Red Devil Post, Vol. 2, Issue 6

RED DEVIL POST

FFA makes a positive difference

by Hannah Carlson

The first National FFA Week was held in 1948 and continues to be celebrated annually. The Governor of Indiana, Eric Holcomb, signed a proclamation naming last week the National FFA Week (February 17th-February 24th). Schools across the country celebrated the achievements of students participating in Future Farmers of America and their passion for agriculture as many of these students plan to integrate agriculture into their future careers. At Lowell High School, National FFA Week was celebrated with a spirit week. While Monday’s theme was chore clothes, Tuesday’s theme was more inclusive of all students–not just those in FFA; It was yoga moms vs Home Depot dads. FFA member, Reagan Claus, wore her tool belt and boots as a Home Depot dad to show her pride for FFA. Carson Brown came with a belt bag and Stanley to represent the yoga moms. The inclusiveness and popularity of these spirit themes is one thing that Reagan loves about FFA Week. She shares, “FFA week is a way to help show our school what FFA is and how much fun it is. It is a week that brings the most awareness to our group and what we stand for.”

Students and teachers who typically aren’t involved with FFA were able to participate in fun themes that showed support for our school’s group.

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Staff

Hailey Baran

Brooke Bretzinger

Jonathan Budz

Hannah Carlson

Josh Cornell

Lilly Cruz

Cadence Fleager

Hailey Fox

Naveah Hurtado

Jayden Jansma

Trinitie Lintner

Allie Lukasik

Allie Mecha

Julia Monix

Gabby Morache

Taylor Rothrock

Emma Sampias

Addi Umfleet

Sponsor

Joe Gianotti

IN THIS ISSUE

FFA, p. 1

Abagail Pflugoeft, p. 3

Red Devils’ Bistro, p. 4

Academic Teams, p. 5

Dodgeball, p. 6

AI and Art, p. 7

Sound of Music, p. 8

AP Art Visits Three Creeks, p. 9

Cystic Fibrosis, p. 10

Michaela Montgomery, p. 11

Bella Galic, p. 12

Book Review, p. 13

Owala Water Bottles, p. 14

St. Patrick’s Day, p. 15

Boys Swimming, p. 16

Spring Sports Preview, p. 17

Special Olympics, p. 18

Boys Basketball, p. 19

Red Devil Pride

No one more deserving: Distinguished Young Woman

Abagail Pflughoeft Competes at the state level

by Gabby Morache

On February 17th, our very own senior and newly crowned Distinguished Young Woman of Lowell, Abagail Pflughoeft, traveled to Kokomo, Indiana to compete against several other Distinguished Young Women of Indiana in one of the most prestigious and honorable competitions held for all young women across the United States. Distinguished Young Women, established in 1958, is a national nonprofit organization that provides scholarship opportunities to high school senior girls to allow them to reach their full potential on their college journeys.

To become a distinguished young woman, you are evaluated in five categories: scholastics, interview, talent, self-expression, and fitness. Pflughoeft, being the very involved and talented lady she is here at LHS, was no surprise when she punched her ticket to the state competition.

Throughout highschool, Abagail has been a part of the cross country and track and field teams for all four years and was crowned captain this year. She is a natural born leader; She is always leading her team to the best of her ability and always with the most positive attitude. Along with this, Abagail is very involved in LHS’s choir and musical theatre programs. She has been casted various roles throughout her high school career, including her.

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Red Devil Pride

DECA opens Red Devils Bistro

by Bryson Hebble

Students in Mrs. Hinchy’s 3rd-year Entrepreneurship class, Small Business Operations, at Lowell Senior High School are creating a student-run coffee shop open to all students. The students in this class came up with the idea of the coffee shop, Red Devils Bistro, last year in preparation for what they wanted to do this year. The students in this class officially started working on this project at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year. To get an idea of what a student-run coffee shop would look like, the DECA club traveled to other schools in our area that already have running coffee shops. DECA is a club run by Mrs. Hinchy that prepares leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management in high schools and colleges around the globe. After traveling to other schools in the area, students created a presentation with the supplies and the price of the supplies they would need as well as where they were planning on purchasing these items from Mrs. Hinchy then presented this presentation to the Tricreek Education Foundation asking for funding to get the Bistro up and running. The Bistro has chosen to partner with Chartwells, the same company that partners with our cafeteria workers, to obtain the supplies that they need for the Bistro. This project did not just include Mrs. Hincy’s class and

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by Jonathan Budz

Red Devil Pride Science Olympiad and Academic Super Bowl

flex their memory muscles

For the first time since 2019 Lowell High School has sent a Science Olympiad team to compete at regionals at IUN’s campus. With only a team of ten students, five under the recommended amount and far less than that of the other schools, the team was able to place 6th overall with numerous members receiving multiple medals. Senior Alyssa Krusza achieved multiple medals for build events along with Freshman Grady Bergstrom. Sophomore Jack Molina and Freshman Angelkoski also received numerous medals in study events such as Fossils. Even Senior Jesse Bergstrom made a return from 7th grade to compete in the Auto-Cad trial event and won 2nd

2nd place overall in the event by himself. The team was spearheaded by Mr. Lembcke who brought the academic sport back when he moved from the middle school to the high school. While the team didn’t make it to state, they had a great return after a five year long hiatus and reminded other schools what Lowell is capable of.

Not to be outdone, LHS’s Academic Super Bowl team won their first competition of the year at the Lowell Invitational. Team members are studying the 80s and the 90s through five disciplines: English, fine arts, math, science, and social studies. All five teams placed in the top three at the Lowell Invite as the Red Devils defeated Merrillville, Hobart, Hanover Central, Rensselaer, North Judson-San Pierre, River Forest, and Whiting. Crown Point and Munster won the large school division. Lowell particularly shined in math, where they dusted the competition. The math team consisted of Micah Ambrose, Mikey Vitols, and Jonathan Budz.

Red Devil Pride

Dodgeball, Dodgeball, Dodgeball!!!!!!

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the unique LHS Dodgeball Tournament, which will take place in the gymnasium on March 15th at 6 p.m. That’s twenty years of crazy costumes, elite level athletes, and way too much testosterone in the Pit. Mr. Gianotti runs the tournament because it’s technically an Academic Teams’ fundraiser. Gianotti said, “I’m pretty sure nobody remembers that this started out as a way for the Academic Team to buy shirts and books and take study trips.” Gianotti said that he lucked into the success that the LHS tourney has become. “The movie Dodgeball had just come out, so we struck while the iron was hot, I guess,” said Gianotti. “I never imagined it would be as successful as it is. I think it’s funny that our very successful Academic Team gets two pages in the yearbook, while dodgeball gets the same space. I sincerely couldn’t do it without the assistance of so many of our faculty. Mr. Wong has made the draw every year, and he’s integral to making sure we have a fair tournament because he knows the athleticism of the players much better than I do.” Gianotti said that prior to Covid, he was getting 40-50 teams. Even post pandemic, plenty of students look forward to this event.

Artistic Endeavors

AI art and video: How far it too far?

by Jaidyn Jansma

Recently, the internet saw the release of a new generative AI program. Sora, made by the company OpenAI, is capable of generating almost perfectly realistic videos just from a text prompt. They might be recognized as the makers of ChatGPT and DALL·E 3. While people may think these programs are relatively harmless, is that really the case?

Going back to last year, around March, photos of Trump and Putin being arrested circulated around the internet. To people who didn’t take a closer look, these seemed realistic. But these photos were AI, generated by a Midjourney program. Many people believed it. Images like these, depicting real people doing crimes, begs a question. How dangerous can AI be, in the hands of the wrong people? The answer is, incredibly. While there haven’t been many examples of this in a serious case, with the development of increasingly realistic AI, we soon may not be able to tell the difference between fabricated and real images and videos.

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Artistic Endeavors

Sound of Music takes the stage this weekend

by Josh Cornell

Our school’s theater department has been very hard at work since we came back to school in January. They have been working on this year’s musical, which is going to be The Sound of Music. It is a show based off the real life story of the Von Trapp Family singers, who were one of the best known singing groups in the era immediately following World War 2. It follow a postulant named Maria Rainer, being Played by Abagail Pflughoeft, as she gets sent to the Von Trapp family to be their new governess. She meets the seven children, Liesl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta, and Gretl. She also meets the widowed Captain Georg Von Trapp, and the two main members of the house staff, Frau Schmidt and Franz. Slowly, but surely, Maria begins to reintroduce music into the household, something that has been gone since the death of the Captain's wife. But, it isn’t as easy as that, or else Schraeder acts as an opposing force to Maria for much of the show, as she is Georg’s fiance, and she doesn’t want Maria around. Max Dettweiler is also a bit of a road block for Maria. Eventually, Elsa realizes that her and Georg are not meant to marry. Maria and the Captain marry each other, and during the honeymoon, Germany invades Austria. The Captain has been requested by the Nazis, but doesn’t support them. They

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Artistic Endeavors

AP Art visits Three Creeks

by Lilly Cruz

The AP Art class took a field trip to Three Creeks as a reward for the children who had earned the ability to do art with the high school art students. The elementary students gathered in the school cafeteria and created artwork using watercolors and one white Crayola crayon. Mrs. LaPage guided the students and showed them how to begin their artwork. The first step was to use the white Crayola crayon to create your design or drawing, and then the second step was to apply watercolor paint on top of it and around it for your design to show. The high schoolers walked around the cafeteria to help all the students with their art and to help them think of what ideas to draw on their paper. The kindergarten to fifth-grade students were happy and excited to have the opportunity to work with high schoolers.

The high school students not only hosted an art creative activity, but they also ate lunch with the elementary students, stepped into classes, and went to recess with the kids. The elementary students were thrilled whenever the high school students hung out with them.

This included when the high schoolers went into the kindergarten classroom, the crafts classroom, and the art classroom. The kindergartners were celebrating 100 completed days of school and were drawing what they would look like if they were 100 years old. The high schoolers in the art and crafts classroom helped children if they needed guidance and as well as participated in their activities. Both the elementary and high schoolers had a blast bonding with one another.

Devils’ Advocate What is cystic fibrosis

by Allie Mecha

Cystic Fibrosis is a recessive, genetic disorder that damages your lungs, digestive tract, and other organs. It’s caused by a mutation in the CTFR gene, causing the CTFR protein to mutate.

Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic disease. In order to have CF, people inherit two copies of the gene, one copy from each parent. Both parents have to have one copy of the gene. People with only one copy are called a carrier, but they wouldn’t have the disease. If two people who are both carriers of the disease have a child, the chances of their child having the disease are:

• 25% (1 in 4) of the children will be affected by the disease

• 50% (1 in 2) of the children will be a carrier of the disease, but won’t have the disease

• 25% (1 in 4) of the children will not be a carrier nor affected by CF

The protein’s function is to maintain the balance of salt and water on many surfaces in the body. In the lungs, the mucus clogs the airways and traps germs, which leads to infection, inflammation, respiratory failure, etc. In the pancreas, the buildup of mucus prevents the release of digestive enzymes that help the body absorb nutrients out of food, resulting in malnutrition and poor growth. In the liver, the thick mucus can block the bile duct, causing liver disease. In men, this might affect their ability to have children.

Some of the symptoms include:

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by Allie Lukasik

Student Spotlight

Meet junior, Michaela Montgomery

What extracurricular activities do you participate in?

“I am an athletic trainer here at Lowell High School. I have been a trainer since my sophomore year of high school, doing both the fall and winter seasons. In the spring I run track as a sprinter.”

What is your favorite class you took this year?

“My favorite class that I took this year would be Algebra II. I really like my teacher, Ms. Wylie, she helps make math fun and engaging.”

How long have you been doing track?

“I have been doing track since my freshman year of high school.”

What is your favorite aspect of track?

“My favorite aspect of track is when I get to sprint multiple events at meets. I love the idea of pushing myself and knowing that I can become faster.”

How has your whole high school experience been so far?

“I’ve really enjoyed my whole high school

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Modern Minute

Bella Galic, fashionista

Video created by, Cadence Fleager

Bella Galic is this issue’s fashion profile. Click on this caption to learn a little bit about how Galic creates her outfits.

Modern Minute

If He Had Been with Me

by Laura Nowlin,

a book review

by Julia Monix

What qualities make a book exciting? Sad or confusing? Immersive, draining while also charming? All of these qualities are given to pieces of literature after a person reads it. I see an issue with this. Every person is uniquely themselves. All revolving around our experiences in life, we are seemingly different than everyone else. This, in turn, makes our perceptions differ. While one person sees something as joyful and fulfilling, another person might view it as offensive and closed-minded. This is the case with this novel. If He Had Been With Me is written by Laura Nowlin and is accredited to be devastatingly sad and shocking. Many people rave about how this story breaks your heart and makes you cry recently.

However, when I read this book, I didn’t even shed a tear. I found the book to be very predictable and not exciting. The author chooses to use a form of foreshadowing in the very first chapter of the book. She describes this car accident where Finny and Sylvie swerve off the road due to heavy rain. “Finny is wearing his seat belt. He is blameless. It is Sylvie who is not.” Nowlin then goes on to describe how Sylvie flies through the windshield, hits the ground, and goes unconscious. “She lies on the pavement, crumpled. Finny is untouched. He breathes heavily, and in shock and wonder, he stares out into the night. This is his moment of weightless suspension. His mind is blank. He feels nothing, he thinks nothing; he exists, perfect and unscathed. He does not even hear the rain. Stay. I whisper to him. Stay in the car. Stay in this moment. But of

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Modern Minute

Owala the latest water bottle to take over the desks of LHS

by Hailey Baran

Move over Hydro Flask, there’s a new trending water bottle: the Owala. Created in 2020, the Owala has recently grown in popularity, as TIME magazine named it one of the best inventions 2023. However, what’s the hype behind this bottle?

The Unique Colors

Owala is famously known for its unique color palettes. On their website, Owala does a

Color Drop where every month, they put out a series of colors and patterns on their water bottles for a short amount of time that cannot be bought anywhere else. These bottles are sold at Amazon, Target, Dicks Sporting Goods, Walmart, and many other big-corporation stores where consumers can buy these distinctive bottles.

Cheap Price, Great Quality

For Owala’s quality, Owala’s water bottles are significantly cheaper than Hydro Flask’s. The starting price for a 24oz water bottle is $27.99, a 32oz is $32.99, and a 40oz bottle is $37.99.

Comparing this to Hydro Flask, their starting price for a 24oz bottle is $39.95, 32oz being $44.95, and a 40oz water bottle is $49.95. Although the Hydro Flask does arguably have great features, Owala has even better features- and for half the price.

The Sip Options

One of the many great features of the Owala that users cannot get over is the two sip options Owala offers. When drinking, you can either sip from a straw meant to fit the shape of your mouth, or use the wider drinking option and chug your drink.

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Quirks of History Celebrating St. Pattie’s Day

by Emma Sampias

St. Patrick's Day is a day of celebrating St. Patrick, the entry of Christianity in Ireland, and an overall celebration of Irish culture. This celebration began on March 17th, in the year of 1631. The day was initially created to honor St. Patrick, the man who is given credit for bringing Christianity to parts of Ireland. St. Patrick focused on the north-east region of Ireland. This Irish holiday is celebrated in many ways. Some traditional foods that are commonly eaten during this celebration are corned beef and cabbage, green-colored foods, and green-colored beverages. Along with these traditional St. Patrick's Day foods, there are many events that take place in celebration of this day. Some events include parades, 5k’s, pot lucks, visiting the greendyed river in Chicago, parties, and dancing to Irish folk music. Another common tradition that appears each year in many homes is the Leprachan. Children are commonly found creating traps to trap the leprechaun. These creative traps can be exciting to make for children, as they anticipate what the Leprechaun will leave for them. This can range from a sign of presence in the trap to a trail of gold chocolates for the child to eat. This amusing holiday is packed with the color green and fun-filled activities.

Courts and Fields

Bakker, Briese, Kotlin, and Snell break their own school swimming record

by Naveah Hurtado

Seniors Peter Kotlin, Kayden Briese, Seth Bakker, and Peyton Snell seniors on the Lowell Senior High School swim team have beat Lowell's record for the 400 free relay twice! They have accomplished this record in prelims and finals for a time of 3:20.53. We will be going through their feelings about beating this record, and their life during the swim season. How long have they all been swimming? Peter Kotlin has been swimming for 7 years, Seth Bakker for 9 years, Kayden Briese for 4 years, and Peyton Snell for 8 years. When I asked them what their favorite part of swim was they all said it was because of the team rather than swimming since they are such a tight-knit group. Following this question I asked them what they would miss the most about the Lowell swim team, not a surprise they all said the people on the team

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Courts and Fields Spring Sports Season Preview

by Addi Umfleet

As the winter season for sports comes to an end, the spring season is rapidly approaching. Since the Lowell High School athletic outdoor sports areas are going through changes, this year's sports outlook with be viewed differently. Starting off with boy’s baseball, the season officially starts in less than a month. They will play Highland on April 1st and is considered a home game. Next is girl's softball, who have their tryouts within the next week. The Lady Devils’ first game is March 22nd verse and at Crown Point. Both the boys' baseball and girls' softball have been working hard in preseason preparing for a great season this year. The track teams have also been working hard in preparation for their first meet next Saturday at Purdue. The boys and girls have been putting in the work to make this season count. The last spring season sport is girls' tennis. The ladies will take on the Rensselaer Bombers at Rensselaer on Thursday, April 4th. All in all, the spring sports have been hitting practice hard to do all they can to make this season one to remember. Good luck to all of the spring sports and all the athletes making the most of this year!

Courts and Fields

Lowell’s Special Olympic basketball team readies for big game

by Brooke Bretzinger

The Lowell Red Devil Special Olympics team is showing up and showing out! For those of you who don’t know, there is a Lowell special olympics basketball team consisting of middle and highschool aged athletes with intellectual disabilities. Not only do they all practice together weekly, the team also has games throughout the season. The season includes 4 games. I have had the pleasure of coaching these athletes, and it truly has been heartwarming to see them grow not only as athletes, but people in general too. We had our first game at Lake Central on February 15th, and the Lowell Devils truly put up a good fight. Although the final outcome was 46-44, almost everyone worked on their dribbling skills, and nearly the entire team made at least one basket! There definitely were many smiles from all of the coaches and spectators due to their amazing performance. The biggest night of the season is the “Night at the Pit”. This event is held here at the high school on March 13th in the Pit at 6 pm. This event is not only a basketball game, as the night includes face painting, a bake sale, and many games all for free. Yes, entry into the event is free, but be sure to bring some extra cash for all of the fun activities listed above. Last year the turnout was amazing, but this time I want the Lowell Red Devil community to show up and support. Let’s break the attendance record and make it the best possible night for these athletes!

Courts and Fields

Boys basketball leaves it on the court at Chesterton

by Hailey Fox

On Friday, March 1, our beloved boy's basketball team lost a season-ending game against Chesterton High School, in the second round of sectionals. The Lowell Boys Basketball team ended their season with a 5-18 record. This season was difficult for the boys but they never gave up and continued to work hard. They played many challenging teams and had multiple close games. On Friday the boys maintained a strong defense but ultimately lost 38-74 against Chesterton. Through the first quarter, the game was neck and neck and ended within just a few points of each other. But the Red Devils played with their hearts out on the floor through the rest of the game but couldn’t quite get the win. Many of our players had great games, despite it being the last. Along with the game against the Trojans, many players had consistently great games with multiple points each. Previously on Friday the 23rd of February, the Red Devils played the Crown Point Bulldogs. The Red Devils played strong for the first half but ended up losing to the Bulldogs 74-51. Ultimately, the boys played a great season and our seniors will be missed by all. We hope to see all Red Devil fans in the stands for our spring sports as our track and field season has already begun.

FFA, continued from page 1

On Wednesday, wearing pink was a hit for many. Mr. Higgins went all out and even temporarily dyed his beard pink for the occasion.

Reagan also opened up about how she has learned many leadership skills from FFA through the activities the group participates in such as livestock judging and district convention. She went on to say how much the program has done for her personally by stating, “This group has opened new doors for me. I have learned so much about agriculture and our country because of this club.” She feels that there is a lot that goes into getting food out of the ground and ready to go on our plates. Because of FFA, she now understands all of the little steps people in agriculture take to get food ready for consumption.

Pflughoeft, continued from page 3

favorite roles of Flonder in Ariel and her star role of Annie in Annie. You can also find her in Lowell’s upcoming play, The Sound of Music, as the lead role of Maria beginning on April 7th course lead to better mental health! So what would it hurt to give some of these tactics a try and make your busy life much easier? Remember the old but gold saying, “Consistency is Key!”

It was the upmost heartwarming conversation to have with Pflughoeft about her experience in Kokomo. During Abagail’s week leading up to the competition, she stayed with a host family to prepare for her performance and get to know the other girls competing in the program. “This was a new experience for me but my host family really made it feel like home,” Pflughoeft explained. “I also had a driver who picked up my roommate and me every day, he was so sweet and never let us open one door. So if you want to get spoiled for a week I say do this program!” Not only this, but throughout her experience with her host family and fellow roomates, she was able to eat at local restaurants, go bowling, take a tour of IU Kokomo, tour a glass factory, and do a service project. “This was definitely a jam-packed week but I am so grateful I got to be a part of it” Abagail said.

However, when I asked her what her favorite memory was about the journey, the response wasn’t about the fun activities or the rather stressful week of preparation for competition. When it came down to it, nothing else on the trip compared to the amount of love, support, happiness, and laughter she shared with the other girls in the program. “My favorite memory would be just being around the girls every day. When I walked into this I felt so stressed and unprepared, but when I got there I was surrounded by supportive girls that were there whenever I needed and were willing to drop anything to help those around them. It was a competition but it didn’t feel like it at all which was such a cool feeling.” Being in this program not only better prepared her for the future, but gave her bonds and memories with the other girls that will last a lifetime.

Bistro, continued from page 4

the DECA club. They also partnered with Mr. Delgado’s 3rd-year Digital Design class, Graphic Technology, to create the posters, menu boards, and other advertising materials.

The Bistro will be in the cafeteria in the mornings starting around 7:30ish. Further, it will be a cash-only establishment and not take any other form of payment. In the future the students running the Bistro plan on expanding their menu but for the 2023-2024 school year, they only plan on serving drinks. These drinks include but are not limited to fruit smoothies, hot and iced coffee, espressos, and an assortment of flavorings. The students running the bistro plan on handing out drink samples in the coming weeks. At this time there is no set date for the opening of the Bistro due to supplies not arriving and the snow days we have experienced this year, for updates on the opening date and their newest drink follow their Instagram page, @lhsbistro.

AI, continued from page 7

A couple of years ago, AI videos and images looked almost like a fever dream. But within the last year, notable advancements have been made. It started with images. AI began to be capable of creating a fake drawing or image of a person or thing. There were still some discrepancies like hands being twisted or words illegible. Sora by OpenAI changes all of this. At first glance, you can’t even tell it is AI. It’s a far cry from the funny, almost scarily bad, AI videos of a couple of years ago. These are only the programs that have been shown to the public, as well. They may be working on or already have programs that are more advanced than this.

Aside from those, there is another problem that people have with AI. People working in any art field may be getting replaced with AI. Artists, actors, animators, and others of the sort are in danger of having their jobs taken away from them. There are already AI artists and filmmakers who simply type a prompt and proclaim it as art. Many people believe that these people should not call themselves such things, as they aren’t physically making anything. This is subjective, but you can hardly deny the lack of feeling and humanness in AI work.

While recent AI programs are impressive and interesting, it should be used with care. Everyone has different views on regulations, but if let run rampant, it will possibly be destructive to society. But only time will tell.

Sound of Music, continued from page 8

decide to flee Austria, but do they make it? Are they all safe? Who becomes a Nazi? Those questions are all things you need to come see the musical to have answered. It will be playing on March 7-9 at 7 pm, and March 10th at 2 pm. Tickets are $8 for students and senior, and $10 for adults. We have a lot of cast members, and crew members who would love you to come and support the efforts made by seeing the show.

cystic fibrosis, continued from page 10

• Salty-tasting skin

• Persistent coughing (with phlegm)

• Lung infections

◦ pneumonia

◦ Bronchitis

• Wheezing or shortness of breath

• Poor growth

• Nasal polyps

• Chronic sinus infections

• Male infertility

Diagnosing CF is a process that should include newborn screening, a sweat test, genetic/carrier tests, and clinical evaluations. About 1,000 new cases of CF are diagnosed each year and more than 75% of people are diagnosed with CF by age 2.

Montgomery, continued from page 11 experience.”

Are you excited for senior year next year?

“Although I’ll be very sad once I graduate, I am very excited to be a senior next year. I can finally start finalizing my future and get the ball rolling. I am also excited to become a leader for the younger classmen here at Lowell High School.”

How do you see your future after high school?

“After high school, I can see myself obtaining my CNA license all while going into nursing school and becoming a labor and delivery nurse. I also would like to be a travel nurse at some point in my life.”

Montgomery is a great student at LHS and deserves recognition for that. She balances a lot including her grades, friends, and extracurricular activities.

If He Had Been with Me, continued from page 13

of course, he never does”. The author uses beautiful imagery to bring the reader into the situation, but I feel this reveals too much for the beginning of the book. Autumn, the main character, goes on to narrate her entire high school experience. Noting how she and Finny, who were childhood best friends, grew apart. She is mindlessly in love with him but tries to hide it by entering a different relationship. Finny feels the same, but we don’t find this out until the end of the book. They soon realize that they have loved each other all their lives and want to be together. Unfortunately, Finny is still in a relationship with Sylvie, so he has to go and break it off with her. This is the night that the first paragraph is referring to. Finny ends up tragically passing away because he goes to help Sylvie and gets electrocuted from a power line on the ground. Autumn was very reluctant to let Finny go and talk to her, so she blames herself when he dies, hence the title If He Had Been With Me. She tries to take her own life. Nothing in her world is the same without Finny there. This is a very emotional story, but I feel that it was just too predictable. I knew what was going to happen from the beginning and I never felt a close connection to the characters like I usually do when reading books. I feel my opinion differs from most mainly for the reason that everyone has a unique experience with life. Changing each person's perspective and causing them to interpret things differently. Overall, this book was beautifully written but it just wasn't for me. It didn’t have the shock factor I look for in novels.

Owala, continued from page 14

Wide-Mouth Bottle

Compared to Hydroflask, the Owala is extremely wide-mouth, which is great for getting ice into your bottle and filling up drinks. Because the bottle is wide-mouth, it is also practical for cleaning, as the larger mouth makes cleaning the Owala easier.

Durability and Coldness

Owala’s bottles are stainless steel and triple-layer insulated, keeping your drinks ice cold for long periods. Ice can stay in the Owala for over 24 hours, making each sip experience enjoyable. This also makes the bottle extremely durable, taking on any damage that may happen to it.

Easy Travel

Because of the hinged top loop on the Owala, the Owala is easy to travel with and carry. When not in use, the top loop gets locked away, doubling as a lid lock. The accessibility of the lid makes the bottle look sleek and gives it easy travel usage.

Fully Sealed

Compared to Hydroflask, the Owala is fully covered, as the straw is not exposed when you are done drinking. This keeps your drinks more sanitary and practical for everyday use, as you are ensured that your drink will not only leak but will not become gross throughout the day.

Boys swimming, continued from page 16 and the hangouts outside of swim. How do they feel about breaking the school record not only once but twice?

Seth Bakker- Honestly, it was kind of unexpected. We had been trying to get the 200 free relay record all year and we hadn't even been close to the 400 free but it just happened after we all had huge PRs at sectionals. The coach didn't even know until someone went and told her. It was also kind of surreal because I swam with the guys that held all the relay records previously and they were some of the best swimmers and leaders that I had ever met. It was weird when I realized that we are now at that level where we're the seniors breaking records and inspiring the underclassmen.

Peter Kotlin- I never thought I would get on the record board so the first time we got it I was overjoyed. The second time was just assurance so our record wouldn't get broken easily.

Kayden Briese - The first time we broke it was definitely a surprise, we were planning on going for the 200 free relay record but dropped 5 seconds to break it the first time. We were all just happy to get our name on the board.

Peyton Snell- I didn't expect it and I felt like I would never be up on the board but once I found out I was so excited not just for myself but the rest of the relay team that I was with, breaking it with them was probably my favorite part of my whole swim career

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