Senior columns

Despite my inability to find the antiderivative of a root function, numbers always provided me a sense of stability that high school often lacked. So it seems fitting to organize my final words numerically as figures to recall decades after my Trojan days end. 2: years of tripping over myself at Walk It Out. After living in a cultural gray-area for too long, I finally embraced my Indian heritag...

The dry, arid climate sucked the moisture out of the individuals that lurked across the sandy fields. The young girl grasped onto the plastic rim and gripped until her knuckles turned white. She was met by fierce opposition as another girl firmly held onto the other side. Sparks flew between the two and their sharp glares, neither side willing to give up their prized possession. “Lydia, Lily,...

Iowa City has always been home to me. It has been a place filled with memories: my family, my memories and my avid love for Hawkeye sports. These memories will always be cherished forever, but my experiences inside the brick walls of West High have given me perfect vision. Freshman year. I was afraid new people, afraid of embarrassment. In challenging my fears, I found a new identity, willingly...

Our story of four years without air conditioning, ceilings or all of the bathroom stall doors is ending. I won’t share stories about finding myself in high school, as I have none to tell (did I fail the test?). I also won’t bore you with my stories of cheating, skipping class and lying about it, parking illegally in the back lot, encounters with (nice) police officers or attempting to egg ...

Dear 14-year-old Lucy: the world will take care of you. By the time May of 2019 rolls around, you won’t believe in the idea that everything happens for a reason, but you will be a firm believer in the concepts of karma and that the universe provides. Upon graduation, you’ll decide to follow passion, however hard it is. Roles celebrating hard-working women (and a little bit of cannibalism) will ...

If you have ever had the pleasure to be interviewed by me, then you might be on this list. So, I recommend you get yourself a towel, because I am about to spill some tea. I talk a lot. I found this out after I did my first interview for WSS and over half of the recording was my voice. Don’t ever let Bres get into your interview, because it gets awkward real fast. You might need to tell people...

Picking a moment where I found myself is like that time I picked up an apple from the lunch line, and it was already fermenting. Everything slowly melting and stewing together into a big old puddle of personality, but I’ll try my best to pick out the instances that mattered to me. Right off the bat is being called toothpick by Mr. Gross. Started wearing muscle tanks that year and in response,...

Freshman Maddi, You think you have everything figured out, but little do you know you have a lot in store for your next four years. It’s going to be an experience, to say the least. Being late on the first day of freshman year when your bus almost doesn’t show up is terrible in the moment, but it’s a funny memory to look back on. Very symbolic, honestly. You’re going to get a B in a...

One time I drove to Des Moines just for an order of McNuggets. To be fair, it started with me and a friend just driving around. After driving around Cedar Rapids for an hour or so, we decided to see how far we could make it that night. The McNuggets were average, but the story is always a fun one to tell. The single greatest advice I can give in this senior column is to always live with the goal of...

Never in a million years would I have thought that I would spend almost every evening of my week coming back to West to take photos of various sporting events. One day sophomore year, I decided to try something new and cover a sporting event for newspaper, so I did just that, and it ended up changing my life. I finally found my passion. The thing I’ll miss most about West and all of its g...

My high school career undoubtedly peaked a few months in when I met Taylor Swift at her concert, but I’ll recount a few other *subpar* experiences. Magic: First we go back to eighth grade when deciding to take Intro (now known as FOJ) turned into the second-best decision I’ve ever made (with everything leading up to that Taylor Swift concert being the first). Twelve issues later, I can say I’m...

Hello, welcome to my senior column. This will not be like other senior columns where people talk about how much they’ve “grown” and became a “better person” in high school. This will be a petty column where I do some shoutouts. Some will be sarcastic, some genuine, so buckle up, kids. Ahem… shoutout to my mom, dad, sister, dog Lily, three cats — Hugo, Cosette and Eve — and my tortoise,...

To the naive girl with stars in her eyes, oof, this ain’t High School Musical. Posing with my sister, the flash of the camera captured my sparkly black eyeshadow and thick winged eyeliner (soon accompanied with electric blue hair). If you remember edgy freshman me, I applaud you ‘cause she’s been deceased for years. However, my defining freshman moment remains (un)gracefully falling down Stairc...