Author: EMMERT
ISOLATION by Jessica Proulx
She turns up the volume on her phone as we trudge our way down to the creek. We climb the gate, trying NOT to rip our pants. The cool sticky air, something Abbey Bratcher might not be used to quite yet, surrounds us.
We stop to talk to a few of her friends—Llamas that she named after her favorite One Direction members, Zayn and Harry. We soon reach the bridge that connects two large pieces of her land. They’re all hers for her to explore, to go on adventures. She drags her boots through the mud and I follow close behind. She unclips the bag slung around her shoulder, pulls out her Nikon, switches lenses, and points to shoot.
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Once we’re back to her house, right up the street from the creek, first things first: she uploads her photos to Tumblr. She ignores the fact that “school” is open in another tab on her laptop—Abbey takes all her high school classes online, and has a lot of freedom in when she works, if at all. She does school when she wants. Read more
BLACK DIAMOND by Cody Calhoon
BE THE CHANGE by Kristen Buehner
It’s 7:30am, biologically too early for any teenager to be up, and close to a hundred of us, students of all shapes and sizes file into the auditorium, clad with nametags. Immediately, the instinct that started back in grade school takes over. Some of us sit alone with our thoughts, wondering what the next seven hours of Challenge Day will bring; others pair up and sit with friends in little pockets around the room. There’s a pack of students that gathers in the back of the auditorium and takes ownership of most of the energy and the volume. The rest of us sit on the periphery.
When we’re called, we walk with varying levels of enthusiasm to the gymnasium, and through a tunnel of high-fives. Read more
CROSSING THE LINE by Mr. Strong
I did something last week I hadn’t done in the last eight years as an educator. It was called Challenge day. And before the end of the day, there I was, with tears down my cheeks, revealing very personal information to four students who sat knee to knee to me, in a family group. I had another student rubbing my back, and in that moment, my head warm from the memories of what I was describing, and getting hugs from these students who really weren’t students any more, not now, not in the middle of all of this, not after what we shared with one another.
People talk about barriers being broken, where stuff like class, race, gender, level of power, drop, but this is the first time I’ve truly experienced it. It was like that scene in The Breakfast Club where six or seven students spend the whole day in Saturday detention and they are all different but by the end of the day everyone’s barrier has fallen, and they are all friends, united if only for that one afternoon. You move forward from it different than you were before. Whether or not those relationships continue isn’t the point—it’s the fact that it happened. And if it happens once, there, with those people, then it can happen anywhere, with anyone. Read more
IT GETS BETTER
I first started thinking about my sexual orientation on a field trip in middle school. We were going swimming. I saw my friend changing clothes and realized I was looking at them differently. That was the first time I really started thinking about my feelings.
I was really nervous and scared. I didn’t know what I felt and didn’t know what my feelings meant. I grappled with it for months, which turned to years…eventually arriving at where I am today: A proud gay man.
At first it was hard to tell people. I couldn’t say it out loud–it had to be by email or by note.
I was scared people wouldn’t accept me. One day I was talking to my friend and he asked me straight out: “Are you gay?”
I got this blank scare—I’m sure he could see I was freaking out inside.
But he said, “It’s okay if you are.”
“Yes,” I admitted.
After that, I realized I had nothing to hide. I had to be proud.
I did have one major problem in middle school—a kid did say mean things to me and made me cry. A friend saw I needed help, and dragged me to the counselor’s office. I’m glad she did.
They called in the name-caller, and I had no other issues from him.
I just needed a friend. I needed to know that I wasn’t alone, that someone out there cared—even when I thought no one else did. That friend that dragged me to the counselor’s office showed me that it’s okay to need help—and honestly saved my life and sanity.
I still couldn’t tell anybody new tell sophomore year. I had trouble owning up to it until people told me it was okay that I was gay. Eventually, I could just say the words: “Yes. I’m gay.”
But I know it’s hard to go to this point, and may take people longer than me.
The main thing I want people to get out of this is be who you are don’t worry about what your friends will say. If they don’t accept you they really weren’t your friend and won’t be around much longer, regardless.
You’re not alone.
If you’re going through this and you can always contact me if you ever need help.
Sometimes you just need someone to talk to.
It gets better.
I am sure you have heard that so much—but it’s so true, so bears repeating.
CONFIDENCE: EMILY
REALSCHULE
On March 18-19 eighteen students from Bavaria, Germany came to Heritage to get a taste of American high school for three weeks. One of the students, Svenja, has enjoyed many of her new experiences since she’s been in America.
“I like your donuts and your burgers,” she explained. “They are really good.”
Svenja also was attracted to the driving age we have. “I love that you can drive a car at sixteen. In Germany you have to be eighteen. But in Germany when we are sixteen we can go to the disco and drink beer, here we cannot.”
Despite the donuts and burgers, she hasn’t loved every part of her trip.
“Germany is really clean… I was in Seattle and thought the city was really dirty. The big cities, they don’t look really clean.” She did, however, enjoy her experience down in Vancouver. “It’s really pretty. I think the people here are nice.”
Svenja describes schooling in Germany as less lenient, and more difficult.
“I think classes in America are easier because you can decide what you want for math, or English, or anything, but we can’t. We have English, German, math and they are really hard.” Svenja also explained that the school German students attend depends on their grades.
“In fourth grade, if you have good marks, you go to a Gymnasium, or Grammar School. If you have good or middle marks you go to Realschule, or Intermediate School. When you’re really bad at school you go to Hauptschule, Secondary School.”
All eighteen of the visiting students are from an Intermediate school, and have been visiting local places such as Prairie High School. They will fly back to Nuremburg the last week of March. “It has been a good trip, I like to see America.”