On the Other Hand
Here are the columns for the 2022/23
Fall 2022
Alecia Forst
The Most Integral Part of Someone’s Life
I don’t know about you, but for me, family is one of the most important things in my life. As I grow older, I have started to value the time and memories made with my family. Over the years, I have watched everyone growing older and moving on to new chapters in their lives, whether it's going to college, moving out of their parent's house, getting married, or starting a family. It’s not easy watching your older cousins grow up and not being able to make it to every family event like when we were little. There’s no more playing football in Grandma’s yard or running on top of Grandpa’s hay bales. No more swinging golf clubs at gophers in Grandma and Grandpa’s yard or playing hide and seek in Grandma’s house. Things have definitely changed as I’ve grown older, and it’s made me realize that I should start cherishing the moments I spend with my family before there aren't any more to cherish.
I believe that time with family is the most precious gift that someone can give. Of course, there will be times when you may not get along with your siblings and parents or maybe even your relatives, but when you look back, odds are you’re going to miss all of those childish fights with them. I still remember a time when I fought with my older brother, Baily, over the TV remote. We were probably going at it for a good 20 minutes until I finally gave up because I knew wasn’t going to win. All he had to do was hold the TV remote above his head, and I couldn’t reach it. I was infuriated at the time, but looking back at it now, it’s pretty comical. I’m never going to get those days back, whether I liked them at the time or not. All I have left are the memories.
It’s very easy to take for granted all the time that you spend with your family members because some of us haven't been through the heartbreak of losing a family member to understand the pain of never getting to see them or make memories with them again. I think we have all been in situations where we decide to do something else that seems more fun rather than go to that one birthday party for your three-year-old cousin who isn’t going to remember you were ever even there, but what if that family event would have been the last time you got to see your family? You never know when you could be giving your grandma her last hug or listening to your grandpa's sarcastically funny jokes for the last time. So don’t forget to make memories with your family, and cherish the ones you’ve made along the way.
If it weren’t for my family, I would never be where I am today. They have made me who I am as a person and have taught me so many valuable life lessons. They are the ones who make me the happiest and where I can be myself, whether that's a good thing or not. Life would be a lot different without them. The time spent with my family is something that I will hang on to for the rest of my life.
Dru Harbott
A big interest of mine that started from a young age is eating healthy. In my family, we were always interested in cooking, and since I was the eldest, they tried to follow the book when it came to my nutrition. I never really thought much about what we ate, I was just used to the way my family cooked so I never really enjoyed going out to eat.
Once I started getting older and becoming really active in running, I became picky about where and what we ate. When I am not eating healthy, I feel gross, but for some reason, I can’t seem to stay away from bad foods that taste so good. When I started Cross Country and Track, they would keep telling us that in order to perform at our best abilities, eating healthy is the best way to help do that. Also running distances and eating sugar isn’t the best idea because side aches stink. Trust me, been there done that, even ask my sister how eating donuts the night before goes on race day.
It's no secret I like eating, but I make sure I make it nutritious. Whenever we would go out to eat, I would put up a stink if it didn’t have something healthy to choose from. That's another thing with me is I am bad at making decisions when it comes to going out because personally one of dad's homemade meals sounds more appealing than whatever some restaurant has.
Whenever we drive past McDonald’s, my brother would always ask to get a cheeseburger, and, let me tell you, when they were closed, it was torture for him. He would ask literally every day when it opens. The first day they opened up after remodeling, that was of course what we had for dinner.
I will always go for a home-cooked meal over eating out, but sometimes I just had to deal with it and give my parents a break from cooking. Pinterest and TikTok have become our best friends in finding all of the good recipes. My thought has always been if I want to better myself, I need to fuel it with what's healthy for me. I can blame this on my parents because they started this eating healthiness from the beginning. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see them frequenting at a lot of the towns restaurants after I go off to college needing a break from all the home cooked meals I’ve requested over the years.
Isaac Mauch
This Journey
My grandpa has always been influential in my life. He has supported me through all my different activities. He has also been an inspiration to me through his line of work. He bought and sold dry-bean seeds for a company known as Central Bean, and from that had an extensive collection of jars with many different seed varieties that he had bought or sold.
In 5th grade, my grandpa took me with him on a 2-day road trip around North Dakota to meet with many of the bean suppliers he worked with. Seeing him talk to farmers and scientists inspired me to pursue a field in plant sciences. My grandpa, seeing the inspiration, gave me a jar of a seed known as Orca beans. Looking at the beans, my curious mind whirled and I had an idea for my 7th grade science fair project. I went to work and the inspiration drove me to dig deep into bean genetics. I created a thorough project explaining the background steps in the project and made it to the Minnesota State Science Fair.
It was like a dream being at the State Science Fair, and I could not have been prouder of my dedication to the project. I also wanted to honor the person who inspired me from the beginning and so I brought my grandpa with to experience it with me.
Because of the State Science Fair, I got the opportunity to go to the University of Minnesota provided by PepsiCo to tour their facility and run tests on my beans to further my understanding of genetics. Dr. David Eickholt invited me down and with his help, and I continued the project into the following years adding to the understanding I came to the previous year and expanding with new questions and projects.
I have continued to update my grandpa on everything. And he remains a vital part of my life and journey through my science projects. I plan to continue this study in college with the goal of furthering agriculture in a new era. Agriculture of the future has so much to offer today's farmers. I hope to start my own business of agricultural equipment to benefit future farmers. Using AI, advanced software computers would be able to give farmers the optimal nutrients needed for specific crops in the field. I would use precision agriculture to send a drone out to administer proper fertilizer and herbicides needed to individual plants in a field.
This journey that I have taken in my life is just beginning. As seniors, we are about to launch into life. But before I do, my grandpa and I plan to take one last trip - just the two of us - back to thank all the people my grandpa helped me get into contact with. And in that trip, I also plan to thank him for all that he has done. I am thankful for the opportunities he has shown me and to all those who lit the path for my future to follow.
Brookie Bakke
Digging Up Memories
As a senior at Lincoln High School this year, the volleyball section quarterfinals playoff game was one of my first ‘lasts.’ This sport has been a part of my life since elementary school. I began playing in the front row as an outside hitter, but I stopped growing at 5’1”, and my teammates continued growing. I realized that the back row was aimed more towards short people like myself so, beginning in 8th grade, I began to play a defensive position in the back row called the ‘libero.’
Looking back on my volleyball career, it’s funny to think that it took me up until the last year of middle school to gain the skill of overhand serving while some of my teammates had it mastered in sixth grade. Being able to serve the ball over is something that we often overlook in a game because it can be seen as less important than getting a good hit or dig. In some parts of a game though, a serve can be vital to gain momentum and build up points to take the lead over the opponents. You can also lose a lot of points if there are multiple service errors.
I loved being a defensive player and having the satisfaction of digging and passing hits by the opposing team. I became familiar with all of the positions in the back row. By being versatile, I was able to jump around to any defensive position that was needed. I have played left back or ‘DS’ (defensive specialist) as well as right back, which can also be referred to as ‘DS.’
The libero’s base is the middle back and was my favorite position to play out of the three. Having a “perfect pass” means that the ball is right on the target, which is the setter. It can be tough to set the ball to a hitter if it is too close to the net or not even reaching the 10-foot line. When the opponents are hitting at us, it is my job to see which hitter is receiving the ball so I can get to my defensive base and read their shoulders to see where they intend on placing the ball. It can be tough to tell sometimes if the hitter’s swing is deceivable or quick (that is when the knee and elbow pads come in handy). Diving on the court to dig up a ball is something defensive players most commonly do.
There was certainly a lot of pressure on the three seniors this year after coming off a great season like last year. We were ONE game away from the state tournament. Our season last year was successful by having a winning record, being section 8AA runner ups and beating some teams we hadn’t in many years. However, by only returning a few previous varsity players, we had a pretty young and inexperienced team this year. That said, this was the closest team I have been on. With this fun group of girls, we all seemed to gel well together on and off the court. The student section came out to cheer us on at both home and away games, and it was so appreciated.
This volleyball season was full of bumps in the road with many injuries. We were able to overcome those challenges together and continue to succeed. Losing on our home court was a tough way to finish the season and end the senior’s volleyball careers, but it definitely helped to have the support of the home crowd as I succumbed to tears.
I will miss my volleyball family as well as the varsity coach, Hannah Lund. Thank you to all of the coaches who helped me grow, particularly Hannah who taught me a lot about the position I played and having mental toughness. This sport taught me more than just volleyball skills. It taught me how to be a leader, communicate, have a strong mental mindset, work hard, and persevere. Thank you Prowler volleyball! #3 out.
Bell Hamre
It’s Never Too Late To Show Up
So, I have a bit of a confession to make. I have never really been a fan of school, specifically high school. I never understood why adults always put so much emphasis on four years of their lives. I was coming to the conclusion that everyone died at the age of eighteen because most adults never spoke much about their lives after that. “High school is the best time of your life - enjoy it!” Sound familiar to some?
Now do not get me wrong, I have definitely enjoyed the academic and athletic sides of high school. It is the other stuff that seemed like a complete waste of time to me: decorating hallways, dressing up for activities, cheering on other teams, volunteering for this or that, the list goes on and on. So, when my friends asked me to go to certain functions, especially dances, I would put on a brave face and just go.
So, here is the second part of my confession: I am what you would call an extroverted introvert. Some I guess would call it being an outgoing introvert or social introvert. This is why I have always had a hang up with doing the “extra” high school stuff.
Most who know me, know I am a listener and fairly quiet, most of the time. That is because part of being an extroverted introvert is people watching and listening. I find people can be both intriguing and exhausting all in one. So for me to be in a big group cheering on the volleyball team or going to a dance is draining. I honestly slept 15 hours after the Homecoming dance. So to me friends, I am not ignoring your texts, snaps or any other way you are trying to get ahold of me, I am truly just recharging my batteries.
Another aspect of being an extroverted introvert is that I do not feel the need to “work the room.” Nor do I feel the need to draw attention to myself, especially in social situations. I do enjoy meeting new people one on one, but I will never be the most popular person in the room, and I am okay with that and it has never mattered to me.
I also need time to warm up to people. I have heard I have one of the best RBFs (Google it). Once I feel comfortable, I relax and let my guard down a bit. I do not have a problem chatting, but I will not give you my life story either or let you know my insecurities. However, the better someone gets to know me, the more I trust and open up.
So, I decided this year to get out of my comfort zone and see how far I can push myself. Guess what? It os not so bad to put on a beach-themed outfit and cheer on the other teams, or to get all dressed up and dance the night away, or to even make a TikTok and to actually post one for the first time. I actually have not felt like crawling back into my cave and sleeping for hours on end, yet.
So, why am I telling you all of this stuff? Well, to hopefully help someone like me. Someone who just does not feel the need to belong or do the “extra” stuff. Sadly, you just might be missing out on some great friendships or new ones at that. You could possibly be missing out on finding your passion in life as well. Who knows, decorating that hallway could actually lead you to finding out how creative or artistic you really are. Just push yourself, even if just a little bit because you just might find out that high school is not quite that bad - I know that I have, once I decided to show up.
Ridge Fisher
College Plans
My primary plan, as of right now, is to go to college for some kind of engineering. The main two colleges I am thinking of attending are Augustana University in Sioux Falls and NDSU in Fargo. I am leaning towards Industrial Engineering and Business Management at the moment. However, there are several other kinds of engineering that interest me. These include but are not limited to logistical, mechanical, chemical, civil, and nuclear engineering.
I am leaning towards Industrial Engineering and Business Management because of what the classes I would take and what it would require me to do. The classes I would take would focus on problem solving and optimization, both of which interest me. I like problem solving because it forces me to think outside the box and potentially use my knowledge in other areas and fields to solve the problem.
Optimization is interesting to me because I like trying to find the most efficient way to do things and I dislike it when processes are wasteful, and I especially dislike it when processes are harmful to the environment because they are very inefficient.
The business management aspect of the Industrial Engineering and Business Management program is interesting because I like learning about how businesses and other organizations are run. It would be very interesting to find out what it is like to work for a business while trying to make it run more efficiently. It also would be interesting to learn about how the “proper” way to run a business is taught in a classroom and if that is the same or completely different than how businesses are actually run.
If I decide that Industrial Engineering and Business Management isn’t for me, then my next choice would be Logistical Engineering. This would be my second choice because the process of how things, information, and people get from place to place especially in a timely and financially achievable manner is very fascinating to me. I recently read Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat, a book about the early twenty-first century and the increase of globalization because of the internet, about the logistics behind the giant corporations of Wal-Mart and UPS and how their top of the line supply chain and logistic networks are what enabled them to become the very successful corporation that they are today. Learning about how logistics work and how it can be improved upon would be very interesting for me.
The other branches of engineering I mentioned are options because they all are connected to areas of school that I enjoy and do well in. If I try engineering in college and I can’t stand it, no matter what branch of engineering I try, then my current back-up choice of major is to go into Political Science. This is interesting to me because I find how the government works and how public policy is passed very fascinating and I would like to learn more about this system. I also was lucky enough to go to Boys State this past summer, and we ran a mock government while there and the whole process was very fun and interesting to me, and I would like to learn more about both local and federal government.
Carli Prickett
Lifelong Built-in Bestie
I remember coming home from school one day to see a newspaper article plastered on our fridge. My typical response would be ugh just another stupid assignment my parents are praising Brea for. When I looked closer, I discovered the article hanging on the fridge was about me. So just as my sister, Brea, did for me, I will write this article about her. However, the fridge is rather full of papers revolving around Brea, so there may not be room for my news article. Worth a shot though.
Growing up I literally despised Brea. We rarely got along. Everything was about her. When I was little, my sister would get scared in the night and come up to my room, take me out of my bed, and put me on the floor. She would then proceed to go to sleep in my bed just because she was scared.
She wasn’t the greatest fan of mine either. Oftentimes we would get into verbal fights that would lead to physical fights and eventually end in someone at the bottom of the stairs with a handful of hair in their hand. My mom would never let us go to bed mad, so we always made up.
When we liked each other, though, it was really fun. If anyone else was mean to me, she had my back. It wouldn’t take us long to figure out that we were going need to get along. For so long in our lives, we were the only stable things for each other. With the unknowns that come from a split family, the only thing we were sure about was that we had each other. Honestly, that was all we needed. We moved several times over the course of our childhood. We shared a bed for several years, and, although it wasn’t fun, we had to make it work.
The turning point in our relationship was when our cousin Blake died. We needed each other more than ever at that time. To this day that is the hardest thing we have been through, and without her by my side, the grieving process would have been much harder.
Throughout middle school and high school, I spent a lot of time figuring out my friendships. Knowing who was healthy and unhealthy for me to have in my life was really hard. But Brea always had the best judgment of character. She knew exactly who I needed in my life, and if anyone screwed up, she was the first to tell me, “I told you so.” Sometimes I didn’t want to tell her things because I knew she had warned me about them.
When it came to dating, her approval was always necessary. And if someone broke my heart, she would make sure I was never going back to them. She always had my best interest at heart. She knew exactly what was right for me. She was my biggest supporter and fan. She was there for me every step of the way. Anything I thought I couldn’t do was made possible because of her.
When she moved away for college, I thought I would be lost. But she taught me so many lessons that I can continue to apply to my life every day. Her being gone is hard, but she prepared me for this. Brea is caring, strong, thoughtful, and quite literally the biggest diva ever. She has made me into the person I am today. She always knows exactly what I need and she makes sure I know it. She has taught me several valuable lessons in life, meanwhile, I have taught her to do laundry, run the dishwasher, and learn how to plug in a vacuum. We both wouldn’t be very far in life without each other. I am so thankful God gave me a sister and best friend all in one.
Colton Braun
A Prepared Life
High school is what you make of it. Some decide to blow it off and never take it seriously or there are some who take advantage of what they have offered to them. Ever since sixth grade, I always had the plan to go to college and continued to think about what my major was going to be. That occurred in the seventh grade when I knew I wanted to be in the engineering field. After doing some research and talking to family members, I decided upon a major in electrical engineering, and I’ve never gone back on that idea.
I have always had good grades and that fueled my desire for a good life. My freshman and sophomore years were disappointing as I couldn’t take advantage of the post-secondary classes (though I am grateful for the preparation). During the summer of my freshman year, I decided to make some money and found a job working at Erl’s Market. At the time I was eager to learn about the workforce. I found some great friends working there and was able to learn the value of hard work, time management, and social skills.
Come junior year, I took some hard classes, and I can confidently say that it was one of my most difficult years of high school. I prepared myself knowing my workload would be huge. I was working late every night doing homework and studying formulas, working 20-30 hours a week at Erl’s, and I also had basketball practice and games, and weightlifting. I wanted to take advantage of as many Post Secondary Enrollment Option classes as I could. These are great because not only because the school covers the tuition cost, but I also will not have to take those classes later in college. This again saves me time and money. Taking these classes set the tone for what college will look like at my main university (North Dakota State University). I was willing to do this because it was a great opportunity for me to take advantage of that and prepare my life for college. It also helped me build a stronger work ethic than I already had.
Currently, it is my senior year, and I’m still going strong in my college classes. It’s exciting to be able to get ahead in my life. One thing that I’ve realized, though, is that in order to be prepared, I have to be an overachiever. There is no other way around it, I must learn to go beyond exceptional especially when it my future at stake. This may include having to use every bit of free time doing homework or putting in those extra hours at work or practicing a sport. Constant productivity leads to success and builds character.
All in all, as you grow older you decide to accept new responsibilities and make some of the biggest decisions in your life. You might get beaten down time, and time again but sometimes you just got to stick through with it and persevere. It's frightening knowing graduation is only getting nearer but I can’t wait to see what life has in store for me. One quote that I live by that my dad blessed me with was by Henry Ford, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can't – you're right.”
Jarek Martinsen
Gonna Miss It
I never realized how much I value competing in sports with friends. A couple years ago, the boys swim team was going to get cut from the school's budget. Before I never thought that swimming was such a big part of my life until the thought of it being gone came. I was crushed, and I didn’t realize how much it would hurt me for it to disappear. I finally realized how important swimming has been to me over the years.
When I started swimming, I was in seventh grade. I had just quit basketball and wanted to try something new. Some of my friends were already in swimming and recommended it. I joined, and I loved it.
The great thing about swimming is that it's more of an individual sport; it’s easy to focus on your self-improvement. In basketball players have to worry about their teammates and how they play. Not in swimming: the points a player earns for their team all depends on how well they swim. In swimming it's easy to see if a player has improved or not, unlike other sports that require team synergy, when the weakest link can throw off a player's game. That aspect of the sport really helped me grow as a person and push myself to become better.
Another aspect that swimming has really helped me with is creating long lasting friendships. When I first joined the swim team, I didn’t know half of the kids and thought they were weird. I was right, most of them are weird, but that helped build a very connected team like no other at Lincoln high school. We all are so different, but we get along so well.
We are constantly giving our coaches heart attacks because we are always up to something dumb. I remember when we showed our coach Charlie’s head after we shaved it in the hotel bathroom at sections. Little things like the team meeting up at Pizza Hut after every home game or the stupid awards we give each other at the end of each swim season really form a strong connection between everyone on the team. Swimming helped me find friends and socialize in an awkward time in my life.
Over the years I have really taken for granted all the amazing gifts swimming has brought me. Swimming has given me the opportunity to build friendships, improve myself, go outside my comfort zone, and just have fun. The memories I’ve made through swimming I will remember for the rest of my life. I’m very grateful for the lessons swimming has taught me over the years and when I leave Lincoln high school, I will really miss it.
Brayden Anderson
My ‘75 Camaro
Cars have always been a part of my life. My family has always been heavily involved in cars, from going to car shows almost every weekend when I was younger to owning many of our cars, most not working though. When I was younger, we went to many car shows, but I often got bored there as they weren’t something that intrigued me yet.
When I turned 16 and got my license, my dad gifted me the title to our 1975 Camaro that had been sitting out in our field for almost 15 years. At first, I wasn't sure how to feel. I was happy they gifted it to me, but I was also confused because my parents knew I wasn't very interested in cars. It wasn't until the next summer when we actually started working on it that my interest and passion for cars kicked in. But between that time, I started doing research on cars, watching YouTube videos of people working on their cars, reading articles about my model of Camaro, and watching shows on cars. Although I wasn't very interested in going into the project, by the time summer came around, I was all in.
Over the following summer, we got very busy with a lot of other projects, so we didn't get a whole lot done on my Camaro, although I was prepared to get the whole thing done in those three months. Shortly after, winter rolled back around and our time for working outside was cut short.
Throughout that winter, we did some decent work including pulling out all the dents and leveling out the car. However, all on my own, I spent a lot of that winter watching more videos and shows and reading more information on cars in hopes of being knowledgeable enough to help when the time came around for us to work on my car.
Finally, last summer showed up, and this time we got going on it right away. Within a few weeks, we had already had it ready for the start of the painting process. We spent the rest of the summer getting the paint work done, the combo of glossy charcoal gray and matte black stripes make the car look shiny and vibrant in the sun yet sinister and mean in the dark.
When winter starts again this year, our first plan of action is to put an engine into my car, followed by the interior. As it has been sitting, I look at it everyday waiting for the time to come when it will be out on the road, and I will finally be able to drive that project we've owned for 15 years.
Kendal Rantanen
We Drove North
I bribed them with donuts so they would answer my questions. As selfless and humble people, they didn’t want a story about them in the newspaper. They told me their story was nothing special, it was just like anyone else’s, but for me, it’s remarkable.
My grandparents knew of each other through relatives and family friends before she moved school districts. My grandpa’s first time seeing her was at the town hall. He claims he saw the most beautiful girl in the world. My grandma found out who he was after being in high school for a while. Her first impressions of him were that he was cute, courteous, and respectful (“if that’s what you want to call it”).
Their first date was on a school night in March. She was 14, and he was 15. My grandpa took his dad’s pickup and said he was going to visit his neighbor. In reality, he was really going to pick up his neighbor to go on a “double date” with my grandma and her cousin. When they arrived at her house, Grandma’s dad had some questions about what they were doing. Grandpa says he thought, “trying to butter up to your daughter.”
The date wasn’t a crazy adventure or anything unusual. It was actually pretty ordinary. They sat in a little Ford half-ton pickup, four in the front seat.
They didn’t drive to a location. Instead, they just drove north. My grandpa didn’t hold her hand (he said he wanted to, but was too shy). After an hour, they turned around and drove home.
Once my grandpa had dropped the girls off, the pickup quit. He found out the hard way that the headlights took the power out of the battery. So, my grandpa had to drive the rest of the way home without headlights. He wasn’t supposed to take the pickup further than his neighbor’s, and now he had to fess up to his parents!
He ended up telling them, but they weren’t terribly upset because once they met her, they loved her right away. The first time my grandma went to grandpa’s house, his parents told him right away that she was a keeper. He says “his parents fell in love with her before he did.”
How would a story like this, so ordinary but adorable, start a lifelong relationship so loving and successful? A marriage that lasted many years based simply on a freshman and sophomore driving around in a pickup truck on a school night? My grandpa says that his biggest advice for success is to respect one each family. Furthermore, he always knows how to make my grandma laugh or smile. I have always thought they have a secret language that only the two of them can understand.
From the ladies’ perspective, my grandma pinpoints the success of their marriage on love, trust, and respect. She explained how you marry into the family, not just the person. My grandma says it is important to be comfortable with each other. To prioritize and focus on one another. To have date nights where it is just the two of you. With kids, it can be difficult to just talk with each other. Yet, it is important to put time aside to strengthen your relationship with one another.
My grandparents have taught me so much. Whether it is how to think as a team or to prioritize faith and family in life, they have shown me what true love and respect can do: How to lead a family in love. How to laugh with one another even after many, many years of hearing the same jokes and phrases. How to take care of one another and to always be there for your significant other. They have given me hope for my future in a world where the divorce rate is so high.
My grandparents are genuinely some of my favorite people to hang out with. I love my grandparents more than I can ever put into words. I know they are reading this right now so here is my message to them: I love you both so much and thank you for being such great role models!
Brea Wright - Round 2
A Thankless Thank You
I have been dancing for 15 years, and I have been coaching dance for 5. I started coaching at 12, but it was more like demonstrating what to do for other dancers. Then I grew into my coaching and leadership roles, and many opinions started flooding in. Good, bad, and otherwise. Many nights I went home wanting to give up, and I realized I was not the only coach who feels this way.
Watching my teams be successful is a feeling unlike anything else I have ever experienced. The highs as a coach are wonderful: watching the team finally get a skill they haven't been, the team bonding and becoming the best kind of the second family, and of course the wins. I will admit, even in the worst times, that the pros outweigh the cons any day. Sometimes it is just hard to see.
However, the lows as a coach are miserable. I think this doesn’t get talked about enough. As a coach, you are seeing your teams at their worst and at their best. You are making them condition for hours straight, and then you see them on the dance floor with pretty hair and makeup done. In practice, you will go weeks without hearing a single thank you, many side remarks, and eye-rolling. Then, once the wins start coming in, you are suddenly the most appreciated person alive. Of course, the appreciations are always welcome, but sometimes it feels like one of the most thankless jobs ever.
Dance is my example, but I know coaches of all teams experience this. I hear more about the bitter practices than about the victories. One day I know I will look back and miss the sore muscles and box-cardio nights just as much as I miss the competition floor. Some of my best memories are in the most miserable practices.
The moral of the story is simple: thank your coaches. As a dancer, I have made it a goal of mine to appreciate the horrible, miserable practices just as much as I appreciate the first place metals around my neck. I learned a hard lesson in the last year no matter what you do, some people are going to be mad. It doesn't matter what you do or say, someone will always complain. But it is those who show gratitude and appreciation through the hard times that make it so worth it.
Ava Budish
Mama B
As senior year begins, life is becoming busy for this exciting school year. There are many events that come with being a senior. It all really begins with senior pictures, then homecoming week, ordering a graduation gown, fall sports seasons starting, and ending, events for seniors, picking your college, and much more that will come later on in the school year. What I have noticed not only lately as I started my senior year, but even before this year, is that my mom does so much for me.
From elementary school to middle school and now to my last year of high school, I have had a lot of support from my parents. However, my mom has always been an over achiever and gone the extra mile for me. Not only for me, but for my friends too. “Mama B” is what my friends and I call her when she does anything for us. She helps up mostly during homecoming, snofest, prom, and sport seasons. She loves to help people and make sure people have fun, even when this may stress her out afterward. Her hard work never goes unnoticed by me. The little things she does is what make her so amazing.
My mom works at the High School as the study hall teacher, and this has been very beneficial to me. Any time I'm at school and need my mom, she is only a few steps away. Luckily, I can count on my mom for anything. When I have played several sports in the past, and as I play hockey now, she has always supported me and helped me. Almost any decision I make, I know I can talk to my mom, and she can give me great advice. She truly is a built-in best friend, and I could not be more thankful.
As I leave for college next year, I do not know what I will do without my mom. Of course, there will be a ton of Facetime calls and texts for any inconvenience I have. I know she feels the same way as I do. I sometimes think what will my mom do without me? I know the house will be quite quiet with only my little brother being left in the “nest.”
I am excited for the next chapter in my life to come soon, but it does leave me a little bitter to know I will be leaving someone who is always so helpful, involved and interested in my life.
Megan Fuhrer
The Desk Ghost
Truthfully, I don’t believe in ghosts. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love the occasional ghost story! In fact, sitting around a campfire listening to my dad tell tales of the “Medicine Man” or in a pitch-black auditorium hearing my teacher’s stories of those who haunt LHS have become prized memories of mine. But I’m not here to tell you their ghost stories, I’m here to tell you mine. And while I understand that this isn’t exactly the right month for telling spooky stories, think of this as a warm-up for October. A nice little ghost story to prepare you for the spooky season. That’s my excuse, anyway. So without further ado, let’s begin.
It’s 2021. I am well into my first semester as a junior at LHS. One of my classes, College Composition One, has a schedule where I have class Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and free time Tuesday and Thursday. During these two free days, I sit in the College Comp. classroom and work on homework. There is hardly ever anyone else in the classroom with me on those days. At best, there are about two classmates and the teacher.
On this particular day, however, nobody else is in the classroom with me. Not even the teacher. The lights are off and the classroom is absolutely silent, except for the clicking of my laptop’s keyboard. Then, the silence is broken. The teacher’s desk behind me creaks. And it’s not one of those quick little creaks you hear sometimes. It’s a long, drawn-out creak that sounds exactly like someone heavy is leaning their weight on the desk.
I turn around, expecting to see my teacher, but there's nothing. Nobody’s there.
I turn back to my work, passing the creak off as just stuff settling. But then it happens again. That same creak pierces the silence.
Same as before, I turn to look at the desk.
There’s still nothing. I’m a little creeped out at this point, but I resume working on my homework. Then, for the rest of the time, nothing happens. The creaking stops. I get to finish my homework in peace.
Did the ghost get bored when I didn’t show any interest and left? Did my sheer willpower to finish my homework scare it off? Or was there never any ghost and the creaking was just caused by all of the stuff the teacher had on his desk? I’ll let you decide.
As for me, I hope you enjoyed my spooky little story. I figured that the rest of my classmates would be writing deep, philosophical columns, so I decided to write something more lighthearted. A little break from pondering your existence. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to… did you hear that?
Brea Wright
Traveling is Learning Too
I am 17 and have spent more time traveling than the average adult. The highlights of my traveling have been Utah, Texas, and Florida. My family drives to all of our vacations, so from a young age I learned how to use an atlas (yes, we still use those) and how to stay awake talking with my dad overnight.
We went to Moab, Utah in July of 2020. We drove 1396 miles one way and met up with my grandparents to stay at an airbnb. We spent 4 days on this little adventure. My mom and I hiked to Delicate Arch at Arches National Park our first day. The following day we rented side by sides and rode the trails all over the cliffs and mountains. Now, my dad has a fear of heights, so there were many times we took a little break and I had to coax him into continuing. He will admit it was worth it. The next day we went tubing down the Mississippi river and watched people tightrope over a very large cliff.
I have gone to Texas twice to see my great grandparents. Once when I was 6 and again when I was 10. Both times I remember were spent in a boring resort where they sat around and played chess all day. However, I learned so many things from the people there. Some people told me their family trees, how they fought in different wars, or simply shared advice on life. It wasn’t easy to be little and willingly listen to elders tell me these things, but now I know how important it is to listen to their stories and understand why they are the way they are.
Finally, I have gone to Florida once when I was in 7th grade when I was 13. I spent 2 weeks there, one week with my family and the following week with the dance team. The first week I got to see my now late great grandfather, and have you ever met those people who you just click with? He was one of those for me. I struggled to leave him after learning his past and how life is for him now. Then, I spent time with my uncle and cousins. They told me about how the Citadel schooling works and spent Christmas eating vegan food. I learned I don’t think I can be vegan anytime soon. The following week I had practice every day for dancing at the Outback Bowl on New Year's Day. I was sadly surprised that Florida isn’t always sunny and the outdoor practices were not enjoyable.
Overall, I think I have been to about 18 states, at least a dozen museums, and driven thousands of miles in my life. No classroom or textbook will ever come close to teaching me everything traveling has, and I am forever grateful that I got so many opportunities to travel all over.
Spring 2022
Rachel Blawat
Baking Bandwagon
I, like many people, struggled to maintain motivation to do anything during lockdown. Taking after many people on the internet, I turned to hobbies: music, crafts, and eventually the great 2020 bandwagon- baking. When I got bored of playing the same scales and threw down my crochet hook in frustration, I knew it was time for a change.
My breaking point came much later than most. The baking bandwagon really took off during the spring of 2020, but I was stubborn. I made it through the first few lockdowns, but what got me in the end was doing long-distance schooling full time. With no human contact, I had the choice to either lay in bed listlessly for entire days or get up and do something, so I sluggishly rolled over and googled some bread recipes.
What? I thought. Five minutes of impatient scrolling through the introduction of a baking blog vying for originality had led me to an unholy grail of exotic ingredients (bread flour) and unnecessarily complicated procedures (not one, but two rises!) What even is a double boiler, I wondered. They want me to boil my bread? Please, o exalted baking blog, explain.
I eventually left the internet to its own ineffable devices and hunted down an actual, physical, recipe card from the kitchen. The handwritten index card was relievingly simple, with regular flour and no instructions. I shrugged and dumped all the ingredients in an ancient bread machine and hoped for the best. As I was wiping flour off my glasses, I realized it would be a lot of work to trudge all the way back upstairs for only as long as the knead cycle, so I made myself busy downstairs.
This was a mistake, as my mother was also downstairs. I had hitherto been aggressively ignoring her by gesturing to my earbuds and giving an apologetic grimace whenever she tried to approach me. I made the foolish error of taking them out, and she immediately pounced.
“Are you making bread? I remember when your brothers were little, and I would make them cheese bread. Will you make me cheese bread? I lost the recipe, but I’m sure there are some online…”
I nodded and made vague noises before taking the stairs two at a time, but the damage had been done. You see, my brother was to be married in a scant few months. I, his loving but woefully frugal sister, wanted to get him and his fianceé a nice wedding present, and the cheese bread took a hold in the back of my mind.
By the time the wedding rolled around, I had not perfected my brother’s childhood bread, but I did make a passable challah. It went over well, but was ultimately eclipsed by an incident involving Coca-Cola, pepperoni, and airborne wedding rings, which is a story for another day. I decided Christmas would be the next deadline.
I tested recipe after recipe. I combed through the internet in search of the original, but each loaf was too fluffy or too dry or too shiny. I got buff(ish) from kneading the dough by hand after the bread machine finally croaked. At last, my mother said that the result was authentic. I made two loaves, one for each of my brothers, (plus a loaf of challah for my sister-in-law) and carefully gift wrapped them along with handwritten recipes. I was bursting with pride at reviving a long-lost family recipe.
I grievously injured my toe on a box of pots and pans in my haste to pass out the gifts. My brothers seemed appreciative, but I almost cried when my brother said he had had the recipe all along. I gave a thumbs up and pretended my eyes were watering from the pain of my stubbed toe, which was mostly true, as the bruises lasted several weeks.
Since then, baking has continued to be a hobby I partake in once in a while. I don’t bake every day, or even every week, but when I find myself dreading getting up in the morning, I make it a point to break out the (regular) flour.
Abby Quick
The Gift of Time
Time. The one thing we cannot turn back. No matter how much we wish we could. I believe that time is a gift. A precious one, too.
I am not sure if all of us could say this, but I would assume that a significant amount of us could say that the pandemic changed the way we think about everything. For me, the pandemic has taught me a lesson that I will be carrying with me into this next stage of life. I have learned how valuable time really is. I never truly grasped the idea that time is very limited.
Day by day goes by, and I have the same routine, so it is easy to just let days go by doing the same thing over and over again. However, at the beginning of the pandemic during distance learning, the days sitting at home had never drug by as slowly as they did. I feel I wasted a half of a year doing almost nothing.
Time went on, and we returned in person using the hybrid model, but then went back to full distance. I am thankful that this year, my senior year, we get to experience it how it should be. In person. It is not always fun, but this stage of our life will be over.
The time is now to soak up these last moments, even if they do not mean much in the far future. Take the time to call a friend. Write a letter. Let someone know how much they mean to you. A lot of us have lost someone special in the past few years, and I think it is so important to appreciate the time we have with those who we love and care about.
Life is stressful, especially now. We have everything being thrown at us in all different directions with the life changing decisions we have coming in the very near future. I believe that it is so crucial that we have someone we know is always there for us to support us, while being aware of the time that we have. We cannot turn back time, and sometime we will sit there wondering where it all went and why we did not value things and people as we should have.
The truth is, we never know when it is our time and so now is the time. Know what your hopes are. Put in the effort to make those come true. Always remember the ones who care about you. If you fail, do not be discouraged. We are meant to fail; that is how we grow, especially in this stressful but exciting stage of our lives.
I hope that as we all take this giant leap into the next step in this life, we learn to value it and make many memories along the way, while being mindful of how very precious the gift of time is.
Abigail Flaagan
What Comes Around, Goes Around
I’m not sure why, but I’ve always been a huge believer in karma. It’s just such a simple concept that makes sense to me. If you think about it, the world kind of revolves around it. It’s pretty much the same basic concept of cause and effect. People work to be rewarded with money, and people practice to get better results at the skill they’re practicing. You do something nice for someone else, and they typically return the favor. If you make a bad choice, it’ll probably bite you on the butt in the future. Karma also doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t matter who you are; it only matters what choices you make. If you make a bad choice, karma returns the favor just like it returns the favor for a good choice. In other words, “What goes around, comes around.”
One of my favorite examples of karma in sports is referred to as “The ball never lies.” If you asked one of my teammates, they definitely would say they have heard me reference the term. Basically, the term means that a favor will be returned for a misfortunate event. Usually, if a bad call is made, the next call will be in your favor. For example, if a ref called a foul in basketball when it shouldn’t have been foul, the player would miss their free-throws. From my experience, I understand that it doesn’t always work out this way, but I’ve experienced it enough to believe in it. If you think about it, it’s like a universal way of fixing a mistake.
The most commonly referenced version of karma is when someone does something mean. For example, if I “accidentally” tripped my brother (not that I have), I would probably receive “instant karma” after that and trip on a rock or something. Another example (which I will neither confirm nor deny any part of) would be if I ate my brother’s cookie, then I might drop my own cookie on the ground and not be able to eat it.
Anyway, karma is just something that’s always on my mind wherever I go. I think it’s a good thing because it’s reassuring to think that my choices and actions actually matter. It just seems fair. You get what you deserve, and your actions have consequences. If you do something bad, it’ll bite you on the butt, and if you do something good, the favor will be returned. That is, “What goes around, comes around.”
Eleanor Brickson
Why Wisconsin?
“Why not go to UND?”
Ugh. Not this again.
I can’t tell you how many times family members, neighbors, friends, and random adults have asked me that question. I just don’t understand why it’s so hard for people to understand why I want to go to college somewhere other than North Dakota or Minnesota. Hopefully, after reading this, people won’t ask me the same question over and over again: “Why Wisconsin?”
For as long as I can remember, I’ve dreamed about the day I would go to college. I have cousins who are quite a bit older than me and when they were going to college, I was starting elementary school. While my peers were worried about what they were doing for recess that afternoon, I was forming my list of possible colleges I might attend. As I got older, the list of possible colleges I wanted to attend became shorter as I became more particular about what I wanted in a school.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison wasn’t even close to being on my radar until 9th grade. My mom and I were talking about what I wanted to do when I got older, and I said I wanted to be a high school history teacher. I looked up the best education programs in the country and UW-Madison popped up. I kept researching the school, and the more I learned about the school, the more I wanted to go. Ever since that day, UW-Madison has been my number one choice.
Last summer, I got the opportunity to visit Madison for the first time and take a tour of the college. Walking down State Street with my parents, I could see myself going to this college and calling it my home. Everything I had learned on the tour made me fall in love with UW-Madison more than I ever thought possible. The buildings are beautiful, the academics are challenging, and the social scene is perfect for my extroverted personality. From the strength of the academic programs to the beautiful setting, I became more excited about the possibility of attending school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In fact, it's the one school that embodies the college experience I've always imagined.
As I had mentioned earlier, the initial reason why I wanted to attend UW-Madison was the reputation of the Education program. I have since changed my intended major to Communication Arts in the Radio, Television, and Film track. When I ask people close to me what my talents are, they always mention one thing: my ability to make connections with people. Growing up I would go to summer camps without knowing a single person, and by the end of the week when my parents came to pick me up, I had a whole new friend group. It has always been something that has come naturally to me. I hope to turn this talent of making connections with people into my career.
My cousin is another inspiration for me to want to go into the Communication Arts major. She majored in Communication Arts at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Before Covid, she was the tour manager for various touring bands and musicians, such as The Jackson Five, Glee, and Britney Spears. Her passion for her career and her love for making connections with people inspired me to follow her lead and major in Communication Arts.
I truly believe that the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the perfect fit for me. The academic rigor, competitive Communication Arts program, social scene, and the size of the campus are just a few of the many reasons why UW-Madison is my dream school. I’m so happy and excited to call Madison my home!
Addison Whitlow
As a young adult, I love Valentine’s Day. Most of my peers do not have the same opinion as me, but I think Valentine’s Day is a fantastic excuse to love yourself. Whether you have a significant other, or someone you love, when was the last time you did something for yourself? When was the last time you got candy and flowers for yourself? Took yourself out to eat? Wrote yourself a love letter? I believe that with everything going on in today's world it is important to treat others with kindness, but it is also important not to forget about yourself. Show some love to yourself and everything you have gone through this past year. Valentine’s Day is the perfect day to pamper yourself. So go eat at your favorite restaurant, go get your nails done, or go buy that new thing you’ve always wanted. You deserve it.
Growing up, I never really liked the way I looked. I was always picked on in elementary school for my weight. I was an active kid. I participated in many sports, but I was still thought of as being “overweight.” The problem continued into middle school when I was granted my first nickname, “fatison.” Some people joke about it now, but every time I hear it, I am brought back to the little girl staring in the mirror looking at all her imperfections wondering why she couldn’t look like the rest of her friends.
The summer before my 8th grade year I spent the majority of my summer working out. Whether it was paddle boarding at the lake, walking a couple miles a day, or being in softball, I was very active. I started dropping my baby weight pretty fast and as my parents say I, “grew into my body.”
Once school started, everyone noticed I had lost some weight, and it seemed that people liked me more. Weird how your appearance can make people's actions towards you change. Because of that, I started feeling better about myself until I would say, the beginning of freshman year. Going into high school I saw so many pretty, skinny upperclassmen, and I wanted to be just like them. I started developing eating disorders and body dysmorphia. Basically, I look back at pictures now, and I think that I was so beautiful. I was perfectly skinny, and I had long healthy hair. But back then when I would look at myself I would be discussed.
As I got older I went to therapy and I did a lot of self-reflection. Am I 100% happy with how I look now? No. But I am accepting that this is my body, and I need to treat it kindly. I am telling you this story not to feel bad for me but to reflect on yourself. Be kind to yourself and take this Valentine’s Day to show yourself some love.
Aiden Warne
Growing Up
I’m already over halfway done with my senior year of high school. That thought is still crazy to me. It feels like it was just last year that I was a ninth-grader, still forced to take the bus to school. Now here I am, able to drive, work at a part-time job, and own my own small business cleaning deer skulls. Out of all three schools that I have been through, high school is the one where I’ve definitely changed the most.
Let’s go back to when I was a ninth-grader. The year was 2018, already four years ago. I was very anxious to start in another new school. I felt like it was just the other day that I started middle school, and now I’m already at the high school? The thought still daunted me. When the first day came and went, I realized it wasn’t that bad. My friends were also going to high school with me, so it was all okay.
Now back in those times I was (and still kind of am) immature. I laughed at almost everything and made jokes as much as possible. This was funny to some, but to others, it was quite annoying. After realizing how people felt, I started to change. I tried my best to not be immature with the funny faces and jokes, and I just tried to act “normal.” Well, although I am way better than I used to be - maturity-wise - I am still a bit like that still. Through all four years in high school, I started to care less about what people thought of me and decided that I should just stay myself because that is really one of the few ways you can stay happy in life.
Through these high school years, I also realized that growing up means losing and gaining new friends. I came to realize that some friends that you may have had in middle school won’t stick around through high school. That is all part of growing up. Although I lost some friends, I also gained many, so not all was lost. I started to grow up and realize who I am and who I had the most in common with.
Besides friendships, when I got older, I also started to become more serious about what I did. This is also a very important part of growing up. Not everything is all fun and games, and you need to take things seriously in the real world. Having this mentality also helped me a lot in school.
Now that my high school career is nearing the end, I like to look back and see how I’ve grown as a student but, most importantly, as a person. I can definitely tell that I’ve changed from the first day of ninth grade to now. But overall, I think it was for the better. I know that all of my classmates have also changed as well, not just me. But I believe that these changes are all a part of growing up, and naturally, we are meant to change. And high school just happens to be the place where most of it occurs.
Bell Berzinski
LHS Fashion
Lincoln High is a very casual school. Students don't dress up for class. And if they do, get ready to feel hardcore judged.
A typical outfit you would see from most students includes sweatpants and a sweatshirt. That's normal for everyone here. It's pretty nice actually. If you're feeling lousy and want to wear pajamas to school, that's fine, nobody would question you. However, if you rolled up to good old Lincoln High in a blouse or a cutesy little skirt, looking sharp, you would get questioned.
“Why are you so dressed up?” Someone would ask.
“Oh, do you guys have a game today?” Another would inquire.
No! I don't have a game today. I wanted to dress up because I felt like it. Let me live! I bought cute clothes for a reason. I'm not going to let them dry up and shrivel like raisins in the back of my closet. Anyway, this makes me a hypocrite because I do wear sweatpants to school on a daily basis, oops.
Picture this. It was my sophomore year. It was a cold winter day. I was walking down the hallway when I saw a bunch of band kids from another school. They were probably there for some type of activity. While I was trying to squeeze past a student holding a giant tuba in my way, someone in this tsunami of people goes, “Sweatpants to school? Wow.” It was uttered in a sarcastic tone.
I was taken aback. I was shaking in my sweat suit. Because I had been brainwashed into thinking this was a normal dress code, and of course, because I had just got chirped by a kid from a different school! Ever since then, I started noticing it. “It” being people dressing lousy. Even my friend Shauna, who had moved here in the middle of sophomore year, had asked why nobody really dresses that nice to school.
I don't know the answer. Maybe it's just been normalized to dress down for school. But regardless of what anyone wears, it’s their own business at the end of things, and if you judge, keep it in your head. Remember what Grandma told you, “if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.”
Here are the columns for the 2020/21 year
Josh Berzinski
Something to Look Forward to Each Day
Looking back on my high school career, there have certain things that I had to lean back on to get me through the day. I had maybe a favorite class, or something to look forward to during lunch. Most of everything that I looked forward to during a normal day doesn't compare to the one thing I can always look forward to: sports.
Starting out my senior year, it was obviously not normal, and there wasn't much to look forward to on a fall day sitting on Zoom waiting for the day to be over. The only thing I really had to look forward to was football practice or a game. I would think about that all day waiting for the clock to hit 3:01. The football team had such a great culture that was built up during my senior year that it made everything about football a blast. Being able to be somewhere surrounded by people who loved being there and who wanted the same goal as everyone else. Our goal was simply to have a good time and win. Looking back, we technically completed both of those things: we won a game (while still being close on the other games) and everyone had fun doing it.
It’s the same old story with school over the winter: it was boring thanks to distance learning and cold. Everyone needed something to look forward to. I had hockey to look forward to. I might sound like a broken record with going back to looking forward to sports, but it was truly something I looked forward to everyday. I have played hockey all my life, and it wasn't always something I looked forward to, until I got into high school hockey. There are so many things within high school hockey that make it special: Playing in the beautiful Ralph Englestad Arena. This is so special and, it gives you a sense of pride to be a part of an organization such as Prowler hockey. Sometimes maybe this part gets taken for granted, but playing with friends that I've played with going as far back as I can remember makes it that much more cool, and even something more to look forward to.
Coming out of the hockey season and into spring, I had a decision to make. I could play golf, like I have since sixth grade, work, or take a leap of faith and join track. I decided to join track simply because I had more friends in the sport, and I had always secretly wanted to be in track, so I figured my senior year would be the best option. After making that decision, I couldn't imagine doing anything else. It makes my day knowing that at the end of the school day, I get to go hangout with my friends and have a good time running or doing field events.
Reflecting back, I was pretty lucky with having something to look forward to each and every day. Everyone deserves to have something to look forward to each day, but they just need to find it. “Happiness is pretty simple: someone to love, something to do, something to look forward to.” -Rita Mae Brown
Hannah Cleven
What Makes Me The Happiest
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been surrounded by children. My mom is a daycare provider so I was lucky enough to gain a ton of experience with taking care of them. From playing with them, holding them, changing diapers, helping with snacks, by the time I was 13, I got to babysit all on my own for the very first time. This is where my love for babysitting all began.
As of right now, I babysit for mostly just two families and they each have three girls. They are such sweet, loving, smart, and outgoing girls. We have done endless amounts of arts and crafts, slime, going to the park, chalk, riding bikes/rollerblading on the Evergreen Trail… the list goes on. When I catch myself looking at old pictures in my camera roll, I cannot believe how much they have grown and matured. It’s crazy how time flies, a memory from two years ago can feel like it happened yesterday
This will be my third summer as a nanny. I cannot express how blessed I am to be able to do this. We always have a blast, stay very busy, and so many wonderful memories have been made. We would go four wheeling through the woods, a few times we even went mudding. The girls loved it! We have had some epic water balloon fights. Jumping on the trampoline, running through the sprinkler, having fun on the slip n slide, and eating ice cream are always staples for us on hot summer days. We usually top our afternoons with a picnic in the park or just the back yard.
Having a ton of experience in babysitting has taught me many things that have helped prepare me for the future. I gained more responsibility skills. After all, parents are trusting me with their kids; therefore, I have learned to be accountable. My time management skills are also involved, especially getting all three girls dressed and ready for the day, especially when they have somewhere to be. Lastly, my work ethic increased greatly. If you’re doing something that you love, you’re going to keep wanting to do it. This is definitely the case for me. From these qualities I believe it’s going to help me have a bright future. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it wasn’t from this opportunity. I will forever cherish the memories that were made over the years :)
Blake Beirmaier
The Battle of 2020/21
Going into my senior year of high school, I would have never thought it would be the roller coaster of a ride it has been. From hybrid learning, to distance learning, to full in-person learning, we have been through it all. I’ve learned so much about myself with this time I’ve been given quarantining. Although being locked up in our homes may seem like a burden, I believe that it gave us an opportunity to open new doors and try things we never thought about before. These times have also made way for new kinds of learning. Teachers can now Zoom with students if there is a snow day or if a student is sick. They can also assign school work on Google Classroom with videos for students to use. We would have never had these tools if we didn’t have the pandemic. With that being said, I will miss the snow days we had. I will miss my dad waking me up only to tell me I can sleep in. I will miss going to the outdoor rink and skating all day with my buddies. I hope future students will cherish every moment they have in high school because it goes by in a flash.
I am also very thankful to have been involved in many activities here at Lincoln High School. They have not only kept me busy through the years but have also helped me to stay on top of my grades and out of trouble. Through the pandemic, it was hard to develop a true sense of a team without being able to bond outside of practice due to restrictions. However, I was fortunate enough to be able to play all three of my sports (football, hockey, track) during my senior year.
Football - we had our first win in over two years. That was electric!!! We counted on each other and as brothers, we were able to break our losing streak. Hockey was my favorite due to my love for the game. Again, battling the pandemic and shutdowns, we still had a season. I made unforgettable memories with my teammates that I can forever call family. Same thing now in the spring. I have the opportunity to run track and race with more of my friends. We’ve created a community and have big goals for this season. We believe in one another and want to go all the way to state.
All in all, this school year was one to remember. Bouncing around with different schedules, trying to test negative, and finishing the year strong wree all challenges that have made me a better person and showed me what I am truly capable of. COVID gave people many difficulties, but it also taught us valuable lessons. Most importantly, we need each other.
Alex Lundgren
“What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?”
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” That is a question kids are asked when they are in elementary school all the way up until they graduate high school. It’s a question even many adults fail to find the answer to.
I found the answer to that question when I was just in eighth grade. I’ve always considered myself a people person so figured I had to do a job that involved working with people. Another thing I was really good at was working with kids. My mom picked up on that right away as she noticed how good I was when I was playing with my little cousin who is seven years younger than me.
One day my mom suggested I become an elementary school teacher. I figured that was a good idea since I was only in eighth grade and had plenty of time to change my mind if I wanted to. But my mind never changed. From then on, whenever I was asked what I wanted to do after high school, I have given the same answer: an elementary school teacher.
I never had any real experience working with kids until my junior year in high school. I took multiple classes that allowed me to go out to Challenger Elementary School as an intern and work in two different classrooms throughout the year. The experience I got out there was amazing and really helped me realize that I truly wanted to become an elementary teacher. Going out to Challenger for internship was my first class of the day and was my favorite part of the day. Getting to see the kids everyday always put a smile on my face. Oftentimes I would lose track of time and almost show up late for my class at the high school.
While at Challenger, I worked in a fourth grade classroom and in a first grade classroom. They were both completely different settings that both had their pros and cons. I was glad I was able to experience both as they were completely different experiences.
I think part of my reasoning on wanting to become an elementary teacher is not only because of my people skills but also because, growing up, I always had really good elementary school teachers who really helped me. I can definitely say that every single one of them made a major impact on me, and I will definitely remember them, as they helped shape me into the person I am today. As a teacher, I hope I am able to make a difference in kids lives, and, hopefully, they remember their experiences with me being their teacher as a good one.
This spring I will be graduating from Lincoln on June 4th and plan on attending North Dakota State University to major in elementary education. I am very excited for what my future holds as an elementary teacher, and I hope that I am able to make a difference in kids' lives like all my previous teachers did for me.
Brevyn Lingen
Legacies
Marilyn Lingen, as I remember her, was a loving and caring grandmother that could light up the room as soon as she entered it. My grandmother died at the young age of 61. I was only 5 years old at the time, though I remember things ever so vividly.
I remember seeing her when she was sick, without hair, suffering from the cancer present in her breasts. Yet I never found her lying in her bed without a smile on her face, a truly positive woman, who never gave up on life until her final breath. She was a fighter, a believer, and God decided that He wanted her home in 2007.
I recall not knowing when my grandmother had passed. When my family was traveling to Fargo to attend my grandmother’s funeral, I did not know at the time that I wouldn’t ever see her again. I thought as this 5-year-old grandson that I might see my grandmother laying in her bed smiling as I run into the room, but, little did I know, she had left this world.
I remember running into her room expecting to see my grandmother but rather, seeing a made bed. I looked back at the door and saw my dad, teary-eyed.
I asked, “where’s Grandma?”
He replied, “she’s up in heaven.”
I can hardly remember the funeral. The only two things that linger in my mind. The first is when my aunt was singing at the funeral and began to cry in the last verse of the song. The second is when my grandmother was being laid into the ground, hearing the sobs from so many people that loved her. At this point, my little 5-year-old self knew what funerals meant.
I began to think, what will it be like when my mom? When my dad passes? I can tell you that I will be devastated, as my grandpa, dad, and aunt were. These ideas, these thoughts have stuck with me since I was just a little kid and these thoughts will stay with me as I grow old, and I witness my loved ones leave this earth.
While yes, my grandmother’s death will have left me with effects of worry, sadness, and pain (not to mention leaving me without a second grandmother). This experience has helped me grow and understand that yes, people will pass, but their memories, their legacies will live on forever.
Josie Kezar
The Value of a High School Senior
Being a senior in high school can be challenging. During this point our lives, we are learning be more independent and are beginning to make huge decisions that will follow us the rest of our lives. As a senior, college and AP classes are very useful in order to save money, learn time management skills, and explore more about a specific field a student is interested in. Of course, it comes with many assignments, tests, projects, and finals. On top of that we get the opportunity to sign up for every scholarship possible to save some money. Being in extracurricular activities, including sports, clubs, or organizations could be hard to stay fully involved in when we have everything else in the back of our minds. Putting time in for friends and family as much as we possibly can before we leave for college in a couple months can also be overwhelming at times. The last couple months of senior year are stressful and can take a physical toll on a student as we have to consider all of these things and put the time in.
There are many different avenues to consider in the future. Some students want to work straight out of high school and take a gap year. Others may choose to go to a technical college. And some will plan to attend a university. No matter what you choose, it's hard to decide which way to go and what is the best fit, especially for us seniors. The thought of moving forward during a pandemic is exciting and a whole new world. Will we have a fairly normal college experience? We still have to consider wearing masks, social distancing, staying online for class, and not being able to be around big groups of people? It looks like there could be a light at the end of the tunnel for Minnesota as Waltz has laid out a timeline to end restrictions.
In the end, all of the stressful nights working on papers, studying, waking up to go to class all day, and doing it all over again the next day will be worth it in the end. Our future selves will thank our high school selves for working hard and putting in the effort.
Shawn Miller
Troubled Times
As all of you may have noticed, everyday life has been drastically different this last year and a half. Not just because of the Coronavirus but also because people have been more down. There is almost nothing for a lot of people to do anymore, mainly because of restrictions to travel, who you can see and how many people, and the list goes on. COVID-19 definitely has taken its toll on the world, but that’s not necessarily why depression and anxiety have been on the rise.
Expectations is another reason. Everyone has such high expectations of each other, and it is draining the soul out of people, especially teens. There are so many hard decisions that teens have to make. There are decisions like choosing whether or not to continue education after high school, picking a college and major, working hard on their social life, school work, part time jobs, and participating in extracurricular activities, all while getting homework done in a timely manner.
Social life has a huge impact on a teen’s mental health. With social media usage skyrocketing, teens have been stressed out with getting likes, followers, messages, and things that typically should not matter too much to a person. They matter because it awakens a competitive-like spirit. Everyone wants to be liked, even if they don’t show it. It is defeating to see someone else get more attention, as they feel like they aren’t as good as them, or even sometimes good enough in general.
So with screen and social media addiction rising, I think that it would be fair if everyone took a step back and realized some things: not being liked by everyone is okay. Not having all of the followers or likes is okay. It’s not about the number of people that like you; it is about the quality of the people that you are around. Genuine happiness is never going to be found in a number.
If any teens are reading this, it is okay to fail. It is okay to not live up to every irrational expectation. If you give it your all and still end up short, it is okay. No one will get mad at you for giving it your all, as long as you try and are able to show that you are trying. Trust me, it is much worse when you put too much on yourself. It gets impossible to balance everything and ends up hurting you more in the long run.
Wyatt Halvorson
This Is Me
When tasked with writing a column for The Thief River Falls Times about whatever I want, I immediately thought of my normal response when asked to talk about myself; I would say something that makes me look as perfect as possible. I mean, with that many people reading The Times, I want to look especially good. However, I’m going to be completely honest.
It may seem that the kids with above a 4.0 GPA, who are incredibly involved with activities and leadership, who always look the part, and who never party, rather never get caught, have everything made for them, but in reality, I’m just as lost, confused, scared, and messy as the next John or Jane Doe walking down the hall. So, I am going to write a true introduction of myself. An introduction of a boy who is authentic and realistic rather than one who has it all figured out and is perfect.
I wish this was a dissertation because I could talk about my childhood trauma, my family dynamics, and the true reason I am who I am, but fortunately, for you, I only get 400-700 words. That being said, I will start in sixth grade.
On the sixth-grade deep class trip, I was bullied, my hair was pulled, and people called me terrible things on the back of the bus for being different. My differences didn't recede. I just learned to mask them until I became taller and able to stand up for myself. In seventh grade, I found my best friends, who I loved and trusted so much as to be the first people I came out to, even though the masses already knew. Side note: It doesn’t feel good when you’re told, “I know” after being so vulnerable with a person. In eighth grade, I joined an organization that would lead me to some of the greatest things in my life and becomes one of my largest motivating factors. Overall, middle school was, as it was for everyone, very burgeoning for me.
Once I hit the milestone of high school, I thought it would be smooth sailing from there. I was wrong. I no longer got bullied or picked on, but the effects of those events and my past began to bubble up. My biggest anger freshman year was that I couldn't double up math classes. It felt like an attack on my pride because I knew that a girl in the grade above me was able to. Am I not good enough? Okay, I’ll show you. From then on, I never failed to take the most rigorous courses I could, even If it made me want to pull my hair out and drive into a ditch; it did. In sophomore year, I made some amazing friends from grades above me, and I also lost the friends I was talking about in middle school. Funny how you can think people are in your corner, but then connections fade like there was nothing there in the first place. I’ll be honest again, my last two years of high school are such fever dreams. I can’t fathom summing them into one sentence. In perfect harmony, I attempt to balance a job so I can support myself, my academics so I can learn and succeed in college, my activities so people think I am more important than I really am, my hobbies because I need to be different and influential, and also my mental health and sanity because we all know that that is neglected.
Basically, I am the same as any other kid in high school. Any other kid could be doing what I’m doing. I’m just more willing to drag myself and my mental health through the sewers to be able to seem like I am above. It’s incredibly unfulfilling and exhausting, but I continue to do it. Hey, what’s life if you’re not one step ahead, right?
Brenden Jesme
The Responsibilities of a Senior
Being a senior is tough. We frequently get asked questions like “Where are you going to college next year?” and “What are you doing after high school?” I usually answer with what I think I will do after high school, but truly I have no idea. As a senior, I have to stress through my whole school year trying to figure out what I want to do and if I need or want to go to college. There is also the battle between picking a job because it pays well or because you love it.
I have had to keep good grades, maintain relationships, and have high honors throughout high school, just so that I can maybe go to college. Then there is the pressure of the ACT, a single timed test that is basically supposed to show colleges how smart you are. A lot of colleges put more value on this single test rather than heavily relying on your high school grades. This was a very stressful test for me and most of the people that have to take it because of the value of it.
Throughout my junior and senior year, I have maintained a job at Erl's Market, where I work 20-30+ hours a week. Working there has been a great experience for me because it allows me to accumulate money before I graduate, and I have also learned the value of hard work, time management, and social skills. The social skills I have built up are very valuable because I can talk to whoever I need to much easier without being nervous. I believe Erl's has built up my work ethic greatly, and that has made other things, like school, better for me. I know that I need to get my homework done whenever it is assigned because who knows if I will have time later on in the week? I think everyone should have a high school job because learning how to work at a young age is a great head start when you get a full-time job.
On top of working around 30 hours a week my entire senior year, I have also had to find time to fill out the constant streams of forms and scholarship applications sent out by the school. I have been taking college in the high school classes since my junior year just in case I did decide to go to college.
To make my schedule even more full, I picked up a great, but very time-consuming hobby in February of my junior year. I decided to start weight lifting at Sanford in order to get stronger and better myself, and now another five to six days out of my week are even more crammed packed. My daily schedule is packed with school, work, and weight lifting. I believe weight lifting really helps build my character and makes me not be lazy. It is a choice to go, and sometimes it is hard to go after a long shift, but I always make sure to push myself to go.
Senior year is a very fun but stressful year. As a senior, we have to accept new responsibilities and make some of the biggest and most important decisions of our lives. Sadly, as I walk through the halls of the school, drawing nearer and nearer to graduation, I cannot help but think about how I will never see most of my classmates and friends again after graduation. Senior year will always be a happy thing to look back on, but it is also the turning point in my life.
Alanah Mack
Growing up as a Prowler Athlete was a Blessing
I have grown up in Thief River Falls my whole life, and this community has been nothing but a blessing to grow up in. Throughout my high school career, I have been faced with many obstacles that have shaped me into the person I am today. From freshman year to now senior year, I am a completely different person.
Senior year. Yeah, I don’t believe it either. I was never truly convinced when everyone would say. “It goes by fast” Ha yeah right. Well yeah, they knew what they were talking about. I feel like freshman year was yesterday. I can confidently say that I am who I am because of the community I have had the pleasure to grow up in. I will never regret taking advantage of the opportunities that were presented to me to participate in.
First, I would like to start off with the girl’s swim team program. I have been involved in swimming since third grade doing tigersharks. Once I finally was able to get on the team in sixth grade, I was so excited. Ever since then, there have been great leaders/role models on the team that I was able to observe and learn from. I had really great mentors on the team and such a great group of girls around me. We all supported each other, and we were always there for one another.
By my senior year, I was awarded captain and was so excited to take on such a role. Captainship meant so much more to me than just having the title. It meant being a leader. It meant the girls on the team trusted me to be there for them with whatever they needed. It also meant that I would be the one setting a good example for future leaders on the team just like the ones before did for me. The girl’s swim team has taught me to be a forgiving, genuine, loving, and caring person for them and for everyone else in general.
I am also involved in softball, which I have participated in since I was in sixth grade. Same with swimming, I have had the opportunity to observe the older girls in the grades above me on how they demonstrate leadership onto the team. Softball is very different than swimming. Softball for me was learning more about the mental toughness you need to play the game.
Throughout the years I have learned that you are going to make so many mistakes until you get to where you want to be. So now when I make a mistake not only in softball but in life I just think back to this example and think “No one ever got anywhere without making a few mistakes.” This mentality has helped me tremendously to be more motivated in school and in life for my future goals. The town of Thief River Falls will always be my home, and I am who I am today because of this community.
Maizy Kraemer
Finding The Good In A World Full Of Change
It’s been a year into the Covid-19 pandemic. and one has to begin to wonder, when will things go back to normal? I know I've had multiple conversations about what we were doing before Covid at this time and what has changed because of all of this. But why think about all the negatives? I know for me change has always been hard. I have been a routine type of person since I can remember having a routine. Change freaks me out. One thing I've learned through the pandemic is that you have to find the good in the change to be okay with it. I can think of many good things to come out of this past devastating year.
During the first wave of Covid, and the first major quarantine, I experienced two good things that positively affected me. I remember that we got out of school scot free: the classes I was in didn't require us to Zoom or heap on loads of homework outside of school hours. What teenager wouldn’t be excited over that? I used this free time to spend quality time and get closer with my family. We would go on daily walks, and spend a lot of time enjoying each other's company at our cabin. I also used this time to reflect a lot and found myself loving the peace and quiet. The next good change was a quarantine puppy! We adopted a puppy, Otis, and we used our time staying home to spend time and get to know him. It was nice to have all that extra time to spend with him, and watch him grow up right before our eyes.
Then summer came around, and we soon realized things were not going to look normal any time soon. It was my senior year of summer softball, and we didn’t even get to have a normal practice with the whole team. One positive that came from this was that I got to work on my personal softball skills. We had individual sessions where we worked on personal goals and skills that we wanted to improve on. We were eventually able to play games, and I felt that I improved a lot from the one on one time I got with my coaches.
Another huge change for me was starting my first job. I applied in December at Oakland Park Nursing home to become a Certified Nursing Assistant. I spent my first months learning, developing skills, and performing clinicals. So it wasn’t until the summer where I really started to pick up shifts. I developed a passion for caring for the elderly residents, and work consumed most of my time during the summer.
I realized that if I didn’t have a job that I enjoyed during the pandemic, that I probably would have spent that whole summer, and the pandemic bored out of my mind. Change isn’t always fun, but it is usually through the hardest times that produce the best changes.
Gabby Steele
Senior year and Covid
Graduation is around the corner, and I don't feel ready. This whole school year has been different than any other. We went from part time distance hybrid to full time distance back to part time hybrid, and soon we will be going to school full time.
At first it was okay. It just felt like a little break from school where I didn't need to change out of my sweats or even leave my bed, but now that it's almost over, it feels like I missed a whole year of arguably the best year of my high school career that typical seniors would have or should have experienced.
The first few months of hybrid learning were okay. I liked being in the comfort of my own home, but I didn't care about having to leave for sports. These, of course, were different because of the mask mandate and the Covid regulations. Every time sports were supposed to start, they kept getting pushed back because Covid numbers kept spiking. We weren't allowed to cross borders for games or matches so anything outside of Minnesota got cancelled. There were times games just didn't happen because the other teams were exposed or someone on the team was sick. For tennis we weren’t allowed to have a state tournament, so even though we won our section, our season still was finished. In hockey we were given masks and shields to wear to help stop the spread, which is understandable, but the biggest issue that I had with Covid was the locker room. We were only allowed so many girls in one room, so we weren’t all able to share the same locker room as we normally would. And not just that, but the six feet apart rule put a damper on our ability to bond as well. Now as we approach softball, I’m nervous to see how Covid will affect this season.
Crowds were very limited for sports, mainly indoor sports. They made sure family could come but nobody beyond that. Students either had to get a ticket from someone playing the game or they just didn't get to go and support the team. It felt empty with so few people around to cheer us on. It’s half the excitement of the games and matches, being able to hear the crowd cheer as we play. We couldn’t go to any sporting events either because of quarantine. I found this upsetting because I loved to go cheer on my friends and enjoy the competition.
Due to having to social distance or quarantine being able to hangout with friends was also difficult. We could only see a few friends at a time, or if we were in groups, we had to wear a mask to be safe in case someone was exposed. This wasn’t ideal because a lot of people didn’t want to risk getting sick in fear that would result in them having to miss out on sports or work.
Overall this year was not what everyone expected to be. We were always told that our senior year should be the best year of our high school career. It has not felt like a senior year because we haven’t been able to experience all the things that one would. I wish we could have been able to do more and be in school more so I could see all my friends and have the senior experience that everyone talked about. I hope that the last few months will be better so I can still have a fun rest of senior year that everyone else had before me.
Andrew Selvig
*insert title here*
Twenty-two pages–that’s how long my literary analysis paper was for the books 1984 and Ender’s Game in my College Composition class. There are certainly far longer papers which make that look minor, but for me, it was a leap from my prior record of eleven pages. Oftentimes, I was stuck on ideas for paragraphs, and the blinking cursor loved to mock me. I didn’t want to risk spewing out garbage, so I had to come up with some sort of system to efficiently crank out the one page paragraphs. The procedure I formulated was to spew out what I had on my mind after thinking sufficiently while coming up with a solution along the way. This method can be used for the generation, formation, and execution of ideas.
How should you think out ideas? There’s a lot of different ways to do this, but for me, whenever I need to think about the basic premise of a paragraph, for instance, I would get out of bed, go downstairs, walk around, and stare into space. For you, find something that will allow you to gain a new perspective on the problem or idea: exercise, play some tennis, take your dog out to the bathroom, hike in the woods, read Walden, don’t get mauled by a bear, and wait, read Walden? Um, okay. Whatever floats your boat. As long as you’re not on a major time constraint, moving around and clearing your mind will help you solve some of the uncertainties of the idea.
On the other side of the coin, ideas can be thought about too much. I believe that everyone encounters this overthinking one time or another. But ideas don’t need to be overthought. These ideas want to live and thrive, so they need to be out there. How do they get out? Well, for me, whenever I have an idea for a paper, I grab an envelope, napkin, or whatever I can find that isn’t judgmental of the idea’s infancy. For this very article, I snatched up one of these NDSU cards that have been mailed to me, and I wrote a general format of each of the paragraphs. I’m not sure about you, but whenever there’s an outline assignment for a paper – where ideas aren’t meant to be judged – they feel very judged, which may cause the ideas to not come out at all. This is obviously not snazzy, so to lower the bar for ideas to come through, I recommend physically writing them down on whatever you can find lying around: napkins, envelopes, newspapers, social security cards, not social security cards; you name it. That way, the ideas can only go up in promise instead of down.
And don’t worry about not having everything plotted out when you first put the idea out into the physical world. As long as the idea is thought about sufficiently before being put out there, you’ll start filling in the blanks. Sometimes these unknowns are unknown; in other words, you don’t know what you don’t know about your idea. Sometimes these unknowns are known. In math problems, that can be finding x. For writing essays, reports, or articles, that could be future introduction paragraphs or titles. When it comes to my 22 page paper, these unknowns included the quotes I had to find to support my arguments. These quotes and their analyses took up the bulk of the paper, but I found them along the way. That’s not because I necessarily winged it (because I did write seemingly important quotes while reading). It was rather because I recalled quotes from the novels that could best support the paragraphs along the way. The quotes I wrote down that seemed important were usually just guides to the better quotes, despite most of the notes not being used in the final draft regardless. So it’s indeed possible, if not likely, that what you initially wanted in your project won’t end up in the final draft. But that’s fine. They’re replaced by better counterparts. And for both of these kinds of unknowns, don’t fret too much. By filling in what you know little by little, these unknowns can just fall into place, so have patience.
This process of making and executing ideas can bring about a more proper life to them. Take adequate time to think about ideas, start the life with these ideas on anything to scratch on, and trust that on the way, unknowns will be encountered and solved. These unknowns may perhaps include a title.
Sydney Reierson
Big Decisions
It’s almost the end of the third quarter. There are currently 75 days until graduation. I know that seems like a lot of time, but, honestly, it’s not. Time has gone by so fast this year it’s insane. With graduation gradually getting closer, that means it is time to start looking at college. Deciding what you want to major in and what school you want to go to are some really big decisions.
On top of choosing what college and major you want to go for, there is also prom to think about. Prom is coming up really soon, and I haven’t even had the chance to think about a dress. With basketball just coming to an end, it makes me realize how behind I am on everything. My friends have all got their prom tickets and dresses all picked out and I haven’t even started looking. Along with a dress, I also need to figure out what I want to do with my hair, makeup, and nails.
After prom comes graduation. That means planning my graduation party. Nothing stresses me out more than thinking about all the things I have to do for it. I have to figure out who are all coming, what decorations I want, what I want to eat, what childhood pictures I want to use, and where and when I am going to have it. And on top of all of this, I still need to make my graduation cards.
Trying to find the time to figure all of this out is pretty overwhelming as I still have school, homework, and a job. The more I put it off, the more stressful it is going to be when I have to sit down and get it all done. Although all of this is stressful now, in the end, it will all be worth it. I just can’t wait to see what the next chapter in my life will have to offer. Bring it on!
Kaylin Mehrkens
Advice to My Younger Self
It’s coming up on only about two months left of my senior year. Crazy. I still remember walking into my first day of preschool. I was a pretty shy kid, and I got homesick easily, so when I found out that my mom couldn’t stay at school with me, I wasn’t happy. But, I eventually got used to it.
Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, I would walk into school, hang my jacket and backpack up, slowly practice writing my name, then nestle into a corner somewhere and start reading the first book I picked up. Fast forward 14 years and here I am two months away from graduating. A lot has happened in these past 14 years. I’ve made friends, lost some friends, joined sports and clubs, realized what I want to be when I grow up, etc. I wouldn’t say I have any regrets (except maybe my clothing choices in seventh grade), but now looking back, I wish I would have known some things.
Starting off, everything happens for a reason. Yes, I know that is cliche, but it’s true. It’s natural to feel like something wasn’t supposed to happen. Accidents aren’t meant to happen. People aren’t supposed to get sick. My middle school best friend and I were supposed to be best friends forever. But it doesn’t always work out that way. It wasn’t a part of the plan. But if those things hadn’t have happened, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. I wouldn’t have those experiences that helped shape me. Without that disappointment and sadness, I wouldn’t know what happiness and contentment feels like. Without failure, there would be no success. Without pain, there would be no growth.
Second, plans change, and that’s okay. Never in a million years did I think I would be spending the majority of my senior year at home. But this year, more than anything, has taught me how to be flexible. There I was, just vibing in my junior year of high school, then suddenly everything came to a stop. I, like most everyone, had to learn how to adjust to a whole new world on the fly. I’ve seen a question go around social media asking if we had the chance to redo 2020 but without the pandemic, would we? That was a hard question. On the one hand, we could still be living life normally (well, pre-pandemic "normal" life), but on the other, I still made a lot of great memories that I don't want to trade. And I honestly believe that if I can live through a pandemic, I can do almost anything!
Next, don’t let others define who you are. They say high school is when you find yourself and who you’re meant to be, but I don’t know if I believe that. It’s hard to find yourself when everyone is judging one another. Especially freshman year when I was so concerned about what others thought about me, and it really made my self-esteem become nonexistent. My mom would always tell me, “If they care, they don’t matter. And if they matter, they won’t care.” Much to my dismay, she was right. People who love you won’t care what you wear or what you look like. They only care about who you are as a person. And honestly, if someone judges you, they’re not worth your time. Know your worth.
Lastly, don’t doubt yourself. I still struggle a lot with this. Ask literally anyone who knows me. But the times when I AM confident in myself, things go a lot smoother. This past weekend, I had figure skating testing. I first tested my dance, and I was so nervous stepping onto the ice that I wanted to cry. But the dance partner, Brent (absolute legend, by the way), told me some words that really helped.
“Breathe. You got this.”
So I did. My first pattern was one of the best I’ve ever skated. But then I tensed up again before the second end pattern and that made it worse. I didn’t pass, but I was still proud of myself for that one pattern that was good. And that was enough for me.
Obviously, I don’t know everything, and I still have a lot of learning to do, (I’m only 17, after all), but I’ve learned a lot along the way. In the coming months, as I graduate and move away, hopefully I will be able to remember to take my own advice and keep growing as a person.
Alex Nomeland
Daylight Savings
In March and November every year, we change our clocks’ times to honor the tradition of Daylight Savings. We change our clocks an hour forwards or an hour backwards, either giving us an extra hour to sleep in, or an opportunity to be late. But why do we all agree to change the times on our clocks, and how did it all start?
Believe it or not, ancient Rome had used a form of daylight savings, but it is much different than the ones today, being more dynamic. Daylight time got longer during the spring and shorter for the winter. The first time some form of daylight savings appeared in America was with Benjamin Franklin, who proposed that people get up earlier in order to use more sunlight to save on candles. However, he had never proposed any form of daylight savings to the government. Modern daylight savings was actually first proposed by a New Zealander named George Hudson.
Hudson's work schedule allowed for him to have some daylight hours after work to enjoy his favorite hobby: bug catching. Because of this, he valued his off time from work, and cherished the daytime. He proposed his idea of daylight savings to the Wellington Philosophical Society in 1895 with a proposal of a two hour time shift, allowing for the clocks to shift and making people get up earlier in order to have more time to enjoy the sun. It seems a little ridiculous, doesn’t it? The time system that can cause confusion and a little bit of difficulty to scheduling was all caused by one man who wanted more time to catch bugs. The United States first finally adopted daylight savings in 1918.
Daylight savings in America was more widely accepted as more and more energy was being spent. Turns out, kerosene light bulbs are not super cheap. Changing the clocks back one hour for the summer then lets us get out of work and school earlier, allowing us to use leads artificial light and to have more time to utilize and enjoy the sun. Hawaii and Arizona, however, do not take part in daylight savings, due to the sun being around everyday year round. Tropical regions and regions closer to the equator also typically do not follow daylight savings, as the sun usually sticks around for year round. Countries like China, Russia, and Iceland also do not participate. This can cause issues with scheduling online meetings, due to different countries may or may not have or be in daylight savings, and the rules of daylight savings can be different.
In short, daylight savings is all about having more sunshine for the day in order to save on energy. There are certainly many issues that come with changing the clocks, but it at least has some nice benefits to it all as well. Be sure to use that time responsibly for the one this year. As the days get longer and hotter, make the most of it.
Emma Fagerstrom
Tennis, Jesus, and John Peterson
I have watched three siblings graduate high school and leave the nest, so I know the drill. I have said my goodbyes in college dorm rooms and hidden my tears on the drive home. I have even watched my parents adjust to a new normal every time a piece of their hearts walks out the door, but this time it’s different. It’s my turn, and there is a pandemic.
Like many of you, I have been talking to God a lot more this last year - uncertainty has that effect on people. You see, I’ve done all the work. I’m ready academically. I can drive, cook, and take care of myself. I even have a pretty good idea of who I am and what I want to be. I am struggling with choosing. So, I figure God spoke to Moses through a burning bush, He got the apostle Paul’s attention with a great light - surely God can help me make a college decision during a pandemic!
One perfectly regular Tuesday, Mom and I drove eight hours one way for my fifth campus tour. I had been corresponding with an admissions counselor named John Peterson for months and was pleasantly surprised to meet him face to face at the university’s welcome center. John grew up in Fertile and is the counselor for all MN prospects because of it. He’s a connector. John talked about Mr. Geiser’s wrestling team, participating in the Northland Honor choir with Vanessa Martell, and even connected with my mom because he received his two master's degrees at her alma mater. With the pleasantries out of the way, John delivered his well-rehearsed “why you should attend college here” spiel with ease. He got through his presentation quickly, so we were free to engage on a personal level. If John went off-script though, his speech changed and exposed a stutter. When our eyes met, he stammered, and he shared that the essay about my special needs brother meant a lot to him. He got emotional.
Let me interrupt this story with a little background. One of my older brothers has cerebral palsy. He’s a quadriplegic, so he’s confined to a wheelchair and has significant mental, emotional, and developmental delays. The essay John read detailed the deep connection I have with my special needs brother. It explained that my brother is my inspiration, and the reason I plan to study speech pathology.
Back to John. After composing himself, He asked about my interests outside of the classroom. Just for fun, I mentioned tennis and Jesus (knowing my mother would cringe at the order). John rambled on about religious organizations on campus and intramural sports (none of which were tennis) until our time was up.
At precisely 10 AM the chatty senior I had been corresponding with from the communication disorders department bounced into the room. What she lacked in stature she made up for in personality, so I barely had to speak. She pelted Mom and me with information as I silently wondered if I had ever spoken that many words in a given day let alone in an hour! The campus was nice - not special.
After our tour, we were ushered into a small room equipped with a laptop. Our masked handler informed us our faculty visit would be on zoom. Yes, we dove 8 hours and had to meet with the faculty on zoom! The head of the communication disorders department was engaging, and we thoroughly enjoyed our conversation.
When our zoom meeting was over, John Peterson appeared again. His stutter implied spontaneous conversation was challenging, but he persevered. As we said our goodbyes, his stance changed. His right foot planted in front of his left one like a paused walk. He rocked back and forth twice - shifting his weight from his front to his back leg before he pulled them back together. My heart leaped in my chest as mom and I walked out the door. “Did you see it?” I blurted to Mom and peeled off my mask.
“See what? “She asked, messing with me like she always does.
“He rocked!” I beamed.
Mom and I settled ourselves in the car and began the 8-hour drive home. We discussed the pros and cons of every college and communication disorders program I had seen. When our voices grew tired, a sweet truth gently washed over me - message received. Some people may call matching me with a special needs admissions counselor effective salesmanship, but I know differently. God answered my prayer. I need to widen my focus from programs to people, so I see the heart of the universities I visit. John Peterson represented my brother, and this university has the courage to make him one of the first faces prospective students see! Any organization that empowers the “least of these'' (Mathew 25:40) could be a fit for me. A knowing smirk creeped across my mother’s face when I interrupted the silence and shared my epiphany. God spoke to Moses through a burning bush, He got the apostle Paul’s attention with a great light, and He gave me John Peterson.
Ethan Lunsetter
A Year of Lasts
Three more months. Only three more months until graduation, and we all go our separate ways. It’s crazy how much time has passed. It still feels like yesterday when we were all getting ready for the middle school “dactivities” or back in elementary school when our biggest worry was whether or not we would have inside recess or not.
Now it is officially our senior year. Everyone is picking colleges, applying for scholarships, and getting prepared for their lives after high school.
Your senior year is supposed to be the highlight of your high school years. It’s the year where you get to see how much you have grown. It is also the year where you will experience many things for the last time. Whether it is your last first day of school, homecoming dance, or competition, they all represent the final memories of your high school career. These are important moments because they signify the end of the things that most of us seniors have routinely done since we were in elementary school. Now we are near the end of our year of lasts and preparing to go on to make new beginnings for our future.
It’s also the year when you finally understand the value of the time that you have. It is the year when we realize how little time we have left. Many of us have been in our sports or activities since we were very young. I remember thinking as a sixth grader, “Twelfth grade? That is really far away!”
Now as a senior, I can’t believe that things went so fast. As of last fall, I ran in my last cross-country meet. This week is our Snofest week and, as a senior, this will be my final one. There are so many things that will be coming to an end in these next few months, and it is important to take advantage of every second. I have learned to appreciate every single moment, especially in the situation our world is in today.
The global pandemic has changed everything for us seniors. Most of our final year of high school has been spent on Zoom. Many of those final memories that we were expecting to have were stripped away from us or weren't the same. This was a devastating blow. However, this really drove home the importance of living in the moment and appreciating the time that you have while you have it.
Looking back on everything I have gone through and everything that I have done, I am truly thankful for what I had. Looking forward, I plan to make the most of these last three months and continue to make the most of each and every day that I have left.
Adrianna Olson
Not Another COVID Sob Story
All my grey-haired friends are patiently waiting to see their loved ones again, but until then, caregivers are loving them while their families have to stay at a safe distance away. Still, in these unprecedented circumstances, a year into the pandemic, they manage to smile. I can’t properly introduce them because of their right to privacy, but I want to share a few things about a couple of the people in the senior care facility where I work who have really touched my heart.
First, there is a lady who loves to sit in her recline, looking out the window and guessing whose vehicle is either leaving or approaching. She is the eyes of the senior care facility! I’ll sit with her on my downtime, helping her with puzzles. She misses her family very much. They call all the time, but she misses hugs from her girls. She may cry, but she never cries for long until she begins to count her blessings, which reminds her to smile. That lady, she smiles. And the smiles don’t stop for even a moment when I take her to visit the facility’s birds; you should see how her face lights up when the light blue bird with a white belly flies around the cage, grazing the other birds with her wings. She squints her eyes and nods when I offer her a treat, and she raises her eyebrows and the corner of her lip when I tell her how beautiful she looks today.
There is another little lady who sits at the bathroom sink, rolling every two-inch section of her silver hair into curlers, redoing it as many times as required for it to be perfect. She can’t go anywhere to show it off, but none the less, she always looks like a beauty. It’s my job to take care of her and make sure she is comfortable, but I often find her beckoning me to sit next to her on her bed so she can rub my back or talking me into eating one more of her cinnamon cookies. Unrestrained kindness is her default.
There was a lady who smiled in any given situation, even on her very last days, I saw the corner of her lips fighting to rise. One lady, though her body tries to fade out at times, fights through it all. She is little, but she is fortress-like when I try to move her blanket off of her for even a second. There is a remarkable decorated war veteran who drops off all the women’s fashion catalogs that he receives in the mail to the nurse’s station for the girls to look through.
Really, I think that these are the people who are doing the most through these hard, hard times. How can we not all draw inspiration from them?
Amber Westlin
Two years ago I was looking to get a job. Every time it came, I read through the newspaper looking for a job. One day I read that the care center was hiring. Both of my Grandpa’s volunteer there, so I thought I would apply and see what happens. The next day they called me for an interview. I was pretty nervous. When I first walked in, I didn't know where anything was. The interview went well, and I was hired on the spot.
I'm a dietary aid. My duties that come with this job are setting a clean and organized space for the residents to enjoy their meals. I provide quality food and drinks to the residents. I also Clean and organize the dining room, wash dishes and chart how much each resident eats and drinks. Working with the residents you need to be very clear on what you are saying and very understanding. Making sure that the residents are getting what they need and are comfortable is the top priority.
Looking back I didn't realize how working at a nursing home could make an impact on my life. I was just trying to find a job for the summer. But now it’s more than a job. I have learned so much from working here.
The first thing that I learned was that life is very precious, and we have to enjoy the time that we have. It’s easy to get caught up in our own lives. We need to take time to check up on the people around us. Another thing that I have learned from working at the care center is that even if you are having a bad day, you can’t show it. The residents are the top priority. You can’t make them think there are reasons why you are having a bad day. You are in their home and have to make them feel cared for.
One of my favorite things to do when I'm not busy is to stop and talk to the residents. But when the Corona virus hit, things changed. The residents started to eat in their rooms. so I didn’t see them as much. The world has changed so much from the coronavirus, but residents in nursing homes have it worse than a lot of people. They can’t have any visitors. so they can see their family. They used to do activities together. but now they can't. Before I started work at the Care Center, I didn’t realize how important the people that work in nursing homes are.
Elaina Ballard
Eight and a Half Years of Experience as a Church Pianist
How old were you when you got your first job? Excluding babysitting and chores you did around the house or family farm for money, it was probably somewhere around 15 or 16 years old. Well I’ll tell you what, I had my first job when I was just nine years old!
In 2013, I played piano as my church’s pianist for the first time. My family and I attend a little country church located about ten miles southeast of Thief River Falls called Bethany Lutheran Church. We have been members of the church since moving to rural Goodridge in the fall of 2009, so I feel like I have grown up in that church.
I have been taking piano lessons from Jan Lee since we moved here in 2009, so this is my 12th year of lessons. After taking lessons for just four years, my pastor, who was Pastor Bob Dahlen at the time, asked if I would like to play for the service. I decided to give it a shot, and he even let me pick out the hymns for my first Sunday.
Now, eight years later, I don’t remember what I chose, but I’m sure I practiced those hymns for a long time before that Sunday, just to make sure I was prepared. Something that helped build my confidence when I first started playing for church was Pastor Bob’s trumpet. He had been accompanying the hymns with his trumpet in church for years; it helped build my confidence because it was so loud, so I knew my playing wouldn’t be the only thing people were focused on.
Since 2009, I’ve continued to be my church’s pianist, along with the other regular player, Crystelle Philipp. She has always encouraged my playing for church, which has just added to my experience as a church pianist. We usually just talk about the Sundays we want to play, at the beginning of each month; typically, we each play twice a month.
As I have improved my piano skills, playing at church has become a lot easier, as traditional hymns are fairly easy to sight read and we typically sing the same handful of songs throughout the year. I can usually run through the songs on the Saturday before and be just fine for the Sunday service. Because of my many years of piano lessons and experience of playing at church, it has really opened some doors of playing at other churches in the area. I have filled in at Ekelund Lutheran Church and Faith Lutheran Church, which are both part of the parish that my church is a part of: the Goodridge Lutheran Parish. In addition, I have also filled in a few Sundays at the United Methodist Church in Thief River Falls, and recently, I have been playing every other week at Silver Creek Lutheran Church.
Throughout my many years of playing at my own church, plus others in the area, I have earned some income from it. It’s not anything like working a part time job considering it takes an hour, plus practice time, out of my week, but it’s a nice bonus. In addition, I have been doing this since I was nine, so I definitely liked the money going into my savings account when I wasn’t old enough to have a “real” job.
I am a high school senior this year, and I plan to move to another town to attend college. Because of my piano lessons and church pianist experience, I hope to find a church to play at wherever I end up for college, as I’ve heard church pianists are in high demand everywhere. It would be a nice side job, with only around an hour of work per week. Plus, I’d only work on Sundays; it sounds perfect for a college student! I would even like to continue playing for church as I grow into adulthood and find my own church to settle into, whether the music consists of just a piano and the congregation singing, or I’m a part of the church’s worship team, where there are many other instruments playing too.
I’m not sure what I want to major in when I attend college or what I want my future career to be, but I know I want music to always be a part of my life. To fulfill that wish for myself, I can continue playing piano, as it’s really something I can do for the rest of my life, and I can continue to play for local churches wherever I live.
Jenna Weets
A New Normal
On January 31st, 2006, at the age of 2 years old, I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. My diagnosis story is, thankfully, pretty boring compared to many other T1s. My blood sugar was not so high that I experienced ketoacidosis. I was not sick, and I didn’t even spend a single night in the hospital. My mom noticed I was going to the bathroom much more frequently and wetting through pull-ups at night again, and my daycare lady tracked how much water I drank over the course of a day -- a crazy amount for a 2 year-old, I’m told.
My mom hesitantly called Dr. Winjum, thinking she was being overly cautious in saying, “My toddler seems to be peeing and drinking a lot,” but he quickly responded saying he wanted to see us first thing in the morning.
A simple finger poke glucose check confirmed his suspicion of Type 1 diabetes, and just like that, my life changed forever. My parents spent the whole day learning the basics of diabetes, and then were sent home to deliver life-saving insulin injections that very same night.
All of our lives changed in that moment: No more eating without counting carbs, no more uninterrupted nights of sleep, and no more life without worry. We were all forced to embrace a new normal.
To say diabetes is a balancing act is an understatement. Turns out pretty much everything affects your blood sugar, and a functional pancreas takes care of all of it without a second thought. A dead pancreas puts all that burden on an imperfect person. All my life I have been told all of the scary things that could happen if I don't take care of myself.
Thankfully in my 15 years of having this disease, I haven’t had any serious emergencies, like being hospitalized with poisonous high blood sugars, or passing out or seizing due to low blood sugars. Because of this, though, it’s easy to become a little nonchalant about the everyday danger of this condition. I see it as a daily part of my life, as I’ve really known no other way.
But just because I can carry it well, doesn't mean it isn’t heavy. I know my luck won’t last forever, and when I’m older, I may experience long-term complications that affect my eyes, kidneys, nerves, limbs, and overall quality of life. Every day I think about how I can prevent these things from becoming my future. Sometimes it feels like a heavy weight on my shoulders, but I remind myself that it’s really up to me to ensure a healthy future.
As my endocrinologist once told me in a bit of a reality check, I have the knowledge and the technology I need to manage this disease well; it’s up to me to use it. I have an OmniPod pump that delivers insulin around the clock and according to my carb counts. I also have a Dexcom continuous glucose monitor that checks my blood sugar every five minutes, alarming me when I’m too high or too low.
When I was little I was not so fond of this technology; I used to cry every time I had to change my pod or sensor because I was scared of the quick pokes associated with them. As I've grown older, I have learned to be very thankful for this technology that allows me to live an almost normal life as a Type 1 diabetic.
Lauren Barnes
Covid Impacts
We are living in such a surreal time right now. Covid has such a huge impact on everyone, whether you’re 6 years old or 90 years old. It stopped us from being able to see our loved ones, go to school, go out into public without a mask, and much more. These adjustments have been extremely hard. Our school has been going back and forth between hybrid learning and full distance learning. Recently, we started going back to school hybrid style after about two months of full distance learning. It’s not an easy adjustment for any of the students to make and especially not easy for the little kids.
Learning from home was difficult. My biggest struggle was finding the motivation to wake up and get on my Zoom classes. When I went to school in person, I had a routine. I would wake up, get dressed, and then head upstairs for breakfast. After eating, I’d fill my water bottle and pack my backpack to head out the door for school. With online learning, I slept until the very last second and then get dressed and log onto my zoom class. Half of the time I wouldn’t even eat until lunchtime because I had no reason to get up any earlier than I had to; I prioritized getting a few extra minutes of sleep than making myself breakfast. I didn’t have to account for how long it would take me to drive to the school or anything. I would just wake up and be in class via Zoom.
I also found it challenging to pay attention during class at times because there are many distractions at home; who wants to pay attention to a boring class when your super cute dog is standing at the edge of your bed begging you to toss the ball for him? I really had to make myself pay attention so I knew what was going on during class. It was challenging to get my assignments/homework done that my teachers posted for us to do because I didn’t really have any motivation to do them, especially if they weren’t due until the next week. Some of the assignments seemed so tedious and time consuming. I felt like I’d rather be doing literally anything else. The one thing I kept telling myself during distance learning was that even though I don’t want to go or pay attention during class, I still needed to graduate. Graduating at the end of the year is the one piece of motivation that has kept me going to online classes and keeping my grades up. Those were just a few of my struggles during distance learning as a high schooler and we still aren’t even fully back in person yet either.
During our full distance learning period, I went to Childcare at 1:45 as part of my internship class I was taking. Childcare was provided for the elementary schoolers whose parents worked during the day. Going there while the elementary schoolers were learning strictly through Zoom really opened my eyes to things I hadn’t realized before. I knew that my friends and I were struggling with distance learning, but I never realized how big of an impact it had on the younger kids as well.
I got to work one on one with some of the kids sometimes, and I couldn’t believe how many missing assignments some of them had. It wasn’t because they didn’t know how to do the work. They are very bright kids. It was mainly because of the fact that they just didn’t want to do it. I could relate to them in that way. I have graduation hanging over my head, which was what kept me going, but for these kids, they had nothing to work for really. They had no motivation and instead just kept falling more behind in their class.
There is a bright side to all of this. The elementary schoolers are going back to school fully in person on February 1st. I think this will be great for them because being in person is much more engaging which I think is important for that age. While they are back in person, we (the high schoolers and middle schoolers) will be going to school using the hybrid system which is nice because students still get to go to school every other day in person. Hopefully, as Covid numbers go down and the vaccine gets passed out to more and more people, we will get to go back to school fully in person on February 16th.
Jennica Bakken
Personally, I don’t think we should be able to talk about 2020 now that it’s a new year. Let’s just breathe a sigh and be thankful it’s over. Looking back, though, it was a difficult time to say the least.
Entering my senior year in 2020 was harder than imagined. First we began in the hybrid format of blue, gold, and white, where we attended every third day. Then we shifted to a much more effective format of just blue and gold groups with Wednesday as a flex learning day. But that didn’t last long until we were completely distance learning like last spring.
We took our ACT social distancing after not practicing for months. Although our scores didn’t matter for certain colleges, the stress of taking it was still very present. I never thought I’d be deciding which college I’d want to go to by touring it through a computer screen. I don’t want to sugarcoat it either because I know the class of 2020 got the short end of the stick, but I think we have tried to make the best of it.
As much as I want a senior year during this time, what I want more is for COVID to go away. Like most people, I crave my “old life.” COVID has not only affected my senior year, but it has also affected my family more than anything.
My family has taken precautions from the beginning. We stayed away from my grandparents and wore our masks everywhere. Sometimes even with your best efforts, things went wrong. My grandpa and mom got COVID at the same time, and while my mom is a very healthy person, my grandpa was always at high risk from an accident that affected his lungs. As my mom got better, my grandpa got worse, and, eventually, he had to be admitted to the hospital.
The hardest part about this was not being able to see how he was doing. My mom got multiple updates each day until eventually she and her siblings were told they needed to come see him. Within the span of a few weeks, COVID took my grandpa away from us. We were supposed to spend Christmas with him the next week.
This has definitely been one of the most eye opening and life changing years for me, and as happy as I am to say goodbye to 2020 and move on, I won’t forget about how much it changed my life, and how much I learned. I learned to never take things for granted, especially when it’s little things you never thought you’d miss. I also learned to be thankful for everything and everyone you have because things can change so quickly. So, Goodbye 2020, I won’t miss you one bit.
Haley McDermott
More Than a Paycheck
Ever since I was young, I have loved taking care of people. Helping improve the lives of others has always brought me a lot of joy. When I applied for my first position at a nursing home, I thought I was applying for activities. You can imagine my surprise when I found out that CNA stands for Certified Nursing Assistant and has nothing to do with Bingo. I pressed on and learned the job, became certified, and fell in love with taking care of people’s grandparents.
I have been working as a CNA in nursing homes for almost three years now, and I absolutely love it. I have seen many types of patients come through and have had the opportunity to learn so much about different illnesses, treatments, how to handle tough situations, and how to care for people and myself even on bad days. These positions have taught me an incredible amount about how much I can handle and have shown me new ways to deal with bad situations.
Beyond that, I had the amazing learning opportunity of working through a pandemic (I know that sounds annoyingly optimistic, but it truly has been an amazing experience for me). I have learned so much about the CDC, protocol, and the impact of loved ones on our mental health while experiencing COVID through a nursing standpoint. As CNAs this past year has also taught us a ton about the importance of teamwork and communication, and I have been able to apply all of these skills to my life outside of work.
Working in nursing homes has fundamentally changed the person I am today. I have become patient and knowledgeable. I have met incredible people in between coworkers, residents, and families who will stay with me forever. These jobs have been about so much more than a paycheck. This is about memories and life lessons. My appreciation for nurses has grown tremendously and the growth of myself and my maturity has been forever changed.
Alex Osowski
Last year in College Composition I, Mr. Reynolds had us watch the movie, Jaws and write a review on it. It was my first time watching it, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew it was about a shark, but that was it. I thought it might pale in comparison to some other modern shark horror films (and I’m not talking about the Sharknado series). I mean films like 47 Meters Down and The Shallows. But Jaws more than held its own.
Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Universal, was released in 1975. The main cast includes Roy Scheider, who plays police chief Martin Brody; Robert Shaw, who plays the shark hunter, Quint; and Richard Dreyfuss, who plays marine biologist Dr. Matt Hooper. The budget for the movie was approximately $7,000,000, and the opening weekend alone brought in $7,061,513 with the attention-grabbing plot. It was Hollywood’s first summer block buster and changed the industry as even now most major studios save their biggest films for release over the summer.
The movie starts out with a terrifying scene of a girl being dragged around and underwater by an invisible force, setting the tone for the rest of the movie. It then goes on to the investigation of her death after her body is found washed up onshore. It is initially ruled a shark attack, and Chief Brody immediately closes the beaches. The mayor, Larry Vaughn, played by Murray Hamilton, though, has different ideas. He pressures Brody to re-open the beaches, hoping this was an isolated attack. Vaughn’s main concern is keeping the tourists flocking to Amity Island so the businesses can flourish. Instead of fighting, Brody backs down as well. After several more attacks, Mayor Vaughn caves in when he realizes his own children were at the same beach as the most recent attack. Vaughn agrees to finally hire Quint to kill the shark. Brody and Hooper demand that they come along with Quint to help kill the shark. He begrudgingly agrees, and the trio head out to find the kill the beast and save the people of Amity.
A recurring theme throughout the movie is that wealth is greater than the lives of others. One example of this is when Chief Brody and Quint are attempting to convince Mayor Larry Vaughn to pay Quint to kill the shark after a young boy is attacked and killed along the beach. Mayor Larry refuses to listen to Brody and Hooper, despite the mounting evidence that a great white shark is stalking the beaches. A shark is actually caught a long the beaches. While Vaughn is eager to pin the deaths on this shark, Dr. Hooper argues that the bite radius on this shark, a tiger shark, doesn’t match the bite marks on the other victims. That is the last thing Mayor Vaughn wants to hear as he continues to value money more than the lives of others when he states he can’t close the beaches down, especially when the Fourth of July is the next day. This a bright red flag, backing the theme that wealth is far more valued than the lives around someone. He claims that revenue from visitors and tourists is the only way they live in Amity. To prove his point further, Mayor Larry says that he would not pay the shark hunter the money he asks for, and, therefore, leaves Quint and Chief Brody helpless and frustrated.
A film technique Spielberg uses in the film is the ambiance with their music and lighting. An example of this is when Chief Brody and Quint go out at night to investigate the waters when they find an abandoned boat. There is a fog hanging over the water and the music picks up as soon as they notice the boat in the distance. Brody recognizes it as belonging to a local fisherman named Ben Gardner. Of course, Hooper tells Brody that he is going to investigate the hull. When Hooper dives in, there is hardly any light below the surface and the music becomes progressively eerier the further Brody swims. When he comes up next to the boat, he finds a jagged hole in the boat with a large shark tooth stuck in the wood. Given the low visibility in the water around Hooper and the clear evidence that the boat was attacked by the shark, the viewer’s suspense is peaked. As soon as Hooper draws close to the boat to investigate the tooth, the baseline from the iconic Jaws theme starts to slowly play, alerting the audience that an attack is imminent. As if this isn’t enough anxiety for one scene, Hooper peers into the hole as Ben Gardner’s severed head bobs out. When this happens, Spielberg uses a scream and screeching from the instruments playing, causing the audience to scream and jump too. The music picks up in speed and the notes get higher as they show the face one last time before Quint races back up to the surface.
In my opinion, the movie Jaws is a masterpiece of its time. There were times I was seriously engaged or even jumped in my seat. I enjoyed the subtle humor and the small moments in the movie not too many people notice the first time they watched. Although I enjoyed the movie, there were also moments where I, unfortunately, found myself asking when the movie would end. I am glad I watched Jaws, but I do not think I would ever watch it again on my own time.
Tayli Brekkestran
Little Fall, Big Changes
Who knew a simple trip to Walmart one late November night could be so life changing. What I thought was a fun trip to the store with my friend soon turned out to be one of the most traumatic experiences I’ve actually ever had. You’re probably wondering by now “what the heck would have happened in Walmart that was so bad?” Well I’ll tell you.
For starters, it didn’t actually happen in Walmart. I parked my car outside my friend’s house after wandering around the store for awhile (what else is there to do in this town?) and was just going to run inside and grab my school bag. I hopped out of the vehicle and awkwardly stepped around the huge snow pile on the curb, which led to me stepping wrong on the extremely icy sidewalk. Let’s just say I didn’t know how icy it actually was.
Next thing I know, I’m lying on the ground, propped up by my elbow, and my friend is rushing towards me.
“Are you okay?” She asked as she helped me up.
I nodded my head, but deep down I knew I wasn’t. Her mom ended up bringing me to the emergency room, and my mom met us there.
After a few x-rays and a very long wait in the ER, the doctor finally told us that I had shattered my elbow and needed to have surgery in a couple days after the swelling went down.
So I had to spend Thanksgiving with a huge wrap around my arm and in more pain than I’ve ever been in my life. The next day I went in for surgery, which lasted five hours, and got two plates and ten screws put into my arm. At the time it wasn’t cool, but now it’s pretty awesome since I can see some of them.
After months of going through physical therapy, I still don’t have my full range of motion back, and I never will, but that’s okay because I got a pretty cool scar out of it. I never imagined that my life would be so affected just by a simple fall, but I guess you never know what can happen or how things can change.
Cameron Broadwell
Being Thankful for the Important Things
As we near the end of 2020, I can’t help but think about what we’ve been through this year. It’s been a year full of things that I never thought I would experience. From a global pandemic to online school, this year has given me the realization that nothing is guaranteed. Along with that, I’ve also realized that some of the things that I put the most importance on are some of the most minor problems that anyone can face and it has given me a much greater sense of gratitude for what I have.
When the onset of the virus happened, nobody really knew what to expect. As I continued to hear about it, I started to wonder how much of an affect it would have on my personal life. One aspect I was really concerned about was tennis. I was very excited about the season because I knew that we had a very talented team and that we could make a push at our first ever State tennis title. After we transferred to distanced learning, I knew that it was going to be nearly impossible to have a tennis season. A few weeks later, it was confirmed that there would be no season.
Over the summer, I slowly began to understand that not having a season wasn’t the worst situation to have happen. As disappointed as I was, I knew that it was out of anybody's control. I was very excited to hear that we were going back to school this year, even if it was at half capacity. It was nice to know that we would have the opportunity to go to school with our classmates and friends and that we wouldn’t be stuck at home for our entire school year. As time has gone on, I have begun to accept the reality that we live in and acknowledge that we will remember these times for the rest of our lives.
One positive that came out of COVID-19 was that it renewed my thankfulness for those around me. I have learned that things can change in a very short amount of time and that I need to be appreciative of any and all experiences that I have with my friends and family. Knowing this, I have found that even doing small tasks with others can be super enjoyable and gratifying. I am very thankful to have people around me that I know I can talk to, and I know that as long as I trust in God, He will make everything alright.
I am adjusting to my new surroundings, and I am getting used to the environment I am in, but that’s not to say that I don’t miss the way we used to live. I would love to go back to the times - as I’m sure we all would - when we didn’t constantly have to worry about a microscopic virus. No matter how much we try to convince ourselves that we will eventually return to our normal lives, I think that our sense of ‘normal’ will be forever changed. What I can say is that this virus has helped me put into perspective what is truly important.
Dominica Bernstein
Every year, millions of people from around the world stand in awe of the magnificent Waterford Crystal Times Square New Year's Eve Ball. At 11:59 p.m. the ball begins its descent as millions of voices accompany it in the countdown to the final seconds of the year and celebrate the beginning of a new year full of hopes, challenges, changes, and dreams.
In 1904, New York was a constantly changing city, and one of the biggest motivators in this change were new innovations. Two innovations that completely transformed the Crossroads of the World debuted in 1904 were the opening of the city's first subway line, and the first ever celebration of New Year's Eve in Times Square.
The original New Year’s Eve bash paid tribute to the official opening of the new headquarters of The New York Times. The newspaper's owner, Adolph Ochs, had successfully convinced the city to rename Longacre Square, Times Square, in honor of the publication. The Times Tower was at the time Manhattan's second-tallest building. The building was the focus of the New Year's Eve celebration. Ochs spared no expense to ensure that this party would go down in history. An all-day street festival concluded with a fireworks display set off from the base of the tower, and at midnight the joyful sound of cheering, rattles and noisemakers from the over 200,000 attendees could be heard, it was said, from thirty miles north along the Hudson River. The New York Times' description of the occasion paints a picture: "From base to dome the giant structure was alight - a torch to usher in the newborn year…”
The night was such a success that Times Square instantly replaced Lower Manhattan's Trinity Church as "the" place in New York City to ring in the New Year. Before long, this incredible party captured the attention of the world. Two years later, the city banned the fireworks display, but Ochs was determined. He arranged to have a large, illuminated seven-hundred-pound iron and wood ball lowered from the tower flagpole precisely at midnight to signal the end of 1907 and the beginning of 1908. That year, and for almost a century after, Times Square sign maker Artkraft Strauss was responsible for the ball-lowering. In 1914, The New York Times outgrew Times Tower and had no choice but to relocate. By then, New Year's Eve in Times Square was already a part of our tradition.
In 1942 and 1943, the glowing Ball was temporarily retired due to the wartime "dimout" of lights in New York City. The crowds who still gathered in Times Square in those years greeted the New Year with a minute of silence followed by chimes ringing out from trucks parked at the base of the Times Tower. The New York Times held ownership of the Tower until 1961, when it was sold to Douglas Leigh, who was also the designer behind many of the signs in Times Square, including the famous Camel billboard. Mr. Leigh stripped the building down to its steel frame, then re-clad it in white marble as the headquarters for Allied Chemical Corporation.
Today, New Year's Eve in Times Square is a tradition enjoyed by all. Each year, thousands of people still gather around the Tower, now known as One Times Square, and wait for hours in the cold of a New York winter for the famous Ball-lowering ceremony. Thanks to satellite technology, a worldwide audience estimated at over one billion people watch the ceremony each year. The lowering of the Ball has become the world's symbolic welcome to the New Year.
Ben Van Schaick
What Does Christmas Mean to You?
Why do you choose to celebrate Christmas? Have you ever asked yourself why we cut down coniferous plants and decorate them with shiny objects inside our homes? What’s up with the image of that dude trespassing into our homes every year? In reality, Christmas traditions often find themselves as a mosaic of many different cultures and customs; ever since Pope Julius I declared December 25 to be the date for the Christian celebration of Jesus’ birth, other midwinter celebrations worldwide fused with this date. From the introduction of the Christmas tree to Santa Claus, these traditions form how we see Christmas to be today.
But this begs the question: if Christmas is a composition of multiple different wintertime customs, what does Christmas really mean? Many Hallmark movies have taken it upon themselves to answer this complex question, and typically they reach the conclusion that Christmas is all about family. Perhaps it is. But there’s something so utterly profound about Christmas that family cannot be the only thing about it; although, it may be an element of what it means. At this point in the story, I could bore you with the intricate details and subtleties of the birth of the idea of Christmas, but this isn’t a research paper—rather, an exploratory paper.
Christmas is the creation of Christians in order to create a celebration date for the birth of Jesus. You can immediately see the parallels between “Christmas” and “Christian” in that of Christ. However, Christmas itself has transcended just the religious implications from which it started. It is now a nearly worldwide phenomenon where people gather to share memories, gifts, and quality time with other family members with potentially little to no actual Christian implications—Santa Claus certainly isn’t in the Bible. So, if not for Christianity, then what is Christmas celebrated around the world for?
Now everyone’s answer to this question is going to look a little bit different. As stated earlier, oftentimes it is boiled down to family. And maybe that’s exactly what Christmas is all about for you: hanging around the Christmas tree, opening presents from all of your family members with you, reminding each other that you’re there for them. That sounds like an excellent Christmas. Perhaps Christmas is spent acknowledging the joys of the present and hope for the future; perhaps that is a more traditional view. That Christmas is more than just the laugher and the expensive presents and the lavish meal—that Christmas symbolizes hope for a better tomorrow in a broken world, a world which has taken a nosedive into uncharted territory which still has a better day somewhere ahead of it. Perhaps Christmas means absolutely nothing at all to you other than the occasional free thing in a box from the odd family member.
So, in light of the current state of the world, ponder this: what does Christmas really mean to you?
Jonah Kalsnes
You Can’t Have Christmas Without Hope
I began looking forward to Christmas a couple of months early this year. People do not usually begin looking forward to Christmas until around, I don’t know, mid-November. However, I was ready not long after school began in the fall.
In a “normal” year, people may ask, “Jonah, why so early? It’s not even Halloween . . . or Thanksgiving yet.” However, since this is 2020, not many people will question why I began listening to Christmas music way before December. Many people, like me, have been eagerly awaiting the Christmas season. For some, the Christmas season signifies the end of the year, and, therefore, the end of 2020. For others, Christmas is a season of wholesome family moments. For me, Christmas is a season of hope.
While I have been thinking about the challenges of the last year and how my senior year has not gone how I thought it would, Christmas reminds me of the abundance of hope that I have. Even if COVID-19 is around for a while longer, there is hope, an eternal hope, that transcends all earthly troubles. I think back to the people of Israel just over 2,000 years ago who were waiting for centuries for the one thing that is so readily available to us today, hope. Their hope came in a little baby, whose very birth is the foundation of the hope we have today. Therefore, in a world plagued with disease, injustice, and everything else that tries to oppress people, the Christmas season reminds me not just of the hope Christmas provides, but how this hope is found throughout the entire year… even the year 2020.
While I am optimistic that 2021 will be better, there is no guarantee of that. If there is one thing I have learned from the last year, it would be that pretty much nothing is guaranteed. On the other hand, however (see what I did there), there is one guarantee in life. The guarantee is that even during the most challenging of circumstances, there is hope that does not change. That is why I build my hope on the foundation of what Christmas means. In the year 2020, that child born in the most humble of circumstances some 2,000 years ago is still relevant today, all year long.
I cannot guarantee that 2021 will be a better year than the year 2020. I cannot guarantee that this Christmas season with all its gifts, treats, and wholesome family moments will fulfill you.
What I can guarantee you, though, is that the first Christmas was one of hope. Therefore, this Christmas when you are pondering the fact that 2020 is almost over or you are enjoying the company of whatever family you can be with, I would encourage you to think about that first Christmas and what that means for your life. Reflect on the promise that only a perfect, eternal hope can bring. A promise that not even the year 2020 can take away from you.
Brooklyn Brouse
I know by this point in time we're all sick of talking about it, but when COVID-19 hit this past March, my life, along with everybody else’s, changed drastically. In past years on a normal day, I would get to the school before most of the faculty, stay after school for sports, go work out again after practice, do my homework, and try to find time to spend with family/friends. Actually, that is what was what a slow day looked like.
When COVID-19 started to take over, not only was school canceled, but it felt as if my life had been put on pause. Track season was taken away after all those endless hours of training. I no longer got to be a junior attendant at graduation after studying so hard to stay at the top of my class. Concerts/trips were canceled after countless hours of rehearsals for orchestra and choir. Trust me, that’s not even half of it.
I know you’re probably reading this thinking, you don’t have to tell me twice. I lived through it too! Yes, I understand that, and I know I’m not the only person who suffered. Of course, I was devastated like every other high school student, but if this wouldn’t have happened to me, I don't know if I would understand why I do everything that I do. Being so busy keeps me motivated to push through challenges, as well as giving me many opportunities to do amazing things.
After the two-week break in March, I was so ready to get back into school. I was keeping up with my training for track season - running every day and working out - in hopes that life would soon return to normal. This was supposed to be my year. We had just been moved down to the single-A section which means a very large majority of our team would qualify for the state meet this year. But finally MSHSL released the final decision on the 2020 spring sports season.
I was out on a run about two miles away from my car when my phone buzzed with a text message from my track coach. I stopped and read the message slowly. It was just four words, but they stopped me in my tracks: that’s it we’re done.
My heart sank, and I fell to the curb as I started to realize it was truly over. I probably sat there alone for close to 30 minutes crying over the lost season. But finally, I got up and walked the whole way back to my car. I never thought I’d be this upset over a sports season. The way it felt to be stripped of all the work and dedication was devastating. It was hard to find the motivation to stay positive after that day, and I started to fall into a rut. I didn’t run for a few weeks and honestly, I didn’t feel like myself.
A few months later, summer rolled around, and everything started to slowly re-open, and after all that time I got back into my groove. I took a long look at myself and realized just because things weren’t going my way doesn’t mean I can give up. Tennis got approved by the city, and I started training for my senior season of sports. Nothing feels totally normal, but that’s okay. We all need to learn to take life day by day and appreciate the little joys. Nobody knows what the future holds in these times of the unknown, but that doesn’t mean we need to put our lives on hold. Go out and accomplish everything you can, and who knows, you might learn a thing or two about yourself as well.
Since the shutdown last March, I’ve had time to put things into perspective. I realized that life is what you make of it and everything can change in the blink of an eye. Currently I’m a high school senior and still don’t know what most of my life will look like. I’ve always been a very busy student but lately I haven’t had the chance to do everything I’m so used to doing, and that is okay. Being so involved and keeping myself busy has made me more motivated, well rounded, and a hard worker. Going through so many days of unknown answers was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it helped me grow stronger. Because of these experiences that I’ve gone through, I know that no matter what life throws at me I will be okay.
Haylie Rogalla
“The Future Depends On What You Do Today"
Everyone asks me about my future, whether it is, “What major are you going to pursue?” or “What college are you going to?” and sometimes I even get, “How many kids do you want?” I know, now that I’m a senior, I should have at least two of those answers already, but I don’t. I’m nervous for the future. It is a lot of stress to decide what I could inevitably be doing the rest of my life. That is a big step, and I’ve never been the best at taking those.
I believe that the future is important, but so is the present. I don’t want to always worry about the future. I want to live in the now. If I’m always fixed on the future, my life will pass me by, and I don’t want that. People always say, “you’re going to miss being young.” But am I really? Am I going to miss the stress of college plans? The 6 a.m. morning practices? Or my teachers’ unflinching ability to give tests every week? I’m not going to be able to miss anything if I’m not taking the time now to really relish in excitement of it all.
Now, I know I can’t not think about my future, and I won’t. I just don’t want to feel all of this pressure all the time to do so. I want to live in the moment as often as I can. I want to look back and remember my senior year. I don’t ever want to wake up one day and feel as life has passed me by.
If you really think about it, what is the point of focusing on the future? Isn’t the present the only thing you can truly control? My choices now effect my future, and I don’t want to be an old person filled with regret.
It doesn’t matter how much I plan for my future I will never be able to actually control what happens. So the way I see it is you have two choices, either worry about the future or enjoy the present. I don’t know about you, but the latter seems like a better option. Planning ahead might help you accomplish your goals, but your life right now isn’t going to improve any. Planning isn’t going to guarantee you an incredible future, so why not accept what you can control now?
If you think about it, the future is never going to be what you think anyway, so if you chalk down your future down to a “T,” then something is bound to go wrong. Plans fail. People aren’t perfect. It is a part of life, yet we still get upset when things don’t happen how we think they should. The more we plan, the more we fail, which, in turn, means it is more likely we are to become upset when those plans didn’t turn out.
Now, I’m not saying that you can’t think of your future because that is not true. I just don’t want you to worry so much for the future that you lose sight of the present. Find a balance between living in the moment and planning. You should think about what lies ahead, but it should never consume your life and keep you from truly living.
Ella Budish
Thanksgiving is coming up soon, and this year my family decided on going to my grandparents in Lino Lakes, which is about 30 minutes from Minneapolis. I’m sure many other families can relate to deciding where to go for Thanksgiving.
When it comes to my family, my mom’s side is mostly from the Twin Cities area. My mom grew up in Lino Lakes and went to college in St. Paul too where she met my dad. My dad went to the U of M, but he grew up in Gonvick, which is a tiny town by Clearbrook. When my parents tell me stories from when they were growing up, they are always completely different. I guess that’s why they say opposites attract!
Like I said earlier, my mom grew up in the cities. When she tells stories, she tells me about all the friends she had and how they would drive around and go to the mall everyday or her boyfriends she had and the parties she went to.
On the other hand, when my dad tells stories of growing up, they usually consist more of growing up on a farm where he worked everyday after school and didn’t get to do much with friends. Since he lived in a small town, there wasn’t much to do anyway!
My mom’s side of the family still lives in the cities, and I love visiting there. I love downtown Minneapolis with all the cute buildings and restaurants, but I also love the outskirts of the cities where all the malls and stores are. There are so many places down there that we don’t get to go to up here. I also really love visiting my grandparents on my mom’s side and staying with them and playing board games with them or watching movies. They're also really good cooks.
I see my dad’s side of the family a lot because they're closer, and we share our lake cabin with them. Of course, the lake is my favorite place. I love all of our family friends on our lake, spending time with them, going on the boats all day, and having big meals together. If we stay here for Thanksgiving, usually at one of my aunts’ and uncles’, it is always made up of spending a lot of time outside and in the woods, which I also enjoy.
I'm very thankful that I get to experience so many things through family. and I have a variety when it comes to family. I love the city with the big buildings and tons of people, yet I also love the country, outdoors, and the lakes.
Kenzie Sorter
Kenzie Sorter
The End Of An Era
Forgetting and losing memories that you have made over the years with some of your closest friends in the world is the hardest thing to do. For me, having my senior volleyball season end is crushing. My team is the people I grew up with. Because of them, I become not only a better volleyball player but also a better person, friend, and teammate. And making memories together has always been the best part.
I will never forget my parents suddenly waking me up early one morning, scaring any kind of tiredness out of my body at 5:30 am. I got all packed up and stepped outside to a cold dark June morning, which woke me up even more. Not even the birds were awake yet. It was so early that I just automatically had that tired crabbiness that my parents absolutely despise. We were up so early because of an all-day Junior Olympic volleyball tournament.
I loved JO season, the all-day tournaments with my closest friends, and all the volleyball game games of volleyball where I felt like I made some of my strongest friendships over the years.
Almost every tournament was a new adventure. We played a lot of the same teams throughout the summer, but some we had never played before and had no idea how good they were. One of the biggest lessons I learned throughout my whole volleyball experience was to never underestimate a team that is full of small short girls and never be intimated by some the height of some girls. It is all mental and a majority of the time they never are as good as they look.
The fall season has always made me a nervous wreck. After JO season ends around July, we go right into more summer workouts, lifts, and open gyms. They say it is optional, but we all know it is not and that you better not make any plans during the week at any time throughout the summer.
August is when it starts getting serious. Tryouts are intense. They last from 8 am- 5 pm with two sessions of team conditions starting the day and ending it. By the end of the day, my body is exhausted and not ready for another day of that. But I loved this feeling and getting to play every day all day long was like living a dream.
I started playing volleyball when I was nine years old. Back then we never really cared if we won or lost. All that mattered to us was that we were having fun. I really wish we all still had a mentality.
I have played middle blocker/ hitter pretty much my whole volleyball experience. Out of every position, the middle position was my least favorite. The amount of blocking we had to do all while transitioning to get ready to hit the ball took a lot out of me. I pretty much ran in endless circles, but I would never trade it for any other position. But at practice you will never catch me not complaining about the middle spot. It’s tough but so much fun and anyone else who plays middle would agree with me when I say it’s just endless circles and our ankles are definitely sore after every game or practice.
Even though it only been a couple of days since our season ended, the way it ended was very heartbreaking and unexpected. With the pandemic and our country having constant huge COVID breakouts, a season was never guaranteed. But a little bit into September, we were told that we were given the opportunity to have a season and that they were going to try have it as normal as possible.
Having volleyball season in the fall was probably the only normal thing about it, Each player could only have two spectators. We were required to wear a mask if we weren’t playing There was no shaking hands before and after the game. There were no captains and no changing sides after a set. But after we were told all of those rules, the seniors couldn’t have been happier. The fact that we were going to get a senior season was the best news ever! We started the season off with six seniors: Kylie Alby, Haylie Rogalla, Abigail Molstad, Maizy Kraemer, Ivy Wiggs, and me. All of us have played together for many years, so we have become a very close group of seniors.
Since day one of the season, our coach preached to us how important it was to stay safe and make sure we were social distancing at all times. Our team was very lucky for the longest time. None of us had test positive, and we were very good at taking our temperatures and making sure to contact the coach if we weren’t feeling well.
Just last week we had an away game scheduled, and it felt like any other game day. My sister and I packed our volleyball stuff, packed supper, and snacks for the bus ride. We packed the car and, as usual, I played some loud music to wake us up during the drive to the school. But as soon as I put my car in park at the school, I got a notification from our head coach. In that moment I just thought it would be a message to let everyone know that the bus had arrived.
No! It was a text that said our game that night had been canceled. Someone on our team has tested positive for COVID. I was so confused.
When we got into the school parking lot, I looked around and saw the faces of all my other teammates. I knew they all felt like I did.
Another coach was walking around breaking the news to all of us. We were told that since someone on JV/ varsity had tested positive, we all had to quarantine and that our season was done.
I remember looking up and seeing the sadness on the faces of Josie Johnson and Karleen. I broke into tears. We all kind of just sat in the parking lot for the longest time ever. I had this feeling like this isn’t how I wanted this to end, and I wasn’t happy with the way practice had been the day before. I wasn’t ready to give this up and be done. I just felt like the season was just starting.
Chloe Lundeen
Having Faith in Hard Times
Growing up, my parents made church a priority which also meant Sunday school and confirmation on Wednesdays. As a kid, of course, I didn’t want to wake up early on the weekend to go, but there was really no getting out of it.
Up until the beginning of this year, church was something I went to because my parents told me I had to. I’ve always lived my life through faith in the Lord, but I didn’t do much about that besides on Sunday mornings. My mindset has changed dramatically since the beginning of this year. I’ve made church MY priority. Along with that, I attended a Bible study group this summer, bible camp, and went to another bible study group in Bemidji with one of my good friends. Being exposed to people who share the same faith as me made my faith so much stronger.
As we all know, 2020 hasn’t been an easy year for any of us. As a senior, my first initial thoughts on my school year was that it wasn’t fair, and I couldn’t help but think of all that I felt I was missing out on. At this point, my faith saved me and gave me hope. With a lot of prayer, I was able to gain a new perspective on my school year. Despite the unusual circumstances, I feel like I’ve had a great year. Yes, there are things I’ve missed out on if we were to have had a normal school year, but that doesn’t even compare to what I’ve gained: more time with my family before I graduate and closer relationships with my friends.
When we were quarantined in March, my whole family was under the same roof again. With churches being shut down, our pastor recorded Facebook live feeds of our church services. As a family, we would all sit in the living room together and watch them. It was since March that I haven’t just noticed a difference in my faith but also my parents and brothers. I think our relationship with God has become very important to all of us and has been what has kept us going.
Kylie Alby
Oh, How Times Have Changed
Imagine this. It is 1992. My mom is a senior in high school, and she is driving to school in her brown Toyota Corolla while listening to Madonna on a cassette tape. (First of all, Madonna? Really? She seems ancient. And second of all, who listens to cassettes? Why not just Bluetooth your phone to your car?)
It is a 15-mile drive into town from her house, and once she arrives at school, she immediately finds her best friend, Darla. They stand at their lockers for ten minutes before the bell rings, catching up as they had not talked since yesterday at school. (What!? I know everything that goes on with my friends when we are not together. With Snapchat and texting, nobody “catches up” anymore).
She then puts her stuff in her locker, says goodbye to Darla, and heads to class. (But why say goodbye when you can just snap her during class? Oh wait, no cell phones).
In between every class that day, she meets up with her friends in the Lincoln High School hallways to visit about how their previous classes went. (Okay mom, you were one of those kids who never went on their phones during class weren’t you? No talking about class during class, huh)?
When the final bell of the day rings, she meets up with Darla one last time to finish out the daily gossip and say goodbye for the night. They talk about their plans for the night, and part ways knowing that they will not be able to talk until the next morning at school. (Must have been rough).
Now let us fast-forward 28 years. I am a senior in high school now, and wow, times look a little different. It is 8:00 am on a Monday morning, and I roll over to shut off the alarm on my phone. The first thing I do is open up Snapchat to see what snaps I missed throughout the night, and to say good morning to my friends. (See what I mean? How did my mom go without a phone? It is what starts my morning routine)!
After that I get dressed in whatever comfy outfit I pick for the day, brush my teeth, and grab some coffee from our Keurig. Or if it is a lucky day, my mom will have bought a Caribou Coffee for me.
Next I head to my room where I flip open my computer for first hour. While waiting for first hour to start, I sip on my coffee and snap my friends again. (If I am being honest, I have probably snapped them five times by that point. I pretty much know what is going on with them 24/7).
Then as first hour is about to start, I log on to our Zoom and spend the next hour and a half listening to a lecture on my computer screen. (Sounds fun, right)? I then repeat this for second hour, and after that comes lunch.
During lunch, I walk from my classroom (bedroom), to the kitchen to grab something to quickly eat. If I do not do that, then it is usually because I have planned to go meet someone for lunch somewhere, mainly to see someone in person and get a change of scenery. (Sitting in your house all day for school may sound great and easy, but trust me when I say it is not).
Following lunch, I sit through two more Zoom classes on my computer. (At this point I sometimes wish we did not have computers).
Once I make it through that, then comes my favorite part of the day: Volleyball practice. Now this is for two reasons. The first being that I simply love volleyball. The second reason is because I get to actually see and be with other people.
Being away from what we used to call “normal school” and “everyday life” is not so great sometimes, especially when I know that this will be my last year getting to experience life as a high schooler.
I can say, though, that I’m thankful for the things we do have, and getting the opportunity to make the best out of our situation. Most days I wish and wish that things could go back to the old normal; however, one thing I know we can be grateful for right now is technology. Technology is what has kept us connected through these tough times. Whether it be staying connected to friends, family, or even school, it has been a key point in staying connected lately.
When I think back to when my mom and anyone before her was in high school, I wonder what their lives would have looked like in a pandemic like this one. I cannot imagine what it would be like if I could not send a quick Snapchat or make a FaceTime call to any of my friends. So although there is a lot of bad going on right now, there are still many things to stay grateful for.
Jennifer Nehring
A Fool-Proof Guide To Surviving High School
1. Playing Hookie
Sometimes we just need a break. It is actually very easy to pretend to be sick. Start by covering your forehead with your hands. Hold them there until your head feels hot, and you feel your palms start to sweat (Yes, I know it sounds gross and uncomfortable, but you have to do what you have to do). Now you are all ready for someone to take your temperature. Boom, you have a fever. DO NOT abuse this newfound trick! This is meant to be used only when you absolutely need a break, and not very often as to not draw attention.
2. Brownie Points
This is a real thing, but it may not be exactly what you think. Brownie points, to me, are anything that helps you to have a better connection with your teacher. It could be a simple gift around the holidays, a thoughtful message to them, or going above and beyond in your effort in their class. This shows that you appreciate their efforts toward teaching. Be careful not to be a know-it-all though. Not only will that irritate the teacher, but it will most likely damage your rapport with your peers.
3. Have Fun
It should be obvious, but we need to remember to spend time doing the things that make us happy. Go out and try something new. Join a club. Start a new hobby. Spend time with friends. Take a trip to nowhere. Yes, schoolwork is still important, but you need to maintain a balance between the things you HAVE to do and the things you WANT to do.
4. Don’t Waste It
As a senior, I can look back at my past years at Lincoln and look at everything I did and will remember. It’s kind of sad to think how fast the time really went by. Seriously, they aren’t kidding when they tell you it’s over before you know it. Make the most out of your high school years! Even though there is something new waiting for you after you graduate, it is important to live in the moment.
Baylie Johnson
It All Started...
Some kids in high school have no idea what they want to do for a career. It’s a big decision to make, and I would probably be in the same position if it wasn’t for a day that I will never forget. My sister won’t forget this day either because it happened to her, so I hope she doesn’t see this.
It all started on a summer day when my family and I were packing for a trip to the lake. Everyone was busy hauling bags to the truck except my youngest sister. She decided that instead of helping she would go play in her outside bounce house. I mean she was like five years old, so who could blame her? But that’s what got her in trouble.
She ran to our garage to plug in the extension cord that was connected to the gigantic bounce house. She managed to plug it in the outlet and started running outside to bounce to her hearts content, but before she was able to reach the sunny outside world, she tripped over the extension cord that ran outside to the bounce house. Now, before I continue, let me tell you that the bottom part of the walls in our garage are made out of cement blocks that jut out about two inches or so. I don’t know the exact measurements because I didn't measure the walls, but, anyway, you can guess where I’m going with this.
She tripped on the extension cord and landed face first on the edge of the cement part of the wall. I remember her walking out of the garage (not crying by the way) and blood was leaking from this hole in the middle of her forehead.
What the heck happened to you in there? Were you attacked by a wild animal? All I could do was stare at her for a second as she stumbled outside looking like someone straight out of a horror movie with blood covering her face and clothes. My mom and I rushed toward her, and that’s when she started bawling her eyes out.
Time seemed to slow down as we rushed her into the house. My mom cleaned her up and had her lay down while she called the hospital.
I sat with my sister for what felt like hours while she sniffled and shook from crying so hard. She finally was able to calm down when I turned on Care Bears. Don’t ask me how I remember that because I was only eight years old, but I do. Anyway that’s not the point, all I had to do was sit there with her and make her feel comfortable and happy besides the fact that she had a hole in her head.
In the end, we got her to the hospital where they stopped the bleeding and glued the hole shut. It’s been almost ten years, and my sister is all healed up, but she still has a little scar that reminds me every day what I want to do with the rest of my life.
I like making people feel better in situations that are scary, and that’s why I want to be a nurse. That one day changed me and led me to realize what I was made to do, and I am grateful that it happened, even though my sister probably doesn’t feel the same.
Ivy Wiggs
Kendra
Being the little sister has its good and bad times, bad times being yelled at because something you didn’t do ended up being your fault, and the good times are having someone to look up to. Ultimately the goods things outweigh the bad.
When my older sister, Kendra, moved out and went to college my sophomore year of high school, I was heartbroken. I had lost my best friend. I didn’t know what my life was going to be like anymore. The one person who always understood my jokes was gone; the one person who always stood up for me was gone.
After a couple of months, I got used to it. We’d still text and send each other funny videos, but even though we kept in touch, it wasn’t the same. The one good thing, though, was that I finally had a bathroom to myself!
When sophomore year was over and Kendra came home for the summer, things were very different. I noticed we weren’t getting along like we used to and times had changed. I missed what our relationship had been before, so when she had to go back to college that fall, I was okay. In some ways that made it easier for me to be okay with her being gone.
Months went by, and once my junior year was almost over, COVID hit us. Kendra was sent home from college and back to living with us, and then I was sent home, and we were stuck with each other all day. By looking at how things went last summer, I would’ve thought that this would blow up in our faces, and it would just be war at home, but everything was normal.
It was like last summer never happened. We were back to being inseparable. Every day we got up and sat on the couch in the living room watching our own shows on different devices, and, trust me, I know it sounds weird, but it was actually the best. We wouldn’t really talk to each other. We’d watch our own shows and enjoy each other's company, and when someone on our shows said something funny, we'd have to show each other.
Kendra is one of the reasons that the quarantine was bearable (the other reason being my dog). Whenever I needed help on school work, Kendra was always there to help me. Whenever I was down, she'd find something that would make me laugh. Kendra is and will always be my best friend.
Kaitlyn Hagevold
Being a senior in high school can be very overwhelming, especially this year. One thing that it feels like is expected out of every senior is knowing what you are going to do for the rest of your life. Now that’s a huge thing to decide at just 17 or 18. It is a hard decision since we are so young and just trying to decide what kind of job we might want and what type of work we might enjoy.
Ever since I was about six years old, I dreamed of becoming a graphic designer. I loved to draw and color. I truly felt like that could be my career. I always had that career set in the back of my head up until about my junior year of high school. It hit me that in a year I would be applying for colleges.
My family and I sat down one night. My parents had talked to some people they knew about the job and what it entails. I soon came to realize a career in graphic design wasn’t a fit for me.
After that conversation, I was lost. I felt like I had a head start on everyone else on knowing the career path I wanted to take. So I kept my eyes open and tried looking at things I was interested in.
Half of my junior year was over with and the second semester had started. I’m not sure if you have heard about CAP (community action program) that Lincoln offers, but that program changed my perspective on things. CAP is an elective class at Lincoln that lets students go out into the community and volunteer at a location for the semester. I chose to go out to Challenger Elementary School. I thought it would be fun to help out with the younger kids. Mr. Lingen, who runs CAP, told us on the way to Challenger on the first day that we would most likely get attached to the class. He had said that most of the students that go out there cry on the last day of CAP.
My first day there I was so nervous to meet the kids. My biggest fear was that the kids would not like me. I was welcomed with open arms, though, and the kids wanted to know all about me. I usually helped the kids with their reading each day, and most of them read books to me.
Soon CAP became the one class I looked forward to every day. I thought I would not get attached to the class, but I was wrong. It was very tough for me when school suddenly shut down because those kids were the highlight of my day. I got the opportunity to Zoom with the class a few times and record myself reading books for them. My last Zoom with them was tough; it was a very sad day for me.
One day during the lockdown, I was talking to my mom about CAP and how much I enjoyed it. She then asked me if I had ever considered being an elementary school teacher. It then hit me: I guess I never have considered that! She knew how I had always wanted to be a graphic designer, but she then said, “if you want a job where you have to be creative, that’s what being a teacher is all about.”
Never in a million years had I thought about becoming a teacher, but here I am applying for college and planning on majoring in Elementary Education. The constant joy the children brought to school every day makes such a positive work environment. I can bring my creativity into the job in multiple different ways. It is not a common job where you do the same exact thing every day. I have found that I communicate with children better than adults. I feel that this career fits me so well. If it was not for Mr. Lingen’s CAP class, I would have never considered teaching. I took this class as a filler class last year, but it turned out to be so much bigger than just a class.
Max Forst
Fear: Friend or Foe?
Fear. It is arguably one of the greatest, yet most awful, things that human nature has given us. It allows us to know when to run away but also keeps us from achieving our goals. It protects us from danger, but it’s sometimes too protective. Fear is a part of all of our lives for a reason. When we are in danger, it helps bring us back to safety, which is why it is a blessing to have it. However, when we have a presentation to do in front of the class, it can feel like a terrible curse.
Fear comes into our lives when we really don’t need it to. It shows up when we want it least. Public speaking, talking to an authority figure, or thinking about the uncertainty of the future can all bring fear into our lives. But we don’t want fear in these situations. Instead, we want to be confident so that we can get the best outcome from each of these situations. We want our speech to sound smooth, our boss to recognize our assertiveness, and our future to be laid out like a map. Nothing ever happens like that though. Why does fear push us around? More importantly, why do we let fear push us around? It may be difficult to understand why, but we still shouldn’t allow it to dominate our lives.
Fear has been a part of us since the very beginning. It is literally hard wired into our DNA. That’s why it is so hard to get rid of. It helped our species to survive for generations because it told us which situations were dangerous and how to avoid them. But that still doesn’t explain why we fear situations with no apparent danger. Last time I checked, there was no hungry lion waiting to eat me as soon as I step to the front of the class to give my presentation. I believe that we fear these kinds of situations, not because we don’t want to be embarrassed, but because we want to be accepted by others. It is human nature to want to fit in because if we don’t we risk our chance of survival by being thrown out of the tribe. Of course, this isn’t true in today’s world, but it could have been a serious problem for people thousands of years ago. Being thrown out of your tribe could possibly mean certain death. We fear standing out or messing up because our ancestors did. Their traits were passed along to us, causing us to fear things we really shouldn’t.
One thing that I believe we all fear is change. New and unfamiliar situations are so uncomfortable because we don’t know what to expect. We are not necessarily prepared for what is to come. We often avoid new situations because of this. Again: Why? Is it because of the same reason I mentioned earlier? It certainly could be; humans are naturally creatures of habit. This means that we stick to our old ways because we know how to do it that way. If we tried a new or different way, we might make a mistake and risk being thrown out of the tribe. However, I believe that it is more along the lines of how we focus on the negative outcomes of these situations. People usually tend to focus on the negative aspects of life without considering how many positive things they actually have. If someone gets into a car crash, they might complain about how bad the situation is, but seeing the positive, that they are still alive, is somewhat difficult. Focusing on the negative will definitely make you fear new situations, but usually, when change occurs it is for the better. We shouldn’t fear change, we should embrace it. New situations may be a little bumpy at first, but in the end, most new situations turn out great. It may be a little difficult to embrace this idea, but change is a good thing, not something we should fear.
While we should thank fear for helping us survive for so long, we shouldn’t let it beat us into submission. If we just believe in ourselves and think confidently, we can walk alongside fear instead of under it. We can make it our ally instead of our enemy. The only thing to fear would be losing it.
Anna Knott
The Breaking Moment
One of my favorite hobbies is known for being a men’s sport. However, the sport of trap is for everyone. Many women shoot traps and are just as skilled as men. I have been shooting for three years now and have learned so much from the people around me and the teachers I have had. I shoot traps every fall, spring, and summer. I have shot many rounds out of my trap gun, but I still get the rush from every shot.
The ridges my fingertips sense as I glide my hand across the chocolate brown stock were placed with love and care. Each hand carved pattern was picked to make the gun. Each part has a very specific purpose. The rush of joy that makes a person shake, surges through my body when I hear the distinctive click of the barrel breaking from the stock.
Everything around me stops. I hear my heart's rhythm throbbing in my neck. The only way I can stop the pounding is by placing my rosy red cheek up against the stock that is molded to my facial features. As I press my heavy head against the stock, I line my eyes with the pearly white bead. When my eyes focus on the tiny bead and my finger finds its way to the trigger, all my thoughts are dropped into the empty space around me. BANG!
The world stops, and the gunpowder begins to waft out of the hot barrel, and my nose begins to wrinkle when it reaches my steady face.
I am sad to say that this year is my last year shooting for the high school trap team. As I graduate from this team, I will never forget the memories and the skills I have learned. I now know that I should cherish every moment, no matter the size because I will miss the chance to spend every Sunday afternoon walking down to the house to loaded clays, carrying buckets of shells to the garbage cans and getting the chance to learn how to score.
Sam Zaviska
What a Year
This sure is a unique year. I remember back in March, getting an extra long spring break, and then all of a sudden it’s September! The year has felt slow and fast at the same time, and now school is starting again. One question I’ve recently been asked a lot is, “What is school like now?”
Well, it looks very different, but it’s still school. I go in to the school building only every third day, and on my at-home school days, I attend class virtually, on the same daily schedule. A third of the kids are in class, and the rest are on a video call. The teacher goes through their lesson as much like normal as they can, and we all do the same assignment for the day.
The most different class I’m in is band. For the first couple of weeks, we have just been drumming and doing other percussion things. But, now the musicians’ masks our teacher ordered arrived, so we’ll be starting actually playing together again, as much as we can. The masks have a little slit in them so we can play, and when we’re not playing, they still cover the face. Our teacher is doing a great job of making class interesting and fun. We don’t know what our performances will look like yet, but time will tell.
The school in general looks different too. Everyone’s faces are covered and all the chairs have been spaced out so that everyone is seated at a distance. The one thing I really noticed my first day in the school was how quiet it was. Normally high schoolers are loud and teachers have to ask them to keep quiet, but with everything different, not many people felt like saying much. Now, though, two weeks in, people are getting more comfortable, and the school is sounding closer to normal.
We’re still having Homecoming, but it will look different and not have all the usual activities. Other events throughout the year are still pending whatever the circumstances are closer to the times they are.
Hopefully, by graduation time, things will be back to normal. Last year’s graduation was much less formal, but our associate principal said she liked it more because it was more personal. Only time will tell how the rest of the year will continue to look, but it will certainly be a unique senior year.
Abigail Molstad
The Rainbow After The Storm
Rainbow baby: having a healthy baby after a miscarriage, stillbirth, infant loss, or neonatal death. This term symbolizes a rainbow after a storm; I am a rainbow baby.
On August 31, 2000 my sister, Victoria Paige Molstad, was born in Grand Forks, ND. Immediately after birth, she had many life threatening complications, one in particular being Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT) . This was caused by the defect in the electrical impulses within the heart and results in an irregular and rapid heart beat.
She was airlifted to Fargo and from then on my family constantly worried about her. Along her journey of life, she had many doctors appointments and spent many weeks in the hospital, all due to the complications she was facing. Seven and a half months later, she passed away in her dad’s arms unexpectedly, and when I say unexpectedly, my parents always knew she may not have a lot of time left on earth, but no matter how much you try to prepare yourself, it’s always a shock when it happens.
Fast forward three years, and my mom was in the same spot in Grand Forks with a baby due in two days. You can imagine the things that would be going through a parent’s mind after having already lost a baby! The doctors and nurses came in to monitor my heart beat and saw how some of the readings on the fetal monitor were good, but others weren’t the best, so they sought best to deliver me that day, July 9, 2003.
As they were performing the c-section, they noticed the cord was wrapped around my neck. If they had waited any longer, my mom’s contractions could have suffocated me. When the nurses brought me to my mom for the first time, they all were crying because they knew what my mom had gone through before and were so happy I was healthy. This leads me to believe that God and my sister were looking out for all of us that day.
It's crazy having a sister I don’t know. I’ve heard stories and seen pictures. Yet, I have no true connection to this sister of mine. I only have ideas of what she was like and maybe would be like today. My family members talk about her at times and talk about the memories they have of her. Even my oldest sister has some vivid memories of her and she has pictures with her yet all I get are stories.
We visit her every year on her birthday, Christmas, and other special occasions and never leave until we blow her a kiss and tell her we love her. It's strange how you can love someone you have never met, yet I’m here to say it’s possible. I’m happy I could be my parents rainbow after the storm, and I’m happy I have someone always watching over me from above.
2019/2020 School Year Columns
Madelynn Dakken
Should Speech Be Considered a Sport? Absolutely
Speech has been a huge part of my life since 6th grade. I have woken up every Saturday at around 4 am, curled my hair, put on my uniform and headed to get on the bus where we would spend a few hours on until we got to the competition. We would spend those hours practicing and getting prepared for the meet where we would spend all day competing, usually in three rounds and then finals. We all did this because it was fun, and we enjoyed it.
When filling out scholarships, I soon found out that I could not say I have lettered in a sport because Speech is not considered one. This got me thinking, why isn't it?
The definition of a sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against others for entertainment. The trouble is that, well, it is easy to define a sport as something that contains physical activity, what degree of physical activity is necessary to call something a sport? Most of my teammates, including me, get sweaty when performing their speeches, is that enough?
Sports these days are becoming open-ended with gaming now being considered an e-sport, so that means that physical activity is not actually required to call something a sport. But that is not the only reason that people argue it is not a sport.
If someone were to watch a speech round, even if they knew the rules, they would have no concrete idea who won. This is the opposite of games like soccer where everyone in the audience knows who is winning and when. The problem is that in speech the winner of a round is chosen through subjective and opinionated judging. This argument is not valid because sports like skating, synchronized swimming, cheerleading, dance, and many others chose winners based on subjective judges. So requiring subjective judgments doesn't mean it is not a sport, so what is the reason?
When joining speech, you have to pay the exact same as any other sport besides hockey. If you look in the LHS Student Handbook, on page 23, speech is the only item listed that is not a sport. We have to pay the same amount as any other sport, yet we are not considered one? That simply does not make sense.
The Minnesota High School League even categorizes speech under fine arts, yet we have to follow the same rules as Minnesota High School League sports, why?
The truth is that I do not know the true reason why speech is not considered a sport and would like to know why because there seems to be no reason why it can't be considered a sport. The most important aspects of sports are fairness, respect towards opponents and teammates, competition, and rules. Speech has all of that and more.
We put our hearts and souls into practicing and competing. Our team is just like any other sports team out there but we are not allowed to say we are in a sport. We do almost everything a regular sports team does, so why should we be limited by just being an activity?
Jerzie Finstad
Who is your biggest influence? It’s such a simple question, but the answer isn’t. Sometimes it is not a person, but rather something you experienced. Mine happens to be both.
The first time I walked into Marica Knuttila’s piano studio, I was three years old. At first, it was easy. Learning the keys, then learning how to count said note. Easy. Or so I thought.
I came back every week to get better, and I did. But, it only got more and more difficult. Piece after piece, late night after late night, led to many tears of frustration. Why can’t I get this after a few tries? Marcia, or as I call her, Ms. K, always made it ten times easier.
There were times, I simply could not figure out how to play a measure. A few days later I would go to her house for my lesson and suddenly I got it. Like she says, “it’s always easier next to me, isn’t it?” She couldn’t be more right.
If you know Ms. K, you know that she is one of a kind. Her love and support is like no other. No matter who you are, once you walk through her doors, you are instantly loved and accepted.
Yes, every one of her students goes to her because she is an incredible piano teacher, but she’s also all of her students' role models. She has taught all of us how to stay positive in times that don’t seem to have any positivity within it. She has taught us that everyone is equal and nothing can change that. Yes, Ms. K has taught me how to play piano, but she has taught me more life lessons that I could’ve ever imagined. And for that I am grateful!
Ms. K, thank you for teaching me piano and the world doesn’t revolve around us (even though we want it to). Thank you for teaching me to stand up for what I believe. For acknowledging that sometimes tears are necessary, and when you finally succeed, celebrating is just as necessary. Thank you for also teaching me what kind of teacher I want to be when I graduate college.
Finally, thank you for letting me be a part of your life (and the studio) for the past 15 years. I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’ll love you forever and always.
Will Johnson
My Guitars
We can all say that this year has been pretty weird. We have been stuck inside for a while now, but I don’t believe that was a setback for me. To be honest, I have never been better at doing my school work before it was due. I always want to look at the bright side of things. Although I won’t be having a true graduation this year, I am not too mad about it.
Over these past weeks I have really been working on my skills on my guitars. Being inside basically all day has really allowed me to practice on my guitars. Right now, I have six guitars, a ukulele, and a mandolin. I have been playing guitar now for almost five years, and I won’t be stopping anytime soon.
My passion for playing my guitar just keeps growing. The guitar is something that you can always get better at. Even professional guitarists need to practice. Before this whole pandemic I used to be able to go to my grandmas’ houses and play for them. My grandmas love music, but because of this virus, I no longer can go into the same house as them. I thought of an idea.
Modern day problems require modern day solutions. Both of my Grandmas have iPad, and I thought, what if I could teach them how to Zoom? I spent an hour on the phone with my grandmas since I had to teach them how to Zoom. It took a while, but we sort of got it. Now I can play the guitar for my grandmas and they don’t have to leave their house, it’s a win-win.
My dad was the original reason I wanted to play the guitar. When I was very young, my dad had a guitar that he played for us. After my brother and I grew up, he stopped playing in hopes that one of us would pick it up. I never did, and my brother never did. During my eighth grade year, I was signing up for freshman classes. I noticed something: Beginners guitar, a new class that Mrs. Hahn the band teacher was giving, so I took it.
During that summer in between my eighth and ninth grade year, my dad bought me my very own guitar. It was a blaze orange Fender T Bucket. We got the guitar at a music store that is now closed in the Columbia Mall. Ever since then, I have bought every guitar, except one, for myself. I have tons of time and money invested in my guitar collection. My passion for guitars has really grown and it will keep growing.
Khloe Lund
My People
Going to college soon, I look back to see how thankful I am to have grown up with such a supportive family. From my parents to siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and my amazing grandparents, there was never a time that someone was not there.
I cannot fully express all the support my parents have given me while growing up, whether it be in life or sports. My mom, whether it was dropping me off at 5am or picking me up at midnight, was always there on time. My dad, on the other hand, well, if you know my dad, you would also know it was a 50/50 shot if he would remember! My parents continuously put up with hundreds of trips to the cities over the past ten years for my tournaments, even if by Sunday night, around those last 45 minutes from Erskine, we were all ready to kick each other out the door. I would not be where I am today without them constantly being there for me and pushing me to be better.
If I looked straight up from sitting in the hockey box, I knew I would see my grandparents, and if I looked to the right, under the Canadian flag, I would always see my other grandparents. I am beyond blessed to have support from all sides, and if they were not in attendance, I knew they would surely be listening. You could not stop my grandpa, Warren, from coming along to travel all the miles with us. Over the years, no matter what sport, I always know he is there. He and I have shared a lot of back seat rides that mostly included laughing at my parents. I will forever be grateful for all he has done for me.
My crazy, loving aunts and uncles have always been there to spice up my life, and I could not imagine it any other way. They always have been so caring and always the loudest ones cheering. Through all the busyness they remind me to have fun and not always take life so seriously.
With all that being said thank you to each and every one of my family members for being my biggest fans and support system over all the years. It does not go unnoticed. I know that it will not change, and you will continue to show support however you can when I am in college. I would not be the same person I am today without all your love and giving. So I love you all and, above all, thank you.
Ciera Kotaska
Nature Beats Coronavirus
The Coronavirus seems to have everyone down in the dumps right now. That sort of stinks for me because I want to find something to bring some light back into our community’s life. After racking my brain for a while, I figured using the main concept from a recent speech would be a good way to do it.
Although the Coronavirus seems like a terrible thing right now, maybe it is more beneficial than we realize. For example, in large metro centers, the air is cleaner. In China, the epicenter of this entire Coronavirus outbreak, air pollution has dropped due to the government locking their country down. That means, for now at least, the number of people who survived with the reduced air pollution actually outweighs the number of deaths that the virus has caused. This reduction in air pollution is happening in America, too. Up here, our so-called “metro” area is Grand Forks, which really isn’t all that big. Once you get into the true metro areas, like New York City, Denver, Los Angeles, and Dallas, you have to deal with a lot more air pollution than we do up here. The Coronavirus has locked us all away in our homes. Yes, this isn’t great; however, the reduction in air pollution is astronomical. The Denver-metro area has what they call a “brown cloud,” which is all of the air pollutions from the vehicles in the area as it reaches the top of the Rocky Mountains. As of a couple of weeks ago, that cloud was nearly gone.
This virus, as much as I want it gone, is really a blessing in disguise. Our air pollution is dissipating, which in turn, will allow for cleaner water. More plants and plant species will follow the cleaner water, which will lead to more habitat for animals, and so on and so forth. The longer this is around, which I really do hope isn’t long, the more time nature has to heal itself, which in turn, will allow us to live in a healthier environment in the future.
Considering the fact that without nature, we will not survive, it is only fair that we ride out this disease in order for nature to heal. Within the last 50 years humans have had a very devastating impact on nature all around the world: trees have been getting cut down faster than they can regrow, animal species have gone extinct, and the biggest human impact of all, and the incredible loss of habitat for animals all over the globe. It is interesting to see – with humans sheltering in their homes – how animals have begun to take their habitats back.
In Japan, deer are dependent upon the tourists who travel there. The tourists buy little treats to feed the deer, which have been drawn to the area because they have a steady supply of food. Now that food source is just up and gone, the deer are traveling farther into the cities trying to find some sort of food to eat. There is a similar situation in Thailand with wild monkeys. The monkeys have been roaming the streets in search of food, which they once got from the alley dumpsters behind restaurants, hotels, and other large buildings.
With all of these things happening around the world, all we are able to do is to just stand by. One of my favorite quotes that aligns with my thoughts on this comes from Marie Quinney: “Although [this is] a devastating example, this crisis has illustrated the potential of political will and collective action, as well as how quickly nature can heal if only we let it.” Nature will heal the longer we let it. If we don’t let it, we might end up paying for it in the long run, and I know that I don’t want to see what would happen then.
Jordan Naslund
Role Models
Throughout my years of high school one of the questions I am most often asked (behind “What do you what to do when you are older?”) is who inspires you or who do you look up to the most? Whenever I am asked this question, the first people to pop into my head are my older brother and sister, Nick and Taylor.
Ever since I was a little kid, I have always remembered them being there for me. Looking back on it now was pretty incredible because at the time they were both going through either high school or college and then starting their own lives, but they always seemed to make time for me, the annoying youngest sister. Even now that they have started their own families, they still make it to a basketball game or a voice recital here and there, not to mention all the four-wheeler rides with my brother or the horror movie nights with my sister when I visit them. They have always been so supportive of me and what I want to do. So much so that some of the things I do now are because of them.
When I first signed up to play basketball, it was because Nick played, and I wanted to be like him. I also remember the first time I looked up a hair braiding tutorial so that I could learn to do it for my sister because she liked doing my hair or dressing me up. As we got older, they left for college or work, and it was a bit hard to see them go. If I would have had it my way, they would have stayed right there at home with me, but I’m sure that's what every younger sibling wants. You want to fight them when they’re there, but you sure miss them a lot when they are gone.
However, we visit whenever we can, and it’s always the best time. Because now it’s not only my brother and sister I am looking forward to seeing, it’s now my brother and sister-in-law I get to hang out with (I pretty much consider them to be an older brother and sister too) and my five little nieces and nephews. And even with all the chaos of having their own families and jobs, they always make time for me, whether that’s talking over the phone, texting funny memes to each other, or when we visit we find something for us to do.
My brother and sister have inspired me to do so many different things in my life and that is why when I asked who I look up to the most it’s always going to be my brother and sister.
Molly Halsa
We’re All in This Together
I have had a lot of time on my hands recently due to the CoronaVirus break. So I decided to reminisce a little bit on my childhood with some old Disney movies and TT shows. Little did I know that would end up sparking quite a few emotions.
I started off with the classics: Boy Meets World, 10 Things I Hate About You, Lemonade Mouth, and Hannah Montana. I then got to the High School Musical trilogy. The High School Musical series were my all-time favorite movies until about the age of 13. I always imagined my high school years compared to theirs, with the exception of singing. I imagined going to my first athletic events, prom, graduation and so on.
Watching the first two movies was very easy for me. I jammed out to all of the songs. I maybe even danced a little bit. It made me think of when I was in elementary school watching the first High School Musical. I have vague memories of wanting to watch it every day, and I pretty much did (sorry Mom). I always wanted to be Gabriella. She was my favorite and had the best solo songs, and got Troy, of course.
Now sitting down and watching High School Musical 3: Senior Year ss the one that made me emotional. It is finally me. I am a senior. And the worst part is I might not get those same experiences they did in the film because of the CoronaVirus. I might not get to have my senior prom and get dressed up and dance the night away with all of my favorite people. I might not get the opportunity to walk across the graduation stage and get my diploma. I might not get to walk through those big glass doors for the last time with all of my best friends by my side.
For my 13 years of schooling, graduation is the thing I have been looking forward to. I will still graduate, but it will not be the same not getting to walk across that stage to shake Mr. Brekke’s and Mrs.Weet’s hands and knowing that all this hard work that I have put forth for these past 13 years might not happen.
Whether this year ends in graduation and prom or not, I will never forget it and the rest of my high school experience. I have had the best friends, teachers, and coaches that I could ask for. They have been so supportive in everything I have done and have helped me achieve so much. I would not change anything for the world.
Miah Nelson
Give a Little
About a year ago, I applied to be a mentor in the Little Brother Little Sister program. This is an act of service I have decided to commit to. I heard about this program through a friend who was enrolled in the program and still is! I am grateful that she introduced me to the program because it is one of the greatest things I’ve been a part of.
When a person first applies to the program, your application is reviewed to see if you would be a good match with someone in the program. Shortly after I applied, I got a call back saying they would like to meet with me.
I then got matched with a young girl in the community. The matches are mainly based on interests. Clearly, we had a lot in common to be matched up. My little sister and I both love attending sporting events, going out to eat, and watching movies. A special interest we both have is the Mexican restaurant in town. It is our favorite place to eat, and we go there quite often!
One time in particular stands out the most among all the other times I've been with my little sister. This was earlier this year when all the people in the Little Brother/Little Sister program met up at the movie theater to watch a movie. At the movie that night there were a little under 20 mentors with their little brothers and sisters. This made me realize the generosity and kindness this town has. I have never met up with all the people involved in the program, so I didn't know what to expect. But I saw young mentors and older mentors, some mentors with even two mentees. I was so happy to be a part of such a good program and to be experiencing it with such good people. That night made me realize that there are so many ways to help people, and it's the little things/ moments that count. Some people never get the chance to go to a movie, or get out of the house at all. It only takes a few hours of your day, once a week or even a few times a month, to make someone's life a little bit better.
Being part of the program has made me a better person, and has given me a different outlook on life. I am more appreciative and grateful for what I have, and have become more patient and understanding of people and their situations, because you truly don’t know what's going on in anyone's life. I am proud to be a part of such a great program and to be matched with such an awesome kid.
Tia Petrescue
Just Like Family
I'm in a unique situation as I have dual citizenship. I am an American citizen and a Canadian citizen. While my real grandparents live in Canada, I only get to see them a few times a year at Christmas, Easter, and sometimes in the summer. It gets hard not being able to see them all the time. Most people here have grandparents living here, so they can see whenever they want, but mine live almost eight hours away in Canada.
This school year I have been interning at Styles by Amy. Every Friday Amy's mom, Marky Van De Streek, or as I call her, grandma Marky, comes in and helps. I have gotten really close with her. We go shopping, eat together, I get her coffee or really whatever she wants at the time, and I go see her at her apartment at Skylite Apartments. I've helped her do laundry, clean up, and move things she is unable to. I have truly adopted her as my third grandma.
She is the most selfless, kind, loving, goofy, genuine person I've ever met. That is why I love her so much. If she needs anything, I do it. If she wants anything, I get it. She means the world to me. I think of her as family and nothing else.
Marky has gone through three types of cancer and has beaten them all. She recently was diagnosed with skin cancer and is having surgery to remove it very soon. I know she will beat it; she always does. She is the strongest person I know and has beaten the odds of each cancer and has survived. No matter what gets in her way, she fights through.
I can't even express how much she means to me. She has taught me to love everyone no matter who they are, work hard at everything you do, stay strong, no matter what is thrown at you, be kind, and always laugh. She always is making jokes at the beauty shop and makes everyone laugh. She chit chats with everyone, no matter if she knows them or not. That's just the type of person she is. She radiates so much kind and loving energy, no matter where she is. That's one of the things I love most about her.
Shopping with Marky is the most fun, though. She has to look at everything in the store; it's so funny. We think we'll be in the store for 15 minutes, but, realistically, we will spend like an hour in the store, and then we spend more than we wanted to. It doesn't bother me because it makes her happy and that's all I want. If I could, I would go shopping every day with her. I love spending time with her.
Marky is the best third grandma ever, and I couldn't have picked anyone better than her to treat me like her own granddaughter. She is so sweet to me and loves me for who I am, and that is why I love her so much.
Noah Rupprecht
What Am I Gonna Do Now?
This past week has been one of the craziest and unfortunate weeks of my life. It’s all because of that one strange tiny infectious agent, COVID-19 or as we know it, Coronavirus. There’s no question that it’s not only nationwide but also worldwide. While travel over to Europe has been cancelled, and colleges around the U.S. announcing closure last week as well, I still had my whole week and month planned out.
I still could watch all the sporting events on TV. From NHL games every night to college hockey, as they start their conference tournaments, on the weekends. Even I was even looking forward to tuning in to watch college basketball the last couple of weeks before March Madness would begin. A few weeks ago, I watched all the top 25 college basketball teams and some potential dark horses for the upcoming tournament. I listened to podcasts, watched highlights, and switched from game to game on the TV. I knew what teams were overrated, struggling, and streaking with wins during the right time of the year. So basically, I was going to have the first ever verified perfect bracket because I’m a Bracketology major and expert.
Everything was going as planned until Coronavirus had other plans, which was pretty much destroyed my whole month of March. First, it started with the Ivy League announcing it would cancel the basketball tournaments, so the best regular season team would get a bid into the NCAA tournament. Then, the NCAA made the decision to have no fans at their tournaments, but at least the public could still watch on TV.
I saw that the NBS suspended the rest of their season, which was fine since I’m not a huge NBA fan anyway. What really hit me hard, though, was then the NHL paused their season. Then to make matters worse, all NCAA tournaments were cancelled, including the Frozen Four and March Madness.
At least I had one more option: The Masters, which would be played in April. Well, that was just postponed too!
While all these cities have lost millions of dollars because of Coronavirus, I lost my heart and soul, due to a microscopic organism that somehow lives on the countertop for 14 days. Spray that bad boy with bleach!
Marisa Jesme
Little Brother/ Little Sister Program
I am Marisa Jesme. I am 18 years old, and I am a senior at Lincoln High school. If you are looking for an activity that is rewarding, join the Little Brother/ Little Sister program.
I became a mentor in the Little Brother/Little Sister program at the end of Freshman year in May, and still am a mentor today to the same girl. To enter the program, one must be 17 years old or older; however, they let me join at 15 due to them being short mentors.
Our community is always in need of help for our little ones, and the kids really appreciate it. So, I decided I wanted to be a mentor because I have always wanted a little sister. The director of the program matches you with a kid with a similar personality and likes, so you can have an easier time connecting and doing activities.
I got matched with a girl named Bethany. Bethany was in third grade when we met and now she is in sixth grade. Bethany and I go with each other once a week for a few hours, every week, unless one of us is on a trip, sick, or both too busy. But it is really rare if we do not see each other once a week. We do a different activity every week. We go bowling, watch a movie, make a craft, baking, go out to eat, go to the park, ect. Every time we go out in public, people. think we are siblings because we actually look alike. When someone asks if we are siblings or refers to her as my little sister, we both just look at each other and smile.
Being a mentor helped me gain responsibility in time management and being a good role model. Having a child look up to me for three years made me make sure I always make the right decision. It also makes me feel good about myself knowing that I am a person she can talk to about her week. Knowing I am making a difference in someone’s life is one of the reasons I am a mentor, plus the relationship I have gained with her.
If you are interested in making a difference in not only your life but also the child of. A child (and their family’s) I advise you to become a mentor through this amazing program because the benefits are really rewarding. Even if you are a busy person ,you can still join this program because all you need is four hours a month with your little, and you would already make a difference in the child’s life and our community.
Gunner Zutz
Kobe Bean Bryant
Growing up, I was always a LeBron fan and was too young to appreciate how much Kobe Bryant did for the game of basketball. After Kobe's passing, I was shocked that someone who was beginning their life after basketball could die so suddenly. When I heard of the news, I was at basketball practice, and everyone else was just as stunned as I was.
Kobe was on his way to his daughter's practice before the helicopter went down. He showed everyone how a great father was supposed to be. When Kobe retired, he was still good enough to play in the league but stepped away from basketball so he could spend more time with his kids and family.
When people talk about "mamba mentality," they are describing Kobe’s insane work ethic from showing up to the gym at 5 a.m. when the Lakers practiced at noon. Right after the Lakers won the championship in 2010, Kobe’s trainer said that while the rest of his team was out celebrating, Kobe texted him and asked if he could go rebound for him to get some extra shots up. Kobe was somebody so dedicated to the game of basketball that after achieving the highest honor you can get (the NBA championship), the first thing he thought to do was to get back in the gym so he could get better.
Kobe has taught me so much from giving everything you have at all times, to realizing the important things in life such as your family. I remember reading on how Kobe was upset with the starters effort, so he asked the backup players to play with him on a 5 on 5 game, then went on to beat them. Kobe gave it his all, all the time. No one ever had to question whether Kobe was going to be ready for a game because he was always prepared.
If I could take one thing from Kobe Bryant, it would be his ability to make everyone around him better. Kobe’s presence made you want to get better every single day. Kobe once said, "I'll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it's sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot." He didn't care about scoring titles or winning MVP because, at the end of the day, all he wanted was to come out on top and win another championship.
Ava Sturgeon
What Comes Next
As the third quarter of my senior year comes to an end, the number of times I will get asked what my plans are for next year will double if not triple. There are 95 days left until graduation, and I still have yet to come up with an answer.
Living in the small town of Thief River Falls, what comes next is always a toss up. Some of us want to get as far away as possible and see what bigger cities have to offer. While others enjoy the comfort of being close to the things that they grew up with and know. I’m stuck between both.
As a kid I always told my family I was going far away for school and would never look back, but as I got older, I learned to appreciate that little things Thief River Falls has to offer. The support of the community is never ending and holds no boundaries, such as the amazing sports facilities such as The Ralph, and you can’t forget the best breakfast money can buy at Biff's.
College puts a lot of pressure on kids not only deciding where to go or what to major in, but also the pressure that you have to go to school and a four year degree that is the right path for you. I am thankful that living in Thief River Falls has taught me many things. I have learned from some amazing teachers at Lincoln to put forth the effort in my education and from previous hockey coaches to never get discouraged from a challenge.
I think the one thing that has impacted me the most from growing up here that will influence my answer is all the different activities I got to experience. Some may say that it’s a little boring here, but when I look back on all I have done from going to hockey games, snowmobiling, and ice fishing in the winter, to rodeo, golfing, and maybe or maybe not a time or to bridge jumping, I have experienced a lot and have found the things I love in life.
I don’t have an answer to what my plans will be next year, but I know wherever I end up I will be able to succeed because of where I came from and the lessons I've learned.
Casey Hiemstra
Happy Color
Imagine a world full of vibrant colors, landscapes, exploration, and adventures. If you happened to stumble upon the app titled Happy Color, you would find just that. Happy Color is an online, color-by-number app that you can download for free on virtually any mobile device.
Everyone has done a color-by-number coloring sheet. This app just brings that to the virtual world. This may sound boring and trivial, but it is quite the opposite. With thousands of images to color, several achievements, and many goals, this game has practically endless content. If you don’t like an image, there is another one available on the app that would interest you.
Working towards achievements is also a fun way to spend time on the app. When you complete achievements, you can claim even more pictures to color! The app also offers a daily picture that you can color each day. With 29 different categories of pictures to color, you’ll never be bored.
I personally love to use this app to destress and reduce anxiety. Coloring has been scientifically proven to be a good coping mechanism for stress and anxiety. This app is a perfect outlet for such. If you are ever stressed about anything, this app is the perfect place to go. The great thing about this app is that it is relaxing. You don’t need to play it just to calm down, you can play it for fun as well. You can spend hours playing this app, and it is totally healthy. I would even recommend doing so if you are having a bad day.
I showed this app to my mother over a year ago, and she has been hooked ever since. My mother loves this app for all of the reasons I previously mentioned. When my mother has free time, which is rare because she is always working so hard, we like to sit down with each other and color while chatting. We can talk about anything, our everyday lives, how close we are to obtaining achievements, or anything else we want. Sometimes we enjoy just making some sizzling hot chocolate, turning the lights off, and coloring together. This app is great for sitting down and spending time with loved ones.
In all, I would recommend this app to anyone. It’s a beautiful app that can be used for relaxation, fun, and spending time with others. There is virtually no downside to downloading this app and trying it out for yourself. It’s free, and there are many different ways to have fun playing the app; you can play for yourself to find out which way suits you.
Anya Gangl
My Extraordinary Opportunity
I always hear kids in high school say that they don’t want to “adult” or take on the responsibilities that adults do. That’s not the case with me. Honestly, I cannot wait to become an adult. I can’t wait to discover new things about myself and meet many new people along my journey. I think becoming an adult is something that is very powerful to an individual because they can make their own decisions, take on new challenges, grow, and become whoever or whatever they choose to be. One major experience that has been a huge opportunity for me to become more independent and find what I want to do in the world was accepting my first part-time job.
I was offered a part-time job at an accounting firm in town. I did not think that I would enjoy it as much as I do now. Over the span of a week of deciding, I became more and more excited about this job. I was not sure if it was just my nervous nerves or because I was actually interested in the job. After some time thinking about it, I finally decided that this could be a great opportunity for me to really see if I like accounting or not. I had no idea what was going to happen next or how I would handle my future experiences. I figured that if this is something that I’m really scared and also excited about I should grab a hold of this opportunity and see where it takes me. This is really surprising to me because I have not felt this excited about something in a really really long time. Well, except for when I first got into my art and music hobbies when I was younger. It has been a while since second grade though.
This opportunity was new and, at the time, felt like it was a completely different plane of existence to me than what I was comfortable with. The next week I then called my future employer and accepted the job. After my first day of work, I could hardly keep myself from smiling. I actually found something that was interesting and gave me so much joy. I did not even know what I was experiencing at that moment. For the first time in my life, I took up an opportunity and decided that I am going to do this for me. Just from this small experience, I learned to take up opportunities even if they don’t work out and see where it could lead me. Since that first day of work, I have enjoyed every minute of it and look forward to work every day after school.
Jadeann Forsberg
To the Teachers Who Didn’t Give Up
School is not my strong suit. You may be wondering, then, how it is that I’m writing a column for the newspaper as part of an assignment for my College in the High School College Composition II class?
For as long as I can remember, I haven’t enjoyed coming to school. I can count a few times I told my mom I was sick or pretended to fall asleep on our entryway steps waiting for the bus so I could stay home! I thought those attempts were pretty clever back then.
Something changed, though, when I came to Lincoln. My time at Lincoln has been interesting. I seem to have made so many memories here. I’ve had ups and downs in high school, like everyone. There is one difference here, though: the staff.
I think a few teachers could have easily given up on trying to teach me and just scooted me along to be a problem for the teachers next year. I wouldn’t say I am an outstanding student by any means – I struggle mightily in math, for example. However, I do owe some teachers for their never ending gratitude.
My 9th grade English teacher, Mrs. Wagner, without a doubt has had the most impact on me. She never failed to take a lesson and change wording to help a student understand. Mrs. Wagner’s class was very fun. She is a very fun person and that translated to her lessons. Mrs. Wagner is also incredibly understanding and truly is one of those teachers that doesn’t leave a single student behind. I owe Mrs. Wagner for encouraging me to become involved in things as well. As a sophomore, I took her creative writing class. There were only three of us. This class really inspired me to get more into writing, but that inspiration doesn’t stop there. At one point in the quarter, Mrs. Wagner, out of the blue asked, “Jadeann, are you taking College Comp next year?” I told her no. I thought, me taking a college class? Yeah right, I wasn’t cut out for that. Her reaction was small but impactful, “Oh, I thought maybe you would have.” I knew she saw potential in me in that moment. I made the decision to take the accuplacer and try get into College Comp. If she had given up on me in 9th grade or didn’t ask me if I was taking College Comp, I wouldn’t have even tried. If it wasn’t for Mrs. Wagner, I wouldn’t have realized my own potential.
I somehow managed to get into College Comp my junior year. As a senior I am now in College Comp II with a cool teacher named Kurt. Sadly, this Kurt’s last name is not Cobain; however, he is also right up there on the cool scale. Mr. Reynolds has to be one of the best teachers I have encountered. Mr. Reynolds doesn’t give up on his students and is a truly caring. He is just one of those teachers that it is hard not to develop a relationship with. Without Mr. Reynolds, I would have thought college would have never even been an option.
There are two other teachers as well who have had incredible impacts on me. My art teacher, Mr. Youngblom, and my science teacher, Mr. Hams. Those two deserve a paper each on their impacts on students!
So how did I almost fail my math classes and get into a college class? Easy. Teachers didn’t give up on me, so this is to the teachers who don’t give up on their students. Keep doing what you do best! Your work matters.
Elaina Knott
What is Passion Anyway?
Ever since I was able to comprehend the English language, I have heard one word over and over and over. I was promised multiple times that this word was the key to a successful and happy life. That word was passion.
Now passion is something that is defined as intense feelings of emotion. That’s not something a teenager should be feeling right?
When I think of it, passion is something people over 45 can get. I thought of it sort of like the flu: you might catch it but you might not.
Passion takes time. Passion takes money. Passion takes serious thought. My planner, bank account, and current life plans (college, car, insurance, etc.) can confirm without a doubt, passion is certainly not for teenagers.
When I was in 9th grade, I wandered my way into room 135 at Lincoln High School. I awkwardly waltzed my way to the desk of a teacher named Mrs. Shaw. See, Shaw is unlike any other teacher in the Thief River Falls school district. It is her job to teach the youth of our school about agriculture.
Now, you may be thinking, well that is not as different as other teachers. Each teacher has a specific area that they specialize in, for example, English, math, science, etc. However, I will argue, that agriculture teachers have the most diverse area of study. They not only have to teach youth about cows, corn, and combines, but they also have to cover areas such as economics, science, and public relations. I guess agriculture teachers need to know everything because agriculture is everything: your clothing, your shelter, your food, your phone, your car, your family, your T.V., your fridge, even the air you breathe is connected to agriculture, but that’s another article for another day.
Anyway, back to my 9th-grade year. Later on that year, I accidentally walked into room 135 during what seemed to be a meeting. Oh boy. BIGGEST MISTAKE of my life. What I had walked into was an FFA chapter officer interview committee. I did an about-turn to leave when Shaw changed my life forever. She may have metaphorically grabbed me by my shirt and belt and threw me over the edge of the canyon that is the National FFA. Boom. Simple as that.
I fell in love. Well, it wasn’t that fast. But over the span of three years, I changed my plans from wanting to be an orthopedic surgeon to wanting to be a large animal vet to my current major: Agriculture Education with a minor in Animal Science at the University of Minnesota Crookston, and boy am I excited.
So back to passion. When I’m asked what my passions are, I always say agriculture and people. Now if you have ever chatted with me, you most likely already know this, due to my ability to talk continuously about FFA or, my most popular topic, chickens. I love being a member of the National FFA (previously known as Future Farmers of America), and I love being around and sharing with people. But there is something that distinguishes love and passion. Love is a loose word in today’s society but passion is not. You don’t hear people say, “I have such a passion for the Minnesota Vikings!” Instead, you hear people say, “I love the Minnesota Vikings!” (Although I don’t know why one would after the way they’ve been playing lately).
Passion has extra feelings that you don’t feel when you only love something. Passion brings forth feelings that make your heart beat faster and your mind feels weightless. Passion is a state of being that pushes one to go above and beyond for the thing(s) they are passionate about.
I know these feelings first hand and that is how I know I have found my passion. They say if you love your job, you’ll never work a day in your life. But even better, if your passions are incorporated into your job, you truly will never work a day in your life.
So now I am reaching a chapter in my life where I am free to act upon those passions. I can confirm that passion is for anyone, including teenagers. It is never too early, nor too late, to find what makes you live life to the fullest. I found mine, and you can find yours. Mine just happens to be teaching people about cows, plows, and sows. I couldn’t be happier.
Tyler Kalvoda
With the weather getting colder and the nights getting longer, the holiday season is upon us. Holiday seasons mean any things to people. Some like the holiday season for the break from school, others like it for the music and food. I personally like the holiday season because of the holiday traditions my family has.
As a kid, I have fond memories of going outside and getting excited from seeing the first snow of the season. The first snow brought with it many things: Christmas, snow to play in, and my family baking cookies for the first snow. The type of cookies vary, but they were typically sugar cookies with frosting on top. This tradition isn’t very big and elaborate, but it’s the small things like this that will mean a lot to me when I move away from home and look back at what my family and I have done.
Another tradition that my family typically does every year is going to North Dakota to visit my grandparents and relatives. My relatives live all over the United States, but most of them come back during the holidays. The holiday season for me is the season when I get to see and talk to all my relatives. Having parents with larger families means more relatives and more cousins. I have many memories of going on and playing with my cousins out in patches of woods near the house. One year, my family and relatives were snowed in and trapped in my aunt and uncle's house for almost two full days! I enjoy seeing relatives and hope that I keep seeing them as I get older.
To end the year, my family stays up all night on New Years Eve and watches movies for the rest of the remaining year. My favorite movies we watch are Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, but we have also watched the 10th Kingdom and the Harry Potter series. A key to watching movies for a long time is to take breaks between movies so that you can stretch, go to the bathroom, and refill snacks. It is better to do this between movies than during one, as doing so can distract the people watching the movie with you.
Family traditions are a key to the holiday season and help bring family members together. I know that when I move out to college next year, I can look back at the traditions my family did and remember all the times, good and bad, that I spent with my family. Eventually, I hope to carry on these traditions to my own family in future holiday seasons.
Madison Kisch
My Life as a Professional Procrastinator
My life as a high schooler gets kinda crazy. I am involved in volleyball, volunteering, honors and college classes, having a job, and also somehow spending time with my family all in one day sometimes. So sometimes I do end up procrastinating some assignments (like this one) until the very last minute. I have gotten so good at procrastinating that I consider myself a pro, and here's why.
One time, I had a final paper due in my college composition class. This paper was a book comparison between two fairly difficult novels and I had to connect three similar themes between them. Overall, it wasn’t just your simple paper. It required a lot of time and thought to make it successful. We were given around a couple of weeks to complete this paper in class, which I did use to read, of course, but I can’t quite remember what else I did with that time (oops). Anyways, the days passed, and it was getting closer and closer to the due date.
Finally, two days before this paper needed to be finished and turned in, I decided to work on it. I worked nonstop for those two days, working for three hours at a time with no breaks. It was terrible. The turn-in day came, and I had a complete 12-page paper that I finished an hour before class that day.
Throughout my experience procrastinating on that paper, I was so stressed when I had those few days left to finish it. I literally got mad at myself for leaving it to the very last minute because it made me so anxious and pressurized the whole time I was writing it.
Yet, I do this for every single assignment, test, or presentation I have because that is just how my brain functions and works. And the sad thing is, I’ve usually always been successful at procrastinating. When I got handed back my paper, I glanced at the grade and saw an A! How the heck does this work every time?
It is almost a gift and a curse for being a professional procrastinator. On one hand, I am nearly always successful at leaving everything to the last minute, while on the other hand I always stress myself out every time I do it. Unfortunately, I am not going to stop procrastinating anytime soon, hence me writing this column the day before it’s due.
Sam Williams
The Problem With Youth Sports
The winter sports season has started, I have already reffed quite a few hockey games. I have been reffing for seven seasons, and I have seen there is a problem not just with youth hockey but youth sports as a whole. This problem is a result from a select few parents.
I first realized when I was 11 when I was officiating one of my first hockey games. I was reffing a game between teams of nine and ten years old. During the game, the parents turned on me and started to make verbally abusive comments. They were throwing insults, using profanity, and saying that I was a terrible person. These adults didn’t know me and had no idea who I was as a person!
I got compensated a whopping 20 dollars to have these adults strip me of my self-worth. People may think that this was an isolated incident or that it has improved over the years, but this is not true. Regardless of my officiating performance, it still continues to this day.
A recent example occurred the weekend of December 7. I was officiating a game where one team was obviously weaker and, overall worse, than the other team. During the game, my partner and I called all the penalties we saw. This may come as a surprise, but no ref can call every single penalty since there are only four eyes officiating the game, compared to hundreds observing from the stands, so a few things will likely get missed. As you would expect the weaker, less talented team lost. The parents, coaches, and children on the ice, did not blame anyone but me as the official for the result.
After the game, a group of parents began yelling inappropriate and verbally abusive things to me. I was confident in the game I called, for I truly believe we got everything we saw correct. As I respectfully addressed the parents, I quickly found myself pinned against the boards with parents surrounding me on the backside and their players circled around me on the ice. With the parents leading the charge of poor behavior, sadly, the youth players followed along in their parents’ footsteps. You would think the coaches having experience, respect, and knowledge of the game would stop such behavior! Instead they waited and soon joined the fun! Following this game, I found myself feeling the same as I did after that first game, regardless of efforts, these experiences stick with a person. I was left wondering, why do these parents think they have the right to act this way?
Instead of teaching their children lessons of self-confidence, persistence, respect, teamwork, hard work, and that it is okay to try and fail as long as you learn from it, they are teaching the children that it is acceptable to blame others and be disrespectful to authority figures.
In youth sports, some parents believe that officials are ruining the sports. Technically this could be the case because more and more officials are walking out on the sports they ref and without them, they will not have a sport. At this year’s officiating seminar, it was stated that USA Hockey in Minnesota has around 800 officials start the year and by the end of the year, 300 remain! The primary reason for this departure is that officials do not want to take abuse from the parents and coaches. The money we are getting paid isn’t enough to tolerate the abuse that will stick with them. From my perspective, these poorly behaved parents are the primary factor for ruining a vital part of the game, and eventually organizations will not be able to find officials for games unless there is a change.
The intent of this article is to try and shed light on a problem. We can all work to resolve this problem by not tolerating these poor behaviors and creating a better environment for our youth to experience the sport.
Carley Johnson
There is No Buddy Like a Brother
From the time I was a baby, my brother, Cole, has always been so good to me. Whether it be letting me destroy any toy towers he built or letting me hangout with him and his friends, he always took the time to include me.
Though Cole and I are four years apart, we still grew up inseparable. I was perfectly fine staying home and doing whatever Cole was doing because he was that fun to hangout with. This still hasn’t changed. Whenever he is home from college, I make sure I have no plans so I can spend as much time with him as possible.
Growing up, Cole was my partner in crime. Most brothers are driven crazy by their ‘annoying little sisters,’ but Cole never once made me feel like I was annoying (even though I for sure pushed his buttons). I spent my time at home doing whatever he was doing, even if it was just watching The Office together.
The only thing that was tough about having a best friend four years older than me was the fact that he became really busy with school and sports before I did. I would get SO bored when Cole was gone to practice or when he couldn’t entertain me because of homework. I was able to see the time and effort he put into those two things that he loved, though. Cole has always been the person I look up to most because of his work ethic and passion in everything he does.
The dreaded day finally came when it was time for Cole to go off to college. I can honestly say that moving him in was terrible and not because it was a lot of work. I hated it because it meant that my best friend was leaving me. He was only going to be an hour away at UND, but that was still too far for me.
It was a tough adjustment not having him around every day, but we still talked on the phone almost every day, and he was home on the weekends so it wasn’t too bad. Cole going to college has actually brought us closer and made us value our time that we have together even more now because we don’t get to see each other every day like we used to.
Cole sets the bar very high in college. When I say he is smart, I mean he is scary smart. He is in his senior year at UND and is thriving. His hard work ethic was put to the test in college, and, unsurprisingly, he still manages to get outstanding grades and make time for his family. He is going into dentistry and actually just got accepted into dental school, which is incredible, given how hard it is to get accepted. Nothing like raising the bar for me, right?
If it weren’t for my awesome brother, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. His support and encouragement have pushed me to do great things in my life with my sports and career goals. I love telling him exciting news right away because he is always so proud of me. He is my biggest fan and the best role model there is. I couldn’t have asked for a better life-long best friend to have in my life.
Annika Dalager
The Gift of Grandmothers
I have been blessed with the world's most amazing Grandmothers. My grandmas have both been two of the most influential people in my life. The bonds I have with my grandmas are some of my most valuable gifts.
My mom’s mom, Mimi, is the most compassionate, patient, and kind person on planet earth. You spend five minutes with her, and I know for a fact you will agree. I am 17 years old, and I have never heard her raise her voice once, at anyone. Mimi is often used as an example for the pinnacle of patience. No one even comes close to her level of patience. My mom likes to remind us that no one is as perfect as Mimi. She definitely qualifies as a Saint. One of my favorite things to do with Mimi is listen to her stories. I love hearing about her life growing up in Aberdeen, South Dakota. From what I hear, I have some pretty amazing relatives. My favorite story is about my great-grandfather and his shoot-out with a bank robber. She tells it with so much detail, I feel as though I was in the midst of the battle. She can captivate a whole room full of people with her stories.
My dad’s mom, Phyllis, is one of my favorite people. She is well known for being an incredibly talented piano player, but as her granddaughter, I also see her as caring, loving, and giving. Not only do we share a middle name, but we also share the Dalager gene to cry at the drop of a hat. You get Grandma and me in a room together, and there will be laughter mixed with tears. I have so many memories of sitting down with my grandma without the intention of crying and leaving with wet cheeks. Not only that, but I just know how proud she is of me. If I am in the paper my grandma sees that, but she supports me no matter what, even when I’m not the smartest grandchild! This past fall, I had the opportunity to eat breakfast at my grandma's house a few times a week. I never thought I would thank my swim coach for morning practice, but I do now. I was able to start most mornings eating breakfast with my grandma. What could be better?
Not only are my grandmothers God’s gift to everyone, but they also have taught me what commitment looks like. Both sides of my grandparents have been married for 61 years and counting. That is crazy! They are prime examples of loving each other despite their differences. I am beyond thankful to be the granddaughter of two astounding people. I strive to be like my grandmas in every way. They are also hard-working and successful women in their careers. They have taught me so much about leading a Godly and honorable life through their words and actions. I feel blessed to have had such examples of love and leadership in my family.
Bela Nelson
What Big Brothers are For
When I think of someone who truly inspires me, I think of my older brother Kade. Being only three years apart in age, we would do everything together when we were little.
I remember us always playing catch in our backyard, shooting pucks in our garage, and going to the tennis courts to hit. My love of sports grew through Kade, as when we were younger we would constantly be doing something that involved sports. To this day, we still make frequent trips to the tennis courts and play a match to test the theory of who is going to win, and we always know what the outcome will be. A casual match almost always turns into the championship at the U.S Open because both of us hate losing, especially to each other.
It was all fun and games when we were younger, until we started getting older, which led to many wrestling matches that resulted in tears. Big brothers are there to make you tougher right? Exactly. I recall multiple times when my parents had to come to break up fights and arguments, which were over the dumbest things, such as who gets dibs on the TV remote. Even through these fights and arguments, we still made up, and it was like nothing had ever happened.
Kade would have friends over to our house pretty frequently, and they would always be playing video games and floor hockey in our basement. Being the annoying little sister I was, that was always my cue to go downstairs and annoy all of them. Not only did I get to annoy my brother but all of his friends as well. It was a two birds with one stone situation. Eventually my brother accepted the fact that I wanted to hangout with them. He gave in and stopped kicking me out from the basement and let me stay down there because he was just trying to be a good big brother and include me.
As we grew older, Kade’s big brother act also grew. If a boy so much as looked at me in public or even said a quick “Hi” to me, I thought Kade would beat the guy up right then and there. He did not like the idea of me ever getting a boyfriend, but in reality, really what big brother likes the idea of his little sister getting a boyfriend? Exactly my point. He has always been the protective big brother, which is a good thing because it shows he cares. Yet, he never failed to be supportive of any of my choices. If I so much as talked to a boy, I would get endless teasing from him. He teases because he cares. Or, at least that is what I like to say.
Aside from the teasing, Kade has always been the best at giving advice through the tough things in life. He is easy to talk to, as we tell each other practically everything about anything. If I need help with something from school, he is there in an instant to see what he can do to make it easier on me. If I have a bad practice or game, he always seems to be able to turn the situation around and make me see that it’s really not that big of a deal, and that it will get better.
When my team and I were in the section championship hockey game against Warroad last winter, I was unbelievably nervous. I had never been in that position before, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I stepped on the ice that day and felt like I’d forgotten how to skate because of how much I was overthinking. Kade texted me that morning telling me good luck and that he thought our team could pull off the win. I told him how nervous I was, and then he told me how nervous he was as well when he was put in that exact same position a few years ago. He told me what he did to calm himself down. He said to focus on what I could control and to stop thinking about how many things could go wrong. That little peptalk really gave me some confidence, as Kade has always helped me to feel confident in everything I do.
Kade has been beyond successful in what he does. He is one of the most genuine people I have ever met, with one of the greatest work ethics. He has been a great role model to look up to all these years, and that is what big brothers are for.
Ayidin Lancto
Bearded Dragons Don’t Breathe Fire
If you’ve been thinking about getting a pet for you or your child, I suggest getting a Bearded Dragon. Despite their name, they can’t breathe fire, sadly. Though they do look like some kind of dinosaur.
Bearded Dragons are very docile and easy-going reptiles that do very well under proper care and handling. Because of their docile nature, they are great for kids who need a companion.
“Beardies” are easy to care for, but they still require routine feeding, maintenance, and attention, which will help to teach the responsibility of having to care for something else. One perk is that they can become accustomed to a schedule, which works well with a school schedule because they can be fed before school and loved on after school. Another perk is that they are pretty inexpensive compared to a cat or dog.
Though they do require a small investment to get a good habitat set up, in the long run, they cost less than a dog. Checkups, medications, and surgeries for cats and dogs can cost hundreds and thousands of dollars, bearded dragons will cost much less. Beardies actually get along well with cats and dogs, though they will need constant supervision together.
Because bearded dragons are insectivores, so you would need to prepare to have feeder insects in your home. Adults will eat mostly veggies with a few insects thrown in every few days, while babies will eat insects every day. There are many options for insects such as crickets, Dubai roaches, and hornworms are a few, but there are plenty of other options if those wouldn’t work for you. As for veggies, bearded dragons are generally easy to find veggies for. I know mine loves cucumbers and carrots to accent his usual greens. I get my veggies from Walmart, that’s how easy they are to find. Not to mention the variety of vegetables they can eat! You won’t be paying $50 for a bag of dog food with a beardie.
Overall, bearded dragons make great pets due to their docile, easy-going nature. They are great pets for kids, adults, or anyone wanting to get into the reptile world. They are a low maintenance pet that is pretty cost-effective after you get the main set up, depending on how lavish you want to go with your new member of the family. I know I don’t regret getting my bearded dragon, Groot.
Ayden Leake
Kobe of the Emergency Room
For something that I really shouldn’t remember all too well, I will never forget that morning. It was a cold crisp January day, and my Bantam A team hockey team was playing in the Huck Olson Arena.
On my third shift, my teammate heard my cry for the puck and dished it my way. I caught the puck and within a second, I passed it to my teammate ahead of me on the left side.
I took two more strides and then BAM everything went dark. Everything had gone silent. My body began plummeting towards the ice. I first landed on my back and then my neck and head whiplashed and smacked the ice with a crunch. Ouch.
My coach took one look at me and decided that it would be best to bench me. Eventually, my friend, Tucker Skime, led me off the ice and into the locker room before the end of the period.
Outside the locker room, my coach told my father that it was game over for me. He entered the locker room and he began helping me take off my gear, an act that had which stopped once I was done with Mites.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“To the hospital,” he responded in a cool and calm voice.
“Excuse me. My son just got hit in the head during his hockey game, and I am worried that he might have a concussion” my father asked the worker at the front desk.
After a few seconds, two nurses brought a wheelchair for me to get in and wheeled me into a little generic hospital room.
“Go ahead and lie on the bed and the doctor will be in soon,” a nurse said.
“Okay thank you,” I managed.
She then turned off the ceiling lights, leaving only the sidelights to illuminate the room. Then she added, “The doctor will be here once the IV is done, and we will keep the light off to help for his head.”
After what seemed like hours of silence and pain, my dad asked in his soft voice, “Hey bud, how are you doing?”
“My head hurts so bad, and I’m so bored,” I replied.
He then got up from his chair and walked all around the room. My eyes tried following my father as he searched for something. Once he stopped, I knew he found whatever he was looking for. Then a smile spread across his face.
“Watch this Ayden . . . Kobe.”
I watched as what looked like a ball shot out of my father’s hand in perfect basketball form and drained into the garbage can in the corner of the room.
He then handed me another ball, only this time I made out what it was. My father had taken a blue, plastic glove – the same ones that every nurse and doctor can be seen sporting in the hospital - filled with paper tissues.
I laughed with glee at my father’s genius way of passing the time.
“Kobe,” I said as I threw the plastic glove in the direction of the trash can.
After ten minutes of playing our newly invented game of hospital glove basketball, the doctor came into the room took one look at me and went and said, “He has a concussion.”
“How do you know?” my father asked. “You haven’t even looked at him yet.”
After a quick explanation, the doctor confirmed what we both had thought: a major concussion.
“He needs rest, fluids, and Tylenol,” the doctor began. “A dark room and limited noise is all we can do right now,” were his last words.
With my eyes closed, I heard him leave the room.
“Thank you, Doctor,” my dad said.
Back home, I spent the rest of my Saturday sitting in my darkened basement drinking fluids and taking Tylenol for my still pounding head.
As my senior year of high school progresses at this incredibly fast rate, I look forward to my senior year of hockey and look back at the previous thirteen years of my favorite sport.
I don’t remember a lot of that game, that day, and the next couple of days due to my concussion. However, I will always remember that my father almost made me feel as if I had no concussion. Even with my head pounding, all I needed was to smile and play a little hospital basketball.
Maria Nordhagen
Tie blankets have always been more to me than just two pieces of fabric tied together. I always associated them with different events that impacted my life. When I look back at all my blankets, I remember all the memories associated with those blankets. That’s why I continue making them. Whether it is a more serious memory, or a fun one, there will always be a story to tell.
My first-ever tie blanket Mom when I made was in Guatemala while my adoption process was still happening. It was a small pink blanket with hearts all over it. My mom made it so that I would always have a piece of my parents, even if they weren't there with me. She made the blanket with love, and with the intention of giving me some sort of familiarity when the time came for me to go home with them.
To this day, I still have the blanket she made me, and I keep it on the side of my bed.
I kept the blanket all these years, and after my mom's passing, I went looking for it. When I found it, it made me realize the importance blankets can have. This is a piece of my mom that I will always have. This blanket, in particular, was made from love and hope. Love for me, and the hope that I would soon be a part of the family.
Last winter, my siblings and I decided to make ‘sibling blankets,’ as we called them. It was around ten o'clock at night when we got the idea to make blankets. We all sprang up from our seats and ran to my sister’s car. We drove to Walmart and then headed straight to the fabric section. We decided we wanted the same patterned fabric, but the back of all our blankets would be a different solid color. We decided on giraffes for the pattern. For the solid color, my sister got blue, I got white, and my brother got black.
When we got home, we headed towards our basement and laid out all of our fabrics. On our coffee table, we had bowls of ice cream, which we also grabbed while we were at Wal-Mart, and for background noise, we put on Shrek.
When I use my giraffe blanket, I think about how spontaneous making it was, and how it is always an adventure when the three of us are together. It helps bring me comfort when I am missing them while they are off in college studying. I am also reminded of how much I love my family, and how lucky I am to have them in my life.
Ellie Delage
Comfort in a Paper Company
“I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” That quote is from my favorite show, The Office, and it was said by a mediocre character. Every time I’ve watched that episode - and it’s been many times - I have cried like a baby. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s the last episode of the series or because it makes me reflect on everything in my life that I know I’m going to miss some day. As weird as it sounds, The Office has made me realize so many things about life and has also helped me get through some of my lowest moments.
The Office is a comedy show about a paper company called “Dunder Mifflin.” In The Office, there are many different loony characters who make the show worth-while. There’s a very offensive boss, Michael Scott; a very strange man, Dwight Schrute, who looks up to Michael; a cat-loving, crabby accountant, Angela Martin; an HR rep who everyone hates, Toby Flenderson; and many more characters to love. Throughout the span of nine seasons, you follow these characters on their journeys through laughs and tears.
I first started watching The Office when I was a freshman in high school. In a way, it’s been a big part of my high school experience, although that may sound weird. I have bonded with many of my friends over the show and many of my Friday nights have been spent watching it with them. On top of that, I can honestly say that this show has blessed me with the type of humor that everyone should have.
I work at the movie theater, and when we’re in the break room, we’re most likely watching The Office. While at work, we reference the show constantly, and it is the reason for many laugh attacks. Also, the show has some very offensive humor, so it really brings us all together in a way that we can laugh at things we maybe shouldn’t.
The show brought me closer to some of my best friends, and that is one of the many reasons why I love it. We love the show so much that we even purchased The Office themed pillows for the break room. One of them has a picture of one of the Dwight Schrute and another has a picture of Michael Scott– with the words “Prison Mike” below it that references one of his many characters he dresses up as in the show. The last one we purchased is my favorite one; it is simply the quote, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” That will forever be my favorite quote from the show because it reminds me to appreciate the people and things that I have in my life right now, since they might not always be there.
One thing that I will forever be thankful for is the fact that The Office acts as my comfort blanket. Whenever I am sad or upset about anything, I always lean on the show to distract me and make me smile. I have watched it after coming home from funerals, when my cat grew sick, and when my best friend left for college. Not to sound depressing, but that show is there for me when no one else is. It has made me able to appreciate things in my life that I haven’t before, to not take life so seriously, and to just be happy despite what life throws at you. Personally, The Office has helped me get through some of the hardest times in my life, and for that, I am thankful for it. Unfortunately, it is leaving Netflix soon, so I’m going to have to drain my bank account a little bit so I can purchase all nine seasons. Definitely worth it, though.
Madalyn Determan
CrossFit definition: a high-intensity fitness program incorporating elements from several sports and types of exercise.
Googling CrossFit before going to your first class is probably one of the worst things you can do. It also happens to be exactly what I did. All I saw was a picture of the “Lebron James” of CrossFit sporting huge muscles, lifting heavyweights, and well, looking, nothing like me or anyone I know.
In reality, the most common Crossfitter you’ll see is a middle-aged mom laying her all on the line every workout. A real Crossfitter is an everyday person: your coworker with the desk across from yours, your grandma suffering from cancer, your wheelchair-bound bagger at the store. They are all Crossfitters. They are all capable of doing the same workout and moving the needle closer to health and away from sickness.
To survive the CrossFit plunge, you just need to show up. It sounds simple enough, but there is a lot of fear to commit. We are all scared of change.
First, embrace the suck. This is commonly heard throughout the world of CrossFit, and it means exactly what it says: You go to the gym put in work and think, my god this is terrible. I’ll be back tomorrow at six. Now you may think, That’s not me. I hate hard work. And that is totally fine. Ask any Crossfitter if they ever thought they’d see themselves enjoying this, and I promise you they’d tell you never in a million years, yet they all still come.
Next, stop thinking you’ll be judged. The Crossfit community is one built off of this “we’re-in-it-together” idea. There isn't a me vs. you aspect of it. If you're worried you aren’t “fit” enough, THAT'S OKAY! Everyone is at different levels of fitness. No one is there to judge. Best of all, we all have each other’s backs because we were all once just starting out.
And finally, listen to your body. Know that you are going to be sore, especially after your first week. How to help that is by getting ample rest. Sleep is the best natural recovery tool we have, so use it to your advantage. Eat better. Eating healthy not only helps you reach your goals faster but also fuels and restores your body. Acknowledge you aren’t a superhero and that your body needs to recharge before asking more out of it so sometimes a rest day is good.
Picture this. It’s April 8th, 2030, 6am. You step inside the door of the chalk-covered gym with music blasting in the background. Greetings flood your ears with good mornings from some of your best friends and a high five from your favorite coach.
You grab a foam roller and plop yourself down with the group and invest some time rolling out your quad that got worked yesterday during front squats.
Glancing at the whiteboard brings a smirk to your face. The board reads “Karen” 150 wall balls for time. Your favorite workout.
The class moves along, and it’s time to start “Karen.” You grab your wall ball and wait for the timer to start. The mantra you live by plays in your head: “I do today what others won’t, so tomorrow I can do what others can't.” For you, this came true.
The clock starts counting down from 10 and time seems to slow. Looking around, you remember where you started. Years ago, this workout scared the crap out of you, mostly because squatting was near to impossible then but now the only concern is to beat your previous time. Catching a glimpse of yourself in the mirror makes you beam with pride.
You kept showing up, embracing the suck, knew you weren’t being judged and listened to your body, and it led you to today. A happier and healthier version of your best self, staring back you in the mirror. The clock beeping to tell you to start brings you back to reality.
You pick up the wall ball and your off. Make your dreams a reality.
Abby Purcell
Pack Your Bags!
Everything about traveling appeals to me: stuffy car rides, soaring over the country, and getting home at three in the morning. I couldn’t decide on just one of my trips I wanted to share, so I decided to talk about a few.
One of my all-time favorites has to be when my family went to Arizona. There were too many intriguing things on the way that we wanted to see, so we decided to drive. I watched the country-side turn from a lush green to a rusty red. Arizona and its surrounding states are refreshing for northern eyes, considering how dry these states are. There was always something cool to see: Cacti littering the rocky hills, bright red-orange soil, the huge stretch of blue skies. It was all just amazing.
On our way back from Phoenix, we stopped at the Grand Canyon and camped overnight. When we woke up, we hurried to watch the sunrise over the canyon. It was breathtaking to watch the rocks turn from deep purple to fire orange as the sun touched them.
There were many other places we stopped, my favorite being the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. This place is home to the tallest dunes in North America, and they made for a challenging hike. But standing at the top was definitely worth the climb.
We also went to the Four Corners Monument, Petrified Forest National Park, and the list goes on. I may not have enjoyed every second of the car ride back then, but as of now, I only have happy memories out of it.
The summer before my 8th grade year, I went on a trip for Girl Scouts. We traveled overnight on a cozy charter bus to New York City. The trip there seemingly took forever, and my goodness, those seats were impossible to sleep in.
After about 24 hours of driving, we saw the edge of New York City. The Big Apple will always hold a place in my heart. The towering skyscrapers are actually kind of beautiful in a weird way. We got to see Lady Liberty, the One World Trade Center, go to a Broadway musical, and we even went to the top of the Empire State building. But of all the things NYC has to offer, Central Park was one of my favorites. I could have sat for hours in the lush park and watch people go by.
That trip was also the first time I ever saw the ocean. The beach we went to spanned for miles! We didn’t really get to swim, but it was still pretty cool to watch the waves. I went for a walk with my mom. It was very relaxing, and it was the best part of the beach time. We brought home a few nice shells that now sit in a jar on my dresser.
Last but not least, my most recent trip: The 2019 German trip! First of all, packing for this trip was probably the worst part. Never having gone across the ocean before (or so far from home), I wasn’t very confident with what I should put in my suitcase and backpack. Never before has a suitcase felt smaller to me. There were so many more things I felt I should have crammed in, but we were going to have to lug our bags around airports. In other words, we were told to try and be conservative.
There were, of course, other stressful parts. Can a trip ever go without something going wrong? Our first flight was delayed two hours, and bag checks were a hassle with such a big group. That two hour delay did not give us much free time in the next airport. We rushed across the O’Hare airport to our gate, only to find out that this flight had been delayed too.
From Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany, was the longest flight I’ve ever been on. I caught up on a few movies I hadn’t had time to watch before, and I don’t think I slept a wink on that plane. But that aside, the rest of the trip was amazing!
The architecture in Europe is stunning, specifically all of the castles and gothic cathedrals.
Along with the other shops along the streets, the cafés and restaurants we went to were charming. And the most exciting part, I put my skills to the test and spoke to native German speakers! It was a bit intimidating, but it was nice to know that I had two people who could help if I needed it (the tour guide and my German teacher). We toured Neuschwanstein castle, saw so many colorful palace gardens, and stood atop the grand Swiss Alps!
I’m so grateful I experienced so many amazing things, tried new food, and did it with my friends. If I had the chance, I’d go back in a heartbeat.
Anyway, I really like traveling. The journey, the destination, the souvenirs, it’s all so much fun. I hope the people in my future love to travel because I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon!
Camryn Schwab
How My Furry Brother Influenced My Life
Who would’ve ever thought one dog could leave such an imprint on your life?
One fateful day when I was four, my mother and I were shopping around downstairs at the old Ben Franklin in town. A lady working there had a pen full of puppies. I begged my mom to let me play with them.
Mom asked the lady if I could sit in the pen while she shopped around. Well, that was probably the worst decision my mom could have made.
When Mom returned from shopping, instead of begging to play with the puppies, I was begging to get one. She finally couldn’t take my whining and begging anymore and caved. She kept saying, “we are getting a girl, though, not a boy!”
However, one specific puppy kept coming up to me. I tried to push him away, but he kept coming back. My mom saw this and decided this puppy was the one.
“Just take him,” the worker said. “I’m just trying to get rid of them.”
My mom felt bad for her, so she offered her everything she had left in her purse.
On the car ride home, Mom kept saying, “Oh your Dad is going to be mad.”
Well, he was very mad. But, after about two weeks, Mickey, had grown on him. Yes, there were moments Dad threatened to get rid of him. For example, it didn’t take long before we didn’t have a single snowmobile, ATV, or bicycle that didn’t have duct tape on the seat from Mickey chewing on it.
But I didn’t focus on all the bad stuff Mickey did. I focused on the stuff he did for me. Some people may find this a little different, but Mickey was my brother growing up. I’m an only child, so growing up got to be a little boring at times. Mickey helped turn those boring times into exciting times. Mickey let me dress him up; there are even pictures where he is wearing Magic jersey and in the other, he is in scrubs. Mickey was there when I got my first black eye. I had climbed the stairs on a slide backwards, and fell. Mickey was my makeshift pillow on the couch. And sometimes I became his makeshift pillow. Mickey played hockey with me in the driveway. But, the type of hockey we played was a little unusual. Instead of using a puck, we used a frozen horse turd.
Mickey was also my protector. He hid behind the couch with me when the FedEx guy came to the house. The biggest thing Mickey did for me, though, was he helped me realize softball was my favorite sport. Mickey and I would go hours on end playing fetch. Even though he had a bad hip, he never wanted to stop.
Mickey was my everything. But most importantly, Mickey was my outfielder. So now, I play outfield for him.
Ava Yuska - Week #4
Growing up in the small town of Thief River Falls has always been a good thing for me. However, with my grandparents, who live Iowa, are good nine hour car ride away, it’s been hard. Of course, I get to travel down to see them on special occasions and vice verses for my grandparents to come up here, but it's just not the same. I love my grandparents so much. And, it often hits me on how much time I miss out on with them by living in Minnesota.
My grandparents mean the world to me. Both sets of them are extremely generous, strong, and kind-hearted people. I wish I could spend so much more time with each of them. On my dad’s side, his parents have repeatedly been a huge impact on my life. Going to their farm as a child was always a dream come true for me. I played card games, had tea parties, and played hide and seek with them. My grandparents also have cats on their farm, so I enjoyed getting to feed them, and care for the little ones. Additionally, I loved going on gator rides with my grandpa because he’d let me drive, and I loved baking sugar cookies with my grandma since she makes the best cookies. But really, when looking at my grandparents’ character, none of this matters. I can see through their actions on how much they love me. They are so understanding and some of the most thoughtful people I have ever met. My grandparents have always been dedicated to the people they love and would do anything for them. Both of them care so much more for others rather themselves. They work so hard, and they care so much, which is why I love them to the moon and back.
My mom’s parents are just as wonderful. Having both sets of my grandparents live in the small town of Hudson, Iowa is a blessing. When I visit my mom’s parents, we always have the best time. For starters, my grandpa is a huge sports fanatic. So whenever he is watching the big game on TV, he typically gets really into it which is funny to watch. Although, my grandpa is the oldest of my grandparents, he has such a sweet and kind soul. He always has the funniest stories to tell, and the most adorable smile on his face. My grandma, Lola, is also a gem to be around. She is so loving and kind that when I give her a hug I don’t want to let go. One of my favorite activities to do with her is play card games. Although I lose to her most of the time, it is still fun to watch her get so aggressive. She loves to win, so when anyone steals her card or gets a great hand, she typically throws a fit. Other than her talent for card games, my grandma also has one of the biggest hearts I know. She loves each of her children/grandchildren so much, and strives for us to do our absolute best. In a word, my grandma is amazing.
Overall, my grandparents have been some of the biggest influencers in my life. They are such wonderful human beings who have truly made this world a better place. They mean so much to me, and I can’t imagine letting any of them go.
Macie Brekke - Week #3
The Impact of a Music Teacher
Imagine watching a movie without the soundtrack. Each scene wouldn’t have the same effect or impact. The feeling in your stomach when you’re watching an action-packed movie wouldn’t be the same without the suspenseful or thrilling music. Music has been around for thousands of years, and it changes with the times. All of this is because of musicians. Some people were self taught and have made a mark in the world of music. However, many have learned how to make music from teachers. For example, I have been learning about music for more than half of my life.
In Thief River Falls, we have an extraordinary music program in each school. In Challenger Elementary School, I learned to play guitar and keyboard from Mr. Wiggs. I learned all about having fun with music while using rhythms and beats in Ms. Heikkila’s classroom. In Mrs. Johnson’s music room, we learned how to make our singing voices sound the best by singing in tune. All together, they gave us students a solid understanding of music. They inspired me to want to learn more, so I began to take violin lessons with Mr. Druse in the 4th and 5th grade.
Once I reached middle school, Mrs. Buckley introduced me to band instruments by teaching the different families including, brass, woodwinds, percussion, and more. I joined choir in the 6th grade, and Mrs. Reese taught me all about intervals and reading music notes while singing in the right key. She taught me how to work hard to learn and memorize information, and then use that newly learned information. My knowledge in music was built by each of the inspirational teachers in the school system.
I decided to stick with playing my violin in the orchestra, and this is my 9th year of being taught and inspired by Mr. Druse everyday in school. He has taught me so much over the years, and we are lucky to have a teacher with such patience and love for the kids he teaches. Many surrounding school students don’t have the opportunity to play an orchestra string instrument because of the lack of music teachers or funds.
The opportunities available in the music program are one of a kind. I will never forget going to Florida with the band and orchestra. Mrs. Hahn, the high school band teacher, was my chaperone, and she made the trip such a great experience! Her hard work of being a music teacher shines through her well-trained band students.
Music is like an art. In fact, in high school, music class counts for an art credit. Music brings out creativity just like an art class. Not every kid enjoys playing sports and being part of a sports team. Music groups offer an alternative by making a student part of a group. Successful athletes and successful musicians are so different, yet they have many shared characteristics. Each music teacher teaches teamwork when preparing for a concert. Musicians learn techniques and strategies to push through difficult pieces. Plus, music students will learn that practice leads to progress and hard work pays off.
My music teachers have created a lasting impact on my life. They taught me to read and understand music. Music is like learning another language that involves reading, writing, and speaking. We learn to read the “language” and begin to use the “language” of music by writing songs and singing them. Even songs without words are able to express the musicians’ tone and the mood of the song based on the notes or chords that are used.
Thief River Falls is fortunate to have such phenomenal music teachers along with all three programs: orchestra, band, and choir. I am so thankful for the opportunity to learn the language of music. The world wouldn’t be the same without music. Musicians entertain us and influence us. The world wouldn’t be the same without the teachers of music. Next time you hear a song, think about who is singing or playing the song. How did they learn to make music? Music teachers impact all of us simply by sparking one's interest.
Brea Prickett - Week #2
An Unbreakable Bond
Coming from a household with divorced parents has really made me value the relationship I have with my sister, Carli. Obviously having divorced parents isn’t ideal, but if I’m being completely honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
My parents got divorced when I was pretty young, so my sister and I never really remembered what it was like for them to be together. Throughout the process of trying to come to terms with what our ‘new lives’ were going to look like, we built an unbreakable bond.
Now don’t get me wrong, just like any other siblings, we fight. We used to fight so much when we were little to the point where we would have handfuls of each others hair in our hands and would push each other down the stairs. My mom and aunt used to tell me all the time that this was just a phase we are going through and that we were actually going to end up being best friends, like they were. At the time, I’d never thought I had heard a bigger lie.
As we both started to grow up, we very slowly began to start liking each other. Let’s fast forward to about my freshman year. I’m still not sure what clicked between us, but I’m very happy something did.
See, the funny thing is, is we’re actually complete opposites. She is very outgoing, crazy, loud, funny, spontaneous, and has the biggest heart, while I’m very independent and like to keep to myself which I think is why I didn’t really prefer her the first 14 years of my life.
Over the course of the last three years, my sister has become my absolute best friend, and I wouldn’t trade her for the world. Not only are we best friends, but also we’re absolutely inseparable. We do absolutely everything together. We watch the Bachelorette, have dance offs in the kitchen at 1:00 am, and eat ice cream out of the container. We cry. We laugh, and I mean we do a lot of laughing, and we even sleep together half the time.
We’ve also gone through a lot together, like the loss of our cousin, grandpa, and great grandma. I know I can always lean on her in difficult times, and I can always go to her if I need a good laugh. Even though she’s three years younger than me, I often find myself going to her for advice.
As my senior year has begun, I’ve started appreciating our relationship and time together so much more. I cherish every second with her because I know the hardest part about going off to college next year will be not being able to see her and hangout with her every day.
My sister is my rock. She supports me through thick and thin, and I know she’ll always have my back. Carli, is seriously the best all around human I have ever met. Often times when we aren’t with each other for a day, I know one of us will be receiving an “I’m bored, and I miss you” text. I’m so thankful that I got blessed with the world’s best little sister.
Coral Mattison - Week #1
Defining Myself
If I were to define myself by what I love and am good at in life, I would start off by telling you this: One of the main passions in my life is caring for animals. I’ve been a diehard animal lover ever since I can remember. When I was younger, my mom was a veterinary technician, and she always brought me along to help out around the vet clinic. I cleaned the kennels, restocked the shelves and file drawers, and lent a hand wherever I was needed. This was something that I loved to do because I’d get the chance to be around animals and care for them.
My passion for animals, though, first started with horses. When I was little, I was obsessed with horses. I’m not sure what it was about them, but horses were my world. Riding at my uncle's house was my absolute favorite thing. Not only did he have over twenty horses, but he also was the only person I knew who loved horses as much as I did.
As I grew older, my love for horses began to expand to all types of different animals. When I was around the reading age, I found a book that was filled with pictures and descriptions of different animals from all around the world. This fascinated me, and I studied the different species for hours to learn their unique traits. All the breeds and types of animals enthralled me, and I memorized many of them. For example, I would go up to my friends and tell them to explain the way a certain dog looked to them and I would try to guess the breed.
This passion of mine has come to help me tremendously in my current life because it has not only helped me to be able to compete in the state FFA convention in the small animals proficiency area, but it has also helped me realize what career path I'd like to take after high school.
Another big passion in my life is volleyball. I’ve been playing since fourth grade and every time I play the sport, I love it just the same. I’m not sure what it is about volleyball that makes me love it so much, but I know that without it, I wouldn't be the person I am today. It has taught me so many things. It has shown me that I am capable of being a confident leader, a team player, and a hard worker. Being a captain as a junior and senior, I had to guide the rest of my team and take the lead. That was a tough role to fill because before then I was very shy, and I was the one who had to take the orders. But as a captain, I had to be the one to give the orders. I also had to be an exceptional role model for the rest of the team to follow. For instance, when someone was running behind during conditioning, I ran with them and did an extra lap of stairs because that’s what leaders do, no matter how tired I was. Another time that volleyball helped me was when I attended a Nike Volleyball Camp in St. Paul at Macalester College. This camp helped me to realize that it was time to take the next steps in my life. While I was at the camp, one of the coaches came and talked to me about playing for them next year. The coach asked me if I had started looking into colleges and if I had figured out what I wanted to do. Before then I had never really made and decisions or commitments to any certain college or profession because I always thought that I had more time. But then I realized that it was the summer going into my senior year and time was ticking.
Immediately after camp I jumped into researching colleges and recruiting websites to start my search. After some researching, emailing colleges, and calling coaches, I came up with a plan. I’ve decided to get my associate's degree in animal science while attending Northland and playing volleyball for the Pioneers. After those two years, I will transfer to the University of Minnesota Crookston to get my bachelor's degree in pre-veterinary medicine and, hopefully, play volleyball for UMC too. That plan can always change but at least after that camp, I have an idea of what I want to do after high school that involves both of my biggest passions in life.
Week 26 - Cade Lundeen
A Life of Wrestling
Wrestling has been an enormous part of my life, and I don’t think that it’s necessarily “impacted” my life, but wrestling is my life. I’ve been wrestling my entire life; it’s in my blood.
My grandpa was a wrestler. I have three uncles who were wrestlers, one who wrestled in college, two cousins who wrestled all throughout high school, another cousin still wrestling, and two younger brothers who are currently wrestling, and my dad wrestled.
I eat, sleep, and breath wrestling. Well, maybe a little bit less of the eating part.
Wrestling has helped shape me into the person I am today. One of the biggest things that wrestling has given me is determination. To be successful in this sport, you need to have determination. You need to be determined every day to get into the wrestling room and give everything you have because if you aren’t giving everything, you won’t improve. You need to be determined to eat right, whether you’re watching your weight or not, you need to keep a good diet in order to perform at the highest level possible. Your determination is also needed in the classroom. If you aren’t keeping your grades up, you aren’t getting to wrestle (obviously, there are many other reasons why you should have determination in the classroom). I know that long after my wrestling career is over, I will continue to be determined to do well in everything that I do, including, my job, sustaining and keeping a happy family, and to keep a healthy lifestyle.
Another essential life trait that wrestling has taught me is hard work. All successful wrestlers have to work hard. A quote that goes through my head many times during the season is a quote by none other than the 1971 World champion, 1972 Olympic champion and he had a 181-1 record throughout college Dan Gable, “By the end of practice, I wanted to be physically tired, to know that I’d been through a workout. If I wasn’t tired, I must have cheated somehow, so I stayed a little longer.” My goal every practice is to be tired, and if I’m not, I do extra. Even if I am tired after practice, I do extra. Either way, after practice I want to have known that I gave everything. The hard work that wrestling has taught me has helped me to work hard in other things like my school work and my relationships with people. Through life, I’m going to need to continue to work hard in order to succeed and I thank wrestling for teaching me this trait.
These are just a couple of the things that wrestling has taught me in my life. I will always be grateful for this sport. Wrestling has taught me much more than determination and hard work, though. It’s taught me how to be a good person.
I’m excited for the next four years. I’ll be competing and learning at Concordia College in Moorhead, and I am extremely thankful for the 15 years that I have already had.
Week 35 - Kailee Vigen
One Last Show
Alright, Kailee. Hold it together. Just one more song and one more solo. Don’t crack now. I walk to the front of the stage with Aly and Elise for the last time with a heavy heart. As soon as Aaron begins to play “All We Ask,” I have the biggest lump in my throat. I know that I will never see the auditorium from this view again.
Take it all in, Kailee. As soon as we sing the final words of “well done” in unison, my lip starts to quiver and my voice completely gives out. As the lights go down, so does my head in an effort to try and hide my ugly face as I sob in front of everyone.
I squeeze Aly’s hand as hard as I can knowing that the many years of Elise, Aly, and I singing together is now coming to an end and we will never do a show like this again. The auditorium is dark and the crowd applauds. We are now Lincoln High School choir alumni (besides singing at graduation, of course).
Seven years. 1,204 days. 1,204 days spent with the same students. 1,204 days spent with the same incredible teacher, and 1,204 days doing the thing I love most -- singing in choir. Nothing will ever compare to the love and energy I felt walking in to Reese’s room every single day.
The choir room is my second home. It is where I spent most of my time in high school, and it is where I felt I could always be completely myself. But it is not the room itself that made me feel so at home, it was my choir family that filled the space with so much love and acceptance, it was almost impossible to feel unloved or out of place. Room 160 has my heart. Forever.
Not only was I blessed with an incredible choir family, I was also blessed with a director who I consider to be my second mom. Absolutely no one has ever pushed me as hard as Reese did. She did not just make me a better singer; she made me a better person in every way possible. She has made me more empathetic, loving, open-minded, accepting, and she has taught me more history than any other history class I have ever taken. Although she wasn’t always so happy with me, the bond she and I share is one of a kind. Because of Reese, I have had the privilege of experiencing performances in Chicago, Minneapolis, and New York City. I have recorded professionally at Skywalker Ranch in San Francisco, and have been a part of the MMEA All-State mixed choir and the MMEA All-State women’s choir. I am so thankful for Reese and everything she has done for the choir. After seeing each other every day for seven years, Reese always knew what was going on in my life. Sometimes, more than my parents! I know that the hardest thing for me to accept after graduation will be seeing Reese once or twice a year and having to tell her everything that has happened within a six month time frame. She will no longer be there for me to rant to after jazz rehearsal or a sectional. I am going to miss her with my whole heart.
Senior year has been full of lasts--some exciting, and some devastating. Since the beginning of this school year, I have dreaded my final choir concert more than anything, knowing how hard it would be to say goodbye to what I loved most. The week leading up to the concerts have always been tough for me. For some reason, the two weeks out of the year that I needed to be at my best, I was always the exact opposite. Conveniently, I always got a severe cold and was always assigned all the homework in the world. In other words, concert weeks were a week of severe stress full of practicing songs without a voice, all while writing an eight page “Young Goodman Brown” essay (thank you, Reynolds). As much fun as that sounds, I will miss this more than anything.
Something that I will miss the most, is the feeling after putting on a show. Especially, our last show. That feeling of spreading such a positive message and being a part of something bigger than yourself is indescribable. Not to mention how extremely wired you are after every concert. I feel like I could easily run a marathon after getting off that stage. I have so much energy, I could do literally anything. A perfect example, I am writing this at 3:04 a.m on May 14th. Yes, I am still sobbing from the concert and no, my adrenaline has not gone down just yet.
My choir experience has been nothing short of amazing. Thank you to my choir family, my merry girls, my old faithful clogs, and my seniors for all the memories and friendships I have made, and thank you Reese for impacting my life in such a positive way. After fourteen choir trips, 23 choir concerts, one CD, one documentary, an outrageous amount of sectional points, and a countless amount of memories made, I can proudly say, “well done” to my fellow class of 2019 choir students. We had our final view from the stage, and now that view will be from the seats, remembering what it felt like to be up there and to be a part of the Lincoln High School Gospel Choir.
Week 34 - Brooklyn Poe
How Bizarre
I’m going to tell you the story of the most bizarre day of my life. It was the summer of 2016, and I was 15 years old. It all started as a normal day.
I woke up for tennis practice at around 8:30, got ready, then went to practice. Once I got home, it was about 10:30, so I decided to go to my room to watch Netflix. This was also my plan for the rest of the day. This was quite the typical day for me as I did not have my driver’s license nor did most of my friends.
My mom got home for lunch at about 12:30, and she warmed me up some grilled BBQ chicken that she had made the night before, along with some potatoes and green beans. This is where the story gets interesting.
As I was chewing said chicken, I felt something hard in mouth. I bit down on it once and was trying to find it again before I swallowed, but I couldn’t feel anything. I figured it must have been a hard piece of chicken or something and swallowed, thinking it would be fine. I could not have been more wrong.
As I swallowed, I felt something almost lodge itself in my throat. I kept swallowing. I drank water, ate potatoes, ate crackers to maybe make it move, but nothing worked. It started gagging me, and I threw up.
I was getting very concerned, my mom, could not have cared less. She thought I was being over dramatic and that I was probably fine. She was getting impatient with me because she needed to get back to work, but I needed to go to the hospital. It’s a good thing my mom works at the hospital or else I don’t think she would’ve taken me!
We sat in urgent care for about an hour, which is ironic because it wasn’t urgent at all. Once I got to see the doctor, I explained what had happened and said that there was something stuck in my throat. She took a half-hearted look in my throat, not even looking at the place where I said the thing was. She told me it was just scratched and that I should be fine. This is where my mom came in to tell me that she was right, I was being over dramatic, but I still wasn’t convinced. I insisted on seeing a specialist to make sure that I was okay.
The wait for the specialist was even longer than the wait in urgent care, which didn’t make any of us happy. Mom kept telling me that this was a waste of time. But once we got in, the specialist put a scope down my throat and - low and behold - there was something there!
The doctor said it looked like something small and metal. I was relieved to know that I wasn’t crazy, but my mom and I were still very confused on what the heck was lodged in my throat. The doctor tried to get it out in his office, but it was too far back in my throat to reach it. So that meant I needed emergency surgery.
I was rushed to a room and the nurses got me prepped for surgery. It was about 6 pm by this time, and I was set for surgery. They took me to the operating room and gave me the knockout gas.
When I woke up, I was in my room with my mom and dad completely free of whatever was in my throat. I felt great, although my mom did not. She kept apologizing because she didn’t believe me (I love holding that one over her).
The doctor came in and told us the surgery went very wll. Then he showed us what had been in my throat this whole time: a small metal bristle, about an inch long. He said that it was a grill brush wire. And then it all made sense, the wire was in the grilled BBQ chicken that I ate at lunch!
My mom hadn’t cleaned the grill well enough. She felt horrible, but I was just happy it wasn’t in my throat anymore. I went home at about 9:30 completely fine. And that is my story of the most bizarre day of my life.
Week 33 - Hannah Magnusson
One month left.
There has been a lot going on getting ready to graduate and getting ready to leave Lincoln High School. I have really been thinking about what I am going to miss and what I should be getting the most out of.
One question I have been asking myself is what do I value most at the moment in my life? My family and friends would have to be it. With four months until I leave for college, I have started to see how important and valuable my time with my family and friends really is. Family and friends have always been a big part of everyone's lives, but you don’t realize how much until you are going to move away from them and you now see what they mean to you. Every chance there is to hang out with someone, I have realized that I need to do even if it is for little time. At this time in our lives, people don’t want to hang out with their parents as much, but with not a lot of time before you move out and move away from them, you need to go out of your way to hang out with them.
After I leave, it is going to be harder to value my family and friends because I am not going to be as close to them as I am now. This is going to make my time with them more valuable when I come back to town. Coming back to town is going to feel even better because of the little amount of time that I will be able to spend with them.
With the school year coming to a close I have my value of family and friends go up because of the short time that I am in town before leaving in four months for college. Even if you are going to be around your family and friends for more than I am, it is still important for you to value your time with them because you never what could happen.
Week 32 - Autumn Breuer
My Future
Ever since I was young, I have had a strong love for animals. I’ve been taking in stray animals since I could go walk by myself to find them. I always connect with any animal I meet and feel a strong need to help any animal that's in need. I decided a long time ago to do something with this passion: go to school to be a Veterinarian.
I remember when I was three, I got my first cat and pretended to be a Veterinarian all the time. As I got older, my future plans of becoming a vet slowly started to drift away. I was questioning whether that was what I wanted to do or not, and eventually my original plans were gone, and I moved onto other things. I thought about becoming a Radiologist, an Architect, and going into Psychiatry, but, to be honest, none of these careers sparked anything within me. Obviously, I have an interest in every one of these fields, but I didn’t feel the passion when I thought about them and thought that I wouldn’t be content for the rest of my life with any of these professions.
I made my way back to an interest in Veterinary Medicine my senior year, and I couldn’t be more excited for what my future holds. I’m now planning on going to college for the eight years of schooling it takes to be a Vet.
I was given an extraordinary opportunity to work at Valley Animal Hospital last year, and this job has just further pushed me towards what I wanted to do since I was a little girl. I’m surrounded by such amazing people and am so grateful to be able to work alongside them. I’m constantly learning something new every time I walk into the clinic, and I love it. I’m so grateful I get to gain knowledge on my future career from such intelligent people before I go off to college.
Most people today dread going to work, but for me, work is the best part of my day. I love everything I do. This job has helped me ensure that Veterinary Medicine is the career field I want to pursue and has helped further grow my passion for helping animals.
Week 31 - Jason Nelson
Back Surgery at 17
Last week I joined a club that I hoped I never would have to join: I had back surgery on April 17th, and in the days following, I had the most pain of my life. My father has had many back surgeries, and that is where I got my bad back from. The story can be summed up pretty short, but I’m going to tell you all about it.
I had never broken a bone or had any kind of surgery before. The most medical attention I had ever needed was five stitches. My back surgery was a completely different thing though. The only experience I had with surgery was my dad lying on the couch afterwards, recovering.
On April 17th I woke up at seven o’clock showered and then left town for Crookston. When I got there, I had to give blood and get a bed before surgery. By the time I was ready for surgery, I had been told what they were going to do and what I was going to do afterwards at least five times. I was under the impression that I was going to sit in the pre-op room for a few hours before surgery, but before I knew, it the nurse was in to get me.
I was wheeled into the OR wide awake, and I saw the scalpels and all the other instruments sitting on the table. Nothing has ever made me more nervous than sitting in a room, and looking at the knives I was about to be cut open with! They put a gas mask over my face, and told me to breathe.
Before I knew it, I was lying in a different room with my parents looking over me.
I knew that I wouldn’t remember surgery or anything, but I thought that I would dream a little or something. There was nothing, just the OR, then blackness, and finally I was done.
I woke up, and it had been three hours! There was pretty much no pain right after surgery, probably because of the anesthesia, but once that wore off, the kicked in. I couldn’t sit down or stand up without assistance. I also walked slower than my three year old sister.
This definitely took some getting used to. I had been living with two ruptured discs for seven months already, and nobody really noticed tell unless I told them. So being visibly hurt was something that had never happened to me.
I went home about six hours after the surgery. After I proved that I could get up, sit down, and walk, with only minor assistance, I was free to go. The next day was easily the most painful of my life. I couldn't move without my back hurting. I mean it hurt to sit, stand, get up, lie down, and especially use the bathroom. I had one week to heal enough to go back to school again.
In the days following, I slowly got better to the point where I could do normal things, except bending. I was able to spend time with my family on Easter and stop relying on my pain medicine. It got better surprisingly quickly, but I will not be back to normal for at least a month.
The part I enjoyed most out of this surgery and my week off of school was definitely being able to sleep as much as I wanted too.
Week 31 - Paul Wiggs
“Music cleanses the understanding, inspires it, and lifts it into a realm which it would not reach if left to itself.” - Henry Ward Beecher.
Music definitely holds a very special place in my heart. It’s the driving force of my daily life, and it keeps me going through the day. My dad is exceptionally gifted when it comes to music, and I like to believe that I inherited that gift from him. He instilled in me the passion for music when I was young, and I have carried it with me to this day.
When I was a boy, my dream was to become a drummer. Not so much for my dad, however. He wanted me to become a pianist. I absolutely dreaded the thought of playing the piano!
As I tried to convince my dad to teach me how to play the drums, he pushed back, and told me, “You have to learn the piano before you learn the drums.”
This led me to believe that in order to learn how to play the drums, it was absolutely necessary for me to learn the piano. It was required. No if’s, and’s, or but’s. So that’s what I did. I forced myself to plunk at that darn piano for two years before I said screw it and quit. I had had enough.
I was determined to learn how to drum whether my dad liked it or not. I started teaching myself in the middle of fourth grade, and it took me a few months to learn how to keep a steady beat. I would watch my dad play drums on our church’s worship team and analyze what he would do and how he did it. I would bang on the drums after church until people would yell at me to stop. I tapped my hands and feet wherever I was to mimic drumming, and it drove my parents crazy.
In 5th grade, I finally learned how to play well enough to start drumming on my worship team at church, and I felt like a famous rock star whenever I did. Even though I played like absolute garbage at the time, whenever I played, I had the time of my life.
Teaching myself how to play drums marked the beginning of my musical journey. I thought, if I can learn drums, I can learn anything! I was correct, in a sense.
I went on to learn guitar, piano, bass, banjo, ukulele, trombone, baritone, and the tuba.
Music isn’t just sound; it’s art. The way it all comes together in a brilliant array of colors and emotions is simply breathtaking. Being the creator of that art is a different story. It’s addicting, and it’s an addiction that leaves you filled and inspired instead of drained and empty. I firmly believe that music will forever be a part of my life. It will keep me going in the hard times, and inspire me in the good times. It will be somewhere I can go to get away from it all.
Week 30 - Natalie Simpson
The Coffee Experience
Coffee is an important part of American culture. It's popular to drink coffee at almost any occasion. As a barista at a local coffee shop, I see the impact coffee has on a large span of generations. The younger generations tend to get a cup of coffee and find a comfortable place to work on a paper or study. The older generations enjoy drinking coffee and catching up with friends or family. I get to witness the coffee experience and the positive impact it has on many people.
This past summer I took a trip to see my cousins in Arizona. During the two weeks I spent vacationing, I went to a coffee shop almost every day. Some coffee shops were indoors and some outdoors. One coffee shop that I went to even had live music, another had outdoor hammock chairs. The coffee shops we chose to go to often times depended on our mood. This is because each coffee shop has its own unique coffee experience. Even the type of people who worked at the coffee shops added to the environment and the atmosphere.
I began to notice that certain coffee shops attracted different groups of people. Coffee shops that provided wifi and had a laid back atmosphere often attracted students or those working on computers. I also noticed that coffee shops that were smaller but had a large outdoor sitting area often had people visiting outside instead of working on laptops. Each coffee shop has its own coffee experience and atmosphere and because of this, each one attracts different groups of people.
During one of my trips to Minneapolis, I checked out a few different coffee shops. One of the coffee shops I went to was in a Victorian house. I enjoyed the unique environment and the homey feel it had. After ordering coffee, my family and I visited and watched the snow fall outside. This coffee experience created a wonderful memory to look back on.
While I enjoy going to coffee shops, I also drink coffee on a daily basis at home or when visiting family. When I was seven years old, I would always see my dad drinking his cup of coffee before work. I always wanted to be like the adults so I began getting myself a cup of coffee and sitting in the living room with my dad. This memory is the first time I ever had the coffee experience. Now, when I stop at my grandma’s house to visit, the first thing I usually do is get a cup of coffee. We often sit in the living room and read magazines or visit about each other’s day.
Coffee is an important part of socializing with friends and family. The coffee experience helps create wonderful memories with loved ones and is what makes drinking coffee so enjoyable.
Week 29 - Katelyn Sorter
My Journey To Finding My Passion
As I think back to the beginning of my senior year, I remember the constant stress of not knowing what I was going to do after high school, other than that I wanted to go to college. All of my friends knew exactly what they were going to do down to the exact college they were going to attend.
I was absolutely baffled by this. I would spend so much of my time dreading thinking about my future because it seemed like nothing really interested me enough to spend the rest of my life doing it. I have read and heard so many stories about people not enjoying what they do for a living. I do not want that for myself. I used to aspire to find a job that I would wake up and enjoy going to everyday.
Now I’m down to eight short weeks left of school, and I couldn’t be more ecstatic about graduating. I have spent most of my senior year interning at Challenge Elementary school. Initially, I thought I would not like this at all, but, to my surprise I found a passion in being there every day.
The first week I was a little nervous because this was so new and foreign to me. Finally, all of my waiting and stressing paid off, for I found something that held my interest and I can see a future in.
The second I stepped into the classroom, I loved the atmosphere, and it immediately felt like a place I could spend a lot of time. The kids were a really big eye opener, and I am learning so much from them. All of the students are learning, yet they need to be taught in different ways.
As a future teacher, I know this will be challenging, but, in the end, very rewarding.
Week 28 - Leah Sorvig
More Than Just Dance
Every once in a while when someone finds out how much time I devote to dance, I get the question “Why do you dance?” or the most frequent one, “Don’t you get sick of it?”
Most of the time I just chuckle and say, “Nope.” Every once in a while, though, I’ll give them a longer explanation.
I've been dancing at Just For Kix since I was seven years old, and, at that age, it was just a little hobby I participated in weekly. Gradually, as dance got harder, I began to appreciate and enjoy it more. The dance studio became a second home, and the people there, a second family. I love how it challenges me physically and also emotionally.
Let me tell you, dance is a lot more than running around in sparkly costumes and looking cute. Dancers are athletes and artists all in one.
Not only are we required to have the proper technique as we dance, but we also have to tell a story and make it look effortless. Most people don’t realize the many hours of hard work that go into a single dance. Almost every day of the week you can find dancers at the studio working tirelessly to improve, knowing the end result will be worth it. Witness a kick practice and you will see 32 red-faced, sweaty girls wearing ankle weights, kicking continuously. Watch a lyrical practice and you will see dancers gracefully yet powerfully leaping, turning, and stretching their bodies in ways that seem impossible, all while telling an emotional story. There is so much more to dance than what meets the eye.
There are countless times when the team has to do another round of cardio, do the dance again, or do the same count of eight over and over again until it is just right, and the whole team is ready to give up and move on. Then, there are the times that remind you why you dance. The moment when you reach your goal and realize all the pulled muscles, the dizzy head, and bruised knees were worth it. Thankfully, we have wonderful coaches who recognize our full potential and push us. This has taught me and the rest of the team perseverance, how not to slack off and settle for less, no matter what the task is.
I would not be the person I am today without dance. Throughout my years of dancing, I have learned the importance of criticism on top of valuable lifelong skills like teamwork, leadership, accountability, and punctuality. We always get reminded at practice that every single person on the team has to pull their weight in order for us to be successful. This statement is 100 percent true because in dance there are no benchwarmers. Each person is an important piece of the puzzle, and if someone is not putting forth their best effort, we can’t get the successful end result.
I have also met and grown close with so many dancers, coaches, and even families of dancers. After spending many years and sharing so many experiences with these people, they are more like family. Many of my closest friends are also my teammates. I have coaches who believe in me even when I don’t believe in myself. I know they genuinely care and want me to succeed not only on the dance floor but also in life as well. Lastly, there are dance families I know would go out of their way to help me. Whether it would be giving me a ride to a competition or just cheering me on.
One of the hardest things about moving on and going to college will be leaving my dance family behind. Thankfully, I will only be in Moorhead and can easily drive back and pay them a visit because I know I am always welcome. This quote from Winnie the Pooh says it best: “How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
It definitely won’t be easy to leave TRF and my dance family behind, but I’m so grateful that I have been able to dance with and be coached by a great group of people. What I’ve learned from my years in dance goes way beyond how to do pirouettes, leaps, and point my toes. I've discovered a passion, found a second family, learned life lessons, and created memories that I will cherish forever.
Week 27 - Kylie Westling
My Inspiration
Since my freshman year, I have always heard people say that your senior year goes by really fast, but I don’t think that I ever truly believed it until now.
I remember sitting down in Mr. Rogalla’s Senior Focus class on the first day of school this year, and now I’m in Mr. Reynolds’ College Composition 2 class with less than 50 days left. There are so many emotions that my classmates and I are having right now. There are people who are scared, nervous, happy, and every other emotion that you can think of. No matter how different our emotions are at this time, almost all of us seem to have one thing in common: Senioritis.
We’ve all heard from the previous seniors and even a LINC lesson that senioritis will hit us like a truck, and I can now say that that is 100% true. If it weren’t for my main source of inspiration and motivation, I would definitely be failing a few classes by now. The person who inspires me the most has been the same since day one. My mother is the most strong, caring, and loving person I know.
She has been there for me through literally everything and I am so grateful for her. Any time that I need advice or just someone to listen, she’s there. I strive to be like her someday. Other than being the perfect role model, she also doubles as my best friend. We do almost everything together, and I can talk to her about anything. Every time someone sees the way that my mom and I interact with each other, they say that we are “mother-daughter goals” and I agree. I am so thankful to have the relationship that I have with my mom.
Some of my friends talk about the fights and stuff that they have with their moms and I can’t even imagine. My mom and I rarely get into fights, but if we do, it’s more than likely because I’m lazy and don’t want to do something that she asked me to do. We have a plan to get matching tattoos of an airplane flying around the world because we love traveling, but I’m saving up for college, so I’m not sure when that’s going to happen.
The only thing that scares me about moving away next year is the fact that my mom won’t be there with me. I know that it sounds pathetic, but my mom and I have a bond that I can’t seem to explain. It’s going to be hard getting used to not having her around all of the time. I did, however, teach her how to FaceTime, an app that is used to video chat with people. So now, we can see each other’s faces instead of just hearing each other’s voices when I’m gone.
Week 26 - Jestina LeClaire
A Change of Scenery
I’ve been ready to go off to college since middle school. The thought of moving to a new city, meeting new people, and trying new things has always been so exciting to me. However, as the days go by and I get closer and closer to graduation, it’s all become very real. I never really thought about the things I would have to leave behind. I knew in my head that I would be on my own, but I never considered how hard it might be.
In just a few months, I will be living in Duluth while leaving my pets, my friends, and my family behind. The longest I’ve been away from my whole family was a week at summer camp, and now I won’t be able to see them for months at a time! Now, the thought of moving to a new place, meeting new people, and trying new things isn’t just exciting, it’s terrifying, too. I won’t have my parents around to help me out or give me advice whenever I need them. I won’t see my friends that I have known since middle school every day at school or be able to go out and get coffee with them all the time. Even the fact that I won’t have my cat laying at the end of my bed and my dog on the floor next to me every night is really sad to me. I have lived here in Thief River Falls my entire life, and while it’s going to be fun to experience something new, it’s also going to be a huge adjustment.
It’s going to be scary, but I know that everyone has to go through this type of thing and I’m sure a lot of people feel the same way I do, including the people that I will meet at college. All of this has become incredibly nerve wracking, but I still haven’t lost the excitement I’ve had since I was younger.
I’ve always loved Duluth, and I can’t wait to live in a bigger city and be able to do things that I can’t do here. I’m so excited to meet my roommate and other new friends. I’m also looking forward to taking new classes and learning more about things that I’m passionate about. It will most likely be the biggest change in my life. It’s terrifying, but it’s also so exciting, and I know that it will be an incredible time in my life.
Week 25 - Rebecca Leier
Find Your Passion
Have you found your passion in life? Do you get just one passion? Is it possible to ‘follow’ your passion and do it for a living? These are all questions my generation has been bombarded with.
When I was younger, I always thought every grown up loved what they did. It only took me a few years to realize that sadly, this isn’t the case for many people. Early in our lives, adults asked us what we wanted to be, mostly as a joke early on, and every year we’d answer differently.
Then when we got into middle school, that changed. When someone asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up, we started to hear more of us confess, “I have no idea” or “maybe a nurse or police officer, but I’m not sure.”
Now, though, it’s serious. We are nearing the end of our senior year and many still don’t know what they want to do.
I was always scared that I wouldn’t know what I wanted to go to college for. The cost of college continues to rise each year and, as a result, changing your major in the middle of school is extremely costly. Yet, I hear from counselors, current college students, and even teachers that changing your major is normal. Personally, I don’t want that, so I decided to use the opportunities Lincoln high school provides.
During my junior year, I signed up for a class called Community Action Program. In this class, students can decide where in the community they want to help out. You can go to nursing homes, schools, as well as other places. I chose to help out in two classrooms at Challenger Elementary School. I helped out in fourth grade and second grade classrooms, respectively. While in the classrooms, I began to see how challenging it really was to be an elementary teacher. There are so many kids, each with specific needs in order to learn their best. I quickly realized I wanted to help as much as I could.
Ever since I was a kid, I loved to play house and school with my baby dolls. I even helped potty train other kids at my daycare. In my church, I’d help out in the nursery and take every babysitting opportunity that came my way. When I was in these classrooms at Challenger, I finally understood why I did all of that. My passion is to be a teacher and work with children every day. I want to help teach future generations and be a good role model for them. This year, I’m interning in another second grade class at Challenger and will be attending Minnesota State University Moorhead next fall to pursue elementary education.
I’m extremely excited that I found what I’m passionate about. One quote that I love is from Mark Twain: “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” I first heard this quote when I was fairly young and wanted it for myself. I’m beyond thankful to Lincoln High School, and its teachers, for pushing and allowing me to explore my interests and find my future career. I can’t wait to make a difference in people’s lives each and every day.
Week 24 - Hailey Rosendahl
Love
I don’t remember much about growing up. I don’t remember where I lost my first tooth, what I got for Christmas when I was eight, or how I met my best friends. I don’t remember what my teacher said on the first day of first grade or when I played pretend for the very last time.
I wish I could remember every second. I wish I had a flash drive of every happy moment, every heartbreak, every laugh, and every lesson. If I did, I would take it out every once in a while, plug it into my laptop, and shuffle through it all in my spare time. I would flip through the memories like a scrapbook, reminiscing about the good times and the bad. However, this isn’t a possibility. I have lost the small day to day details, as everyone has.
What I do remember from the past 17 years and nine months of my life is something much more important - a feeling. Something that I know I will never lose.
That feeling? Love.
“Love” is the most cliché, overused word in the English language. We use this word to describe just about anything and everything - you can love your grandparents, ice cream, a TV character, your boyfriend, a movie, Cheetos, your best friend, or the mac and cheese at Noodles and Company. Love means nothing and absolutely everything, when it comes from the right places. Love is one of the most meaningful things in the world, and I am so lucky to have been completely smothered in it as I grew up.
I may not remember a lot of things, but what I can recall is what matters the most.
I can feel in my heart the smell of laundry soap and baked goods that swaddled me when my Nana gave me a big warm hug. I can see my little brothers on the happiest of summer days, the sun beating down on them, shouting with exhilaration as they hit a whitecap and fly into the air over Lake Sarah. I can remember smiles and laughs at countless birthday parties, Christmas celebrations, and bonfires. I can remember fireworks glinting in the reflection of my dad’s smiling eyes on the Fourth of July, and my great-grandma laughing as she sprinted down the halls of Valley Home, pushing us in her walker. I can remember tearful hugs from my best friends and family after my last volleyball game and the feeling of assurance that, in these people, I have something that will never go away.
My childhood was a happy one, and I am so grateful for that.
Over time, I have lost many of the minute details of the memories. It’s just part of life - the days mush together as the tedium of living and learning set in. It’s just reality; we can’t hold on to most things forever. But the one thing that I hope to never forget and never take for granted, no matter where I go or how I change, is the love that lives in and around me.
Although the memories fade in a hurry, the love that comes with them never will!
Week 23 - Travis Barth
Learning how to say Goodbye
In 13 short weeks, I will be graduating from high school. Graduating is very exciting, and I cannot wait to go off to college. I am excited to no longer have to take classes like College Composition. Don't worry, Mr. Reynolds. I have loved College Composition, but I'm sure we can both agree, English is not my forte. (Because high school is awesome. I have been able to accrue over a years worth of college credit while in high school, and will be able to focus on classes that pertain to my major: Physics.) Going off to college, though, means I need to figure out how am I going to say goodbye to high school.
To say goodbye to high school, I will need to learn how I am going to say farewell to the friends and the teachers who have been with me through this journey. To the sister squad (I still don’t really understand why we call ourselves this, but it is a group of some of my best friends), I will miss you dearly and hope that you all will be millionaires one day so that I can stay at your lake houses and eat all of your food. To all of my band members that I have played with for seven years now, we may have only been a band for a short while, but we will always be a family. I will miss all of the 3:00 am bus rides to state championships and the spontaneous sing along sessions of “Take On Me” and “Take Me Home, Country Roads”. To my fellow mathletes, I am going to miss all of the early mornings spent pulling out our hair over math problems – don’t forget to “Let It Go.”
Not only will I miss my classmates, but I will also miss all of my family. I will miss all of the road trips, construction projects, and game nights. I will miss having someone to call when my tire goes flat at work, the Hugo’s parking lot, or at school. Most importantly, I will miss having a pantry full of food.
Finally, to all of my teachers who have put up with me over the years, thank you. I strongly believe that I would not be who I am today if it had not been for Mr. Froiland assigning me hours upon hours of calculus homework, Mr. Reynolds insisting that I learn how to use a comma (still working on this one), and Mrs. Hahn constantly giving me a new instrument to learn (she has given me seven different instruments now).
To say goodbye to high school, I will have to learn to adjust to a new normal. What if my roommate is a creep? What if I can't find the dining center, and I starve to death? How am I going to live in a world where people don't know what lefse is? What if I decide I don’t want to major in Physics? What if I get home sick and want to come back? And, the question that trumps all else, how in the living heck am I going to pay for College? Even though I will be plunging myself deep into debt, I am very excited for what college has to bring me. Even if I decide that Physics isn’t the major for me, that I miss high school and want to move back, or that my roommate is a total weirdo, I know that God has a plan for my life, and I will land on my feet wherever life takes me.
Week 22 - Gracie Hannon
My Hunting Heritage
For some, hunting is just a sport or a hobby, but for my family and me, it’s a tradition. I began hunting about the time I took my first steps. My pa would load me up and take me to the stand. I’d sit on his lap, jump to the floor, and crawl back up. Once that got boring, I would sit and question everything I saw. Unable to sit still for more than a minute I would constantly be negotiating with Pa.
“Gracie, if we don’t be quiet, we will never see any deer,” Pa would whisper in the gentlest tone as he grabbed me and placed me on his lap.
“Buttttt Paaa, I don’t want to sit and be still,” I would protest as I wiggled out from beneath his arms.
Pa would then grab me again and dig something out of his pocket. He’d place it in my hands and let me play with it. It was then that I was able to sit and be quiet for at least a couple minutes.
At that point in life, I was too little to understand the importance of being quiet while in the stand. For me, it was about spending the day with my pa and having him all to myself. Likewise, my pa didn’t mind the extra noise or the fact that he was jeopardizing his opportunity at seeing a big buck. To him, having the opportunity to introduce his baby girl to one of his most favorite things is all he could ask for.
As I grew older, I became Pa’s little hunter. According to my rules, he wasn’t allowed to go hunting without me. If he did, I’d through a fit protesting that he never did it again. Soon he learned, when he goes, I go too. I’d do everything from riding around in his pickup, scouting for geese, to holding the legs of a deer while he gutted. Again, it wasn’t the actual act of scouting geese or holding the legs of a deer that made hunting so important to me. It was spending may days at the right hand of my father.
Once I became of age to actively begin hunting, my pa and I grew a bond that was ever so strong. He would spend hours teaching me everything from how to blow a goose call to how and where to shoot a deer. He never skipped a beat. He took years away from his own personal hunting in order to teach me all that I know. When asked why he does it, he’ll look you straight in the eyes and say, “I’d rather watch someone else shoot something. It’s way more fun.”
Now it’s important to note that my pa didn’t do this for just me. He also spent years teaching my sister and before that my mom. This special quality is something my pa got from my grandfather many years ago.
Like my pa, my grandpa loved being outdoors hunting and fishing. He enjoyed sharing his numerous hunting talents with all that surrounded him. I was only granted 16 short years with grandpa, but every minute and every lesson will forever be cherished. He taught me some of the basics like how to tie a fishing line and how to work hard picking rock all summer so that the food plots would be at their prime come fall. Grandpa was filled with joy whenever he was able to teach his grandchildren something new. Now that he has passed on he has grown famous for his stories and the life lessons that he has taught us all.
Hunting is a tradition for the Hannon family, it has been ingrained into our lives for many generations. It all began with one man many generations ago who had a passion for the great outdoors. I didn’t know him, but I do know hunting and fishing ran deep in his blood. Not only did he teach his son and his grandchildren, but four generations later he also unknowingly passed that very passion onto me, someone, who like him, looks forward to sharing her knowledge and caring on the tradition that has grown so strong.
Week 21 - Alivia May
What are the Benefits of “Bloodless” Surgery?
With many new medical discoveries made each day, we are very hopeful we are receiving the best care available. Whether it is something as simple as a checkup or a very important like a surgery, the top medical professionals are making sure our care and recovery is the best it can be. So before we undergo any type of procedure, we should want to know all of our options in order to choose the best one. When you are faced with a procedure that requires a need for donated blood, usually the first option you are informed of is a traditional blood transfusion. The second is an option that many are unaware of, the bloodless option. Although it is the less popular of the two, it does have many benefits.
There is an obvious difference between these two surgical procedures. The traditional surgery involves the use of a blood transfusion, while the other uses synthetic blood. During a surgery, the patient could experience significant amounts of blood loss. This could cause the patient to make a decision whether as to accept other donated blood or the alternative, synthetic blood. There are obviously many different circumstances would affect the decision of a patient in choosing either one of these surgeries. Anyone going through a medical procedure that includes a blood transfusion should know, and be able to explore, the other, safer options that are available to them.
Some of the reasons a patient would not want to receive donor blood may be because of their religious beliefs or the fear of obtaining infected blood,. In some of the research I’ve done in regards to the this topic, the benefits outweigh the risks with this type of procedure when choosing the non-traditional option. It greatly reduces the risk of certain pathogens that would usually find their way into normal human blood. Some of these infections include hepatitis, HIV/AIDS and the West Nile Virus. By eliminating the use of donor blood, you are able to completely expel the risk of obtaining these infectious diseases. Another benefit of choosing the bloodless option is eliminating the risk of being given the wrong blood type. If your body were to receive a different blood type than its own, it may cause your body to reject the new blood and destroy those needed cells. If this mistake were to take place, it would be deadly for the patient.
When you’re faced with a medical situation, it is always best to know all of your options. Bloodless procedures are something that many people are unfamiliar with. There are many good reasons to potentially consider this option when undergoing a medical procedure that requires you to have a blood transfusion. Without the use of donated blood, you are lessening your risk of obtaining an infectious disease and risking your body rejecting the foreign blood. Knowing these advantages can make it easier for patients to choose the best medical option for themselves.
Week 20 - Marryn Dalager
There for You
As the oldest of 4 kids, naturally my younger siblings used to drive me bonkers. I mean, younger siblings are annoying, right? Yeah, I thought so too.
Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes my little siblings can still push my buttons. But throughout the last year, I have developed a strong bond and overwhelming love for them.
I am a senior in high school, which means things are starting to get REAL. In a short few months, I will be moving away from our sweet little town of Thief River to bigger and better things. What?! I still feel like a little 6th grader (and I might still be the height of one, too). However, it is not this town which holds my heart. It is my family, and I just don’t think I’m quite ready to leave yet.
One freezing fall evening, I had the opportunity to go and watch my little brother, Alec, play football. I was so thankful for this because it wasn’t very often that I had the opportunity to watch a game of his due to my busy schedule. Don’t get me wrong. I was miserable out in the cold. To be honest with you, I had not the slightest idea which little football player was my brother, but I just wanted to let him know that I cared. Little did I know how big of an impact just being there would have on my little brother.
The next day, I received a text from my mom saying: “I just wanted to let you know how much it meant to Alec that you came to his game last night. He told me that he felt bad after the game because he didn’t think that he played good enough when you were watching. Your little brother really looks up to you!” Of course, as my friends and family would testify, naturally I’m a bit emotional, and the waterworks began as I sat alone in my parked car after I received this message. It broke my heart that my sweet brother felt badly that he “didn’t play good enough.” During this moment, I realized how much of an impact I had on my younger siblings and how much I care about them.
Someone very near and dear to my heart wrote me a letter at the beginning of the school year. It read: “Your family is wonderful, and they love you so much. My biggest piece of advice to you is to love them back. Sometimes they’ll annoy you, so you just have to put up with them but understand that they will always be there for you. When you’re older and it seems like life is unfair and sucks (believe me, it will happen), your family will always be there for you.” This person was speaking truth into my life, and I still think about this letter often. Sometimes it might take a letter, a text, and a tear to truly understand how important your family really is and how much you mean to them.
There is nothing I enjoy more than playing board games with my younger siblings and spending quality time with them. It can be something as simple as taking them out for lunch, and my whole day is made. The fact that I have to leave them behind in a few short months absolutely breaks my heart. They really do, and always will, have a very special place in my heart.
I write this to encourage those who still have younger siblings in the house, or even just any sort of family in general. Don’t wait until before you go off to college to realize how important and special your family is. I would give anything to rewind a few years to enjoy the time with my younger siblings. Enjoy every waking moment because in the blink of an eye that time could slip right through your fingers.
Week 19 - Lisa Kolseth
My Life On a Century Farm
Farming is not only in my blood. It is also in my genes. My grandpa on my mom’s side was a dairy farmer, and my Grandpa on my Dad’s side was a grain farmer. Actually, all four of my Great Grandpas were farmers. I have lived all of my life on a century farm ten miles southeast of Thief River Falls. On our farm we raise soybeans, wheat, alfalfa, and mixed hay. Farming talk has always been a part of my life.
Over the years I’ve learned the common conversation themes between farmers: “how much rain did you get?” Or, “are your beans up yet?” And in the fall, “are you done combining?” And, “how many bushels did you average?”
Being the only child growing up on a farm has taught me the value of hard work and working together. A good chunk of my summers have always been spent in the hayfield. My doll Alicia and I spent many hours riding in a pickup with either grandma Kolseth or grandma Sorenson pulling hayracks.
I progressed from that to riding in a tractor with Mom or Dad. I started actually being of some help when I was five by giving my parents rides to and from the hay fields on our 2004 army green Arctic Cat four-wheeler. This saved Mom and Dad extra trips when they were moving tractors or semi trucks fully loaded with hay home to our yard.
My next job was driving the Bobcat skid steer to the hay fields. I was able to drive this because to make it go forward all I had to do was put the seat belt on, push the green button, and then push the levers forward. I didn’t need to reach any pedals.
By fourth grade, I was giving rides to the fields with our Buick LeSabre. I could drive to any field within a mile of the yard as long as I was sitting on a pillow so I could see over the steering wheel. I’m sure driving at a young age really helped me pass my behind the wheel test on the first try to get my farm permit.
My driver's license came with a new job title, though. I became the chief parts runner. It was a great reward to be able to drive to school, although many days I would receive a text telling me there are parts ready on the counter at Nelson Equipment or Evergreen Implement for me to pick up.
I learned pretty young that the fun stuff I wanted to do, like going to the lake, going to the fair, or spending time with friends had to wait when there was work to be done on the farm. We don’t plan according to the clock or calendar; we plan according to the weather. It is very hard to make plans for the weekend if there’s a chance of rain on Sunday and the hay needs to be baled first.
During the summer one of our biggest concerns is trying to figure out when it is going to rain.
The TV weatherman is usually a companion as we eat lunch and supper. A prediction for sunshine for at least four days means I must head for the white tractor hooked to the discbine and start cutting hay. If we get caught up with the farm work, then we can think about heading to the lake. Being self-employed means you can do that even if it is a weekday. It’s amazing how quiet the lakes are on Mondays.
Some may think that farming is a slower paced way of life. I disagree. The spring, summer, and fall are very hectic for farmers trying to beat the rainy weather patterns to get the crops seeded, sprayed, and combined. The winter is really the only time that a farmer can actually relax. My relaxation comes in the form of snowmobiling. As much as I love snowmobiling, when the snow melts and the optimism of spring arrives, I’m ready to park my Arctic Cat in the shed and fire up a 4-wheel drive tractor.
Week 18 - Charlie VanSchaick
The Whole Trip Isn’t In The Headlights
I was born in Thief River Falls, but I haven’t always lived here. In 2011, my family and I moved to New York Mills, MN, for the job opportunity my dad had as chief of police. This brought us closer to some family in the cities and made it easier for my mom to make her routine medical checkups in Rochester at the Mayo Clinic. She had to do these checkups every six months or so because of a genetic disease she shared with my grandpa, Al Krause, which causes tumors to grow in the body. Unfortunately, he died from this, but luckily for my mom, doctors are able to check her for tumors well in advance and stop any found from growing or remove them. She had had tumors in the past, but they were all benign. However, during one of her checkups at the Mayo Clinic in 2011, it was discovered that she had a cancerous tumor in her lung.
I was just going into fifth grade, so I didn’t really understand what was going on. I remember two things from the hospital distinctly: I got to spend countless hours on an N64 console where I mastered StarFox, and how scared I was looking at my mom on the hospital bed thinking she was going to die.
As a kid, all I could do was pray for her even though I didn’t understand the situation. Gratefully, she ended up beating her lung cancer in 2011. Then she beat it again when it came back in 2013.
In April of 2014, we moved back to Thief River Falls after my parents again had job opportunities. My mom continued her checkups at the Mayo Clinic, and nothing was found again until last year in 2018. An MRI scan revealed a tumor in her upper spine, right beside her neck. We immediately brought her to the Mayo Clinic, but since this time was not during the summer, my dad and I switched on and off for staying with her after surgery.
I had a much different perspective being with her in the hospital compared to when I was younger because of my maturity and realizing the circumstance. It was so encouraging to see how much energy, motivation, and grit she had even though she couldn’t walk without help from somebody. It reminded me how important it is to push through whatever you are going through. When you are driving at night, you won’t be able to see the road ahead of you. All you can see is what’s in the headlights. In order to get to your destination, you have to believe the road will keep going.
She has been in recovery for a few months and will continue to be for a few more months. Despite all odds, she is improving every day. She no longer needs assistance walking and has even gone back to work. Soon she will be able to drive again. She got the best outcome imaginable and I cannot express how thankful I am to God for the time I’ve had with her in my life. I look forward to the many years to come.
Week 17 - Cooper Olsonawski
The Importance of Robotics
January has finally come and, with it, FIRST robotics. Of all of the activities I am in, robotics is the most important and influential.
The first and most important reason for me is the friends I have made. I am not a very social person by nature and generally don't talk to people. Being in robotics has put me closer to people who have become very good friends. Not only have I been able to meet people in my school, but I was also able to meet people all over the state and even country. When we went to worlds a few years ago in St. Louis, I got to meet people from all over the US, and it was really cool.
The second reason robotics is important is the skills I have learned in it. This could apply to anyone at all, not just me. Robotics allows you to learn many new skills, such as design, engineering, electronics, and coding to just name a few. A lot of these skills are very practical in everyday use whether you realize it or not. I have plans to got to a college and get a degree in electronics so being in robotics has helped me out a lot. I also learned a lot about precision machining, some welding, and even a bit of coding, but I still have a lot to learn in that area. It also helped me learn teamwork and leadership. We are always working together, whether it be with a teammate a mentor or a coach.
The third and final reason robotics is so important is simply that it is so much fun. We get to go to events that have hundreds of students there watching and competing. We get the opportunity to go around and talk to other team and see what they are doing and what kind of robot they made. It gets really cool if you make it to worlds where the numbers are in the thousands with people all over the world. I met some students that were from Washington and even a few from overseas. That was also very interesting listening to them talk about how robotics worked for them.
This is why I believe Robotics has been one of the most influential things I have been in. It has helped me make friends learn new things and have tons of fun. It's a real shame that I could only be in it for four years.
Week 15 - Christina Krayee
The Things I Wanted Someone to Say to Me
For a long time, I thought of myself as the ugliest person in the world. No exaggeration or anything. It was just that. I hated the sight of myself. The simple task of looking in the mirror was too hard for me. I was incredibly insecure, and it wasn’t a good way to live.
Many think that young people can’t experience pain at such an early age, but I believe that hard times don’t limit themselves to one group of people. I may not know much, but I know a lot about self love. To not love yourself is different than any other struggle or issue that could cause you pain. It’s internal. No matter where you try to run or hide, that lack of self love will follow you. As Beyonce sang, “Ain’t got no doctor or therapeutic that can take the pain away. The pain’s inside and nobody frees you from your body.” There’s no way to escape it. You can’t be freed from your mind.
Social media didn’t make anything easier. I became even more aware of myself. The number of “likes” I got on Instagram directly affected my self esteem. If I got a lot of “likes,” then I felt really good. If I didn’t, I felt horrible.
I immediately assumed that there was something wrong with me. I got used to comparing myself to others. I saw the things that others had and felt that I was lacking. I wish I could go back and tell myself that no one is posting their failures. You can’t see the struggles and hardships someone has been through from an Instagram post.
When I was in my early teens, I wished every day for things to change. I wanted to skip ahead to the part in my life where everything was good and happy. Wouldn’t it be great if a simple wish could make life into the perfect version you see in your head? I was waiting for The Fairly Odd Parents to come in and save the day, but they never came. All this waiting, however, showed me that I’d have to make a change in my own life. There was no use waiting for someone else to be my superhero. No one else could make that type of internal change happen, besides myself.
Love is important. Loving yourself is even more important. A lack of love will spill into every other area of life. My lack of self love made me a negative person. I couldn’t look anyone in the eyes for too long. If their eyes wandered, my mind instantly jumped to the conclusion that they were judging my face or my hair or my outfit. If I failed at anything, I assumed that it was because I wasn’t good enough. I made myself miserable by only looking at the things I thought were wrong with me, and it was an awful way to live.
Sometimes it’s easier to bury issues instead of addressing them, but that doesn’t make issues go away. Ignoring the things that make you sad doesn’t make anything better. When I did that, I denied myself a chance to learn and grow. It’s not realistic to expect things to change overnight. Everything takes time. For change to happen, you have to take steps to make it reality.
I’m not a perfect person, and no one is. I still have insecurities, but instead of letting them disable me, I learn from them.
No one else can solve my problems, I have to do that for myself. What kind of life would it be if I decided not to seek good out of it? My fate is not in anyone else’s hands but my own.
Week 14 - Cindy Li
As Simple as That
The phrase “I love you” is meant to represent deep care for someone. The true emotion behind this phrase seems to have been forgotten by my generation.
I remember kissing my mom and saying “I love you” every morning before I left for school, but I haven’t done that since middle school. In fact, now, I rarely say “I love you” to my parents. When I do say it, I say the phrase as casual as I say “thank you.”
Why is that?
We seem to be so busy these days that we don’t take the time to appreciate our loved ones and tell them we love and care for them.
My grandma is one of the people I respect most and love very much. I was born in Foshan, China and moved to the United States when I was six years old. When I moved, I stayed in contact with my grandma, but it was different not seeing and talking to her every day. When I entered high school, my parents told me to put some effort into school, but I never processed their urging words until it was too late. Very soon my whole family started to worry about my future.
My grandma was told about how lazy I was when it came to school, so she decided to come to Thief River Falls. My transition to northern Minnesota was not easy when I was six; I cannot imagine how hard it was physically and mentally for her to move here when she was in her seventies! She lived in a warm environment her whole life. Then suddenly, she had to adapt to weather comparable to Antarctica. On top of that, she didn’t know any English! It was hard for her to communicate with anyone.
All of those things didn’t matter to her; all she cared about was me.
Before my grandma came to TRF, I had a lot of freedom. For example, I could watch hours of television or play video games for as long as I want. After my grandma arrived, I lost that freedom.
She regularly nagged me on how I shouldn’t be wasting my time on useless things and how I should be more on top of things. I didn’t appreciate the rapid change. There were occasions where I grew frustrated. At the time, I didn’t understand why she was so controlling. I felt like a bird in a cage, not allowed to do anything. Now I know all the chastising was preparing me for the world of high school and college.
I love my grandma for the endless inspiration to always be a curious learner. Her drive to learn continues to inspire and push me every day. My grandma convinced me to buy a couple of ACT practice books so I could prepare over the summer before my senior year. I did not touch the books for the whole month of June. However, my grandma used the books to her advantage.
She started using my ACT books to learn English. I observed her learn from translating every word through Google Translate then attempting to combine the words to make a full sentence. I expected her to give up in the middle of June, but she didn’t. Within two months, she went through the three books I bought before I did!
My grandma gave everything to me. She came to Thief River Falls and endured the harsh weather because she wanted me to have better time management. She was the senior architect in sculpting my foundation. I am thankful for the time and effort she spent to me, and I am very grateful to have her as a role model in my life. No matter how busy I get, I will always be grateful for the sacrifices she made for me.
Grandma, “I love you,” and it’s as simple as that.
Week 13 - Bre Wienen
This Is It
When you start high school, you cannot wait to be a senior. You ar
e excited for sports, college, and overall, getting your diploma and becoming an adult. Who can blame you? We’ve all experienced the days in school when every class feels extraordinarily long.
Senior year is freeing, and you feel on top the world. Sometimes you catch a strange case of senioritis, where you either fake a stomach ache or you come to school sweatpants. But, senior year is bittersweet, and it goes by in a blink of an eye.
Before you know it, your last high school game arrives. It is the last time you have with your teammates and coaches you’ve had all your life. The student section is chanting and cheering you on. You run out to your spot for the very last time. No more team meals, team sleepovers, pre-game rituals, and above all, no more team. You’ll lace up your cleats and put the Prowler jersey on one last time, and then it’s over. The field is dark. Never again will you feel the adrenaline rush of the sport you’ve played your whole life.
Next it is your last high school holiday break with your family and friends. You talk about past memories and how you are so excited to get that one present from your grandma. Next year, the holiday break will be totally different. You’ll come in with a monstrous pile of laundry, thankful finals are over, and you’ll ask your family and friends “how have you been?” and tell them “I missed you so much.”
Then there are just the little daily routines that will disappear. The constant arguing with your siblings. The way your mom makes the best hot chocolate in the world. Lastly, the way your dad sits in his chair, reading the newspaper every morning with a cup of coffee in hand. We all take these simple gestures for granted, and one day they will be distant memories.
In a mere six months you will have the final summer with the friends you have grown up with your whole life. The times when you go get ice cream on a whim because you need that mint chocolate chip right now. When you need a shoulder to cry on or even when you desperately need to do some shopping because your boyfriend broke up with you. Cruising around town, blaring the music and screaming that one song that makes you all feel so invincible. As much as we all want to become adults, and leave high school behind, we will not experience amazing memories like this together again. This is your last summer together. This is it.
Soon your parents will drop you off at your college dorm room. It will time to save money, not spend it. A whole new chapter will start, and you will be leaving everything you once knew behind you. You will have to learn how to balance a checkbook and take out college loans. As much as we all wanted to get out of high school and all of the drama, high school sounds a lot better than becoming an adult. Doesn’t it?
While everything was being done for the last time, you were sitting in a desk wishing it all away. Before you go rushing through high school, savor all the memories with your friends and family.
Whether you are an 8th grader ready to leave Franklin or a sophomore who can’t wait to be a junior and one year closer to graduation, make the most of your time left in high school. You will be in my shoes much faster than you ever think.
Week 12 - Raegan Espe
Receiving is in the Giving
As the holidays approach, many people are trying to answer the age old question: “What do I want for Christmas?”
Almost without a thought we know what comes to mind: A new car, a phone, clothes, toys and many other things. This is what makes Christmas, Christmas right? What if it wasn’t all about receiving? What if the age old question people tried to answer was “What should I give this Christmas?”
All over the world, and, here in Thief River Falls, there are people who are not as fortunate as some. Every year since I could remember, I have been packing boxes for “Operation Christmas Child,” which is a national program designed to give children in other countries a chance to get a gift for Christmas. This operation results in hundreds of boxes of gifts being sent all over the world to children who don’t ever receive gifts for Christmas. Over the years, I have filled boxes with bars of soap, toothpaste, Crayons, and paper. It’s crazy to look at what I give to these children and what I actually receive as a result.
The difference in what we have and what they have is astounding. These children are so thankful for what they have in life. A bar of soap is so precious to them. I would give so much to see the look on those children’s faces after getting the care packages I send out. But here, we get upset when Grandma gets the wrong color T-shirt. Instead we should be thankful we can get a shirt at all!
I continue to send boxes through my church to “Operation Christmas Child.” Every year it hurts my heart to think that they have so little, so I do what I can to help them. Packing a box to send out is such a small action for us here, but it makes a world of difference.
No matter what you get for Christmas this year, remember that some people will never get anything. The gifts I get may one day break or become out of date, but what remains for me after sending a care package is the feeling of making a difference and knowing I brought joy to a child in need. I encourage you all to try giving this holiday season because receiving is also in giving.
Fall Semester
Week 11 - Kylie LaCoursiere
College In High School
Last year as a junior in high school, I was able to start taking college classes through the high school. These classes called CIHS (College In the High School) or PSEO (Postsecondary Enrollment Option). My first semester, I took two CIHS classes: College Composition I and Western Civilization. Around Thanksgiving, I was told by both my uncle and my dad, “you don’t know what college is truly like because you aren’t actually at the college.” They never took Western Civilization, though. Just because the college class is taught by a high school teacher doesn’t mean it is easier. Western Civ was, and still is, the hardest class I have ever taken (and I have taken Medical Terminology and Anatomy and Physiology I). There are only a few high school teachers who are able to teach these CIHS classes, and those teachers have taken extra classes or have advanced degrees.
Now as a senior, my schedule for the year consists of 10 classes, divided between two semesters, and the only class that is not for college credit is Senior Focus (which is a required College and Career Readiness class). Now, here come a few numbers just to explain where I will be at when I graduate. I ended last year with 9 college credits, and my first semester this year consists of 11 college credits. Next semester, I will be taking 17 college credits. That means I will graduate with 37 college credits, which is more credits than is required to graduate high school (yes, I understand the scales are different).
My hope is to apply for the Fall 2019 Practical Nursing program at NCTC here in Thief River Falls. Having these credits finished before starting at Northland means that I would be able to jump right into the program without taking a year to finish prerequisites before being able to apply. This also means that, if it works out like I hope, I will be able to earn my Associate of Science in Nursing degree in just two years instead of three.
Northland gives PSEO/CIHS students a scholarship just for taking these classes through their college. It is called the IGNITE scholarship. Northland gives $50 per college credit, with a max of $1,500, to students who will attend Northland the Fall semester after high school graduation.
Because Northland is an accredited college, a majority of their credits are transferable, depending, of course, on the college students are being transferred to. Being able to transfer credits makes college easier because the classes don’t have to be taken again. Northland also has a connection with Bemidji State University, where all of their credits are transferable to the university.
Giving students the opportunity to take college credits in high school opens up time and opportunities later on, especially when the credits go toward their desired degree. Some students are even able to graduate with their Associate Degree before they graduate high school. I am personally thankful that they do this because being able to get prerequisites for the nursing program finished before I start college sets me a year ahead of the plan, which saves me both time and money in the long run.
Week 10 - Ale Abeyta
Black Friday Psychos
This time of year one of the major holidays tends to get completely overlooked. Everybody wants to jump from Halloween right to Christmas with no notice of Thanksgiving in sight. I, too, am guilty of doing this because when I think of Thanksgiving, I think of Black Friday shopping. In my household, the rest of my family gets together to celebrate Thanksgiving, but my aunt, my two cousins, and I don’t really celebrate it. Not that we don’t want to but because we don’t have time.
We’re all huge crazy Black Friday shoppers. We typically head to Grand Forks, where most of our shopping is done. We pack for the night, including snacks, drinks, and energy boosters, and we set out for the long trip. We head to Grand Forks around 12:30 in the afternoon on Thanksgiving Day with anticipation filling the car and Christmas lists filling our purses. We get to Grand Forks just in time for the JC Penney door busters, and that’s where our shopping adventure begins.
We always have a game plan for the night. We make lists of all the stores we are going to hit, what we need from each store, and what time the sales begin at each place. We don’t sleep or get a hotel room; we shop. All. Night. Long.
We start shopping at about 1:30 on Thanksgiving Day, and we don’t stop until about 3 or 4 on Black Friday. We shop throughout the whole night with some breaks to rest our feet and to eat. Of course, we always hit the main stores like Target, Walmart, Scheels, Menards, and the mall. We don’t forget about the small stores either. We typically hit those when the sales at the larger stores start to die or if we already have gotten everything we need from them.
When all is said and done, we pack up tired as ever and head home with our Christmas lists basically complete and the car full. We get home, unload, and sleep. When we wake up, we start wrapping everything we bought so we know that we’re prepared for Christmas.
Most people think we’re huge crazy Black Friday Shopper Psychos, but that is alright. Everyone has some holiday traditions, and this just happens to be ours.
Week 9 - Maryssa Mehrkens
Living on a Farm as the Fifth Generation
When I was five years old, my family moved to a new house. Even though it wasn’t a long distance move, it impacted our lives greatly. We moved across town to a farm. This wasn’t just any farm; this was our farm, Mehrkens Farms Inc.
In 1924, my great-great grandparents, Henry and Dorothea Mehrkens, moved here from western North Dakota thinking that it would be closer to Fargo. They moved into a tiny white house that is still in our yard to this day. Just like any family back in that time, they started to make a living off of farming. It was their way of life, and eventually, the farm was handed down to their son, my great-grandpa, Maynard.
He and his wife, my great-grandma Emma, lived in the same little white house where they raised my grandpa, Ken. In 1961, the farm corporation started and is known to this day as Mehrkens Farms Inc. My great-grandparents’ love for farming was passed down to my grandpa, Ken, who took over the farm with my grandma, Connie, when it was time.
Our farm continued to grow, and they built another house when my dad was four years old. Currently, my mom and dad are the fourth generation to run the farm.
Five generations later, technology has dramatically changed the way our farm is being operated. My dad shared stories with me about thrashing parties during my great-grandpa’s farming period. All the neighbors around the area would get together and help harvest each others’ crops by hand. Farming has evolved from simple machinery and sheds to advanced combines and automatic semi-trucks.
Instead of having to go out and harvest the crops in small amounts, we now have combines that enable us to harvest more bushels at a time and can drive by itself. We also have a scale on the grain cart to tell us how many pounds of grain per load. When I was younger, my dad would go out and check the fields to see how much rain had fallen on the fields. He still does this, however, there is this handy dandy app that shows all of our fields and how much rainfall and where it fell on the field.
Part of living on a farm means you have to help out when help is needed. During planting and harvest, we have to be extra helpful around the house and the farm. As I’ve grown up, the ways that we have helped out has changed. When I was younger, my dad was gone all the time during springs work and harvest. We had to help Mom with making lunch for the guys out in the field and doing our chores around the house.
Now, helping out is constantly being available to move equipment from field to field, maintaining our farmstead and other building sites, learning how to drive a loaded semi, and cleaning air drill parts with a toothbrush (it took me a week to finish that project). During wheat harvest this past year, I spent ten hours per day in the grain cart hauling grain from the combine to the semi-trucks.
Even though sitting for that long is not ideal, nothing beats the rush and the adrenaline of harvest. Nothing beats the feeling of when you have to rush back and forth between two combines and the semis and try to figure out where to put all this grain because everything is full. I love being able to watch the “harvest” sun set behind the field.
Where I grew up was never my choice, but I’m glad it was a farm. Living on the farm for almost all of my life has influenced my choices. And it hasn’t just influenced my daily choices, like having to mow the grass instead of watching a movie. It has also influenced my interest in agriculture. It’s influenced my choice to go to NDSU for Agricultural Economics.
Living on a farm is a significant part of my family’s history and a big part of who I am today, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Week 8 - Alysson Karrow
Sticks and Stones
As kids, we were taught that sticks and stones may break our bones but words will never hurt us. Although it’s a great concept, it develops a mentality that words don’t mean anything. It implies that words don’t have the power to heal or to break someone. Our words have more power than we were taught. We have to be careful about what we say to people, and how we say it. Some may think of words as random vowels and consonants slammed together to form what we use to convey ideas, but if you think about it, each word we use means something deeper. I know of some people who don’t believe in the power of the words we use. Maybe it’s because of the nursery rhyme that we had memorized by the age of five.
It truly does depend on the person. Certain words mean certain things to certain people. That’s common sense. What we fail to consider is what words mean to other people. Of course, we can’t go through life trying to avoid offending people. It’s okay to offend people, but our words hurting people is a completely different issue. If our words are constructed out of anger, what good does that do? There’s no good in hurting people with our words because of the anger that we hold inside our hearts. Our words do not go unnoticed, good or bad. We have the power to make or break someone’s day with what we say to them and about them.
I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir with this one, considering students my age most likely won’t read this. I think it’s important to think about what we say before we say it. If we were to speak everything that comes to our minds, this world would be chaos. We need to stop, think, and if what you’re thinking is something good, then say it. If it’s something clearly hurtful, then keep your mouth shut. It’s not hard. It takes a small amount of effort to make a difference in what we say. Be good and do good. By speaking words of kindness, we have the ability to actually make a difference.
A lot of people ask how one person can make a difference in the world. I’m not talking large scale. I’m talking about in this community. The world is too big for this little town to make a large difference, but we should be more worried about here. This place has potential to be better. It has the potential to be good. In order to be good, we need to speak words of love and unity, not hatred. Our words have power. They are not whispers in the wind, but thunder during a storm. I don’t see how anyone could think that our words are powerless. The connotations behind everything that we say, and the inflection of our voice when we say it, causes people to react. That’s a universal fact for everyone on this planet. Our job is to show love through our words.
Week 8 - Madison Wolter
Lefty Lefty
I was in Mrs. Brickson’s fourth grade class at St. Bernard’s when noticed I was a little different than my 17 classmates. Every time I sat down at my desk, I clashed elbows with the person sitting next to me. This not only angered me, but it also angered the person to my left because we both messed up on whatever we were working on in class. I also noticed I would have my textbooks laid down so that they mirrored the textbook of the person to the right of me. This always resulted in us fighting over the fact that my textbook would be laying on “her” desk or that I didn’t have enough room to put down my textbook because her textbook was in the way. The problem was eventually resolved when Mrs. Brickson realized that I, and another student in the class, were left handed. After every seating chart, Mrs. Brickson made sure the other left handed student and I sat on the end or left side of the row/groups that we were in.
Ever since the fourth grade, I have been bombarded with the never ending question “are you left handed?” Because it just isn’t normal to be left handed, apparently. I found a statistic that stated only 10% of the people in the world are left handed, yet funny enough, 75% of the people currently residing in my household are left handed. This includes my mom, my dad, and me, leaving my little sister to be the odd one out as a righty.
Since I am left handed, I find it completely normal when I see a person using their left hand (meaning I don’t stop everything I do to annoy that person with questions about the struggles of being left handed). Being left handed is my normal. It’s normal for me to want to shake hands with another person with my left hand. It’s normal for me to start writing on the side of the notebook where the notebook spiral is on the right side. In general, it is normal for me to do anything and everything with my left hand.
What I find interesting is that a person is (usually) born with two functioning hands, yet somewhere in their genetic makeup, one hand will be more dominant than the other. In most cases, you are more likely to be right handed since it is the dominant gene. But do you ever just think why the human race evolved into preferring to use one hand over the other? Wouldn’t it make more sense if the world was ambidextrous? Or did the human race always have a dominant hand? I learned in my psychology class last fall that the brain is crossed wired, meaning that the left hemisphere of the brain controls the right side of the body, and the right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body. Talk about only left handers being in their right minds!
In the end, this world is built for right handed people, leaving all of us left handed people facing awkwardly shaped desks, uncomfortable scissors, and impossible ice-cream scoops. I even bet that you didn’t know that pencils and pens are made for right handed people too! If you hold a pencil or pen in your right hand, you are able to read the label left to right; however, if you hold the writing utensil in you left hand, the label is printed upside down. Now this really is not a big problem for us left handed people, but not even pens and pencils are made for left handed people! I can’t tell you enough about how frustrated I get when I need to cut something with a pair of right handed scissors, or when I smudge the things I draw or write on paper. And don’t even get me started on trying to use a can opener!
At the end of the day, I wash my pen marks of my hand and go to bed just like any other person, putting my left handed problems aside until the next day.
Week 7 - Hailey Kvick
The First Last of Senior Year
With senior year comes a lot of lasts. Some of the lasts you experience will not be such a bad thing. Some, though, are much harder. I knew that the hardest last for me was going to be my final season of playing tennis as a Prowler.
Watching my team battle through their matches gave me hope that we could win and move on the section championship. We were matched up against the one seed, but I was confident that we could keep up and battle Foley as we went into the matches. As our teams started to get down, and started losing tie breaks, I lost the hope that I had in the beginning. By the time my match started, we already had four losses as a team, and the match was decided.
My match was the last to go on the courts, and as I walked onto the hard surface, I could already feel the sadness setting in. The girl I played was a great player, and she beat me 6-2, 6-0. I played hard, but I knew, whether I won or lost, it would not matter. What mattered, was that my high school tennis career was over.
When all of our matches were over, we waited for our coach to talk to a parent. Then we went into the lobby to wait for our bus. Our coach talked to us about the match and said he was proud. Then he started talking about the seniors. There were only three of us, but we made such a huge impact on the team and did our jobs just as we were supposed to.
I sat looking at the ground and looking out the window, trying to avoid any eye contact. If I looked anyone in the eyes, I was going to lose it. When our coach told the younger players they should give us hugs, I knew the water works were going to come.
The first hug I received, was the breaking point for me. I hugged everyone on the team, and that is when I realized that this was it. This was our last run as a team and my last run as a Prowler.
I would never play with the girls I’ve grown to love, and I would never spend the quality time with them like I used to. I would not get another bus ride with them, and I would not get another overnight trip with them. I would not get to practice with them, do fun team activities with them, or play another match with them. The hardest pill to swallow was that I would not be with them as much as I had been all season, ever again.
As the days go by, I miss my team. I will always cherish the time we spent together, and all of the memories we made both on and off the court. We had our ups and downs, and when we hit a low point, we were always there for each other and always picked each other up. I know that moving forward, tennis was the best part of my high school career and playing with such an amazing team will always have a place in my heart.
Week 6 - Alexa Rogall
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
For many, October means Halloween and pumpkin spice lattes and fall sweaters, but for me, it means Christmas music, ugly Christmas sweaters, and watching Hallmark movies. For example, on October first, I popped in my Pentatonix Christmas CD to start singing along to some of my favorite tunes, like “Hallelujah.”
Now I know the snow coming early this year may cause a lot of grumbling, at least it did for me (I hate driving in snow and the cold), but it also bring me joy because I associate snow with Christmas. And I know it may sound crazy that I do all of these so “early,” but it’s not early at all because Christmas time could not come soon enough.
When Christmas comes around, it means that I get to see all of my family at gatherings and eat all of the wonderful homemade food they provide at these gatherings. Christmas means getting to go sledding with my sisters and making snowmen with my friends. It means the fireplace blazing and cozying up to one another underneath huge blankets, big enough to cover everyone from head to toe. Christmas means a much needed break from school.
Christmas means going around the town and looking at all of the lights placed around. My family has done this for as long as I can remember. We go everywhere, from behind Walmart, to the houses by the Ralph, to the houses out by Challenger, and, of course, we always end with Coach Pete's light extravaganza.
Christmas means giving and receiving presents. No matter how much I love getting presents, nothing beats giving them. One of my favorite traditions with my family is going to the angel tree and each picking someone to give presents to. When I was younger, I used to choose someone around my age that was a girl, but now I choose whomever I want.
Another thing my family recently started to do is volunteer at the Christmas Day meal, which is where we go and serve food for whoever wants to come and join. We also package food for those who are unable to leave their house. Giving to others, especially those in need, is one of my favorite traditions.
Even though Christmas feels like it will be her soon, I know that I must wait patiently for two months. But until then I will be marking off the days on my calendar until it truly becomes the most wonderful time of the year.
Week 5 - Luke Perkovich
The Influence of a Coach
While writing an essay for our College Comp II class, we were prompt with the question, “Who at Lincoln High School has inspired you, and how has that influenced you?”
Now, hundreds of ideas rush to my mind at the thought of this question. Every single teacher, every single class, basically every single day has inspired or influenced me in some way, shape, or form. Although I had all these schemes that would have made a suitable answer to this inquiry, I really wanted to nail this question on the head. I asked myself this question the most: Who has really made a difference in my life?
After thinking everything over at least twice, I finally saw a pattern. Someone stuck out from all the rest. There is one man who inspires me to do my best work and be my best self. His name is Bryce Lingen.
Mr. Lingen, or Coach Lingen as I call him, has influenced my life tremendously over the last four years and has inspired me to be the best that I can. The biggest influence Coach Lingen has had on me is still vivid in my mind today. It was the day Coach asked me to play football for him.
It was a casual day as I was walking down the hall past Mr. Lingen’s room. Mr. Lingen, who had just been named Head Football Coach, had a big grin on his face and quickly called me over. He told me to take a chance and give football a shot. Mr. Lingen reassured me with a “I think you’ll really enjoy it.”
Reluctantly, I thought about his offer and confidently told him I would think it over. In reality, I knew I wouldn’t give football a second thought.
If we fast forward a couple of days, I finally came to the conclusion that I should probably tell Mr. Lingen I wouldn’t be playing football.
I remember the conversation like it was yesterday. I walked into his classroom on a regular day immediately after school. Mr. Lingen sat behind his large desk sorting through papers.
Alright, just tell him you don’t want to play. I couldn’t urge myself to spit out the words.
Mr. Lingen answered first, “Hey bud, what’s up?”
I tried to tell him, but just staring at this man that I respected so much, I just couldn’t tell him. I looked up to Mr. Lingen. I couldn’t let him down. I felt obligated to do something. The words that came out of my mouth were entirely foreign to me.
“Mr. Lingen, I think I’m going to give football a shot.”
Oh no. What have I done?
“Sweet! Sounds great bud! It’ll be fun to see you out there!” Mr. Lingen replied enthusiastically as always.
I left his room that day and would soon learn that I made the right choice. Joining football was one of the greater decisions I made over my short high school career. The relationships it built and memories it gave me will never be lost, and I owe this to no one other than Coach Lingen.
Over the next year, I learned many things from Mr. Lingen. If you’ve never talked to Coach Lingen before, you should know that he is a man of many stories. Every possible topic, Mr. Lingen has some kind of story that somehow makes a connection. The craziest part is that each one of Coach Lingen’s tales teaches some form of lesson. The way that Mr. Lingen carries himself and handles situations is inspirational. He always has an optimistic look in his eye and is always trying to get the best out of everyone he teaches/coaches. His outlook on life is something to take notice of. and I just hope that someday I can be a role model like he is to so many kids.
Thank you, Mr. Lingen!
Week 4 - Myles Johnson
One Last Shot
Sports have always surrounded my life. When I was younger, I was constantly around my dad, who was a Dwayne Wade fanatic. He always told me, “That’s going to be you one day.” So naturally, I started practicing.
I started off with my dirty, rolled up sock, shooting them into the laundry basket, just like how Kobe Bryant did. “Five. Four. Three. Two… HE SCORES!”
In 2nd grade, I moved here, to Thief River Falls. I joined basketball, but I never found a real passion for it again until 7th grade.
In 6th grade, I joined football. I had absolutely no idea how to play, but I still gave it a shot. I wasn’t the most athletically-gifted child and was a little pudgy, but I dreamed of playing running back and safety one day. Running for a 50-yard touchdown or intercepting the ball and returning it for a game-winner were dreams of mine. However, all these dreams all escaped early since I was a chunky child.
Once I reached 7th grade, I started to hit puberty and lost weight along with adding some height, making me 100 times more of an athlete than I was. I took everything in sports so competitively and found a passion for football, basketball, and track. Dreams of being Thief River’s next prodigy returned to me since I now knew I had the capabilities of doing so.
Everyone one that came before me warned me on how fast everything will go by. I just thought it was because they took everything for granted and had regrets of not working their hardest. I made sure in the years following I worked my tail off. I wanted my senior season to be perfect. I wanted to stand out from the rest and be the one that brings the crowd to their feet. However, this summer has been challenge for me mentally and physically.
The first challenge struck me in July. Gradually, I was getting a tingly feeling in my hands. I thought it was just a pinched nerve, and naturally, I just ignored it, knowing it’ll get better. Instead, it got progressively worse. It got to the point where my hands were numb, and I couldn’t feel if anything was touching them. I went in and got four MRI’s done. Right before the first football game of my senior season, my doctor called. My second challenge was upon me: my doctor told me to sit this game out.
I’ve never struggled more in a task than telling Coach Lingen that I wasn’t going to be able to play in the first game of the year. A week later I got a call from my doctor again during practice. I’ll never forget the words he told me, “I sent your tests in, and they’re thinking it’s MS.” I was devastated. I remember going over what multiple sclerosis was in anatomy. I had no clue what this meant to my sports career, or how it would affect me later in life. I sat by myself in awe of what I just heard before going out to tell Coach.
When I approached him, I was on the verge of tears and when he replied so wholeheartedly and supportive, I broke down. All I wanted was one last play with my teammates.
I went to Fargo the week after to meet with the MS specialist. There they had me do many tests and showed me my brain and neck lesions. I was terrified on what this meant and wanted answers, but, of course, doctors say things that they could only possibly know, so I was left dumbfounded.
Once they finished speaking, I asked immediately if I could play sports.
“I don’t see any reason of why to prohibit you from playing,” my doctor said. “You passed all of your tests and don’t seem to be affected by this as much as your symptoms show.”
A smile began to form on my face, and my parents continued to ask questions, but I didn’t listen because I couldn’t stop thinking about how I could return back to my beloved sports.
I texted Coach immediately, notifying him that I could play.
After this happened, I realized that God had given me one last shot. One last chance to prove my worth in sports. One last opportunity to give my all to the Thief River community. For that I am eternally grateful.
Week 3 - Eme Gunderson
The Greatest Blessing
I have been an aunt for seven short years. Of course, these short years I have been an aunt to a weiner dog named, Cash, and numerous cats and chickens. Through these seven years, I have been waiting not so patiently to be an auntie to a human.
I never realized how much of a blessing babies are until I had one in my life. Of course I knew babies were amazing and some are cute and whatever. But this baby, my big sister’s baby, is an amazing gift from God, a gift I have been waiting for, for what seems like forever. I will never want to give the little gift up.
My sister, Cassie, gave me the best early birthday present I could have asked for early last May. The baby had Cassie eleven days over her due date. Finally, the baby decided it was time to give Auntie Eme her birthday present. After spending fifteen hours in a hospital waiting for my gift, Cassie finally gave me it. May 6th of this year, my favorite human was born. Huxley John Berg changed my entire world in just those first seconds I met him.
Huxley has brought so much joy to my life. I cannot believe it. Having Huxley around has made me more responsible. The kids I have been around have been toddlers or older. I haven’t had to ‘watch the head’ when holding a kid before, or watch when he wants to look somewhere different and flips his head around almost hitting me in head every time. I also have never seen someone sleep so much in my life.
The summer going into my senior year, I spent quite a bit of time with my sister. I loved watching her become a mother and watching Huxley become a little boy, instead of a tiny baby. He has learned how much he loves talking, just like his auntie! Huxley has also learned to belly laugh, but he only does that for Mom and Dad. Watching him grow up has been a blessing, even though it has already gone way too fast.
I have been able to be apart of so many of Huxley’s ‘firsts,’ just as I am going into many of my ‘lasts’ of high school. In just short of ten months, I will be leaving for college. Leaving Huxley. While I’ll only be two hours away, my life will be completely changed. Not being able to see Huxley everyday will be a big struggle. Cassie usually comes over with him multiple times a week, so even when I am super busy I have been able to give the little muffin kisses.
Huxley has completely changed my life in so many ways: from becoming responsible for someone other than myself, to wanting to stay in Thief River Falls forever, just to watch him and my future nieces and nephews grow up. I never realized having a nephew would have so much of an impact on me. Although I love my family very much, Huxley has made me love more than I ever thought possible.
Week 2 - Dayle Dahlen
When I Grow Up
Senior year can be the best and worst of times in high school. Some of the things that seniors have to look forward to are taking their senior pictures, their last “first” day of school where your parents make you take a picture for them to post, having free blocks, last high school dances, and of course graduation day.
While senior year can be very enjoyable, it’s also stressful for students. Students get bombarded at family events with the same question, “what are your plans for next year?”
I have been asked this question millions of times by every person I’ve ever met. The question isn’t just asked senior year though, we’ve been asked different forms of this question all our lives like, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”
We all remember being asked this question when we were younger and, of course, we have these wild dreams of being a chef, a doctor, a vet, or a movie star. I’ve changed my mind many times on what I’ve wanted to do, unlike some kids who will follow in their parents footsteps of being a teacher or a doctor.
One of my favorite moments of the year so far was taking my senior pictures. I never thought taking pictures for five hours would be fun, but I had an amazing time, and those five hours went by like five minutes.
Some moments of senior year are bitter sweet, like having your first last practice of a sport you’ve been playing since you were five or leaving your family behind while going to college.
With fall coming around, seniors will be visiting colleges, making final decisions, and sending in their applications. I find this to be the most stressful part, all the “what if’s” of not getting into a college you want to go to start going through your mind. There are many questions to think about when picking a college though, besides just, do they have my major? Is their food good? What is there to do? What do their dorms look like? Although senior year can be stressful, seniors try to make the most of all the lasts to come.
Week 1 - Abigail Semanko
The First Last
“Ab, please just smile! It’s one picture. You will be fine!”
This line is all too familiar to me as I stand shivering against the fence, rolling my eyes at the camera and yawning simultaneously. It’s always been the one day of the year where I genuinely try to look nice, hoping to trick people into thinking I actually have a sense of style. I mean, after all, all of my mom’s Facebook friends are going to be seeing this, so I don’t want to disappoint! But, even in my cute new outfit that laid out, just waiting to be worn, on my bedroom floor all night, I always struggle to summon enough energy to flash a smile. I mean, c’mon! After three months of vacation, it’s hard to find motivation to do much of anything, let alone at seven in the morning.
I’m sure you’ve realized by now that I’m talking about the first day of school, and in case you are wondering, I did end up smiling for the picture (you’re welcome, Mom).
Now, as much as I can complain about this first day of school struggle, this year is a little different. This year is the last year.
A year from now I won’t be waking up in my childhood home with my parents standing in the kitchen making sure I have everything before I rush out the door, or my dog sitting next to me as I eat my breakfast just hoping I’ll share some of it with him. Instead, I’ll be in an unfamiliar dorm room with unfamiliar people getting ready on my own and probably forgetting something, too.
Part of me wants to throw my backpack in the air and celebrate the fact that I’ll never have to do this again, but the other part of me wants to sit down and cry because this was one of my first lasts’ of the year. As annoying as the first day of school can be, this year it was bittersweet, and to be honest I’m kind of sad that it’s over.
Another sad “last” I recently had was my last first cross country meet. As I laced up my spikes and got into our girls’ team huddle before taking the line, it hit me I only get to do that seven more times before it’s all just a memory. I’ve been a part of this team since the first day of sixth grade, and my teammates and I have such a tight bond. It doesn’t even feel real to me that I have to leave this behind in just a few short months.
This year, however, we do get a very cool opportunity as a cross country team; we host the section 8AA cross country meet! I think it’s awesome we get to host the tournament, and I’m so excited to run my last race as a Prowler in my hometown. I think I can speak for all of my teammates when I say we would love to see everyone from our community there, so feel free to come out and watch. We’d appreciate it so much.
Although it’s sad to leave this all behind after senior year, I know there’s so much to look forward to in taking the next step to college: new friends, new opportunities, and hopefully an idea of what I want to do for the rest of my life! For now, though, I’m going to take in every “last” bit of senior year that I can, because once it’s gone, it’s gone.