Four years. That’s how long I’ve attended Waynesboro High School. When you say it like that, though, it sounds like a longer time that it seemed. Well, that’s not entirely true, either. At times, it did seem like a really long time. But now, at the end, of all things, I feel like it went by too fast. As cliché as that may sound, it’s the truth.

Even since the first day of ninth grade, my freshman year, I always thought that my final days at Waynesboro High would be happy ones. And they are. Yet, there is a quiet nagging at the edge of my consciousness, one that senses and warns against a impending closure — the ending of a larger part of my life. I want to be entirely happy about moving forward with my career and education, but I just can’t. Could anyone, really?

Next year, I’ll be off to college, starting my education for a professional career in some field, taking the next step to enter the “real world,” as it is so readily known. And I worry. Uncertainties, and small amounts of fear, plague me in my waking hours. Too, I am terribly excited for all sorts of new adventures and experiences — all the things that life as a newly independent individual offers. But regrets linger. I wonder, “What could I have done to have made my high school experience better?” And I answer, with some confidence, “Not much.”

True, I feel my high school experience was an exceptional one; I always had fantastic and loyal friends, and I made some new and equally fantastic friends along the way, as well as innumerable other acquaintances, who I will likely forget; those things tend to happen. I never had any issues with bullying, discipline, or any other kind of trouble. And for the most part, I enjoyed a relatively congenial atmosphere with my classmates. I tried to develop friendships with most, but regrettably not all, of my teachers — most of whom I became very fond of, and hope to remain in contact with, for sometime after our commencement.

To be sure, I will be mildly sad to leave WHS. It is undeniably, and primarily, a grade-A facility, in which a capital education is offered, whether or not you choose to receive it. I am glad to have been a part of this establishment, and I leave with a weighted heart. My years at Waynesboro High School are chock-full of countless memories, moments and occasions, events and happenings that I will never forget. Associations and recollections, all made during my time there, are some of the better ones I’ve ever had. Certainly, and perhaps only by happenstance, my time at Waynesboro has borne witness to some of the most momentous, and concerning my personal character, developmentally important years of my, very, very new life.

All four years of high school at Waynesboro High School are what I’d like to call overrated. Now it might not be someone else’s opinion about the situation, but it is mine. The first day in high school was a situation I did not know how to handle at the time. I had grown an imagination from TV shows about bullies who would steal your lunch money and stuff you in lockers, or those teachers who didn’t even look at your paper they just put a big fat F on it because you forgot to write your name. I wasn’t ready for any of that.

                My first year of high school was not the best. I don’t really remember any of my classes or any of my teachers. But I do remember one thing. My first day in journalism. I thought it was going to be easy because it was a writing class. I later found out that the class would drag me down a dirt road just for the fun of it. I feel that journalism is not on how good you can write the best article, but about being timely. I didn’t turn in anything on time. I was a slacker. Plus if you add my low self esteem then it all just didn’t fit. My 9th grade year was bad. I was made fun of by my peers for the clothes I wore and my different hair styles. High school seemed to me as a bad place. I do remember one thing that I did find had an effect on my life. I was selected to go on a program called CYCLE at Virginia Tech, after the shooting, for a week to learn about leadership and how to lead my peers in the right direction. I fell in love with different people, their ways of living, and their ways to communicate. I later found that that week not only helped me with leadership but my strong communication with people. I learned more than I can image and I still have the t-shirt. That week made a big effect on my life.

                The school year ended bad and on a terrible note. I thought I had failed journalism but It turns out that I passed with C- , but I wasn’t worried because I had the idea that I wasn’t going back to journalism at all. My mother had another thing in mind.  I did fail Algebra though.  

Small details about my tenth grade year. Nothing exciting happened. I was still being made fun of but not as bad as ninth grade. I didn’t fail Math because I had a great teacher who later retired and left me hanging on a limb. I thought without her I would truly fail. I took journalism for my second year. I wasn’t happy about that choice so I slacked a little, making it hard for myself. But I did receive a B- which means I did something right.

                Now eleventh grade was when my school grades and life began to take a downward spiral. I had great teachers like Mrs. Coyner or Mrs. Moore but didn’t know how to respect them. I became bitter. I was taking Journalism for the third year. Not because of my mom but because of me. I have to admit that journalism had me wrapped around its finger. I loved to write and I loved when people read my articles. It didn’t have to be more than two people who read them, but I was happy somebody knew me as a reporter.

All I remember about eleventh grade was me being lazy. I didn’t get sent out of any classes but Spanish. I had a strong dislike for Spanish. I didn’t see why I had to learn it when I wasn’t going to speak it. So while the class did their work I would be lazy and draw an ugly picture. I would constantly argue with Mrs. Moore because at the time I wasn’t looking for a friend or a teacher to be my friend. Plus I loved to make her butter melt. I would always walk out of class when I felt it was necessary and always make a fool of myself. Then there was Mrs. Coyner’s class. I was a smart talker with her too. She put up with me and took my mouth for a ride of its life. I couldn’t out talk that lady for a second but later I learned that she cared about my education more than I did.

                During 11th grade I adopted a sickness call hyper active thyroid. At a young age. Yes. It’s when your thyroid becomes bigger than its normal size and spits out hormones that I didn’t need at the time. It was creating more blood cells then I needed and I was becoming weak. I was never on track with life, I was always behind and things weren’t right. I couldn’t catch up with anything; my thyroid was six times its normal size. I thought it was going to bust open while I was in class but it never did. I would cry every night because of this sickness. Operate is what they wanted to do. My mom said, “Yeah, right,” and walked out. During this time I was having difficulties with many things. It didn’t make school any better than it was. I failed Spanish, chemistry, history, geometry, and barely passed journalism. With the grades I had I was not going to graduate. Plus I had those people telling me that I never would. That was much worse. Eleventh grade was a school year of bad happenings and it felt like the end of my life. But, hey, who said I couldn’t do what I put my mind to?

                 I ended up having to take summer school for math which I received a scholarship for which was a miracle. I later moved up to the 12th grade I didn’t want to repeat the 11^th grade, so this year I went to Phoenix and worked my hardest and received the credits I needed. I had gained a mentality to not let anyone tell me what I couldn’t do. I was able to do what I put my mind to. I was able to buy my cap and gown and when I bought it I knew that my graduation was written in stone. I feel in love with myself and pressed myself to become an achiever. With the help of some of my peers telling me I couldn’t make it I felt much stronger. I feel like a champ because I made it. It took a while for me but I did it. I do thank those who told me that I could make it. I did stay in journalism and this is my forth year and I do plan to pursue journalism in college. I hope I have made a point in my column. I have learned that mothers are always right and that with the right mind anything is possible. All you need is love for yourself and your dreams. With that kind of mentality I made it by a hair and then some.

Current eleventh grade Lyrical Lady, Callie Adler, got her last shot at concert choir this spring. She was auditioning for the third time.

Auditions were held in April for students who were interested in the group. The thing is; Concert Choir only has a few slots open per voice part. (Spots for Concert Choir are available when members that are already a part of it leave or graduate) The ones with the highest scoring in the audition will fill in the empty slots.

Although Lyrical Ladies is an auditioned group itself, the girls were a little nervous when the time came for the auditions. Adler said before tryouts, “I felt really nervous and really hopeful that I’ll do well.”

Girls who auditioned for Concert Choir in Lyrical Ladies worked for weeks preparing their voices for the big audition with practices with sight reading and practice runs with the Concert Choir selected audition piece.

The song “Shenandoah” was selected for the audition piece. Even though Lyrical Ladies was presented with the song only a week before the audition, they worked hard on preparing themselves vocally, and mentally as well.

Adler shared a little out about her feelings during the audition.

“I was still nervous of course, and I was like really happy when I did much better on my sight reading than last year. I expected much more to get in this year than last year.”

Each day, they practiced the song after each class period, if time was left over. Lyrical Ladies director Ms. Diane Richards would run the song with them and help with advice that she had which would help them “shape up” their voices for the song that they used.

The girls also prepped themselves for sight reading throughout the year. Adler worked hard on her sight reading before her audition.  They were given papers with practice music that involved sight reading, to help them “shape up” their minds. Sight reading is variously difficult to the girls, but Adler has her opinion on the difficulty.

“Personally, it depends on the person on how hard it is”, she said.

After the auditions, there was a period of time before the results were released.

“The wait was pretty awful. As the date got closer I got really excited. On that day I kept forgetting I was going to receive the letter that afternoon, and when I remembered, I got butterflies in my stomach.”

On Friday, May 14, papers were in the office for the students who tried out. “I found out when I felt the thickness of the letter so I knew right away that I got it. I couldn’t believe it. I was so happy and I’m really happy and excited to practice over the summer with Concert Choir and get to know the people that I don’t already know”, said Adler.

In the year of 2010 bullying is not how it used to be, with the big huge guy who beats people up for their lunch money or stuffs people in a random locker. Today it is more of a silent game that people play on each other. Cyberbullying is done online where not many adults can see its dirty text messages or violent messages. Or that traditional bullying, talking about somebody because of their clothes that they wear and instead of one bully it might be a clique of girls or cool guys. Bullying is something that is happening every day. But many choose not to listen. 

It starts early.

We know that bullying is not just happening on the movies or in high school, but it is also happening in local elementary schools.

Waynesboro SGA (Student Government Association) was asked to talk to students at Westwood Elementary School about the bullying that was going on in their school.  They happily accepted.

“I was approached by Julie King, the guidance counselor at Westwood. She said there were some issues with bullying at the school with fourth and fifth graders and wondered if we would help out,” said Ms. Katie Mays, SGA adviser.

On March 31, the SGA students made their way to the elementary school with plays that attacked the problem of bullying.

“It is separated between boys and girls. The boys will do things to intimidate the other students and also force people to do things that they don’t want to do.  The girls would just exclude the students, saying hurtful things.” said Mays. 

The female SGA students performed a play, attacking the basics of bullying in a girl group. For example, one girl is mean to all of the girls and she loses her friend throughout the play.  At the end of the play she was alone and decided to get rid of her mean schemes and be nice to her friend. The play ended with an apology and the exchanging of phone numbers for a sleepover.  During the interactive play the teacher in the play, Lori Ailstock, would say “Freeze!” and ask the elementary students questions about the situation. 

The male students based the play on their bullies whom everyone in the school fears.  During the play the boys would be picked on by the school bullies and would be threatened not to tell. During the play the students who had to be picked on would decide whether to tell the teacher or not. At the end of the play the boys were asked to state the problems they were facing with the bullies.

After the plays were finished the students sat on the stages and answered the questions that the elementary students prepared to ask. The students were pretty shy at first but with one question their curiosity came into play. The elementary students asked questions like “Does your head get flushed in the toilet,” “Do you get stuffed in the lockers in middle school,” and “Does bullying happen the same way like in your skits?” The SGA students answered all the questions truthfully.

“No it doesn’t. It’s more of a silent bullying like making fun of somebody’s appearance or how they walk. Really silly stuff,” said Martez Anderson.

“The elementary students see that bullying is a problem everywhere. They see that high schoolers know more about the situation.”  Mays said.

Bryant Carter
1. Who is your favorite teacher?
“Mrs. Meade”

2. What is your outlook on life?
“I’m optimistic”

3. Do you watch any sports? If so, which ones?
“Yes, basketball and football”

4. Where is your favorite place to shop?
“Foot Locker”

5. If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
“Michael Jordan because he’s my favorite basketball player”

6. What about school uniforms?
“NO” (he said as he shakes his head demandingly)

7. What’s your opinion on Waynesboro sports?
“We need to get better at certain things”

8. What would you do if you knew there was no possibility of failure?
“I would try everything”

9. Who is your favorite singer/band?
“Drake”

10. How do you feel about famous people?
“I think they got it made”

Rebecca Eldredge

11. What is your favorite play the drama club has performed so far?
“Ummm, let’s see, well I saw the last one, ’Something’s afoot’, and that was my favorite because my brother was in it and I just think it was well put together.”

12. What do you think about concert choir?
“I love concert choir, it’s the bomb. And Mr. Ryman is a great teacher too.”

13. What is your outlook on life?
“I try to see things the way god see’s them and figure out his way for me and what he would want me to do here on earth. I try to be joyful.

14.If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
“Lindsey Hyson because it would nice to be able to talk to her again.”

15. How would you feel about going to school year round?
“I would not like that, it would get old.”

16. What do you think about your class officers?
“I don’t really know them that well. I’m not really sure what’s going on. Maybe more involvement with the class would be nice.”

17. What’s your opinion on Waynesboro sports?
“They’re really good, it’s really good for our school. I think it brings us all together and it’s a good thing we have more options.”

18.What would you do if you knew there was no possibility of failure?
“Oh my gosh, I would do everything in my power to stop war and world hunger and abuse and poverty. I guess just the world’s main issues.

19.How do you feel about famous people?
“I think the majority of them handle the attention they get well and use it for good things. But others think they can do what they want and set bad examples for people watching the media.”

20.Would you like to be famous?
“I wouldn’t mind it I think it could get annoying but if I was famous for a good cause and I was influencing people in a good way, I think it would be good. If I could use fame for god then yes, I would like to be famous.”

This year, the typical high school Junior will have taken an average of four

common assessments each grading period for the first three grading periods of the year. Now that May is here again, it’s also peak SOL testing season, and adding SOLs for each subject during the last quarter brings the total to about 16 tests.
One teacher, who prefers to remain unnamed, disliked this aspect of the tests especially.

“The test days are four days of instruction that we lose,” said the teacher, about Common Assessments. “That’s about six hours of our total class time that we won’t get back.”

Teachers in each subject area use released SOL questions to develop the Common Assessments, which gauge the students’ knowledge of certain subject material.

When asked if the assessments were an effective means of testing the students’ knowledge of the subjects, she replied with a simple “No.”

“I feel there is no real correlation between the students’ scores on the assessments and their ultimate grades for the course.”

As assessments measure students’ progress, the SOLs are the standard for teaching material in Virginia schools. This teacher, who finds the SOLs more tolerable than the Common Assessments, expresses qualms only with the methods that the Standards are taught—that a bare minimum is the only necessity.

“For at least 70 percent of the students to pass is our goal,” said the teacher. “We have exceeded that goal, but we keep lowering the minimum passing test grade. What we should be doing is teaching on a higher level than the tests’ lowest passing mark. A standard is O.K., but throwing everything else out so as to only provide for the test’s minimal prerequisites is really the problem.”

Ms. Meredith Barber, the testing coordinator at WHS, feels that the Common Assessments and SOLs are both effective means of evaluating students’ knowledge in each subject area.

“The Common Assessments help to prepare students for the actual SOL tests. The students get practice with the types of questions that are on the SOLs. The computerized Assessments help to familiarize the students with the different tools they are provided with on the SOLs, like the compass and calculator.”

“Each subject has a blue-print, which is basically an outline of the material in each particular course. The Common Assessments can help teachers zero-in on the subjects that individual students are having problems with, and they can then reinforce the material to better prepare the students for the Spring SOLs,” Barber said.

Given these insights, and taking into consideration the fact that these tests are required by the state to ensure that, we as a school system, continue to receive much needed funding for public education purposes, I am of the opinion that the Assessments and SOLs are necessary evils — I have not particularly enjoyed them in the past, yet I understand their importance in upholding relatively high public education standards for the State of Virginia, and the United States as a whole.

Mrs. Katie Mays and her SGA group have willingly joined in the fun. The SGA group includes member such as Lorrie Ailstock, Shannon Mellon, Cortez Anderson, Skylar Hedrick, and others. For Giant Pride Day, the SGA group will be painting motivational quotes around the school.

“We want kids to see everyday what it means to be a Giant,” said Mays.

Other groups are participating, such as Mrs. Candace Donnelly and the FCCLA. They will be picking up trash around the front and back of the school as a way to “make [the] school look better,” said Donnelly. In addition, Donnelly’s group will also be making individual luncheon favors for the teacher luncheon on June 7.

“If the teachers are happy, the students are happier,” said Donnelly.

Donnelly said the purpose of this activity was to “appreciate each other.” Both activities that Donnelly’s group will be participating in will be of no cost.

For more information on Giant Pride Day, you can visit Giant Pride.

In the warm months of April and May the surrounding communities can always enjoy America’s pastime, baseball, at the Generals field located at Kate Collins Middle School. There junior Drew DeMoss will be pitching .He plays on the Giants’ varsity team with several friends who have been his teammates since he first got his start in T-ball.

DeMoss started his baseball career for the Giants as a freshman.

“I started out on junior varsity, and got pulled up for a scrimmage and then got asked to stay two weeks later,” DeMoss said.

Ever since then, the junior has been making a name for himself on the Generals Field.

“I am very passionate for the sport; I take part in it the three seasons that it is available,” he said.

DeMoss plays American Legend, which takes place in the summer, Fall Ball in the autumn, and then high school baseball in the spring.

“You can tell that he practices a lot. Over the time playing with him his throw has gotten faster and he has a very strong arm,” teammate Tyler Briggs said. “I have been playing with him for about nine years and over that time all he has done is progress.”

DeMoss said he keeps coming back to the diamond each season because “I want to represent, the school and the community. I want to perform well and I’m proud to wear the purple and gold jerseys every season.”

DeMoss’ dedication is proven by his hard work, his perseverance, and the support of his teammates.

Mollie Cox Bryan went from being a young poetry lover, to a passionate college writer, and then became a journalist. Bryan visited the writing club, with words of wisdom and her experience as a writer.

“I started out with poetry,” said Bryan, describing her college life. Bryan then studied journalism, where she found stories on the streets of Pittsburgh.

Eventually Bryan started writing for a construction magazine, where she learned to “pull out information,” like most writers, and get critiqued by her two editors, an ex-Latin teacher, and a news editor.

“If you’re going to do journalism, you work intimately with the language, and learning that language is important,” said Bryan.

Bryan has also experienced rejection when she submitted a romance novel to a publisher. “If you don’t have the chops it doesn’t matter,” said Bryan, as she describes the criticism and process of writing.

Next, Bryan turned to freelance. This led to her discovery of Mrs. Rowe, the owner of Mrs. Rowe’s Restaurant, a popular restaurant and bakery located in Staunton.

“Mrs. Rowe’s lifestyle interested me and I wrote a biography on her,” said Bryan. Eventually Bryan revised the biography into a cookbook, Mrs. Rowe’s Restaurant Cookbook: A Lifetime of Recipes from the Shenandoah Valley,

After the biography was published, Bryan, still fascinated with Mrs. Rowe, published another cookbook. Bryan’s book, MRS. ROWE’S LITTLE BOOK OF SOUTHERN PIES, was recently named one of the Best Cookbooks of 2009 by All Foods Considered and was named one of the best summer cookbooks by the New York Times.

While her cookbooks continue to thrive, Bryan also works on updating her blogs, editing, poetry and even fictional writing, such as historical romance and mystery.

“I just want to sit in a corner and write and read,” said Bryan. “You have to feel compelled to do it.”“You have to love the process,” said Bryan. “You can’t imagine yourself doing anything else.” Bryan currently lives in Waynesboro, with her husband and two children.