Seize The Day

A new school year already huh? My advice, enjoy every minute of it. Sure there will be the normal drama and that teacher that you don't like will surely be a little extra grumpy, but do your best to ignore those silly things.

The best part about high school is your friends. Cherish them, try to somehow hang out a little more. It's tough when graduation comes and you loose touch with these wonderful people. All of my good friends now were all friends from high school. So what does that tell ya? It means that while it sounds kind of goofy, really enjoy as much as you can. Go out, plan parties, go to football games, and do whatever is fun today. Of course I have to put the disclaimer in that you must be careful no matter what. While I'm sure you've heard that a million times, this is not a contrived disclaimer.

You will also hear this a million more times, but I'm going to say it again. These are some of the best times of your life. People say that so much because it's true. You can literally do anything with your life and make whatever it is you want come true. Doctor? Astronaut? Writer? Yep, whatever you want is all in front of you. I'm actually stoked for you just thinking about the opportunities that are out there now. Just in the last ten years think about how much life has changed. Not just your every day life, but life around us all. Is it unthinkable that in high school, we didn't have cell phones, myspace, Facebook or Twitter? Think about how much that alone connects you to the world and to endless people across the globe. It's happily mind boggling.

It's an exciting time to be in high school and an exciting time to be entering the prime of your life. If you haven't seen it, check out the movie Dead Poets Society. Yeah, it might be a bit dated (Spoiler: and a bit depressing) but the message that it conveys still rings true today. Seize the day and make it yours.

Nick Valentino wrote a Steampunk novel called "Thomas Riley" which will be out on Echelon Press in October.

In the meantime check out the brand spanking new Thomas Riley Website... hey, you can even sign up to be a sky pirate.

Or see my blog at: http://nickvalentino.blogspot.com

Or if your really crazy, check out Thomas Riley's blog written by Thomas Riley and Cynthia Basset themselves here.

Stretch Yourself. . .

Teen inventors, teen creators, teen thinkers. Essentialy, they're all the same, coming up with new and creative ways to solve problems and have fun. The thing is, every teen has it in them to make something.

But where do you start? Some schools have classes you can take, i.e. industrial technology (IT), wood shop, and even automotive technology. All of these classes allow you to take things apart, put them back together again, and even build completely new things! At my high school, I am lucky enough to be in the Project Lead the Way program which focuses on teaching engineering skills.

Most projects involve designing and and building a structure or machine to suit a problem. Below is a video of one of our recent projects. We had to build the most efficient bridge in the class. It had to weigh as little as possible while holding as much as possible. The bridge itself is made of balsa wood and the load deck is made of fiberglass. The metal piece hanging down is attached to a bucket. Weight was added to the bucket until the bridge broke. This bridge placed 5th out of the 12 bridges in the class.

But the great thing is this, you don't have to wait! You can use you creativity outside the classroom every day. So get out there and let's see what you can build!

Iris Black

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Rumors

Rumors can be nasty, scary things. When I was in eighth grade, some members of a local Satanist cult got arrested after they were discovered doing a pretty gross ritual involving a teenage girl.

That week, rumors flew that the members of the Satanist cult who remained free planned to kidnap a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl from our Valentine’s Day dance and sacrifice her in another ritual. Even the brunettes were terrified. Fortunately, the rumor was just that—a rumor.

A similar thing happened at Boston Latin School last month. Rumors flew that one of the girls who attended there was…a vampire. People said she’d been seen scratching her boyfriend’s neck and drinking his blood. Of course, it didn’t stop there. Someone said the police had come to arrest her. Someone else said she wasn’t the only vampire.

Of course, none of this was true, but after the rumors got so ferocious a few “Goth” teens were bullied, the principal was forced to step in and send a memo to parents and teachers, asking them to help stop the rumors from being perpetuated and to stop innocent people from taking flak.

What was the worst rumor you ever heard? Did you pass it on, or just shake your head in disbelief?

Jacquelyn Sylvan is the author of Surviving Serendipity.