Issue 6 | November 24, 2014

the struggleis realthe struggleis real

boosting poor midterm grades

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4 Editor-in-ChiefTimothy Wyatt

Managing EditorNatasha Jones

Photo EditorJillian Carpenter

Sta ff WritersTylar Baker

Trenton CanadaAutumn Cooney

Lydia JayShyann NorrisAshton Rector

Christin RottenbergerMyriah Snyder

Sta ff PhotographersJay Sanksakulchai

Faculty Adv isorJeremiah Massenga le

Editor ia l Rev iew BoardLisa Bartram

Marianne Worthington

- 7609 College Station Drive Williamsburg, Ky 40769

(606-539-4172

/patriotnewspaper @UCThePatriot

*thepatriot@ucumberlands.edu

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The Patriot is the biweekly student publication of the University of the Cumberlands. Our goal is to provide timelyand original content by highlighting campus news and views.

Award-winning member of the Kentucky Press Association.

CONTENTS

UCTHEPATRIOT

Climbing out of the grade rut

Operation Christmas Child

Once upon a Netflix binging

International studentprofile: Bernice Uwase

Dear readers of The Patriot,

The best part of November(aside from my birthday) is upon us.Yes, Thanksgiving. It’s that magicaltime of year when we Americans canshovel heaping loads of food downour gullets with almost no judgmentwhatsoever.

We can eat a turkey leg bigenough to be reminiscent of some-thing Fred Flintstone ate in the StoneAge. We can swim around in a vaultbrimming with mashed potatoes;much like Scrooge McDuck did withhis gold coins. Heck, if we sochoose, we can even eat enoughpizza to shame the Ninja Turtles.(Does anyone actually eat pizza atThanksgiving? If so, you’re defi-nitely winning.)

Come to think of it, callingThanksgiving “magical” is some-what of an understatement. Is therea word that means more than magi-cal? I’ll get back to you on that.

While Thanksgiving is undoubt-edly a favorite for many Americans,the real account of its origin is quitemuddled. In school, we were taughtabout how the European Pilgrimssailed to America, where they landedin Plymouth. We were taught that thenatives happily welcomed them witha giant feast of maize, various fowland other delightful foodstuffs. Thetwo vastly different groups shared ameal and communion with one an-other, setting the perfect scene ofpeace and tolerance. Yet, this fable isonly a little over 150 years old—faryounger than the actual occurrence.It wasn’t even considered a holidayuntil 1863. Plus, the Pilgrims didn’teven continue the tradition beyond

that initial occasion.You see, the story we were told

in school is far easier to digest thanthe truth. Plus—to a degree—itteaches children to be accepting ofthose who are different, which is al-ways a good lesson to learn. But formany of the natives of America, ac-ceptance came at a price: their land,their livelihood and, in most cases,their lives. And that’s just the basic,oversimplified version. The brutalityand sheer disregard for human lifepracticed by the early settlers is ab-solutely appalling. Using these twogroups as a metaphor for goodwilltoward men couldn’t be a biggerfault in logic.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m notbeing a curmudgeon. Aside from thefallacy fed to us in grade school, theatrocities of our ancestors and BlackFriday (don’t even get me started),Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday(refer to the paragraphs about food).Seriously. November seems to be theonly time I see any sort of acknowl-edgment from anyone that they ac-tually care about anything in theirlife. Though, it wouldn’t hurt to trybeing thankful a little more often.My larger point, however, is that be-fore you sit down to eat yourself intoa light coma, take a moment to re-flect on what this holiday really isand be aware of its roots.

On behalf of myself and every-one else at The Patriot, I wish you aHappy Thanksgiving.

Sincerely,

Timothy WyattEditor-in-Chief

A letter from the editor

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The month of September 2014 markedthe end of an era as Dr. John Broome an-nounced his retirement after serving 48 yearsat the University of the Cumberlands. Dr.Broome, who began teaching in the univer-sity’s history department in 1966, has madethis decision to retire for the second timenow. He had already done so in 1999 but onlyfrom full-time teaching. He never left the uni-versity, and even with this retirement, he willstill retain an office on campus.

“I don’t have any hobbies,” Dr. Broomesaid. “My work has always been my hobby.I’m what you might call a workaholic. I haveto be doing something.” Dr. Broome went onto say, “This college has been my life.”

This is certainly true considering all thathe has taken on in his time spent at UC. Dr.Broome has served as the director of aca-

demic advising and on the College Accept-ance and Scholarship Committee, amongmany other positions.

Dr. Jim Taylor, president of the Univer-sity of the Cumberlands, said, “Dr. Broomehas been an invaluable assistant in historycourses. He has always been loved and re-spected. The good will continue long afterwe’re gone.”As a history professor, more than 7,000 stu-dents have passed through Dr. Broome’sclassroom.“I just think a study of history is somethingthat everybody needs to know. The more youknow, the more you can understand. I don’twant to make any apologies for being a goodhistorian,” Dr. Broome said. And he doesn’t make any apologies for histime spent at UC either. In 2006, he ad-

dressed students by stating, “Be abnormal.Be special. Be someone who wants to makea positive difference.” This remains to be Dr.Broome’s advice. He offers another piece of advice by saying,“Don’t look back. As a historian, we have tolook back, but never regret. If you can get tothe end of the trail and have one-tenth of thesatisfaction I have, you’ll be doing okay.” We offer our congratulations to Dr. Broomeand thank him for his time and efforts spentat UC. It is most likely unknown to whatdepths he has impacted this campus and thestudents of the university. For that, we wishhim well and celebrate his lasting legacy.

BY TRENTON CANADA

Sta ff Writer

Photo provided by Multimedia & Athletic Ser vices

A farewell to Dr. BroomeDr. Broome announces retirement

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Failure – it’s a thing that happens, right? Mid-terms are over. I am sure we are not all totallyproud of those grades. The intimidating thing isthere are just a few weeks left in this semester.

So, you failed a midterm… or two. Andmaybe your grades since then aren’t looking so hoteither. The question is, is the world ending?

The answer to that is a resounding NO! What are you going to do about your failure…

setback… whatever you want to call it? Is there achance for redemption? Here are some other fail-ures.

Outside Gatliff and the Bennett Building is astatue of a man. The name – President AbrahamLincoln. Obviously, he was great. He essentiallyheld a nation together in a time when it may haveeasily fallen apart. I don’t think that I need to listhis other accomplishments.

But before he was a success, well, he was kindof a failure too.

In 1832, he lost his job and was defeated in hisrun for the state legislature. He had a nervousbreakdown in 1836. He was defeated for Speakerand for his nomination to Congress. This failurebecame somewhat of a pattern.

However, in 1860, everything changed, and hewas elected the 16th president of the United States.

Then there’s Thomas Edison. The light bulbsthat illuminate the building that you are sitting incan be attributed to him. Also the camera thatfilmed your favorite movie exists in part becauseof him.

Nevertheless, he was not an instant success.Actually his teachers said that he was too stupid tolearn anything. I’m going to go with they were

wrong.Oh, and Oprah. She’s so important I don’t

have to use her last name. But she was not an au-tomatic success either.

She was fired from her first television anchorjob. Now according to Forbes, she is worth $2.9billion.

Other famous failures include Walt Disney, thefounder of Macy’s, the founder of KFC, IsaacNewton, Vera Wang and Dr. Seuss.

These people stand to show us that failure isdefining. Had they given up, our lives would morethan likely be much different.

But maybe their stories are too distant to en-courage us. Perhaps the idea that we are failing atmidterm is too overwhelming. Maybe these fail-ures turned into successes will strike a little closerto home.

With a .69 G.P.A at the end of his first semes-ter of college, Dr. Chuck Smith, now a professorof history at UC, was obviously not off to the beststart. “I went to class when it was absolutely nec-essary, that is to say if I happened to be awake. Ibuckled down and by the end of the year I hadknocked it up to a .92,” Smith said.

He continued, “It took me awhile to realizethat what I had been doing in high school wasn’tgoing to cut it in college.”

“But by the time I left Samford University mylast couple of semesters there, I made the Dean’slist each time and then when on through to differ-ent degrees in graduate school and then publishedon four continents as a result.” Today he uses thisexperience to encourage his students.

“I always encourage students that it never

hurts to ask,” Mirissa Cumpston, UC’s dean of stu-dent employment, said.

“My senior year of college I was in a class re-quired for my major I was having some personalissues going on and I had missed all of the assign-ments for this one class,” Cumpston continued.

She calculated that without turning in those as-signments, she would not pass the class.

“I went and talked to the professor, and she letme turn in the assignments. She didn’t count anylate points for the assignments which is the onlyway that I salvaged my grade for the semester,”Cumpston said.

“That time in my life I really needed that graceand I got it and it was awesome,” she concluded.

Even those students that don’t really strugglewill have those times when things don’t go right.There is still redemption.

Professor of English Dr. Jolly Sharp, afterbeing a “straight A” student through her entire ac-ademic career, failed a comp class while gettingher Ph.D.

“That was devastating because I had alwaysbeen a good student. But that took away some selfesteem -- took away some self confidence at first.”

However, she learned a valuable lessonthrough that. “I went back and figured out whatthey wanted and that’s what you have to do. If youfail a course, figure out what the professor wants,what the professor requires and go again,” Sharpsaid.

So keep your head up. This semester is notover. Start studying harder. Do your best. You canstill succeed at this whole school thing.

BY MYRIAH SN YDER

Sta ff Writer

From midterm failure to

final success

Photo by Jil lian Carpenter

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We always start the beginning of the semes-ter out strong. We use flawless time managementskills, perfect study techniques and get gradesthat would grace any parent's refrigerator door.But, as the semester progresses, so do the prob-lems. Suddenly, the three discussion posts youhad due per week turn into two papers, a presen-tation and a test due all on the same day! Sud-denly, with A's turning into C's and sleep gettingless and less accessible, we find ourselves in adreaded grade rut. At this rate, we can kiss thatwonderful GPA goodbye, right? Maybe not. Youstarted the semester out perfectly, who's to say acouple of bad grades will keep you from endingthe semester on a good note, too? You may be ina grade rut, but you don't have to stay there!

The first, and probably the most important,thing you should do to pull yourself out of a graderut is get plenty of sleep. I know, having severalpapers due and tests in the same week makes itseem like you can't schedule sleep in until rightafter finals week, but your brain will thank youfor it. Part of the reason that grades go down dur-ing this time in the semester is because studentsaren’t getting enough sleep, so they can't functionat the mental level that they were in August andSeptember. You can't expect yourself to be ableto finish first in a race if you run non-stop for a

month; so how can you expect your brain to re-member four chapters worth of material withoutgiving it the break it needs? Not only do youneed a sufficient amount of sleep, you need it ona regular basis. Fitting in five hours at night witha three-hour nap during the day does equal eighthours, but it doesn't work as well as going to bedat the same time each night and getting up at thesame time each morning. Getting your body usedto the routine helps your brain function evenmore.

Sometimes, we fall in a grade rut because wesimply don't want to study anymore. It's beenthree months, and studying every week is simplyexhausting! Reading the chapters and writingreading notes takes several hours, and while it didget you an A, it's just so boring and tiring, right?So, you skim the chapters instead, and then won-der how you got a C (or worse). It's important tofind ways to convince yourself to keep up thegreat study work. Try rewarding yourself forstudying well. If you get an A on your next test,reward yourself by going to Dairy Queen or get-ting something you've been wanting for a while.Keep in mind that you know how you best study,and being tired of studying doesn't change thatyour time consuming method is exactly what willget you that A.

You may not always know that you're fallinginto a grade rut. If your professor only givesgrades out online, and you never check the onlinegrades, how are you supposed to know howyou're doing in the class? It may be unnerving tocheck those grades, but if you don't, you won'tknow if you can relax a little or if you need tostep up your game. In general, it's best to stay incontact with your professors and instructors.They will talk with you about your grades, andthey would be more than happy to give you ad-vice if you're feeling overwhelmed with all theassignments you have. Your instructors oftendon't realize that they paper they have assignedin their class is due the same day that you haveanother paper due. If you let them know, some-times they will help you out by giving you ad-vice, helping you plan out your paper andsometimes giving you a day or two extra. A dayor two extra doesn't sound like much, but it notonly gives you more time, but it relieves some ofthe stress that was probably keeping you fromdoing your best anyway.

In the most stressful time of the year, it canbe easy to just accept that you're going to finishout the semester with C's across the board. But,it's not too late. You can pull yourself out of yourgrade rut without a problem.

BY JILLIAN CARPENTER

Photo Editor

Her home is across the globe in the cap-ital city of Rwanda. But she lives inWilliamsburg, Kentucky now. The reasonwhy? To study at the University of the Cum-berlands to become a civil engineer.

Aimee Bernice Uwase, or just Berniceas she is known around campus, was bornand raised in Kigali city. She is the oldest ofsix siblings, so she is the first to leave homefor her education.

She said that her parents want her to besuccessful and as a result they have to missher.

“I know that I could be one [a civil en-gineer] in Africa, but I believe that I can getenough skills here that I could be able tomaybe take them back to Africa and helpmy fellows in Africa, do something for mycountry,” Uwase shared.

Uwase has been in America for 10months now. She finished her high schooleducation at a Christian high school in Utahbefore coming to Cumberlands.

In fact, her choice to attend a Christianhigh school and university are not a coinci-dence.

“As a Christian who was coming fromAfrica, I was kind of scared of the society Iwas going to. I just wanted to keep up withmy belief. I grew up going to church, so Iwanted to go to a school that is Christian,”Uwase said.

She didn’t come all this way alonethough. Her friend, Marie Consolatrice,grew up with her in Rwanda as neighbors.They attended the same high school in Utahtogether and coming to Cumberlands hasonly made their friendship closer.

“We work through everything together.We’ve become more than best friends,we’ve become like sisters you know. It’ssuch a good thing,” Consolatrice said.

“When we came here we didn’t knowanyone, and being the only students fromRwanda in this school was also hard. Wehelped each other to know more about theschool, and we have found friends to-gether,” she added.

One of these new friends includeUwase’s roommate, Emmalee Anderson.“It’s really interesting,” Anderson said ofliving with Uwase.

“You get to learn about a whole newculture, but you’re learning it firsthand. It’stotally different than what could be re-searched about Africa on the Internet, be-cause I’ve learned a lot about Africa that Inever really knew from living with her andhaving talks with her. It’s really awesome,”Anderson continued.

Uwase’s favorite part about being inAmerica is the opportunities afforded here.“It’s not like you just come here to study.You can come here and do some things thataffect your fellows positively.” However,her opinion of the food wasn’t quite as pos-itive.

Her key to surviving school, for inter-national students and American studentsalike is this: “You have to be responsible.It’s when you realize that nobody is therefor you to tell you what to do you becomeresponsible and take your own seriousmeasures that will lead you to where you want to go.”

After completing her education, Uwasewants to return to her home country and puther civil engineering degree to use there.

BY JENNIFER MARSH

Associate Professor of Spanish

BY MYRIAH SNYDER

Sta ff Writer

Internationalstudent profile:Bernice Uwase

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Every child dreams of waking up on Christmas morning withpresents from Santa under the tree just for them. Many people don’ttypically give thought to those who receive very little (or even noth-ing at all) on Christmas. That’s one reason why the Christian organ-ization Samaritan’s Purse decided to take action and help those inneed.

“Operation Christmas Child” was started by Samaritan’s Pursein 1993. This drive was created to give children in need all over theworld hygiene items, school supplies and toys while also sharing withthem the love of Christ. Each year the program has National Collec-tion Week, which runs from Nov. 17 until Nov. 24 this year, whenSamaritan’s Purse collects all of the shoeboxes from over 4,000 drop-off sites in the United States as well as Puerto Rico.

Carter Hoffman, a junior at University of the Cumberlands, heardabout this service and wanted to jump in and help the cause.Many students from the UC marching band helped Hoffman pack 32

shoeboxes over the course of two weeks and delivered them to NewHaven Baptist Church of Oneida in Tennessee, which is Carter’shome church. Each box contained a plush toy, a harmonica, a tooth-brush, toothpaste, crayons, coloring pages, a brush or a comb, and aletter to the recipient describing where the sender is from and whattheir favorite things are.

When everything was said and done, each student involved hadnothing but positive statements. “I’m so thankful to have these won-derful people in my life” says Hoffman about the students who helpedhim.

Kelsee Barnett, a freshman at UC who was a part of OperationChristmas Child, says, “It was such a privilege to be invited to takepart in delivering the boxes. I had a good time!”

If you want to help make a difference in the lives of childrenacross the world, visit samaritanspurse.org

Operation Christmas Child

BY CHRISTIN ROTTENBERGER

Sta ff Writer

UC Marching Band assists children in need

Photo by Carter Hof fman

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BY SHYANN NORRIS

Sta ff Writer

One and Only or One in Many

Day to day life can be hectic, it can be busy and it most certainly can bestressful. When life gets to this point, where do you go for help? Who doyou find comfort in? What materialistic items do you turn to? These are allquestions that we may ask ourselves to get a better idea of where Jesus is inour lives.

Look at it like this. Imagine your boyfriend or girlfriend or even husbandor wife told you that they would be committed to you 100 percent and loveyou so much but they also wanted to be able to see other people.

Now put your relationship with Jesus into this scenario. Do you loveHim and say you are committed to Him completely but are still turning toother things for what you can only find in Him? This brings us to the ques-tion, is Jesus your One and only or One of many? Allowing Jesus to be yourOne and only requires your whole heart. It takes time and being a committedfollower of Jesus Christ every day.

Jesus may be considered your One of many if you turn to things besidesHim. Do you get as excited for Jesus and His blessings on your life as youdo for your favorite sports teams or favorite band? I know many of us areguilty of getting caught up in worldly things, but Jesus is worthy of havingour full time discipleship and not just being a part-time “fan” on Sundays.

Hardships and trials don’t always bring out who we truly are. We are morelikely to rely on earthly pleasures and materialistic things than to run to Godwhole-heartedly for everything we could possibly need.

Philippians 4:6 (KJV) says, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thingby prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be madeknown unto God.” This is God’s way of telling us that if we make knownour needs and be in prayer with Him, He will supply.According to Matthew 16:24 (KJV), “Then Jesus said unto his disciples, ifany man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,and follow me.” Jesus wants all of us and wants us to come to Him for ourevery need. He deserves all we are capable of giving to Him. He states thatwe are to deny ourselves and remember that it isn’t about us but about Him.Jesus doesn’t want to share our hearts with things of this world. He wantsall we have to be devoted to Him. Are you willing to sacrifice everything tofollow Jesus and make Him your One and only? Is Jesus such a vital part toyour life that if you lost everything it would be worth it because you wouldstill have Him?

I challenge us all today to make Jesus the One and only in our lives andnot One of many.

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BY LYDIA JAY

Sta ff Writer

Have you ever found yourself bombarded with a heap of problems allat once? Has it seemed as though no matter how hard you try to make yoursituation better it just seems to become worse? Has it taken you to a pointwhere you are just at a loss as to how to turn things around in your favor,and you don’t know who to trust or where to turn to?

I believe it is safe to say that we’ve all been there. However, we all dealand react to these situations differently. When these trials and tribulationsoccur in our lives we tend to deal, and react in one or two ways. We eitheroperate in our way or God’s way. I am going to go on a limb here and saythat most of us, including myself, tend to try to go about resolving our prob-lems our way. We do this consciously and unconsciously. I know some ofyou may be wondering, okay what is our way, and what is God’s way?What’s the difference between the two? Personally, through my experiencewith trials and tribulations I have discovered that our way is incorrect, de-fective and flawed. I say this because I have found we have the tendency totry solving and getting through our trials and tribulations in our or othersown strength and might.

You see, we’ve gone about running and turning to ourselves and othersto help us. We do this with the mindset that by getting the solution ourselvesor from seeking help by others we would get the right ingredients to producepleasant results. This causes us to believe that putting our trust in ourselvesand others is the key to overcoming and succeeding in the trials and tribu-lations we face, although there is nothing wrong with handling things your-self or going to others for advice or help. Nevertheless, we all know thatthere comes a time when that is not enough, and it seems to get younowhere; you then find yourself at a point where every option you havetried has failed and you know you need a greater source of help that no one

else can provide for you. With that in mind, this leads me explain God’sway.

I have realized God’s way is risky, hard, trusting, rewarding and correct.I say this because going to Him rather than ourselves and others, requiresus to depend on Him only -- to put our hope, trust and faith completely inHim, to rely on Him, to fix our eyes upon Him. Allow him to step in andintercede on your behalf. Doing anything God’s way is admitting that youor no one else can help you, that only He can. It is also allowing Him tocounsel, comfort, guide, be there with you and for you and particularly helpyou get through those trials and tribulations with the result of triumph andvictory. Choosing to go to God and admit that we cannot do or get throughanything alone, without His help is risky, and hard for us at times, becausefor the most part without realizing it, we allow things to get in the way ofchoosing to rely on Him and allow Him to help us, such as going by whatour circumstances look like or the comments people make that aren’t up-lifting and encouraging. Or we let our pride or fear consume us, or whateverthe case may be that hinders us. But if we surpass all of those things andallow Him to step in, we’d all be guaranteed to conqueror the trials we face.

The difference between putting your hope, faith, trust in yourself, andothers rather than in God is with Him you can never go wrong, becausethere is no error or flaw with Him. He does not fail us of fail period. Un-fortunately, with us there is error and we do fail. This leads me to say be-cause we are imperfect individuals and we need help instead of allowingourselves to accept defeat we should decide to go to the best helper thereis. Once you do that, watch what He will do for you. I hope I have helpedencourage you to put your faith, hope and trust in Him.

Be blessed.

Doing things God’s way

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Most of you will spend the five days of breakfilling your taste buds full of your mom’s homecooked meals, others will be cheering in front of aTV screen begging for a touchdown.

But what do you do on the time you have justto yourself--the time away from the chaos of fam-ilies, love and sales? As college students there aretwo words that all of us can bond over, “bingewatching.” No matter what time of year it is, weare always trying to find the time to catch up onour shows or the view shows we would like towatch but have absolutely no time for it. Well,here’s the good news, the times when you’re notbusy are the perfect times to binge watch!

Everyone has those movies that can turn yourday around. Movies like that are very dear to myheart. So that is the list I have created. As a collegestudent, you find yourself being forced to grow up,and no one really wants that. So, why not journeyback to your childhood this Thanksgiving Break?Binge watch all of these modern animated classics.

Disney’s Tarzan (1999)“Tarzan” is the first movie on my list because

one, it’s just simply a great movie. I mean, comeon, who doesn’t love a movie that involves PhilCollins singing? “Tarzan” is a beautifully detailedand full of artistic animation as it follows the clas-sic story of the child who was raised by gorillas.Tarzan spent his entire life trying to be accepted byhis family that is obviously so different from him.The movie releases so many childlike values suchas wanting to fit in to the world we live in and thecuriosity there is found within every child. Thetires as world is turned upside down when JanePotter and her father come to study the wild life ofthe Island Tarzan has known as his home and tostudy his so called “Family.” Curiosity is from

when Tarzan meets these curious creatures; want-ing to know more Tarzan learns more about these“Strangers Like Me.” Journey through the junglewith Tarzan this break and discover what it wouldbe like to learn about a world you’re apart of buthave never known.

Mulan (1998)I specifically picked “Mulan” because, as a

child I feel like every little girl cut their hair at leastonce in order to be like their favorite war hero.“Mulan” is about a girl who grew up in the beauti-ful world of old China. But back then the ruleswhere so: Men went to war to fight for the Em-peror, while woman would marry and give birth tosons. Sounds horrible, I know. But Mulan believedthat she was made for more. So when her injuredfather is called to once again fight for the sake ofwWar, Mulan decides to go in his place disguisedas a man. Along with the guidance of her scalyfriend Mushu, Mulan tries to learn the ways of waralong with trying to be a man. Fight alongsideMulan and see if General Shang can make a manout of You.

Anastasia (1997)“Anastasia” is not Disney-produced like the

first two on the list but it’s still a lovable and onNetflix. But not everyone knows the tale of thegreat Russian princess. During the fall of the Im-perial Palace the great family is destroyed and onlyAnastasia and her grandmother survive only to beseparated while the escape. Years later, we findAnastasia again as a woman with no memories ofher past, follow Anastasia throughout her journeyon finding who she is with the help of the cunningDimitri and the lovable pup Pucka. But watch outfor the Evil Rasputin; he has a hatred for Anastasia

and her family and will do anything he can to seethe last of the great family line fall.

Disney’s Hercules (1997)“Hercules” was probably one of my favorite

movies as a child, mainly because of the singingMuses but also because I’ve always loved GreekMythology. Although the cartoon verse is nothinglike that of the original Hercules, it’s still a mar-velous story. Thanks to his Uncle Hades, Herculesis forced to live in the world of mortals where, ofcourse, he feels as though he doesn’t fit in. Soondiscovering where he belongs Hercules learns thatin order to return to Olympus he must become thegreatest Hero of them all. And the only way he canaccomplish that is with his incredible horse Pega-sus and Phil, a hot-headed centaur. Become a herowith Hercules and defeat the God of the under-world, because remember you put the “glad” ingladiator.

Lilo & Stitch (2002)Because who wouldn’t want a cute, little,

fluffy alien as a pet? Fall into the beautiful worldof Lilo as she tries to find her place is the world.Every child goes through a time in their life wherethey feel as though they don’t fit in. But Lilo soonmakes a friend that will turn her beautiful Island inHawaii upside down. Lilo and Stitch join togetherto find their place in this world, for Lilo its feelinglike she belongs in her “Ohana” but for Stich itsfinding his “Ohana.” And “Ohana” means familyand family means no one gets left behind.

So grab your family and come together tobinge watch all these fun-filled movies this break.And as you watch these childlike movies, be thank-ful for the years and joy you have been given.

BY AUTUMN COONEY

Sta ff Writer

once upon a netflix binging

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Conjoined twins, bearded ladies and killerclowns, oh my! The co-creators of “Glee,”Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy are back withthe fourth season of the highly praised andEmmy-winning show “American HorrorStory.”

The new season called Freak Show, pre-miered October 8th, 2014. Deadline.com re-ports that the season broke its own record withthe first episode of Freak Show, titled “Mon-sters Among Us” reaching a 6.127 millionviewers, a 10 percent increase from AHS:Coven’s premiere episode. This season is setin 1950s Jupiter, Florida around a group ofmonstrous misfits that are a part of the last-running circus-like show that is called by itsperformers, the Freak Show.

Like in the previous seasons, this seasonis a brand new story and set of characters yetwith much of the same cast returning from pre-vious seasons. However, this is the first seasonof the series to have any returning charactersfrom previous seasons. Naomi Grossman’scharacter, Pepper from season 2 of AHS: Asy-lum, returns in this season. In an interviewwith Entertainment Weekly, series creatorMurphy revealed that Lily Rabe will return thisseason with her character from AHS: Asylumas well. Murphy continued to reveal that all theseasons are all connected in some way and thisis the first season they have been able to revealsome of those connections and he is excited tocontinue to reveal clues to viewers.

Golden Globe and Emmy-winning leadinglady Jessica Lange is back with a spotlightlusting, power-hungry and intimidating char-

acter named Elsa Mars. Mars is the leader ofthe freak show and has brought in and rescueda number of disfigured and deformed beingsand given them a calling and outlet to show-case their abnormalities.

Two series regulars Evan Peters and SarahPaulson are back as two of the Freak Show’sheadliner characters. You could call Paulson’sperformance this season a one-two punch, asher character is a conjoined twin who has twoheads and two hearts but only two legs and twoarms. Paulson certainly has a challenge as anactor as her two personalities, Bette and Dot,both have two completely different personas inthe show.

Peters’ character this season is a boynamed Jimmy Darling, who was born with acondition called Ectrodactyly, which gives himclaw-like hands. In Jimmy’s case his hands re-semble lobster hands, which lead him to be re-ferred to as “lobster boy” occasionally in theshow. Jimmy is the son of Kathy Bates’ char-acter, Ethel Darling, or more commonly re-ferred to as Bearded Lady.

Among other familiar faces returning thisseason are Frances Conroy, Emma Roberts,Denis O’Hare and Angela Bassett. This sea-son introduced some new faces to the canvasas well.

Michael Chiklis, who you might know asBen Grimm from 2005’s “Fantastic Four,”plays the role of Dell Toledo, who is some-times referred to as Strong Man. Mat Fraser isalso a new addition to the cast this season.Fraser has starred in the UK’s 2004 televisionfilm, “Every Time You Look at Me.” Fraser

plays Paul the illustrated seal; a man whoselimbs are physically distorted. Paul has nor-mal-sized hands with much shorter than nor-mal arms. Meanwhile, Finn Wittrock plays arich boy who has a comfy life but he harborspsychotic thoughts and yearns to join the freakshow because he feels it’s the only place he be-longs. This far into the season we’ve watched thebackstories of every member of the FreakShow unfold and watched as chaos breaks outin the town of Jupiter after a few suspiciousmurders happen. Law enforcement continuesto investigate these murders while jealousy andenvy outbreaks at the Freak Show as Paulson’scharacters begin to steal the spotlight fromshow manager, Elsa.

When Chiklis and Basset’s charactersstroll into town it brings a whole new set ofproblems including an unwelcomed blast fromthe past for one of the long standing perform-ers of the Freak Show. To shake things up evenmore, Roberts’ character, Maggie, poses as afortune teller who gets close to the troupe inorder to steal some of the abnormal charactersthat inhabit the Freak Show.

With mystery, twisted intentions, immoral-ity and jealousy, this season is off to an intrigu-ing start as viewers learn the secrets behind thegroup of the Freak Show and watch as showcreators Murphy and Falchuk reveal to the au-diences the connections between all the sea-sons. With so many twists and turns this far,this season will no doubt be one to continue tokeep viewers on the edge of their seats and al-ways wondering what will happen next.

BY NATASHA JONES

Managing Editor

American Horror Story: the freakiest season yetFreakiest