7:20-7:45 a.m: Distribution of schedule, planner and ID—in the mall area

• All students will recieve a color coded explanation of the day’s activities in addition to their schedule. Spirit Club will also distribute freshman t-shirts.

7:45-8:35 a.m: Auditorium with Dr. Harrington:

• School Rules Assembly. (All teachers present)

• StuCo—9th Grade election information

8:35-8:45 a.m: Locker Orientation

• All teachers assigned schedule stations, hallway supervision, etc.

8:50-9:05 a.m: Small Group FAQ Discussion (broken down according to color coded schedules)

• All students will report to classrooms which will be supervised by ALL teachers AND upperclassmen mentors.

• During this period, teachers will answer any questions that the freshman may have.

• Teachers will also have a FAQ sheet to facilitate questions and thoughtful discussion.

• Cover emergency procedures and lunchroom behavior

9:05-9:45/9:50-10:30 Study Skills and Building Tour — Groups will switch Building Tour includes tour of cafeteria and lunch procedures

Orange: The groups with orange papers meet in their assigned rooms for the study skills session first at 9:05. They meet and the building tour will start at 9:50.

White: The groups with white papers meet for the building tour first at 9:05. They report to their assigned room for the Study Skills session at 9:50.

10:35-10:55 First Hour

11:00- 11:20 Second Hour

11:25-11:45 Third Hour

11:50-12:10 Fourth Hour

Lunch 12:15-12:50

• During this time, NHS, StuCo, and Spirt Club will staff the lunch with upper class mentors to help supervise and mingle with the freshman in the cafeteria and mall during lunch.

12:55-1:15 Fifth Hour

1:20-1:40 Sixth Hour

1:45-2:05 Seventh Hour

2:10-2:40 Pep Assembly

All grades first day — August 17, 2010

Students will arrive at school by 7:30 and report to their homeroom between 7:30-7:45 a.m. Homeroom schedules will be posted on all entry doors and on the front office window.

7:30 a.m: Report to your homeroom. All students are kept in homeroom until schedules are distributed.

7:35 a.m: Distribute schedules. Students who do not have schedules will be sent to the cafeteria.

7:45 a.m: The bell will sound and students will proceed to their 1st hour class.

7:50 a.m: 1st hour begins

• The rest of the day will follow a regular bell schedule.

Regional champion David Catt finished ninth with a score of 80. Sophomore Jackson Foth and senior Ryan McCarthy tied for twenty-third, scoring 84.

Olathe Northwest, Blue Valley North and Shawnee Mission East took third, second, and first place in the tournament at Alvamar Golf and Country Club.

“It was frustrating [to see SME win], because we’ve beat them multiple times this year, but they deserve it,” Catt said. “They’re a great team.”

Even though Catt thinks SME was the right team to win, his reason for Northwest’s lower scores was more than just not playing well.

“Going in, I definitely thought we had a chance to win,” senior David Catt said. “But, I also knew it was a one-day tournament so anything could happen.”
Kansas is known for conducting a one-day tournament for state golf, whereas Missouri’s state golf tournament is two-day ordeal, and for other states, three to four.
“Very few states have one day,” Catt said. “Any legitimate golf tournament is played over at least three to four days.”

Not only does Catt feel strongly about the flaw of having a one-day state tournament, but Foth also agrees, describing it as a “fluke.”

“The way [KSHSSA] conducts a golf tournament is very disappointing,” Catt said. “There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to have a multiple-day state championship.”

The bill will raise $314 million over the next year by increasing the Kansas state sales tax from 5.3 percent to 6.3 percent, according to the Kansas City Star. The sales tax rate in Shawnee will be 8.775 percent and 9.025 percent in Lenexa. The increases will go into effect July 1.

The tax increase is enough to cover the Kansas legislators approved a $13.6 billion budget for the coming year. The tax will correct some of the cuts to social services made around the state during the last year.

While the SM school district will not receive any additional funding from the tax increase, the district will not have to make any further cuts

“Neither Shawnee Mission, nor any other school district, will experience any increase in funding based on the tax increase. Therefore, the board is not expected to take any of the reductions off the table. In fact, Shawnee Mission anticipates spending about $5 million more than it will receive in 2011-12. This will continue to erode the fund balances of the district and further reductions will be necessary in the future,” SM Budget director Tim Rooney said.

Freshman Makela Hayford has been playing piano for nine years, an experience that recently led her to playing in the Young Artist Showcase with the Heritage Philharmonic Orchestra. Hayford was one of two people that won the honor, along with Blue Valley West senior Jonathan Park.

At the concert on May 1, Hayford played with 50+ members of a professional orchestra.

“It is really hard compared to just playing by yourself. You are the leader and you have to coordinate with everyone, and everyone is going to hear you,” Hayford said. “It was also really intimidating- I was really young [in experience] compared to the other professional musicians that have majored in music.”

Hayford accompanied the orchestra on Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in G-Minor, Op. 25. The work is known for its fast tempo, and can be considered very difficult.

“[The piece] was really fast, which makes it harder. You have to get all the notes in and make music that people enjoy while still getting all the technical aspects of it,” Hayford said. “I actually don’t enjoy playing on stage. It’s more fun to play by myself or with friends. [At the concert] I was basically on auto-pilot the entire time, but I did feel proud of myself after I finished the piece.”

Hayford contributes part of her musical success to two teachers- Dr. Nata Dolnik and Dr. Barbara Leyden.

“[Dolnik] is really strict, and her competitiveness and strictness help me because she does tells me to do the work. She’s really terrific,” Hayford said. “Ms. Leyden was my teacher for three years of choir. I originally learned how to read music from her class, and she helped my rhythm when I played drums.”

Leyden also had Hayford begin to play in front of large groups of people at mass to help her musical experience.

In seventh grade, I offer the opportunity for students to play instrumentals as preludes. I saw from the level that she was playing at that she was able to play along with the choir at mass,” Leyden said. “She was a good student. She listened, paid attention, and stood out when it came to playing instrument parts. She also had an excellent sense of steady beat, which is important for all instruments.”

Besides playing at her church, Hayford has been competing in several piano competitions. Every fall she plays in a festival where the rankings are 1 through 4, one being the best. Since 5th grade, Hayford has only received 1’s at this competition. At the most recent Young Artist Showcase, the prize for 1st place (which she won) was $500 and the opportunity to play in the concert.

She played a very difficult piece, and played it excitingly and with so much strength,” Leyden said. “Of course, with an orchestra, you’ve got to keep going no matter what, and she did that. She was a only a freshman, and the other winner was a senior. His piece was beautiful, but hers was more exciting for the audience.”

Although Hayford has a promising future as a pianist, she plans to go into architectural engineering, and stop piano lessons after high school.

“Music is a pretty risky field, and [engineering] is safer for me to get into. I still want to be involved with an orchestra, but only on the side,” Hayford said. “Music gives you a chance to express yourself. Everyone loves it, and it gives you an outlet where other people can enjoy it too.”

Now, as my graduation approaches, my guard is down. It turns out high school can be a neutral zone, lulling you into a false sense of security. High school comes at you fast. If you don’t pay attention, you could miss it.

Below is a list of lessons I’ve been lucky enough to catch since I entered the doors of Northwest…

• Ignoring an ignorant comment is just as bad as saying one.
• Reading teaches maturity. If you hate to read, you probably still have growing up to do.
• As much as you want to tell off the popular and stuck-up people, you shouldn’t. They most likely have it worse than you.
• There’s always somebody better than you.
• It’s OK to be sad when you leave your friends in high school, but keep in mind, they aren’t the only people you’ll ever meet.
• Confidence can say a lot about a person. Don’t second guess yourself, but be wary self-confidence it could come off as cockiness.
• School dances are just a formal excuse to hump a girl (in public) for two hours without any legal consequences.
• Petroleum jelly is the wrong kind for a sandwich.
• There is most undoubtedly a connection between sobriety and your wellness of mind and body.
• Never listen to rumors, especially when it involves somebody getting hit by a car.
• In high school, you’re given chances to change your life every day. It’s up to you to distinguish what’s right from wrong.
• It’s perfectly acceptable to be an 18-year-old virgin.
• Jazz is the perfect music to drown your teenage angst in.
• What people think of you does matter, somewhat. It’s an evaluation of how you’re perceived in the world. Just remember that those people aren’t there when you go to sleep at night.
• Why care about what people say you can and can’t do? They don’t control your future.
• The people who say you find yourself in high school are just the ones who lost themselves after they graduated.
• The people you want to try to impress are only trying to impress themselves.
• Facebook stalking is always appropriate.

When I recall the last four years of my life, I begin to realize that high school doesn’t always define a person. Unless I’m still the same as when I walked in these doors; I’m just more open to new experiences, rather than always wanting to fight against them. I still haven’t found myself entirely. It’s not that I’ve completely changed as a person; I’ve just been building on who I once was.

Second: Finish the breakfast my mom handed me on the way out the door.

Third: Turn off the radio, iPod or CD.

Fourth: Grab all the things I need for the school day: my backpack, camera and violin.

Last: Wander through the parking lot to the building where I’ll spend seven plus hours.

My morning routine in high school has been this way for almost three years. The past week, however, has felt a little different. My days are now marked by lasts: last orchestra concert, last time I’ll work on the Passage, last English book assigned, last Monday, last Tuesday, last day…
I’m realizing that the routine I have created for myself will soon be interrupted. But the thought of starting something new is exhilarating.

Freshman year was about proving myself and breaking through my shyness. I remember entering the building for the first time as an enrolled student. I had no idea what to expect, but I tried to convey a confidence, which I didn’t really have, with a bright pink bandana tied in my hair and a thick layer of eyeliner. Everything was new, and the small world I lived in seemed unpredictable. Then I got the ticket to growing up: my driver’s license. Independence granted.

I found confidence and developed a basic understanding of how I fit into high school during my sophomore year. My extracurricular activities became more concrete; I got more involved in journalism and participated in my last year of JV soccer.

By my junior year I knew what high school was about: being busy. I established myself in a leadership role and developed the confidence to be myself. I had the stereotypical high school sweetheart. School became an expected routine that had started to grow dull, but I was proud of the person I was becoming.

Senior year has been hectic. I have become conscious of the strong bonds I share with people. The feeling of moving on entices me, but more than anything, senior year has been about getting ready. I’m finally ready to move on to college. I’m ready for the rest of my life.

Is that a little immature? Sure it is. But that’s probably one of the first words I would use to describe myself. My family and I often joke that I am a child trapped in the body of a teenager. But it’s not really OK. There are lots of things that are childish about my personality. I’m so easily distracted. I lose everything. I forget important dates. I’m afraid of the dark. I can’t go to the bathroom in the presence of other people. Yet, I like all of these things about myself.

I might be the most irresponsible teenager on the planet. My parents know this more than anyone. Just last week, I ignored the oil light on my car long enough for the engine to practically explode. Needless to say, I’ve taken up an interest in walking.

How am I ever going to make it in the real world? I can’t see myself sitting behind a desk and holding a normal job. I’d lose interest. I’d suffocate. I’d be fired in an instant. That brings me back to my original point: I want to be a rock star.

It’s not so much that I desire fame, because I don’t. I wouldn’t mind it, but what I really want is my words to be heard. I want to inspire people with my music the way that so many artists inspired me. I don’t care if I have to play on a street corner for the rest of my life; I’m going for it.

I want to play a show in front of a packed crowd where a young, insecure girl hears a lyric in one of my songs. I want her to hold onto that lyric and be inspired by it. I want her to go to school the next day with her head held high, not worried about the rumors that the other girls spread about her.

I want the teenage son of a soldier to hear something in my songs that tells him that his dad is safe and coming home. I want to work miracles with my words. I know that this is possible because I’ve been on the receiving end of this system for a long time now. It’s time for me to give back.

For me, musicians like Jesse Lacey and Conor Oberst were a major influence. Their perfectly crafted verses packed with clever and meaningful words got me through a lot of hard times. When I consider all of the emotional lows that music has walked me through, I feel blessed. Music has the power to work miracles. Music changed my life.

If I could perform miracles like these with my music, I would never stop writing. If I could give the same relief to people that music has granted me, I would be the happiest “little boy” in the world.

A lot of people could say that they stayed the same throughout high school. As for me, it’s a different story. Coming into high school, I was the typical 14-year-old who was ticked off at the world. I thought I was invincible. No one could tell me what to do. I was arrogant, cocky and most of all, immature. The past four years have gone by in the blink of an eye and have taught me many valuable life lessons.

I remember halfway through freshman year when I wished this whole thing would just be over. I now regret the days I played hookie just to sit at home and watch reruns of Friends. I could have been socializing with friends I may never see again. Next year, I will be attending a college where I know absolutely no one. I’ll admit, it’s a bit scary.

I never thought I would be treasurer of CCC. I never thought I would be in a Cadet Teaching class that hasn’t only changed the life of a 14-year-old child with a disability, but mine as well. I never thought I would be the first four-year baseball letterman in NW history. And I never thought in a million years that I would be sitting here writing a farewell column in the Senior Mag.

So what’s the point of me telling you this? Take advantage and explore as many opportunities as you can. Expand your group of friends. Hang out with the so-called outsiders because they aren’t as weird as they may seem. Go to as many dances, athletic events, plays and bonfires you can. You may not think the day will come when you have just five hours left of high school, but it will. Some say these will be the best four years of our lives. My advice to you: Live it up.

Truth be told, I’ve loved every second of my high school career. Sure, there have been times when I was mad or upset, but it’s part of the experience. It’s made me realize the importance of family, friends and sticking up for what I believe in. It took a while for me to figure out I didn’t have to be like everyone else. But once I did, I felt like I finally found out who I really am.

So, farewell, Northwest. Thanks for all the memories you have provided me with and all the life lessons you have taught me along the way. The Cougar Coaster has turned me upside down, shaken me around, and at times made me throw up, but I don’t regret a single moment of my life.

There was a time in our country when people would hitchhike thousands of miles across our seemingly endless, beautiful American landscape. They had no plan, no 401(k), no “Crackberrys” and no reservations. No mace, knives or self-defense. All they had was the shoes on their feet, the shirts on their backs and maybe some money (just ask the father of folk rock).

Fast-forward 40 years. My friend has to turn his phone off because his parents have GPS tracking, teens are afraid to go anywhere by themselves and MTV no longer plays music. People worry more about who is watching them than what they are watching on their TV, the gateway to our minds for the fearmongers (yes, you, cable news networks). There is a whole genre of music dedicated to whining and complaining about how miserable life is, and how the world can’t possibly get any worse.

Well, it could. You could get torn out of bed by a Somalian gunrunner one night and watch as your whole family is slaughtered and then work the remainder of your adolescence in a mine shaft.

There are people in the world who spend more time in panic rooms than we spend in classrooms. And, in our classrooms, a sizeable percentage of students waste the mostly free, quality education they are provided. I’m not saying I haven’t dozed off in the middle of some relativistic physics. I’m just saying it could be worse.

When I turn on the TV in the morning, while I try to drag myself out of bed, I like to watch the news. Not because it is important to know how badly the Royals lost the night before, but because I enjoy the ambient noise. The problem is, as a newlyborn optimist, it has become harder and harder to digest what is spewed from the newsroom. I won’t say that bad things never happen, because they do. It just seems like the ratio of good news vs. bad news that is actually reported is slightly unbalanced, like Weeman-vs.-Shaq-on-a-seesaw off-balance.

And, as an optimist, I like to believe that most reasonable people are inherently good. If you took someone and never let them watch TV, never let them listen to music or read a newspaper and let them live a life of peace and quiet on a farm or an island somewhere in total seclusion, they would probably turn out to be a nice person. “Nice”, being that they won’t try to kill your or rape you and then cut you up into pieces, like the police-sketch celebrities on the 6 o’clock news every night.

Despite that any of these awful things could happen, what I’m trying to say is don’t be afraid to take risks.

I recently traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia, by myself. It took 13 hours and 2,500 miles of flights and bus rides, so I didn’t actually get into the city until around 10 p.m. I got off the bus, exhausted, smelly and drained, but at the same time exhilarated. Here I was, an insignificant cog in the ever-turning gears of civilization, but I felt like I could accomplish anything. I was in the middle of a city that I knew nothing about, but I wasn’t afraid, because I didn’t think about BTK, or 9/11 or all the killers in Gitmo. If someone had really wanted to kill me, there’s not mucj I could’ve done about it.

So why should I have worried about? Why do people worry so much about things out of their control?

Society itself is not the only thing that people sometimes fear without reasoned, though it may be the most common. Humiliation, failure, losing someone or something, those are all common fears. But living with these fears can be just as detrimental, if not worse, than death itself. How could anyone ever compete in a sporting event if they were afraid of failure? There would be no upsets because the big dog would scare off the underdog. No one would ever publish anything, and there would be no music because everyone would be scared of the one negative review that humiliates them. We can’t be too afraid to take risks.

Anyone who has invented anything, wrote a great song or book or won a first-place trophy has had to take some kind of risk. When the first people climbed Mt. Everest or went to the moon, they had no idea what was going to happen to them. But they knew that if they accomplished what they had set out to do, any hardships they faced would be worth it. They had to suck it up and overcome their fears at some point, however cliche that may sound.

This is the same message that you have probably been told your whole life, by coaches, teachers, your parents and everybody else. It’s one of those things that you hear so many times that you don’t really think about it anymore.

Like saying the Pledge of Allegiance or praying before each meal.

Maybe now is the time to we take that lesson to heat and embrace risk and opportunities and make something of ourselves. The Millenial Generation has been somewhat of a bummer so far. We’ve had our share of tragedies, but we need to do something incredible. The 1960s had civil rights and Vietnam, Woodstock, JFK, Mandela, Muhammad Ali, Star Trek and the moon. The ‘70s were all right, the ‘80s a bunch of bad architecture, Thriller and PacMan, and the ‘90s just had the Fresh Prince. I say we take a lesson from the Baby Boomers. It’s time to make “it” happen. Right now it looks like we are going to have some serious issues to face: global warming, the economy, pop music. We need to stop worrying and start doing or else we’ll all wake up one day when we’re 40 and think, “Man, where did my life go?”

Most of us are already 20 percent gone . Don’t sit back and wave at the other 80 as it flies by.

I was waiting in the locker room, just waiting for the bell to ring, listening to the ambient conversation meandering over the tops of the lockers. I couldn’t believe how rude and hateful some people were; insult after insult sullied the air.

My commute between classes has become so familiar: a four-minute ritual practiced every 50 minutes. It is a sobering experience that’s both insightful and saddening. The most telling part of my interclass commute is the moment I lock eyes with a fellow student passing. For that fleeting instant when our eyes lock, the other person is completely genuine, all assumptions forgotten. If the eyes are the path to the soul, a second’s worth of eye contact tells far more than I could ever imagine.

Passing others in the hallway, I see the freshman who walks awkwardly, wondering where he fits in, if he even does. I see the girl who always clutches her books tight, afraid to let anyone close. And I see the clumsy boy, lacking any self-confidence whatsoever. Sometimes I forget that I was once in their shoes, just as awkward, afraid and insecure as they are. All they need is the kindness of someone else, someone to open the door for them, someone to smile back and someone to be a friend.

We all get caught up in our own little “bubble,” forgetting that life exists outside of what happens around us. When I lived in my own little world, I was oblivious to how other people felt; I forgot that one unkind word could make or break someone else’s day. Now that graduation is near, I’ve learned that life is too short to spend your days living in your own bubble and wasting time being rude and spiteful.

We have to realize that our bubbles encompass more than just us, but those around us as well. So while we’re sharing this space, why not be kind to those around you? If you’re lucky, they might just be kind right back.