What does School Mean to You?

SCHOOL IN ONE WORD SCHOOL IN ONE WORD Students, staff at BV try to capture high school environment in one word

Hannah Hayden, 11 Productive

Dylan Golden, 10 Hard

Ms. Koch, Staff Community

Charlie Starr, 9 Alright

| DESIGN BY AUBREY HERRIN & EMILY CUMMINGS Anna Bajich, 10 Big

Mrs. Mackey, Staff Awesome

Austin Flink, 10 Home

Ishar Venkatesh, 11 Great

Michelle Meyer, 11 Friendly

Lyric Moody, 9 Accepting

Mr. Cromer, Staff Supportive

Nicole Osterlund, 9 Family

Darya Moiny, 10 Unique

Stanley Kenyi, 12 Caring

Zane Burton, 9 Tigers

Maddie Rimmer, 12 Challenging

Rylee Bergmann, 11 Life-Changing

Jan Jaramillo, 11 Exasperating

January is the month for resolutions. Although many people set a goal for the year ahead, a study done by Ashira Prossack from Forbes.com showed less than 25 percent of people stay commited to their resolutions after just 30 days, and only 8 percent accomplish them.

NEW YEAR

RESOLUTIONS

“I want to have a positive impact on others. I love seeing others happy. It’s just a good feeling knowing you made someone’s day better.” -Carson Strang, 11

“Having more realistic expectations [gives you] a lot better outlook on life in general.”

-Sam Hurt, 12

“Don’t make it super big because it’s hard to go through with big goals. Set a specific time. Try not to do it for only two days. You have to remind yourself what motivation is.” -Eliot O’Bryan, 10 “[I wanted to learn to] not care what people think about me. I think I accomplished that because I am smiling 24/7.”

-Will Montogomery, 12

Different types of resolutions: -new hobby -not buying anything new (ex. clothes, fast food, makeup, video games, etc.)

50%

no

yes

50%

have you ever kept a new years resolution?

44%

56%

2 0 2 0

PREDICTIONS

Mary Kate Arnett, 9 “[There will be] robot pantries — like type in a food, and it goes and gets it.”

Jay Fritzler, 12 “We’re going to announce a mission to colonize the moon.”

Mr. Jones, Teacher “The economy will go down.”

Carson Bulkeley, 10 “[The] Clippers will win the NBA championship.”

Sophie DeVeney, 10 “The entire school will die from vaping.”

James Donnici, 11 “The dinosaurs are coming back.”

Chase Taulbee, 12 “NHL MVP Nick David. NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.”

Will Stroud, 9 “Juice Wrld’s gonna come back alive.”

Sammy Behrndt, 12 “There [will be] a Hurricane Sammy.”

Maya Williams, 11 “I’m going to get Tik Tok famous.”

Mrs. Neal, Teacher “Meghan Markle will have another kid and the family will not return to England.”

Carson Hunter, 11 “2Pac [is] gonna come back.”

Could our BV tigers predict who will go to the Super Bowl weeks ahead of time?

Prediction Date: Dec. 12 Henry Schmidt (Senior)

Predicted Teams: 49ers vs. Chiefs Predicted Winner: Chiefs Confidence: 5/10

“[The Chiefs] have a better defense this year. Our offense was a little lackluster at the start of the season, but we’re starting to catch up again, so I think we can win this.”

Prediction Date: Dec. 12 Aidan Siefkes (Senior)

Predicted Team: Ravens vs. 49ers Predicted Winner: Ravens Confidence: 7/10

“Because [the Ravens] have the MVP, Lamar Jackson”

Prediction Date: Dec. 17 Kat Ryan (freshman)

Predicted Teams: Patriots vs. Rams Predicted Winner: Rams Confidence: 2/10

“They have good odds.”

Prediction Date: Jan. 8 Sterling Locket (sophomore)

Predicted Teams: Chiefs vs. 49ers Predicted Winner: Chiefs Confidence: 7/10

“I think they’re going to outscore the 49ers by the end of the game.”

Prediction Date: Dec. 17 Mr. Sundquist (social studies teacher)

Predicted Teams: Ravens vs. 49ers Predicted Winner: Ravens Confidence: 8/10

“I think [the Ravens] have the best player, the best offense and a good defense.”

Prediction Date: Jan. 8 Katie Coda (junior)

Predicted Teams: 49ers vs. Ravens Predicted Winner: Ravens Confidence: 6/10

“[The Ravens] have the best record in the league right now.”

Dance themes need to be more simple It’s Time for a Change of Scenery It’s Time for a Change of Scenery

olivia sherlock staff writer

Themes like Party in Paradise (Homecoming, 2018), Road Trip around the USA (Sweetheart, 2018) and Glow-in-the-Dark (Prom, 2020) can be tacky and messy if not done the right way.

With the challenge of a tiny budget on their minds, it is nearly impossible for Student Council to pull off these themes without the dance looking a little bit off.

While it sounded nice on paper to “Party in Paradise” for Homecoming, it was less glamorous in person when taking pictures next to a pool noodle with a flamingo head on it.

This isn’t the fault of the people decorating the photo booth at Homecoming last year, but rather the fault of such a low budget. Financially it makes sense that the theme was portrayed in pool noodles. The theme “Party in Paradise” makes no sense when it’s 20 degrees outside, and I find myself posing next to a tiki while in a faux fur.

I can see the appeal of getting to choose the theme of a dance and seeing it come to life. But, I can also clearly, without the light from a glowstick, see the appeal of just having the same themes every year.

One of the benefits of a consistent theme is avoiding ideas like glow-in-the-dark, which, to be brutally honest, is definitely not the first thing I think of when I hear Prom.

When I hear glow sticks, I think of C.A.N. Night in 8th

grade — not a dance people, on average, blow over $900 on.

The themes would make more sense if people attending the dance actually dressed to the

Alex Pena, 12 “Prom is portrayed in the media as one of the most important dances of a teenager’s life, but the themes that are chosen are too immature to fulfill my Cinderella fantasies.” “[School dance themes] aren’t drastically important, but they help with the base of decoration [of the school].” Taylor Dauernheim, 12

theme — but the people going to the dances never dress with the theme. Perhaps it would be easier to dress with the themes if they were more simple. I don’t know about you, but I’m not buying a glow-in-the-dark dress anytime soon. Having the theme black and gold for every dance would look classier, and the money we save by reusing decorations could be used for other StuCo events.

Not only does it financially make sense to reuse the decorations each year, but it also makes it way less stressful for Student Council members planning the dances.

These are the dances we will look back on and tell our kids about, so lets make them something more true to Blue Valley and less true to Hawaii.

The Eyes of the Public The Danger of Stan Culture

isabelle fletcher staff writer

The word stan derives from the song by Eminem, “Stan,” which tells the story of an obsessive fan named Stan who murders his pregnant girlfriend and himself after Eminem refuses to respond to his letters. This name has turned into a name about fans who go above-average loyalty.

These fans are typically fans who also refuse to acknowledge the artists’ flaws and defend the artist when they face any type of negativity. The people who stan artists can go to a level of evasion of privacy.

There is a line between a casual fan and a fan who claims to stan the particular celebrity, a line that has become more noticeable every month with different people getting ‘canceled’ — when someone does something to offend or oppose the ideas of the person they stan.

This culture can typically be pinned to certain types of fans. The beauty community and the music community are the biggest groups.

Within the beauty community, it isn’t other people outside of the community, but the fans of different makeup artists going against each other.

It’s different for the music community, though. With singers from everywhere, it becomes a messy place. Every celebrity has a different following — some calm, some rowdy.

Communities are becoming more and more toxic with the ability to constantly spout their thoughts. While casual fans are only there to listen to music, other fans are there to follow the artist’s life thoroughly and stop anybody from saying anything bad. That’s when things can become dangerous — people who stan a celebrity are inclined to stop anybody from saying anything bad, blocking people on Twitter and going as far as to harm the person. This type of fan wants to be a part of the celebrity’s life, attempting to gain their attention. Some will strive to break into the celebrity’s house. Several of these victims are Sandra Bullock, Queen ElizabethII, Emma Watson, Paris Hilton, Kate Moss, P Diddy, Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus. These are

all prominent celebrities in the west, but the culture in the east is extremely different.

In the east, one prominent group of celebrities is K-Pop groups. Fans from everywhere flock to them. Every day they are surrounded by their stans, being watched at all times. These fans can sometimes be even worse than western stans. Even gaining their own name, Sasaengs.

They constantly invade the privacy of the stars. They tap and record their phone calls, breaking into their houses like western stans, taking pictures from spy cameras and poison stars they don’t like. They even drop out of their entire lives to invest themselves in their celebrities’ lives. Of course, these are extremists when it comes to these fans. The other stans typically just use Twitter to promote their celebrity. That is where the internet part steps in. They’ve taken over Twitter and are able to single-handedly create trending hashtags. Fans are able to do a lot when it comes to the celebrity they stan. They can help or they can hurt. Stan culture is dangerous — they force unrealistic standards onto the stars. It is important that we save our society from this dangerous behavior and start to correct the way we interact with celebrities.