Red & BlueReviewSanta Fe Trail High School

You Can’t Take It With You

Chase Logan, 11, imitates waves with a spring also held by TJ Kemble, 12, as Nate Vice, 12, and Dominic Capra, 11, look on. Jay Ryan, 11, holds the end of a slinky. They are doing this to learn about transverse and longitudi-nal waves as part of a physics experiment. Photo by Maria Penrod.

Spring SportsBaseball, softball, boys’ golf, and track and field are in their starting blocks. Season goals and hype on page 2

Funniest and favorite moments from the play on page 6

Volume #45 Issue #5April 2013

Carbondale, Kan.

The Core IssueFind out what changing to the Common Core standards means for Santa Fe Trail High School, Kansas, and America on page 4

Shocker StousAlum Baylie Stous (2012) shares about managing Wichita State University’s Final Four men’s basketball team on page 8

Mirror, Mirror on the WallDo you really matter at all? Read all about it on page 11

Spring is in the air

It is that time of the year again. Spring sports have started up and are in motion. Softball, baseball, track and field, and boys’ golf have been practicing for a while now. Although the softball and baseball fields have been muddy or covered in snow the teams have found alter-natives in order to practice. The golf team hasn’t even been able to go on the golf course due to the snow. Track has to run inside of the school and through the snow. “Golf is fun to do when you are doing really good, but it gets super frustrating when you aren’t play-ing your best. It’s hard to know where everybody stands right now because we haven’t even been able

to get on the course yet,” William Foster, 11 said. Softball and baseball are sports that can easily be played outside of school . Many of the players that play for Santa Fe Trail also play on other teams in the summer and in the fall . Amber Moore, 11, Shelby Dahl, 11, and Briahna Beckman, 11, all played on the Sundevils this summer. “It was a lot of fun to be a part of that team. All of the girls on the team were nice and I got along with them really well . We ended up doing pretty good at the end of the sea-son,” Moore, said. Garrett Stout, 11, also plays on a

summer team as well . “Baseball is like church. Many people attend but few understand,” Stout said. The track team has been working hard since day one. “I think track season this year will be a great one. We already have great technique and work ethic dur-ing practice. We couldn’t really do it without our coaches pushing us. They help us out a lot. From telling us to stay behind the line to telling

BY JAEDEN ROMINE

PHOTOS BY JESS ABENDROTH

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PAGE 3

1. Track team members warm up inside the school on a cold day. 2 . Garrett Stout, 11, warms up his arm by playing catch. 3. Caleb Snyder, 12, takes some swings at golf practice. 4 . Amber Moore, 11, hits some balls off of the tee. 5. The baseball team huddle around Coach Duncan to talk about their practice. 6. Paula Lopes, 10, and Josh Anguish, 9, run around the track.7. Colin McIver, 10, works hard during track practice.8. The girls softball team warms up be-fore they start practice.Photos by Jessica Abendroth

us when we can go during warm-ups. I look forward to the meets. The bus rides up to the meets will also be fun. I can’t wait to be on the bus singing High School Musical songs with all of the girls. It will be a great season,” Anna Capra, 10, said.

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8.

College Signing

Lane Clark, 12, signed to play football for a year at Fort Scott College. “I have al-ways wanted to play college football . When my scholarship and national letter of intent showed up at my house I was so excited. I guess all of the hard work and dedication payed off. I can’t wait to be a greyhound,” Clark said. Photo by Keith Johnson

MacKenzie Herren, 12, will be running cross country and track for Johnson County Community College next year. “This is all so exciting me. Running for JCCC is going to be a blast. I hope I can give God glory in some way. Signing with them is such a blessing. This is a new beginning for me. I am so excited to be on my own,” Her-ren said. Photo by Maria Penrod

Dallas Gloss, 12, signed with Ottawa University to run cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track. “I’m excited to go off to college, but at the same time it is scary to think I will soon be out on my own. It is just another step in my life,” Gloss said. Photo by Maria Penrod

3

Baylie Stous graduated from Santa Fe Trail High School less that a year ago, and is on her way to the Final Four. Stous is one of nine managers for the ninth-seeded Cinderella Wichita State University Shockers men’s basketball team. “Being a manager in college is similiar to managing in high school, but it’s just on a much more intense level . I do similiar things now as I did at the Trail,” Stous said. “I’m at the gym everyday for at least five hours, if not more. In college, there are a lot of rules set by the NCAA that we must follow. Working with a Division 1 team is extremely intense and you have to be on it all the time!” Some of Stous’s jobs as manager are setting up practice, helping make videos and scouting reports, cutting film and making clips, organizing and setting up for meals, inventoring and organizing equipment, answering phones, office work and assisting the coaches with whatever else they may need. “My least favorite thing about being a manager is being a girl,” Stous said. “I work with 15 players, all male, six coaches, all male, seven managers, all male, and then there is Jessica and I, the lone female managers. The guys are really understanding about it and are very respectful, but it does make it difficult sometimes.” Stous feels very close the players that she works with. “It’s like having 15 brothers. You love them most of the time, but they have their moments. They can be obnoxious and annoying, just as most guys can! They take care of me like I am part of the family,” Stous said.

Stous enjoys watching basketball games, going to dinner, and shop-ping with the players on the team. She is even learning new skills from them. “I used to be awful at dribbling a basketball, I never really played. But our point guard, Malcolm Arm-stead, taught me how to handle the ball and I got better at dribbling,” Stous said. She also mixes it up on the court from time to time. “Sometimes they play me in HORSE,” Stous said. “I almost always lose. One time, I did beat Demetric (Williams, senior, guard). Granted he shot with his left hand, but nevertheless, I beat him! There are times when all of the managers and even the coaches will play some five on five. It’s pretty fun! The play-ers even watch.” Stous had major butterflies when her beloved Shockers took on the number one Gonzaga Bulldogs in the second round of the NCAA tour-nament. “I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I was worried. I usually get pretty nervous though. I think that’s the loudest I’ve ever yelled at a game. My voice was gone after that. I sounded like a man,” Stous said. “I was so nervous before, but thinking that this team can do anything. We are always full of surprises!” Even Stous was a bit surprised when the Shockers won. “I kept looking up the shoot-ing percentages and statistics on my iPhone,” Stous said. “I couldn’t believe how well we shot the ball . Fred (Van Vleet, freshman, guard) and Ron (Baker, red shirt freshman, guard) were amazing. I couldn’t be more proud! It was so incredible to be playing so well against such a

BY MARIA PENROD

IMAGES SUBMITTED

Stous: Shocked and Loaded

How Well Do You Know the Madness?Q:Who was the worst-seeded team to ever win an NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship?

A:Villanova won as an eighth seed in 1985.

Stous holds up the NCAA West Regional Trophy

that Wichita State won after beating Ohio State

70-66 on March 30 in Los Angeles, California

earning the Shockers a place in the Final Four in

Atlanta, Georgia.

Senior guard Malcolm Armstead poses for a

picture with Stous. Armstead taught Stous how

to dribble a basketball properly.

Q: Who was the worst-seeded team to make it to the Final Four?

A: Three eleventh seeds have earned a coveted place in the Fi-nal Four: Louisana State in 1986, George Mason in 2006, and Virginia Commonwealth in 2011

respected and impressive Gonzaga team.” Stous, who is majoring in sports management, will be heading to Atlanta when the Shockers take on overall one-seed Louisville on April 6.

Q: Which coach has the most Fi-nal Four appearances in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament?

A: John Wooden at UCLA

5PAGE

Every School the SameBY APRYL CORLEY

Picture from www.commoncore.co. The states in dark grey are the ones who

have accepted Common Core, the ones in light grey have yet to have adopt Com-

mon Core.

Starting next year, Santa Fe Trail will start the Common Core pro-gram. The Common Core program’s intention is to have all students pre-pared with the skills and knowledge that they will need in high school . The program also wants to pro-vide a clear understanding of what is expected of students to learn, so that the adults in students’ lives know how to help them. Students who have to switch schools, will not have to worry about weather or not they will be behind at their school . Earlier during the year Tyler Thompson moved back to SFT from Topeka High. When moving back Thompson did not know what to expect in his classes. Thompson said that he was actually ahead in some classes. He believes that Common Core will make students feel more secure with what their learning. “I didn’t like coming back to chemistry because I had to play a lot of catch up to get caught up with all the other students,” Thompson said. According to www.corestandards.org, 45 states, the District of Co-lumbia, and four territories have accepted Common Core. Texas, Alaska, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Virgina are the states that have yet to adopt these new standards. These new standards for education will effect all subjects. The new math standards will fo-cus on teaching students on how to maintain information that students have already used, instead of un-derstanding it for the chapter and then promptly forgetting it. High school students will learn how to ap-ply their mathematics skills to real world situations, like employees and college students do everyday. Richard Huddlestun, math teach-er, thinks that once all the teachers get use to the new standards, it’ll be easier to come up with activites for students to understand. “Yes, I anticipate some struggles, because not all the the standards are actually written,” Huddlestun said. The reading standards require the increase development of reading comprehension in order for stu-dents to get more out of what they

are reading. All students will now read classic myths, U.S. documents, works of American literature, and Shakespeare, and various other stories. Karen Hoffsomer, english teacher, is already using some of the com-mon core standards in her class-room, but will be adding more nonfiction and writing next year. “I believe that it’ll make students better because they’re going to be asked a lot of open ended questions, so that they’ll have a higher level of thinking,” Hoffsomer said. In science, beginning at the high school level, students will be re-quired to precisely follow a complex lab procedure. Students will also know how to take a quantitative or qualitive lab and turn it into visual information, such as graphs, tables and equations. By the time students graduate they will have learned how to evaluate mutiple sources so that they can answer a specific question. Students will also have learned how to evaluate data then challenge conclusions with other sources of information. Shelly Robinson, science teacher, believes that Common Core will drive her classes to be more hands on. She also thinks that the new standards will require her students to write more than they are accus-tomed to. “I fear the change, everybody hates change,” Robinson said. In history, high school students

will be required to evaluate expla-nations for historic events and then decide which explanation corre-sponds with actual historic events. Students will also learn how to analyze a complex source and decide how the source was structured. They would also know how to iden-tify how certain parts contribute to the whole paragraph. High school-ers will be able to evaluate authors different point of views on the same historic events by concluding why they made their claim. Faith Flory, social studies teacher, feels like she already uses some of the common core’s standards already in class. She said that the standards will change, so it might change the way she does her notes and her objectives for her classes. Flory feels that her classes will become more skills oriented instead of content oriented. She said that she feels that commom core will improve her classes by becoming more geared towards skills that are used in real world. Flory believes that students will become higher thinkers because they won’t just be memorizing information. “I fear that we will only do Com-mon Core for five years then new people will come into power and the standards will change agian. I wish we could just use something that works and keep it,” Flory said.

You Can’t Take It With YouBY APRYL CORLEY

IMAGES BY MARNI PENROD

1. Paul Sycamore played by Micheal Crook, 12,

and Penny Sycamore played by Brenna Swisher,

12, animatedly talk about Paul’s new firework.

2.Mr. DePinna played by Joe Penrod, feeling

slightly embarrassed when Tony Kirby’s played

by Mason Tillman, 12, parents walk in.

3. Ed Carmicheal, played by Brenton Berckefeldt,

10, Paul Sycamore, and Donald played by Travis

Lang, 10,

4. Essie Carmicheal, played by Lauren Erickson,

12, and Penny Sycamore eating one of Essie’s new

candies, the Love Dreams.

5. Reba played by Jessica Moore, 9, and Donald

is talking to Penny while Reba is swooning over

him.

6. Grandpa played by Dakota Hart, 12, Essie,

Ed, Paul, Mr. DePinna, Mr. Kolenhov played by

Dominic Capra, 11, and Penny all bow their heads

while Grandpa blesses the food.

7. Paul and Essie learn that someone was fol-

lowing Ed. Trevor Rosine, 11, Dusty Rawlings,

10, played the characters of the cops who were

following Ed.

8. Penny and Mr. Kolenhov are discussing the

granduchess staying for a nice home cooked

dinner.

9. Tony Kirby, and Alice Sycamore played by

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PAGE 7

You Can’t Take It with You was written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The original produc-tion first showed December 14, 1936 at the Booth Theater. The play was performed 837 times before changes were made to the original script in 1938. This play won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937, it was instantly popu-lar during the Great Depression, and is still one of the most beloved plays today. This play is about Alice Sycamore and Tony Kirby’s love and how Alice doesn’t think it can work. Through laughs and family they are able to overcome difficulties to be together. The play was directed by Ryan Reed and was showed on March 8, 9, and 10th. Reed decided last summer to do this play because he thought it was a comedy with a good mes-sage. The snow days didn’t really effect the play, but it crunched the schedule up a bit. The snow pushed back the technical aspects of the play, but Reed said that the actors and crew did a great job each night they always had a good rehearsal . Reed didn’t have a favorite night but he said that the actors and crews energy had the best energy on the first night. They had the best tempo the second night, and their acting was the best on Sunday. His favorite part of the play is when the cur-tains open because he has the entire play before him. The play was great in Reed’s mind but on a scale of one to ten he gave it a 9.67. After further inspection of the play he changed his answer to an eleven, because he couldn’t remember the other plays. “This comedy had ridiculous characters that show who they re-ally are instead of hiding behind a disguise,” Reed said. Brenton Berckefeldt, 10, played the character of Ed Carmicheal. He really enjoyed being able to play the xylophone for Essie while she danced. Berckefeldt got the part he wanted, he liked playing the char-acter of an awkward person. “My favorite part of the play is when I ask Essie if she wanted to make a baby with me,” Berckefeldt said. Colleen Preston, 11, had the plea-sure of enjoying the play on the second night. Her favorite part was when Dominic Capra, Mr. Kolen-hov, said it stinks. She said that she enjoyed the play but due to her OCD she couldn’t pay attention during

one scene. Preston’s OCD started to mess up because Dakota Hart’s, grandpa, suspenders came loose during one of the scenes. “My favorite character was Ed (Brenton Berckefeldt) because he was freaking out about a guy fol-lowing him, but no one believed him. He had a lot of sarcastic moments and he went with the flow,” Preston said. Colin McIver, 10, was part of the tech crew for the musical and the play. He enjoyed being a part of the crew because his friends were also part of the crew. He thought the play was really good he found it very humorous. McIver’s favorite showing was the matinée showing on Sunday. Sunday was his favorite day because the actors were com-fortable with their characters and he thought that they did the show how they thought it should be done, the end result made it even funnier than before. Mr. DePinna, Joe Pen-rod, was McIver’s favorite charac-ter because he wasn’t even apart of the family he just came one day and stayed, plus he is a very quirky character. “My favorite part of the play was when the officers came in and Trev-or went crazy, picked up Brenton and carried him over to the head officer,” McIver said. Chelsea Morris, 11, played a very commanding character, Olga Katrina the Grand Duchess. Her favorite part was being able to have authority in front of people. She said that her height makes her seem timid so it was cool being kind of mean. Morris favorite part of the play was Trevor Rosine, 11. She said that he just stole the spotlight and was really funny. Sunday was one of her favorite nights along with the first night. She enjoyed sunday be-cause Rosine picked up Berckefeldt and carried him to Dusty Rawlings, 10. When her character comes out to meet Mr. Kirby, (played by Trevor Jones, 12) and slaps Tony on the the back, hard is her favorite part of her character. Morris’ favorite char-acter in the show was Penny Syca-more played by Brenna Swisher, 12, because she found her hilarious. “I’ve always wanted to participate in the play ever since my freshman year, but I never got into the play until now. The play was a new expe-riece for me, but it was super fun,” Morris said.

6.

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8. 9.

10.

11.

12.

Maria Penrod, 12, decide to stay for dinner.

10. Alice Sycamore and Tony Curvy kiss for the

final scence.

11. Essie is dancing while her husband Ed plays

the xylophone.

12. Paul, Essie and Ed are about to be arrested

by the crazy cop.

7

A Trail of GreenBY MARIA PENROD AND JAEDEN ROMINE

The freshman biology classes have challenged the school to begin recycling more than just paper. Blue recycling buckets have been placed in classrooms, along with empty milk jugs to collect small wrappers. “We’ve always recycled paper in the building,” Biology teacher Shelly Robinson said. “As I observed student waste and the things they consumed, then one day I happened to see the boxes being dismantled from all the kitchen supplies that we bring in the building. And just through conversations with my freshman and just it went from there. We were like, ‘Oh my gosh, look at how much we waste.’ It just went from there.” Robinson and her classes saw a population projection chart that predicted the world population to be 9.5 billion people in 2050. Robin-son and those helping her want to ensure that those 9.5 billion people have resources to survive. The county has purchased a recycling trailer for the school, and Lowe’s Home Improvement donated 80 five gallon buckets and sold the school trash cans at half price for the project. Money for the trash cans came out of Mrs. Robinson’s classroom budget. “Our third grade has been recy-cling, so our candy bar wrappers,

granola bar wrappers, chip bags, we’ll send that to them to fund their program,” Robinson said. “They make a little bit of money off of it.” The kitchen staff will also take part in this effort by recycling all the boxes, cans, and other recyclable materials that they consume. Freshman Skye Dunnaway is very passionate about recycling and helping the Earth. “Recycling here will make the world a better place and raise money,” Dunnaway said. Principal David Swaim believes it is a good time for the science depart-ment to start recycling, because librarian Eric Lynch is also doing it. “The science department has done a good job with getting everything done,” Swaim said. “I don’t have to do much.” Swaim believes widespread school recycling is a good thing. “I’ll do my best to recycle and help when I need to,” Swaim said. Robinson thinks that many students are environmentally con-science. She believes they will make eco-friendly decisions as long as they have the opportunity. “We need to make it available to them. If it is available to them, then they can learn,” Robinson said. “This is what we have to do. Hope-fully it will transfer over to the rest of their lives.”

Left: Colin Koger, 9, dips his arms in a bucket as his classmates look on. Photo by Kristy Dekat. Middle:

Mandie Boydston, 12, and Kayla Courtwright, 12, inform Mrs. Dekat’s activity period about recycling.

Photo by Maria Penrod. Right: Blue buckets and a milk jug are placed in every classroom for recy-

cling. Photo by Shelly Robinson.

Blue buckets are lined up on the counter in Mrs.

Robinson’s classroom before they are distributed

throughout the school . Photo by Shelly Robinson.

Mandie Boydston, 12, attaches a milk jug to the

side of a blue bucket. The milk jug is for collect-

ing candy wrappers and similiar packaging.

Photo by Maria Penrod.

Alex Shatswell, 9, carries two buckets. Photo by

Kristy Dekat.

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SFT Forensics: Breaking doesn’t mean it needs fixing

Imagine eating lunch after four and a half hours of giving a perfor-mance. The “code” that they’ve given to you sits int your head as a random number and letter combination. Sud-denly a group of people carrying gi-ant pieces of paper come out of the li-brary. You see your code underneath the title of your entered event. You just became a finalist, a medalist. The actors, speakers, interperat-ers, actresses, poets, and improvisors have returned for another exciting forensics season. With the first tour-nements out of the way, and memori-zation of their pieces done, Santa Fe Trail’s very own forensic-ators take the tournaments head on. Every competitor has made deci-sive choices as to their performance piece. First off, the Forensics team is substantially growing from year to year. So much actually, that some students have decided to take the class outside of school . But splitting the class up into two seperate classes and even making some students take it out of class, the school has not stopped the flow of talent into the dramatic department here at Santa Fe Trail . Just four tournaments and already students have gotten breaks into finals: Zane Cersovsky 10, Dominic Capra 11, Sierra Franks 12, Raquel Morris 12, and Roman Torres 11. Raquel Morris and Roman Torres have gotten 4th in their duet act-ing piece, qualifying for state festi-val . Dominic Capra has broke three seperate times at the three tourna-ments he has gone to, making 6th, 4th, and 4th in his informational speech on tattoos, qualifying him for state festival . Zane Cersovsky has gotten 5th for his persuasive speech and 6th for his extemporanious speech. Sierra Franks has also gotten 3rd in her prose, Qualfying for the state cham-pionship. “We have overall three, four-year seniors,” Coach Ryan Reed said. “As far as success we have had a little bit lower of a level then there is expected.” The forensics season gets into full swing and those who participate

stride hard to memorize and perfect the acting and interpereting por-tion of their performance. League tornament was held in Royal Valley, and specifically those who broke in that tournament were Doyle Hess 12, Sarah Zachary 12, Trevor Jones 12, Caleb Snyder 12, and Zane Cersovsky 10 once again. Cersovsky broke in two events, or “double broke,” both in his persuasive speech, and extemporanious. Getting 6th in his persuasive and 4th in his extemporanious. Caleb Snyder and Trevor Jones took 4th place in impro-vised duet acting qualifying them for state festival . Doyle Hess and Sarah Zachary got 2nd place for their duet, qualifying them for the state Championship tour-namanet. “What I do love about this is it’s more about when we do go out to tournaments, we learn how to talk to other people and get to tell our stories and in that aspect we’re very success-ful,” Reed said. With several tournaments still to go, this years forensics squad is training hard to memorize, beat out, and per-fect the acting portion of their pieces. They are gearing up for future tour-naments by running through their pieces over and over again and finding new ways to do something to get their point accrossed even more. “It is interesting to see that the projected number of people taking forensics was previously projected to go down. But instead it has actually rose based on available opportunity. I hope I can teach all the forensics classes I can because that would be awesome.” Reed said. State Festival and Championships are scheduled May 4th.

Zane CersovskyExtemporanious

4th

Zane CersovskyPersuasive

6th

Sarah ZacharyDoyle HessDuet act

2nd

Sierra Franks3rd

Prose

BY DOYLE HESS

Zane CersovskyPersuasive

5th

Dominic CapraInformative

6th

Zane CersovskyExtemporanious

6th

Trevor Jones Caleb Snyder

Improvise duet4th

Dominic CapraInformative

4th

Dominic CapraInformative

4th

Medalists

State Festival Qualifyers

State Championship Qualifyers

Raquel MorrisRoman Torres

4th Duet Acting

The Day I Did Not See MyselfBY MARIA PENROD

PHOTO BY NATASHA WARD

Mirrors are everywhere. There is one on my closet door. One in the hall leading to my bathroom. One in my bathroom. One in the kitchen. Three in the living room. One in my truck. One on the set of the play. One in your locker. One in her locker. Three in the girls’ bathroom. Five in the girls’ locker room. Mirrors are eve-rywhere. And they are in use. My recent fascination with mir-rors began on the set of the play (For more on the play, see pages six and seven). Lauren Erickson, 12, mentioned that we needed a full length mirror in the girls’ dress-ing room. There were already two mirrors in there. I like to make sure my dress is zipped all the way just as much as the next person, so I popped the mirror off my closet door and transplanted it to the girls’ dressing room. As I previously mentioned, there was a mirror on the set of the play. As people walked by it between scenes, they would often check their hair or their makeup. Why do we do that? First of all, as with any show, the cast of You Can’t Take It With You had so much hairspray on that they were choking on aerosol . Even if our hair looked bad, there was no way it would budge. If our makeup was imperfect, it was impossible for us to have time to fix it between scenes. The only other thing that mirror showed us was our faces, and those cannot be altered without gobs of money and a good plastic surgeon. So why do we continuously check ourselves out even when we cannot change what we see? Why are we so fascinated with knowing what we look like at all times? To see how obsessive this captiva-tion was in myself, I attempted to go a day without looking in a mirror. Emphasis on the word attempted. I decided to wear sweatpants and a K-State hoodie, because that is hard to mess up. After getting dressed, I dashed out of my room before my mirror could catch me. Being in the bathroom without the glancing in the mirror proved more challenging. I could hardly brush my teeth without looking at

myself. Straighten-ing my bangs was a ridiculous impos-sibility. I doubt they looked good, but I did not know. Ingorance really is bliss. I could not obsess about my hair-- because I could not see it. My morning lacking a mirror was ardu-ous. However, human beings are highly adaptable. By lunch time I was accustomed to looking down while washing my hands and averting my gaze whenever I came across a reflective surface. I did not even check my teeth after lunch. Apologies to anyone who saw lettucce in them. When you constantly stare at yourself in the mirror, you become obsessed and aware of the flaws in your appearance. Everyone has things they do not like about their bodies. These flaws become more obvious and draining on our spirits when we are always seeing them in front of us. Focusing on our flaws makes us more jealous of others. Thoughts like “I wish I was tan like her,” or “I wish I was thin like her,” harm our self esteem and bring us down. On my day without a mirror, I was not as aware of my flaws because I was not looking at them. I was less jealous of others because I was feel-ing more secure in myself. At the end of my day without seeing myself, I was happy. I was peacefully content. I probably looked like a crash test dummy that had been mauled by a tornado, but I was very cheerful. Going a 24 hours without looking at myself made me realize how self-ish our mirror obsession is. When we stop ruminating about how we look, we are able to start think-ing about how we can help others, cookies, puppies, the color of the sky, and other happy things. We waste so much time and energy on how we do not look good enough. All these negative thoughts do is burden us. By not focusing on my appearance, I

can concentrate on more important matters like cinnamon rolls, donuts, and watching 30 Rock reruns. In the grand scheme of things, does anyone really care how I look? If my eyebrows are not plucked to perfection, will people treat me differently? If my hair is frizzier than a puffer fish, would anyone love me less? If there is a zit the size of Canada on my nose, does anyone re-ally care? Would I love someone less or treat them differently because of there appearance? The answer is no. Whether I look like a pig after rolling in the mud or Snow White, my parents will still love me. My grandma will still adore me. My brother will still grimac-ingly tolerate me. My friends will still laugh at my corny jokes (What do you get from a pampered cow? Spoiled milk). I sincerely believe that I am the only one who notices when I have a bad hair day. My hair’s shine and curliness does not affect anyone else’s outlook on life, only mine. We should not let the way we look affect the way we feel . Imagine the world we would have if everyone looked in the mirror a little less. By thinking about our-selves less, we give our brains more time to think of others. I am not saying mirrors are bad. I think it is important to look pre-sentable and not have marinara sauce on your chin. However, a world with fewer mirrors would be a more beautiful one. One where we zeroed in on how we can make someone else smile, not the size of our pores.

ReviewEDITORMaria Penrod

STAFFApryl CorleyDoyle HessChance RichardsonJaeden Romine

ADVISERKristy Dekat, MJE

CONTACT Santa Fe Trail High School15701 S ClaiforniaCarbondale, KS 66414Phone: 785-665-7161Fax: 785-665-7193Email: sftredandblue@gmail .com

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The opinion pages are a forum for the ex-change of comment and criticism, and they are open to students and others interested in Santa Fe Trail High School . All letters to the editor must include the writer’s name, signature and class position or role in the community. Typed, double-spaces letters are preferred, but legible, hand-written letters are acceptable. Emailed letters to the editor WILL NOT be accepted (since no signature will be included.) Letters should be limited to approximately 300 words, or about one- and-a-half double-spaced, typewritten pages. Poetry is not accepted for publication.

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Red & Blue

will arrive

Signing party during Activity Period for those who purchased

books.

May 8, 2013

There are a few extras on sale for $60 on a first come basis. If you would like to purchase a book- bring money to

Mrs. Dekat in Room 110

Prom Preparations

Prom is just around the corner and many girls are starting to freak out about dates and getting the perfect dress. There are many things that go into being prepared for prom. Boys have it a lot easier. All they have to do is rent a tux and comb there hair. Girls, however, have to get their nails done, schedule hair appointments, get the perfect dress, get shoes, get their makeup done, and try to look as pretty as possible. It takes most girls the whole day to get ready for prom night. It’s a bunch of work. Bailee Bombarier, 12, and Carissa Wells, 12, modelled prom dresses at the mall with many other girls. “I thought I was going to fall on my face but luckily I didn’t,” Bom-bardier said. The girls from Santa Fe Trail have been running around trying to find their dress. Most of the girls end up going to Kansas City or Lawrence to find it considering there is not many op-tions in Topeka. Another popular way to get a dress is buy ordering it online. Wanelo and Pinterest are helping the girls decide what exactly they want. The boys are responsible for rent-ing a tuxedo and ordering corsages. There are little cards going around school that can help the boys out. They are forty dollars off of a tuxe-do if you rent it at Men’s Warehouse. They boys must also match the girl

that they are going with. The color of his tie should color coordinate with the girls dress. It takes a guy around twenty minutes to get his tuxedo on. Last year many guys went outside and messed with cows all day. Now for the corsages, the flow-ers have to be the perfect color and the perfect size. Nobody wants to be the girls with the giant corsage. Most guys get their corsages from Dillions or the local flower stores in their town. Then the couples have to take pictures. Friends get together in either down town Topeka or Shaw-nee Lake to take pictures to remem-ber the day by. It is a big deal to the girls, but most guys could care less. The After Prom Committee also has a lot of preparations to make. Their job is to make prom as fun as it can be. They also have to get a DJ, the decorations, decide on a theme,

make invitations, choose a build-ing to have prom in, and get the presents for the seniors. Prom is a very big deal to many people. To others it’s just another dance. “My favorite part is getting ready. Just getting my hair, make-up, and nails done with my friends is always the best. The dance is all right. I don’t really dance a lot, but I like being in the fun atmosphere,” Ashtyn Mentzer, 11 said. All together Prom is a good day. You get to spend time with your friends and get all dressed up. It is something that you will never forget.

BY JAEDEN ROMINE

PHOTOS SUBMITTED1. McKenna Reed, 12, asked her boyfriend to go to prom with her in an adorable way. Photo submitted

2. Carissa Wells, 12, and Bailee Bombardier, 12, pose at the Mall Fashion Show. Photo submitted.

3. Madeline Bradley, 12, shows off her prom dress. Photo sub-mitted.

4. Chelsea Harris, 12, had a hard choice to make but decided on this light pink dress. Photo Submitted2.

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