Junior Joshua Wilson is 17 and a cross country runner. He is a staff reporter at HHS for Newsstreak, and it is also his first year in Newstreak. In his free time, he enjoys reading, playing frisbee and long walks on the beach.

Lucie Rutherford is into her third year at HHS as well as the Newssreak staff. She is Print Editor-In-Chief and sees all of her other Newsstreakers as one big family. Lucie likes to think she speaks Spanish, but in reality just loves the food, along with every other food in the world… as long as it’s not too spicy. Lucie is an avid traveler, volleyball opposite hitter, outdoor adventurer, football watcher and baker. From macaroons to chocolate chip cookies, she’s up for a good baking challenge. Go Streaks! *insert lightning bolt emoji*

At the beginning of the school year in September, all Freshman and Sophomores received Dell Chromebooks purchased with money from a grant.

Until recently, though, students were not able to use YouTube or listen to music on their Chromebooks due to filtering software pre-installed on their devices. That has now changed, and students will be able to use YouTube and listen to music from certain sources such as Pandora and Soundcloud after 6:00 p.m. YouTube and music streaming services will still be blocked in school because the current network cannot handle many devices on streaming services.

Instructional technology resource teacher Diana Flick thinks that this will be beneficial for teachers and students.

“Educationally, YouTube has some great uses. The flipped classroom model is the buzz-phrase now in education. Teachers can assign videos to watch, but only after 6:00 and only if students have access,” Flick said.

The flipped classroom model is a relatively new educational model in which students prepare for class by watching videos or lectures about a subject in advance and then focus on more hands-on activities such as projects in class.

YouTube will still be in a restricted content mode, allowing only certain videos to be viewed by students, but Flick says that the technology staff will continue to look into other options for useful tools.

“We’ll keep playing with some more stuff,” Flick said.

The cool, drizzly evening of Oct. 21, five of my friends and I braced ourselves to face the four-tenths mile long haunted woods trail of Fear Forest. Having gone and being pleased with it last year, we decided to have a reunion and relive the frights and terror.

We arrived around 7:00 p.m. to avoid the late-night lines that we got stuck in last year. Whether it was due to the light rain or our early arrival, there weren’t many people there, and we were able to get through the nonexistent lines in no time at all. While that was convenient and better than our hour-and-a-half long wait from last year, I felt as though I needed a little bit more time standing in line surrounded by the dress up ghouls and clowns to add the fear factor and get myself spooked before I even went into the trail.

The fact that I was willingly about to put myself through a trail of fear didn’t hit me until I was walking through the entrance itself. Due to the fact that no one wanted to lead the pack, we all rotated around and forcefully pushed anyone to the front that tried to resist. The themes of the different pathways and areas we went through ranged from gory and disturbing, to frightening and nerve wracking.

One of the most memorable attractions for me was the clown house. Something that most people know about me is that I have a pretty big fear of clowns. However, I would consider my fear to be very rational, especially due to the recent creepy clown epidemic. I went in with the caution and uncertainty that any of the clown actors could actually turn out to be killer. Although my experience with this last year included a scary clown smiling in my face with a knife, not allowing me to move, I found this year’s rendition to have a greater effect on me. There were more clowns this year than in the past and they were more interactive with us, including chasing us with a chainsaw. This whole occurrence left with me a racing heartbeat and a sprinting capability I didn’t know I had.

Another improvement from last year that I discovered was in the haunted bus feature. Last year, they had many opportunities to have jump scares that they didn’t take, leaving me disappointed. However, they fixed that this year, and I found myself flinching at every slight movement in the bus, in fear of another zombie popping out from behind the seat.

The only bummer I felt this go-round was something that I just have to deal with. The night was so exhilarating, and I was having so much fun that I found myself running from a creepy character out of the exit before I even realized that the trail was close to being over.

My Fear Forest experience this year definitely outdid last year’s, and despite the fact that it was over in the blink of an eye, the night was truly worth it. I plan to continue the tradition and attend it once again next year when the monsters of the night return.

With a new school year comes new and improved school policies, including the newly revised tardy policy. In case you didn’t know, this policy says that if a student has four unexcused tardies to a class, then they are put in ‘not in good school standing.’ This means that the student is not allowed to do any school related extracurriculars until the bad school standing is taken away.

Even though the new policy is doing it’s job, for the most part, it is still a very strict and unfair policy. For one, the policy is completely biased towards people who do extracurricular activities. It only targets and affects the students who are staying after to do things, while the students who don’t do any extracurriculars can continue on their everyday schedule. Those are the types of students who show up late whenever they want to because the tardy policy won’t affect them at all. For the most part, the students who don’t do anything after school are the ones who need to get to class, and who the tardy policy should be aimed towards the most.

Also, this point was brought up in a leadership class conversation; when a student hits 3 tardies, he/she is going to be scared about getting the fourth. I know some students that will without a doubt just skip school that day in order to avoid that fourth tardy. Isn’t that exactly what this policy is ultimately trying to enforce? Trying to get students to class so they can learn all the material? Now with some of the harsh punishments, it may even bring less students to class, because some may very well choose to skip school.

Certain teachers should also loosen up on this policy a little bit as well. It completely depends on the teacher, but some will mark you down if you are as little as a step out the door when the bell rings. While some others are more reasonable and will give you some room to slide. Teachers need to realize that students have conversations, and get breakfast, and some even have classes that are on the other side of the building, and it is actually hard to get there on time. Don’t get me wrong, if a student walks in 10 minutes late, by all means that’s a tardy, but if a student walks in 2 seconds late, you should be able to let that slide.

In theory, the new tardy policy was an amazing idea, but actually carried out, not so much. The School Board/Administration need to realize that this policy may not actually be that bad if it wasn’t so biased towards the students actually doing after school activities. Until they can get a fair policy for everyone, we should go back to the old policy of just writing students up and having them learn that way, because that is a fair policy that everyone can abide by.

The wetness of water (other synonyms include damp, moist, soaked, all essentially have the same meaning) has been a subject of controversy ever since the first neanderthal noticed the cold, damp feeling his garments gave him every time he let them come in contact with water. Although the argument is purely semantic, I believe that it is of utmost importance that the issue be resolved. And that resolution is that water is wet, plain and simple.

If you look at definitions of water on Merriman or Oxford, you’ll find that water is defined as either “coated with a liquid” or “not dry.” I believe water clearly covers the first category on its own, as it surrounds itself. Even the surface “skin” of water is surrounded by a two-dimensional plane of other water molecules. The latter part of the definition goes a bit deeper, but is much easier to prove absolute. Dry objects are things that have very little water or liquid covering them, and water definitely does not fit this definition. If you assume water isn’t wet, and it isn’t dry, what is it? And There’s no such thing as “something in-between” wet and dry unless you’re talking about personal preference – like when referring to whether or not laundry is dry enough yet – so it must be one or the other. By process of elimination, water is also wet.

The “water is wet” argument stems from purely emotional reasoning. I’ve heard people say water isn’t wet because it doesn’t feel wet when you put your hand in it, or wet can only refer to solid objects. You cannot find a dictionary definition where “wet” strictly refers to a solid, so it must include liquids, but because people don’t “feel” that fits their definition of wet, they deny that it is wet. To all you naysayers in the water/wet argument, wetness isn’t an abstract concept. If you want to change the definition of a word, call up the dictionary and argue your case – they make the definitions.

Students involved in sports, band and various field trips who use a bus to travel have had 77 year-old David Frye as a bus driver. Frye has been driving bus for the high school for three years.

“I started driving because of the various sports teams needing transport to their opponents. I mainly drive the track team. I like it because I can stay and watch them run,” Frye said.

Along with transporting sports teams, Frye drives students to field trips, but very few are overnight. When the trips are more than a day and involve an overnight stay, Frye stays with the group for the entire trip. Two examples of this are the STEM trips to the Chesapeake Bay and Green Bank Observatory.

“[Staying overnight] is better than driving all the way back to Harrisonburg, that’s for sure. Most of the trip I try and stay with the group and participate in the activities, but to be honest, most of it is beyond me. When I went to the Chesapeake, I understood learning about the watershed, but in Green Bank, the material is beyond me. I enjoyed the Green Bank trip but I enjoyed Chesapeake Bay a little more because I could follow it better,” Frye said.

In one case, Frye drove JROTC down to Buena Vista, but decided to not stay the night and drive all the way back.

“I should have stayed with them instead of driving the hour and a half drive back. That is why I prefer to stay the night if it is a long drive back,” Frye said.

During the three years Frye has been driving, he has enjoyed transporting various students.

“I love driving because it gives me the opportunity to go different places and see different things. When I sit in, I don’t follow what they’re doing a lot of the time, but I see the participation and the way you guys work together. I also enjoy watching these kids grow up because I drive many of the same students all the years I have been driving,” Frye said.

Before driving bus, Frye worked as a postal employee for 41 years in the Washington D.C area. He traveled on a postal train up and down the east coast for many of those 41 years.

“It was interesting because I love to travel, and I was able to go to places like North Carolina and New York City. It was a different lifestyle compared to now because today, you have computers and not many postal railways still exist,” Frye said.

Frye retired in 2003 from his postal job before driving a bus. Since 2013, Frye has been busy driving and transporting students from the high school to where they need to be. He hopes to continue driving for the upcoming years.

I want to take a gap year between high school and college to learn more about myself (which sounds very cliche but is true), work helping other people through a program, like Serving and Learning Together (SALT), travel and get away from a life full of organized learning. Taking a year to yourself can honestly change your perspectives and could alter your plan for later in life. Don’t feel like you need to do what everyone else is doing, just know that you are happiest doing what you want and love.

One of the many benefits to taking a gap year would be to figure out what you want to do later in life, or to actually do something for the world. For example, you could volunteer with Greenpeace, or volunteer for SALT. While you’re giving back you would get more knowledge about yourself. You would still be learning, but you would learn in an unorthodox way.

Another great thing about a gap year is that you have so much more time on your hands. If you needed money, you could spend your days working, and still have your evenings to do things you want, like reading or having dinner with your friends.

The most exciting part about having a gap year is probably the opportunity to travel and explore more of the place you call your home. There are so many beautiful and enriching places you could go. You could backpack the Appalachian Trail, or take a roadtrip and see all the glorified sights you read about in magazines. Think about it. Actually sleeping in a hammock in the redwood forests or suntanning on a beach in Hawaii without a care in the world, just you and the sea.

My last point about how wonderful gap years are is that you can get away from a life full of organized learning. You sit at a desk for who knows how many hours and slowly lose yourself in the routine. This system really works for some people, but I know that, for me, it’s important to learn real skills, not geometry.

There are so many reasons I think I will take a gap year when senior summer finally rolls around, and I also think that you should too. You never know what it could lead to.

Last night the girls volleyball teams faced the Fort Defiance Indians in a district game. Junior varsity lost in straight sets 2-0 before the varsity took the court for senior night. The final home game of the year celebrated the careers of four seniors: Jessica Denton, Athena Benton, Casey Wilson and Zoey Fox. Varsity went on to lose in straight sets 3-0 to the Indians and now have a record of 2-16 on the season. Freshman Suzanne Fornadel enjoyed senior night, but wished the game would have ended differently.

“It was fun to celebrate senior night, but I wish we could have won the game for their final home game at HHS,” Fornadel said.

HHS will take on the Spotswood Blazers Thursday in the last game of the regular season.

The Parade of Champions band competition is held by JMU and takes place at their Bridgeforth stadium. On Saturday Oct. 22, 2016, the Marching Bluestreak band competed in the 4A class and placed 5th.

Senior Ben Blake says that this competition is different from others because it is in front of the biggest audience of the year.

“It is the biggest audience that we perform for, and it’s just a giant wall of people so it’s pretty big,” Blake said.

For Blake, the experience is one he will remember. Being under the large stadium and the big stage is his favorite part of the competition.

“[My favorite part is] performing on such a such a big stage, so to speak, performing on a big field and in front of so many people,” Blake said.

Performing in four POC’s has made Blake change as a player. He went from being nervous to perform in such a large spotlight to being sad that it was going to be his last one.  

“The first one made me really nervous because everyone always talks big about it. The recent one was more of a bittersweet feeling instead of fear because I knew it was going to be my last one,” Blake said.

HHS DECA will be holding the annual boys volleyball tournament on Nov. 2. The tournament is an annual fundraiser for the club, to help pay for materials and cost of trips including the state convention. Students can sign up for their grade level’s team by going to room 452. The cost to play is $2, and all spectators will pay $2 at the door. Like last year, the seniors will face the freshman and the juniors will face the sophomores. Winners from those games will play in a championship and the champion will go on to play against the teachers squad. All games played will be best of three sets. Senior DECA Vice President Duncan Rutherford is a two year DECA member, and this is his second tournament he has helped plan.

“The tournament is a fun time for everyone involved and the money is going to a good cause,” Rutherford says.

He is also helping to plan the district-wide tournament between schools.

“We are also working on planning another district wide tournament like we did last year between all the schools. That tournament will be sometime during the spring and will be a good fundraiser for our national convention we go to,” Rutherford said.

On Saturday Oct. 5, sneakerheads and vendors from all over the east coast descended on National Harbor, Maryland for Sneaker Con DC. The event had around 200 vendors, thousands of attendees and over 100,000 pairs of sneakers. The convention, which was held at the Gaylord Marriott, featured vendors selling sneakers, socks, accessories, clothing and shoe care products. The seven hour event also featured Ace of Customs, a live sneaker customization competition and live BMX riders.

Senior Anthony Bondaruk drove up to Maryland to attend the event; it was his second Sneaker Con he has been too.

“I attended the event because I haven’t been to one in a while, and I enjoy going to sneaker events,” Bondaruk said.

Bondaruk left early in the morning in order to beat the long lines to get in the event, which started at noon.

“I left at 8:00 in the morning, arrived around 10:30 a.m., and left about 3:00 in the afternoon,” Bondaruk said.

He enjoyed the event and was glad he beat the line to get in the door.

“The event was good. Parking wasn’t an issue. I came at 10:30 and there was plenty of space to park. The line wasn’t that big around 10:40, but around 11:30 the line was crazy long,” Bondaruk said.

Bondaruk got to meet new people and even picked up a new pair of shoes.

“My favorite part was meeting the sneaker youtubers, but I also ended up buying a pair of 2016 Bred 1s,” Bondaruk said.

He had no complaints and will attend the next Sneaker Con DC.

“I enjoyed the event. I really didn’t dislike anything, everything was pretty good. I plan to go to another event,” Bondaruk said.

See related story here:

Sneaker Con is one-of-a-kind experience

Sneaker Con is the world’s biggest sneaker convention, and it features all sorts of vendors from sneakers to accessories. I just attended my fourth Washington DC convention as a vendor, and once again I had no complaints. In my opinion anyone who likes sneakers should attend the event. The price for attendees is a little steep at $28, but there are hundreds of vendors, over 100,000 pairs of sneakers and all sorts of entertainment including my favorite, Ace of Customs. Ace of Customs is a live show they film at each event where three sneaker customizers come and compete live.

This past event was my favorite for many reasons including the location. It was held at the Gaylord Marriott in National Harbor, Maryland. As a vendor it was an easy, process of loading and unloading. There was also a ton of parking available near by. I liked the layout of the event, and they always do a good job to keep everyone happy. I always enjoy getting to meet new customers and new vendors. The event is a great place to network, which is the key to success in my opinion.

There is really no other convention like it that will give you the experience you get; it is kind of like a sneakerheads heaven. If you go as an attendee, you will be stuck in a long, neverending line to get in, but it is definitely worth the wait. Even if you don’t want to spend $1,000 on a pair of shoes, there are endless options for below $100, plus their is other clothing and accessories for cheap.

Another aspect I like about Sneaker Con is that it draws a lot of celebrities and athletes. At this past event, I saw a lot of famous Youtubers and a handful of Washington Redskins players including Kirk Cousins, the quarterback. If you want to be involved in the sneaker industry or streetwear, Sneaker Con events are a great place to learn about the business and ask questions. Most of the vendors are good people willing to answer questions.

There is almost a weird feeling when you attend the event because everyone has respect for one another since everyone shares the same interest. Plus, you get to see shoes that you would have no other way to see in your life since they are so limited.

If you want to attend the next event, you can head up to New York for the two day event Nov. 5 and 6.

See related story here:

Sneaker Con 2016

It’s the year 2030, you wake up to a red monochrome landscape, deep craters sit just outside your window and the sun beats down without obstruction from clouds. Welcome to Mars. You’ve just become one of the 100 civilians to colonize the red planet with the help of the Mars One program. It might seem like an amazing opportunity, but remember, unlike Matt Damon in “The Martian,” there really is no return trip home for you. Your ultimate goal is experimental and although there are lots of risks, this is how humans may finally leave Earth permanently.

When put into perspective, the whole expedition sounds like something plucked straight from a science fiction novel.Like those stories scientists, engineers, astronomers, and many more STEM related fields have been working on Mars One in the modern age, or more specifically since 2011. Obviously to them, there is some type of real possibility that colonizing Mars could be a success.

I personally have always been interested in space exploration and discovery. Most children tend to be curious about the starry night sky above, but part of me actually had that small voice in my head saying, “I wanna go to Mars!” Well, just my luck, you had to be eighteen to sign up, and they are already training the civilians that did sign up. Either way, there is something amazing about the next step we will be taking,  but there is also something scary about it too. There are many things that could go wrong, and although everyone with the Mars One project are volunteers, someone will still be blamed if something goes wrong, and that tends to be the whole space exploration community.

Just look at NASA for example. The one time their rocket did explode on the way up to space (Space Ship Challenger, one of the first shuttles with civilians on board), all of NASA was blamed. Most of the scientists and engineers at NASA had warned not to launch the rocket, but were pressured by the public relations department of the government to do so.

Overall, what I am trying to say is that this next giant leap for mankind could be the most risky jump we have taken yet. There is so much more to see on road to space exploration, and as space programs like NASA are losing money from the government, Mars could be a rejuvenation of human curiosity about space.

In the past we said, “One small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.”

Next, we may even be calling half of the human population Martians.

If you would like to know more about the Mars One Expedition go to:

 http://www.mars-one.com/ 

Band director Daniel Upton has had a part in directing band ever since he started working at HHS five years ago. Upton’s love for music started when he was very young, but he didn’t always want to be a music teacher.

“I wanted to be an architect until about my junior year of high school. It then clicked that music was what really made me happy and the experiences and people involved needed to be a part of the rest of my life,” Upton said. “I always wanted to play percussion. I officially started playing in 6th grade band and haven’t stopped ever since.”

According to Upton, the band is composed of really amazing people that form something similar to a big family.

“The people [are the best part about marching band]. Over 100 students come together to form a production in such a small amount of time. It’s also pretty cool for the freshman to have over 100 friends prior to the first day of their high school career. Band is such a family and strong community,” Upton said.

Upton also appreciates all of the opportunities that band offers.

“The people I have met and the opportunities are endless.  I attend conducting workshops every summer and know band directors and professional conductors and musicians literally across the entire world.  It is such a small world and tight network of amazing people.  I am blessed to know the people I know.  I’ve also traveled to some pretty cool places because of band,” Upton said.

Senior Lucy Moss comes from a musical family and plays the alto saxophone in marching band. She is also involved in a cover band, the high school’s jazz and symphonic bands, district band, city county band, and she typically does the wind symphony. Moss believes that marching band is very difficult and that every person is relied upon during performance.

“The hardest thing about marching band is focussing. Marching band is an everyone sport. If you don’t do exactly what you are supposed to do you get points off. Everyone contributes 100% of the time, and if your focus wavers during the show, you screw up. Everything moves so fast, and you have to put all of your energy into the show; it’s very difficult. You have to focus on the music, which that in itself is difficult enough, but also your step style, where you’re going, any visuals and where you are on the field according to everyone else so you can make straight lines. You have to think about passing so you get to your dot at exactly the right time and not too soon and not too late,” Moss says.

Upton agrees that every person is needed and that not everyone realizes their importance.

“The toughest part is making everyone understand how important every single person is. The marching band show is written for the exact number of people, and each individual person has a spot created just for them. Without everyone there, a hole is present, and the complete show isn’t able to happen as intended. Everyone is just as important as the person next to them,” Upton said.

Freshman Declan Leach is doing band for the first time this year. He is in the drum line and plays the bass drum. Marching band has taught him a lot of skills that he can use in the future.

“I think you learn a lot of team building skills that you can use later, and you definitely learn to work as a unit better because you have to play in time and march in time,” Leach said.

Moss also learned a lot from being in marching band.

“The best part about marching band is everything you learn. You learn to be on time and how to be a leader and to care for others. It teaches you discipline and attention to detail. I have learned to be a leader through marching band, [and it] teaches you to be selfless. Marching band teaches you how to be supportive… and you learn how to help people. You learn respect, you learn camaraderie, you learn to pay attention, you learn to be silent, you build muscle, you learn to follow directions exactly, you learn to always ask if someone needs help, and you learn to carry yourself with pride,” Moss said.

As a teacher, marching band is constantly teaching Upton new things as well.

“I’m constantly learning new things….it is so important to continue learning and to continue to better yourself for the sake of your students. Whether it be a new technique, new music, or a new exercise.”

Marching band practice is immediately after school, and according to Leach, is the hardest thing about marching band.

“[We practice] every day, for three hours after school, and it’s often hot… [This] often leads to rushing to finish homework on time,” Leach said.

Moss agrees that marching band takes up a lot of time, but she puts music before her other hobbies.

“The worst part about marching band is the time commitment. Because of the lack of time to do homework, marching band makes the first semester extremely stressful. “I [also] do track, and it conflicts horribly with all of my music activities. I didn’t get to go to a lot of the meets last year because of music conflicting with track, and I wasn’t as good as I wanted to be. Music is my priority,” Moss said.

Upton finds band to be very time consuming as well, but he believes it encourages time management skills.

“I stress to all of my students how you are able to make just about everything work if you plan ahead and communicate effectively. Commitment and following through is such an important life skill,” Upton said.

All of the practice leads up to various competitions throughout the season.

“Our goal is to get better in everything we do.  Each time we perform the show, whether it is at a football game, competition or end of a practice, we strive to make it better than the time before that run. It is important for our students to live by this in all aspects of their life….constantly strive for better, for improvement,” Upton said.

You can’t help it; the fear that’s sinking in, leaving you paralyzed. It’s the kind that seeps into every beat of your heart, every pore in your skin, every crack in your composure. No matter how hard you try to remind yourself that you already checked the closet before you went to bed; no matter how often you say to yourself that you’ve been in this room for the past 2 hours, and nothing has been able to come in; no matter how simple and irrational a fear it seems to be, the dark crack in the closet doors has beaten you, and you can’t help but feel ashamed, because really, how ridiculous it is to be terrified of a closet?

Though certain terrors are categorized as irrational more often than others, we tend to overlook the fact that all fears are illogical. From clowns to closed-in spaces, from heights to spiders in your hair, why are certain triggers seen as foolish? We tend to remind ourselves that there are more realistic monsters in our world: guns, robbers, rapists and so many more. These seem more justified, and therefore we stereotype the rest as unreasonable. “Stop being a baby,” you’ll hear. “What’s there to fear behind the shower curtain?” What we overlook though, is that there should be nothing to fear from anything at all.

Franklin D. Roosevelt once said that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, and though I absolutely admire this quote, I have to disagree. Feeling powerless in the face of panic is an awful feeling. Why, then, would one ever allow themselves to experience fear? This emotion that raises the hair on your arms, causing your blood to curdle and your spine to tingle, may seem unavoidable, but I think you have nothing to fear, not even fear itself.

Every fear you don’t face becomes a self-set limit; an obstacle in your life to eventually overcome. Even fears that cannot be seen- self doubt, fears of rejection and failure, of not being enough- are mental. All can be overcome if you just think about how preposterous they all really are. Plato, another totally awesome and spectacular fellow, is one of the most famous philosophers for a reason. To Plato, true courage was nothing more than knowing what not to fear. To have true courage, you need not be fearless, but understand that you have nothing to dread, or gain, from the feeling of being afraid.

Mark Twain, Dumbledore, Gandhi, Yoda, Rosa Parks, Oprah, Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali, da Vinci; all are great luminaries of the past that touch on the topic of fear. It is one of humanity’s oldest enemies, and yet one of our closest alliances, keeping us alive when we didn’t know any better. Like all things, there is a happy medium. Fear tells you that the star of a horror film should not go into the abandoned chainsaw shed with a bunch of dead bodies. Sometimes, it’s just giving you a little warning. But, do not ever let it tell you that you can’t accomplish something, because the dark is not an irrational fear. It’s an irrational limit, just like every other fear out there.

Not only was the high school one act ‘That was Then’ successful at VTA, but so was Thomas Harrison’s one act play ‘937.’

Matt Schaeffer, a seventh grader in the one act, was astounded at how well they had done at VTA.

“We thought we had gone overtime so we thought we were going to get silver, but it turned out we didn’t [and we got gold] and [then] we got top three, which our school had never done before, so that was just amazing, we were all screaming,” Schaeffer said.

Anna Rath
Besides winning gold and top three, four actors were selected as all-star cast and one actress was selected as outstanding actress. Sydney Shaver was selected as outstanding actress at VTA.

“[I play] Elise, and she’s like this proper young lady at the beginning and she’s pretty moody, and she falls in love with Jacob,” Shaver said.

Director Michael Strawderman believes the results at VTA this year were better partially because of the genre change of the production.

“I’ve noticed a lot of the times that the productions that go to the middle school play festival, judges tend to always head towards the dramatic as opposed to the comedic, and we’ve done comedic the past couple of years, so I figured I had a group of actors who were probably strong enough to handle this challenging piece,” Strawderman said.

Strawderman had read through several pieces and had been drawn to this specific production because it related to the situation going on in our world currently.

“I think it struck me primarily because it was a very timely piece dealing with the Jewish refugee kind of situation that was happening in the late 1930’s early 40’s, and it kind of struck me as kind of the similar situation that we are dealing with in our world with refugees who are fleeing their home,” Strawderman said.

Because of the more serious atmosphere of the production, Schaeffer said the hardest part of the play was the amount of emotion that had to be put into the play to make it as powerful and good as it needed to be.

Anna Rath
“I have just escaped Dachau,” Schaeffer said. “Dachau is a concentration camp, and I’m on the ship to freedom and I find out we’re going back to Germany and I end up killing myself,” Schaeffer said.

Several challenges were faced but nothing the cast couldn’t overcome.

“I think the hardest part was, one, doing a drama and being able to get the kids to play the emotions as honestly as they could, challenging them to put themselves in the shoes of the characters and making their emotions as honest and as real as they probably could. It’s always a challenge when you’re taking a show on the road to be able to design a set that can easily be set up and torn down and not add a lot of stress to the actors who sort of serve as stage crew as well,” Strawderman said.

For Shaver, the play includes a mental transition as well as a set-up transition.

Anna Rath
“Happy musicals and plays, you don’t really have to get in the zone before you go, you just have to be happy and show that, but [when performing dramatic plays and musicals], you have to get in a zone and think as the character before you go on stage,” Shaver said, “[I prefer] more serious and dramatic.”

Schaeffer enjoyed the experience and believes it opened up a new perspective.

A tradition that strikes many, who have fought or have loved ones who have fought in the military, emotionally returned for its seventh year downtown. The marching band performed in the parade, as people sat along the streets. This is sophomore Jaden Graham’s second year performing in the parade.

“I am excited to honor the veterans in this parade because they have done a lot for our country and I feel as if I owe them,” Graham said. “We stayed after rehearsing music and marching for the parade. I practiced my marching technique.”

Graham, along with senior Seth Bontrager, gets to carry the sign and lead the band down the streets.

“I play the electric base and I can’t really march with an electrified instrument because it requires an amp,” Graham said.

Band director Daniel Upton has prepared the band throughout the week of the parade.

“We started [rehearsing] on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and went from 3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. or 4:30 ish. Friday, before the game, we did a run through. We set up our parade block, marched around the parking lot a couple of times,” Upton said. “With our competitive marching season ending, [the band] is marching it very fresh in their mind, so we don’t have to worry about that too much.”  

Although they practiced, it wasn’t tough for the band to complete, due to the fact they already had it in the back of their mind.

“We play the same arrangement every year. After freshman year you’ve done it before, so it’ll come back to you,” Upton said. “[We are performing] just a Veteran’s Day Medley that has a lot of patriotic tunes put together. It was arranged by JR Snow back in 2011, when the band went to New York City for the New York City Veteran’s Day Parade and we’ve continued playing it each year in our hometown parade.”

Upton has set high expectations for the day and is looking forward to seeing the students appreciation to veterans.

“It’s cool to recognize all of the veterans and honor them and for our students to be apart of that recognition in our community, both in the parade and in our concert, [which is] at 4:30 p.pm. this afternoon,” Upton said. “[I am expecting an outcome to be] student’s understanding the different roles that they take as a band member, whether it be [through] competing or recognizing our veterans or supporting our football team. It’s another important aspect of what we do.”

It seems like a day doesn’t go by when I don’t hear someone calling another person fake. Yes, I agree there are some phony people in the world who do shady things. Sadly, we often call those people our friends. True friends are hard to come by, while fake ones seem to be in great abundance. WIth that being said, did you accidentally snatch up a fake friend while in search of a good one? Here’s a checklist to see if you have a fake friend on your hands.

1. If your “friend” says things about you behind your back that they wouldn’t say to your face, that’s not your friend.
2. If your “friend” only talks to you when it’s convenient to them, that’s not your friend.
3. If your “friend” acts different towards you around other people, that’s not your friend.
4. If your “friend” used to talk bad about you and is now your “friend,” don’t fall for it. That’s not your friend.
5. If your “friend” is friends with people you don’t like and tells you stuff about them, chances are they probably tell those people things about you too. That’s not your friend.
6. If your “friend” constantly makes you the second, third, fourth, and so on, choice, that’s not your friend.
7. If your “friend” never even tries to start a conversation with you, take the hint: that’s not your friend.
8. If your “friend” always completely ignores what you have to say, creating a one-sided conversation, that’s not your friend.
9. If your “friend” intentionally makes you feel uncomfortable, that’s not your friend.
10. If your “friend” converses with you but doesn’t claim you as their friend, that’s definitely not your friend.

I wouldn’t be surprised if someone’s name instantly popped into your head while reading through the list. But that’s okay, because now we are going to free them from your unappreciated “friendship” and move along to something better. If you look hard enough, I’m sure you’ll find someone that’s just right. That worked for Goldilocks, at least.