West High diary: “Giant trash can on the ground”

Flying raisins, intentional tripping and more stories of West High in West Side Story’s first installment of West High diary.

Vera Tanas, Copy Editor

April 12, 2024

A trash can spills a student’s school supplies.

Vera Tanas

West High diary

Every week, the New York Times publishes a segment called “Metropolitan Diary,” each containing five reader-submitted stories featuring their experiences in the great city of New York. While West High is no Big Apple, students have had plenty of interesting things happen to them here. In West Side Story’s first installment of “West High diary,” learn of the funny, inspiring and plain strange things that have happened to West students while wandering the halls.

Free cheeseburgers

“The funniest thing that’s ever happened to me in the West hallways was my freshman year when a man was walking, I shouldn’t say a man, a teenage[d] boy was walking around with a heavy shopping basket of McDonald’s cheeseburgers. And when he asked if I want one, and I said, ‘No,’ he goes, ‘Why not? They’re free.’ And then I walked away.”

– Charlotte Delowery ’24

A student gives away free cheeseburgers. (Vera Tanas)

A very dangerous raisin

“I was walking, and there was someone standing on the top floor and someone standing in between the top and middle floor, [on] that stairwell, and they were standing and throwing raisins at each other. I was walking by, and I got hit in the head by a raisin.

But I had to go down that stair too, so I had to walk past the person who was throwing the raisins from the bottom part. Then, they grabbed my shirt and tried to use me as a raisin shield. I had to shrug them off while I had my heavy backpack on the other shoulder and I could have fallen down the stairs. It was a very dangerous raisin story.”

– Anna Vasi ’24

Going for a trip

“My friend was on her way to lunch, and some kid tripped her with his crutch on purpose, I think he was like two grades younger too. He just did it for fun.”

– Jay Sainsbury ’25

“I was walking to lunch, and this kid, he had two crutches, and he tripped me. He stepped with this crutch on the back of my Birkenstock twice. I took a step and I was like, ‘Ok,’ and then I kept walking and he did it again.”

– Julia Swartzendruber ’25

A student trips another with a crutch. (Vera Tanas)

Ginger!

“I was walking in the hall, and I pass these two girls who were looking at me. As they passed me, I hear[d] one of them say, ‘Ginger!’ like I was just a breed of dog they recognized. Then I looked behind me, and they were looking directly at me. We made eye contact, and then they started giggling and ran away.”

– Eli Asper ’25

Taking out the trash

“It was ‘Anything but a backpack’ day. I was in the hallway, going to the Spanish area, when I heard a bang. So, I figured, ‘May as well check this out; it’s gonna be something.’ I walk over to see some giant trash can on the ground sideways with things falling out.”

– Henry Timmer-Hackert ’26

A trash can spills a student’s school supplies. (Vera Tanas)

Don’t choke

“At lunch, my friend was choking on her food and then Mr. Gross came over and joked like ‘Do I need to do the Heimlich on you’ and we laughed.”

– Anita Parecattil ’26

A student kicks a tinfoil ball at another.

“It hits you and it hurts”

“Me and my friends have a lunch, and every day after we’re done eating we go for a l little walk down the science hallway. Every time there’s this group or five or six boys kicking around a tinfoil soccer ball-thing, and nine times out of ten they will hit one of us, and it’s actually heavy. It hits you and it hurts.”

– Emily Vogt ’24

A student kicks a tinfoil ball at another. (Vera Tanas)

Hired on the spot

“During Jazz competition season you get to dress fancy for the performances around Iowa. One of the days we had to leave in the middle of school so I had to wear a suit to school and I got a lot of compliments. By far my favorite was when I walked past a janitor and he stopped mid conversation with [other] people and said,

‘I don’t know who you are, but you got the job man. I’m hiring you on the spot. You look great!’

I was [taken] aback, so I stumbled on my response, but afterward, I was replaying the moment and laughing to myself the entire day.”

– Maddux Neukirch ’27

Submit your story

Interested in being featured featured in the West High diary? Submit your name and story using the Google form below, and you’ll be contacted if your story is being considered. Please keep all submissions under 300 words.

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West High diary: “Giant trash can on the ground”

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