November 2014

The Northmen’s LogVolume 50, Issue 3

But First Let Me Take A Selfie

Staff & Policies November 2014 | The Northmen’s Log

Our Staff and Our Policies

“The Northmen’s Log” will publish eight times during the school year. “Log” staff strongly supports the First Amendment and opposes censorship. Freedom of expression and press are fundmental values in a democratic society.

Therefore, “Log” encourages readers to participate in the discussion by submitting Letters to the Editor in room E134, by email to christina.

geabhart@nkcschools.org. Letters cannot exceed 350 words and must be signed. “Log” will not run letters that are libelous, obscene or that may cause a verifiable disruption to the education process of Oak Park.

Advertisers may contact the business manager at christina.ge-abhart@nkcschools.org.

Subscriptions are available, $20 for a mailed copy, $10 for an

emailed pdf version, or $25 for both.Opinions expressed in “Log” do not reflect student, staff or school

district endorsments of that opinion, product, or service.“Log” is a member of NSPA, MIPA and Quill and Scroll. “Log” is affil-

iated with JEA and JEMKC.

Olivia Eissler Editor-in-Chief; cover, contents, news, opinion, people, recreation, sports, photo essay editor; writer and photographerMaddie Russell Managing Editor; feature editor; writer and photographerNathan Roppa writer and photographer

Mabrey Wathen writer and photographerTessa McGinnis cartoonistConnor Annan writerEffy Minnick writerJoseph Haas writer and photographerCody Green writer and photographerChristian Geabhart adviser

LetterFrom theEditor

You may have guessed by the cover what one of the topics in this issue is about: sel-fies. We chose to do a story about selfies because we wanted to dive a little deeper into a form of entertainment that we as high school students enjoy. We take self-ies and send them on Snapchat, and post them to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. We want people to see us. Now the whole school gets to see these awesome selfies that may have you laughing, crying, or even a little confused. A picture can tell a story. What is your story?

In this issue, we also feature senior Kelsey Shannon who started out taking pictures for fun, but turned it into a busi-ness by shooting senior photos. For any se-

niors who still need their pictures taken, you know who to go to. Also in this issue, you can learn how to make your very own chalkboard notebook to use when your bored in class and just want to draw on something.

This issue has been the toughest one yet to prepare since half our staff was in Washington, D.C. for nationals, but we as a staff work every minute on producing a magazine for you.

I hope you enjoy the third issue, and stay tuned for five more. Have an amaz-ing Thanksgiving break, and remember to pick up your copy of the magazine every month.

Contents 1November 2014 | The Northmen’s Log

Senior Kelsey Shannon shows her photogra-phy skills off as she poses for the camera.

Photo credit to Kelsey Shannon

Rachel Bechthold, Kylie Dickson, Sam Sander, Alex Stump, Jomarie Circello, Kelly Andrews and Sophia Contreras paint up for the first football game against Winnentonka on Friday, Aug. 22. Photo courtesy of Sam Sander

On the Cover:Students pose for selfies with teamates, friends, staff, and animals.

News 2Saving the TreesWeird HolidaysAre You Trippin’?But First Let Me Take a Selfie

People 4Tails of a Part-Time JobTraveling Across the StatesWho Would You Share a Coke With?Security Soldiers

Feature 6Photography: A Passion, A Lifestyle

Recreation 8DIY: Chalkboard NotebookHoliday MoviesLife HacksFavorite Thanksgiving Food

Sports 10Role Models: Players’ PerspectiveVokolek Changes the School For the Better

Opinion 11Christmas Too SoonFaking Smiles

Photo Essay 12Rise & Shine: Boy’s vs. Girl’s Mornings

2 News November 2014| The Northmen’s Log

Weird HolidaysConnor Annan Writer

All right let’s face it America is weird, and I’m pretty sure we all know that. But how some holidays express this weirdness amazes me.

So here are five of the top strangest fall holidays cele-brated in America, and a little bit of backstory.

September 19 is Na-tional Talk Like A Pirate day. I love this day because it gives me an excuse to be weird. John Baur and Mark Summers created it in 1995. While playing racquetball they began to talk like pi-rates presumably out of frustration. They decided that there needed to be a day that everyone did this and thus Talk Like A Pirate day was born.

September 28 is na-tional Ask A Stupid Question day. This is pretty much everyday for me, but this holiday originally had a great purpose. Ask a Stupid Question day was cre-ated by teachers in the 1980s to get students to ask more questions. It is sometimes celebrated on the last school day of September.

October 9 is Leif Erikson day. You all remember Sponge-Bob right, well as it turns out there ac-tually is a Leif Erik-son day. Leif Erikson is largely known among the histor-ical community as the first European in America, and yes he was a Viking.

November 19 is Have A Bad Day day. This holiday was cre-ated for the soul purpose of hav-ing an excuse to tell someone to have a bad day. And although it’s not encour-aged it’s still pretty funny.

Buy Nothing day is celebrat-ed the day after Thanksgiving. It was created as a protest to big businesses commercializ-ing Christmas and other holi-days.

Saving the TreesNathan Roppa Writer and Photographer

Did you know that Oak Park has a tree project? The Oak Park tree project was started on April 24, 2009, by retired science teacher Connie Beeck.

Filter? Check. Angle? Just right. Hair? On point. Let’s take a selfie.Whether you’re going to a dance,

going on vacation, or just hanging with friends, chances are there will be one, or more selfies that end up on the many social media sites like: Face-book, Twitter, or Instagram.

Selfies, according to Oxford Dictio-naries.com, are “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media.”

So what’s the big deal with them?“Our generation’s just kinda like-

just something about like our gener-ation is just obsessed with them, so I guess it’s just a common thing now,” said junior Irving Espadas.

Everyone has taken a selfie at some point.

“I mean even like little kids are do-ing it, I don’t know it’s weird,” said Es-padas.

Selfies haven’t shown any signs of dying out anytime soon.

“Personally, I don’t think they will, because it’s just like a big thing. It’s like I said, so every year it’s just -- it just passes on, so I don’t think it will die out anytime soon. It probably will, but not anytime soon,” said Espadas.

Espadas says, “[I take selfies] to get a lot of Instagram likes.”

Many people, especially teenagers, love taking and being apart of selfies. With so much enjoyment and partic-ipation, it’s hard to tell if selfies will ever go out of style.

But FirstLet Me Take a SelfieMabrey Wathen Writer and Photographer

Photo credit to Nathan Roppa

The map and plaque for the Tree Project sit outside of the caf-eteria.

News 3November 2014| The Northmen’s Log November 2014| The Northmen’s Log

Clubs and classes are traveling the country this year. Just where and why are they going?

AFS International Club goes on several trips during the school year, including: helping out at Harvesters in November, attending an opera in Feb-ruary, and roller skating or bowling in April. They go on different trips to let the exchange students have different experiences while they’re here.

The Principles of Engi-neering class went on a trip

to the Iatan Power Plant in Weston, Mo., on Wednes-day, Sept. 24. They went there because they were discussing energy sources in class.

Thespians go on many trips, including various plays. They went to the Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s performance of “Our Town,” earlier this se-mester. The Thespians also attend the Missouri State Thespian Conference each year, which will be held in Kansas City. It will take place Jan. 7-10. They attend this conference to learn from teachers, meet others who do what they do, and have different opportu-nities to compete against other theatre students in Missouri.

The Housing and Inte-rior Design class will see the Designer Showcase Home in Kansas City, in April. It will allow students to get a taste of what they discussed throughout the course.

There’s a new, big trip being taken this year by the Fashion Merchandis-ing, Clothing and Fashion 2 classes. They are going

to New York over spring break this March. This trip will give the students a chance to see and experi-ence the fashion industry in real life, and what a ca-reer in fashion might have to offer.

If you decide to take high-er level Modern Language classes, local field trips to places like: the Nelson-At-kins Museum, World War I Museum and Kansas City Repertory Theater, may be included. Before they go on

field trips, classes spend time studying about topics relative to where they will visit. During the summer, if you’re lucky, you’ll have the option to travel over-seas with your class. The last trip to France was in summer 2012, and to Ger-many was 2010.

Oak Street is going to Hollywood, Calif., in April. They take a trip each year to celebrate the year, and all the seniors who will be leaving. They often com-pete or perform in some way while on the trip.

The journalism students involved with Cambia, The Northmen’s Log and The Axe, have the opportunity to compete in the nation-al high school journalism competition Write Offs competition each Novem-ber, in a different location each year. This year, on Wednesday, Nov. 5 to Sun-day, Nov. 9, students trav-elled to Washington D.C. Next, school year, they will compete in Orlando, Fla., and have a chance to visit one of the theme parks in their spare time. They also compete at MU each April for state.

Are You Trippin’?Mabrey Wathen Writer and Photographer

Oak Street Singers pose for a picture after finding out about going to Hollywood.photo by Lisa Hickman

Junior Madison Russell, senior Ryan Bennett, sophomore Remy Tran, senior Marie Desmurg-er and junior Mabrey Wathen wait for a tour of the Capitol building. They competed at the national competition. photo by Maddie Rus-sell

4 People November 2014| The Northmen’s Log

Coming home covered in hair can be a real hassle, but for se-nior Courtney Bowman it’s just another day on the job. Aside from attending Oak Park, Bow-man has a part time job at the Animal Clinic of Antioch Annex.

“I sometimes work the count-er, like check people in, check people out. I also help the vet in sort of the middle area, which is like where I pull up vaccines, get people ready for him to see them. And then I also work in the back, which is where I walk the dogs, clean messes, and stuff along those lines,” said Bowman.

This isn’t a typical part-time job you hear of high school stu-dents having.

“[I got this job because] My cousin is friends with the son of the owners of the clinic – or was friends with the son.”

If just working at the clinic wasn’t cool enough, Bowman also gets to observe some surger-ies that go on.

“In surgeries I legally can’t like really help out, but I adjust like the oxygen and I help him when-ever he needs something, I bring it to him, and then I sometimes

watch,” said Bowman.The clinic treats animals like

dogs and cats, but they also treat some more unusual animals.

“There’s this lady that comes in there, and she has a license to handle special animals, like zoo animals-she sells ‘em to the zoo. And we’ve had a kangaroo there, um she brings in wild cats, like not just feral cats, they’re a spe-cial kind of cat that looks really weird. And then other than that, its dogs, any type of cat like Sia-mese, all those crazy things, and then um ferrets. Which I think is disgusting. Ferrets are gross. But mainly cats, dogs, and ferrets…and that lady’s weird animal fe-tish,” said Bowman.

Bowman loves when she gets to enjoy cute moments with the different animals.

Bowman said, “Basically every time a new puppy comes in I’m just overloaded with cuteness, because they are always just so nice. Its before they get mean at the vets office and so they always cuddle me and its fantastic, I mean who doesn’t love to cuddle puppies?”

of a Part Time JobTailsMabrey Wathen Writer and Photographer

WhoWould YouShare A

With?

“Jake Dyer,” said senior Mae Haler

“My mom,” said junior Ali Ishkuntana

“My roommate Sam,” said junior Mc O’Shea

Olivia Eissler Editor-in-Chief

Lounging around. “The cat’s name is Frankie, and she lives at the clin-ic. She always lays on the desk, I call her my guard cat,” said Bowman.

Primped. Se-nior Courtney Bowman and the staff at the Ani-mal Clinic of An-tioch Annex help the vet with the animals. “There’s only one vet, so you’ll always be seeing the same vet every time. And I know from personal experi-ence he genuine-ly cares about all the animals he deals with,” said Bowman.

Photo credits to Courtney Bowman

People 5November 2014| The Northmen’s Log November 2014 | The Northmen’s Log

Security SoldiersConnor Annan Writer

Have you ever seen one of the school securi-ty guards wandering the halls? Chances are you probably have.

But how much do we re-ally know about the guys that defend our school? I took the liberty to get to know them better, and as it turns out they’re pretty cool.

One guard is Marc Car-bonetto.

“I spent almost 27 years as a United States Marine, and during that timeframe I’ve had the opportunity to travel around the world. And do different world events as far as humanitar-ian aid and combat deploy-

ments. Back home proba-bly some of my fun times I remember I’ve had the opportunity to perform on stage with several bands, and singers notably one of them being Kid Rock in the Sprint Center a few years ago.”

Moving out of one uni-form to another to civilian clothes guided him to the halls of OP.

“I kind of came across this job as soon as I had retired from the marine core. I was in the corpo-rate world for about seven months as an assistant vice president and manager for a banking institution here doing a whole suit and tie

thing, and I kind of got tired of that. I wanted to find a job not necessarily in secu-rity, but that got me into a position where I could be a role model for young men

and women especially here in high school.”

Danny Pearson also works as a hall guard.

“A little bit of everything from hall monitor to make sure kids get to where they’re going, to kind of a social worker. I kind of lis-ten to everybody try and get them pointed in the right direction if they need any resources or people to help.”

Both men said they liked working in the building. So they are not only security guards but social workers too. They’re here to help in every way they can.

Traveling Across the StatesOlivia Eissler Editor-in-Chief

As college application due dates creep up, seniors’ time to choose a college dwindles. With thousands of colleges and degrees to choose from, picking one is one of the hardest things to do in life. Where you go and what you choose determines your next steps in life. But some seniors have already made the call to where they are going.

“I’m excited for the experience of college, meeting new people and get-ting away from home,” said senior Hector Solorio.

Solorio may attend Niagara Uni-versity in New York where he plans

on studying international business and playing for their soccer team.

“I chose Niagara because the offer they gave my brother and I for soc-cer and they have a good soccer pro-

gram,” said Solo-rio.

Solorio chose to study interna-tional business because he wants to travel around the world, experi-ence new cultures

and get associated with the soccer in-dustry and work with different clubs around the world. When he goes off to college, Solorio is not looking for-ward to being home sick.

“I want to go to Boston University

because I want to be a pediatrician,” said senior Tiffany Grazda.

Grazda chose Boston University, because it has a world-renowned children’s hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, five minutes away from the college.

“I want to be a pediatrician, be-cause last summer I was an intern at Dr. Stephaney Marx’s office,” said Grazda. “I fell in love with the career.”

Grazda also would like to minor in dance as she is a currently on the Pommies, and dances competitively with P & D Dance Company.

“I am not looking forward to miss-ing my family and having a hard workload,” said Grazda.

“Back home probably some of my fun times I remember I’ve had the opportunity to perform on stage

with several bands, and singers notably

one of them being Kid Rock in the Sprint Center a few years

ago.”

“I chose Niagara because the offer they gave my brother

and I for soccer and they have a good soccer program,” said

Solorio.

6 Feature November 2014| The Northmen’s Log

Most people have heard the saying ‘A picture tells a thousand words’, but do you really need that many to tell a story? For senior Kelsey Shannon, photography has become involved in her personal life as a hobby and a profession.

“I’ve always loved taking pictures. I’ve always been the one to take pictures of my friends and I’ve always been the one to keep them,” Shannon said.

Shannon originally started taking pictures in five years, but didn’t get into the photography aspect until her freshman year.

“I love taking pictures of everything in my life be-cause I love documenting memories. But the whole photography aspect of it, what inspired me was being creative,” Shannon said.

Shannon’s main focus in her personal photography is her self-portraits.

“I mostly take self portraits because I have a specific look and idea to portray through the photo and I only trust my-self to do it.”

Shannon said that surprisingly, most of her best photos she’s taken were accidents or very unplanned.

“My favorite picture that I have ever taken is the one that I have a cigarette in my hand. The story behind that would be that, well, one, everyone thinks that the cigarette is real, but it’s not. I Photoshopped it in. Sec-ond, I had just woken up when I took that picture, and that’s why my hair is a mess.”

Shannon said she doesn’t usually have set times when she takes pictures, but when she gets inspired, that’s when the camera comes out.

But just like writers, photographers also have times where they can’t seem to figure out what to shoot.

“The hardest thing about taking pictures is when

you get photographers’ block. I’ve had photographers’ block for the past three months and it’s just when you are totally uninspired. You look back on your other pictures and you think ‘wow I was so inspired back then, why can’t I do that?’ but you can’t think of a sin-gle thing and it’s really frustrating.”

In the fall of this year, Shannon was inspired with a new form of photography which was taking senior pictures.

“I started taking senior pictures to make money mostly but I really like it because it offers me a chance to be creative with someone other than myself and to make them look good and feel good about them-selves,” Shannon said.

Shannon said she doesn’t usually plan out the shoot or know what she wants to do until she gets to the lo-cation.

“There really isn’t a pro-cess it’s just what I feel good with taking and what they’re okay with. The per-son and I just walk around

and take a picture and hope that it turns out good and it seems to. There also isn’t really a set time for how long it takes, it depends on how long the person wants it to be and how well the photos turn out.”

For photography as a whole, Shannon explained photography doesn’t take as much skill as some would think.

“I think it requires creativity and determination more than skill because when you start out the pic-tures always suck but you get better as you go, because when I started in seventh grade my pictures were ab-solutely terrible. Since then I’ve had time to grow and change along with my pictures and they’re completely different compared to where I started from.”

Photography: A Passion, A LifestyleMaddie Russell Managing Editor

“Everyone thinks that the cigarette is real, but it’s not. I Photoshopped it in.”

Kelsey Shannon

Senior Kelsey Shannon created this image with Photoshop by combining a selfie and an image of a cigarette.

All Photo Credits to Kelsey Shannon

Feature 7November 2014 | The Northmen’s Log

Photography: A Passion, A Lifestyle

Before the editing process After the editing process

Senior Kelsey Shannon displays her photo editing skills between the two pictures she created on Sunday, Sept. 7.

Kaley Breault (left) and Julia Wopata (right) pose for their senior pictures.

Interesting Facts about Kelsey* She used a Canon T3.

*It takes her about 15-20 minutes to edit her photos.

*She charges $30 for senior pictures.

*Her first customer for her senior picture business was 2014 graduate Madison McDermott.

*Customers always pick the location when she shoots.

8 Recreation November 2014| The Northmen’s Log

DIY:Chalkboard NotebookMaddie Russell Managing Editor

1.

MaterialsComposition NotebookChalkChalk Board PaintThin Decorative Duct tapePaint BrushesNewspaper

2.

If you don’t want to make a mess, spread the newspaper out to make sure to not get paint on anything.

3.

Put a good amount of paint onto the notebook and slowly start to spread it in vertical strokes.

4.

Once that coat is on, wait about 15 minutes for it to dry, then apply a second coat, spreading it horizontally. Wait about 15 minutes for this coat to dry.

5.

Repeat steps 3 and 4 however many times it takes for the paint to completely cover the design.

6.Use your Duct tape to cover the binding to hide any paint splotches or marks you may have made during the painting process.

7.

Repeat steps 3-6 if you would like to paint the back of the notebook.

8.

When everything is completely dry, you may now draw on your notebook with the chalk and write/draw whatever you want.

9.

The final product.

Photo credit to Maddie Russell

Recreation 9November 2014| The Northmen’s Log November 2014| The Northmen’s Log

Dumb and Dumber ToNov. 14Set 20 years after the first movie, Lloyd and Harry set out to find one of their long lost children.

Night at the Museum: Secret of the TombDec. 19Larry goes around the world to try and find a way to save the magic, before it’s gone for good.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Pt. 1Nov. 21After the events that took place in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Katniss is in District 13, fighting to save Peeta and the nation of Panem.

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five ArmiesDec. 17Bilbo and the rest of the dwarves, as well as others, are thrust into a war against Smaug and the orcs, to protect Middle-Earth.

Holiday Movies Mabrey Wathen Writer and Photographer

Favorite Thanksgiving Food:

Information and photos from imdb.com

If you want to get rid of a strawberry stem, get a straw and push it through the strawber-ry bottom to top.

Life HacksDo you like oranges but don’t like peeling them? Roll the orange around on a clean, flat surface for a minute. It makes the orange much easier to peel.

What are life hacks? Well they are great things that few people know about that make life easy. Like the little punches on the side of tinfoil boxes that keep it from falling out of the box when you pull. Some of these are so mind-bogglingly sim-ple you will wonder how you didn’t come up with them!

Connor Annan Writer

Photo credit to Olivia EisslerEditor-in-Chief

Like pomegranate seeds, but hate the work? Cut your pomegranate in half get a flat object like a big spoon and smack the back of the pomegranate over a big bowl.

Cody GreenWriter andPhotographer

“My dad,” said senior Kevin O’Brien, who plays basketball.

Olivia Eissler Editor-in-ChiefPhoto credit to Olivia Eissler

“My sister Kim,” said junior Karli Reichert, who plays volleyball.

“Emily Ballard,” said senior Rebecca Hughes, who plays basketball.

Role

Models

10 Sports November 2014 The Northmen’s Log

Students may have noticed some minor and major changes to the school at the beginning of the year. They can thank ath-letics director Casey Vokolek for having a significant role in these.

“Well when you’re just speaking facilities-wise, we think we have been able to do some things with the help of our cen-tral office,” said Vokolek. “We did some pretty significant up-grades. We had talk about updating the girls locker room and moving it so it is attached to the gym so they have the same access to it as the boys do. The additions to the multi-purpose area, and the new weight room, and the new wrestling room. Updating the tennis courts and changing the colors on those. All of those things we think are things that our students as far as we know really enjoy and are proud to have those things.”

In the future some upgrades the school may look at include updating the main theater, getting new turf, adding new show-ers and shower curtains so people can actually use them and lights on the baseball, softball and football fields.

“I have been here for a couple of years, so I have talked to coaches and students to see what is important to them,” said Vokolek. “We figure out stuff that the kids need, see if that is schoolwide, and then figure out what we can and can’t do.”

When new changes come up, they are originally from what students and staff have mentioned and are then talked about. To get things approved for change, the administrators dis-cusses and agrees on whether the school needs that change.

Next, money becomes a big factor, so the administrators have to figure out ways to save enough money to cover all the expenses needed to make the change.

For the new roof, which cost $2 million, which is being in-stalled this year, the money came from the $20 million district bond issue approved in April.

“I think with the administration here, what we have contin-ually tried to do is to develop a positive culture, and help our students know that they can truly achieve what they want to achieve,” said Vokolek. “We want to make it a great high school experience for them, and so everything we do whether be through instruction, in the class room, through our activities, through big events like Homecoming, we want to look at that as a way to give our students a memorable school experience. When they look back, we hope they where really proud to go to Oak Park and that they feel like they wouldn’t have wanted to go anywhere else.”

VokolekChanges the School for the BetterOlivia Eissler Editor-in-Chief

Opinion 11November 2014| The Northmen’s Log

Faking SmilesJoseph Haas Writer and Photographer

Today is just like any other. I wake up, I go to school, I go home and then I go to bed. Well, except for the dai-ly struggle of feeling worthless. I go through this every day.

Depression is a mental illness that consumes you and all you can think of is how you can improve to meet everyone’s expec-tations. You start to get devoured by

darkness. Everyone else sees that I have a smile on my face and they just think I’m a happy person.

As for me, being a cheerleader has taught me to fake everything. I have to put on a smile for com-petitions and games. When in reality, I feel like I am nothing and that no matter

what, I am worthless and not good

enough. I have dealt with this for as long as I can remember.

I am always told, I look happy, and that I bring smiles to other people’s faces. Which, don’t get me wrong, is really good. But in reality, I am just faking my smile to make it look like I am a happy, upbeat, fun person.

Depression is a mental illness. It affects more than you think. You can see someone like me, preppy and happy, but they can hide a lot of their emotions and you could never tell.

ChristmasChristmas is one of the biggest holidays of the year

and is a favorite for many people. Is that why we start to see stores and people put out decorations months in advance?

For as long as I can remember, stores like Kmart, Wal-Mart and Target have had their Christmas decorations out in November and sometimes in even October. There were even ads online in September!

Halloween hasn’t even passed and yet we’re already seeing Christmas trees and other winter decorations up.

Basically, instead of Christmas being focused on a cou-ple weeks, maybe a month, and it’s pretty much being spread into a three-month stretch. Christmas has be-come so over advertised. I think that’s why every year people, including myself, don’t feel like it’s even Christ-mas or have a lack of “Christmas Spirit.”

Christmas starts months in advance and has become so commercial, people may never celebrate Christmas for the right reasons anymore, October is no longer fo-cused just on Halloween; November is no longer just fo-

cused on Thanksgiving. For example, how long do you see things up for Thanksgiving? It doesn’t get its share fair of attention. People are more worried about Black Friday sales than they are Thanksgiving; last year stores started pre-Black Friday on Thanksgiving Day, taking people away from their families.

On the other hand some families’ look past all the com-mercialization. Christmas can mean different things to different people.

Families could celebrate it just for giving and receiv-ing; others may celebrate it for religious reasons. Christ-mas could be the highlight of someone’s year. Maybe it’s the only time they see their distant family and feel closer together.

Christmas has become so focused on profit and gifts that people have forgotten the true meaning of the holi-day. There is way more to Christmas than the presents. Stores should wait to put out Christmas merchandise so everyone can enjoy the more current holidays.

Arrives Too FastEffy Minnick Writer

“Depression is a mental ill-ness that consumes you and all you can think of is how you can improve to meet everyone’s expectations.”

12 Photo Essay November 2014 | The Northmen’s Log

Rise &Boy’s Vs.

6:30

7:08

6:35

6:47

6:52

7:05

Senior Conner Clapham awakes from his deep sleep.

Clapham showers to smell fresh for the day.

Clapham chooses his Royals shirt to wear.

Clapham eats his stack of pancakes.

Clapham brushes his teeth before heading to school.

Clapham backs out of his garage heading to school.

Senior Conner Clapham

Photo Essay 13November 2014 | The Northmen’s Log

ShineGirl’s Mornings

6:15

6:20

6:35

6:40

6:45

7:00

Maddie Russell Managing EditorOlivia Eissler Editor-in-Chief

Senior Julia Wopata huddles under her blankets as she waits for her alarm to go off.

Wopata eats her mom’s homemade breakfast bars, drinks her coffee and reads the paper.

Wopata searches in her closet for an outfit to wear.

Wopata brushes her teeth after putting on her outfit.

Wopata straightens her hair before leaving for school.

Wopata backs out of her garage, heading to school.

Senior Julia Wopata

Solve the wordsearch and bring it into room E134 for a sweet treat!

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