If one thing is certain, it’s that there needs to be a instruction manual for incoming high-school freshman - how to do this, when to do that, what’s important and what’s not going to matter in ten years - because we all know that it would save everyone a whole lot of time and effort. Unfortunately though, there isn’t. Kids are left to learn manual-worthy lessons on their own; some lessons are learned by experience, some by association, and some simply by observance. Over the course of four years, high school can fill that theoretical manual pretty full, but perhaps the most important lesson one could learn from that manual may not be realized until late in the high-school career, or even afterward: to not let high school be the center of the universe.

Athletic expertise, academic ability, creativity, and the passion that backs each of these qualities are all things which define a person, molding them into who they are or who they eventually will be. This is especially true for senior Erica Russell, whose athletic passion has turned a life-long dream into a reality on the softball field.

A college acceptance means a lot of things for a student; it marks the time for filling the closet with school colors, buying dorm essentials, setting up a credit card, planning out a course schedule, looking into all the interesting intramural sports and student organizations offered on campus - the list is endless. However, though it can be lost in the midst of excitement, a college acceptance also means an extraordinary monetary commitment.

This past October, I met my best friend. Yes, you read that correctly - read it several more times if you must. No, we did not become best friends after we met, we were best friends already. How, you ask? Technology is a wonderful thing. It has the power to connect two very similar people - so alike that it’s scary, actually - who are separated by 1,337 miles and would never know each other otherwise. Call it weird, question why I can’t make a best friend in my own city (let alone my own state), offer to sign us up for the TV show Catfish - I’ve heard it all before.

During last year’s running of the Snowball Derby - the most prestigious Super Late Model race in the country - I was simply a spectator. That’s more than most people can say, however, as the race isn’t televised and is therefore only truly accessible to those who make the trip to Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida to watch it. But this time around, in the 46th-annual running of the race, I was introduced to a whole new side of the event, and of racing itself: I returned to Five Flags Speedway with a media credential and a crew that had bounds more experience with doing at-track race coverage than I.

“Fa la la la la, la la la la.” It’s December 1st and I’m about to fa-la-la-fall off a cliff as a last resort to escape the Christmas music that’s playing in every public place I walk into.

“I think it’s just amazing how you can create something when there was previously nothing, and you can make people feel things that they wouldn’t otherwise feel through written word.” That is...

Summer: a time for heading to the beach, soaking up some sun, going on vacations, and getting away from school for a couple of months. When we think of summer getaways, however, an impoverished area on the other side of the world isn’t exactly the first thing to come to mind. While it doesn’t sound like the typical thing to do while on vacation from school, seniors Cassidy Lovett, Kinsey Craig, and Julia Kwasnica joined their youth group from First Baptist Church on a ten-day mission trip to spread the Gospel in the village of Coman in Romania.

An hour on the treadmill to get a daily workout in sounds like a blast, right? Wrong. That is, unless you’re a running enthusiast - which, truthfully, most of us aren’t. And even for those who are, stationary running still doesn’t sound like very much fun.

It functions as a girl’s dream closet, personal cookbook, future house plan, wedding-day checklist, workout motivation, and everything in between. Most notably, though, Pinterest is the database of basically...

Racing isn't just a sport. It's a lifestyle, centered around a sport. Racing is something that gets in your blood, and stays in your gene pool for generations down the line. For those who haven't experienced...

Our number one priority, on a daily basis, is to make sure our students are as safe as possible,” principal Lamond Dean said. “So there is a response [plan for] anything that there may be a concern...