Waukee Grads Sing Their Way to HollywoodKelsey McDonald

Throughout the years, Waukee has graduated many accomplished art-ists, writers, musicians, scholars, and athletes. Among these Waukee alumni stand Taylor and Monet Makohoniuk. Both Taylor and Monet are gifted singers and took their talents to the big screen. Last July, Taylor and Monet started their journey to the stage with the popular television show, American Idol. They traveled to both Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Los Angeles, California for auditions. The auditioning process was more impactful than they originally thought. “It helped me recognize what I want to do and that I need to fully pursue it like the people at American Idol who live, breathe, eat, and sleep everything that has to do with that com-petition,” stated Monet. Taylor learned a different lesson, saying, “There’s always next year.” American Idol is a singing show, but Taylor and Monet told us, “It’s a

popularity contest. More of a game than a singing competition.” As first timers auditioning for Amer-ican Idol, it’s impressive that they made it as far as they did. Singing “Vienna” by Billy Joel (Monet) and “Someday at Christmas” by Stevie Wonder (Taylor)

for judges Randy Jackson, Mariah Car-ey, Nicki Minaj, and Keith Urban, they received feedback from both ends of the spectrum. Randy Jackson was harsher saying, “You guys suck, but come back next year.” Mariah Carey told them they belonged on Disney Channel, and Keith Urban loved them. Even though they had harsher judgment, they still received three out of four “yes’s” the first time they sang for the judges and proceeded on to the next round before being cut. Making it as far as they did,

they were not discouraged and only felt accomplished. It was a long process for Taylor and Monet, but well worth it. Monet would not audition again, but Taylor said he would. So, there is still a possibility there will be a Waukee alumni on the stage of American Idol in the future. Al-though Taylor and Monet did not make it all the way, they were shown on TV in the twelfth season of American Idol, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8:00 PM ET/PT.

[The background music for this article is and will forever be ‘Our Time Now by Plain White T’s] Wake up, struggle, get up, struggle, school, struggle, grind, struggle, leave, struggle (repeat). That would be the daily grind, weekends not included, of a Waukee High School senior. That comes rain or snow, disregarding snow days and illness due to the seniors’ exemption from finals if attendance standards are met. Seniors are trained to fight through the sickness or “stom-achache” that kept them in the confines of their room in all their previous years of education. Juniors and every grade below, imagine that monumental first day of senior year, now officially a part of “senior swag,” and you are informed that regardless of letter grade and days missed… you are going to have to take finals. (Pause for moment to sit and allow that thought to marinate.) Just for a second imagine that statement is real-ity. I can guess the first reaction is “that won’t happen this year, it’ll be next.” “I wish we didn’t have to take finals any year if you had good enough grades,” stated sophomore Kendall

Hays. In a student’s perfect world, that would be the reality. Get good grades, despite how many days you have missed, and you can opt out of finals. Principal Kirk Johnson states he is “cur-rently gathering information and data for next year’s senior class and beyond.” At Waukee High School, the typical plan for a Waukee student when you be-gin your ‘career’ has become to take all your hard classes sophomore year, a mix as a junior, and then take as few classes and as many electives as possible senior year. “I’ve taken a majority of electives,

but I have yet to take a final this year, so I’m fine with the final formula that is currently intact,” comments senior Colby Siebersma. When you talk to the majority of seniors through the past years, you will notice the typical one will only have 2nd and 3rd blocks. “A culture I don’t want has been created where seniors feel as if they’re owed days off, and that’s not what the two days are,” added Johnson. Mathematically, if you are the perfect strategist, while fighting back sickness, and waiting for your last “two days of grace” right before the two finals days, you will have 16 days off with no worries of missed home-work. Seniors become accustomed to four days in a row off every term to finish it, and many have the premoni-tion that they earned that as a senior. “I’m not doing this for penalizing kids. The point of gathering data is to decide what’s best long term for the kids,” attributed Johnson. If this year’s juniors become the first senior class forced to take finals, will that spark the true beginning of the long anticipated end of the world? Mass chaos will be seen through the

streets of the 515, with riots beginning courtesy with a tossed breakfast pizza at the beginning of the first day of school. “I feel like I would go to school less with the new finals formal that is being proposed compared to the one now,” added Hays. This could be the part where every-one is anticipating the “it’s all a joke” part, but sadly it is not. In the words of Waukee graduate Zach Knudson, “This is where I’m supposed to say something inspirational to everyone.” Unfortunate-ly, nothing is coming at the moment, so the song will inevitably fade out and you will all be left wondering, “what if” until the final decision is made. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

Finals: To Be Or Not To BeKyle Kubiak

Season 12 of American Idol started off with judge Randy Jackson, and intro-duced three new judges; Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, and Keith Urban.

Pg. 4 Doc Stehn Pg.5 Real Talk Pg.7 DramaPg.6 Love

Monet and Taylor Makohoniuk audi-tioned for season 12 of American Idol.

Principal Kirk Johnson is currently gathering information to do the best for the student body.

Volume 18 Edition 6 Waukee High School 555 SE University Avenue, Waukee, IA 50263 January 30, 2013

Online LearningLauren Vespa

In school, textbooks have been a necessary evil for as long as anyone can remember. Ev-eryone recalls having that extra five pounds in their backpack because of a math book. How-ever, now Waukee has come up with something different. Stu-dents now have the opportunity to view their textbooks on the Internet. Some students like this method, but others would rather have a hard copy. With limited resources, certain classes only have a classroom set. This is seen mainly in the math classes, as well as some science classes, at Waukee. As of late, some classes allow books to be temporarily checked out, but are not for the students to take home everyday. Sopho-more Sara Nelson said she would “like to have the actual book.” However, when it came down to choosing which resource to use at home, she said she would rather “use the Internet; I don’t bring a book home if I don’t have to.” On the other hand, David Louis-

Gross had a varying opinion, say-ing that he was not a fan of the online source, “because a lot of times it would distract me and it would automatically log me out.” His preference was that he would rather “bring a book home.” From a teacher’s standpoint, Denise Book said that the teach-ers are now, “able to provide stu-dents with other online resources, like PowerPoints.” This allows students to view the PowerPoints when they miss school. Then the PowerPoints can give instruc-

tions the teacher would have given if the student had been at school. This is a definite advan-tage Waukee has now. However, Book did say that she, “[wants] it all, the textbooks and the online resources.” Unfortunately, Wau-kee does not have enough money in the budget for people to have their own textbooks. Book said, “there are students who would rather have a hard copy.” Many students are involved in sports, and during long bus rides, Inter-net is not an option. However,

“some students took snapshots of the pages on their phones,” said Book. Overall, there are many ups and downs to having online books. On one hand, the online sources provide many tools to help students learn, but on the other hand, some students learn better with a hard copy. Either way, both provide advantages for different people. As a grow-ing technological society, online books will more than likely be-come more prominent. Whether you like them or not, they are here to stay.

Many students use their laptops at home in order to do their homework. The teachers provide them with a username and password to get on the website.

As of now, use of online books extends almost primarily to math or science courses.

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Technology

With technology growing more advanced, electronic de-vices appear everywhere. Those aids include phones and tablets with applications. Thousands of choices exist in the app store al-ways providing something some-one finds that they enjoy and use every day. “I use instagram every day,” says sophomore Andrea Poppinga. An owner of a smart phone or tablet knows how important their apps are to them. With many apps on the market for free, there are no limits on how many apps one can download and try out. As long as there is enough space, there are endless possibilities on trying as many apps as possible. Many categories entice students when they visit the app store. There are categories ranging from business, books, entertainment, and lifestyle. With thousands of apps in the market, there are apps for everyone and everything. It is hard to find what ones you like best. Everyone has their own opinion on what apps they prefer. If you ask a hundred people what their favorite app

was, you could get a hundred dif-ferent answers. While asking some students what their top apps were; we got these answers: Twitter, 18; Insta-gram, 10; Snapchat, 5; Pandora, 10; Wanelo, 6; YouTube, 5. Also, looking at the top charts in the app store according to iTunes, the top free apps at the moment for all categories are: 1, Ruzzle; 2, Fun Run; 3, Google Maps; 4, YouTube; 5, Subway surfer; and 6, Snapchat. Top App Reviews 1. Ruzzle is a competitive and fast paced word game where you take on friends or strangers over three rounds of word finding action. It is very similar to the games Boggle and Words With Friends. 2. Fun Run is a multiplayer game where you can play your friends that are online or with strangers. It allows you to use crazy weap-ons as you go to help you win. Like in Mario Kart, you should collect the question marks as you go. The game will put you up against three other players and you will race as a doe, bear, cat,

turtle, or bunny. 3. Google Maps navigates your world. You can get accurate, easy to function maps with voice-guided navigation. 4. Youtube-- With the new up-date, YouTube was not on the iphone originally and you were to download it yourself if you wanted the app. With YouTube, you can enjoy an enormous va-riety of videos. You can browse, watch, and upload videos of your choice. 5. Subway Surfer- A game in which you dash through the trains of a subway to get away from the inspector and his dog. Along the way you collect coins, which you can use to buy new accessories from the store in the game. 6. Snapchat is a picture chatting app. What is different about this app compared to the other picture apps is the ability to control how long your friends can see your picture. Depending on who you are and what you like, your prefer-ences may differ. As an owner of an iphone, Poppinga said, “my

top apps are Pandora, instagram, and Wanelo.” Many people look at the free apps instead of the paid apps. “I usually don’t buy apps. I just buy music,” said sophomore Cassie Payne. Buying the free apps is great because the apps are truly “free”. They are not hiding anything and there are no gimmicks to worry about. As for the people who do buy apps, these are some of the top paid apps in all of the categories according to iTunes: 1, Angry Birds: Star Wars; 2, WhatsApp Messenger; 3, Minecraft; 4, Scribblenauts; 5, Plague inc. Finding what apps fit your life-style and what you like may take some time considering all of the possibilities of choices the app store has to offer.

Senior boys can be an en-tirely different species, or maybe that’s what it often feels like to you when you see them walk by in the halls. You know for a fact that if you were to grow your hair long, wear a headband, or sport some cut-off shorts, you would not get by so easily. Yet a handful of boys in the senior class and a few in the junior have been rock-Finna: Getting ready to doCray: CrazyTurnt: Too be excessively ampedPreach: Greatly agreeing to what someone has saidA Minute: Long duration of timeGoonsquad: Word to promote a nice jobFamo: A close friend that’s basi-cally a brother or sisterSwerve: The act of doing some-thing in your own way, no one else’sBiggups: Shoutout, good jobGrind: Never stopping until you achieve a goalTwerk: The act of shaking your rump Truuuu: Nothing but the truthTrue Speak: Straight wisdomFlocka: Nonsense for yellingReal Spit: Speaking the TruuuuSpike Work: To get after some-thing

Getting Turnt!

Haha Miles, you hella cray.

Real Spit.

Cracking the LingoElla Gehrke

Truuuuu Speak.

Pg. 3

ing this style for months now. So who are these men, and why does their horrible taste in clothing make us laugh so much? Well, that’s a question that can-not be so easily answered. Aside from their looks, the boys have created something revolutionary within Waukee High School, a dictionary.

Maybe you have heard one of the number of words escape the mouths of a senior boy, and at first you fell back in confusion at the strange dialect. The words range from “Turnt” to “Tryna”. Here is a list of every word that may escape the mouths of these eccentric gentlemen to ease your frustration when trying to eves-drop on their conversations.

Snapchat has quickly become a favorite app of the Waukee student body and kids around the metro.

The Apps That Top The CapKayla Lovan

The Gospel According to St. Stehn

Mallory Gunther

Education “You’ve been told that you can be any-thing you want to be if you just work hard enough. They’ve all lied to you. It’s a flat out lie. I wanted to play basketball for Iowa– but they didn’t need any slow, left handed guards who can’t shoot. Now, I could work very hard and become a good shooter, I could work hard and be able to work with both hands, but no amount of work is going to make me faster. Slow is slow.“ “What it comes down to is called Gard-ner’s Multiple Intelligences (Visual-Spatial, bodily kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, logical mathemati-cal). Each and every individual has different things they’re good at. I can take a piece of music and play the notes, but it’s not music, it’s just notes. I can make a drawing or a painting, but it’s not a painting. In English, you talk about sonnets – I can follow the rules and write an English sonnet, or an Ital-ian sonnet, but that doesn’t make it a poem.”

“For as long as you’ve been in school, what have you had to do to get a good grade? Basically, it comes down to that in every classroom, you have been rewarded for memorizing volumes of totally irrel-evant, useless information. You’re rewarded for memorizing dates and names, and whatever. Do you, honest to God, know what has been happening? Of course not, that’s not important to you! Many people, from my point of view, take Chem 1 and they memorize, memorize, memorize, and they get a good grade. They come into AP, and then they have to actually understand why it’s happening. The understanding is the important part. The world needs both, people who can memorize and people who can understand. If you can understand why things are happening, you can come up with a new product, or a new drug, a new what-ever. The drug that I take for my cancer, the guy who created it was originally trying to come up with a treatment for Dutch Elm disease. Memorizing just wouldn’t have got-ten that done.”

“If you’re a memorizer – fine. I can live with that. But, if you can think, explain, and understand why something is happen-ing, you can make an intelligent decision. They end up calling you ‘Boss.’ You get to be the boss of the company, and I hate to break it to you, but bosses get paid more than the people doing the work. You need to learn to think, and not just memorize. I wish more classrooms would force the students to actually think and apply.” “Failure is your first step to true understanding. What’s that mean? If you do something absolutely wrong, time after time, and it always works out, you don’t know whats going on. But, if you fail, you have to sit back and go “What happened? Why?” If you take a test, actually go over the test and try to understand why you missed the questions you did. Don’t just say ‘Oh I got an A,’ or “Oh I got a B,’ and move on.”

Politics “Since June, I’ve had a lot of time to watch the grass grow– which it didn’t-- and watch political ads. The amount of lying going on in ads is amazing. If I was to write a paper telling numerous lies about a person, or go on the radio and broadcast numerous lies about a person, it would be considered either slander or libel. Politicians, in their ads, are lying all the time. If you don’t have the time to read things and study up, you’re not going to know what’s true and what’s crap.” “I have, essentially, a pretty simple solu-tion. I think – you watch all the commercials ands ads-- well, if you want to lie you have to have a license to lie! You have to have a

license to drive, to teach, to be a hairdresser; you have to have a license to lie. Every time that ad is run, it will say ‘I’m John Smith and I approve this message, even though it contains numerous lies about my opponent.’ And it’s going to cost you one million dol-lars every time that ad is run.” “Don’t give me that crap about the Con-stitution and free speech, free speech is not lying. If you want to lie, you buy a license to lie... and then you can lie. A million dollars every time that ad is run, and all the money goes to pay off the national debt. I can see two possible outcomes; either campaigns talk honestly about their positions and their opponent’s positions so that we have a better

informed electorate, or we’re going to pay off the national debt. Either one of them is good.” “Democracy: We need to have informed voters. They need to know the positions, they need to know what this person is really standing for, what programs and plans they really have. Winston Churchill said, ‘De-mocracy is the worst form of government, except when compared to all the others.’ If you have an electorate that is not informed, democracy is terrible.”

Life “Since June, I’ve had a lot of time to think about a lot of different things, and in life you don’t get too many do-overs or re-dos. You might get a re-do in school, but in life you don’t. You have to think about what you’re doing and the consequences. You’re driving down the highway and somebody sends you a text message. What do you do? Park the car or try to read it while you’re driving? Or even worse, reply to it while driving. You may get away with it. You may not see that little kid on the bicycle. There’s no re-do on that.” “I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about some things that I’ve screwed up; problem number one was I never talked to my mother for the last 30 years that she was alive. I blamed her for what she had done to the family. I know now that it wasn’t anything vicious, it was just the way she had grown up. You didn’t marry someone for love, she thought love would grow. If not, oh well. I never told my dad how proud I was of him. He was a dirt farmer, worked 3 jobs to give us whatever he could. He was so proud, he would drive 4 or 5 hours just to watch me coach a football game. We would talk, but I was never open and honest about how I felt.

My older brother, he loved farming. We also had a sibling rivalry, so we were never really close – but he worked hard and raised three wonderful kids. In the past five months, I’ve become closer with my other brother and sister than I’ve ever been in my life. We talk all the time.”

“Other problem; I wish I had worked harder to keep my first fiancée, and not near as hard to keep the second. Both ended up with the same result, but it caused a lot of problems. So, in life, think about what could’ve happened. Be honest with yourself, and your family. When you’re young you think you have all the answers – you’re mature, you know – but when you’re older, you realize you don’t even know what the questions were.”

Author’s note:In the December issue, we featured Part 1 of Doc’s story. He told us about his cancer and why he left the school. This issue, we’re

featuring his verbatim transcript. Memories of Doc

2012 graduate Kylie Haggerty chose to draw her AP Chem teacher for one of her senior projects

“I nearly killed him one time.”

Senior Dheej Pulyala recalls a mishap dur-ing AP Chem. “I nearly killed him one time. When we were doing our electrochem lab, he asked for a beaker of water. I walked to the counter, filled it up with tap water, and moved to pour it in the cell. As my hand begins to turn, Doc shrieked ‘NO!!!!!’ and lunged for the beaker. I swear, his face looked like Frodo’s after the Ring of Fire fell into Mount Doom. After about 7 minutes of hyperventilation, he came back to me and said, gasping between each word, ‘Use...distilled wa-ter. Tap water...has ions in it. How did...you ever pass Chem I?’ He then walked back to his chair and began trying to stabilize his blood pressure. After class, he told me I nearly gave him a heart attack...literally.”

“It was Doc’s last jar of salsa that he gave out.”

2012 graduate Derek Pyle tells us about his last day of senior year. “Approaching the end of high school, I thought taking Doc’s Physics class would be an easy class to get a few extra science credits for my last semester at Waukee. Holy [expletive], was I wrong. I couldn’t even pretend to be an A student in there, I just straight up didn’t get that stuff.” “So fast forward to May of 2012, and I set my sights on trying to get an A on the Phys-ics final. And getting an A meant one thing to his students - you would be rewarded with Doc’s award winning homemade salsa. Over the years, there were very few that ever got the chance to taste it. The test was without a doubt the most impossible thing I had ever seen in my life. I got a big and not-so-beautiful C. I was so upset that after knowing him for so long and finally having the chance to get the salsa that I would still never get to taste it.” “On the last day of Physics, I turned in my book and went up to get my sign out sheet signed by Doc. Instead of signing it, he grunted and motioned for me to follow him to his office across the hall. I was freaking out inside. He limped over to the desk and pointed his finger at a little red mason jar behind an old, dusty book and said, ‘This one’s for you.’ I teared up a bit and eventually had to say goodbye to my most favorite teacher I ever had. It was Doc’s last jar of salsa that he gave out, filled to the lid with tomatoes and love. It is now sitting on my desk in my dorm room at UNT. I’m not sure if I will ever open it.” “If you ever get a chance to see this, Doc, I want you to know how much I love you, and I hope to see you again someday.”

Scan this code with your smart phone to learn more about Doc’s cancer.

If you haven’t already, download an app that reads QR codes.

Student LifeTroubles in the LunchroomNicole Miller

As the new term comes around, changing everyone’s schedules, lunch schedules get flipped around, too. For some unlucky people, their new sched-ules include having D lunch. D lunch is most commonly known as one of the more unfavorable lunches. According to sophomore Malik Moore, “Having D lunch gets annoying because the food is gross by then and it’s hard to focus in class waiting for lunch.” This about sums up how the majority of our high school feels about having D lunch. Yes, obviously D lunch isn’t the only lunch that eats later, because C lunch eats late, too. Sophomore Mara Puente,

a student in C lunch stated, “C lunch sucks because it’s so late into class.” It is well known that if you’re in a later lunch, you may not end up feeling like you got all of the food you deserved or that there was not enough of an à la carte item left. Head lunch lady Stacy Tharp states “There are enough extras left, sometimes they’re in the back.” So students, if you ever fail to see something your stomach is craving, it is most likely sitting in the back of the cafeteria waiting for another day. Some helpful tips for students in later lunches who become hungry and antsy in class is to bring snacks throughout the day to munch on in between classes.

Also, students could con-sider carrying around chewing gum or something sugary, which sometimes can help and distract your mind from the urge to eat

David Miller: the Man Behind the TicketsClinton Garlock

Page 119-171 of the student handbook. Housed within those pages lies every single policy and rule at Waukee High School that applies to the students. How-ever, there still seems to be much confusion on some of these rules, including hallway passes and the dress code. Mr. Miller, the Wau-kee Hall Monitor, helped to shed light onto some of the policies that arouse confusion. “They just need to have teacher permission,” explained Miller in reference to when a student leaves class. Yup, you heard it straight from the law’s mouth: when leaving a class-room, all a student needs is the green light from the teacher. No fumbling around with those pink

slips, although they might help to confirm your trustworthiness. If a student looks suspicious or doesn’t have a slip, Miller said that he would “watch and make sure they’re doing what they said they were supposed to be doing.” If Miller DOES catch you roaming the halls unbound by a teacher’s word, there’s a pos-sibility of having a conference with the administrator. But Miller restates, “It all depends on what they’re doing and why they left. It’s all circumstantial.” The tobacco policy, while perhaps not applicable to ev-eryone, is also an area that can lead to confusion. “You’re not allowed to carry tobacco or use tobacco, regardless of age,

on school grounds,” recounted Miller. That’s right, even those of eighteen are not allowed to smoke or carry cigarettes any-where on the Waukee High School campus, which includes the parking lot. Furthermore, the use and possession of tobacco is also against the good conduct policy, meaning students in-volved in extra curricular activi-ties can be punished for tobacco, even if they are the legal age. And of course, the dress code may be the most misconstrued rule in the book. According to page 160 of the handbook, “stu-dents are expected to dress and groom themselves in a way that is not offensive nor distracting to students and/or faculty.” The administration is the final judge of what is distracting or not. Some guidelines of what not to wear, highlighted by the book include, “clothing that promotes

illegal use by minors such as alcohol, tobacco, or drugs; clothing which displays obscene material, profanity, vulgar state-ments, satanic symbols, gang symbols, hate messages, sexual innuendoes, suicide, intolerance, violent messages, reference to subversion, or other materials interpreted as being inappropriate or offensive” (pg. 160). A violation of the dress code will lead to a student being asked to change their clothing, and if further violations occur, meetings with counselors, talks to parents, and even suspensions can be enforced. Hopefully that clears up some of the confusion about the school rules. Just remember that all the guidelines are right in the back of the book, so if there is ever a conflict, just flip to page 119 and check the table of contents.

     Have  a  job?  

Start  a  Roth    IRA!                515-­210-­2187  

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food. Those tips are helpful for students throughout the day who get hungry before and after lunch as well.

Waukee High School cafeteria empty, waiting for students to come and enjoy their daily lunches.

Pg. 5

Miller gives out a ticket for being parked in the wrong spot.

Love is in the AirLove Like WoeCarson Thomas

At some point in life, at any moment, your eyes catch on to someone or something and all of the sudden your hands go cold. Life freezes, your stomach begins to clench and tie into a knot, and all of the sudden simple words become gibberish. While some people believe in this, others don’t. For most, this life chang-ing moment is called love at first sight. Throughout social media, and walking through the halls or even in the classes of Waukee, you can hear about the “struggle” or “whose tryna commit” are being talked about by students. Students of all ages begin to talk about how they’re in love, but where did it all start, with just a glance? Junior Dao Ngo experi-enced all of this. “Of course I be-lieve in love at first sight. It hap-pened my sophomore year, I saw her walking through the halls, and it was the most heart-warm-ing experience.” Maybe people get this idea of what love is sup-posed to be like through mov-

ies such as The Notebook, the Titanic, or The Vow (Which all have the same plot of, seeing this woman at some point throughout the movie, and someone stands between getting them, and then they eventually get them). Some would say that at this age it’s impossible to find love, or kindle a flame at such a fast rate that a forest fire could start. But even at a younger age children know what love is, “Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries with-out making them give you any of theirs.” Chrissy, a six year old already has a grasp on what love is all about. Although some young adults agree that love at first sight is real and can happen at a young age, about half disagree. Senior Spencer Mundus disagreed com-pletely. “Firstly, I don’t believe love at our age is real for a while I thought it was, but it was just my imagination.” He also dis-agrees about love at first sight, “I don’t believe that’s real either, feelings aren’t necessarily known or discovered until the relation-ship progresses.” It happens in

high school a lot, someone may think they’re in love because of what they see, and what they’ve been told by their significant other. But, in most cases, they might just be being led on and showing false feelings. And, be-cause of that, love is given such a false presentation at a young age, which is why most people believe that it doesn’t exist in a high school or younger environ-ment. Young age or not love is out there. Waiting to be found, for any person at any time, whether they’re just learning to write in cursive or they’re just learning to use the internet. It happens. Just like Corey and Topanga off of Boy Meets World, “I knew everything about this girl. I knew her favorite color. I knew her favorite food. Then we became six, you know, and Eric made fun of me because it wasn’t cool to have a best friend that was a girl or even know a girl, so for the next seven years I threw dirt at her. I like to call those “the lost years”. Then when I was thirteen, she put me up against my locker and she kissed me. She taught me

how to dance. All I understood was that she was the girl I sat up every night thinking about, and when I’m with her I feel happy to be alive. So that’s, that’s what I feel is love.” Although that was just a TV show, any age can agree that if there was a way to describe love, that would be about the closest thing that came to it. And that, right there, is love. Maybe even love at first sight.

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Online LoveBailey Baldock & Katie Underwood

Love starts in a lot of places, eHarmony and Christian Mingle are just examples, but most prevalent Twitter stands above them all. In the Twitter world, a direct message or simple retweet can be all it takes. As teenagers, it seems we look for love any-where available. We may follow someone for whatever reason, whether its for good tweets, good looks, or just a good sense of hu-mor. It may all begin with tweet-ing at each other. Every so often at first, but eventually it becomes constant.

Then the tweets turn into direct messages. Here, the love starts to blossom. Over direct message, phone numbers are exchanged and here begins the texting. From texting comes Skype dates, and from Skype dates comes the realization of possible distance. This is when Snapchat starts to become a daily factor. From the morning into the late hours of the night, people exchange embar-rassing pictures or kissy faces to show their affection to one another. Along with the joy of begin-ning love with Twitter comes various difficulties. It becomes most difficult to maintain the re-lationship over the distance, big

or small. Although face to face interaction may seem like some-thing impossible, some will do anything in their power to make it work. Relationships starting over Facebook, Twitter, online dating sites or chat rooms have lead to shows like Catfish on MTV, which displays the nega-tives and sometimes positives of love like this. Maybe you are like A.J. Allen who said, “Na, man I ain’t ever fall in love. A girl holla at Dre, I’m like you tryna meet up at Pulse soon?” and have not fallen in love via social network-ing. Maybe you are the opposite and have done exactly that, but either way it seems everyone has an opinion of their own on

Cory and Topanga fell in love gradu-ally, but that didn’t make it any less special.

love over Twitter. Some support it, some despise it but in the end it is unavoidable. There is love everywhere on social media sites, whether it be Twitter, Facebook, or even MySpace. Overall, love is a concept that all high school students appear to crave. They try to find it in places that they visit often, nowadays that is the Internet. Our gen-eration is very technologically heavy, and this contributes to starting relationships on the Internet. Relationships staring online may not be discriminated against, but some people have not quite warmed up to the idea. Either way, finding that special someone is worth it in the end.

DramaEating Disorders Still on the RiseEmma Williams In a perfect world, every individual could look into the mirror in the mornings and love what they see. Stepping outside, the acceptance and respect for all living things would come easily. But we do not live in a perfect world. The media bombards the pub-lic with images and stereotypes of what ‘beautiful’ looks like… what the people interacting with this media should look like. Fat is bad. If you are not size 0 with chiseled abs and perfect bone structure, you are fat and ugly with no hope for the future… un-less you change yourself to look that way. “They’re too skinny,” senior Ida Borchardt comments about models, “it’s a bad influence.” The accepted standard of un-realistic and borderline unhealthy way the world around expects everyone to look has been proven as a direct result in the skyrock-eting reports of eating disorders among all age groups, but most specifically young adults and kids. According to nationaleating-disorders.org, 30 million people

in the United States alone have reported eating disorders, and that weight concern has begun to infiltrate the minds of children as young as six years old. A People magazine survey showed that 80% of female respondents felt women in the media made them insecure about themselves. While the occasional skipped meal or side comment made about weight may not scream, “I AM SILENTLY CRYING ON THE INSIDE AND HAVE TAKEN UP STARVING MY-SELF,” eating disorders are serious conditions with serious repercussions, and they can exist in anyone. Confronting such an issue with persons suffering from a disorder as such may not come with ease to some... but it is bet-ter to call attention to the issue, or find someone trusted who will, than to watch as a friend, loved one, or even acquaintance wastes away while no one says a thing. Pay attention. Reach out. Offer help.

HELPLINE: 1-800-931-2237SPECIALIST: 1-800-841-1515

- Anorexia: The purposeful restriction of food intake due to fear of gaining weight, or at-tempts to lose weight. - Indicators: Ritual habits with food, constant dieting, obvious and rapid weight loss, obsession with calories and fat content in food, rapid mood swings, avoid-ing friends and family, constant exercise.- Possible side effects: Con-stipation, cavities, tooth loss, cardiac arrest, frequently missed periods, brittle bones, muscle damage or paralysis, depression, tendencies to drug addiction or alcoholism, stunted growth, overall weakness, fainting, low body temperature, soft layer of hair grows to cover entire body in efforts to keep warm, fatigue, hair loss, dry skin.

- Bulimia: Purposeful consum-mation of a large amount of food in a short amount of time with intent to purge by vomiting or with laxatives with intent to drop weight.- Indicators: Frequent trips to the bathroom, fixated on weight and calorie intake, severe dental erosion, back of hands callused or scarred by teeth, constant weight fluctuation, use of laxa-tives.- Possible side effects: Low self-esteem, permanent damage to gums and mouth, rapid yel-lowing of teeth, constipation, infertility, chronic acid reflux, heart failure, ruptured esophagus, peptic ulcers.

COMMON DISORDERS:

The Problems of Prematurely Preparing for PromBailey Smith

Prom, a long awaited event, backed by what seems like end-less preparation, here and gone in a flash. This year, prom will take place on April 27th. That is three months away. THREE MONTHS AWAY! Despite the time available, many Waukee High School students, especially females, are already buying their dress, shoes, jewelry, and deciding whether or not they want an up-do or to leave their hair long and luscious, where they will go out to eat, and who they want to go with (they were asked three weeks ago). While all of this is oh so exciting, the question arises: is it too early to be preparing for prom? Some say no, they already have their dress or suit picked out and bought. Some say yes, because so many problems could

very well occur in these next three months. For example, perhaps you spend $1,000 on a gorgeous dress or suit and end up gaining 25 pounds. Then what? Perhaps you lose 25 pounds and the al-terations cost another $200. Is it worth it? Maybe you made reservations super early for a very expen-sive steak house, and somehow during these three months, your best friend decides to convert to vegetarianism. (If you were not aware, steak houses are the worst places for a vegetarian to try to eat. The only option is usually re-ally gross potatoes.) Your choice is then to either say, “Get over it,” to your best friend, or try to find a new place to go, but the chance of a fancy restaurant have room for your group of 12 last minute is not a very good one. Another possible issue one could encounter when preparing too early for prom is heartbreak – or being “ditched.” Let’s say a week or so before prom, your date decides they are “too cool” for prom, or the worst outcome… they decide to go with someone else. After about three months of planning colors with your date,

they are gone, leaving you with the option of going alone, going with a giant cardboard cut-out of Justin Bieber, your cat, or you could decide last minute to invite that creep who has been stalking you since the third grade. Sounds like a great time, huh? It will be someone’s lucky day. Prom is something that takes quite a bit of preparation - this is true. However, three months of it seems a bit excessive, don’t you think? So much happens in three

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months. While prom is an exciting time that Waukee High School students wait all year for, we must keep in mind that, for the last time, it is THREE MONTHS AWAY! Fellow students, you still have time. Don’t get over-excit-ed. Good things come to those who wait. Everyone’s time to dance will come. Just take your time and avoid the drama.

Please help WAUKEE FCCLA in supporting March of Dimes, by signing up to walk with us MAY 11TH. Dona-tions are welcome. Please contact jenn.callahan@iafccla.org, or visit room 209 to register! Come by and help us raise money on Wednesday January 30th in front of the trophy case! Tshirts are available to order!

Graphic depictions of what severe weight loss looks like.

Turnin’ Up in Winter

Leaving from Waukee the Warrior cheerleaders had high hopes for placing in the top 10 at the National Cheer Competition in Dallas, Tex-as. While a 20-hour drive with 18 cheerleaders may

remind you a lot like the movie Fired Up, instead of worrying about what peppy cheer was coming up next, they worried about the two parents who came on the bus with the flu. The cheerlead-ers also had to worry about seeing some familiar faces on the big stage, Ames High, and the infamous Valley High School. When their time finally came to compete they did a phenomenal job and placed tenth on one of the biggest stages of them all. Along with the fame, they also got a chance to tour the stadium, visit the Dallas Cowboys locker room and also visit the Dallas Cowboy Cheer-leaders locker room. The Cowboy cheerleaders are the most well known group of cheerleaders in the whole NFL. They were also treated to a top hotel in Dallas that even had TV’s in their bath-room mirrors!

Sophomore Michael Jacobsen shoots a free throw after getting fouled to put his team ahead of the Fort Dodge Dodgers.

The student sections participates in a Christmas out and shows support to the boys and girls. The crowd sprinkles Jack Rizzi, and does the, “AYYYY WE WANT SOME RIZZAAAYYY,” chant.

Senior Megan Shryack drives into the paint for a lay up against the number one ranked Ankeny Hawks. Unfortunately, down from a 6 point deficit the Hawks came back and rallied for a late comeback win against the War-riors. Britney Boland went on to break the rebound record!

Junior Grant Frey turns up and drives towards the hoop past an Ankeny defender for a lay up.

Senior Limay Vong sets up be-fore diving off the high dive into the water. The Waukee warrior swim team is continuing to have a successful year in 2013.

Last Monday students gathered along with RAK to post signs around the school and show appreciation to students around Waukee on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Students created signs that said a variation of things, like, “You matter,” “Shine bright like a diamond,” “Smile,” and many more quotes.

Seniors Taylor Woods, Meghan Young, and Meredith McMahon show their signs off to the cam-era that they’re going to post on some lockers. Each hallway had signs posted from the beginning to the end so each student got the warm fuzzy student, or got the chance to have their day made.

Senior and varsity wrestler Chris Grow shows his support at the school and also shows off his talented hand writing skills while making signs. More than 30 kids came together on a school-free Monday to participate in the sign making activities.

Waukee juniors show their sup-port for the boys’ & girls’ bas-ketball game against Ankeny by dressing in all white to partici-pate in the “White Out” orga-nized by the student section on Twitter: @KeeCrowd.

Senior Steven Jacobsen sets up a take down against the number one ranked wrestling team in state, and the number 7 nation-ally ranked team, the Southeast Polk Rams.

Junior Rachel Lienemann preps for her upcoming speech at the district speech competition in Perry earlier this month. Students representing 17 out of 23 catego-ries advanced to state competi-tion. That event takes place at our very own school this Saturday. The Waukee speech team is hav-ing an exceptional year gaining experience in everything from Reader’s Theatre to Radio and TV broadcasting.

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