It was a cheery, sunny day at school. I couldn't figure out what it was about today that was so great. Maybe it was just a good mood. Maybe it was the weather. Maybe it was seeing my friends for the first time after a long winter break. Whatever the reason it did not matter, nor did I care. Because I was unusually happy for a person of my personality, which is all that matters. I walked down the shimmering, sunlit halls of my school with a tremendous crowd of teenagers, who all seemed just as happy today. Smiles all around, sparkling white teeth, golden light washing over blond hair, fashion statements that actually work, cute couples giggling with each other about inside jokes no one else would get, and above all, the roar of talking that absorbs the whole school. These are all of the things I witness as I too walk down the hall with a sparkling white smile. I was so joyful it wasn't even normal. And then it hit me. It started with a extreme sinking feeling in my stomach, as if a boulder had been dropped in it. 2nd came the sick, nauseating feeling. 3rd came the relization: I forgot to study for my 300 point final in math, which is the class I was about to walk into. I halt in my tracks, allowing people to push past me. I cant move. I have a 4.0 GPA, a “goody goody smart kid” as some kids call me, and I could not afford for this to happen. The impact to my grade would be horrific, my parents would be ashamed. There is no more light, only darkness and icy, muffled voices. I take a few steps, then a fre more and a few more after that. I find myself in my math class. The electric lights glare down at me, blinding my already clouded vision. I walk over to my teacher, with her wrinkly frown and bright red lipstick staring me down, and whisper “I forgot to study for the test. Please give me another chance! Please I will do anything!” My teacher starts to laugh, which I could not figure out why until she said “Don't worry, the test is next week Lynda. I would never put a test date on the first day back from winter break. Ha! Imagine that!” A deep relieving feeling washes over me and I sigh. It was all my imagination.
0 Comments
Some people are afraid of high school, other are excited, and the rest just don’t care.
Just let me say that high school is nothing like it is in the books and movies. There are no girls that wear pink every Wednesday, there’s no one that makes the people in the hallways part like the Red Sea when they walk through and they’re aren’t boys who wear their Letterman’s Jacket everyday and carry around basketballs all the time. Those are all just stereotypes. I think that the scariest thing about high school is when you first walk into the school near the gym and café, and it looks like literally everyone and their brother is standing there in little circles. There are the boys freshman boys, the senior boys, and everything in-between. I actually think that on the first day of school, when I was walking towards the locker room (I’m a soccer player) and all of the boys where standing there in a huddle, I thought they were seniors and about 8 feet tall. It was 2 weeks later that I learned they we’re all my age. It’s that same way trying to get into the sports locker rooms. It’s also pretty scary when you walk into your class for the first time, because you have no idea who anyone is and there is no way to tell if you’re in the right place- but then you feel better when the teacher calls your name during attendance. Don’t second guess yourself when you get into your class for the first time, just go in and sit down. On my first day of school, I accidently took the wrong lunch, (which is a totally different story) and I got to my fourth period geometry class, looked in and everyone else was already in there sitting down. So I stood outside for a few minutes trying to figure out if I was lost. One of the boys in the class saw me outside and said to the teacher, “I think she’s lost.” Then Mrs. Smith called me in and asked me if I was Emily Wurdeman, I told her that I was and she told me that I had taken the wrong lunch, but it wasn’t a big deal because other people had done it too. Because of that, I had to go to lunch again (at the correct time). There was this other girl in my geometry class that also had taken the wrong lunch, so we decided to eat together, which we ended up doing almost every day, and now she’s a great friend! The point is- don’t second guess yourself. If the room you are in is the room that your schedule tells you to be in, then you’re in the right place. But the thing is, it all gets better, you’ll make friends in all of your classes, and start to see familiar faces when you walk down the hall. If you think about in, in 20 years, you’re not going to remember if you had any fun in your classes, your going to remember the fun you had any time but then. So slow down, don’t run from class to class just to be the first one there, take your time, and talk to your friends in the halls. I can promise you that you’re going to remember the time that you talked to your crush, or you watched someone get asked to homecoming, or you watched someone fall down the stairs – it’s the harsh reality. And sometimes even with all of the fun, high school can be scary. High school is actually the place where for the first few weeks, you put your head down and hope that no one sees you. But sooner or later, you have to loosen up and make some memories! Being an Edmonds Woodway Warrior can have a different meaning for different people. A senior could say freshmen don’t know what it means to be a Warrior, and they are probably right. Freshmen have only been at EWHS for about a year when seniors have been here for three and a half years, that’s why they win almost every competition between the classes. But the time I’ve spent at EWHS has given me an idea of what it is to be a Warrior, I have learned that taking your academics seriously is a big part to being a EW Warrior, respecting staff and peers, being responsible, and the most fun part showing school spirit at sports games. These are all important parts of being a Woodway Warrior.
Having school spirit is huge at Woodway and you learn that quickly. So dressing up in school spirit gear is never looked down upon because we want our athletes to know that we are there to support them and we believe in them. School spirit is such a easy thing to have too because its fun, like the Friday night football games are my favorite because you can wear the craziest things that are purple and green and no one is going to look at you funny because they will probably look ridiculous too. Another way to show school spirit is participating in spirit weeks. Homecoming spirit week is the best and almost everyone does it! You actually stand out more when you don’t dress up then the people who do dress up because that’s how many people participate. There’s more to being an Edmonds Woodway warrior then just dressing up in spirit gear. Being an EWHS warrior also means being a good student and citizen outside of school. Being respectful to other citizens and staying safe and responsible as possible are good ways to ensure that Woodway students have the good reputation we deserve. I wanted someone else’s view on what it meant to them to be a Warrior, so I asked my friend and fellow student what it meant to her to be a Woodway Warrior. “ To be a Edmonds Woodway Warrior is to be better then meadowdale obviously… to be a good person, balance school, academics, sports, and your life outside of school”. I couldn’t agree more with her, I hope now you have some idea about what it means to be a Warrior. Being a good Edmonds Woodway Warrior is important to me because if you think about how much time we spend at school, we spend a lot of our teenage years here. Why spend them them with anything but pride and fun? I am proud to be a Edmonds Warrior and I hope you are or become one too. The sport I really love, motivates me to do even better if I want to achieve any success in the sport. This sport really drives me to be at my one hundred percent playing as an athlete. This sport is loved by millions worldwide. In America this sport is known as soccer but to the rest of the world it is known as futbol.
Soccer to me is a passion of mine that I deeply adore. Day in and day out whenever I have the chance to go out and play I enjoy soccer. Soccer to me has grown over the years. I had played on my first team when I was about fifteen years old. When I always played on the field I would always learn from playing on field with my teammates. I learned several factors from playing soccer with my teammates to be successful such as learning to cooperate with people, being patient when we’re losing can compare to having patience when I have a difficult moment that’s impatient, and I have also learned to be humble when I have a talent playing soccer. I had also learned many personal lesson’s that soccer taught me. When I played soccer it made me increase my intelligence when I came in and out of the field. The biggest impact that soccer had in my life was playing every second in every game I played and gave my best to show out. The atmosphere that I most love about playing in every soccer game would be the competition. The competition that every soccer game felt like was a heated argument between players if we were losing or it would be more positive talk such as motivating teammates on the pitch. The atmosphere of playing a soccer game is going your all out to prove that your worth to stay on the starting squad and winning every game when we can. Every game that I played its atmosphere would be a nerve wreck I’m one of those people who can motivate teammates but I can’t seem to stop that feeling of being really nervous in every game. Whenever I have chances to shine out in a soccer game I do. I like to take those opportunities and show all the people that doubted me for being on a soccer team and prove them wrong that I am worthy enough to say I’m better than other average players. Before every game I like to do a ritual and that’s pray before every game for an advantage. This calms me down so I can play with no worries because I’ll know that I’ll do well in every game when I’m truly focused. Just like every sport out in the world, I just want to motivate every individual that plays a sport that’s feeling bad about themselves. The biggest moments I faced when I played soccer was getting cut from the high school team my sophomore year. The next year after my sophomore year was my junior year and I told myself “I’m going to make the team this year.” I did just that, I proved every one wrong that doubted me, that’s what motivated me I had that capacity by working really hard. I’ve worked harder than others and that’s what drove me to get better and also having that dedication to practice every day. Like every athlete in the world they practice to get better and better to perform at the professional level that they do. I compare myself to an athlete, because of the hard work I put in by performing at my best but when times are rough I motivate myself to get better at a mistake I made in the field. All the hard work that someone puts in at a sport or any activity you like you can motivate yourself by improving like I did and that’s my blog talks about. My message is “Whatever sport or activity you like work hard at it to motivate yourself to improve beyond expectation.” The following document has ideas for being organized at school that include three ways to organize your binder using every day office supplies!
The days are cold and rainy. Sunlight shines but does not heat up anything, the radiation is just for light. That only means one thing: Wrestling season! The atmosphere is intense at any duel. The intensity heats up as we step into a tournament. We walk in with our heads up ready for a challenge, any challenge. Giving up is not a phrase we have learned, the definition and action are nowhere to be found. With defeat comes experience and learning, a crowd may see disappointment but it is room for improvement. Every wrestler requires headgear, a singlet, shoes, and a mouth guard if braces are present. Knee pads are optional for use.
Wrestling is an individual sport as well as a team sport. Each individual wrestles for themselves to improve and win, but they also earn points for winning (in Varsity matches). One player cannot win the meet (match) for us. In other sports, if there is a super-star, it is possible to win even against strong teams. For individuals, taking a person down and staying in control awards two points. The person being controlled must escape, if they do get away within the time, they earn one point. They are back to neutral position (both standing). Instead of escaping, let’s say the person on bottom gets control with a reversal, which awards two points. Near fall points are awarded when one is close to being pinned but stays. If that near fall lasts for two seconds, two points are earned. Five points can be received when a near fall lasts five seconds. Penalties are also common in wrestling. A full nelson is when one person uses two hands to control an opponent’s head, it is an illegal hold and will be called to give the opponent one point. Other violations include but are not limited to stalling, grabbing clothing, headgear, or the mat, locking hands with both knees on the ground, and being unprepared while arriving at the mat. These all award one point to the opponent. Sportsmanship is also very important in wrestling like every other sport. Unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct will end up in points or in bad cases, disqualification. Team points are received by winning each match. Losing does not do anything but award the opposing team. A pin, disqualification, or forfeit earn a team six points. A forfeit is when the opposing team either has no one to wrestle or the person is injured and/or does not want to wrestle. A tech (technical fall) earns five points; this is when one has 15 points above the opponent and is an instantaneous win. Winning by eight to fourteen points awards four team points, and winning by seven or less points awards three team points. Now that we’re done with introducing rules and everything, the Edmonds Woodway team had their first match on Thursday, December 4, 2014. It was a dual meet and we defeated Marysville-Getchell 63-6 and Marysville-Pilchuck 51-21. Next, there was another dual meet where we wrestled Stanwood on Tuesday, December 9, winning 48-31 and Oak Harbor, defeating them 51-30. A week later was our first home meet (another dual meet) against Everett and Arlington. Everett beat us 47-25 and we won against Arlington 36-33. Last week, on Wednesday, January 7, 2014, we defeated Mountlake Terrace 52-22 and the day after beat Shorecrest 70-3. We have four more meets this season before post season starts. We face Shorewood on Tuesday, January 13 at Shorewood High and Glacier Peak on Friday, January 16 at home (Edmonds Woodway). The week after, we are set against Meadowdale on Thursday, January 22 at Meadowdale High and then Lynnwood on Thursday, January 29 at home. On December 5th Ms. Davis’s photo 1 photography classes took a field trip to Seattle Center and Pike Place Market. The buses, jam-packed with photography students, departed from EWHS early in the morning to arrive at Seattle Center. The Center gave off the impression that it was just awakening from a lengthy sleep. Seattle Center turned out to be an exceptional shooting location with a lively urban feel. One of the most fascinating subjects at Seattle Center is the enormous fountain spewing water to the beat of music that plays from several speakers, but be careful, you just might get splashed! Another iconic subject is the continually transcendent Space Needle that, with a beautifully composed photo will look good in any weather Seattle has to offer. Personally, my favorite subjects at the Seattle Center were the small subjects that most people bypass, those subjects constantly make brilliant photographs. After a creative hour at the Seattle Center the photo classes hopped back on the buses and rode down to the Pike Place Market, the classic neon sign welcoming us as we arrived. As we all strolled into the large area of commerce we were overtaken by the decadent smell of doughnuts, and of course I had to get some of those. They ended up being just as delicious as they had smelled. Just like at the Seattle Center there were many iconic and traditional subjects to shoot, but there were also unanticipated subjects within the details of Pike Place. Whether you’re someone who goes with the flow of photos that the group takes, or you swim against the mainstream, Pike Place is certainly an excellent shooting location for you. Even if you’re not someone who’s into photography there’s still an abundance of things to see, do, and eat. As we crammed back in the bus to leave I was pretty down about having to leave but I was also pleased to have had the remarkable opportunity to take photographs at such stunning locations. This field trip was an extreme success for everyone involved and allowed the photography classes to look at Seattle through a new lens. If you get the chance to go to this wonderful location and shoot, don’t pass it up, magnificence like this won’t last a lifetime.
|
AuthorsMs. Stifter Archives
May 2015
Categories
All
|