The Mane Event - Issue 4

PG 2

Q. Who should pay for the dinner?A. If it’s a date, the guy should pay. But if you’re going as friends you should split it.

What the seniors are really thinking

Q. Why do you want to go to prom?A. ‘Cause I like gettin’ krunk.

With all the excitement of prom, expectations run rampant about the most glorified dance of our lives.

The seniors of Creekview voiced their opinions and expressed what they expect from prom.

Q. Should people go all out on dressing up, or be comfortable? A. I think people should dress comfortably.

Q. Should people dress up or be comfortable?A. I think everyone will go really over the top.

Mackie Thomas

Jesus Ramirez

Julio Espinoza

Amanda Ortiz

Q.What kind of music are you expecting to hear at prom?A. Something that’s gonna make the crowd go crazy.

Vicky Boutah

Markcus Hardy

Q. Why do you want to go to

prom?A. I feel like it’s

mandatory.

Deja HenryStaff Writer After three long years of high school,

we all eventually reach the final stretch: senior year. With senior year comes the typical “rites of passage.” Senior walk, class T-shirts, class rings, letter jackets and possibly the most impor-tant of them all (besides, ya know, graduation): prom.

Ah yes, prom. The event some spend months saving up for to blow it all on one night. But for some Creekview seniors, prom isn’t a priority.

Senior Jay Guidry said that instead of prom, he will

probably go to a party. Fellow senior Torris Red-dick is on the same page.

Although Guidry did feel pressure from his mother to go, he stands by his decision not to attend.

“To me, it’s not my style,” Guidry said. “I don’t think I would have a good time there.”

Reddick also feels he wouldn’t enjoy his time there.

“I wouldn’t go because my friends are not there,” Reddick said. “I wouldn’t know anybody.”

Whatever one’s reason may be for choos-ing to go skip prom, one thing is certain: missing out on prom doesn’t mean you will miss out on the “night of your life.” You can still have the night of your life, but on your own time and your own terms.

Passing up prom night

PG 3

Cristina PopStaff Writer

Five hundred handmade cake balls, two successful cookouts, one thrill-ing male beauty pageant, and countless receipt drops later, the class of 2014 has almost made it to the end of their long journey to prom. “Everything we do is a lot to take on and pretty stressful,” senior class president Jennifer Wang said. Over the past four years, the 484 students in the class of 2014 have progressed from wide-eyed freshmen to successful seniors whose hard work will reach its peak May 17. From the estimated $5,000 cost of the venue, to a Post Prom party equally as expensive, the grand total for this spectacular night is about $15,000—a price worth the work. Freshman year: 2010-2011. A large class of fish joined the school. Patrick Lyons was sworn in as president and Sydney Franklin vice president. To-gether, their mission was to get students to join exec and get them hyped up about upcoming years. “Freshman year exec is really about getting people involved and ex-cited,” senior exec advisor Jonathan Ray said. They arranged receipt drops at local restaurants throughout the summer,

but their biggest accomplish-

ment as freshmen was getting over 20 students involved. Sophomore year: 2011-2012. The best thing to do as sophomores was plan ahead by initiating creative fund-raising ideas. So what better way to get excited than Homecoming Halls? For this class, the goal was to beat the upperclassmen at a game they’d been playing for years. Unfortunately, the class of 2014 didn’t reach that goal, but their loss motivated them to dominate in the future. This year was about the goals set to rule homecoming halls and double their budget through more efficient fund-raisers in the future. “Sophomore year, you make a little bit more money, but junior year is when you really get the big ticket stuff,” Ray said. Junior year: 2012-2013. A change in leadership trans-formed the class’ mindset as Jennifer Wang became president and more than quadrupled their earnings in less than a year. “We started it the minute she was elected and did receipt drops all that summer,” Ray said. “It was really helpful to jump start things.” The remainder of the year was focused on hosting student versus teacher games and the much anticipated powderpuff football game. “The closer you get to powder-

puff, the more people attend meetings,” Ray said. So a fair warning to juniors: join up before powderpuff on May 21, be-cause a strong team is necessary to beat these supreme seniors. Senior Year: 2013-2014. The seniors’ final fundraisers included cookouts, which raised about $1,500 a piece, and a very hairy Novem-ber that made everyone “fear the beard.” Because of the hard work this class has done, prom will be on the top floor of La Cima Club, which features a 360-degree view of the Dallas Metroplex. “It’s so nice that if we try to decorate it much, it’s just going to look tacky,” Ray said. The total cost of the deposit for the venue and the picnic was about $6,000, and tickets are the cheapest they’ve ever been. If that doesn’t get you excited, they may have raised enough money to book a special guest. “If we can swing it, we’re trying to get an ice sculpture of Thunder,” Ray said. The senior class is proof that with determination and teamwork, even the unthinkable can be achieved. “As stressful as all the planning can be, together we find a way to get it done and it’s always 100 percent worth it in the end,” Wang said.

Raising funds to ‘raise the roof’Photo courtesy of Jennifer Wang

Senior Exec throws up their ‘14 signs together in their Homecoming Red Carpet themed hallway the night before the competition.

PG 4

Aafreen Chunara Staff Writer

Prom is a night of dressing up, gourmet din-ing, and hours of dancing and partying. Before prom, the girls frantically glam up and the guys go through a mental-checklist of things they should have (where is that expensive flower thing?!).

Whatever it is you plan to do after dancing at prom, it is crucial to re-member responsibility.

This is the night when anything that could go wrong does, and safety takes the backseat.

Maybe it’s our first glimpse into adulthood. Maybe it’s because we be-lieve we are invincible.

‘Oh, that car crash that killed those drunk teenagers, there’s no way that could happen to me.’

This is the dangerous turn our thoughts take.

I can preach the ge-neric “Don’t drink and drive, don’t do drugs, maintain abstinence,” but in the end, it’s a personal decision. Seriously though, don’t drink and drive.

While parties are one of the most popular hangouts after prom, post-prom doesn’t just have to be about going wild. A midnight movie, a romantic picnic, a night of campfires or a relationship-destroying game of monopoly are also entertaining ways to spend the night after the dance.

Senior Jordan Thompson attended prom last year and opted for a late night run to Waffle House in lieu of reckless havoc. She believes the best part of prom was post-prom with all her friends. Thompson emphasized the

importance of going with a group of people you know won’t pressure you to do something outside of your comfort zone.

Senior Ellyson Lewis plans to spend the night at a hotel and relax with a group of her closest girlfriends.

Lewis maintains it is important to think before you act and consider how your actions will affect not only you but others as well.

Although the mis-takes you make on prom night fade with the sun-rise, the consequences are sometimes more perma-nent (think dirty diapers and nights of listening to the beautiful symphony of wailing).

Prom is one of the most anticipated nights in the four years of high school, but it can also be one of the most dangerous.

PromWhere: La Cima Club5215 N O’Connor Blvd. #2600, Irving, TX 75039When: May 17, 8 p.m. to 12 a.m.Theme: Above the City Lights

Post-PromWhere: Main Event2070 S. Stemmons Fwy, Lewisville, TX 75067When: 12:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m.

Senior PicnicWhere: Austin Ranch2009 Anderson Gibson Rd.,Grapevine, TX 76051When: May 30th

Ticket Prices:May 1 - May 16 Prom: $65 Picnic: $20 Package: $80

May 17 (Prom Day)Prom: $75

May 17 - 29Picnic: $20

May 30 Day of PicnicPicnic: $25

Senior Check List:� Yearbook Signing Party: May 8 � Prom: May 17 @ La Cima Club� Powder Puff: May 21 @ Standridge Stadium� Senior Walk: May 30� Senior Picnic: May 30 @ Austin-Ranch� Graduation Rehearsal: June 6 � Graduation: June 7th @ UNT

Senior Spring at a glance

Resisting ‘Prom’iscuity

Photo by Jessica Witherow Twenty-four floors above the ground, prom at the La Cima Club will be a unique experience. PG 5

Teachers’ prom of the pastPaola Castillo and Maloree MaloneStaff Writer and Photo Editor

Just like many of us are looking forward to prom, some of our well known faculty also went through the same moments of anticipation leading up to the big night.

Q: Do you have an embarrassing moments from your prom?

A: I wasn’t very girly in high school so for me show-ing up in a formal dress with my hair done was pretty embarrassing.

Q: What’s your favorite memory from that night?

A: Going to prom was a very last minute decision and I’m so glad that I went.

Q: What do you think makes our prom different from your prom?

A: The cost. As seniors we didn’t have to pay for our prom tick-ets. Money was raised and prom was sponsored. I see what kids pay for their tickets, and I know a lot of kiddos don’t have the money to go. I think every senior should have the opportunity to attend prom regardless of their financial status.

Q: Do you have any embarrassing moments from your prom?

A: My date wouldn’t dance-we sat and watched everyone else.


A: Ours was not as expensive - there was only a

DJ and dance floor,

tables, drinks.

Q: Do you have any tips for the students attending prom this year?

A: Don’t think you have to spend a lot of money. I borrowed a dress instead of buy-ing one. Go with a group of friends - more fun than just a couple.

Q: Do you have any embarrassing moments from your prom?

A: Not for me, but I remind a few of my friends about how I saved their lives.

Q: What’s your favorite memory?

A: Realizing at the end of the night I wouldn’t have to talk to and especially listen to my date ever again.


A: The dancing is “different,” so are the dresses.


A: Enjoy the experience but understand that your actions have consequences.

Ms. De Los SantosCoach Paschall

Mrs. Sill

“”

PG 6

DON’T FOCUS TOO MUCH ON PER-FECTION; HAVE FUN, DANCE, AND ENJOY YOUR FRIENDSHIPS.

- MRS. COUNTS

Jeremy Stavinoha

Staff Writer

Prom is one of those events that most people look forward to from the day they learn of its existence. They

picture themselves in high school, girls wearing long flowing dresses and guys wearing tuxedos. But why do we limit ourselves to just those options? Having never considered going to prom before this year, I was faced with the unique opportunity of being able to choose what I wear without predetermined expectations. I realized I was free, with no one to please but myself. And maybe my date.

But with this freedom comes something else I wasn’t expecting: other people’s expectations about what prom is supposed to be like. And apparently wanting to stray from the norm and choose something dif-ferent, say a dress shirt, tie, and vest, or god forbid a short dress, violates their right to a perfect prom as they had always imagined. This ideal prom that every-one has had in mind since childhood, the way prom is “supposed” to be, cannot be violated, as the constitu-tion protects a person's right to make others feel bad about wearing what they want. As the previous sarcasm sug-gests, we should be allowed to wear different things than the standard tuxedo and long dress, and still have the same Taylor Swift, picture per-fect prom. When someone wears a

short dress or something other than a tuxedo, they aren’t ruining your life. They’re enjoying the prom they wish to have - whether they’ve envisioned it since childhood or recently decided what to wear. Wearing flowy, fancy clothing just isn’t for everybody. Clothing dif-ferences reflect individual personali-ties. Clothing itself is representative of different cultures and often times can give looks into how a person might feel that day. Trying to limit what we should wear is destructive to everyone and their individual ide-als. With this I say that the most important thing about prom isn’t try-ing to make it the way you’ve always imagined or trying to meet some kind of societal standard you don’t enjoy. It’s about wearing something you like and feel comfortable in.

What not to wear: Prom Edition

Q: What’s your favor-ite memory?

A: I enjoyed dinner with other people be-fore prom the most.

Q: What do you think makes our prom differ-ent from your prom?

A: Not a lot except that we had better music! - the 80’s!


A: Stay sober and make the decision of what you will and will not do before you go - have fun but be safe.

Q: Do you have any embarrassing moments your prom?

A: The fog machine was turned up too high at one point, causing ev-eryone on the dance floor to cough.

Q: What’s your favorite memory?

A: This date with the young man that I later married was different somehow. Dinner and dancing were sublime, looking into his eyes was more romantic, and the whole evening seemed surreal and special.


A: We didn’t have post prom to provide a safe and fun place to hang out with friends after the dance, so most people headed to IHOP. Ladies also dress in a more mature style now. Princess sleeves are definitely out!


A: Don’t focus too much on per-fection; have fun, dance, and enjoy your friendships.

Mrs. Miller Mrs. Counts

PG 7

Jessica ZavalaPage Editor

We probably won’t have that magical moment where our date gleams up at us with a sparkle in his eye as we descend the steps in slow motion. But that doesn’t mean the whole night has gone to waste, even if the salon left our hair looking like an abused straw broom or if we didn’t pose with our good side in all the pictures.

Approach prom with reasonable expectations. Although it should be special, the romanticization of prom night can

leave a feeling of dissatisfaction if not every song blared over the speakers is a favorite or if all

flowers remain intact. In ten years, the memory of prom won’t

be about the sucky music, the X-rated dancing or the missing goodnight kiss. It’ll be about the feeling of being surrounded by friends, enjoying the final fleeting moments of senior year, moments we’ll want to revisit. Don’t let that feeling be clouded by petty mishaps or a delusion of perfection. Don’t ruin prom night by being closed minded.

I’m a living, breathing example that prom is what you make of it. Being some-one’s date to last year’s prom was both exciting and intimidating. Exciting because I was a junior at a party meant for seniors. Intimidating because I was mostly out of my

comfort zone and didn’t really talk to many people in our group. Not to mention, my ex-boyfriend rode in the party bus my then-boyfriend chose to join. Talk about awkward. But despite the moments of tension and the occasional surges of panic, I still had a great time because I chose to ignore the weird vibes and in-stead relished in the bliss of prom 2013.

So dance like you’re trying to squeeze into the skinniest of jeans.

Sing as if you were auditioning for American Idol. Enjoy every single expensive second of it. If you’re going to drop stacks of Benjamins

on a dress, shoes, hair, makeup, nails and everything else that prom

entitles, you might as well make the most of the night, no matter what everyone else says about it. Prom is a hallmark of the ultimate teenage experience, so make it a night you won’t regret or wish you’d done differently.

Matthew MillicanStaff Writer

Let’s be honest for a second. I’m well aware that when you’re thinking about prom and looking for someone to tell you all the juicy details, the first image that comes to mind is not going to be Matt Millican going crazy on the dance floor, (God forbid.) Having gone to last year’s prom though, I can say from experience that there are a lot of opportunities to have fun. But they’re not going to amount to anything unless you step back, take a breath, and enjoy the experience rather than struggling to conjure up your vision of a perfect date.

For my part, I went with a group of friends. Our best experiences that night were the ones we shared as a group: the chaos of posing for pictures, only to be ambushed by a rampaging sprinkler system; the hilar-ity of speeding down the streets in a blue-lit party bus, blasting music; the total loss of faith in humanity as we arrived at the dance to find the room filled to the brim with grind-ing teenagers. There was something special about that night--the sense of one last get-together; a final bash with my closest friends before they all said goodbye to Creekview and moved on to greater things.

But none of it arose from the overblown, romanticized view of prom that contemporary culture seems to force down our throats nowadays. There were no fireworks; no explosive bursts of laughter or applause or tears; no Gatsby-esque processions of sports cars lining the streets. Instead, there was a big, sweltering room filled with mismatched couples that grew less and less lovestruck with every new song—the atmosphere laden with a hundred relationships sagging under impossible expectations.

The short version? Don’t try to make the night something it’s not. No matter how beautiful the venue, there are a thousand things that can go wrong when you try to have a starry-eyed dream date at a dance with the rest of the school watching from the sidelines.

Prom can be incredibly fun, or it can be mind-bendingly awkward, with very little in between. So don’t try to break any ground here--odds are, the results will not be pleasant.

Romantacize within reason

Illustration by Kristin Wright

He said, she said: the realities of Prom revealed

PG 8

Jessica WitherowPhotographer

Tweet this, Snap that, Kik me. These are things you hear everyday, but might not hear five years from now. The rise and fall of trends happen at least once every couple of weeks. These trends come naturally to “basic” people, but oth-ers have a different opinion. “There are always going to be new ones to keep up with,” junior Samuel Armendariz said. “So there’s no use in devoting your time to it.” Take Flappy Bird for example. One day it was here and the next day it was gone. The creator decided to take the game down due to the hate mail he was getting from people who had broken their phones. Yet, we are still talking about what our high score is. Sometimes, trends just fade away, but that wasn’t the case with Flappy Bird. In the short uprising of the game, the creator made $50,000 a day. But once you take something away, it becomes more appealing. In this case, when the creator

took down the extremely popular game, he just created more buzz. “I think it made it more interest-ing,” sophomore Elexia Martinez said. Remember that website Myspace? At the climax of its existence, some guy named Mark Zuckerberg decided to make a new version called Facebook. And so came the birth of a new trend, until we met our messenger bird that tweets a lot. Soon after, we started the #selfiegame on Instagram while slow-ly killing off Facebook. Now all we can talk about is what we posted five years ago on Facebook as seen on Timehop, a

new app made to see previous posts on various websites. These are just a few of the trends we have seen through our generation. Some have risen to the peak of their exis-tence as others have fallen to their death. We don’t need these things in life, but where would we be without them? We rely on trends so we have something to talk about. These trends are our way of life. We would have nothing to gossip about, which means no drama, and no drama means a boring world. These trends are the color of the social world. They put the spark back into life.

The rise and fall of trends Infographic by Lester Garcia

The information in this infographic is the result of a cafeteria poll con-ducted by the Mane

Event staff. This pie chart represents the propor-tion of the top 5 Netflix shows watched by our

student body.


PG 9

BY THE NUMBERS

AP testing techniques Matthew Millican

Staff Writer

AP exams are next week. If you’re anything like me, you’re bubbling over with excitement at the prospect of spending three hours at a time taking brutal exams in a cold, windowless room.

But look at the bright side—you might get college credit for your ef-forts.

Anyway, when you’ve spent up-wards of 55 bucks a pop on each of these tests, you probably want to avoid messing up and getting a lower score than you’d hoped for. Here are some tips to help you do your best during the nonstop AP thrill ride:

The district will administer the majority of AP tests at the TLC, which is located at 2427 Carrick St, Farmers Branch. That’s about a 15-20 minute drive from Creekview. There’s a DART rail station right next to the TLC, but I’d advise against relying on public transpor-tation.

Get to the testing center about 20-30 minutes early. That way you can figure out your testing room and avoid rushing into the TLC ten seconds before the exam starts. Yes, I have witnessed people doing this. No, it does not end well.

Apparently it’s in style to skip breakfast and starve for a few hours before making up the lost energy with a Monster drink. Bad idea when you’re tak-ing an AP exam. Eat a nutritious breakfast and bring a snack to eat on break… unless passing out in the middle of a calculus test is just that beneficial to your social status.

If you’ve been studying all year and you know your stuff, the only thing standing between you and a passing score is time. Don’t count on your testing room having a working clock--bring a watch, a timer, or anything that lets you

know exactly how much time you’ve spent on the test so far. Budgeting time can easily make the difference between a pass and a fail. Just make sure your timer doesn’t have an audible alarm.

PG 10

At this point, what are we even testing anymore?

As students across the nation gear up for the joy of spring testing season, let’s step back for a second. Think about all the TAKS tests, the SATs, STAARs, ACTs, APs—the entire spec-trum of meaningless acronyms we use to describe the soul-crushing exams any aspiring college student is forced to endure.

What are they all for, anyway? These days, universities seem

to be tacking more and more tests onto their required lists for prospective appli-cants, funneling millions of dollars into testing agencies as students, parents, and teachers alike wring their hands in agony.

And yet, those same tests grow less meaningful every day. College admissions rates are deflating in spite of the hundreds of millions of dollars we spend on exams such as the SAT.

A number of prestigious univer-

sities now refuse to offer credit for Ad-vanced Placement tests, and even many of the less competitive schools complain that their freshmen are underprepared for the rigor of higher education.

It begs the question: Why does our educational system put so much en-ergy into all these tests in the first place? If all the money we spend does such a poor job maintaining our standards of learning, is there any reason at all for us to drown ourselves in all these exams?

According to John Katzman, founder of test prep company The Princeton Review, the answer is a resounding no.

Despite the nature of his work, Katzman is a fierce critic of America’s addiction to testing. In a 1999 interview with PBS, he called the SAT “a scam” that “has never measured anything.”

He further pointed out that al-though the test plays a major role in col-lege admissions, it widens the achieve-ment gap between students of different

incomes, as many of the highest scorers are mid- to upper-class teens who pay for expensive prep classes.

In that sense, we’re beating down an entire social class because they can’t afford to spend 500 bucks learning words like “punctilious” and “absquatu-late” to jack up their Critical Reading scores.

Obviously, things aren’t quite the same as they were 15 years ago.

The SAT has changed several times in response to a variety of critics, and the upcoming update for 2016 is clearly intended to bring the test back in line with what kids are actually learning in school.

But no matter how many changes we introduce, we can’t keep depending on a cookie-cutter test to serve as our absolute standard of academic achieve-ment in this country.

If we do, we might be leaving an entire generation of brilliant kids out to dry.

The price of perfectionwwww

PG 11

STAFF EDITORIAL

Jessica Zavala Page Editor

The dream is always the same. A juicy steak simmers on a plate in front of me, steam rising from its contours freshly removed from the grill. I reach for my fork and knife, and just as I’m about to dig in, the steak grows a pair of tiny legs and runs toward the open mouth of another meat-eater awaiting his din-ner. No matter how fast I chase it, it’s always out of my grasp. Welcome to my life as a vegetarian. After being an omnivore for the first seventeen and a half years of my life, I made the choice to take a vege pledge and cut animal meat out of my diet. Secretly, I made the choice in hopes vegetarianism would

help stop my eating disorder. But I also did research and discovered vegetarians have lower levels of cholesterol and reduced risks of suf-fering from hypertension, type two diabetes and certain dementias like Alzheimer’s disease. And although vegetarian-ism may be a bit stigmatized with the myth that it doesn’t provide adequate nutrition, a plantbased diet supplies all the nutrients necessary from fruits, vegetables, nuts and other non-animal foods. Beside self-help motiva-tion for my conversion, I made the switch because animal treatment in meat processing plants is cruel and unusual. I don’t want to take any part in an industry that is known for disgusting breeding circumstances

where animals are forced to live in piles of their own feces and vomit, unnecessary abuse and environ-mental devastation, even if I’d just be buying chicken nuggets. In 2001, meat plant worker Ramon Moreno told the Washington Post about cows looking around and mooing in pain as he cut off their legs with a chain-saw because the electric shocker didn’t stun the animals into brain death at the beginning of the killing line. Yes, I do sometimes crave a Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich. Some-times, I do indeed yearn for steak quesadillas or a pig-in-a-blanket. But my beliefs and my desire to lead a healthier and longer life give me the strength to resist temptation.

Markus SmithPage Editor

“If you want to play vol-leyball in

college, it should be in your best interest to play for a club,” senior volleyball player and FIU commit Jennifer Ene said. “Playing for a club defi-nitely helped me get noticed dur-ing the recruit-ment process.”

For most high school athletes, it has always been a goal to play their sport at the collegiate level.

Unfortunately, most athletes never reach this goal. According to statistics compiled by Patrick O’Rourke of schol-arshipstats.com, in the 2011-12 school year, an average of only 7.8 percent of all high school athletes got to play at the collegiate level. On national signing day,

eight Creekview athletes signed to schools to play

their sport. “I’ve received offers from Texas

State, University of Texas Arlington, University of North Texas, Florida International University, and West

Virginia,” Ene said. “At first I was very reluctant to committing to FIU because of the distance from home, but after making a col-lege visit and meeting with the volleyball coaches over there, I with-out a doubt

knew this was the school for me.” A big struggle for high school

athletes is getting noticed by colleges. Senior football player and Angelo State commit Cameron Adkins said the recruit-ing process is very tough and required contacting about 30 schools.

“Getting noticed by colleges is a very stressful process,” Adkins said. “I didn’t really have that great of a season

my senior year while playing through an injury, but I still emailed my highlight tape to schools and called several coaches. You re-ally have to stay on the coaches about wanting to play for them to get their at-tention.”

Senior softball player and Greyson County College commit Kira Edmeads says her teammates and her mom have really mo-tivated her to get to where she is today.

“My teammates always push me to try harder in practice and always make sure I’m performing to my best ability,” Edmeads said. “My mom has also always pushed me to get better and has been one of my biggest supporters from the begin-ning. She always takes time off of work to support me and has put a lot of money into it.”

College bound athletes

Kira EdmeadsGreyson County College

PG 12

Taking the vege pledge

Jennifer Ene

Florida International University

Angelo State UniversityCameron Adkins

Ellie EbanksManaging Editor

If you’re finding yourself in need of some extra cash for this upcoming sum-mer, it may be time for you to get a job.

But before you decide to snag that job at the mall, keep in mind that every job will not be for you. Time manage-ment is of the utmost importance when it comes to balancing a job and school, and it’s important to pick a job that’s right for you. You have to be sure your pay supple-ments your spending (or saving) and compliments your personality as well.

Here’s a list of some of the best jobs for teens from Forbes magazine to help jump start your search. Who knows, maybe being a live mannequin at the local boutique is for you (it pays $25-$100 an hour if you’re lucky.)

Camp Counselor Day Camp: $6-$13 hourly, Resident Camp: $450-$1500 monthly

This job is seasonal, only for people who love kids, and a huge time commitment. CPR and lifeguard certifica-

tions really help when applying for these positions.

Golf Caddy $50-$120 (per round)

Fun fact about golf caddies: they get the big bucks. Pay plus tips, and the better the golf course the better the tips. You don’t have to know much about golf, but you do have to be decently in shape because you have to carry other people’s golf equipment around. You can generally get around $50 to $100 for four hours of work and there are really good golf courses in the area, so do your research.

Retail Service $7-$18 hourly Starting pay isn’t awesome, but

shifts are usually flexible and there are always positions available during the holiday season. You get to be inside in the air conditioning , and it’s generally a sociable team environment. If you don’t mind people and enjoy the bustling mall environment, think retail.

Food Service $6-$15 hourly (plus tips, depending on position)

Sometimes the pay isn’t quite as

high as retail, but many establishments allow for tips, which help if your hourly pay is low. These jobs require a lot of pa-tience and human interaction, so if you’re a people-person, go for it.

Internships (Usually not a paid position)

Internships are a great way to start networking for your future career. The school actually has a program, TIP, where you can leave campus and intern for one of your classes. If you’re interested, you should talk to your counselor about it. Don’t write off interning just because of the unattractive prospects of not getting paid.

Lifeguard $6-$18 hourly To be a lifeguard, you’ll need to be

lifeguard certified. There are also a ton of places to work; rec centers, water parks, country clubs, and summer camps. Keep in mind that some camps hire on the weekends.

*Try Glassdoor.com for job open-ings, company reviews, average salaries, and anything else job related*

Help wanted: Seasonal jobs for teens

Working at a camp is one of the more popular summer jobs for teens. PG 13

Make some dough for your summer flow

Photos contributed by Ellie Ebanks

Heavy eyelids, light sleep.

Heavy stacks of home-work, light packs of pencils. At this point, you’ve lost all but three of them.

Heavy hearts when Monday hits, the light at the end of the week fades farther and farther away.

The word “alarm” has become an unavoidable curse that haunts us after every Sunday sunset. By this time of the year, we feel our mere presence is a gift to our teachers.

Yet with this mindset, we will never gain anything from the dreaded hours of 8:20 a.m. to 3:35 p.m. that are a required part of our lives. If we complete-ly zone out from the time we arrive at school to the last bell, we’ve wasted seven hours and 15 minutes that we will never get back. That’s 36 hours and 15 minutes a week and 145 hours a month.

It is understandable that we won’t enjoy every second of every day, yet

why should we set ourselves up forfailure every time we walk through

the school doors? By seeing school as nothing more than a monotonous chore, we miss possible opportunities to experi-ence new things or even encounter the “L” word that has left a bad taste in our mouths: Learning.

Although many of us could make the argument that some of the material we are required to learn will never be di-rectly applicable to the career we pursue after high school, there are still bits of in-formation that we could use in our daily lives. Despite what we may think, it is quite possible to pick up some interesting inspiration or information in the classes we don’t always look forward to.

For example, if you don’t enjoy English class, still write those essays to the best of your ability to exercise your analytical skills and creative thinking. Don’t enjoy history? Listen to the lectures for the sake of understanding the roots of various countries and cultures. Are the sciences meaningless? Absolutely not. It is important to understand why the world around us operates the way it does.

Take astronomy for instance. Knowing more about the universe you live in can provide you with new insight. Besides, you might want to know a few of

those constellations so you can take your babe, boo, or dare I say “bae” stargazing.

Not only are the classes provid-ing us with opportunities we may never encounter again, but it is also important to appreciate the people within those classes. For those of us graduating, we often forget that we will never see the majority of the people that we borrow pencils from and complain about being tired with ever again after graduation day.

Even in the case that we did not enjoy the majority of those we were surrounded by, there were always those few people that made you want to drag yourself to class every Monday morning.

Do not let your alarms become curses and your teachers become enemies.

Allow yourself to appreciate those familiar faces in the halls. No mat-ter what grade you are in, those patterns of darting eyes and shy smiles will never be exactly the same in the years to come. Listen in hopes of learning. Be intrigued and you might find inspiration. But what-ever you do, do not waste seven hours and 15 minutes of your life everyday. Do not waste the precious time you’ve been given, because once it is gone, it will never be yours again.

Cure for the carelessNatalie Walker

Editor-in-chief


PG 14

Kayla DavisPage Editor

Isthay isway osay oringbay.

Translation: This is so boring.

As the clock in trigonometry ticks on, the closer I get to class being

over, the more my attention span de-creases. At this point in the class period, my level of caring is so low I have actually started to translate my thoughts into pig latin.

I became fluent in the unofficial language back in elementary school on the playground, using it as a device for telling secrets in class and making my peers feel left out as I spoke it in front of them.

I learned it just for fun, but now as I sit in this class, being forced to find

the value of sine and cosine, my made up language becomes a priority.

I should be paying attention. We have a test next week. But as hard as I try, my efforts prove, once again, fruitless.

I choose to daydream in place of learning, giving my brain no benefit from the free education I am receiving.

Instead of learning, we choose to memorize song lyrics. We tattoo pass-words onto our brain for the many differ-ent social media sites we are on. We can only recite the first three digits of pi and have yet to remember our social security numbers.

We spend so much time spewing our memorization of the latest raunchy song singing, “he likes to call me peaches when we get this nasty.”

But when our teacher asks us to memorize vocabulary words that can move conversation forward and make us sound like adults instead of speaking text talk, we admit defeat immediately and

go back to our friends, laughing at her insane request.

To us, things that matter the least are the most fun.

There is nothing wrong with knowing all the words to your favorite song, or being able to quote multiple lines from a movie, but our brains are capable of so much more than just Beyonce´ lyr-ics.

We can’t fill our minds with only that. We need to have a balance of the fun and the learning.

High school helps us grow up with the realization that sometimes reading and writing, and yes, even finding the area of a triangle, can help us in real life.

It gives us problem solving skills. So instead of memorizing the bare mini-mum of your vocabulary words to get by, or blowing off the first test knowing the retake will be easier, learn it the first time, and give your brain the privilege of knowledge it deserves.

The language of learningBecoming fluent in the things that really matter

Photo illustration by Jessica Witherow

PG 15

Cover photos by Maloree MaloneCover design by Natalie Walker & Claudya Cardenas

Documents

The Mane Event - Issue 4