when a boy doesn’t respond to us, but we do. We start to second guess everything; we’ll go back and re-read the conversation to see if we said something questionable.

Girls, am I wrong? Please tell me I’m not the only girl that freaks out like this!?

Teenage Girls' Mood Swings

There are a lot of qualities to a teenage girl. Girls are like sour patch kids, one minute we can be sweet as can be and turn around a minute later and we’re worse than the devil. I don’t even know how to describe girls and I can’t even begin to explain why we are the way we are!

Most of the time we are pretty chill, we just do what we do every day. A lot of the time you can ask us to do something and we’ll do it, depending on how much effort it takes. If the task you’re asking us to preform requires too much effort we might say no just because we like to be lazy and just do our own thing, but if for some reason we’re in a good mood, we just might do it. If we’re in a bad mood, for whatever reason, you might just make us mad if you ask us to do something.

I can’t explain how girls work and for whatever reason our moods change all the time. Sometimes we’re just sitting there and all the sudden we think of something and we get really happy and then we’re in a really good mood for no reason and we want to just run around and hug random people and be super nice to everyone. In contrast though, sometimes we’ll think of something and we get really mad and we just want to punch a hole in the wall, again, for no reason. We’ll get mad at the people next to us for stupid reasons like, for breathing or even just them being next to us makes us mad. The person next to us could literally be doing nothing and all of the sudden we just get mad at them for being right there and we’ll freak out and be like, “why are you so close to me? Why do you have to breathe so loud? Get away from me!” And when we realize we’re mad, we’ll get madder because we don’t know why we’re mad.

Along with getting in good and bad moods for no reason, girls also get very sad for no reason. One thing just sets a spark in our heads and we just want to sit down and cry, then we being to think of all the sad things in our lives and we actually start crying. It’s like we bring these emotions upon ourselves, but can’t help it.

LOCKDOWN- School Shootings

Sadly, more and more school shootings have been happening. Thankfully none of them have been in Iowa. We can never be too careful though.

Schools are required to practice safety procedures as if a shooter were to come into our school.

Today at 9:00AM we had a lockdown drill. A staff member came on the intercom and repeated “lockdown” three times. At that time we knew we were supposed to lock and barricade the door, turn off the lights and computers, and hid in a part of the room that couldn’t be seen from the windows. I was in Sra. Perkins’ room and there is a door in her room that leads to the room where all the geothermal equipment is. This room is a lot bigger than we thought and actually has two floors to in. Our class went in there and we figured that all the Spanish classes in that part of the hallway could fit in there, along with classes from upstairs in the upper part of the room. Luckily for us there were doors in that room that led outside by the track. These doors can only be opened from the inside. We were told that if this were in fact not a drill, that we should immediately run straight out those doors, if it were safe to do so, and keep running and not look back.

This brought up the question “What are we supposed to do in here?” in my next class. Everyone had something to say about this. A lot of people said they would probably run to the nearest exit and run as fast as they could away from the school. Our teacher told us that we should only run if the shooter were on the opposite side of the building, but I was talking to some people and we said that if they were on the other side of the hallway, we wouldn’t want to hid in a room where they can shoot through the window and get in, then we are trapped in the room with no way to get out.

We figured that if we were in class we could figure out where to hide or where to run to, but then someone asked “What are we supposed to do if it’s passing time or SMART lunch?” At that point, we just assumed we’d all run as fast as we could to an exit.

 

RUN, FIGHT, HIDE, is what my teacher told us. I know I wouldn’t have a problem running away. I wonder if we were actually in a lockdown and someone had the chance to grab, fight, or throw something at the shooter, if they would, or if they would they be too scared. I think I would want to throw something at them to slow them down, but I don’t think I could actually do it. And with hiding, I wouldn’t want to just sit there and wait to be found, I would want to do something. I would be afraid they would get into the classroom and then I’m screwed, there’s nothing I could do at that point. I think a lot of people don’t know what they’d do if this situation were upon us, but I hope we never find out.

Cell Phones

Every time phones are brought up as a topic of discussion, there is always controversy. Parents complain all the time that their kids are always on their phones and that they don’t know how to communicate face to face. I agree with parents to an extent. Yes phones eliminate that face to face communication, but sometimes it’s easier to just shoot someone a text quickly, rather than just going  and asking them one little question. Just because we are on our phones a lot though doesn’t mean we don’t have good communication stills in person. These have no correlation, personally I am on my phone as much as possible, but I have very good social skills as well.

Us teenagers these days always find ourselves going through the same social media apps in a cycle, looking for new things to entertain us. We automatically pick up our phones when were bored, hoping that time will past faster when we’re on our phones. Phones are also a great way to avoid awkward situations. I know everyone who is reading this has pretended to be doing something on their phone to avoid just sitting there awkwardly! We all do it! When your friend is arguing with their parent, what do you do? You pick up your phone and you pretend to use it, or you go through your social media apps again even though you just checked them 3 times in the last ten minutes.

 Parents complain about kids ALWAYS being on their phones, but now that I think about it, that’s how kids are growing up these days. You see 3 and 4 year olds playing on their mom or dad’s phone or an iPad. Parents are getting their kids phones earlier and earlier too. I think it’s ridiculous that kids are getting phones in third grade now! No wonder kids are constantly on their phones, that’s how they’re growing up. I had to wait till sixth grade and my parents almost made me wait till later!

           
 It’s also kind of sad how much a lot of people rely on their phones though. When we aren’t allowed to have them out at school, people will sneak them under their desk because they can’t go without it for an hour. When I was at camp for a week, we weren’t allowed to even bring our phones, we had to leave them at home, and it really wasn’t that bad. We were always doing something and staying occupied, I didn’t even miss my phone. We should hang out with people more and do stuff, instead of sitting around on our phones, it’s more fun to actually go out and do something anyways!

Broken Dreams

I read John Nolan’s blog (http://thebestschoolspirit.blogspot.com/2015/10/senior.html) about not being able to play football anymore and how much he missed it and that gave me inspiration to write this blog. So thanks John!

 High school is the time where we find the things we’re good at, the things we love. For some people like me, we have been playing the same sports our whole lives and we would go crazy if we didn’t have them. The lucky ones make it their whole lives and never get seriously hurt to the point where they aren’t able to come back, but not all of us are that lucky.

At the end of the summer, August 1^st to be exact, I was working (at Sky Zone) an extremely long shift and my manager let me off early. A lot of employees like to jump after they get off, it’s a great way to get out energy and just kind of hang out, and well that’s what I did. Some friends had come to jump so I figured I would just stay there with them for an hour until we closed then I’d go home and go to bed. Me, being the show off that I am, I had to prove someone wrong and show them that I could do a flip off the wall, just like they did. I had never done a front flip off of the side wall before but I didn’t really think it would be that hard, so I went for it. Long story short I broke my left fibula and had to go to the emergency room that night. I was sitting in my room at the hospital waiting for my x-rays to come back, I was hoping I just had a bad sprain and it would take a week or two to heal, but when the doctor came back, she said I had a clean break. She basically told me that I wouldn’t be able to dance for quite a while and that I needed a lot of time to heal and recover. At this time, we thought that we were going to Nationals for dance team and I knew at that moment that I was not going to be competing at nationals. I was devastated! I thought that I was going to go all the way to Orlando for the national competition and I was going to have to sit there and watch my team compete without me.

Turns out we aren’t going to nationals this year anyway, but I still am not back to dancing. The dance team just competed at their first competition this past weekend and all I could do was watch from the stands as my team danced their hearts out and won two first place trophies. I would give anything to be dancing right now. I can’t believe that one little thing I did have an effect that would last months. There was no way I could have known that I was going to land that flip wrong and that I was going to break my ankle. It’s scary to think that anything we do could go bad and stop us from doing the things we love.

Jobs

Part of being in high is getting your drivers license. Finally being able to drive yourself where ever you want, you get that sense of freedom. The down side to driving is paying for the gas! Some kids are lucky, their parents pay for their gas, along with money for food and clothes and random stuff. Others have to pay for all of that stuff on their own, including me. How am I supposed to pay for all the clothes and food I want if I don't have any money? That’s right, a job!

This last year I decided that it would probably be a good idea for me to get a job because there was no way I had enough money for all of things I want, and I still don't, but at least I have some money now. Before my job, my parents would pay for my gas and give me money every once and awhile, but now that I have a job I have to pay for everything myself! My job is great, I love it. I don't have to wait on anyone or serve anyone, I get to watch little kids jump on trampolines all day. I don't really have to do much at my job; it's actually pretty easy, better than working at a restaurant or Hy-Vee! I get paid to basically do nothing!

Yeah working can suck sometimes, but when paid day comes around, I love having a job. It's so nice to have money and know that you can spend it on the things you want. My parents always tell me to save money too. They say "You don't need to spend that much money every month. You don’t need to eat out so much". I agree with my parents, I should save money for college, but sometimes it's hard, like you're really craving some pizza and you're like why not, it's only five dollars, but before you know it, all those little five dollar charges add up and before you know it you’re down to $20 and you still have a week left until you get paid.

Having a job has taught me great social skills. I am very comfortable talking to customers and answering questions, things I wasn't very comfortable with before. I think having a job benefits high schoolers more than just giving them money, there are more things you get out of having a job. You learn to collaborate and cooperate with coworkers and you learn how to talk to people other than your friends.

Cheating on Exams

We are all told that we have to go to school so we can learn things and get a good education because if we don't then we won't get into a good college and we won't get a good high paying job out in the real world, that "we'll be stuck working at McDonald's". And yes I understand that it is very important to learn things like social skills and cooperation, but I’m sorry when am I ever going to need to know how to graph Y=4+6sin(1/2(X-3))? NEVER! We are told that we have to go to school every day and that we need to learn something new every day, so we do. We all go to class and sit there and try and pay attention while the teacher is going way to fast in math class while standing in front of the board and you have no idea what is going on. We try and learn these "pointless" things so that way we'll do well on the chapter test when it comes around.

At least that’s how it used to be. We would try and learn these things, but now-a-days, more and more students are starting to cheat on tests. Yes, I know it is bad to cheat and you should never do it, so why are kids cheating on tests? It's because society is starting to care more and more about kids having "good" grades. Well as a result to thing, kids are cheating on tests so they get the right answers and they get the good grade.

Now I’m not saying that everybody cheats on tests, because I know a lot of people who study their butts off and get the good grades they deserve. I wonder if kids would be more apt to actually learning the material and asking questions when they don't understand something, if grades weren't so important. Would we be more willing to try, to put more effort in, than just relying on someone else’s answers to get good grades? I know a lot of parents expect good grades out of their children, and that is a lot of pressure. Maybe if our parents weren't always hounding us with the expectation of having A’s and B's we would actually learn things for ourselves.

Nowhere to practice

This blog ties into my last post about “dance not being a real sport”

Yes football is a sport with a lot of physical contact and people get hurt, but dance is just as hard on our bodies. Blood, sweat, and tears are shed at practices, literally!! Like I said in my last blog, we practice anywhere from 6-30 hours a week. We run and or do some sort of cardio before every practice to get ourselves warmed up, then we stretch and get down to business working on our routines.

For starters we do not have a formal place to practice at Kennedy. We practice in the hallways, the cafeteria, and sometimes the choir room. None of these places are meant for dancing, especially for 20 girls! You're probably wondering why we don't go practice in the gym, but that’s where basketball and volleyball practice and they have priority over us. Because we cannot use the gyms, we had to result mainly to the cafeteria. We spend up to twenty minutes stacking the chairs and moving the tables out of the way so we have a big enough space for all of us to dance. The main problem with all the places we practice is that they all have concrete or tiling flooring. If you’ve seen some of our dances, you know that we drop down to our knees quite a bit in each dance. This adds a great effect and surprise to the dance, but especially on hard surfaces, it is terrible on our knees. We constantly have bruises on our knees. Along with the floor being hard on our knees, they are hard on our feet, ankles, and shins especially. We do a ton of jumps in every dance and when we land our feet smack the hard ground. This is especially hard on me because I have bad shin splints and stress fractures so the pain doesn’t ever really go away.

Dance team has never really had a place to practice, so we’re used to dancing on the hard surfaces and yeah they hurt our bodies and leave bruises, but we’re used to it, we’ve accepted that these are the results of dancing where we practice. The gym isn’t so bad on our bodies and it’s enough space for all of the team. We try and get in there as much as we can but it’s a rare occasion. Sometime in the future I hope the team gets an actual place to practice or we can compromise on sharing the gyms, but for now we’re just going to keep on doing what we’re doing and hope for the best.

"Dance isn't a sport"

We always talk about sports like basketball, football, baseball, volleyball, etc., but when Dance is brought up, there seems to be some controversy over whether or not dance is considered a sport. I don't think there is a clear definition on what makes an activity a sport. Sports required strength, both physically and mentally, practice, stamina, all things that are involved in dance. Personally I consider dance a sport, but you might think that my opinion is bias because I am a dancer. Dance requires strength, we use muscles no other sport uses. We have to have mental strength as well. Our routines are up to two minutes long and they are anything but easy.

I hate when people think dance is easy and they say that because we "make it look easy" but that's because we have been doing this our whole lives, training our whole lives, we train to make it look easy. Dance Team spends numerous hours a week learning, changing, and perfecting dances. In a week we spend anywhere from 6-30 hours practicing two routines. Now you might ask how we could spend that long doing only two routines, but a lot more work goes into these dances then you might think. We spend hours "cleaning" people and parts so that everyone looks the EXACT same. Every arm, every leg, every head, every body angle has to be the same for every part of the dance, if you want to be the best. If one person doesn't match, they will stand out and throw off the whole "picture". We spend all this time being picky and making sure people match, because that is part of what we are judged on. If you were to take a picture in the middle of our dance, every single person should look the same and the spacing should all be even, but this is not always the case.

I wish we could have people come and watch out practices and see how much time and effort we put into making our dances look good. This past weekend, the dance team had their first competition at the Carver Hawkeye Area in Iowa city. This wasn't a huge competition, it was more like practice for state, but that doesn't mean we didn't take it seriously. The team went out there and gave it 110% and they killed it. We came out of the competition with a first place trophy for our pom and our jazz! All of our hard work paid off and the judges gave us great feedback and critiques that we will use and consider when preparing for state.

Dance team has all the qualities as any other sport; we compete just like any other sport. Dance team is just as hard as any other sport. If you don't believe me, then ask any other member of the dance team and I can guarantee you that they say the exact same thing.

Trying New Things

Most of us like to stay within in our comfort zone. We often do things that are normal for us. How often do you make dramatic changes? Do you ever think to yourself that you want to become a better version of yourself? I think a lot of us think about this, not because we are unhappy with ourselves, but because we think/know that we can be better. It's hard to change something as dramatic as your lifestyle and your happiness, so start with something smaller. Make small changes and build from there. You'll become the person you want to become, but you have to understand that it will take time.

High School students don't often know who they are or who they want to become, so they try new things. We go out of our comfort zone and try things we never imaged ourselves doing. These new things help us find out what we like and what we don't like. If you try something you like, that's great, but don't be discouraged if you try something new and you don't like it. It's just as good to find out that you don't like something because it helps you narrow down what you like to do.

Trying new things includes: job shadows, talking to new people, making new friends, trying new sports, activities, instruments, anything! Anything that is not "normal" to you is trying something new. You might find something you really enjoy doing, but you may never have discovered that if you hadn't tried it in the first place. You may meet someone you instantly click with and become best friends, but you would of new meet them if you didn't say "hi" first.

I know it's easier said than done, but we all try new things whether we realize it or not. All of these things shape us. They "add" to us and shape our personalities and us as people.

Stress

High school students are very busy. Athletes, musicians, and artists, all with busy schedules. A lot of students have full schedules with extracurricular activities on top of that. We have late practices every day. We're exhausted and still have to go home and do homework, but all we want to do is go home, eat, and go to bed. This same routine everyday gets really old for some people, like me, we like to change things up. For other people, they like the same routine, they like "normal."

We are getting to the age where we are all getting job on top of all these activities and responsibilities we already have. All of this "go, go, go" becomes very stressful and over whelming for high-schoolers. Personally I am involved in two school sports and I work at Sky Zone. I try to work as much as possible, the few days I don't have practice, and a lot on the weekends. This leaves me with almost no time to do homework and even less time to hang out with my friends. I know it's very hard to find the motivation to come home after a long practice and sit down and do an hour or so worth of homework.

School alone is very stressful. We get quite a bit of homework that we have to do every night, I don't mind the homework that will actually help you learn the thing you need to learn, like AP homework, but some homework for other classes is just busy work. I hate when teachers give their students "busy work", they have nothing else to teach for the rest of the class so they give us a worksheet that we have to do and there's usually no point to it.

The stress that comes from all these responsibilities is huge! Sometimes the stress gets to you and you totally shut down, you don't have any motivation to do your work, so you go and watch Netflix or something else unproductive. It's very hard to not let the stress get to you, to push through it and get things done. Some people are very good at this, and others, like me, struggle with this. I praise these people, they are very strong willed. They will get very far in life with this attitude and motivation. For those of you, we will have to work on this, we will get there, we just have to work a little bit harder and find our motivation.

Insecurities

We're all at school for one reason, because we have to be. Some people enjoy being at school and some do not. Some enjoy the learning, others do not. Some like school because their friends are there and they like the social aspect of it. We all have different opinions and feelings about school, but the point is that we're all there for what seems to be forever. Since this is the case, why can't we all just get along?

High school students now-a-days tend to be all about their friends and their things and not care about other people and the things they like to do. Now-a-days people are all about themselves. People stopped caring about others for some reason. Kids these days make fun of kids for being a "nerdy" or for being a "geek" or liking school, but why? Most likely, these kids get a sense of satisfaction from bringing others down and making fun of them.

I don't understand why we feel better about ourselves when we bring others down. I'm guilty of this as well as many others. Is it because we are insecure about ourselves? That if we point out someone else's flaws, it will take away from our own? That it'll distract everyone from the fact that we're not perfect? We've heard a million times, that "nobody's perfect", but why do we all keep insisting on trying to get there, to be perfect? What's so wrong with being different? I don't have an answer to any of these questions, but I wish I did. These questions are constantly floating around my mind, looking for answer or an understanding as to why I am the way I am or why people do the things they do, just to "fit in".

Everyone's different. We're all our own. We like different things and that's okay. If everyone were the same, everything would be so boring. There would be nothing special in the world if everyone liked the same things and did the same things. I think we all know this, but yet we're all so insecure about ourselves. We're all going through these same feelings and insecurities as we try and find ourselves in this world. We have each other, were still in high school, we're around people every day that are going through the same things as us. Just because we're all different doesn't mean we aren't going through similar things. Use each other to get through these insecurities and in the end I bet you come out the other side having overcome the things you never thought you would, along with a best friend or two beside you.

"Getting Caught Up"

High school is the prime time for kids to become young adults. Our bodies change, our thoughts change, and everything changes. In a sense we become a whole new person, or the person we are meant to be. High school is also the time when you discover your true friends.

I've learned that a lot of the time people have hidden intentions when they're talking to you. Some of the time they are just pretending to like you or be your friend because you have something they need or want. People aren't always honest about things, little white lies snow ball and create more and more lies. I've read that rumors are spread by someone who is jealous of you or by someone who can't compete with you. Rumors are spread by insecure people and are believed by naive people. Rumors could be spread by your closest "friends", the people who know you the best, and the people you often trust and tell everything to, but may not have your best interest at heart.

Not everyone spreads rumors, but people talk behind each other's backs. I've witnessed first hand, "best friends" talking behind each other's backs. The things we say about the other person may not be bad, but does that make it okay? Our best friends are supposed to be the ones we tell everything to, the ones we do everything with, but how can we do this, if we are afraid of what they might say when we are not around. We may not ever know for sure what people say behind our backs, but true friends will always tell you when someone else is talking about you, or they should. True friends stand up for each other, they have each other's backs.

You are lucky if while in high school you've made true friends. Parents often say that you probably won't keep in touch with your friends from high school. My mom, for example, still talks to and hangs out with a few of her best friends from high school, but other than that, she doesn't keep in contact with other people from high school.

We all get caught up in this drama we call high school. We blame each other and fight with each other and say we're not friends, but in the end is it going to matter anyway? In a few years we will have graduated high school and college. Our friends are going to move away and start their lives. We should cherish the time we have left while were all so close, before it's too late. High school shouldn't be about who's the prettiest, who has the nicest clothes, or who has the best boyfriend; it should be about making true friends, about creating memories and friendships that will last a life time. We can't get caught up in the little things and let this time pass us by.

My thoughts on SMART lunch

There is some controversy over whether or not SMART lunch is a good or a bad thing. I think the staff at Kennedy is trying to decide whether or not to go back to our ABCD lunch or to keep SMART lunch. Kids are able to get some if not all of their homework done during SMART lunch, because it's so long, as well as eat lunch. ABCD lunch is only 20 minutes long, just barely long enough for everyone to get their food and eat it. The lines in the lunch room are very long and hard to get through them in a short amount of time.

Last year (sophomore year) I used my SMART lunch time to sit in the cafeteria and eat my lunch, then get as much homework done as I could. Third trimester I had double zero hour through sixth hour and then dance team and or track after school. I didn't have a lot of time to get my homework done, so SMART lunch was a great benefit to me. I would be productive and get help from my teachers when I needed it. I could also go in and make up tests or quiz that I had missed.

I know quite a few people who are or were in the same situation as I was in last year, where they had a full schedule and used SMART lunch to their advantage and got work done. The controversy is due to those who do not use SMART lunch to their advantage. Some kids just sit in the cafeteria and talk for the full hour and do nothing productive. Or some juniors and senior just use the hour to leave school and go do something then come back. Staff talks about how people don't use their SMART lunch time, but I think they are just looking at the kids who don't use it, they're not looking at how many kids attend tutorials or go to the library and actually work on their homework.

I don't think we should take away SMART lunch because of the people who don't use it to their advantage. It's their fault they aren't using the time to get work done, they're just going to have to take time out of their night later and do it. I love SMART lunch, I think it is a great addition to our school day!

"Rules" of SMART lunch

SMART= Students Maximizing Achievement, Relationships, and Time.

SMART lunch was a two year contract Kennedy High School signed for the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 school years. The first year of SMART lunch was 80 minutes long, but this year it is 60 minutes long. This period consists of two 30 minute "tutorials", tutorial 'A' and tutorial 'B' during which students can go to their teachers and get extra help. Teachers have assigned "tutorials", two a week either 'A' or 'B'. If students are not attending a "tutorial", which they are highly encouraged to do, they may go to the cafeteria and get lunch, or go to the library, or go to the gym. 

Freshman and sophomores are not allowed to leave campus during SMART lunch, as it has always been, but juniors and seniors are allowed to leave, but under some restriction. Upperclassmen may only leave for SMART lunch if they meet the requirements of the "SMART lunch sticker". Students only apply for a "SMART lunch sticker" if they had no D's or F's for the previous term or half semester. If they do not meet this requirement they are not issued a smart sticker and therefore cannot leave. If you meet the requirement you have to get a permission slip signed by a parent or legal guardian in order for you to get the sticker giving you permission to leave. As you leave the building at the beginning of SMART lunch you have to show your ID with your sticker on it. If you do not have a sticker, you are not let out of the building.

However, there are ways around this "SMART lunch sticker". Parents are able to call into the attendance office at the school and dismiss you from school. If this is the case, you are brought a "pass" to one of your classes that says you are leaving at this time. If you are being called out during the lunch period, as you leave the building you show them the pass that you have been "called out" and they will let you go. This is the only way underclassmen are able to leave during lunch. Teachers and staff don't like when underclassmen are "called out" during lunch, because it goes against the rule of only upperclassmen being allowed to leave during lunch, but there's nothing they can do about it because the parent called and excused their child.

Twitter

It seems like everywhere you look someone is on their phone. Now a days high-schooler's lives seem to revolve around their phones and social media. Twitter is a huge app., used by 974 million people. A lot of those users are likely to be high school students and young adults. Personally I don't know very many adults that have a Twitter, it seems to be just younger people.

"Twitter is addicting." I would agree with that statement. Everytime I get on my phone I check my twitter, I don't always "tweet" but I check my "news feed." Twitter is an easy way to stay connected with your friends and it is a great way to voice you opinions. Twitter allows you to say what you want, as well as allowing people to respond to what you said.

High school students are very passionate about somethings, like their school, for example. Football season is a huge time when kids talk about their school and how great they are. They also talk about other schools and how they might be "better" than them.

Last Friday, September 25th, CR Kennedy played CR Jefferson at Kingston. The whole day prior to the game, kids were "smack-talkin" the other school to Twitter. Jeff kids were saying that they would "Punch anyone wearing green or gold (that day)" and how they couldn't wait to beat us that night. Jeff thought they would beat us because they had beaten us in the years before so they thought they could talk smack. I didn't see as many Kennedy kids talking about the Jefferson kids until after the game. People were giving Jeff kids a hard time because they had talked "crap", but we beat them 35-7.

Personally it makes me mad when I see people talking "crap" on Twitter. To me it just seems like they are trying to be cool and get alot of "favorites" on their "tweet." There's a difference between voicing your opinion and be mean or rude to people.

Cheering at Football Games

Football...

This is something very important to the students and staff of Kennedy High School, especially this 2015 season. This year the Cougars are doing amazing, so far we are 4-0. We beat Iowa City West, CR Washington, North Scott, and Pleasant Valley. Tomorrow (9/25) we play CR Jefferson. They're a big rival and barely beat us last year, pulling ahead in the last few minutes of the game. We are determined to beat them this year!

The students at Kennedy love to come out to the games and cheer on our Cougs! This year our student section is called The Jungle. We are louder and bigger than ever. We are a huge support to our players and we "help" out our team. The football players really appreciate us all coming out and supporting them. They all say that our cheering pumps them up and gets them going for the game. They wouldn't be able to do it without us.

The seniors especially are huge on cheering. They say if you're not cheering than you need to leave. If you are at the game, you might as well cheer with everyone else. The more people that cheer, the louder we are, the more we pump up our team and intimidate the other team. The seniors get really mad if they see people not cheering. They will call you and your friends out in front of everyone and tell you to cheer. Save yourself the embarrassment and cheer along with everyone else.

 Student sections sometimes even cheer back and forth to see who's section is louder and which school is "better." The seniors stand in the front of the student section, then the juniors, sophomore, and freshman. We need everyone cheering! Usually the upperclassman are the ones that cheer the most and the loudest. After football games I don't have a voice, I have a headache, and sometimes I can't talk the next day because my throat hurts so bad. There's no exception for the freshman and sophomores. If you're at the game, you need to be cheering! There's no reason you can't cheer. Support you team and show your love for them.

This year the boys are all about FAMILY. They are very close and rely on each other, which makes them great on and off the field! The Jungle is the same way. We are a family who comes together to support our teams!

Freshman Year

High School.

Such a scary word to some younger kids. Transitioning from middle school to high school is either very scary or very exciting for people. I remember when I was in 8th grade I could not wait to get out of middle school, but I was also a little nervous because I didn't know what to expect.

The first day is kind of nerve racking for everyone. New classes, new teachers, new building, and most of all there's about three times as many kids than you are used to. After the first week of school things start to become routine and you get the hang of things and its not so scary anymore.

Freshman year is great, you're just getting the hang of high school and you meet all the people you're going to be with for the next 4 years. Classes aren't very hard and the teachers are very flexible and cooperative. One thing freshman never really learn until they are sophomores is to walk in the hallways. They don't understand that you can't just stop walking in the middle of the hallway to talk to your friends because there is 100 people trying to walk behind you and get to class on time. Some freshman learn this after a few times because when they stop, the people behind them will just keep pushing them forward and make them keep walking. Some freshman don't learn as quickly though, you always have those few kids that like to stop in the middle of the foyer and take their time to talk to someone. I'm sorry but you CAN'T do that! Nobody cares that you want to talk to your friends or that you have to tell someone something quick. We all have places to be, you just saw your friends 52 minutes ago, nothing is that important that you have to stop the flow of traffic and talk to someone. If it's that important, text them!

Freshman are also very immature, they just spent the last 3 years around 12 and 13 year olds and now they're around a bunch of 18 year olds so they don't really know how to "handle" high school or how to act yet. High School is the next step before the "real world," you have to learn the proper ways to act, you can't just mess around and be loud and obnoxious anymore. Upperclassmen will hate you if you're annoying and do immature things especially in the hallways.

Basically if you're a freshman and you don't stop in the hallways and you aren't super annoying and immature, you'll be fine in high school and if you aren't, you'll learn! :)