My Role Model

My mother is a positive role model in my life. I love her and look up to her because she is a good example of how I want to be. She has always been there for me no matter what, supporting me and pushing me to do better. My mom has helped me become the person that I am and I love her for it. Unlike a lot of mothers, not only does she act as a mother, but as a best friend to me. She loves to talk and is always up for some fun. She knows how to have a good time and laugh, but at the same time is hard-working. She is good at what she does and is always putting her family first. My mom is a successful Guidance Counselor that guides not only me, but many other students throughout the school. I know that she has impacted others’ lives as well as my own. My mom has good morals which she passed on to me. Sure we disagree and get into little fights, but we can always work it out somehow. I can count on her to get something done or be there for me whenever I need her. She can get stressed out easily but gets over it shortly after. We are both very busy people and she manages her time well. Time management is a concept that I’m still trying to grasp and my mother helps me with this a whole lot. When I am older, I want to be the kind of mother that she is to me. I want to be a cool mom that everyone likes but yet not afraid to lay down the law for my child. She is also very involved and knows what’s going on. She’s also up-to-date and stylish, which I like to believe is partly due to me. :) My mom constantly sets examples for me even when she doesn’t know it. Ever since I was little I have learned from her by her actions and words. People tell me all the time that I’m just like my mother and although I shake my head and disagree, I know that it’s somewhat true and I’m satisfied with it because she is such a great woman.

What does Ryan Pinkowski do in his free time?

Many of us wonder, what does Ryan Pinkowski do in his free time? Pinky has a hard time getting his work done and I believe this is because he is very distracted. Outside of school, and putting on a fake “student” disguise, Pinky is a Broadway musical performer. He constantly has to practice and prepare for shows and is always on the run to rehearsals. Pinky has had a passion for dancing ever since he was little but never really told anyone. He was embarrassed because it wasn’t the cool thing to be a dancer. He made it big about three years ago which is why his production level in high school has dropped. It is hard for Pinky to get work done in school because he is always exhausted. On a normal week day, he usually doesn’t get home until after midnight. There is barely any time for him to sleep, which causes him to doze off in school quite often. As of now, Pinky is just a back-up dancer and has performed in musicals such as West Side Story, Chicago, The Wizard of Oz, and Hairspray. Other students would never picture him to be a dancer because of the act he puts on in school. He takes his disguise in school as practice for his acting career. He hopes to have a bigger part in a production eventually. Pinky has it made and has a career all set, so why does he need to do his schoolwork? He wants to hire a tutor and be home-schooled on his own time but his parents won’t let him. With one more year of high school left, Pinky is going to stick it out and keep up the act. He figures that his work doesn’t need to be complete or perfect so he does what he needs to skate by.

Injury!

I have had many stupid little injuries throughout my life that could be considered embarrassing. About two years ago, around fall time, I went to my grandparents’ house out in Varysburg with my family. My cousin and aunt were also there. We were all outside because it was very nice out and my cousin, brother, and I were riding around on my grandpa’s toys (four-wheelers and golf cart) because they have a lot of land. My grandpa and cousin had a fabulous idea to tie a metal saucer to the back of the golf cart. They figured it would be like tubing in the snow, but on grass instead. So my cousin took the first ride as my grandpa took sharp turns and went all over the lawn on the four-wheeler. My cousin would fly off the saucer and we’d all laugh. Finally, I took a turn. Sitting on the saucer, the ride was pretty thrilling. I was screaming and having fun, determined to stay on the saucer. For some odd reason, I refused to let go. I wanted to be the champion of grass saucering or something. Well, that was a bad idea. My grandpa whipped me so hard that the entire saucer flipped and I went with it. I face planted into the grass and hit my head extremely hard. I had brush-burns on my elbows, knees, and even forehead and my head was pounding. I swear I had a concussion, considering my head hurt every day straight for the next week. My dad proceeded to call me “Scrape” because of the brush-burn on my face. He still calls me that every once in a while to date. Looking back, I wish I would’ve been a little more willing to let go. If I would’ve just let go, I wouldn’t have flipped over and been buried into the ground. Would I ride that saucer again? Of course. Even though I got pretty beat up, it was definitely a lot of fun.

10/18-10/22 Oh so scary!

I’ve seen many scary movies and been to many haunted houses but one of the creepiest places I’ve been to is Delaware Rd. Delaware is in Clarence and it is a vacant road where the Klu Klux Klan supposedly hung people. I’ve walked down it a few times and nothing too crazy has happened. The last time I was there though, we started walking down it and heard snapping in the trees. We ran back to the truck as fast as we could, because we are babies. So we drove down it to get a hold of ourselves and after, tried to walk down it again. As we were walking, we saw bright lights behind us and an old car was coming at us full speed. I happened to be a little further down the road though and I dashed off the road as fast I could, trying to get back to the truck. I fell into a ditch and was scrambling to get up. When the car passed and we were all freaking out, it wasn’t over. It put its break lights on so we quickly got into the truck and as we were about to pull out, the car came full speed in reverse at us. It continued to follow us off of Delaware Rd for a while, tailgating us big time. After a while, it finally passed and we were relieved but definitely freaked out.

Another thing that is very scary to me is the movie “When A Stranger Calls”. This movie was awful for me because when it came out, I was doing a lot of babysitting. Almost every time I babysit now, I think of the movie and some body in the house. It is about a high school girl who goes to babysit and keeps getting creepy phone calls. She finds out that the call is coming from inside the house. The girl then has to fight for hers and the children’s lives. It scares me so much because it is so realistic. A lot of scary movies are about vampires or mutated, possessed people but “When A Stranger Calls” was different. I’ll never feel one hundred percent safe when babysitting ever again!

10/18-10/22 Is Nate Bailey the Boss?

I’m going to be honest, Nate Bailey is the boss. Honestly, I’ve never really heard anyone refer to themselves as boss until Nate started it. Who really knows what a boss is or what it means to be “boss”? I sure as heck don’t but I know that when I hear it, I relate it to Nate. He gave this name to himself and is so persistent and adamant about it that EVERYONE knows that’s what he calls himself. Everyone is bashing Nate but I have to give him credit for creating “boss”. He knows what’s up and is not afraid to show it. He makes it clear to everyone that he loves himself and his life and is the greatest. He may have given himself this name because of his performance on the football field this season. Nate has been tearing it up, and believe me, he knows it. Let’s just remember the video we watched on the news of Nate’s touchdown. Now that’s a true boss. I think to be a boss you have to love yourself and Nate couldn’t make that more obvious. Nobody really conforms to the idea of Nate being “boss” but his friends are definitely aware. In Nate’s eyes, people should bow down to him as he passes through the hall and respect him. He’s fresh and fly, coming to school every day dressed to impress. He’s also got the swagger that shows he’s the man. When I signed Nate’s yearbook last year, no joke, EVERYONE that signed it had used the word “boss”. Things such as “The Boss”, “Nate Boss Bailey”, “The Boss Man”, and more appeared on the pages. Even when writing this article I wanted to use the word “boss” to describe Nate. I’m NOT saying Nate is the greatest person alive or godlike at all, just saying, Nate Bailey is OBVIOUSLY the boss.

10/18-10/22 Nate Horror Story

1) Once upon a time, there was a boy named Nathan Boss Bailey. He thought he was sweet and was always getting into trouble at school. Teachers and the principle were getting fed up with him and they kept warning him. One day, they decided to send him away for a few days. They sent him to a school in the town of Eden. They had never sent a student there before for suspension, so Nathan was their first one, sort of like a guinea pig. Nate was annoyed but followed the rules and went out to Eden for his first day. When he got there, they told him he’d be spending three days and two nights there. Nathan was not prepared for the little overnight visit at this alternative school in Eden at all. It was a long empty building out in the middle of nowhere with only woods surrounding it. They led him to a room to do his work and it reminded him of a dungeon. They locked up the doors behind him and surprisingly, Nate was the only student there. He started his work trying not to make eye contact with the instructor. The instructor was pale as can be, with long, black, straggly, hair and bloodshot eyes. Nathan sat in his chair, as creeped out as anyone could be, while he heard weird noises and saw shadows pass by every now and then. Nate thought he was getting sick, or not feeling well, because it was all too weird. He slept in a tiny room, with no ventilation and again heard the noises, and high pitched screaming in the night. He knew he needed to get out. With no phone, and no way of contacting anyone, Nate was just going to have to wait it out. On his last day there, he woke up sweating, but relieved to be going home. Except today was different, no one came for Nate, so he wandered off to the school room on his own. Nobody was in sight and he just sat down to do his work. It started to storm outside, the lights went off, and the noises got louder. Nate started running, scared out of his mind with something right behind him, chasing him. “Where did he run to?” you may ask, but nobody knows. No one knows where he disappeared to or what the school did to him. The Eden alternative school was shut down and there have been detectives on the case. Nate Bailey is still missing but the hunt to find him continues.

Best Meal Ever!

It’s very difficult for me to choose the best meal I’ve ever had. I can’t think of a certain meal that was my favorite but a delicious meal that I recently had was a spaghetti dinner. I always like spaghetti; it is a simple but very good meal. This special time though, I had the Girls Varsity Soccer team over to my house after a practice for dinner. Dinner was prepared and on the table as soon as we got to my house which was great because we were all hungry! We had spaghetti, meatballs, garlic bread, and salad. Everything was DELICIOUS. My grandma made homemade sauce and my dad made the meatballs from scratch. The garlic bread was made from fresh loaves of French bread with garlic spread and cheese on top. I started out with salad and then proceeded to eat my spaghetti and meatballs! I even had a second helping because it was so good. After stuffing myself with the mouth-watering main course, it was time for dessert! Some of my teammates brought different desserts to help out with the meal. We had chocolate chip cookies, banana bars, sugar cookies with frosting, and mint flavored brownies. I think I had one of each dessert because they were all so good and I couldn’t decide on just one. All of teammates kept saying how great the meal was and I couldn’t agree more. My parents really went all out with the meal. I think we will have to have another spaghetti dinner very soon!

Best Class Ever!

One of my favorite classes in high school has to be English 11. I took English 11 last year with Mr. Currin and Mrs. Gramza for teachers. First of all, anyone that has had these two together knows that it’s crazy. They constantly harass each other and it always makes me laugh. I had the class first block and I actually didn’t mind coming into school for it. It wasn’t like a normal first block class that you would usually want to sleep for or anything like that. In the class, we covered many different pieces of literature that I found very interesting. We read and acted out the play, “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller. Each student had a different role in the play and it was an interesting way to get us more involved in the story. We also read The Catcher in The Rye. After reading it, my friend Holly and I made a video for our final project. It was really fun to reenact different scenes from the novel. Even though I usually don’t like poetry, the poetry unit was actually pretty fun. We had a day to share our poetry and I really enjoyed hearing other people’s work. I got made fun of A LOT in that class, especially by the teacher, but I clearly didn’t mind that much. I liked the other students in my class and we made fun of Currin right back. Some of my closest friends were in English with me, so it was nice to be able to talk about homework or assignments whenever we needed help or just to share ideas. Of course there was the big English Regents at the end of the year which I dreaded but my scores on the essays proved that English 11 had prepared me well.

Best Band Ever!

One of my favorite musical groups to listen to is the Black Eyed Peas. The Black Eyed Peas is a pop/hip-hop group consisting of four members. The members are will.i.am, Taboo, apl.de.ap, and Fergie. They formed in 1995 and have been gaining popularity ever since. I have been listening to them for quite a while now. I enjoy their music so much, because it is always upbeat and makes you want to dance. They have many catchy songs that you can’t help but playing over and over again. Many of their songs can be heard at dances or parties because of their modern energy. Just last year, I purchased their new album, The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies). This album was amazing and a huge success. It consisted of hit songs such as “Boom Boom Pow”, “I Gotta Feeling”, “Imma Be”, and so much more. I would play this CD all the time, whether I was just relaxing at home, or in the car. It wasn’t long before my family and friends learned to love the Black Eyed Peas as well. My friends were buying the album and we could jam out to all the songs. More songs on the album also started playing on the radio and when they did, I already knew them! I love being able to sing along to each track. Their style is trendy and fresh and the beats are irresistible. I can’t think of a song that I don’t like. Although they haven’t always been the best live or on stage, the Black Eyed Peas ‘music is incredibly entertaining.

10/4-10/8 Little Miss Sunshine

Another movie that I love is Little Miss Sunshine. This comedy came out in 2006 about a very dysfunctional family from Albuquerque. Their goal is to get the little girl, Olive, to win the Little Miss Sunshine Contest way off California. The family wants to make her dreams come true but they have so many issues that they cannot go a day without running into some kind of disaster. The mother brings her homosexual brother into the family from a psych ward for being suicidal. The dad is an unsuccessful motivational speaker that tries to use his nine steps to success plan. Olive’s brother, Dwayne, has taken a vow of silence as a follower of Nietzsche and acts distant from the family. The grandpa, was sent away from an elders’ institution and is addicted to heroin but determined to help Olive win. On their cross-country journey to California, they run into many problems which are all very comical. I enjoyed this movie because for me, it was nonstop laughter. The family fails to get along day after day and fights throughout the entire trip. Each character was fun and interesting in their own ways as we were exposed to their flaws and problems. In the end, they are still a family and love each other even though they go through struggles. I would definitely recommend Little Miss Sunshine because it always gives me a good laugh.

10/4-10/8 Ten Things I Hate About You

Ten Things I Hate About You has been one of my favorite movies ever since I was young. It is a remake of the Shakespeare classic “Taming of the Shrew” set in a modern day high school. A new student, Cameron, comes to Padua High and meets a beautiful girl named Bianca. The only problem is that Bianca isn’t allowed to date until her older sister, Kat the “shrew”, dates. Kat is an unruly senior that hates conformity. Cameron, in the hopes of dating Bianca, goes on a quest to find someone to date Kat and pays the kid he chooses. The kid he picks, Patrick, is also a rebellious high school student with a bad-boy reputation. This movie is very entertaining and fun to follow. Each character has a unique personality and come into many confrontations. I enjoyed reading “Taming of the Shrew” but this movie just makes the story line so much better because it is easier to relate to. It’s a believable story and shows the drama that teenagers actually go through. It keeps you wondering who is going to end up with who and is it going to work? Ten Things I Hate About You is a mix of comedy and romance of high school teens that is a great movie.

10/4-10/8 Remember the Titans

One movie that I absolutely love is Remember the Titans. Remember the Titans came out in the year 2000 and was based on a true story about an integrated football team from Alexandria, Virginia. One black school and one white school were forced to integrate and a black coach is made head coach over a very successful white coach. After tensions arise and many hard feelings, the boys finally learned to accept each other. They became the unifying example to the town and community as they acted as a family. They go through the season undefeated and slowly gain support from the community. After winning the state semi-finals, one of the main players, Gerry Bertier, became paralyzed from a car accident. The team went on to win the championship in honor of Gerry. I love this movie because it is very inspiring and entertaining. It shows a story of high school students overcoming racism and segregation during their time and influencing other people to do the same. They also fight to become the best football team and get a lot of support from the community. I like it because I can relate to the team unity which is a very powerful thing. If a team has heart, they can go very far and that is exactly what the Titans had. The movie also sprinkles in some humor so it’s fun and upbeat. I really enjoyed seeing the group of boys becoming a family rather than being stubborn and rejecting the idea. They came together to be the best they could be. This movie never gets old and I continue to love it every time that I watch it.

9/27-10/1 Travis Demuth!

Travis Demuth, a senior at Alden High, was born on October 29th, 1993. He was born in Buffalo but moved to Alden at an early age and lived here ever since. Travis plays football and also runs track. His favorite sport is track because he’s good at it. Anyone that has seen Travis run is aware of his speed. For track, he runs the 110 hurdles and in the 4x1 relay. The relay team dominates everyone they compete against and recently have traveled to Binghamton to race at states. In his free time, Travis likes to relax and watch television. He hangs out with his friends on the weekends and drives around in his Hyundai Tiburon. He has never had a job but plans on getting one, although he doesn’t want to. After high school, he plans on going to college and possibly even dorm. He doesn’t know where he wants to go or what he wants to be but he is thinking about becoming a Pediatrician. Travis likes to listen to all different music but his favorite types are rap and country. Some of his favorite artists are Lil Wayne and Brad Paisley. This night owl stays up until about midnight on school nights and even later on weekends! If he could be any animal he would be a lion because they are big, strong, and ferocious. Travis is a cool kid that you should really get to know!