The Churchill Observer- 2015 Senior Section

Emily Charlton Sammi Silber Editor-in-Chief

Agnes Gru Katie Gauch Editor-in-Chief

John Watson Katie Clem Chief of Production

Claire Underwood Ana Faguy News Editor

Gunther Gil Jacobson News Editor

Fez Patrick Star Julia Heimlich Alissa Li Observations Editor Features Editor Joe Biden Pablo Roa Production Editor

Mushu Kim Rooney Production Editor

Cameron Frye Emily Raab Production Editor

Gromit Donkey Julia McDermott Danielle Kiefer Sports Editor Features Editor

Woodstock Andy Bernard Daniel Miyares Hannah Yasharoff Business Manager PR/Social Media Editor

Josh Lyman Yash Nigam Online Opinions Editor

Cody Martin Jordan Janis Online Editor-in-Chief

Cam Tucker-Pritchett Daniel Gordon Staff Writer

Zack Martin Katherine Michael Staff Writer

Jesse Pinkman Zach Silver Staff Writer

Mitch Tucker-Pritchett Noah Salzberg Online Features Editor

Tinker Bell Kelly Knarr Adviser

The Churchill Observer Senior Section Thursday, May 22, 2015

By Agnes Gru

Agnes advises save the drama for yo’ mama

Don’t be such Drama Queens. Drama is an inevitable part of high school.

There will be those who embrace it, those who will let it consume their lives, and those who just ignore it.

Drama comes in all different forms.

Name the topic, and I bet you there is some sort of drama that follows. However, drama is not defined in our Potomac bubble as what dictionary.com may present it as, someone being overly expressive. For us, drama is seen as that thing your friend vents to you when people are fighting about some mundane topic.

Jealousy and bad relationships spawn from this, and no one wants it.

Let me rephrase that. No one wants it, but they do.

People are selfish. I don’t mean that in a bad sense, it is always welcomed to have a tasteful amount of selfishness, but people spread rumors because they want to feel better about themselves.

If something terrible goes wrong among our peers, it is spread throughout the hallways in less than a full day of classes. If something great happens to one of our peers, it might take a week for people to find out.

What is the point of that? Why do we thrive from those who are lower than us? What good comes out of bringing someone else down?

Honestly, if I could give you an answer I would. But I’ll give you my solution to it.

Embrace it.

Do not embrace the bad kind of drama, only the good kind. Take other people’s negative comments or what you think is embarrassing and let it make you stronger.

People will tell you high school is the best four years of your life (besides college of course); it is what you make of it. It is in high school that you are able to start to begin to find out who you are, what your interests are in, and what kinds of people you want to be around.

But no one will tell you that this is the time to embrace drama. It WILL happen; it is not going to stop. Even if the drama does not involve you, you know how much you can grow because of it?

Last year, my class made a group on Facebook of all the girls at the end of junior year to help plan what our first day of school shirts would be.

We came up with two ideas, senior sailors and senior sergeants. Well, WWIII broke out and there was a ton of fighting and bad relationships were forming.

We are going into our senior year.

It’s supposed to be the best year of high school. These shirts we are wearing will be worn for one day. It is not our homecoming or prom theme.

Take whatever the theme is, even if it is not your favorite, and make the most out of it. It will make the first day so much more fun, and wasting energy on something like this isn’t worth it.

Trust me.

Also, be the bigger person. There is no need to be mean or cruel to other people. They have their opinions and you have yours. Respect that.

Take the situation and grow from it.

That girl who threw up in the Uber the night she left that party? Learn from that.

That person who got someone else to take the ACT for her? Learn from that.

If you hear a rumor that you really don’t like about you, channel that energy on something that will benefit you, such as running that extra mile to beat your previous record in cross country or practice that dance one more time to make your Blast performance flawless.

Before I end this, I want to point out one of the biggest “bad” pieces of drama that I see in our school. Friends who hate one another but pretend that they are best friends.

Sounds messed, up right?

But it happens.

This is exactly the kind of “bad” drama I want you to grow from. If you just confront that person you are having problems with, your friendship will grow so much stronger. Wasting your energy on hating that person but trying to stay best friends with them at

the same time is not worth your time.

Take that energy and put it to good use. People have backbones. Confronting the issue is not going to start WWIV. Not only will you fix your friendship and channel that energy toward building a stronger, more trustworthy relationship with that friend, it will also help you feel more confident.

I am fortunate enough to have friendships where we make up literally 30 minutes after we fight, and we both feel better about ourselves.

Let’s create a CHS environment where this is true.

Everyone has a backbone no matter how weak they may seem. Let drama build that backbone, allowing the good drama to create the foundation and the bad drama to only make it stronger.

The year is 2012! What happened then?

The last Twilight movie comes out in theaters and (I regret this incident to this day) I was kicked out of the theater because I stayed 20 minutes after the credits crying. Anyway, at this time, I am a sophomore at CHS now, and I am now more dedicated to the Observer staff and I start to branch out of my comfort zone.

It’s not a pretty coming-of-age experience, as it was my “I think I’m cool but I’m just not” phase, where I wore too much eyeliner and had hair gel. Note this, kids: beach-wavy hair is NOT cool if you are not at the beach.

With 2013 right around the corner, I was ready to get published in the Observer for the first time. So what’s a better way to do it than to write about the sexiest men alive? Let’s just say that through Photoshopping Taylor Lautner (my future husband) in the Bulldog Lobby and talking about abs, my story made its way to print for the first time.

However, the best part of my 2012-2013-sophomore year is when my true best friend and I started to really talk more.

I grew distant from my other friends and decided to drift away from that group. But it was fine by me, because it was when I really met my production pal, Katie Gauch. On Prodo, we’d design the newspaper until 7 at night and just play music and talk the whole time, as well as take stupid videos and make each other laugh.

Here’s the advice: get out of the comfort zone.

That’s it.

After that, sophomore year was over, I was the new Observations editor and I was

ready to go for Editor-in-Chief.

It’s junior year now, probably my second favorite year. It was the best of times and it was the worst of times. Best of times because I was ready to go for EIC. It was the worst of times because it was the hardest year.

Anyway, it started off great on the Observer staff. I was volunteering, getting more involved and production was too much fun.

It was a whole party and we got a lot of work done, except when Katie and I would get separated for being too loud.

The party would rage until a pit stop in January. Dr. Joshua Starr declares in an open letter to parents that he had been cyberbullied after not choosing to close schools on a day of snow and that we students must practice “cybercivility.” Angered, I wrote an opinion piece about why he was being ridiculous. I’m won’t summarize; go read it!

That night, the Twitter War of 2014 occurs. I posted the story on Twitter, only to get in a Twitter battle with Dana Tofig, the MCPS Public Information Officer and my archnemesis. He claimed Starr never said he was bullied. So I sent him back two sources, and the Parent’s Coalition had my back.

Eventually, I came out on top, standing for what I knew was correct, and I built up my integrity as a journalist.

So another lesson here kids: do not let the man rule you. We all have our freedom of speech and the right to express our opinions. If you believe in something, say something and speak out. If you never speak up, you will never have anything to say. And that’s not fun.

Anyway, let’s roll around to March 2014. It was my time to shine. I was ready to interview for EIC, and my interview did not go well; I thought it killed my chances.

Anyhow, it’s 2:10 on Friday, March 14, and I looked on the list. Katie and I were the new Editors-in-Chief. This brings me to my next tip: as Winston Churchill once said, “Never, never, never give up.” Even if the chances aren’t good, effort and confidence improve those odds.

Let’s wrap this up with senior year. I grow closer with my best friends and kick off the year as EIC. I had my ups and downs, times where I was sad and times where I

was happy. Production days seemed to get longer, and if I heard Ana call my name one more time I was going to blow (imagine “SAMMMMIII” every two seconds).

So much happened senior year to have multiple paragraphs, so here’s a thesis.

From having dance parties in the J during lunch with my friends and having administration walk by and see you, going to the journalism convention in DC, getting into college, publishing three books, dropping my Twitter handle in front of Dr. Benz at my book signing (@sammisilber) and learning about coffee from Katie and Pablo to eventually passing EIC on to two amazing young, talented juniors, I can tell you that senior year was full of stories and memories you will love. It’s a great year.

What’s the point of AP Sammi History?

It’s a lesson about how I became who I am.

Each minute that goes by is a new memory. Time doesn’t stand still; so make the most of it and spend it with friends and those you truly love. Also, remember the good times, like those prodo nights where we’d blast music and eat pizza. That night where we all talked till late during the journalism convention in November. Even the times where you and your friend are just sitting in silence. Remember these times.

Before I go, I must thank those who were a big part of Sammi history. First, my mom and my sister, thank you so much for making me into the successful and wacky person I am today. I am so grateful to have such an amazing family, and I love you guys so much. Mrs. Knarr—you are the greatest teacher to ever teach. You are such an inspiration and a role model, and thank you for helping me through thick and thin. Katie, Pablo, Ana, Gil, Clementine, Alissa—thank you guys for putting up with me and being the greatest friends ever. You guys mean the world to me and I love you.

I will leave you all with one last word of advice: buckle up, because life goes by fast. And right now? Well, we’re just in the middle of the ride. And I suck at endings, because endings are the saddest part.

So just remember this: no matter how hard life may seem, try to look on the bright side and live in the moment, because in the end, everything will be alright.

Emily reflects on her enrollment in AP Sammi History

By Emily Charlton Well, here we are. I made it this far (I know, I can’t really believe it either). Anyway, now that I have your attention, let me introduce myself. I’m Sammi Silber.

You know, that short girl with glasses who wears Vans everyday? She’s in your math class? That girl you call Sydney; the one who is the clutch group partner?

Well, look around next time, and you’ll see me, rocking, living life to the fullest.

So we’re finally graduating (yes, contrary to popular belief, I am in the class of 2015; I am not a freshman, I’m just short). I’ve changed a lot in my four years since I was tiny little freshman Sammi with kids’ glasses and wild dreams.

So let’s review “AP Sammi History.” Don’t worry; your college will accept the credit and the exam is only $500.

Freshman year wasn’t too funny. It’s 2011, and I’m 14 and looking to make it big, but it’s a horrible year. My biggest regret, ironically, is taking everything as a joke. I mean, yeah, I’m hilarious and super pretty, b u t high school is no punch line. So I guess I’ll deliver my advice to you as I squint in remorse of my awkward freshman year: take it seriously; relish the moment, because you will never be a high school fresh- m a n again (thankfully).

Let’s fast-for- w a r d .

The Churchill Observer Senior Section Thursday, May 22, 2015

Watson reminisces about finding a happy place

By Dr. Watson Down the road from my house is a trail into the woods. It runs by a sandy bank and a quiet creek. The beach is covered with small, flat rocks, perfect for skipping, and green trees that hang over the water. This is my happy place, the place where I go when I need to get away.

Everyone needs a happy place because as we all know, school can be stressful (I am 84.3 percent sure that I am developing premature stress wrinkles).

All of my troubles seem to float away with the creek when I am running on those trails. Life seems to slow down and I can breathe. I have many fond memories there, some I have never shared with people, but I will now that I am graduating.

The first highlights my unfortunate klutziness.

At one of the numerous creek bends, there is a fallen log, long enough to stretch across the water, connecting the two beaches.

Whenever I ventured down to that spot in the woods, I would always cross over to the other side.

On this particular day, it had recently rained, turning the dusty trails into a soft carpet of mud.

Since I had been running, I paid little attention to the mud caking the underside of my shoes. When I got to the log, of course I wanted to cross.

Now this log was not the sturdiest, just thick enough to hold my weight. Add the slipperiness of my shoes, and the result was not very pretty.

Needless to say, I took an unscheduled dip into the water that day when I tried to cross, and let me tell you, that creek is not one that you want to take a swim in. Aside from the bizarre color of the water, I had to take three

showers to rid myself of the fish smell. Not my finest moment.

My second favorite memory happened with a friend who will remain nameless.

We had been running through the woods (yes, another running story) when we came upon a very, VERY steep hill, so steep that any normal person could not have just walked up it, but would need to climb it, using both hands and feet.

So, being the immature teenagers that we still are, we decided to race up it, first one to the top wins. We climbed and we climbed, each of us taking a turn almost slipping back down the hill, but against all odds, we both made it up the hill.

And you know what our prize was?

A giant doberman pinscher waiting at the top. It startled us both so much that we practically fell back down the hill because we were running so fast. Needless to say, we did not take any breaks after that run-in.

My third memory happened while I was hiking. It had been a lazy Sunday afternoon, and I was enjoying a jog on the trails with my siblings, not really paying attention to the scenery, when suddenly I heard a shot ring out.

All three of us jumped and looked around. There, behind the thicket of trees, was a troupe of about four or five middle school kids, all holding BB guns. They probably purposefully missed us, but when we turned around to run away, they followed us.

They chased us for about a mile but never caught us. Either way we did not stop running until we had crossed the doorway to the house.

My final memory happened today (today being the day I wrote this).

I had wandered down to

the creek, hoping to have some sort of epiphany of what my final advice to all of the underclassman should be. It was there, in my happy place, where the lazy creek ripples by and the birds chirp overhead, that I realized that my parting words did not have to be complex.

Find your own happy place. Somewhere where you can laugh, where you can create some of the happiest memories of your high

decided to save for the last minute.

The whole point of that long introduction is to tell you I’m not here to give you cookie cutter advice or give you tips on how to succeed.

Simply put, I don’t think I really know much more than you do. And what I do know is probably best for you to experience yourself.

I’m here to tell you just a tiny snippet of my long, fouryear story. What you take from this little piece of me is up to you; that’s

where you’ll find the most significant advice for you and only you.

Earlier in high school, and even more prominently now, I worry about finding my passion. Especially in a competitive place like CHS, I feel like everyone has it figured out, has something they feel passionate about. Debate, film, journalism, performing arts: to me, it feels like everyone has a niche and place they could say they truly belong. But the harder I try to find something I love just as much as the people around me do, I find it more difficult to fit in and find that one special thing.

Whenever I felt stressed and told my dad my concerns, he would consistently tell me a Chinese f o l k story of a frog in a well. Now,

school experience. Especially in this stressful, academically-driven culture that CHS spawns, it is important to have life slow down for a moment and take the time to breathe.

Because high school goes by in a blur, and you are going to want to cling to the memories that still make you smile as time passes, even if that memory is walking home in dripping clothing after a dip in the creek.

Patrick preaches how time at CHS just flies by

By Patrick Star High school has been a whirlwind of emotions and a roller coaster of experiences. As you’re caught up in the middle of it, high school feels quite possibly like the longest, most arduous ordeal, and you simply can’t wait for it to just all be over, to finally go to college, to finally gain your independence and freedom.

However, as I stand right in front of the finish line of this whole terrible, amazing, crazy experience, it couldn’t have gone by any faster.

I’ve learned a lot throughout my four years, just as much as the next senior. Of those many lessons I’ve discovered is that probably 90 percent of you won’t take my advice.

Now, this certainly isn’t anything against you personally.

In my own experience, I’ve received invaluable advice on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, more often than not, it would go through one ear and out the other as I brushed it off and told myself that it didn’t apply to me, only to have it pop back into my mind at 4 a.m. in the morning as I slave over a five-page essay I

I’m sure you could see why I was less than amused to listen to my dad tell me about a frog from a folktale as I attempted to fend off my impending mental breakdown.

But, of course, he had a point, and, of course, I missed that point.

It was about a frog who sat at the bottom of the well and stared up at the night sky above him, thinking that the sky is just a small tiny circle, the size of the well’s opening. However, what he didn’t know was that the sky stretches out far more than the eye can see.

So, surprise, surprise. I’m the frog. You’re the frog. We’re all frogs in terms of my dad’s folktale. From where we are, we only see a tiny, tiny little bit of the opportunities ahead of us. As we keep moving forward, we see so much more of the world, both the good and the bad.

So, keep your eyes peeled.

There’s so much coming your way; you don’t want to miss it. But what you do from here is your decision.

I wish you all the best of luck and sincerely hope that when you look back on your four years, standing in the same shoes I’m now, you will understand what I mean.

The Churchill Observer Senior Section Thursday, May 22, 2015

Claire Underwood discusses defining her own success

By Claire Underwood

Frank Underwood once said, “For those of us climbing to the top of the food chain, there can be no mercy. There is but one rule: hunt or be hunted.”

High school is a wild food chain. Everyone is striving to make it to the top, climbing through a vast array of obstacles, doing whatever it takes, no matter the cost.

During my four years at CHS I have had amazing experiences. I have learned so much about myself, my community and the world around me.

But in my mind the most important thing I learned was success.

The food chain I have lived in forces students to succumb to one definition of success, taking five APs, having an internship every summer or getting into the most elite universities in the country. These factors and many more are what it takes to make it to the top... according to CHS. Year after year, I watched as students went into each day with that mindset,

with that definition of success. And while for some that may be the success they defined, most of us are living through four years in hopes of succeeding with a broad ambitious term that doesn’t truly encapsulate what we want and what we have the ability to achieve in life.

Mr. Underwood said “hunt or be hunted.” Here at CHS, in order to succeed, we hunt. We find students’ and staff’s weaknesses and we prey on them, pouncing at every chance to get up the food chain. We find quirks in the system, hidden staircases to the top and ways to surpass anything.

We do all of this and so much more because we are living in fear of being hunted. We hunt. We hunt because we think we have no other choice.

And while hunting has its perks, it also forces us to spend time watching our backs instead of peering forward.

We surrender to hunting because we did not define our own success. Instead

someone else did. Society did, our friends did, our parents did, but we did not. By yielding to this definition we surround ourself with people doing the same thing.

Everywhere we look people are checking their backs.

There is a tremendous amount of uncertainty and risk in peering forward. Allowing yourself to be hunted makes you vulnerable, weak and alone in a world of hunters anxious for a kill.

But the truth is, outside of this deadly food chain we call CHS, we are all alone.

We are weak and we are vulnerable. We are all of these things because we ignored defining our own success. We gave into societal and peer-oriented demands in order to ignore or avoid becoming alone, weak and vulnerable, but instead we enter the world unready to embrace these inevitable traits that come with growing into an adult.

We need to be hunted. We need to experience what that feeling is like; the uncer-

By Joe Biden

more year wasn’t going to be fun, and that I would force my mind to rush through it as quickly as possible just to get it over with.

Well, it worked. From the day I got that first test back, time started rushing by and I made no effort to slow down and take it all in. Before I knew it, the school year was over. It went by so quickly that it almost feels like I skipped it.

I was so focused on getting through the school year that I didn’t even notice half of the things I was doing, and I can barely remember anything from sophomore year.

I rushed through fun times with friends; I rushed through classes with great teachers; I even rushed through the Nationals’ first ever playoff appearance—all because I kept saying “I can’t wait for the school year to end.”

Perhaps the saddest part about me deciding to give up on the school year and just get it over with was that, shortly after getting back that test, AP NSL became my best class. I not only started doing better in the class, but I realized it was actually really interesting. But at that point, it was too late. My mind had already decided to rush through the school year, and that’s exactly what I did.

Granted, this is something that people do throughout their lives, not just in high school. The strug-

gles of a person’s day to day life can lead them to fall into a routine that not only makes life boring, but also makes it go by extremely quickly. Adults are so focused on making it through the day, that eventually days turn to weeks, weeks turn to months and months turn to years—years of living life without really taking the time to soak it in and enjoy it.

But doing this as an adult isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, adults have decades to burn, and they’ll probably have time to slow down and enjoy life at some point.

It’s different in high school. We only have four years at CHS, and we’re so focused on working hard to graduate and get into good colleges that we race through those four years without stopping to enjoy them.

Fortunately, after sophomore year I realized that time was passing too quickly and managed to slow things down. But for many students at CHS, high school is all about rushing through everything.

Don’t get me wrong, high school can be rough. Tests and quizzes suck.

AP exams suck. The traffic in the hallways sucks. Getting yelled at by security for not having a pass sucks. Homecoming and Prom drama sucks. But at the end of the day, you only get to experience high school once, so enjoy it while it lasts.

Enjoy the awkward school dances. Enjoy the football games. Enjoy spending time with your friends and family. Enjoy

tainty and the risk. Being hunted allows us to define our own success.

Don’t climb the food chain with someone else’s ambition. Make your own path and don’t look back. Lean forward and strive for your own success.

Joe Biden says enjoy the good times while they last “Ugh, I can’t wait for the school year to end.”

These are words that every CHS student has heard—and said—time and time again throughout their high school careers. Some don’t say it until they find themselves balancing five AP’s and college applications senior year. Others start saying it the first week of freshman year. We say it at different times, but we all say it.

Of course, it’s understandable that people can’t wait to be done with school. High school can be incredibly stressful, and it’s hard to have fun when you’re taking six quizzes a day while running on four hours of sleep and 10 cups of coffee. But the problem with going through high school with a “can’t wait to be done” mentality is that, eventually, you will be done, and you’ll realize that you rushed through it because you just wanted it to be over.

You may think that hoping for high school to end sooner doesn’t actually speed things up, but it does. I realized this my sophomore year.

Two weeks into the school year, we had our first AP NSL test, and being a sophomore in his first ever AP class, I spent hours studying for it. Despite the fact that I studied harder for that test than I did for any other test I’ve taken in my four years of high school, I absolutely bombed it.

It seems ridiculous looking back on it two years later, but at the time I was so discouraged by that test that I decided that sopho-

the crazy lectures from insanely cool English teachers. Enjoy going out to lunch with friends senior year. High school can be fun; make the best of it, and don’t try to rush through it.

Don’t let the time you spend with friends slip away, enjoy it while it lasts.

Don’t wait until you’re almost done with high school to take the class you want to take, because we all know you’re not going to take it senior year. Don’t rush through AP World, because odds are you only get to have Mr. Forney once. Don’t complain too much about the plays, the pep rallies, the Daily Dose, your teachers, your classes or your friends. Because eventually, it’ll all be over.

So enjoy these four years. Step outside your comfort zone, make new friends, try new things, take hard classes, take risks, make mistakes. Just be sure to stop every once in a while, take a deep breath, and soak it all in.

Whatever you do, don’t live your high school life saying “I can’t wait for it to be over.” Because eventually, it will be over.

You’ll stand on the stage at Constitution Hall with your diploma in your hand, and you’ll look out at all your friends, family and teachers cheering in the stands. At that moment, you’ll want time to stop. You’ll want to be back at freshman year homecoming. You’ll want to be back in the bus loop playing football with your friends at lunch. You won’t want to rush, and you’ll want to enjoy every moment of it.

But by then, it’ll be too late.

Jesse Pinkman wants you to remember your roots

By Jesse Pinkman

I’ve always hated the stereotype that CHS is a “rich, white-kids school.” Yes, there might some students that give the school that persona (and I’m not excluding myself at times), but it’s so much more than that.

CHS is full of over 2,000 students

with over 2,000 unique stories, and each person has a different background and reason for doing what they do. What bothers me is people being criticized for the things they do and the beliefs they hold.

I probably wouldn’t place as much importance on my roots if it weren’t for the story of my grandfather. Rick Caro escaped from Nazi-controlled Germany to England as a young child without his parents at the time. Once he met up with the rest of his family, they voyaged over to Ellis Island and began a completely new life because their old one ended solely for the reason that they were Jewish.

Being Jewish at CHS isn’t a rarity by any means. I wear a Chai around my neck, which is Hebrew for “life”, and sometimes I get crap for it from school friends, both Jewish and non-Jewish.

Most of the time I brush it off because I’ve become pretty used to it, and it’s always done in a joking manner. Other

times it can get quite irritating.

After graduating from Cabin John, one-third of my eighth grade class went to CHS and two-thirds went to Wootton. Most of my friends ended up at Wootton, and I was really lost my first year. That was until I found a local Jewish youth group called Simon Atlas. This would soon change my life.

Right then, I had found a new place to call home, a group of 80 guys to always be there for me whenever needed. It was actually through my Wootton friend that I found out about the organization, and our roots are what connected us and connect all of us in the chapter. I knew about two or three kids in the chapter, but I felt an instant connection to all of them from the get-go.

I went on to serve in three board positions for the chapter including head of Judaism/ community service, head of membership, and executive vice-president. The things I’ve learned from those positions, from leadership skills to working in a collaborative environ-

ment, are definitely going to stay with me for years to come. I can honestly say I don’t know where I would be right now it weren’t for that phone call from my friend from Wootton.

My reasoning for telling this story is not to mindlessly tell you about my path through high school, but to share that such a common-place aspect in my life, my religion, helped me discover an entire new world. This reminds me of Pam’s ending quote from The Office which goes, “There’s a lot of beauty in the ordinary things. Isn’t that kind of the point?”

The struggles of my ancestors and my grandfather have created the life I have today. I feel that it is in my duty to take advantage of the opportunities in front of me to know that their struggles did not die in vain.

That doesn’t mean I think everyone has to become devoutly religious, I, myself, am not the most religious person. Just look inside yourself and explore your roots for just a second. You might be led down a path that changes your life forever.

The Churchill Observer Senior Section Thursday, May 22, 2015

Cam says to seize the day Procrastination is power

By Cam Tucker

Freshman year, everything is changing, you make new friends, classes matter for college, and somehow along the way, in just four short years you are expected to mature from a little 14 year old starting high school, to an adult ready to live on your own.

The first thing that you notice as a freshman is how big the seniors are. They all could grow full beards, and I did not even know how to shave yet. Standing at a mere five feet, two inches, I felt out of place.

For reasons still unknown to me, Eric Murray, Noah Salzberg, and I decided to join the Cross Country team. We all hated running and were pretty slow too, but it beat being bored stuck at home everyday after school.

We would ditch practice almost every day and go play football or just hang out instead. Over time though, I started to actually enjoy running, and I became faster too. I began to place in races and attended invitational events.

I started to look forward to practice, instead of dreading the thought of having to run.

The rest of the school year flew by,

and unlike middle school, I actually enjoyed going to school. Just being on a team made the school feel smaller and the seniors a little less intimidating.

The beginning of senior year I ran the Philly Marathon, and it was one of the best experiences of my life. None of this would have ever happened and my life would be very different, probably for the worse, if I did not hesitantly say yes to Noah Salzberg’s plea to run with him freshman year.

My newfound love of running has led me to try new things. If running, something that seemed so terrible, could become a central part of who I am, what else could I have been missing out on?

I joined Exec. Board and pretty much any other club I could find, and yeah some of them were boring, but others turned out to be really fun.

So to the incoming freshman class: CHS is a very special place, but only if you take advantage of it. It is more than a place to take classes, but also a place to make friends, grow up, and learn about yourself. You only have four years in this place, so make the best of it, leave no stone unturned, and do not waste a minute of it.

Thank you to everyone who has made my high school career so special.

You guys are the best.

Focus on what matters

By Josh Lyman

Sir Isaac Newton employed the number sign (#) in his mathematical writings as shorthand for the pound unit. He was arguably one of the most intelligent and logical men to have walked the planet, as evidenced by his unparalleled ability to expose hidden relationships between seemingly different concepts. However, even a mind as nimble and flexible as Newton’s would be confounded by the use of the number sign as the hashtag in contemporary American culture.

Before you begin to think of me as old-fashioned and averse to social networking, I should tell you that I am very active on Facebook. Though I only subscribe to one social networking website, I often read the posts of my friends and celebrities on various social media sites and am struck by the mind-numbing explosion of the hashtag.

This is a Facebook post I recently read that followed three pictures of a simple vanilla cupcake with a large color contrast and a high amount of zoom: #cupcakesarejusttootoodelish There is more to this post than its use of “delish” and its cliché use of “too” two times. The most important point is that the obscure wording of this hashtag suggests that it is not being used to carry out its technical purpose of organizing posts by a common label. Then, why did the author of this post choose to deviate from the norms of English syntax by compressing all the words into mumbo-jumbo and attaching a hashtag in front? If you think that she is simply attempting to get more “likes” on her post, then I am afraid you are missing the point.

Those millions who post pictures of their food on Facebook in an Instagram-inspired manner do not do this for anyone but themselves. By using a hashtag, this girl made her post more artsy, and dramatically increased the likelihood of it receiving more “likes.”

But, eliciting “likes” was not her end goal. She wanted to make sure that what she was doing—eating a cupcake—was not something mundane or God-forbid ordinary, but something special that other people wished they were doing. She was seeking a high.

We teenagers fear boredom like cancer. Our therapy is a self-concocted cocktail of hashtags, foodporn, and selfies that compels our psyche into creating memorabilia from ordinary moments.

Life’s highs should be precious and rare. They mark memorable moments that keep us going, especially when the journey gets rough. When we create highs out of everyday events, like eating a cupcake, we forget how exhilarating life’s true highs like graduating from college can be. Our addiction for public envy in context of ordinary events will, over time, make us more self-centered in an increasingly connected global community.

I hope I can remain grounded, sincere, and confident, and not be sucked into the swelling whirlpool of shallow interactions brewing in our web culture. #cupcakesarejustcupcakes.

By Mitch Pritchett

I told myself the night before this was due that after dinner, I was going to sit down and focus on writing my story for the senior section. I went upstairs, opened up a Word Doc and for the next hour and a half, wrote absolutely nothing.

I can say that the finished product, this somewhat cheesy story, was well worth my intense procrastination.

In life, procrastination is always frowned upon. It slows down production, discourages efficiency, and inhibits projects from being completed in any sort of timely manner. Yet, is it really that bad, or in reality is procrastination a good thing?

I began my procrastination with an episode of Scrubs. In the episode, JD began dating Alex, a former patient and social worker at the hospital. The relationship was blossoming, yet every time they were on a date, JD would get a buzz on his pager and promptly leave the date to go back to work.

While watching the awkward yet oddly personable scenarios happening to JD, it occurred to me that there were some pretty relevant parallels that could be drawn between his predicament and that of students at CHS. Students at CHS preoccupy themselves with an exorbitant amount of work and never leave time for pleasure. I know kids who are taking 6 AP classes, with one of them being a double period! That is excessive.

We never enjoy ourselves and slave over adhering to the high expectations placed upon us not only by our parents but also by our peers in this ultra-competitive environment that we call CHS. Take some time to enjoy yourself.

You don’t always have to get home after school and get straight to the books.

You are going to drive yourself insane.

Live a little. High school is supposed to be the time in which you enjoy the waning moments of childhood before entering off into the real world.

Don’t waste that time fretting over getting the high-enough scores for colleges or padding your resumes (college is a crapshoot anyway—but that is a whole different story right there).

Relieve your stress and enjoy yourself.

After watching this episode, I decided to buckle down and get to work on my story. Besides, it was getting late and I needed to get some sleep before my AP Literature exam the next morning. But, the next episode started to play, and I gave up even trying to do work and continued with my procrastination.

This next episode of Scrubs saw JD faced with choosing his friendship with Elliot over what Turk called “the booty”: Alex.

JD decided to choose Alex and

strained h i s friendship with Elliot. Yet, his relationship with Alex ended shortly thereafter and JD was in the uncomfortable position of

having to regain the friendship he had lost with Elliot.

Again, this episode drew so many parallels to life here at CHS. It made me realize that it is important to maintain close relationships with your friends and not do things that will risk ruining them.

I can recall and sincerely regret the countless number of times I did something without thinking about its repercussions and how some of my close friendships are still tainted from those selfish decisions. It’s hard to think that for a momentary lapse in judgment, “the booty” was more important to me than some of my friendships.

Fifty minutes had passed at this point, and I decided that I needed to hunker down and watch one more episode. Call it senioritis or call it a borderline Netflix addiction, but I was perfectly content with putting off this story for another 28 minutes.

In this next episode of Scrubs, JD and Elliot made up from their fight and began a secret relationship, started by a whole day spent in bed eating pizza.

Despite the negative consequences of having a relationship with a coworker, JD and Elliot both went into the relationship because they both really wanted it.

Wow, I did not realize that a quirky comedy show had the capacity to relate to everyday life and convey countless valuable lessons about life. Yet, this lesson is probably the cheesiest, but also is truly the most important: Do whatever makes you happy.

Life is not worth sulking around and thinking about the “what-ifs.” Go out and do what makes you happy, regardless of what others think. Heck, I play Ultimate Frisbee and consistently argue with others that it is a sport, but I put up with the ridicule and mockery because it is something that I love.

Three episodes of Scrubs and about 1,000 life lessons later, my procrastination was over and I still stared at the blank Word document wondering what to write about. But then, it hit me.

All these valuable life lessons, all this enjoyment did not stem from forcing a mediocre story. No, it came from procrastination.

The next time you find yourself in a situation where nothing is getting done and valuable time is being wasted just staring into the blank abyss of an empty paper, procrastinate. Go play some basketball or watch some Netflix or listen to music. Do whatever it is you can that to relieve your stress and enjoy yourself.

Procrastination is an escape from reality. It is liberation from the boredom that encapsulates our everyday lives and a chance for people to truly experience bliss in an otherwise hectic world.

Utilize it.

Alabama Auburn University Madeline Morris University of Alabama Katherine Sweeney

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Seniors completed su Great effort was mad

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North Carolina

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Gap Year Grace Pereles de to ensure accuracy.

Marieanne Bonnefoy Campusano Trade School Bucknell University Jessica Brown Marquis Gee Eunbbie Kim

Ali Goldoust

The Churchill Observer Senior Section Thursday, May 22, 2015

Gunther talks about finding the best version of himself

By Gunther

Every morning, we see the same group of Range Rovers enter the CHS parking lot and the same students emerge, sporting North Face backpacks and Vineyard Vines clothing.

Many CHS parents idolize their children, making them feel flawless and God-like. That was not the case with my parents, and I am incredibly grateful for the way they treated me throughout high school and the lessons that came out of this experience. My parents were always confident in my abilities but also realistic with me when they needed to be. They knew that I was a smart student who would ultimately prevail as long as I focused on doing the best I could personally do.

That is one of the biggest flaws with these so-called flawless students. They are always so wrapped up in comparing themselves to others that they lose their sense of personal identity.

As a result, school merely becomes a competition, which is exactly what it is not meant to be. School is meant to be about learning, shining light on personal strengths and improving personal weaknesses. True, the constant testing atmosphere only reinforces the competitive nature of CHS’ environment, but therein lies another flaw among the flawless: APs. It all goes back to the idea of comparing yourself to others. Will they not get into college if they do not take seven AP classes? Of course not. There is a college out there for everyone regardless of their academic performance and coursework. Not only that, but the college admissions process is meant to be a journey of self-exploration and finding that college or university that is the right fit for you, not the girl who sits two seats from you in Calculus.

This is why everyone does not need to apply to the same 10 schools. Sure, you might do well at your best friend’s dream school and it would be nice to extend that friendship beyond high school, but what happens when your best friend lands a job straight out of college and you are left in the dust with no sense of who you are.

While it may seem like this whole thing has become an inescapable system, there is a way out, even if that way out requires a little bit of thinking and soul-searching. Focus on what you enjoy learning about the most and where your academic strengths and weaknesses lie when determining which courses to take in school and how much you want to challenge yourself. Figure out where your passions lie and use that to decide your extracurricular schedule.

Make sure you are doing extracurriculars because they are how you truly enjoy spending your free time, not merely for a resumé builder.

Beyond that, use your high school academic, social, and extracurricular records in addition to other factors such as size and location when selecting which colleges to apply to. If you are unsure based off of those factors, CHS has a wealth of resources from College/ Career Center and guidance counselors to help you with that.

Even other trusted adults like teachers and

parents would probably be more than happy to sit down with you and help brainstorm possible colleges.

In my case, I had to make academic sacrifices when signing up for my junior year courses. I was taking four APs and knew that I would be swamped with SAT/ACT prep. Because I had struggled through Algebra 2 sophomore year, I decided to take regular Precalculus because I knew math was a weak spot for me and I would not be able to devote ample time to excelling at the honors level. That ended up paying because while I worked diligently in school, I had struck a perfect balance between succeeding academically while also maintaining my sanity and a relatively normal sleep schedule.

In terms of extracurriculars, I also realized midway through high school that I was not doing everything for the right reasons. I had played the saxophone in band since fourth grade and taken private lessons since fifth grade but seldom found any pleasure in practicing or classroom rehearsals. I realized that I was only in band was to please my parents as another musician in the family, not because I truly enjoyed making jazz and classical music.

After deciding to give band up after freshman year, I considered my career aspirations. From a

young age, I remembered watching The PBS Newshour at dinner with my family and eagerly reading The Washington Post sports section every morning. Because I also loved writing outside of English class, I thought being a journalist might be a possible career option and decided to enroll in Journalism 1.

This ended up being one of the best decisions of my life. I was finally working with a close-knit group of people who shared the same passions.

It was hard at first, but soon, writing a news story became second nature for me. Plus I enjoyed the more “real-world” style of writing that I was being exposed to in journalism as opposed to the literary analyses that I did in English.

When it came to the college admissions process, I felt no pressure from my parents to apply to their alma maters, which was another major positive in the way they treated me throughout high school. I knew that a state school would probably not be a good fit for me either because I did not want something too big and preferred being in or near a city.

After putting all of these factors together and looking at the big picture, I assembled a list of schools that seemed like a good fit for me.

Now I am not sharing all of my personal experiences to brag about how I was able to be my own person throughout high school and ultimately succeed as a result of it. Rather, I am using a personal example to prove how it is possible to accomplish a lot in just four years without comparing yourself to others if you simply consider where your true interests lie and ensure that everything you are doing has a meaningful purpose. And that starts with focusing on being the best version of yourself.

By Cody Martin

remember that the day after his death was the day of the Biology HSA—a morning during which only sophomores attended school. Walking through the halls, not only could I see that every student was crying, I could feel the sorrow that each student felt.

We worked together as a class to honor Evan’s memory and supported each other to overcome this tragedy. From the candlelight vigil that night, during which his teammates and friends shared their favorite stories and we all were able to grieve together, to the class support of the suicide-prevention organization UMTTR, our cohesiveness as a class allowed us to push forward with a smile on our faces, as we know Evan would have wanted us to do.

Our class has not only been cohesive in the most distressing of times but also in those more lighthearted moments at school events.

While the low attendance at football games last year was partly due to a poor record, I credit the increase in the fan base at this year’s sporting events to the

spirit of our class. The Dawg Pound was full and rowdy at almost every football game, and as a cheerleader, I could feel the boost in the energy of the students and their desire to participate in cheering on the Bulldogs.

Seniors this year created new chants and forms of demonstrating school spirit, from chants for specific players to throwing baby powder in the air at the Wootton game. As I stood on the track watching a common cloud of baby powder float over the student section, I was filled with such a feeling of warmth in the shared passion we all held for our school.

If the Class of 2015 were to be characterized as one person, it would be a “Renaissance man”—involved with and exceptional in many trades and arts. Not only are many students involved in our school’s clubs and activities, but they have also led the school to many victories in extracurricular activities.

From the unexpected triumphs of the “Dirty 30” to the hockey and swim and dive States victories, the seniors have led

CHS’ athletic program to success this past year. We have also contributed to the accomplishments of the theater program, with the successful performance of Blast and the play Almost, Maine.

If you ask any senior what he or she remembers about the Class of 2012—the seniors our freshman year—I guarantee that many of them would reminisce about the spirit and humor that this class brought to our school, and in another three years the students who are currently freshmen will be gushing about how the unity and spirit we brought to our school that has made the past year as exciting as it was.

have a defined “clique” per say. I had many close friends and enjoyed spreading out my time with each of them, with my best friend, Hana Yen. As an underclassman, these friends were the reason I decided to join the Executive Board.

I became closely tied with many of the other members of the Executive Board, and this is how I came to find myself in what I now call my “group”.

Let me start off by saying I love my friends. They laugh with me, they cry with me, and they’re there for me. This is all I can ask for from someone in high school so early on in my life, a time that many people consider to be the most confusing they have faced.

Everyone knows that a teenager’s favorite day of the week is Friday. This was right on target for me. I spent the majority of my lunches discussing with my friends what our plans should be for the upcom-

ing weekend. And once the weekend had passed and Monday came, we would be recapping the hilarious moments we had encountered with each other, followed by our next adventurous plan.

Growing up, my parents taught me to pick my friends wisely. I cannot stress enough how important this is. Finding people who respect you and more importantly accept you for the person you are is a vital component of being happy in high school.

I was extremely lucky in this department.

My friends are genuinely interested in my problems and believe in me even when I am struggling. They support me and always look out for my best interests. These are the qualities everyone should look for in their friends. Being able to be comfortable and not feel judged by your friends is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated things at Churchill. Everyone should be able to enjoy their four years at CHS with their friends as

much as I did, making as many good memories as possible.

When choosing your friends, think about who you would want to share your big news with as soon as you hear it. Choose people who would keep your secret, answer your late night calls, defend you if someone was speaking badly of you, and tell you the truth even if it’s hard to hear. It is evident at Churchill that “cliques” are highly emphasized, but you don’t need a clique to enjoy yourself. All you need is to surround yourself with good people you are proud of (and not afraid to introduce to your parents!).

Looking into the future, I can only hope that I have the same luck in college as I did at Churchill with finding friends, because true friendship is one of the most real relationships you could wish for. Don’t be afraid to be yourself, because having someone who understands you completely gives an indescribable feeling of happiness and satisfaction.

Cody embraces the Class of 2015’s school spirit Each one of us leaves a legacy, a footprint in the sand of our school, and collectively as a class each of our unique footprints combines to create a mosaic that will forever hang in the CHS halls.

Throughout my four years at CHS— and the nine years at Wayside and Hoover before that—I have experienced highs and lows, feelings of cohesiveness and divisiveness with all 458 of my classmates, all of which have combined to form the unique legacy that we leave behind.

Perhaps the most important part of our impact on the community is our ability to unite to overcome difficulties. While we have had our fair share of petty class-wide fights (who doesn’t remember the sailors vs. sergeants Facebook and Twitter war?), we have shown that we can stand strong as a unit to overcome adversity.

The most trying time for our class was May of sophomore year when we all lost a dear friend, Evan Rosenstock. I vividly

Zack thankful for finding his true friends in high school

By Zack Martin

With graduation approaching, I have spent innumerable hours thinking about my past four years at CHS and the memories I have made.

I have come to one conclusion. I have my friends to thank for everything.

As an underclassman, I didn’t

The Churchill Observer Senior Section Thursday, May 22, 2015

Mushu’s declassified high school survival guide

By Mushu Are you worried about bringing dishonor on your whole family? Dishonor on you? Dishonor on your cow? Well, never fear because your serpentine salvation is at hand.

As a dragon, I can understand if I intimidate you, but just sit back and listen up because I’m going to make a man—or woman—out of you. I hear high school’s a tough place for humans, but with my help, you’ll bring honor to us all.

First things first, challenge yourself. I know, I know, you probably already are. Congratulations, but don’t expect a prize—being a Guardian doesn’t pay as well as you’d think. Anyway, make sure that your challenges aren’t just for the sake of stress and mental anguish. Have a goal—getting a certain grade, defeating the Hun army, getting into a good college, restoring honor to family, whatever motivates you.

That being said, accept that you’re human. Not everyone can be an all-powerful dragon, and even I came close to failure several times.

Setbacks and adversity are part of life. It’s tough, but the sooner you start seeing failure as inevitable and not just a personal reflection of you, the quicker you’ll be able to recover.

The only way you can avoid failure is by doing nothing at all—actually, scratch that. Just last Thursday one of the ancestors threatened to demote me for sunbathing on my pedestal. You’d think that after all my hard work, saving China and restoring honor to the family, they could let me do me for a day.

Where was I? Oh, right, failure. It’s going to happen, but it’s only permanent if you allow it to be. Then again, know yourself and know your limits. Sometimes you

have to change your battle plans after a defeat, but you can still win the war. It’s tempting to keep your initial plan, but trust me, it’s better to regain your position as family guardian after a few setbacks than to be the gong-ringer for another century.

That goes beyond school and education, though. Knowing yourself is one of the most important things you can do, especially when it comes to relationships. See, I know I may be overconfident, selfish and impatient at times, but I also happen to be incredibly clever, dashingly handsome, wildly creative and charmingly charismatic. That’s why I’m able to convince the ancestors to let me keep my job day after day.

The same should go for you. Figure out who you are, and figure out what you want and expect from your relationships. Not everyone’s your employer, but not everyone’s your best friend, and it’s alright to have different people for different parts of your life. Khan might trample me from time to time, and Cri-Kee’s wit might—might—rival my own, but they keep me in check, and I know they’ll have my back through thick and thin.

That reminds me, ask for help when you need it. That’s a big “when.” When you need it, not if, because let’s face it, you can’t do everything on your own no matter how independent you try to be. More importantly, it’s normal and even good for you to ask for help, whether it’s from a friend or an adult. I’ll admit, sometimes I ask one of the ancestors for advice; I might have the knowledge of the present, but they have the wisdom of the ages. Just don’t tell them I told you that.

Teachers are also a good source for help. They might be the ones assigning the homework and giving the tests, but I haven’t met a teacher yet who wouldn’t stop

and help, even if it’s just to listen to whatever you need to let out.

They might not be as old and wise as the ancestors, but they’re further removed from the stress of the moment, and they’ll help you gain some perspective. Sometimes they can’t give you exactly what you want, but then again, even the Great Stone Dragon doesn’t hand out fullrides to your top choice college, and more often than not, teachers will help you get what you need.

Oh man, now you’ve got me all sappy. Let’s get back to what’s really important: fun. Being a guardian is hard work, but the perks of the job are just enough to make me stay.

The Fa family would fall apart without me, but that’s beside the point. Find something enjoyable in everything you do, from the class you took just to get the credit to whatever mandatory school event you’re being forced to go to.

It might seem like a drag, but you only get these experiences once, and they’ll be more pleasant in the present and more memorable in the future if you find something that makes it fun. And I know what you’re going to say. Don’t try to sass me. I can see straight through your little human mind.

Things like AP exams are never going to be as fun, but let your attitude towards things like that be the exception rather than the rule, and try to find something positive.

Get excited about things! Even the ancestors know how to party,

and you have no excuse if they’re having a better time living than you. Find things you like and find people who like them, too. If you’re anything like Mulan, you probably have high standards and big goals, and that’s not unreasonable, but take a step back and a deep breath. You’re going to be alright, kid.

Woodstock says sleep is crucial in high school

By Woodstock “What is sleep?” This question is facetious yet still pervades many CHS students’ conversations. It reveals a certain unfamiliarity with a normal sleeping schedule resulting from an overpacked daytime schedule.

However, what is most concerning about the saying is the stress that comes with this lack of sleep. Once, this feeling was unique to juniors preparing to apply to colleges, but it is now more and more present among all grade levels at CHS. Go ahead. Ask a freshman or sophomore why they do all this to themselves, losing sleep over the rigor of their academic and extracurricular lives. A junior would respond that they need it for college, but the underclassman struggles to put an answer into words.

In truth, most students cannot or will not name the true culprit: a peer pressure that CHS, a high school where 97 percent of graduates go on to college, could create. Everyone else seems to be taking APs, balancing membership in four or five clubs, volunteering and doing something artistic, so why shouldn’t they? Furthermore, if they don’t, how could they possibly compare?

CHS is a vibrant community, one filled with aspiring artists, magnificent musicians, and spectacular students. Unfortunately, it is also filled with chronic worriers, young people pushing themselves to the limit in order to keep up with the Joneses.

There is an all-too-real pressure at CHS to do exactly that, in terms of grades, extracurriculars, and standardized testing. Ours is an unhealthy, cutthroat environment, one overly obsessed with who’s going where and entirely convinced that doing a million things well is the only surefire way to gain acceptance into premier universities.

S t e v e Jobs is c r e d i t ed with the advice, “Do

not try to do everything.

Do one thing well.”

He did pretty well for himself and for the

world upon finding his passion, and it is my sincere belief that each and every one of you can as well.

Through my position on this paper, I have had the chance to report, feature and investigate many facets of the CHS community. Of all the issues I and the rest of the staff have encountered, the stress of high school life con-

cerns me most, mainly because I was so affected by it.

For my first three years, I did do everything and everything else. I padded my resume with clubs, leadership positions, and honor societies. I devoted countless hours to maintaining my GPA. Only as a senior did I discover my own dissatisfaction, did I focus on my passions and interests and achieve a sense of balance and fulfillment, the kind that can only come from doing what you love rather than simply doing well by a perceived standard.

I survived the pressure cooker of preparing for and completing college applications, the gauntlet that encompasses all too much of a student’s life. It is from this experience that I write my final advice: set your own goals instead of mindlessly choosing the path welltaken. Do what you love well, and success will follow.

This world belongs to thinkers and doers. Set apart time for thinking about what matters and devote time to doing what drives you, and you’ll not only be happier, you’ll have a better chance of impressing the colleges you hold in such high regard.

Who knows? Maybe you’ll even have time to discover what sleep is.

The Churchill Observer Senior Section Thursday, May 22, 2015

Donkey gives advice to youngest siblings

By Donkey

Throughout all of my high school career-- all of my life, actually-- I have been defined by my birth order: I am the youngest sibling. As the youngest of three girls, one four years older than me and the other six years older, I have dealt with all of the perks and the pitfalls of having two older sisters and am a typical product of what I have dubbed “Youngest Child Syndrome.”

Those who have older siblings will relate to the many effects of Youngest Child Syndrome. For starters, fellow youngest children, I’m telling you right now: you will always be “the baby” of the family. It doesn’t matter if you’re reuniting with a family member who hasn’t seen you since you were “this big” or meeting a stranger who’s just learning your name; your mom will place one hand on you, push you forward slightly, and tearfully introduce you as “her baby,” even if it’s been decades since you were in diapers. On that note, you will also probably be seated at the kids’ table for the rest of your life, or at least until you have kids of your own.

Get used to it. Cherish it. They probably have better food anyway.

The first symptom of Youngest Child Syndrome is one that can have the most benefits. You are the last child that your parents will raise, so

the rules are usually re- laxed a bit. Due to the age gap between my sisters and I, we often had trouble compromising on activities that were age-appropriate and interesting for all three of us. As a result, at an age when I would have been perfectly happy watching Finding Nemo for the zillionth time, I wound up watching movies more like Mean Girls, where the adult jokes flew right over my young and naïve head.

I also have this symptom to thank for being able to do things earlier than my sisters were allowed to. Thank you, changing technology, thank you, worn-out parents, for allowing me to get my own cell phone a full two years younger than my s i s ters had received theirs!

While my parents may have been less strict, being t h e youngest child also means they were much more knowledgeable about things my sisters had already gone through: summer camps, bat mitzvahs, and of course, the dreaded college applications. Take my advice and take your parents’ advice. Love it or

hate it, when it comes to this, they probably know their stuff by now and (most of the time) are making the right decision. Although it can be tiring to hear over and over again, “Well, with your older sibling we did this…” trust me, it’s much nicer than having to explain again what Naviance is and how to use it (however, I can’t guarantee the latter half; teaching parents how to use technology is a whole other story.)

Of course, parents aren’t the only enablers of Youngest Child Syndrome. Sibling are just as much to blame as Mom and Dad. Just as your mom will always refer to you as the baby, you will always be your s i b - lings’ little baby brother or sister. For the first few years of my life, my sisters thought of me as more of a toy than a sister, and proceeded to put me in their baby dolls’ strollers and push me around. Youngest Child Syndrome also means suffering from some teasing. Your older sibs will undoubtedly tell and retell embarrassing childhood stories and make fun of your wacky outfit choices, weird habits

and questionable decisions. It comes with the territory.

Being the youngest also comes with the blessing and the curse of never feeling old. Senior year has been marked with exclamations of “We’re graduating, we’re so old!” by my classmates, but I can promise you, we are not. With both of my sisters now college graduates, I have been assured that this is just the beginning and that I should be grateful that I haven’t yet been pushed out into the “real world.” While it can be frustrating when your accomplishments and milestones seem miniscule in comparison to your siblings’, just remember, when you’re both middle-aged, they’ll be wishing it was the other way around.

Perhaps the most significant symptom of the Syndrome for me has been relying on my sisters. When I was younger, I had no problem spending time with them and their friends instead of my own, or allowing my sisters to order food for me at restaurants and speak on my behalf. However, I have grown out of this stage and am learning to find my own voice and be my own person. The best part of being a little sibling is knowing your big brother or sister will always have your back and be there to catch you if you fall.

All in all, Youngest Child Syndrome has its good and bad sides, but no matter what, I wouldn’t have asked for it any other way.

bandmember-baller-gossip...then again, they all just sort of blend together.

I began high school under the impression that I had to stay confined within the boundaries of a single label at all times,and it drove me crazy to the point where I would question the true motives behind even my pre-existing friendships: How could someone really and truly overlook the very same qualities—self-doubt, for one— that I hated in myself?

But rather than trying t o strip myself of these qualities, I realized how much easier it would be just to take on new ones. All I had to do was re-adjust my perception a little.

Easier said than done, but I’ve since formed

some of my closest friendships with people I never expected to speak a word with four years ago, just by scraping up a little more confidence and trying my hardest not to designate my own presumed labels to anyone else. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of branching out beyond the tiny circle of people you think you’re most similar to. You might be right, but you might be wrong.

We are just recycled things.

We think we’re no good when we get marked up and dented. We make mistakes, but most of the destruction we cause is not long-lasting. With time, we’re simply thrown back into the pile, given another chance to build ourselves up, hopefully even stronger than before.

In 9th grade, we all walked through the doors of CHS with expectations for how we and how everyone else was meant to go about our next four years.

I am who I was four years ago. That part of me is still here, and I think it always will be.

But as I have travelled along this label-driven conveyor belt of an experience, I have collected so many more pieces of myself. I have become much more of a unit.

Regardless, I know I’m not a finished product; my four years may be up, but I’m a long way away from reaching the end.

If you didn’t get anything else out of this overly-stretched metaphor of an article, at least take with you this: high school isn’t forever. For this very reason, make sure you try to take it all in while you can.

Remember this specific moment of your life—your morning routine, the posters lining your bedroom wall, the walk between your second and third period, the people you look up to, that song you haven’t been able to get out of your head since last Tuesday.

When it’s your turn to graduate, you can think back to now, and realize how much all those things have changed.

Don’t spend all your time waiting until you can get out. It isn’t worth it, trust me.

Collect a lot of memories—the ones that are meant for remembering, but also a few of the ones you think you want to forget forever—because before you know it, everything you could never stand about high school just won’t exist.

And weirdly enough, a part of you is gonna miss that.

weren’t coming and going every couple of years, like I had always done.

I was incredibly relieved when a girl I had met over the summer at a field hockey camp invited me to eat lunch with her and her friends on the first day of school. It took a while, but some of those girls eventually became some of my closest friends.

At the beginning, it seemed like people were always referencing someone’s 10th birthday party for an inside joke, or talking about so and so’s bat mitzvah. For a while, I felt like I would never be

able to comfortably fit in with this tight group of people.

However, as I grew closer to people in Maryland and started to think of it as my home, I started to re-a l i z e that the past was irrelevant.

Sure, I wasn’t around for the Nationals’ first Opening Day in 2005, but I was here in 2014 to see them clinch the NL East title.

I’m not any less of a fan because I missed the beginning, just like I’m not any less of a

friend because I missed the beginning.

I didn’t attend any of my friends Bat Mitzvahs, but today I can smile about how my friend Julia and I had ours on the same day, with the same invitations, 4,781 miles apart. That’s a memory I didn’t have to be here for.

To anyone new to CHS who may be feeling the same way I did freshmen year: you can make up for lost time faster than you might think, and the memories you make now are not devalued because you weren’t there for the beginning. In fact, I learned that your different experiences growing up can help you bring more to a friendship.

I wasn’t around to grow up with my friends in Maryland, but I’m here now to move forward with them, and I’ve realized that’s all that really matters.

Fez compares pressures of high school to assembly line

By Fez I am the product of a four-year, eight-semester, 16-quarter assembly line.

At some point, each one of us—whatever level of deserving the title may be—has been slapped across the face with an impossible-to-peel-off label. Those things are not easy to remove, let me tell you.

Put me in a room with the entire grade, and I could probably match each person up to his or her “designated” label...feminist-techievegan-videogameenthusiastgrungekidwannabegrungekid-

Cameron reflects on his experience as a new student

By Cameron Frye

When I first moved to Maryland at the beginning of freshman year, I had missed a lot, and felt completely out of the loop.

For starters, my Hawaiian middle school seemed to have missed the memo that foreign languages are important, so I had to begin French 1 as a freshman. I wasn’t aware that freshmen AP courses actually existed, and I was overwhelmed by the number of honors courses offered.

But it wasn’t just academics I felt I had missed out on. Friend groups were already formed, and they were all tight, many of them together since elementary school. This was the first place I’d moved where other people

The Churchill Observer Senior Section Thursday, May 22, 2015

Gromit speaks about the high school cycle

By Gromit High school is composed of a series of different phases that everyone goes through. It is an inevitable chain of differing personas that each student will embody at some point during their high school career, starting from the wideeyed and clammy-handed excitement of freshman orientation and lasting until the final graduation party releases seniors from petty school obligations.

It is, in many ways, a cycle. When I was a freshman, I was completely and utterly engrossed in the experience of being the youngest in the school. Every accidental bump into a senior in the hallway sent a shiver up my spine, a silent apology whispered as I scurried away to my class, toting my oversized backpack complete with a zip-up binder.

There is a certain confidence involved with being the youngest portion of a larger group. Looking at the seniors in all their glory was like looking into the future, expecting with childlike ignorance that it would be carefree and awesome, to be bigger and better versions of ourselves just like the upperclassmen we saw before us.

Freshman year was all about excitement, because every little insignificant aspect of high school was new, and nothing yet had time to get old or overrated, an adorable little quality of freshmen that makes them so annoying. While it was thrilling to stand huddled in small groups, giggling at the homecoming dance freshman year, every other grade was attempting to push by in a hurry,

on their way to more important things like taking even more pictures with people they aren’t really friends with.

Freshmen are clueless, but they balance out the system, providing comic relief to upperclassmen and an ego boost for sophomores, encouragement for all to stop freaking out about minutiae in an effort to be distanced from a past self. It is a year meant for being taught to stop using lockers, how to talk to the opposite gender, the right way to walk in a hallway, and why frequently-referenced and loudly-discussed inside jokes are never really that funny (we all know you did that during your freshman year).

Sophomores are practically accelerated freshman, a wonderfully assimilated group that is just happy to no longer be at the bottom. In the workings of the system, sophomores fill a very nondescript niche, alternating between standing out for the cockiness associated with finally feeling like a ‘high schooler’ and blending into the masses.

As an essential building block, it serves the purpose of being a time where everyone starts to “get” high school, how to take nice homecoming pictures, talk to upperclassmen, study the right way, improve general body coordination and

ultimately be “cool,” no matter what that definition may connote.

Juniors, on the other hand, are completely different than any other class.

They are the mitochondria, powerhouses of the cell (I know you remember that unit of bio), and they set the level of intensity for the school.

Everyone looks at juniors with a certain mix of pity and admiration, because, especially in a school like CHS, junior year is notorious. How hard a junior class is working sets the pace of the entire student body, and they serve the purpose of convincing underclassmen how important their GPA is during intimidating conversations about how colleges won’t want you if you have less than a 4.0 (They will).

And finally, the cream of the crop, top of the class (literally), kings of the (church)hill, are the seniors, the class that perpetuates the cycle the most.

They are the ones who control freshman with annoyed looks, knock down sophomores’ egos with even more impressive parties and nonchalant attitudes and reassure juniors that college will happen,

no matter how drained you feel by the combination of four AP classes, standardized test prep and million extracurriculars you fill your day with.

Just like it is the underclassmen’s job to be careless and clueless, it is the senior’s job to give rides, lend money (freshmen never have wallets), pass down textbooks with notes in the margins and teach all the other classes why it should be their goal to be just like us.

Senior year is a cycle in itself, oscillating between nostalgia over the last year of high school and a deep-seeded need to escape everything that is CHS and Potomac every time drama occurs (college apps, homecoming, prom, grad parties).

No matter which state of being a high schooler you are in, accept it, even if it means owning up to a certain amount of whatever stereotype I have given you in this article. The point of the cyclic fashion of high school is for all of its students to get a chance to change, to learn from others and to grow and mature during their four years here at CHS. High school is like a merry-goround; we experience similar situations on various separate occasions, but each time we come back we are different in a thousand tiny little ways because of the slightly altered perspectives we have of others and ourselves.

Pay forward the extra spot in your car on the way to school, the hints about which AP review books are the most helpful and the best way to structure your schedule, because pretty soon, you’ll be back at the bottom of the food chain, ready to begin a whole new cycle, four more years in the making.

skills we can learn in high school. Use these opportunities to grow. Especially if everyone you work with is an idiot.

“Why are all these people here? There are too many people on this Earth. We need a new plague.”- Dwight Schrute If you stop in the middle of the English hallway, you are literally the worst person on this Earth. There is no reason in the world important enough to stop the hallway traffic flow while you converse with a friend. None.

“I understand nothing.”-Michael Scott ASK FOR HELP! I can’t stress this enough, because it seems like so many of us have difficulty reaching out to teachers for extra assistance. I only discovered the lunchtime English lab last year, and it’s a resource I can’t use enough. Adults with English degrees taking your Lit essay and making it five times better than before? Yes, please. The entire CHS staff is more than willing to give you extra help, but you have to take the first step and approach them.

“When I discovered YouTube, I didn’t work for 5 days. I did nothing. I watched Cookie Monster sing “Chocolate Rain” about a thousand times.” -Michael Scott Netflix is great, but so is passing your classes. Figure out how to manage your time before binge-watching and other distractions take over your life. Looking at you, upcoming seniors: wait to start Friends after your college applications are complete.

“There’s a lot of beauty in ordinary things.” -Pam Beesly Get to know your teachers. Believe it or not, they’re actually pretty cool people.

“It’s a pimple. Avril Lavigne gets them all the time, and she rocks harder than anyone alive.”-Michael Scott You don’t need to look perfect every single day of the week. Or any day, for that matter. You’ll attract the right people by being yourself, regardless of how you look.

Wear whatever works for you and rock on.

“I am Beyonce, always.”- Michael

Scott Fake it ‘til you make it. We all struggle with confidence, but I’ve found that people can’t actually tell the difference between you pretending to be confident and you having genuine confidence. Sooner or later, you won’t be able to either.

“Even if I didn’t love every minute of it, everything I have, I owe to this job.

This stupid, wonderful, boring, amazing job.”- Jim Halpert There are always going to be things about school that you can complain about-the fact that the bathroom in the girls locker room never has paper towels, or having a teacher who doesn’t seem know anything about the subject, or not getting the senior shirt you hoped for (Senior Sailors, anyone?); but your high school experience is what you make of it. Decide to make it a positive experience. It’s much more fun that way.

“I worked for a paper company all these years and I never wrote anything down.” -Phyllis Lapin-Vance Here at the Observer, we spent much of our time in high school documenting everyone else’s lives, but my favorite stories will be the ones we shared together.

Mrs. Knarr, your enthusiasm, expertise, and support of me and my ideas built my confidence in more ways than you could imagine. You are the reason I want to become a professional journalist. Thank you.

To everyone on the Observer staff: I have sincerely cherished all the time spent in “the J.” From our monthly commercials, to the late night Production dinners, to even just brainstorming story ideas in class, you guys were and are and always will be my favorite part of CHS. “It took me so long to do so many important things. It’s just hard to accept that I spent so many years being less happy than I could have been.

Be strong, trust yourself, love yourself, conquer your fears, just go after what you want. And act fast, because life just isn’t that long.”-Pam Beesly

Talk to the people you want to be friends with. Take part in the clubs you think are interesting, even and especially if none of your friends are doing it with you. I can’t tell you how many people I waited to talk to and how many clubs I waited to join until senior year because up until then, I was too scared to interact with new people.

I wish I had more time with all of them.

“I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.”- Andy Bernard We all have exciting futures and it’s fun to start thinking about college: decorating dorm rooms, making new friends, attending all of the sporting events (I’m calling it right now: the Maryland Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams are both going to the Final Four next year). But let’s not push high school to the side quite yet. We should enjoy these final moments of high school. This part of our “good old days” will soon be just another Facebook photo album, but for now they’re real and tangible. We are shaping our “good old days” memories as we speak. Let’s make them great.

Andy Bernard compares CHS to Dunder Mifflin, Inc.

By Andy Bernard I think it’s safe to say that our generation has become a little too comfortable with Netflix. The number of shows I have binge-watched and the short amount of time it has taken me to watch them might seem a little excessive to some (read: a lot excessive), but the shows I have watched on Netflix have become a huge part of who I am.

The Office is my all-time favorite show.

True, it’s ridiculous and absurd at times.

The jokes can be juvenile and awkward, and most of the things Michael Scott says are downright embarrassing to hear. Certain episodes aren’t quite as entertaining as others and (spoiler alert!) the show definitely goes downhill once Steve Carell leaves the show.

But the show is also hilarious and entertaining and heartwarming. Watching average people go through everyday life experiences makes you feel like you’re not alone. Watching your favorite characters grow and learn and develop helps you realize that you’re doing the same. The characters’ mishaps indicate that failure isn’t final, while their successes give you hope that you too will succeed.

All in all, The Office can be a little mundane, pretty funny, awkward at times, inspiring at others and a whole lot like high school. Here are a couple things I’ve learned during my time at CHS, as explained by the staff members from everyone’s favorite paper company.

“Sometimes I feel like everyone I work with is an idiot. And by sometimes, I mean all times. All the time. Every of the time.”- Kevin Malone Group projects can be pretty tough.

Dealing with people who aren’t good at communicating or doing their share of the work is frustrating, but it also teaches you valuable life skills in a way that no bookwork assignment could. Knowing how to work and effectively communicate with your peers is one of the most important