Inside The Warrior:
Sherwood High School
May 22, 2015
300 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Sandy Spring, MD 20860
37th Year
The Warrior Senior Edition Local Author Set To Speak at Graduation by Meagan Barrett
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All-Senior Team
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Destinations
Nicest
Smile
Class C
lown
Best D resed ouple
C Cutest
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Superlatives
This year’s graduation speaker will be Mary Amato, a local children’s author and songwriter, and a strong supporter of humor, heart and grit. Amato is a versatile writer; not only does she write novels for young adults and chapter and picture books for children, she also writes plays, problems, songs and essays. However, Amato said it wasn’t her original plan to be a writer. “In high school I was seriously into ballet, modern and musical theater. That was my story. It took me a long time to discover that I had this hidden burning desire to be a writer.” Amato’s own path to achievement didn’t happen as she expected it to. Growing up, she recalls, writing never seemed like a plausible option, and her passion wasn’t realized until after she had attended college. Although the signs were there, she was unsure of the profession, so she avoided it. “When you are just graduating from high school and trying to decide what to do with your life, often there are so many conflicting voices it is hard to hear your own true voice clearly,” she explained. Amato is intrigued by what she calls “threshold moments” or moments when you pass from one experience or place to another. To her, graduating from high school is a threshold moment. “If you are a person who hasn’t pushed hard enough, now is your chance to take yourself more seriously. If you are a person who has pushed too hard, expected perfection, now is your chance to allow yourself to make mistakes. It is a chance to dig deep and find out who you really are and what you really want to do.” Amato was both surprised and flattered to be asked to give the commencement speech. “I have spoken at many events over the years … This will be my first commencement address, which makes it special.” She has decided she wants to make sure her speech applies to everyone, since she knows each student’s experience in
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Mary Amato (pictured above), who is this year’s graduation guest speaker, is the author of many children’s books and teen novels. Some of her most known works include The Word Eater (2000), The Naked Mole-Rat Letters (2005), and Get Happy (2014). high school is unique. “I am not going to say good luck to all the Sherwood students because I don’t believe that luck is what
you need,” revealed Amato. “I will wish for strength, courage, determination and humor for all of you as you go forward.”
Students Attempt To Navigate Graduation Parties by Lauren Cosca and Haley Whitt
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Dorm Decorating Tips Inside: News: 1-2 Sports: 3 Destinations: 4-7 Spotlight: 8-9 Features: 10-11 Columns: 12-16
It’s that time of year again, so break out the bean bags and prepare your stomachs for an endless amount of catered and homemade food. With graduation right around the corner comes numerous graduation parties. Seniors face scheduling their graduation party on the same dates as their peers since there are only a few weekends left to choose from. Some seniors find this convenient because they want to have a party in which guests only stop by briefly before heading on to the next party. Others struggle to find a date that is not already taken by another senior so that all of their guests can attend their party for the full time. There is also stress related to the number of guests to invite. Some senior party hosts create an invite list with upwards of 100 people. Senior Alex Hanson, whose
graduation party takes place on May 31 and has an invite list with more than 200 guests, is still able to find the entire process manageable. “The hardest part is figuring out how to entertain people for that long of a time, but most people just stop by for maybe an hour and go on their way, so it’s not that bad,” said Hanson. Along with other seniors having graduation parties, Hanson has elected to use a moon bounce as his main source of entertainment. A few seniors have made the decision to have a joint graduation party, including seniors DJ Reeves and Troy Berkheimer, whose celebration will take place on June 20. “Troy and I have been best friends since elementary school, and we wanted to celebrate the end of high school together,” explained Reeves. “When people are thinking years later about high school and last memories, we want people to remember our graduation party together as ‘DJ
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and Troy,’ like always.” Various arrangements need to be made to accommodate a large party. These include entertainment, decorations and food. Lianna Lieberman is making all of her food, which consists largely of baked desserts and various appetizers. “I decided to make all the food because cooking has always been a passion of mine, so it just made sense to make everything and save money. I’m starting preparation on May 18 and preparing throughout the week,” said Lieberman, whose party takes place on May 23. As the Facebook invites continue to pile on, students are scrambling to figure out how they can make an appearance at the very least at a couple of their friends’ graduation parties. Despite the pressures and strains placed on party hosts and their attendees alike, in the end, there are definitely worse ways to spend the beginning of summer.