Vermont Academy Pawprint

PAW PRINT

PAW PRINT: POETRY. ART. WRITING.

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PAW PRINT PAW Print 2013 Volume 1. Issue 1 Vermont Academy Literary Magazine Vermont Academy 10 Long Walk. Saxtons River. Vermont Advisor: Joanne Fuller Editors: Yumeng Cai Matt Carras Stephanie Edwards Mac Haddad Xindi Hao (Vallery) Ross Holzschuh Conor McArdle Maryann McArdle Leyte McNealus Lisa McNealus Joey Mizhir Drew Oxley Kurt Roderigues Yixuan Yang (Sonia) Jingtian Zhang (Sam) Cover photo by Kihun Han Cover design by Yixuan Yang Title page photo by Jerry Li Six Word Memoir design by Yixuan Yang Acknowledgements: Hey, thanks! to the many students who submitted writing and art; to the English and Arts departments for creating assignments that become great expressions of art; to Dr. Cohn and the Writing and Speaking Committee for offering inspiring writing prompts; to the many students and faculty who responded to those prompts; to the Deans for allowing my staff to post Vermont Academy tribute poems all over campus in an effort to inspire “spontaneous joy� in the dead of winter; to all the deans, faculty and administration for supporting student expression; to Jim Landrigan at MinuteMan Press in Brattleboro; and to the students.

Did I mention the students?

Thank you all for sharing your heartfelt work with our community.

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CONTENTS Vermont Academy Tributes ................................................................................................................................................ 5 Essay ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 8 Writing Lore .......................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Las Monta単as ........................................................................................................................................................................ 8 Your iPhone Will Not Stop Global Warming ............................................................................................................ 9 Sam Lost in New York City ............................................................................................................................................ 10 Poetry ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 The Underworld ................................................................................................................................................................ 12 Mickey Finn ......................................................................................................................................................................... 13 By fire..................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Eyes ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 14 Wide Awake ........................................................................................................................................................................ 15 Fire and Ice .......................................................................................................................................................................... 15 See ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 16 Three Words ....................................................................................................................................................................... 17 Take a Second ..................................................................................................................................................................... 18 Prepschool: .......................................................................................................................................................................... 19 Be yourself ........................................................................................................................................................................... 20 Winter Warriors ................................................................................................................................................................ 20 When he looked in her eyes ......................................................................................................................................... 21 Tu tiene una sonrisa muy familiar de los amigos ................................................................................................ 21 Dear Mother Nature,........................................................................................................................................................ 22 What colors make up a perfect landscape .............................................................................................................. 22 What is the path ................................................................................................................................................................ 23 Tiger in a tropical Storm ................................................................................................................................................ 24 Why I Play: Three Athletes ................................................................................................................................................ 26 Six Word Memoirs ................................................................................................................................................................. 29

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PAW PRINT “I’m From” Poems.................................................................................................................................................................. 33 I am from stickers ............................................................................................................................................................. 33 I am from Vermont. .......................................................................................................................................................... 34 I am from the fields. ......................................................................................................................................................... 36 Where I am from where the water is crystal clear ............................................................................................. 36 I am from marbles, ........................................................................................................................................................... 36 Memoir ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 37 The Sorrow Time .............................................................................................................................................................. 37 Unbelievable ....................................................................................................................................................................... 39 Fight ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 39 12th December 2012 ........................................................................................................................................................ 41 Short Story................................................................................................................................................................................ 43 When Jenny Fell to Earth ............................................................................................................................................... 43 Trying to Remember a Time of Freedom................................................................................................................ 46 Fan Fiction: The Hobbit .................................................................................................................................................. 48 Huck And Jim: The Lost Page ............................................................................................................................................ 50 A Strange End to a Beginning ........................................................................................................................................... 51 The Disclaimer ........................................................................................................................................................................ 53 The Shadows............................................................................................................................................................................ 54

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VERMONT ACADEMY TRIBUTES a very long walk many steps have trodden this path many have come back - Joey Mizhir ‘13 Don’t step on the seal Not even with your heel Don’t try and jump it Because there is no way to trump it Just walk around, and don’t risk a meal.

- Bria Noble

Connor Brown ‘13 Mr. Gabarro is a really great man He is there to help me whenever he can Luckily I’ve never seen him mad or full of steam That’s because he’s still young and living the dream Thank you for always approving my weekend card Because if you didn’t, you would make my life really hard!

- Kurt Roderigues ‘13

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PAW PRINT I live in Alumni with mice Probably because Yoshi makes rice Hopefully they all go away Because if they don’t there’s no way I’ll stay Even though the people are nice - Drew Oxley ‘13

Two hours every night For surfing the internet Sometimes do the homework Or housework That’s what I am doing at night - Zhi Luo ‘13

dean of studies cool big time boss of the studies king of the studies - Joey Mizhir ‘13

Structured Study Hall Structured is a very great place We always like to keep up the pace We have to get here right on time because that’s where the teachers draw the line

Nordic Ski Team It’s a team with passion, And is full of propulsion.

It is a beacon in my life, Leads me to the truth of myself, And provides a lost sailor with navigation.

- Jingtian Zhang ‘13

You will get locked out if you’re late because Mr. Atkins will never wait And if you bring food it will be taken away That’s just the price you’ll pay At 9 o’clock you get a break Which everyone will gladly take Then you have to get busy again Until the clock reaches ten

Poem to the Piano Room

Although structured is great and all I just want to leave Fuller hall You should avoid being here I hope I made that very clear

Hides at the corner, Melody dances and flows, Inspirations fly.

- Xindi Hao ‘13

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Samantha Gillingham ‘13

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Mikeala Paluszek ‘13

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ESSAY WRITING LORE I have strong memories of learning to write. In particular, I can see my little hand clutching a pencil pressed to that pulpy paper with pink and blue lines like runways for the landing of the letters. I can see myself wrapping my full fist around the pencil at first, trying hard to scratch those foreign shapes onto the page. I’m pretty sure my tongue is out to help with my concentration, and I am pressing unnecessarily hard. The line comes out strong and dark, and then the tension between the pencil and the page breaks and the line skitters across the page.

I never learned to hold the pencil the right way - I still rest it on the fourth finger and use the first three to grip it - but eventually I trained my hand to feel comfortable using a writing utensil without squeezing it so hard that my hand ached. The next task was learning the letters. I was careful, almost obsessive, about keeping the shapes of each letter within the lines. (I was not a risk-taking child, and to go outside of the lines and disobey the teacher was too much of a transgression for me.) I loved how big the lines were in those early days, with lots of space for the round bellies of the B or the sharp summits of the M. And I was always grateful for the dotted center line, which offered guidance on how high to draw the lumps of the lower-case letters. I took it as a personal challenge to make those letters as perfect as possible, as near to the model as I could.

At the age of thirty-five, I have now written countless words, both on paper or through typing them onto a computer screen. Because of this, writing has become a routine action and I no longer pay attention to the physical act. It’s a little bit like breathing, or my heart beating, or my legs moving as I walk. The fact that I’m so practiced at these actions frees my mind up to think of other things, like the ideas I’m trying to express through writing. But to return my attention to the physicality of writing – the actual putting of pen to paper – offers a chance to get back to the miracle that writing actually is: a task that only the human animal can complete. Perhaps that’s why those initial moments of learning to write are so firmly etched into my memory – I was participating directly in evolution.

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Erin Cohn

LAS MONTAÑAS Every summer I go to my summer house in the mountains of Madrid. When it’s time to go, I remember it as something I don’t like to do, but year after year something makes me want to go back. It’s the nature that surrounds that area. For me the nature totally changes the concept of the village. It goes from a boring small village lost in the mountains to a beautiful place where I can never be bored. With the nature around I never run out of ideas. Hiking is my favorite thing to do up there. In the solitude of the hike up the mountain, my only company is the heat in my neck, the birds singing to the uprising sun, the smell of the pines, the cracking noise of the dried bark, and the smooth noise of the wind rushing through the pines. All these sensations last for a few hours, until I reach the top; I sit down after hours of hiking, and contemplate the amazing valleys going in every direction, the light blue sky with huge clouds, the dried grass field with some small green oak trees,

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PAW PRINT the noise of the hard wind, and my exhausted breathing. Just writing about this makes me want to go back, put my boots on, and start hiking.

The fact that in many of parts of the world they are cutting their woods in a non-sustainable way makes me mad, because they are destroying one of most beautiful things on earth, nature, but it’s not just trees that they are destroying; it’s also whole ecosystems . All kinds of animals are losing a place to live and by destroying this we are pushing them to death because we are moving them to places where they don’t know how to survive. We aren’t only pushing trees to extinction in some areas, but also any form of life that lives within the forest trees.

Everyone should realize how we have treated our forests and see in what states we have left our forests. We should be ashamed of how easily and heartlessly we can do something so bad to something so beautiful.

It really breaks my heart how selfish humans can be; we can just destroy an entire ecosystem if it benefits us; and if it does, we will just profiteer that area and when it’s useless, we will move on into another area where we can fulfill our excessive and consumer-driven needs. We only think about us, not caring about how our future generations will have to live a worse life than ours and won’t be able to enjoy the same things that we do just because we couldn’t control ourselves. We should stop for a second and realize what we have made of our world, and more importantly, what we have become.

- Guillermo Barreiro ‘14

YOUR IPHONE WILL NOT STOP GLOBAL WARMING The idea that in some twisted way, technology will save the world from an environmental catastrophe is an issue that I personally have a hard time wrapping my brain around. Since the invention of the television, portable telephone, and computer, Americans have become increasingly fixated on electronics. Electronic distraction is practically unavoidable in our society today. These new devices offer some benefits (faster modes of communication, instant entertainment, etc.); however, they are taking over and consuming enormous amounts of human and electric energy, and squandering our time. Watching TV or playing video games have now replaced building fairy houses in the woods or roaming the countryside. It may very well be that the only way for us to reconnect with the natural world is to cut electronics from our lives.

Although a simple cell phone may not single handedly pose a threat to the environment, electronics have found a way to distance the relationship between nature and humans. In addition, more and more old cell phones are thrown away and end up in a landfill every day. The number of discarded electronics worldwide is staggering. “In 2007/2008 Australians discarded 16.8 million electronic devices, 9 per cent of which was recycled and 88 per cent sent to landfill.” (reportage-enviro.com).

It does not matter where, overflowing landfills are a worldwide issue that electronics are greatly contributing to.

When we get sucked into Facebook or a television show, we are wasting time that could be better spent outside. As a kid I would spend entire days outside and never get bored. It was a healthy way 9

PAW PRINT of entertaining myself. Spending time engrossed in electronics is not a healthy habit to get into.

Seeing people glued to their phones, especially in a social setting among real living, breathing, and fascinating humans frustrates me. I cannot say I am exempt from succumbing to technology, however. I, like most other teenagers, spend time on social media sites, surfing the Internet and simply wasting time. If I really take time to think about it, I would not say that I even enjoy most of the time I spend plugged in. It just acts as a compulsive sort of escape. If I added up all the time I have “quickly” checked Facebook, it is surely enough time to go on an adventure; it could have been time spent doing something that felt worth it and was fun. It is hard for me to fathom how drastically technology has ripped apart our society and our connection with the planet.

Electronics surly play their part in physically harming the earth; however, they have played an even greater part in separating humans’ connection to the earth. Most people praise new technology, and are positive that it will change our society for the better. We can Google for strategies to help protect the earth, and we will get thousands of hits on recycling, energy saving and other green strategies. Buried deep within these sites, there was someone who devoted a lot of thought and concern to the environment and wanted to share their knowledge with the world. But we also can learn about the earth from sources other than Google. If we would just take a short amount of time out of our day to spend in nature, we are guaranteed to learn something, and feel happier over all.

Nature can be both soothing and exhilarating, and its power to restore us should not be neglected.

Technology will not be able to save the world if we humans don’t figure out how to truly stay connected with the earth. The relationship between man and earth is crucial and our growing dependence upon electronics is endangering that relationship.

- Wyeth Olmsted ‘15

SAM LOST IN NEW YORK CITY What is the function of memory? Memory is a carrier; it records our variety of sensory experiences.

Memory is also a tool that makes people feel emotions. Some memories will go unmentioned in the future. At the same time, some memories may have made people feel angry when they first happened, but will bring different feelings later. Like that time Sam wandered off in New York.

Sam may tell people of this event, too. But, this event, for us, his friends, was not the same experience.

It happened the first year we came to Vermont Academy. We went to New York City for the Thanksgiving break. As the day passed, we spent a pleasing and relaxing holiday. But everyone had the same idea that we were lacked something because we had so far only been shopping, eating and sleeping. Recommended by some people, we decided to go to the museum to feel a different atmosphere. Metropolitan Museum of Art became our target.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is huge, complex, and crowded. Sam was very excited to see lots of things, so he always in front of us when we work in the museum. We could always see Sam’s figure appear in front of us, but the rest of our group was slow; we had to catch up with him. After awhile, we noticed that Sam disappeared in front of us. But we believed that there is only one path leading through the museum, so we would find him at the exit. Therefore, we didn’t take too much notice.

When we arrive at exit, everyone still did not see him. I had a sense of foreboding.

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PAW PRINT During the rest of our time, we waited for him. We hoped that he was still in the museum. We wondered if he may have gone in the restroom. But after the museum cleared, preparing for closing, we still hadn’t seen him. In our mind, Sam was a shy boy. And the important thing that Sam gave us an innocent appearance. He was road blind, or you might say, he was not street smart. Therefore, we thought he could not have tried to leave alone. The time was passed 8 pm. And we worried that the night of New York City was not safe. At this time, we were very anxious to call 911. Actually, Sam had his own cell phone, but the SIM card was from China, and he almost never used his phone.

We couldn’t contact to him. The only way we could, we guessed, was call my Mom in China, and let her call Sam’s mother. We believed that Sam’s mother should have way to find her son.

Of course, finally there was a happy ending. But we got seriously shocked when Sam’s mother told us that Sam already in our hotel. We transferred on four different subways, and it was the first Sam came to New York City.

China has an old proverb “The potential of fat man is infinity.” Every times we talk of this event, it will gave us different, good feeling.

- Yitao Ni ‘13

Lisa McNealus ‘79

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POETRY THE UNDERWORLD A lonely man Down the foggy lane Never questioning Always rushing.

The rumble of the vehicles On the next street over

And the girl?

She just runs, Against the tumultuous flood.

The flood of The sharply dressed bankers Lawyers, doctors.

And the executives Men and women both.

They too rush, Swiftly, Trying, It seems, to outrun life.

But beneath this flood There is Another world.

This man, He dreads what he’s seen And he dreads What has not yet come to pass.

A world where the hungry The poor The sick struggle on.

The lonely city In the foggy haze Operating like clockwork Never ending.

The flood has knowledge none Of this “Underworld.”

A flash of color, A wrench in the workings.

Takes the form of an aimless dancer She has no destination.

That flash of color The young girl Dancing through the streets Through the flood.

No desire to follow the city.

She opens everyone’s eyes To the world That was hidden before, Hidden from all.

The man Never questioning Begins to wonder How did my life get this way?

And the man Turns to a fellow Man And picks him up Off the street.

- George Atkins ‘15 12

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MICKEY FINN I miss you.

I miss your freckle-speckled cheeks, Your mud-ridden leather cowboy boots, You were never one to be concerned with an image.

I have been a lifetime subscriber to such beauty.

I miss us.

I miss our late nights, A bowl of chunky monkey and an overplayed Family Guy episode.

I miss our all-to-early mornings, A fight I’d always regret and an anticipated car horn yelping.

I have been craving such time with you.

I miss we.

I miss our cul-de-sac family home, A rusty razor scooter and a dog barking in the snow clad front yard.

I have been meaning to let him in.

I have been meaning to let you in.

I know our demented fairy tale has and will never be clear to you, But you have never been one to rely on clarity.

You relied on me.

Crazy thing is I have always relied on you.

You and your relentless stack of monster truck drawings 'hidden' below your bed.

You and your Captain Underpants collection in the clubhouse cupboard below the stairs.

I miss you.

I love you.

I thank you, Heyden.

- Maggie Fenney ‘13

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BY FIRE “Someone says the world will end in fire,” And I curse it.

I woke up in the remains of the city, surrounded by horror and pain.

I could feel my hair is fizzling and diffused a noxious odor around.

I tried to stand, but tried in vain.

I stood up but walked with stumble; I was alive but with no soul.

The hellish fire and abyssal darkness dragged me to the unlimited abyss.

In there, light and dark collided, soul and body contested each other.

Monsters were formed by sole hatred.

They were famished and thirsty, and I could sense their unfathomable hunger.

My body was perished and gradually, my soul vanished in dim.

Finally, I died in hollow.

- Jingtian Zhang ‘13

EYES There is jealousy before love that lead her to her guilt Tumbling of relationships that over time she had rebuilt Trust left her destroyed as the solid was left to melt They watched her brain tilt creating pain that was felt the struggle of finding the end of her own maze left nothing but Footsteps that led her to turn all the wrong ways The simplicity of beauty has been turned away Leaving the words silent and the clouds just as gray What has come about in such time to battle her internal aggression The sun seemed brighter when she fought for self-discretion.

She used to not be able to turn down the hands that stole her heart With that one simple key She said "No! This is mine. This is special to me."

A strong individual with determination from the start She looks up to the stars and begged god to give her what she needs to stitch back her shattered heart She looked at it deeply as She held it in her hands All broken and busted impossible! The devil demands She looked at him and said, "Please just go away . . .

I don’t know what I see but it will be beautiful one day The glow in her eyes made her take that chance As God placed her heart where it was meant to dance - Georgia Connick ‘14 14

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WIDE AWAKE Wide awake in the night Mind races in infinite ways The ghosts in my head cause the fright Been like this for days Mind races in infinite ways Shaken to the core of my soul Still I lay in a daze The nightmares have taken their toll Shaken to the core of my soul Wow, this really blows The nightmares have taken their toll Will I get to sleep? Who knows?

Wow, this really blows Wide awake still Will I get to bed? Who knows?

Never mind, found the Nyquil - Joey Mizhir ‘13

FIRE AND ICE Flames lick and dart around, Hiding in the shadows, Bringing light to the un-illuminated places The crackling blaze roars contentedly.

The touch hurts, but warms the warmth feels amazing. It dies down and The once warm air turns to Cool air which freezes twice over.

The touch is unbearable The feeling makes you clinch Your new winter coat - Anthony Davis ‘13

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SEE take this personally!

I mean to break you through me!

I mean to smash gash and rash myself so you can see!

If I have to pick your noses to get your attention, I’ll do it!

No matter what! I’ll go through it!

If I have to end this poem soft like a smooth drink I’ll Mountain Dew it!

I’m through being polite!

I’m a great white in an above water china shop!

I want my goddamn water back!

Your drowning me! I can't breathe!

I’m not used to fresh air! Give me my pollution back.

No. It’s whack. You can’t have that no longer. You took it away from yourself and now you whine.

Whine like a whistle and it only brings thistles.

Buck up to the doe, and show her that you are slow.

Let her know that not only Bambi still needs to grow.

Still learning! Still urning!

The square has a desire to be smoothly turning.

But you won’t let him be with his love!

The dear cycle! His beloved circle! Because your jealous of your own kind!

THE SQUARES! Because he has a love and passion and goal and you don’t?

So you make hateful snosberry wallpaper for everybody to lick But I still can’t figure out why blacks sit with blacks and whites sit with whites.

And why the Tollhouse don't get along with the Klondikes.

I don’t advocate peace!

I advocate the third eye punch-poke!

Everything you know is a lie. Truth!

I ain't trying to obliterate all you know I want to add some Windex graffiti and make things clearer with an artist's flare because once I’ve reached senior rank I will have never been here.

I’m the phantom menace Dennis, always have available peni . . . -cillin!

I’m here for you to heal cuts and wounds.

I’m here to be the giraffe that helps the tortoise cross the dirt.

Call me a shaman.

Call me a wizard.

Call me in a tree.

Call me a spirit walker.

Call me a bodhavista, a guru, a master and a being of pure cosmic energy. but also call me scared.

Call me alone.

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PAW PRINT Call me human.

Call me lost for I do not know my way.

Call me an idiot searching for love.

Call me someone who doesn't give a shit if this poem don't make sense!

Call me someone special! Call me Important! Call me needed!

Call me something!

Because inside every leather-skinned warrior is a frightened child who wants his mother.

And inside that child are a pair of eyes that see the world for what can it can be.

And we will find balance, but first through all blindness, we must first learn to see.

- Dave Persha ‘14

THREE WORDS I take my own hands and turn down despair Being the only one in a community of jealousy The want for self confidence has been ruled by supremacy I'll look into your eyes as I see your old soul Distracted by different lenses blurring your control I work hard to push those hands - the fight that's worth the pain When accountability comes in my court there's no one else to blame I thank God for my struggles as I learn to defeat then all I know why I have the legs that hold my body that stands so tall It takes time and patience to build what has been lost I've been born with unlimited care no matter the cost I wonder what makes me special as I look into my eyes That deep blue faded color that once held my disguise I've been given the gift of looking past what ones views I look into your heart with the skills I still use My biggest fear is to be forgotten into the face of the unknown The fear of losing someone that I can call my own As I look back at you and see my reflection I know I'm lovable in the eyes that can see my discretion There are three words that let me know you believe what is true You once looked right into my eyes of deep blue The first time I believed I can be loved was when I said, “I love you too.”

- Georgia Connick ‘14

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TAKE A SECOND Take a second.

Think back to your ancestors.

Your mom’s mom’s mom And beyond.

What would they think If they were to meet you?

Would you appreciate Something like that?

They made you, But they also destroyed you.

Born into a generation Like ours Where shirts are Translucent and shorts Are a nuisance Robyn Wilkie ‘13

Being thin is a dream And food is so far In the distance So think again next Time you think about Your ancestors They’d be ashamed And what if the Papers said imperfect Is the new perfect Would you believe it?

-

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Grace Manozzi ‘14

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PREPSCHOOL: A poem for the students Grudging writing the Essays, Come in the school works With papers talking of nays, Awake solving torques.

Make time out of sleeping time.

With Redbull, become a mime.

Until the mornings, We make the mornings.

Packed full o'classes, schedule's tight. 'tis not our favor.

Dooms us every day and night.

Slowly lose fervor.

Recollection of the past, Remorse before the big test.

Now friends who gathers, Later with Fathers.

Colleges, dream attending, The big library, Ivory Towers, pending, We become dreary.

Goods, slow and far when they come.

Continued tension makes us numb.

Soon will pass, these years.

Let's not shed the tears!

Many nights for the writing-My future party.

Days of burdensome studying-We will be ably.

Now then, let us learn to work, And labor for the high mark!

- Yongho Lee ‘14

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BE YOURSELF “Insist on yourself; never intimate” - Emerson In nature, Every leaf has it unique pattern, Just like every person, Is born to be different.

Don’t try to be me, or him, or her.

Just be yourself, Don’t pretend to be someone you are not, Because deep inside you know you can only be yourself.

To learn from other is great, Trying to be someone else is not.

Walk on your own path and let other people talk.

Because it’s just the way you are.

- Yi-Chen Cai ‘14

WINTER WARRIORS Early, the sun rise and earlier it sets the Winter is dedicated to those who chase the sun sleepy snow laden roads, only traveled by those who push into the mountains Winter belongs to the people who watch the sunrise from the top of a mountain orange pink glow on ridges of white snow.

It’s that cold breath that tingles in your nose the people who love that feeling the ones who smile when it starts to get cold And ecstatic at the first falling ice crystal its the people who pull you in for a hug, on a mountain top when you lie on the snow and take nothing for granted the people who have icy stars in their heart, and a smile on their face Those are my people, The Warriors of Winter - Leyte McNealus ‘14

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WHEN HE LOOKED IN HER EYES he saw something different. Her eyes were suddenly doorways into her heart and soul. He saw a girl whose inner beauty shone like the sun. He saw a girl whose past made her cautious. He saw that she was a girl who built walls up so that she would not get hurt. The more he looked into those beautiful eyes, the more he saw of this lovely girl’s soul. He smiled ear to ear. There wasn't an ugly thing about her. He was addicted to her inner beauty.

- Casey Walsh ‘14

TU TIENE UNA SONRISA MUY FAMILIAR DE LOS AMIGOS Tu tiene una sonrisa muy familiar de los amigos Sin embargo, tu solo se sabe que su ceño. ¿Por qué? ¿Por qué es esto?

Hay amor que te rodea Quiero que sea diferente

You have a smile, very familiar to your friends However, all you know is your frown Why? Why is this?

There is love all around you I want it to be different

Hola! Yo estoy aqui!

Déjame salir, Por favor Dejar de ser egoísta Mira todo lo que tiene Es todo lo que me estoy ahogando bajo

Hello, I'm here!

Let me out please Stop being selfish Look at all you have That's all that I'm buried under

Los vestidos Los zapatos La joyería La maquillaje Tome todo de encima y me encontrarás.

The clothes The shoes The jewelry The makeup Take it all off and there I'll be

Los dos estamos Molly Brennan Yo quiero una vez Por favor!

Deja que lo tienen Mi versión es mucho mejor

Both are Molly Brennan I want a turn Please!

Let me have it My version is so much better

Me encanta la naturaleza Nadar en los lagos Mirar a las estrellas Me hace contento conmigo mismo Algo que nunca serás Sin mí - Molly Brennan ‘14

I love nature Swimming in lakes Staring at the stars Makes me happy with myself Something you will never be without me.

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DEAR MOTHER NATURE, I thank you for the serenity you bring me each morning as I raise my blinds to allow your utopia of sparkling sunbeams to awake my soul. I commend you on the relaxation you bring me each restless night as you encircle my body with your endless cloak of glistening stars and galaxies. Through the dense window that sits dreadfully above my rusted bed frame, I witness your beauty. My naked eye studies your bare bones; nothing is more beautiful than you, Mother. With little effort, you have created smooth, white stones that peer innocently through hillsides, releasing exquisite aromas of damp wood and blossoming honeysuckle. As the melodies of toy-sized male finches sail along the light breeze, flowers gently raise their tired heads to listen to the restorative soundtrack of la primavera. You peel away the pure skin of the white birches, revealing their gorgeous bones that lie hidden beneath. Silky bumblebees nibble at the sweet nectar you have promised them. Upon the resurrection of the lilacs, one truly can attest to your commendable sense of style. Your spring collection is always cherished. As I ready myself each morning, I do my best to embody your authentic elegance. Though I fail day after day, I will forever crave to mirror your sublime beauty.

- Maggie Fenney ‘13

WHAT COLORS MAKE UP A PERFECT LANDSCAPE They must present a feeling of pleasure Sky is blue, trees are green, and sun is orange Sending this great landscape to my love is to treasure They must present a feeling of pleasure No one should be alone and have faults Sending this great this landscape to my love is to treasure Paint colors into his life is always one of my dreams No one should be alone and have faults Colors brighten any day with glow Paint colors into his life is always one of my dreams Nothing has more power than this sight Colors brighten any day with glow What colors make up a perfect landscape Nothing has more power than this sight Sky is blue, trees are green, and sun is orange - Yixuan Yang ‘13

Carson Burke ‘13 22

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WHAT IS THE PATH of human kind?

Are institutions and governments a proper extension of human ability?

Or can man be a less worldly, spiritual figure?

More time spent with the divine presence of nature will dissolve the mind walls created by institution and reveal the alive vibe available to all beings.

- Bailey King ‘14

Salty Pennington-Fitzgerald ‘13

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The Pollinator, Winner of Young Reporters Contest Pollination is an environmental issue that concerns me for many reasons. One reason being, pollination allows flowers to reproduce and, brings us fruits and vegetables. However the use of pesticides and GMOs have had a negative impact on the number of pollinators who perform this extremely valuable ecosystem service. Aside from the importance of pollinators, I have a fascination with pollinating insects. This is why I attempt to capture the beauty of insects, which I value so dearly. - Matt Carras ‘14

TIGER IN A TROPICAL STORM Inexperienced like a child learning to ride a bike You work hard and dedicate yourself You start in a jungle Experimenting ways to create curves and to get around them The weather doesn’t hold you back When you’re determined enough, You wouldn’t let a thunderstorm put you down The lightning would be your guide Giving you flashes of what was ahead of you You hold your breath as you move around obstacles Failure to do so doesn’t mean you fail Failure to do so means that you were brave, and maybe stupid Enough to try You get on your bike You pick up your paint brush And all that you hear in your head is Ready, set, go.

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Sarai Moore ‘13

Henri Rousseau 24

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Samantha McIntosh ’13 (original photo Paramount Pictures 1961) 25

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WHY I PLAY: THREE ATHLETES Ever since I was seven years old, I became a part of something bigger than myself. I transitioned from ballet and Saturday night performances that would last three to four hours to a concrete lined street hockey rink. I went from putting on pink dresses and makeup to rollerblades and shoulder pads. If anyone asked me why I played hockey before I came to VA, I would probably say something along the lines of “because I love the game.” Which is completely true, I love hockey. I would go to a rink hours before my practice started and watch the games going on. I was at every Providence College game from 2006 to the winter before VA, and I could recite the roster and stats for each college team in hockey east. I do live for the game; I live for the long car rides and pregame rituals. I live for the rivalries and the hard fought games. I live for the smell of the ice and the piercing sound of the puck hitting post. But most importantly, I live for my hockey team.

- Ari Beauregard ‘13 I run to find someplace that is not mentally or physically here. The clarity of mind is an endless desert of space and of peace. Whether it be to escape the endless cacophony of pollution, noise and discord, the narrow confines of space defined by endless lines and angles or to simply quiet the noise in my own head, moving beyond pain, frustration and reaching a nirvana state of spent, this is why I ride and run. Could I stop if I wanted to? Broken bones, dysentery, birth, death, nothing can stop the compulsion to find peace. Protestations of bones that echo pangs of despair of every step beyond the point of sense, sleep, recover, but no, that only brings capitulations to age, to spreading skin, to loss, of virility, vitality. Is peace stopping to count your breaths or simply losing count as you run from what you say you do not know but ultimately should stop to think of or about. Will I stop, will I accept that energy will wane, that quiet and calm will soon be the only course to find whatever answer makes sense, to cycle back to whole, probably not yet. I run to believe of a direction that is linear and true and of answers that only a spent body and a clear head can provoke. Shoring off death, conquering fear, running away from what? all experience, I continue on. I run.

- Matt Dall

Joey Mizhir ‘13 26

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I play hockey because of my brother. I grew up in his shadows being nine years younger than him, and saw his battles to succeed first hand. I saw his dreams get ripped from underneath his feet when he moved to Minnesota. The local junior team manager didn't allow him to play for his organization because he wasn't born in Minnesota. My brother essentially gave up all hope and stopped skating. Before he moved out west, he was a Massachusetts All-Star. He was the captain of his high school team as a sophomore and led the team in goals, averaging a little over two goals a game. My mom thought it would be a better idea for him to live with his father, and he agreed, but he didn't know he was going to have to give up his dreams of playing for a Division One hockey team when he got there. I saw him suffer through the loss of his first love, and the negative effects that came with it. I decided that I wanted to prove to him that I could be what he was never allowed to be; a successful hockey player. His dreams pushed me when I was younger to go to practice and to be the best skater out there. I wanted to make him be proud to say, "That's my little sister out there."

- Carly Radovich ‘14

Allegra Handler ‘13 27

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A J Latulippe ‘13 (above), Georgia Connick ’14 (below)

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SIX WORD MEMOIRS

Maryann McArdle (above, below)

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Kihun Han ‘14 (above), Matt Carras ‘14 (below) 30

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Kihun Han ’14 (this page and next)

PAW PRINT Sean Brennan Aaliyah Olmo-Gilmore Kihun Han

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Steffen Ghantous ’13

“I’M FROM” POEMS I AM FROM STICKERS from Neosporin and Band Aids.

I am from the grains of sand that stick between floor boards.

Tracked in by a dozen bare feet I am from the lilacs, From green and purple basil Whose rich scent filled the salty air I am from the year-long Christmas tree in the front yard and baby teeth that never fall out, from Yinglings and Lamadrids I am from the hard workers and the good liars.

From life isn’t fair, and be nice to your sisters.

I am from pasta every single Monday.

Through sickness and health.

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PAW PRINT I'm from 7 Hatch Rd. The small blue room, first right, second floor.

I am from sweet apple pie, and sharp cheddar cheese.

From the Uncle who went to clown school, the aunt who went to law school, and the father who sold pizzas out of the back of a truck -there’s no biz like dough biz.

I am from dusty photo albums and journal entries that can never be found when you’re looking, Whose semblance causes laughter, and secrets cause tears.

I’m from all the right love shown in all the wrong ways from nobody’s perfect and family sticks together.

- Monique Yingling ‘13

I AM FROM VERMONT. I am from mud pies and horse manure I am from grass stains and soggy socks I am from hours and hours of afternoon television From food stamps and tight hugs I am from liars/lovers/hippies, hearts I am from violence, From music— Sung loudly, driving fast Late to school always. “if you be my bodyguard, I can be your long lost pal.”

From mashed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

From the inside of a Chevy Nova.

I am from hands in hands to doors slammed shut.

I am from the hearth of every family Took me in like an orphan, At 5, 10, 15, 20… who showed me Europe, and a rash from haying, And the pain of cancer.

And so, so much love.

I am from the circus; A three-ring circus with more clowns than I can count.

From the magician says, “LOOK OVER HERE!” while something disappears.

I am from Peter Pan and Dorothy.

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PAW PRINT I am from Blanche DuBois: “I don’t want realism, I want magic!”

I am from thumb-sucking and swings in the backyard.

From Peace Pops, from kale, From a baby brother, sister too.

I am from a grandma who packs heat and shoots at close range.

I am from the river, and slimy rocks and thighs stuck together I am from the Summer, born right out of it.

I am, from the Fall to the Spring, A paradox.

I am from you as you make me.

I am from sea salt and cayenne pepper.

From Irish eyes and Buckeye hearts.

I am from the tiny scrap of paper At the threshold of my young parent’s one-room cabin Spelling out “J-U-L-I-A” for them to find when they brought me home.

I am from the peepers outside my window on this cool spring evening.

I am from the smell that came after today’s rain Like an old book, umami.

I am from wet kisses and cold toes.

I am from Saturday and Sunday, and a cup of weak tea.

I am from linoleum floors and led based paint.

I am from the apple of my Mama’s eye, I’m told And Moonlight on Vermont.

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Emma Roos ‘15 35

Julia Tadlock

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WHERE I AM FROM WHERE THE WATER IS

I AM FROM THE FIELDS.

CRYSTAL CLEAR If you want to go fishing you should come here The Florida Keys is where I am from We have nothing but fun in the sun Where I am from you love the heat When it’s below 70 staying warm is a great feat Fresh catch from the sea makes you go wow wee Tuna fish sandwich is my favorite delicacy So come visit where I am from And I can guarantee you will have some fun.

- Will Stone ‘15

I am from the tree house.

I am from the warm winds of a summer storm.

I am from the scent of a new pair of shoes.

I am from the warmth of an after school snack.

I am from the kitchen and the powerful aroma within.

I am from the excitement of exploring far away places.

I am from the soothing sound of an acoustic guitar.

I am from the comfort of a knitted hat.

I am from the purring of an old friend.

I am from an abandoned bed room.

I am from the memories of an old house.

- Julian Stolper ‘15

I AM FROM MARBLES, from Maypo and fire-roasted apples.

I am from Ghost-town Gully, narrow, timeless, until the faint cry of “time to come home” I am from the weeping willow, the tiger lily, and hickory nuts, pale flesh on gray rocks, hair smelling like freedom.

I am from “Would you like a piece of fruit?’ and five feet, From Evie and Ike and Pedro Pedro.

I am from belly laughs and lung cancer, From sit up straight and I think I can, I think I can.

I am from why is this child not like any other child?, never forget, and we shall overcome.

I am from Shrub Oak, Coney Island, and pogroms, from potato pancakes and currant jam, From records thrown into the incinerator and water balloons in Sweden.

On the shelf in the hall closet, leather covers and black corners – He had a crush on me, white gloves at baseball games, and smuggled silver, Smiling eyes and dancing in fields.

I am from it’s only a thing, a day of listening, from love once misunderstood and deepest gratitude.

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Amy Lanterman 36

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MEMOIR THE SORROW TIME Regardless of whom we are and what we are doing, parting, sickness, agedness and death are the four most sorrowful things that everyone must to undergo. Even though human nature drives us to ignore the existence of the sadness and to forget the sadness, nobody in the world can avoid them. So do I. I still remember the day my grandfather died; I still remember the emotions I’d never had before; I still remember the pain I endured in that day.

It was a Saturday in November, 2006. I went to the school to take additional harder classes with my classmates as usual, and nothing special had happened in the morning and afternoon. I awoke, had breakfast and my father sent me to school. The atmosphere in the car was harmonious and happy. When I got out of the car, we smiled to say goodbye.

The last lesson of the day was English. The teacher taught us grammar seriously, and students copied the notes carefully. Suddenly, I felt my cell phone vibrating. I opened it up and checked the message from my mom. There were only two sentences but they were shocking: “Your dad will pick you up. Your grandfather has died.”

I never had such emotion before since I was born. My brain was stopped running and my body could not move. I just stayed in silence until the class end. I did not say goodbye to anybody, and just left the classroom directly. When I got in the car, I thought my father seemed to have no mind. His arm held on the window frame and his eyes looked outside without focus. I did not want to break the silence, so I just sat and waited. But the heavy atmosphere made me feel breathless. I suddenly became relaxed after my dad said, “Let’s go home.”

Mom welcomed us back to home just like before, however, there was no smile on her face. We washed our hands, changed the clothes and waited for the dinner. When I heard mom calling us, I walked out of my room and sat down in front of the table. I saw my father walk slowly and wordlessly. The atmosphere around the table was the same embarrassed atmosphere as in the car. No one wanted to say anything to break the silence down. After about five minutes, my father put down his chopsticks and covered his face by hands. Even though he tried to cover the tears, the trembling shoulder told us his truly feeling. The sorrowful tone forced me to accept the truth that my grandfather had already died, and I could not see him even just one second. I walked back to my room and my tears came out. I started to remember every single moment I shared with my grandfather, I started to think about the future life without him, and I started to feel guilty because I only spent very little time staying with him.

At night, I had a heavy conversation with my father, which was about my grandfather’s whole life. Even though the things were far away from me, there were still so many things for which I had great feelings.

“Do you know your grandpa’s life as a young man?” asked my father.

“Not really,” I answered honestly.

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PAW PRINT “Your grandpa was lived in a poor family. When he was very young, he had to pasture a cow to feed the family. When I was young, your grandpa had some money that could make his life better, but he chose to save it for the family. Although, after several years, the money depreciated and was deemed worthless. ” Father said these like a narrator without intense emotion.

“You know your grandma died very early, right?”

“Yes.” “Your grandpa used to think finding a wife could make life easier. He thought each family should have a woman to manage it. My five brothers and sister and I were too young to understand him, so we strongly disagreed with this suggestion, because we couldn’t bear a stranger into our family. Now, I feel so ashamed. We never thought about it from my father’s position, but your grandpa always chose the best decision for us. We were too selfish.” Stopping here, my father started crying.

“Do you know where the old leather box came from? Your grandpa bought it for me to celebrate me going to the university. He never spent that much on himself, but he bought it for me …”

This conversation was too long to remember completely. I could feel how great my grandfather was. He was truly the backbone of the family. I also recalled some memory from my brain. I knew my grandfather helped raise me. I could image how he cared about me, how he hugged me, and how he loved me. As my grandfather, he always gave me the best he had. I also heard some new things about me that I had never heard before. I believed in my heart that my grandfather was the best grandfather in the world; indeed, I could not use shallow words to describe how perfect he was. I felt sorry for my grandfather that I did not spend time with him when he lived in Beijing with us. I remembered what he said when he was back home, “I like the life in countryside, because people’s hearts are closer, and everybody haves more time to stay together.”

Although I really wished I could go to the funeral ceremony to see my grandfather one last time, important academic tests forced me to stay in Beijing. This is my lifelong regret. On the day when the funeral was held, I lit candles in the night in order to send my best wish to my grandfather that hoped he could have a better life in the heaven. I never believed that each single star is represents the dead before, but that night I looked up the sky and saw the stars for a long time.

Everybody in the world may have a number of similar experiences during their whole lives, which could help them to have a stronger heart and mind. Like me, I become more mature after experiencing each sorrow time. Although I do not want to have these kind of experiences, I still want to say thank you to them, because they teach me so much.

-

Yumeng Cai ‘13

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UNBELIEVABLE You probably won’t believe this story, but it is completely true. I have been in a hospital brochure before. The brochure was for Shriners Children’s Burn hospital in Boston, it was a informational brochure about the procedure that I had undergone. If another patient needed the same procedure, they could see how it’s done. The procedure was really simple, but the brochure made it look really complicated. The brochure had pictures and description of what the doctor was doing. The first couple pictures showed the materials like needles, syringes and iodine swabs, that they used and how to use them. The next few pictures were showing how to do the procedure. I read it when I was younger and I had no idea what they were talking about, but now, I understand what they were doing and why. The procedure was adding a solution, like silicone into the implants that they had put in the earlier stages of my operation. They were put there to stretch out the skin with the hair follicles to pull over the parts of my head that didn’t have hair. The brochure was showing how to put the needle into the implant tube and then the solution into the implants. I was so excited when they mailed us the brochure, because I knew other people would be looking at it; I felt famous in some way. This procedure had a physical toll on me as well as a mental and emotional toll. The beginning of 7th grade was starting when I had just got my operation, and all I could see in my mind was people making fun of me and calling me names, one being “wrinkle head.” Many other people threatened to pop the implants and would come scarcely close to me with a pen or very sharp pencil. I later learned that no one wanted to be my friend because they were too afraid to ask me what happened. I would always think to myself, “I’m not mean! I’m so nice to everyone! Anyone can ask me, I don’t care!” to this day I still don’t care who asks me. It’s not a hard topic for me; I can talk about it as much as I want. But to the people who did ask me, I told all of them what I’ve been told about what happened: When I was three years old, I was left in my tub at home with the shower head on and maybe an inch of water in the tub itself. My father was waiting for the water to warm up, but by the time he got back to the bathroom the water was already at 3rd degree burn temperature which is about 160 degrees. If you put this all together you’ll understand, a three year old me with not a lot of surface area to cover, sitting in the tub with the shower head pointed right at me. So of course, it’s going to burn some part of my body. Luckily my dad got back right as the water was going toward my face and lower back. The scars I have I’m not afraid to show, I’m not embarrassed or shy about them. In fact, they are my power. I feed off the shyness of everyone else to make myself stronger. If you call me a name, I brush it off, because I don’t care. It’s my body and I’m proud of my scars; they are my story that I’ll be telling for the rest of my life.

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Corina Hardesty ‘16

FIGHT Ever since I turned thirteen, it was a tradition for my stepbrother, Adam, and my friend, Kurt, and I to go to Revere Beach on July 3rd. It was the day before my birthday and my stepbrother’s father lived on the beach. There were always fireworks and things like that. The best part was that we could just go out with no rules until whatever time we wanted and do anything we wanted. Every year was fun and there were never any serious problems. Until the night before, or I should say early morning, of my 17th birthday.

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PAW PRINT This day from the beginning was just a compete mess. We started off by going to a party in Winthrop around 7 o’ clock at night and from there on out everything was down hill. My exgirlfriend, Courtney, called me and told me she got out of work at midnight and wanted to see me. I thought it was a good idea at the time so I dropped Kurt and my stepbrother off in Revere and headed back to Saugus.

I got back to Saugus and hung out with Courtney until about one in the morning. After I dropped her off, I called Adam and told him I was on my way back to Revere. As I drove back to Revere, I started to realize that hanging out with her probably wasn’t a good idea and had a feeling that it was only going to be the start of my poor decision making for the night. When I got back to the beach and saw Adam and Kurt, I knew we were in for the night.

We sat on the beach with these random kids just doing stupid stuff. There was a fire so even though it was about 2 in the morning it was still warm. Then around 2:30 things started to get too rowdy.

Adam grabbed a barrel and rolled it into the fire. This made the fire bigger so obviously somebody thought it was a good idea to throw someone’s tent into the fire. Then, all of a sudden, I see the kid we were with, Joe, jump into the ocean. Then he just disappeared. I’ll come back to that later.

Realizing that we were probably going to get in trouble for what other people were doing, we left that area. As we walked down the beach we saw a group of people sitting at a table outside. It’s one of the things I liked best about hanging out at the beach this time of year. The New England chill was gone for a few weeks, and everyone was out – no sense of time or place – just enjoying the warm night air. These guys at the table, Adam thought it was a good idea to go over and sit with them. Regretfully, we all thought it was a good idea. It was now about 3:30 in the morning. While we were taking to these folks – quite a bit older than us - Adam had about a million stories for who he was. At first, he was in the army. Then he would change his story and say he was in college and was just making absolutely no sense. Next thing I know the man who was sitting next to me turns to me and asks me to take a walk with him.

As I walked away from the table with this man I could tell he wanted something. He looked really banged up and then asked me if I had something I would never do. I told him no and to get away from me and went back to the table. When we got back to the table is when it all happened.

Something about religion or family got brought up and to this day I will never know exactly what it was because my adrenaline was so high. Obviously, it was something I didn’t like and the man who had asked me to take a walk didn’t either. We were not on the same side of whatever it was. He grabbed me by the hair and started to try to swing at me. Adam immediately shot up out of his chair and hit him, which caused the older guy to let go of me. Adam was then fighting him one on one. Adam knocked him down and took off for the house. Once he got up, he picked up a chair and ran at me. When he swung the chair at me, I barely dodged it and was able to throw a quick hook at him and send him to the ground. After this man had already been knocked down twice, he still hadn’t had enough. He took off for Kurt. Kurt was also able to get this man onto the ground and get away. After three times of being knocked down, Adam came back with the kid Joe who we hadn’t seen since he jumped in the ocean (You thought he drowned, didn’t you?). Adam and the older man

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PAW PRINT ran at each other full speed as if it were a game of chicken. To this day I still have never seen anyone hit the ground so hard. Adam had completely flattened him. The man was out cold.

All this fighting wasn’t the problem. A grown man trying to fight a group of 17 year olds isn’t going to get us in any trouble, but probably will get him in some. Once this man was out, his girlfriend came out of the house. She was running at Joe. Joe picked up a rock, threw it at her and then took off. Once he took off they all got in the car and were chasing him. As one man drove by he put down the window, looked at us, and said, “You’re all screwed now.”

The sun was rising As this second epic fight was happening. We decided we needed to get out of Revere; it wasn’t even our fight. We hopped in the car and drove back to Saugus and crashed at Kurt’s house. When we woke up, Adam had a text from his father saying the police were at his house looking for us. They somehow had found out our names. So on my birthday, Adam and I had to go to the Revere police station. We had our story all planned out until we walked into the chief of polices office.

The man didn’t say anything and neither did we. He just stared at us. The he said, “You don’t remember me do you?” We both looked at him more closely until I realized he was sitting right across from me at the table we were all at before the fight started. He was the man who told us we were screwed. The man told us the things he didn’t like about the fight and also told us that the older man had broken his leg when he and Adam ran at each other. Luckily, we were not in any trouble because the man was much older and had instigated the fight. Also, they could not find crazy Joe. We just told him that we didn’t know who he was because we didn’t really. It was one of the craziest birthdays I have ever had.

-

Drew Oxley ‘13

12TH DECEMBER 2012 Many Christmases for my family involve heading up the East Coast to spend the holidays with family in Christchurch. Going to Christchurch at Christmas always means brunch, beach, and beautiful weather. This particular Christmas was no exception to that rule. It was the hottest Christchurch Christmas I can remember and my family and I were staying with my cousins in their house near a beach.

I think it was after Christmas day. It was hot and people were stuck in that post Christmas rut, lounging around and chatting. My cousins and I thought it was a beach day. Two dads and four cousins got ready and headed down to the beach. Excitement was building as the group approached the usual wharf of which we could get a decent jump into the estuary. But, the tide was out.

Excitement was replaced with disappointment as we realized there was to be no wharf jumping for at least six hours. Two options arose. We could go back home and wait for a full tide, which could mean waiting until the next day, or we could swim near the inlet at the actual beach just around the corner.

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PAW PRINT Because we were all in the mood for a swim, the group decided to head around the corner to the outlet. Once again, excitement began to build as we approached our awaited destination. On arrival, the normal beach routines kicked into full swing. Towels were hastily arranged on the sand, any excess clothing was thrown off, and then, the race to the sea was on. I managed to get away quickly but the others soon caught up. Our progress slowed as we hit the softer wet sand, but that just encouraged us more as the calling ocean was so close.

Taking that first step into the eerie blue water is always a shock, even on the hottest days, so I quickly but cautiously struggled through until I was up to my waist, then I took the plunge.

Swimming in the sea is refreshing, but it always feels dirty to me, all that sand and random seaweed floating around is kind of off-putting.

Anyway, once I surfaced I looked around. As per usual, the group was mostly spread out, some deep, some shallow prancing about in the waves. I find it strange that swimming is perceived as a very social activity but people always end up by themselves, alone. I think that is why this event that took place was all the more frightening. The surf that day was not very big but the tidal forces were still dragging me around as I attempted to swim out deeper.

I was swimming alone and could still quite happily touch the bottom, but I had been in the water for some time, the skin on my hands was looking like the surface of a shriveled peach. Beginning to make my way back into shore I thought to myself, “Man, we should have brought boogie boards!”

And even today I know that if we had taken boogie boards, my ordeal would of never taken place.

Inspired by my thought of boogie boards, I wanted to catch some waves into shore, body surfing. I eagerly attempted to catch several waves, waiting for that support of the water and the force of nature to take over. But, either I never got the timing right or I just couldn’t bodysurf.

I was reasonably close to shore by now so I thought I’d try one more time. I waited patiently for my “perfect” rolling mass of water, and I picked the biggest one I could see, thinking it would give me a better chance of success. I felt the water around me being sucked back as if the ocean was taking a breath before this particular wave. Then it was above me, it dwarfed me in the water as if I were a grain of sand. My instant thought was, “This was a bad wave to choose.” It was one of those awful moments before an accident or a regretful incident where your mind races. Rapidly, I thought of all the possible outcomes of me falling victim to this colossal wave.

Realistically, the wave was not as big as I am making it out to be. While my mind was still motoring, I thought that the safest way to handle this situation would be to try and catch the wave rather than go against the giant body of trothing angry water. I took a big breath but it was mostly knocked out of me as I was overcome by the sheer power of the water. And just like that, I was under, swallowed up by the giant that is the Pacific Ocean. Stuck under the toe of this giant, I yelled out - to who or what I don’t know, I think it was just from the impact.

People always say, “When you’re under water, don’t panic.” Well, that’s ridiculous. Of course I panicked. I was tumbling round under there losing all sense of direction. It was probably not even five seconds, but it felt like a solid minute had passed. When all the motion finally stopped, I 42

PAW PRINT frantically started flopping around hoping I was heading for the surface. I had my eyes closed for the whole nightmare, but I sensed my surroundings lighten and my head broke the surface. I gasped as the relief and adrenaline flowed through me.

I looked around, nothing had changed.

The others were still swimming. I spun around, expecting another bubbling wave, but there was no such thing. In fact, the sea was strangely calm, as if the giant Pacific had just wanted to show me its power and then leave me hanging, frightened. But I was out of there pretty fast, wading until I could run. Getting back to my towel, I sat and waited for the others to finish so we could head home.

When they eventually came in, I didn’t tell anyone my story. I was embarrassed, even though it wasn’t something to really get embarrassed about.

That day I learned of the oceans’ power and unpredictability, I am still slightly scared to swim in the sea, especially alone. But I have new found respect for it than I ever did before.

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Bria Noble Photo by Maggie Fenney ‘13

SHORT STORY WHEN JENNY FELL TO EARTH Jenny has long, wavy hair and a pair of deep brown eyes. Her skin sparkles under the sunlight like broken pieces of diamond. Maybe she was once a lonely star in the dark blue midnight sky, or maybe she was born from the gentle waves of the Caribbean Ocean. In fact, Jenny doesn’t know where she belongs. She lives in a world with only pale grassland and black stones, so she never knows what colors are. She doesn’t have anybody around her and no one knows her, either. Jenny looks at her world with her deep brown eyes, feeling something is always missing, but she cannot figure out what that is. What‘s the most special about the girl is that she can fly. She could feel the warm, summer breeze when she jumps high into the air and holds her arms straight on the sides of her body, flitting across the black and white little world. She never feels hunger for food but she is hungry for adventures. Indeed, nothing in her world really changes, even her plain white dress and dark silky hairband.

Until one day, she fell to Earth.

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PAW PRINT She was dropped onto the fresh, green grass of early spring, feeling a little cold and dizzy. Jenny stood up, turned around and rubbed her eyes. She saw trees, large fields and flower blossoms.

“What are those?” she said to herself, “Nothing could ever be so different.”

She tried to keep her eyes open without blinking, hoping to put everything into her memories.

Jenny didn’t feel scared because she didn’t know what fear was. Then she jumped up and flew in the new, refreshing air until she saw houses and tall buildings.

“Wow! I didn’t even know if I can fly that high!” she looked up until she could see the top of the skyscrapers. Jenny landed on the quiet morning street among the shops and restaurants. Then, she saw the first shop open, and stood in front of the show window, staring the inside. There was a gorgeous red dress on the clothes stand, decorated with sparkly silver patterns on the edges. On the floor was a pair of shiny high heels which matched so perfectly with the dress. Jenny imagined the outfits on her, and how it would be when she flew across the pale grassland with the bright-colored dress. She dreamed and dreamed until the shop assistant walked out of the door and smiled at her.

“Morning! How are you?” the old woman greeted Jenny enthusiastically. Jenny looked at her curiously. She was surprised because she had never talked to anyone before. As the awkward silence continued, Jenny heard steps approaching the shop.

“Hey! It’s you again. How’s your year going?” The old woman talked to the person excitedly as they were already familiar with each other.

Jenny turned back slowly. A pair of black and white sneakers first appeared in her sight, then a pair of dark blue jeans and a simple white shirt. As she continued to raise up her head, she saw a boy’s face: his short, black hair and his eyes even deeper than hers. He nodded at the woman without any facial expressions. No happiness, no excitement or enthusiasm. He was just being polite. Their eyes met, and for three seconds or more, they stared at each other in awkward stillness. Then the boy passed by Jenny and stepped into the shop.

“He is a little strange, right?” the woman smiled at Jenny, who appeared to be in a trance, and tried to pull her back to the real world.

“Is he your friend?” Jenny started to speak, “or maybe your relative?” she continued to ask carefully.

“No, everyone in this town knows that boy. His name is Mark. He used to be in the most infamous and wealthy family in this town.”

“What do you mean ‘used to’?” Jenny blinked her eyes curiously.

“Come here.” She asked Jenny to come closer and whispered in her ears, “Three years ago, his family was driving on the highway for a family trip, but unfortunately, they had a terrible car accident. When he woke up in the hospital, he was told that his father had passed away. His mother was still unconscious. Then, his family lawyer betrayed his father and helped another manager to take over their company. Later when his mother woke up, she lost her memories and became crazy.

She recognized her son as her husband and all she could remember was on her 25th birthday, her 44

PAW PRINT husband bought her a special music box and asked her to marry him. Mark lost everything in one day: family, money, and friends. In order to comfort his mother, each year on her birthday, he would come to my shop to buy that special music box and bring it to the hospital for his mother.”

The old woman sighed and got emotional.

“Poor child. He has been isolated ever since. There is a huge, heavy scar inside of him that no one could ever erase. I always hope that I could do something for him to help him get rid of despair.”

Then, the bell on the counter rang. The woman walked quickly back into the shop. She knew the boy had already found what he wanted.

When Mark walked out of the shop with the music box in his hands, Jenny decided to follow him.

She didn’t know anybody in town, she had no money with her and some invisible force kept pulling her towards him. She followed quietly with her bare foot on the early morning street, felt the unknown atmosphere surrounded her.

“Are you spying on me?” Mark suddenly turned back and stared at Jenny without any expressions on his face.

“I . . . I, no. I was just . . .” Jenny lost her speech. She couldn’t produce an explanation.

Mark walked straight away, and arrived at the hospital. Jenny followed until she stopped at the doorway of the hospital room. She saw a pretty woman with messy hair crying and then accepting the music box with a childlike, satisfied smile. Mark stood up, grabbed his coat and decided to leave.

However, the woman held his hand tightly and tried not to let him go. At that moment, Jenny saw the helpless and scared emotions on the woman’s face as if she was an insecure child.

“Take care of yourself,” Mark turned his back to her and without any hesitations, let go of her hand and came toward the doorway.

He walked outside the hospital and Jenny followed, until Mark sat down on the grass next to the lake, where there was no one else. He turned back and saw Jenny again. Jenny saw tears in his eyes.

At one moment, she thought it was her illusion, but it wasn’t.

“Is my life not terrible enough?” he asked, or he was just talking to himself. “You don’t understand.

No one understands me. I don’t know what you already heard from the town people, but I don’t want your sympathy. Just leave me alone.”

“I understand,” Jenny replied. She sat down next to him for a long time until he calmed down and stared at the lake pensively. “I have never seen my mother or father since I was born and no one else would ever understand more about loneliness than I do.” She erased his tears with her fingers and hugged him tightly. She continued, “I don’t belong here. Or maybe I don’t belong anywhere. I feel like my whole life is a dream and that I will never wake up.”

Jenny smiled, like an angel. “But whenever I feel lonely and helpless, I fly.”

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PAW PRINT Mark laughed. “Fly? Are you trying to convince me that you are from another planet that no one has ever discovered?”

In the next second, he saw the girl open up her arms, jump into the air and glide across the lake.

When Jenny landed back in front of him, they both looked at each other and laughed. They had never been so happy before and talked to each other about everything that had happened in their lives. Mark told Jenny his car crash was not an accident. It was planned by his father’s lawyer and some other managers in the company. He couldn’t understand how people would betray years of friendships for wealth and status. Since then, he didn’t want to trust people any more.

“I can feel a special connection between us,” he said, “and please, no matter where you go, don’t leave me alone.”

“No, I won’t,” Jenny replied.

However, when the graceful sunset painted the whole world orange and red, Mark saw Jenny dissolving into the golden sunshine and slowly started to merge within the fire-colored sky. Jenny felt herself falling and breaking into sparkly pieces.

“Jenny, wake up! It’s time for school!” It was mom’s shouting coming from downstairs. Jenny slowly opened her eyes and looked around her familiar room. Was it all her dream? The lonely planet, the first feeling of being on Earth, the woman in front of the shop, and . . . Mark. But everything she experienced just felt so real.

She put on her coat, finished the last piece of ham on her plate, carried her backpack and walked to the front door of home. As she opened the door and made her first step out, she felt that she was falling again. She saw everything around her spinning, so fast that she could only see the colors black and white. Then she landed. And there she was again, on her lonely planet. But this time, she was not alone. In front of her, Jenny saw the black and white sneakers, dark blue jeans, the simple white shirt and the pair of eyes: deep and full of . . . of love. “I trust no one else, but you.”

-

Xindi Hao ‘13

TRYING TO REMEMBER A TIME OF FREEDOM These little human looking invaders, in just the first few seconds that they have been here on this planet, have already changed from our belief of their coming with peaceful intentions of helping to solve the Earth’s many problems. But that was many years ago, now many of those humans who are still alive from that era don’t even know what freedom is or at least what the true meaning of freedom is. The sad fact is that humans don’t really inhabit the Earth fully any more. The aliens came and set up many little colonies to represent the different countries of the world. But this story isn’t one of pleasure or glamour. This is one of an entire planet’s pain and suffering. I will now try to tell you how I remember the days before the attack of these horrible little monsters.

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PAW PRINT At first it seemed like any other day on the Vermont Academy campus. At the time I was a senior there. It was the start of, no wait I think it was the middle of, spring. Whatever time it was it was during the time of peace on this campus. It all happened within months of the first ship crashing in to our great football field resulting in the death of a few students who were just out for no more than just a simple stroll around the campus. From that point on we soon realized that it was all downhill. Teachers and students rushed to the field after they had heard the screaming. By the time the whole student body was on the field and the area around it, the aliens, which we thought were huge, menacing creatures, just happened to be small fist sized creatures. We all began laughing at them, which was the first of many mistakes that we made that first day. That only made them angry.

They all took off what looked like tiny sunglasses, but when the population drew closer the front line of the crowd fell back on the rest. No one at the time realized what was going on, why these people were falling over. Within the first three hours, more than half of the population of Vermont Academy was killed along with massive destruction to the buildings and the grounds. Many of those who tried to fight back were killed. But when we had a chance to look back over the invasion force, we noticed that there was no sight of our fellow classmates.

The final time that I was able to look back before I left the campus completely, these creatures had eaten just about everyone. There were about ten of us still running in a group trying to get away.

The aliens that started out as what we thought of as small harmless aliens, here for peaceful reasons, were now ten and some even fifteen feet tall. As they ate, they grew bigger. As we got into a car and headed for the major cities to warn everyone, we heard on the radio that this was one of dozens that had landed on earth and on of so far five that had landed in America. We were driving so fast that we didn’t see that there was a turn in the road and at the rate we were going there was no stopping us. The first car barely missed the trees on the side of the road, but the second one, carrying most of the supplies we had grabbed from the school and other stores around the area, wasn’t so lucky and crashed into the trees. The sad part of it is that we didn’t even get as far as the border of Vermont before they finally caught us. We were put into huge domes. After that they sent us into outer space. When they finally took the covers off of the domes, we were on floating domed countries in space. They came on the screens of all of these space cities in which we were now trapped. Their leader announced their plan for the remaining planet. They felt that people were destroying the nature by expanding all their major cities. So by taking the humans away from the world, they will be there to help to restore the earth to its original state of a clean environment.

They would allow the planet to rebuild and those animals threatened with extinction would now have the chance to come back to life.

Later that night, survivors of the attack on VA met for the new mealtime. The group consisted of Sarah, Janir, Vanessa, and myself. We tried not to think of all of the great times that we had back at school. During the meal I asked everyone what was the one thing that he or she missed most about life on earth. Before any of them could give me an answer, our food was delivered by at least 25 to 30 of our invaders. Janir and I glared at them. It was only after Sarah had grabbed my arm to pull me back that I was brought out of my anger. I asked one of the creatures the time and the date. He asked me in response why it was that I would want to know such a thing. I told him that for all of us we were to be graduating from high school in about 51 days. His facial expression changed from not caring to that of sorrow. He said that it was April 4th .

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PAW PRINT “But before I tell you the year, I am going to say that on behalf of the empire, we are deeply sorry that we took you away from such an important date. It has been roughly about 4 of your earth years since we left.”

So that meant we would all have been seniors in college getting ready to graduate. I became angry. I broke away from Sarah’s grip, trying to pick him up, but in doing so he bit my hand. He told me that I was being rude and let that be a lesson. As he ran to rejoin his group, I turned back to the rest of the mine, clutching my hand. That was when I noticed the faces of Sarah and Vanessa had suddenly become worried. As I finally felt my hands become wet, Janir handed me a towel and wrapped my wound. Sarah, with little tears still running down her cheeks, looked at me as I sat down next to her. I tried to wipe away the tears, but she slapped me for my action. I knew that she was just venting out the anger. She ended up giving me a hug. That night, after getting over my hotheadedness, I finally got up the courage to ask Sarah to marry me after so many years. I was thinking to myself that it was such a ballsy move on my part that she would proudly say no, but to my surprise, she said yes. Now this future that we have up here in space is starting to look just that much brighter.

This is a message to all of those who are in hiding on what remains of the planet Earth, stay safe and it is my dream, like so many of us here in these floating bubbles that we are forced to called home, to someday return. We, as a species, are never stronger than we are as one group and not separated. We will make it back to Earth and rebuild it to the beauty of our childhood, so that for the generations that spend their days looking down at the big blue and green marble wondering what mysterious secrets lay in its waters. We will rid ourselves of these aliens and return home.

That isn’t just a dream anymore that is an absolute promise. Thank you and God bless the human race and mother Earth.

-

Keenan Fisher ‘13

FAN FICTION: THE HOBBIT Bilbo Baggins didn’t know what to think. He was surrounded by hundreds of people dolled up as hobbits, like he, or as dwarves and elves. He ran into at least twenty different Gandalf’s and came face to face with many goblins. Several times he had to hurry out of the way of others for he did not want to be pushed into a circle of impostures judging each other’s costumes. Bilbo wasn’t afraid of being noticed because he was complimented by a few other Bilbo Baggins for having the best intimation wear.

Bilbo was confused and looked down at his clothes, but before he looked up he had gone back into the crowd. Bilbo wandered around the edges of the room thinking this was the safest way for him to travel. He didn’t know what else was in the crowd and feared being stepped on. He noticed a lot of strange things, creatures, animals, and humans. Your mind would trick you into thinking that the creatures and animals were real, but you would soon shake your head around and come back to reality. Still though, everything seemed to be a frightening sight to Bilbo.

What caught him off guard the most was when he was at a vender’s table. The man who worked there, Sam, was selling cards, properly known as trading cards. On each card Bilbo recognized 48

PAW PRINT almost every face, weapon, and landscapes. The strangest to him was the card that had his face and details about him. He was listed as being three feet tall, plumb, and beardless. He is called a hero, a decent defender, and is most valuable when he has a weapon. It seemed accurate enough to Bilbo and he backed away from the table. As he noticed other tables he saw that these, like the one he was at, was covered in trading cards. He would look down at a few and when he looked up the person on the card would be in front of him.

As Bilbo was studying one of the cards a loud voice appeared out of nowhere. Bilbo hurried around, but everywhere he went the voice was just as loud, just as close. There were dozens of announcements, contests, lectures, demonstrations, duels, and other activities were going to be starting in half an hour. As a reminder of all of the announcements and events thousands of papers were scattered everywhere for you to use and schedule your day properly. Bilbo had no idea what any of these things are and what their purpose was. He was scanning it and trying to make sense of it when a group of dwarves, Gandalfs, elves, and hobbits, several of which were dressed up as Bilbo.

They all started talking at once. Bilbo had a hard time keeping up, but only managed to pick up a few words here and there from each person. Eventually they became silent. One of the Gandalfs had checked his watch and sent the group into panic when he announced that they only had 15 minutes until the voting would start. Instead of inviting Bilbo or simply walking away each of his arms were grabbed and he was being dragged forward. He was thrown into confusion and had found it difficult prioritize what was his biggest worry. He didn’t know where he was going, if he was being held against his will or if he was actually following them, he didn’t know who they were, in fact he knew nothing at all. His thoughts scattered as he entered a room was greeted was yelling and clapping as if they were trying to sound like a tempest. The guys he was with lead him up to the stage so that he could be voted on. It was a costume contest. There were different categories for the different characters. Since he arrived late he had missed the first couple and now couldn’t even observe this time because he himself was on stage. Judges proceed to cross the stage and criticizing and score each of the contestants.

They were silent and had no facial expressions. Once everyone had been looked over a winner was chosen. He turned to face the judges as a woman stepped forward and spoke into the microphone.

Her voice rang out as she announced the one who claims to be the real Bilbo Baggins and turned to point at Bilbo. He was given a trophy and a thousand dollars, which he knew nothing about. He exited the stage where his self-proclaimed friends waited to celebrate. The only thing that Bilbo said was that he wanted to go back to the Shire. Surprisingly enough, one of the Gandalfs stepped forward holding his staff. He said that if Bilbo meant it he could help him out. Bilbo nodded and was directed to say “take me to the Shire” after the bang of Gandalf’s staff hitting the ground.

This happened three times and after the last one Bilbo opened his eyes. He was lying in bed, still clutching the trophy he had won. He understood what had happened, but not how. He didn’t ask anyone to explain for fear that he would be made fun of more than he already was. Instead, he placed the trophy on his mantel, stared at it for a moment, and then turned to make breakfast.

-

Sarai Moore ‘13

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HUCK AND JIM: THE LOST PAGE

Emma Roos ‘15 50

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A STRANGE END TO A BEGINNING

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Robyn Wilkie ‘13

Robyn Wilkie ‘13 52

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THE DISCLAIMER

If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber'd here While these visions did appear.

 Shakespeare A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Emma Roos ‘15

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THE SHADOWS Aaliyah Olmo-Gilmore, 32 Adin Ascher, 29 AJ Latulippe, 28 Allegra Handler, 27 Amy Lanterman, 36 Anthony Davis, 15 Ari Beauregard, 26 Bailey King, 23 Bria Noble, 5, 43 Carly Radovich, 27 Carson Burke, 22 Casey Walsh, 21 Connor Brown, 5 Corina Hardesty, 39 Dave Persha, 17 Drew Oxley, 6, 41 Eddie Miller, 29 Emma Roos, 35, 50, 53 Erin Cohn, 8 Fanning Hearon, 31 George Atkins, 12 Zhi Luo, 6

Georgia Connick, 14, 17, 28 Grace Manozzi, 18 Guillermo Barreiro, 9 Jingtian Zhang, 6, 14 Joey Mizhir, 5, 6, 15, 26 Julia Tadlock, 35 Julian Stolper, 36 Kathi Perkins, 30 Keenan Fisher, 48 Kihun Han, 30, 31, 32 Kurt Roderigues, 5 Leyte McNealus, 20 Lisa McNealus, 11 Mac Haddad, 31 Maggie Fenney, 13, 22, 43 Maryann McArdle, 29 Matt Carras, 24, 30 Matt Dall, 26 Mikeala Paluszek, 7 Molly Brennan, 21 Monique Yingling, 34

Mufan Xi, 29 Robyn Wilkie, 18, 52 Sage Voigt, 31 Salty Pennington-Fitzgerald, 23 Samantha Gillingham, 6 Samantha McIntosh, 25 Sarai Moore, 24, 49 Sean Brennan, 32 Simon Jarcho, 31 Steffen Ghantous, 33 Will Stone, 36 Wyeth Olmsted, 10, 29, 54 Xindi Hao, 6, 46 Yi-Chen Cai, 20 Yitao Ni, 11 Yixuan Yang, 22 Yongho Lee, 19 Yumeng Cai, 38 Yumo Cheng, 31

Wyeth Olmsted ‘15

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