Rules for Kennedy (237)

        I have called Kennedy my home for almost 3 whole years now and through each crazy school day, I feel as though there are some things that freshmen should know before they come to school here.
1. Never eat school meals. Rice krispies and pop tarts are acceptable but everything else is disgusting.
2. Get a locker even if you don't think you will use it a lot. When you don't have to carry around 3 bags a day you will thank me.
3. Don't take the easy way out, take some AP classes and fill your free periods with classes. It will help you in the long run.
4. Don't pay your parking tickets. It's really not that serious, and yes you will still graduate.
5. Make friends in all your classes. Don't be the stuck up girl that just sits on her phone and doesn't talk to people.
6. The door by the west gym isn't blocked for SMART lunch, you're welcome.
7. Take AP pysch with Mrs. Melone but drop if you get Corey
8. Use the teacher avoidance list during registration towards your advantage.
9. Avoid AP seminar at all costs
10. Don't walk .84759 mph in the foyer. Thanks :)
11. It isn't cute to make out with your boyfriend under the stairs. Keep that shit at home please.
12. Actually do your homework it's not that hard to pass a class

social revolution (827)

Bullying has always been an issue with adolescents. The introduction of technology and the shows depicting “mean girls” warped the minds of the youth to think that this behavior is okay. Adolescents are so vulnerable during their teenager years that it is easy to make someone feel low. Girls and boys pick and tear at their peers until they have no other choice but to end it all. This sickens me as I watch people around me make fun of others for something they can’t change, but what also bothers me is the way the adults in our lives handle this. Instead of a whole school assembly to teach us to be “kind”, we are in need of a huge social revolution if we want to create a better society to eliminate bullying and suicide.

                Social media was the catalyst and we were the chemicals. Introduction of social media was meant to connect with others, share ideas, and know what’s going on in the world around us. Adolescents use it in a satanic way; bashing others with words typed by fingers because they think they are protected by a screen. They do it to get likes or favorites, anything to get people laughing and gain followers. What no one really thinks about is the person on the other side of the screen. It is fairly easy to type out “You’re ugly” and hit send without batting an eye. If you were face to face with this person, though, would you still hurl nasty words at them? Probably not. Hurting feelings is the last thing on people’s minds when throwing mean words at a screen. These people are cowards; they have enough power and strength to type out words thinking that they have the false protection of the electronics’ screen. I will not act like I am innocent, I have too fallen victim to the false satisfaction of saying mean words through social media, but I have never been so hurtful to another individual that they feel like their only way out is to take their own life. Wake up, people! Do we not see the problem with being so lenient on the adolescents that chose to use hate speech for fun on social media? This past month we have lost one of our own. Another face eliminated from the hallway, another person eliminated from the football game crowd, another friend eliminated from the slumber parties.  There are positives to social media, as it connects the whole world, but the exposure and freedom that adolescents have on these sites without consequences is astonishing.

                When something bad happens, adults feel as though we need an intervention. They host assemblies and try buckling down on bullying to preach kindness, but the affect is limited. If these reactions worked, why is the suicide rate still counting and the average age for suicides getting lower? A few words scolding us to be kind to everybody won’t help, we need complete social destruction so we can build a better us. Schools are not taking this issue as serious as is needed to prevent and that in its own also needs a makeover. No more mean words, no more hitting, no more body shaming, no more exclusion. There are harassment signs hung up around the school that state that there are always people here willing to help you. Although this may be good to know, we are not being picked on by a bully at recess anymore. It is the laughing. It is the gossiping. It is the way other’s look at you at school. It is walking the halls alone because you have no one. All of this is built up on an individual until they can’t take it anymore. Instead of preaching kindness, the administration needs to teach it. In a certain way that hits home to all to stop this massacre by words. It is always preached that we need to leave a better earth for our children, but what about leaving better children for our earth.

                You never know what someone is going through so why be an extra problem for a person to worry about. Adolescents need to start worrying about what people think of their character rather than appearance because beauty gets you a long way but character keeps you there. A beautiful face without a beautiful personality is a masterpiece painted on a napkin. We must teach our kids to be kind and start it from the home. Teach them that personality always comes first. Parents need to teach their children earlier how to respect one another so they can grow off of love instead of hate. It should be planted in the home and blossomed through our peers and teachers. One thing my mother taught me that I will never forget is that the homecoming queen is never the one with the pretty appearance, it is the girl who was beautiful to everybody inside and out. 

The unknown (123)

     We all know the feeling of not knowing where to go when going out to eat with friends, family, or significant other. What people usually settle on is the basic pancheros, panera, or another food chain. There are so many cute and unique places in cedar rapids that have yet been discovered and are way better than a chain tortilla. So instead of going to the regular joint, take some time to pick a small business and support local!

the end (673)

It is April 3^rd, 2016. For the class of 2016 that makes only about a month left of walking the halls of Kennedy. For our class it means that our senior year is nearly approaching and soon we will have to make a ton of decisions about what we want to do with our futures. Will we go to college? Will we go in to the air force? Will we take a year off? All of us will go in completely different directions and we may never see each other again. We are being pushed off in to the deep end with our parents and friends as our floats for support. It is still so terrifying knowing that in just a few months I will be writing essay’s to the administration offices of colleges I would like to attend and next year I will be leaving Kennedy behind? Why does it feel like just yesterday I was getting ready for freshman orientation?

                Senior year will be filled with a bunch of unwanted goodbyes. We will have to say goodbye to our favorite teachers that we spent every SMART lunch with because they became more like friends to us. We will have to say goodbye to team mates and coaches who were there every step of the way. We will have senior night’s that seem to go by in a flash. We will have the last performances and the last games. We will have to say goodbye to the locker that volunteered to hold all of our crap for the last four years. We will have to say goodbye to the crowded foyer during passing time, and we will miss this even though we dread it now. We will also have to say goodbye to our best friends and peers that have been with us from the start. No more cram sessions, no more going to your best friend’s house when you need a home away from home, and no more seeing your friends every single day in your circle. It all ends next year and I can honestly admit that I am not one bit ready for that next step.

                From the first day of school, we get it drilled into our minds that high school goes by fast but I never really understood that until today I realized that I am almost a senior. The long classes we spent counting down the clock have passed quickly and nobody ever really stops to take in the time. Now, we start writing our application essays and we start getting ready for our futures wherever that might be. Next year we will experience all of the “lasts” that will be embedded in our heads forever as memories. The last first day of school where your mom cries more than you do. The last football game at Kingston where we’ve spent the last four years cheering our team on through the freezing cold or boiling heat. The last Christmas and Thanksgiving breaks at home where you get to put up the tree and spend time around the table with family and friends. Your last finals and last cram sessions at Coffeesmith’s the night before. The last spring break where a bunch of friends take a trip somewhere to try to stretch it out as long as possible. And then right after spring break comes what is called the beginning of them end. In a flash prom, graduation, and the last day of school all come and go so quickly that you don’t know how you got into summer. All of this is on the horizon for us next year and in all honestly I am not ready for one part of it.

                Kennedy has become a home for me from the best friends that walk the hall to the amazing faculty that actually cares. It will be extremely hard to say goodbye and I can’t even imagine what the seniors are feeling as they spend their last few months in the best high school in Iowa. 

Reasons (362)

Due to recent events, I thought a blog post was needed with a list of reasons to live. Suicide and mental illness are real issues that need to stop. Hopefully this list will remind people why life is so beautiful.
Reasons to live:
1. That moment when you're in the car with your friends and the music is blasting and you realize how much you love them.
2. The smell of taking a walk after rain
3. Eating puppy chow
4. Fresh sheets
5. When you wake up in the summer to birds chirping
6. Old middle school songs that you know every word too
7. Lunch dates with your best friend
8. Sunny days and 80 degrees
9. Beach days in the summer where you get sand everywhere but you don't care
10. Boating
11. When your cat comes and cuddles with you
12. When you come home and your dog jumps on you
13. Hearing old stories from relatives
14. Hot chocolate on Christmas Eve
15. The first snow fall
16. Your birthday
17. Getting older and things changing
18. When you lease your first place and get to decorate it how you want
19. Getting to know your parents way better than you already do
20. The feeling after a good workout
21. The feeling after a win with your team
22. Senior prom
23. Getting your drivers license and first car
24. Krsipy Kreme
25. Newbo Pizza
26. Getting your nails done and having a fresh set
27. Driving with the sun roof open
28. First loves
29. Getting a really good grade on a test
30. Trips with your bestfriends
31. The big city
32. College visits
33. Cram sessions
34. Cookie dough from Coffee Smith's
35. Going to PetLand and playing with all of the puppies
36. Music that brings back memories
37. Getting a new hair cut
38. Graduating high school
39. Being happy and healthy because that is the biggest thing that we need to be thankful for. Go home and hug your parents, siblings, and friends because you never know when the last time you will get to talk to them will be.

Why it's better to be on your own in high school (191)

       It's the biggest cliche. Wanting to have a high school boyfriend to go to every dance with, then college, and then marriage and blah blah blah happy ever after. But what if it all get's switched up? I have come to realize that finding yourself and being on your own makes a better you than any boy or girl could. Here are a few reasons why it's better to be single anyways.
1) More money in the bank. With out the money it takes to keep another person (food, presents, etc.) you will be rolling in the dough and being able to make purchases for yourself. More money = more ice cream for you!
2) No time wasted. Nothing lasts forever so don't waste your time on someone that will eventually end.
3) You don't have to share the blanket or any of your food while watching netflix.
4) You can do whatever and whenever without the need to make time for that special someone.
5) More time with your girlfriends
6)You get to find yourself without the need to make someone happy
ITS WAY BETTER OK THAT IS ALL.

Put the guns down (339)

       It has been a tough time for our district the past few weeks as we have lost some of our own. Most recently, a sophomore from Washington has lost his life because of a gun and it has shook the community. He was part of the basketball team, baseball team, and football team so he was very well known. Guns are so easily accessed now a days and gun violence and laws are being pushed in the media because of recent issues. Political candidates go back and forth in debates about whether guns should be as easy to get as candy and people everywhere have strong opinions on this issue. It never really hits us how easy guns are accessed until it hits home, though. When movie theaters are shot up, when innocent elementary kids are at risk because of a psycho with a gun, or when an innocent African American teen gets shot and killed does it only become prominent to us. This time, though, it was a child that had so much going for him. It was a team mate and a peer who now leaves an empty spot on the field or court and an empty desk in the class room. People always use the justification "the person shot the gun and the gun didn't shoot itself", but the shot wouldn't have gone  off if the gun wasn't accessible. Little kids carry around guns just like they carry around books because we have been desensitized to the multiple shootings around the world. When another mass shooting happens we shrug it off because it happens all the time, when we should actually be asking ourselves what is wrong with the world. Instead of handing out guns, we should be handing out our heart on our sleeve and making this world a better place for our children and our children's children. We always talk about global warming and leaving a better world for out children with a smaller footprint, but what about leaving better children for our world?