Yosemite
High School
Blue
Print
June 4, 2004 - Volume 27 Number
6
From
the editor’s desk
Having
cell phones at school is great, but do students really need them?
If
we spent less time watching TV, everyone would be a lot better off
“The
best years of your life” aren’t a breeze for many of us
young people
Yes, parents and adults have it hard, but so do kids.
True
friends will be with you forever
This
year has been a great experience
“Friends”
will always be missed
Blue
Print staff says thank you
Badger
Backtalk
From
the editor’s desk
It has been an amazing journey
.... it will be unforgettable.
Students
and faculty, you are approaching yet another end to a great year at
YHS. Seniors, yes! We are almost there, we are ready, and graduation
is just a mere few days away. Many of you are ready to depart as quickly
as you can, while others will hold on dearly until the last tear has
been dropped.
To all you younger classmen, enjoy your next few years here, you will
be amazed in the end how quickly your time flew by. When you are seniors
listen to your counselors, they will help you more than you know, and
remember that a deadline is extremely important. Yes, studying will
help, and doing your homework will be crucial as well.
Live your life to the fullest, these years will stick with you forever.
As well, for you juniors it is time to begin thinking about where you
would like to go to college. There are so many choices, just try not
to get bogged down in the process with a stress attack. It truly is
important to try your hardest at the very end and give all that you
have toward your academics; it will serve you well for your college
careers.
As for your friends, keep them close to you, for the relationships we
build upon now may stay with us for a lifetime. The rallies will be
missed, as well as the long walks to class, the faces of our teachers
and friends, the comical moments that will never be forgotten, and mostly
the fun of being surrounded by the people we cherish so dearly.
I personally will miss the pleasure of being the Yosemite High School
Blue Print editor, it was an amazing experience. All of the skill I
have learned along the way will continue, as well as my passion for
those who will be in the class next year and carry on the value of the
paper.
Seniors have seen the construction going on over the years, and we will
have a new football field by graduation. The new music building as well
is complete and adds a great appearance to our campus. We have seen
so much change throughout our four years. We were here to watch and
use the new cafeteria/multi purpose building for the first time. The
library, science building, and administrative building were all renovated.
During our four years we have seen the construction of the parking lot
which we have used so much, as well as the making of the bridges.
Our community has also seen many changes over the past few years. We
as a community now have several franchise businesses that have arrived
over time, as well as those businesses that have been with us since
the beginning, many of whom have helped us students as a whole tremendously
with their support and dedication to everyone here at YHS.
We have seen everything in a way somewhat morph into anew, and for those
who stay at YHS you too will see many more changes like these as your
high school career at YHS progresses. It has been an amazing journey,
with all the rollercoaster rides along the way, but all in all it was
and always will be unforgettable. YHS you will be missed greatly, forever
in our hearts.
Having
cell phones at school is great, but do students really need them?
CASSIE HULTMAN
Cell
phones at school are fine and they are not a big deal until one goes
off in class. You can put it on vibrate, but you can still hear it.
You always hear teachers tell students to turn off their cell phones,
but they never listen. Teachers give us so many chances.
If you would listen and turn them off you wouldn’t get caught.
We are so lucky that we are allowed to have them at school. Now, I’m
not trying to be mean, but we seriously don’t listen.
Having cell phones at school is great, but really, do we need them?
Maybe to call our parents once in awhile, but the rest of the time all
we do is call our friends who are probably standing right next to us.
We just waste all of our minutes.
We gossip the whole time we are on the phone. We will say things to
our friends like “meet me at the pole.” Come on, do we really
need to do that? We can find them.
Or we will say someone says hello. That’s what we do. I don’t
really think we know the meaning to having a cell phone. We should use
it if we are in danger, in a wreck or even to call the cops, but not
to gossip.
Do you really want to make your parents spend money for you to gossip
to your friends? But when I think about it, it’s not just us doing
it; it’s parents too and that’s probably where we get it
from.
They sit and nag at us about being on the cell phone all the time, and
actually they do it too. They have no right to complain about us, except
that they are our parents, but they do it too.
If
we spent less time watching TV, everyone would be a lot better off
BROOKE CATES
Everyday
I hear students saying “Oh my gosh, did you watch...?” Everyday
millions of Americans come home, sit back on the couch, and begin their
everyday evening ritual of watching television.According to the A.C.
Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than four hours of TV
everyday. This is equal to 28 hours a week, or two months in a year.
In a 65 year life span, the average television watcher spent nine years
staring at the tube.
The A.C. Nielsen Co. studies show that 99 percent of households possess
at least one television, 66 percent have three or more. There are so
many other things we can be doing instead of watching TV.
Children learn to watch television just as much as adults. The average
child watches 1,680 minutes of television a week. Not only are they
watching it at home, but time can also be spent at the babysitter’s
watching TV. Seventy percent of day care centers admit to using television
during a typical day. Children learn to love it; some maybe too much.
The A.C. Nielsen Co. reports that when children from the ages of 4-6
were asked if they would rather spend time with their fathers or watch
TV, 54 percent chose TV. Other studies say that students spend more
time watching television than they spend at school per year.
If children weren’t watching as much violence as they do on TV
today, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. The American medical
community states that the average child watches 8,000 murders on TV
before finishing elementary school. Then by age 18 the average American
has seen 200,000 violent acts, at least 40,000 of which have been murders.
No wonder our society is so violent.
Studies say that if less time were spent watching television, society
would be a lot less lazy and a lot better off.
“The
best years of your life” aren’t a breeze for many of us
young people
Yes, parents and adults have it hard, but so do kids.
BRITTANY TIDWELL
While
most adults will tell you, “enjoy being a kid while you still
can,” I beg to differ. Some adults, or parents, get the pleasure
of doing what they want, when they want, and how they want; we “children”
do not.
They say that college is the best years of your life. Why? The pressure
of choosing the right college and the right career only add to the other
stresses of life. Moving out on your own for the first time in your
life and having no one there to hold your hand is not something easily
accomplished. For some of us, that means getting our first job and taking
on our first responsibilities.
If you stay up too late, you don’t just miss a boring movie, you
cost yourself a couple dollars to a couple hundred dollars, not to mention
the important information you missed out on because you were busy trying
to figure out how to use the oven.
Yes, the privilege of being able to enjoy life and not have to worry
about changing diapers just yet is nice. However, we do get to deal
with a lot of other circumstances that come our way that aren’t
all that easy.
Besides hoping that you will make the grade, maybe hold on to a scholarship,
you pray that your computer won’t crash the night before your
midterm is due, and of course, there are the long hours of studying
the night before that made you pass out in sleep deprivation on your
sloppy notes the next morning in class.
Added to that, you have to worry about making it to work on time, learning
how to cook your own meals before you get sick of canned food, and actually
wearing clothes that haven’t been worn eight times since their
last washing.
Between working, studying, attending college full time and trying to
raise yourself in the process, being a student can be difficult.
Yes, parents and adults have it hard, but so do the kids. College years
are not all that easy and high school can be just as tiresome. Most
students don’t have to take care of children, but some of them
still are trying to learn how to take care of themselves. This may be
the “best years of our life,” but it hasn’t all been
a breeze.
True
friends will be with you forever
KATIE WIGLEY
For
some people, high school flies by like a dream. Sometimes it feels like
it was only yesterday when we walked into our kindergarten class, with
our finger paintings and Elmer’s glue stuck in our hair. For others,
high school drags on, like a repeating story with no end. To them, it’s
just another day, another day closer to finishing.
Sometimes it is hard to remember it all. It’s hard to remember
the times when you laughed so hard in class that you got sent outside,
when you backed up into the principal’s vehicle, or even when
you tripped going up or down the bleachers. I will admit I have done
two of those.
Unlike these somewhat amusing moments, there is one thing that you will
never forget —your friends. Friends will be there until the end,
and will be by your side no matter what. Friends are one thing that
you will always have.
Leaving your friends behind after high school is tough, but that doesn’t
mean that you can’t keep in touch.
Your true friends will be with you forever, and graduation doesn’t
have to change that. You can call your best friend 10 years from now,
and they will still remember you and all the crazy and wacky things
that made you unique.
Unlike your class president’s speech, you will always remember
your friends. Through thick and thin, through good times and bad, through
laughter and tears, friends will not only remember you forever, but
will be with you forever too.
This
year has been a great experience
CARMEN GEORGE
My
year at YHS has been wonderful, fun and exciting because everything
that happened was not as I had expected it to occur.
Everything went so fast, and the school year as a sophomore was definitely
more difficult than the year before. However, ever since last year I
felt I have grown, inside and out, and I look back on my first day as
a freshman like it was so many long years ago.
My sophomore year has been great and a lot of that is because I have
learned from my experiences a little since freshman year.
Because it was my second year in high school, I was able to relax a
little, because I was already familiar with the people and the school.
This helped me to really come back to myself this year, to start living
by my heart again.
My freshman year I was all worried about “image” and “surviving”
in high school, and this year I have sort of made a journey back to
the true me, and I realized that not worrying about stereotypical stupid
high school stuff makes you happier and, in turn, makes everything come
together much better.
I have enjoyed friends, dances, football games, my soccer and track,
being a peer mediator and writing for the paper. I have had a tiresome
and difficult academic and extra curricular schedule this year, but
I have enjoyed every minute of it and I feel good pushing myself to
the limit.
I have grown mentally and it is how we see things and what we allow
to sink in and how it sinks in.
Overall, this year has been great, I love the atmosphere, people and
teachers and I feel blessed to have been given this experience.
“Friends”
will always be missed
DEREK KETNER
One
of the greatest TV sitcoms of all time has ended. Sitcoms in general
may be on the way out also.
With a couple of sitcoms ending (Frasier and Friends) the question is,
can there be any more sitcoms left that grab everyone’s attention?
I believe there won’t be any good sitcom ideas left because there
are just too many of them.
What people want now are reality TV shows. The ratings for reality shows
are almost double those of sitcoms. I can’t believe how people
get enjoyment out of those shows. Sitcoms are great and you feel as
if they are your friends and they become a part of your family.
When I watched Friends and when they left, it was like one of my friends
just moved and I won’t be able to see them again, I’ll just
be able to remember the fun times.
So, in the case of Friends, we’ll see reruns but no new episodes
Everyone know about Friends, even if they didn’t like it or didn’t
watch it, they knew it had a great run on TV.
The show that will replace it, not on the same network but more like
it in popularity, is the OC. It may be the best show right now since
Friends ended, but Friends will always be missed.
Blue
Print staff says thank you
The
staff of the Yosemite High School Blue Print would like to say “thank
you” to all of the people who have made this newspaper possible.
We could not publish this newspaper if it were not for those who advertise.
Money we earn through advertising pays the printing cost and all of
the other costs associated with putting out a newspaper.
We are grateful to the school for providing us with the necessary equipment
to prepare this paper for the press. We use the same equipment that
is used in commercial newspaper offices.
Thank you to the administrators, teachers and students who provide us
with the information we need for our stories.
Without this help, the paper would not be possible.
Badger
Backtalk
What
has been the most memorable aspect of your high school career?
“Presenting Miles Church and Kevan Kolander for ‘It’s
A Wonderful Life’ project my junior year.”
Heather Norman, Senior
“My
senior winter formal with my friends.”
Ericka Law, Senior
“Going to Black-beard’s and playing miniature golf on Senior
Day. Also, getting a chance to try out and make the basketball team.”
Santiago Cabras, Jr., Senior
“Being a student leader of the Christian New Life Club. It has
been a real blessing and an encouragement in my life.”
Sam Cabras, Senior
“Being
an American high school student. It’s really different from Europe
and really fun!”
Alina Budayeva, Senior
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