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by: Nathan Loura
Pushing yourself and discipline has always been instilled in me since I was a baby by my father. He always taught me that when you feel the most tired that is when you have to push yourself even more. I based my project off of that mindset. I wanted to get my mile pace back to what it was when I was about 16. My record mile pace was 5.17 minutes per mile. However I lost that pace because I started to go for longer runs so I tried to go with a more steady pace rather than going for speed. However, while doing this project I decided to get back to my old ways. I started this project with one thing in mind and that was to beat my own personal record. With all the gyms closed down and not much other things to do other than do mostly cardio and running. I decided to take my old approach. I used to do 6 miles in the morning which is where I was able to get that fast pace going and set my 5.17 minute pace record for myself. However, then I decided to start doing 12 miles instead of 6. That is when my time started to increase because I felt that I wouldn’t be able to keep my 5.17 minute pace running 12 miles without stopping. So eventually my pace increased all the way up to 6.00 minutes flat and varied around there. Some days being more and others being less. The first week, I brought it back down to 6 miles but my pace was still a little high. By the end of the first week I was able to get my pace down to about 5.51 minutes per mile. It was a progress, but it wasn’t as much as I wanted it to be. The second week that is when I was really happy with my progress. I was able to get my pace down all the way to 5.30 minutes per mile. Which was about 21 seconds better than the previous week. This project is very important to me because it gives me the opportunity to compete against myself. I feel that the biggest competition you’ll ever face is the person staring back at you in the mirror. That is who I am competing with when I am doing my project and I want nothing more to keep setting new records for myself so that I can break them and make new records. That is why I chose this for my project, so that I can get in that mindset and apply it to other parts of my life and also apply it to the ring as well.
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 by: Mya Pellegrino
While being stuck in my house for almost 3 weeks (and eating everything in sight), I started to become really lazy and had no motivation to do any physical activity. However, I decided it was time to change that! I wanted to do something that would force me to be active while also eating a lot healthier. I came up with the idea of either trying out different workouts or something that affected my eating habits like trying a detox drink for a week or so. I chose to do something that affected my health because being quarantined in my house gave me too much time on my hands, that wasn't being used up. I was spending countless hours watching Netflix and scrolling through TikTok. I found myself eating way too much junk food and not being productive at all, and it needed to stop. Now, I had plans to vlog what I have been doing over the past week and to be honest, I keep forgetting. However, over this past week, I wanted to do something that forces me to be active, so I tried running about three miles a day. I wanted to do something that involved running because it gives me a chance to exercise and why not take advantage of the warm weather! Honestly, I've felt so productive after going for a longer run than usual. It makes me want to keep going during the day, rather than sit around or take five naps. I've also been trying to eat a lot healthier and I've been feeling great and full of energy!! For this upcoming week, I'm trying to cut out eating a lot of carbs and try to balance the foods I eat. I think it will be a small challenge trying to cut out carbs, but if it makes me feel better it's a challenge I'm willing to take.  One of my goals: a daily workout. by: Serena Console
Before we all realized that two weeks of quarantine was not enough time to return our “normal” lives, the original idea for my two week project for journalism was to organize my house. At the time I thought that it would be a great way to kill time, but after finding out we would be in quarantine for much longer than two weeks, I decided to try something that would benefit my physical, mental, and emotional well being. My new idea was to create a new every day routine. During the time that we were in school, most of us had the simple routine of waking up, going to school, and then the after-school plan: eating, then sleeping, but now we’re stuck at home and our routines have definitely changed. To fix this problem, I decided to create my own routine of what I need to do in the morning, afternoon, and evening. I was struggling to get started so I spoke with English teacher, Mr. Martin and he helped me get started on this routine. He was able to provide me with great information based on his personal experience of following a routine. Mr. Martin shared with me that having a great morning leads to the rest of the day being just as great. With the information I was given, I decided that I need to eat something good in the morning and do all my school work before noon so that it was out of the way and it helped me have time for other things, such as working out or organizing. While trying out the new routine, I faced some challenges and the biggest challenge was having motivation. I struggled to have motivation to push myself to workout that day and to get up or go to bed at the time I set. That lack of motivation definitely overpowered me some days where I felt sad about myself, but those moments also helped me look at myself and say that I need to do this because I know it will help me. Although this was a project, I am going to continue working on this routine because this distance learning is very similar to what college will be like. You have your own routine in college because classes are not always back to back and some of the work you do is being done on your own time. Continuing this routine will help me get a start on training my mind and body to having a more independent every day routine.  By Tyler Wolf
A few weeks ago, Mr. Martin, my journalism teacher, asked us students, “If there is anything you wanted to do in life, what would it be?” We had the next four weeks from the start of Distance Learning to complete a project that finds meaning or a task you would like to do. After going through many ideas (TikTok videos, drumming, and woodworking), I decided that I would read the Bible. Not only can I do this project independently, but it is something that would be beneficial for me in my life. Growing up in a Christian household, We read the bible a lot. We were so involved in our church, we read our Bibles regularly, at least four times a week. Everything was good until when I got to Middle School, I was lonely. I did not have many friends. I felt like with the friend I had, I started to become a person I am not. I thought the only way I was going to get friends, was to be funny. This is how I started to use vulgar language, thinking if I did that in conjunction with being funny would make me fit in (Before this, I had a sense of humor but it was appropriate and respectful). I was making the same poor choices throughout ninth, tenth and eleventh grade. This is especially true when I was in tenth grade. Long story short I was trying to be funny, which led to hurting a lot of people's feelings. It was not until recently that I felt it was important to get back to being more devoted to my roots and Christianity. I came back to the realization that if I live life as a Christian then my life would change. I decided to be fully devoted again, as opposed to being halfway devoted. I planned to read the Bible for at least ten minutes every day. I found that it was not too hard, however, I found that, without our standard school and life schedule, it was easy to lose track of time aspect . The main reason why I forget the time is because I find myself in a work related state of mind, or I find myself too tired after a long day to do anything but watch a movie or go to bed. When I don’t read I feel this sense of non accomplishment, like the one big thing I want to change in my life and I forgot it again! That can be frustrating! What drives me to read at least ten minutes a day is the fulfillment of knowing my life will be more fantastic than it already is! I am planning on setting on time on reading the Bible, so I don’t lose track of time. The big difference between reading the Bible now versus when I was a child is the fact that I am reading the actual version as opposed to a children’s book compiled with stories within the Bible instead of chapters. This is week two of my project and while I had some inconsistencies in days, I realized that all I can do is try my best and move forward in this process. This has been a really gratifying experience to be able to have God more involved in my life. I feel like a more grateful, caring, helpful, thankful, respectful and most importantly happier than I felt in a long time.  By: Zane Tinker We’ve all been thrust into an interesting situation with this quarantine, everybody is stuck at home all of a sudden with a lot more time on their hands. This leads to the question, what is one to do with all this extra time? Yes, most of us love lounging around, but it’s times like this where we have a chance to do something new and check something off of our bucket list. So many people have newfound time and everybody is going to something different with it. My entire life I have been surrounded by music of all sorts, I’ve sang in various choirs and I have played percussion instruments for well over half a decade. I am using this quarantine as an excuse to finally teach myself the Ukulele. The Ukulele is a Hawaiian string instrument that I can play as I sing. Singing while playing a percussion instrument can be a lot more challenging. Teaching myself this instrument hasn’t been nearly as easy as I anticipated, I never expected learning how to use a fret board would be as confusing as it actually turned out to be. For someone with large hands like myself, the instrument and its strings are quite small. My finger tips weren’t used to pushing down the strings and they felt sore after an hour of practicing. Even so I am making progress, however slow it may be. Although I’m not too proficient at the Ukulele yet, this experience has been very beneficial, by giving me time to reflect on myself as well as the position I’m in.
by: Connor Stahl
Let's first start off on why I am doing this article, I am here talking to you today because Mr. Martin wanted us to do something to better ourselves during this time. With this, I decided to do the Evil Russian Pushup Challenge. Intimidating, I know, but I wanted to do this because want to get stronger and I have always made excuses for not working out and now I can do it all. This challenge makes you stronger by making you do pushups every day based on a percentage of your max pushup, (I will link the challenge so you can see the percentages for yourself). When I first started , it was pitiful, I was only able to do 10 pushups. After the first week, I could do 15 and now, at the end of the two week challenge, I can do 20 in a row, that's a 100% increase in strength! From there, because I liked it so much I decided to do it for another two weeks. During this time, it wasn't just all rainbows and ponies there were some good days and bad days, that's what makes it a challenge. For the first week, my arms were burning every day; from not doing push ups that often to doing it every hour put a strain on me. The strain wasn’t just physical, it was mental as well. Imagine dropping whatever you are doing to do push ups and even after all this time, it is still hard to do. In the beginning, I kind of hated my alarm, it was a reminder that it was a time to work. Now, it has become part of the daily routine and it doesn't bother me that much anymore, I see it as a chance to improve myself. I am definitely glad to have this program because without it I dought I would be pushing myself as hard to work out. On that note check out the video below for my first weekly check in. https://mygymproducts.com/evil-russian-push-up/ 
By: Matt Silver
After being tasked with the creation of a routine in which I did something every day for upwards of a month, I took it upon myself to try to fully immerse myself into the Star Wars saga. I would watch one movie a day, in chronological order (starting at episode I, then going to II, III, IV, and so on). While this began as a movie-watching project, at this point, it is much more than just that. Why Star Wars? And why now? Both questions are valid, and I wondered about them myself at some points during my journey. I chose the Star Wars movie series for a couple reasons, a main one being that there were enough movies so that it would fall into the minimum time guidelines of the project. The second reason was because of my community. Star Wars is, and has been, a huge deal in our society. That being said, up until this point I had never seen the originals, leaving me left out. It feels as if everyone around me has some sort of secret going when they reference different scenes in a movie, or even understand different parts of a video game. I wanted to get in on these secrets. 
One of the many inside Star Wars jokes I've missed over the years.
They became apparent when I started watching the series, that’s for sure. Because of the over-dramatised scenes in the old movies, catch phrases were easy to point out. I found myself subconsciously repeating them at times during my day, especially the quote above.
At this point, I have finished all except for the newly produced movies in the series (VII, VIII, IX) and I must admit, I am enjoying these films more than I originally thought that I would. The production quality of the older movies, while quite old, gave them some charm that directors can only hope to recreate. Throughout my viewing process I had some lows, but mostly ups. The movies are truly enthralling and except for episode IV and V, they have good enough quality to make up for their age. Episode IV (1977) and episode V (1980) were lackluster compared to their other counterparts, but that is coming from someone who is used to perfect CGI and modern editing. For their time, it is understandable why they were so popular. By the end of this coming week, I will have completed the series. I am planning on creating a video breaking down how I felt after watching each film, and my takeaways after watching the entire set.  By: Audrey Mainville It is week one into my learning of how to play the piano. Not really piano, seeing that the only accessible piano-like device I have is a Casio keyboard from... I think 2000 something? I’m not complaining though, it’s all the same to me. I took on this task primarily because I have spent the last few months deep in a void of music. I listen to around fifty-sixty songs a day, and no matter the genre, the year, or the song, I hear piano in everything. There are so many instruments I could focus on, however, there’s just something about piano that seems universal, and relatively easy, though I may be judging too soon. I have begun to learn the song, “Hey Jude” by The Beatles. I picked it through a simple Google search, “easy songs to learn on piano,” yes I realize how lame that sounds, but so far it’s been a comfortable song to learn. The biggest issue I currently face is learning to coordinate two hands. One hand is playing the lyrics, if you will, and the other hand is keeping a steady beat underneath. The timing of these two hands aren’t always in sync, and I have a difficult time grasping that. By next week, I hope to link the two hands, and hopefully be further into the song. I also am hoping to learn how to read actual music, instead of mimicking a video (since that’s what I’ve been doing for now). For now I’m quite pleased with how things are turning out. Beginner’s luck maybe? Who knows - all I can say is that I find the musically inclined to be the best type of people. I guess you could say I just want a piece of that. By: Haley Krawczyk I was given the task of developing a 30 day challenge for journalism; something that is intended to make me a better person. After consideration, a worldwide pandemic seems like an ideal time to get into shape, so I decided to see what 30 days of exercise could do for my body. I have always loved to workout, but I normally had a swim practice to go to every day to force me to exercise. With the outbreak of COVID-19, sports are cancelled, leaving athletes to fend for themselves while still maintaining their physique for next season. Luckily, I have access to a home gym. This is helpful for use of equipment, but of course, there are countless workouts that require none at all. For example, I have been going on walks, runs, and hikes everyday to get outside and be in a different environment.  To the right is a picture of my elliptical workout from about halfway through the first week. This has actually been my first week owning this piece of equipment and I absolutely love it.
After the first week of this project, the largest take-away is that I need more of a structure with my workouts. I can hop on an elliptical or go for a run when I feel like it, but what if I’m not in the mood? What is going to force me to exercise? I believe that goal-setting is something I should make a priority by giving myself weekly goals that I want to accomplish. Maybe completing an online workout video everyday or doing a certain number of sit-ups. Ultimately, I realized that the second week of this experiment needs to include a written plan; a checklist that I can mark off as completed. This paper will be openly displayed so that I am forced to be reminded of my workout plan, and encouraged to do it as well. Having this type of written structure will hopefully give me a starting point to work off of, as there were several days when I found myself lost on what to do for exercise. Numerous companies such as Nike have apps designed for at-home workouts. Also, influences make videos on YouTube for the same purpose. Those are both things that I will look into in order to help me discover new exercises and routines for the weeks to come.  by: Emily Fazzina
Over this “coronacation,” it can get very easy to become bored of the same things that exist in our daily lives. But for me, this boredom didn't start during the shutdown. In fact, this boredom started after December break. I started to become a lot lazier and less on top of homework, and other activities throughout my life. Due to the decreased energy, it becomes a lot easier for me to get disinterested with things and tasks I give myself. So I decided to orient my project around trying to keep myself busy with different tasks every day. Because of the way I’m doing the project, I don’t necessarily make a ton of progress each week, because I try to stretch out my projects so I have more to do. For example, I’m painting a mural of old “Cartoon Network” shows I used to watch as a kid. I started this mural last May, but I procrastinate so much that I haven't finished it yet. One of my overall goals is to try to finish this mural over the Corona break. Another thing that I’ve always wanted to do was learn American Sign Language (ASL). I’ve always thought it was a super cool thing to learn that not many people know how to use. I also gave myself other small tasks like staying on top of homework, planning for college, painting my closet door, going outside at least four times a week, and lastly I want make a podcast with my brother. So far I’ve gone outside a lot and I’ve done about 20% more of my wall in the past couple of weeks than I have in a long while. Staying on top of homework has been a weekly thing for me as well. Through first two week of the shutdown, I was studying ASL but I haven’t gotten a chance recently to continue. I’ve also been playing a lot of [the videogame phenomenon] Minecraft when I feel myself getting bored and somehow it gives me energy to organize and clean. Next week, I plan on setting up a place for the podcast, continuing to paint, and catch up on my ASL learning. My overall goal is to be productive and manage my time better before I head off to college.  By:Andrew Desrochers
During this terrible Covid-19 pandemic there are many things that are being taken away from us, but one thing that everyone can do during this time is to better themselves by pushing to be a better person. You can better yourself either physically or mentally. I decided to not eat red meat, and do 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups every day for the next 30 days. I chose to do this because I am usually going to the gym most days and playing sports, but I can’t do that now with all that is going on. I figured this would be a good way to stay in shape while being at home. Corona has taken a lot away from me with baseball and graduation up in the air, but I am going to try my hardest to stay in shape and keep working hard. At first, I thought this challenge would be easy but it has turned out to be very difficult. The first day the pushups and sit-ups were very easy. But for the next days, it began to get harder as my body got sore. For the next coming weeks I hope to keep accomplishing my goal for the workout because I want to make it all 30 days without giving up.  by: Lauren Cholewa
As my project for journalism class, I decided to perform yoga at some point every day for many reasons. I live with depression and anxiety due to past events in my life and because it simply runs in my family. Yoga is a very challenging activity depending on the level you participate in. According to WebMd [webmd.com] there are various benefits of doing yoga daily, including strength, flexibility and mind-body awareness. It can also help with relaxation and energization. As someone who has struggled with anxiety, I have started doing yoga daily, sometimes even during the times I had been having anxiety. My anxiety usually comes when I start to let my mind wander, over-think things, and start to feel eyes on me. According to yogajournal.com, yoga is a very beneficial activity for not only your body but also your mind, some of these benefits are better posture, builds muscle, prevents cartilage and joint breakage, drops your blood pressure and makes you happier. During this process it has been hard to get up and get active during this time in the world because I have nothing else to do other than stay and bed and watch Netflix, which is what most high schoolers dream they could do. When I would start to feel antsy and start to get the familiar ache in my chest, I get up and go to the middle of my room, or if it were nice outside I bring my yoga mat outside to my back patio and do yoga. The beginning of doing yoga every day was kind of difficult and hard to figure out what positions I wanted to do and why but as time went on, I figured out my rhythm. It has extremely affected my emotional and physical health by doing yoga when coming through with anxiety or when my body feels tense and very sore from sleeping the wrong way and tossing and turning in bed. To ease my anxiety, I start with sun salutation and control my breathing then bring my body down to warrior 1 and warrior 2 and continue into downward dog and upward dog. The reason I use these positions is because I have learned that these were the constant positions where I could subconsciously control my breathing. If you suffer from anxiety, depression etc. or just want to move in some way and get active, yoga is definitely an activity that you can do individually or with a group of friends to destress from a test or school. It’s been an amazing way to get blood flowing. From tennis to workouts at home: How athletics have changed with the cancellation of spring sports4/21/2020 By: Clarence Jubac Students taking the journalism class for Mr. Martin were tasked with a project during our time in quarantine. This project allowed students to set a personal goal of whatever they wanted for themselves. For my project, I decided that I wanted to stay in shape by working out at home. I had to make the best of what I had at home with the small variety of different weights and equipment I have. But even though I didn’t have a whole ton of things to make staying in shape easier for me, I was still able to manage, but didn’t have any clue on what exercises I could do to put them to use. As I said before, I chose this topic for my project as a way to keep in shape, and just to get stronger while at home. My normal day to day life of exercise and working out before this project was just playing tennis at least four days a week, or going out as much as I could. This project gave me the opportunity to mix things up a bit, and start adding a variety of other ways for me to get some exercise. I started off by looking into some videos and websites online on what are good workouts I could do at home with minimal use of equipment.  I decided to base my workouts and exercise off this fitness channel called OFFICIALTHENX. The channel happened to have their own app too, so I used that to help follow along and see how to do these exercises. The app is free and has a bunch of content and videos to see, but only to the naked eye. Once you click one of the workout programs, and start doing the workouts that are set for each week, you see that some workouts are locked since you don’t have that special membership. So I hope that by writing about them, they could hook me up on a deal to fix just that🙏🙏🙏.
During the days I worked out, I’d sometimes start by either going for a run or playing street tennis, most of the time I’d go to the high school for that. After about an hour of street tennis, I’d start doing the no equipment needed exercises on the THENX app that provided exercises for each week, and lift weights for a few minutes afterwards. I have to say that completing the first week of going off the workouts of the app wasn’t too bad for me. When it really started to get tough was the week afterwards. My body felt numb and sore from doing the workouts of the second week, and it seemed that my body still hasn’t adapted to this new change of pace. This continued on a bit for the next week after that, but I felt like I was starting to get used to it, and the soreness started going away in the following days. I’ll admit that although the weekly workouts had rest days set up, I did take an extra day or two because I just didn’t feel like doing anything. Overall, I’d say that I have achieved my goal to stay and shape, and maybe have even gotten a bit stronger along the way. This project and the time I had in quarantine has given me the opportunity to find something I truly think has become a good habit of mine, and is something that’ll lead me to a healthier life down the road. by: Bryce Arnold For my long-term project, I chose to document my progress in my weightlifting. This is a log of what lifts I’m doing, how much I lift at the start, and again at the end. The lifts I have been doing are bench press, lat pulls, calf raises, curls, and squats. The sets for all lifts except for calf raises and curls are 10-8-6 reps, and they increase by 10l bs every set. For calf raises, I do 12-14-16 reps of the same weight, and for curls I do 3x10 reps of the same weight. I chose to do this because I want to start to get ready for the college wrestling season. I know that at the next level, everyone is going to be much stronger than they were in high school, and that’s something I need to be prepared for. This is a big deal for me because I am moving up in weight (from 113 lbs to 125). This puts me way behind all the other people who are cutting huge amounts of weight to make it to 125 lbs, so I have my work cut out for me. So far, I have been making steady progress in all my lifts. In the bench press, I increased 20lbs (I started at 115lbs for my 1st set of 10 and I’m at 135lbs right now) as well as in my squat (165lbs for my 1st set of 10 to 185lbs). I also went up 10lbs in lat pulls (90lbs for my 1st set of 10 to 100lbs). I have learned that this won’t be easy. Doing these lifts 3 times a week really takes a toll on your body, and sometimes it’s hard to get myself to do it. I still do it, though, and hopefully this will pay off once the next season rolls around. I have no specific goals for next week, but I want to make no excuses and shortcuts. I want to be able to say that I put 100% effort into every lift, and then I will be proud of myself. By: Marcus Nieves This project for me was to stay in shape while in isolation during this pandemic. The goal is to work out 3 times a week so I can get stronger and faster after this whole thing whines down. I chose this because I mainly didn't want 2 months of lifting and 4 months of cardio to go to waste from me doing nothing at home. My experience so far has been rough. I started off good with working out twice in the first week, but then I started to procrastinate and push back the third workout. The start of this week I did the same exact thing by not working out on Monday instead doing it a day later. I have learned that I need to work on my mind set because I have not had a drive to workout. I have been very unmotivated and haven’t been able to get that motivation back. Also, that feeling after a workout feels the best for me because I feel accomplished and after a workout my stress just goes away for the rest of the day. For example, after being stressed out about school work from distance learning, I did agility drills on a agility ladder and ran sprints. After, I did this I felt relaxed and accomplished. My goal for next week is to get that motivation back and be more consistent on my workouts. Another big goal is to stop procrastinating because if I don’t then my other goals will be harder to accomplish. I need to be on the same page as my mind and be positive so I slowly stop procrastinating and slowly build my motivation and confidence.  by: Serf Piedrasanta
For my Journalism long term project, I decided to learn a coding language. I decided this because of how important computers are to the world, and learning a coding language could prove helpful in real life. The coding language I decided on is HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) which is what websites are made from. I have been using a few different websites to learn, as well as various different youtube videos to learn more intricate applications. So far, I only know how to create a basic test webpage, with headings, paragraphs and links. This took a lot to learn, because of the advanced grammar based mistakes you can make. A lot of my problems came in how some things would not show up due to a punctuation problem or how applying something to a paragraph would overrule another. I am currently learning how to style my page, which includes such things as colors, fonts, sizes and emphasis. I already know how to write these, but the problem comes in what is known as applying these to the meta of the page. I hope that by the end of the project, I can fully create a webpage on my own, and use different types of elements besides just text. By Hailey Hodsen
Last week, I got the task of doing something over the next month that would better myself in some way. At first I had no idea what to do, and was honestly not so excited about having to incorporate something new into my daily routine. Would I try to learn a new language? Take an online class? Start running everyday? I'm generally a pretty indecisive person, and I wanted to make sure I picked something that I would actually do and not be miserable doing. I eventually chose to do a 20-30 minute workout everyday. I don’t play sports, and have never really gotten into exercising regularly because of a lack of motivation, but I’ve always wanted to. This project is turning out to be a good motivator. Three days ago, I started doing my 20 minute workout. I’m choosing to do them in the morning after I do a little homework but before I go to work at around the same time everyday to make sure I don’t skip a day. On the first day, I went into YouTube and searched for a 20 minute full body workout. I clicked on the first one I saw that looked decent and started. At first It was easy, but as I continued it got harder and harder to keep up. I quickly became out of breath and started sweating, and when the 20 minutes were finally up I felt relieved but also accomplished. I had started my journey towards becoming a healthier and more fit person. The second and third days were similar to the first. I’m picking a different youtube video to follow along with each day so it’s different every time and I don’t get bored. I plan to continue this everyday until the project ends. UPDATE: All performances of the WHS production have been cancelled and are hoping to reschedule. Stay tuned for more information.
by: Serf Piedrasanta With the recent outbreak of COVID-19 or the CoronaVirus, a lot of precautions are being taken. A state of emergency has been announced in Connecticut by governor Ned Lamont, and panic is large as of right now. The CIAC (Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference) has cancelled all winter sports that have currently been going on, and most activities are cancelled as well. However, Wethersfield High School’s 2020 production of “The Addams Family” is still running. The superintendent has made precautions, and only 100 people are allowed to attend each show to lower the risk of infection. This impacts the show in many different ways, however. While the show is still on, it has been decided that three extra shows are available to the public. There is a Thursday dress rehearsal available for parents of those in the cast, with a limit of 2 people per student. There is also a Saturday matinee added in the afternoon at 1:00pm, as well as a Monday evening show being planned. Ticket sales are currently closed, as online ticket sales reached over 500 people before the 100 person cap was announced. It is very unlikely that any tickets will open up, but there will be door sales if the 100 person maximum is not met for a show. This is affecting every single cast member and has added an extra layer of stress, but we will update as we have more information as it becomes available.  Students are graduating on June 12, but are they ready for adult life? By: Mya Pellegrino
Most upperclassmen who are soon going to be graduating from WHS are ready for college, but are they really ready to take on the responsibilities of being an adult? Most seniors graduating in the class of 2020 are worried about the major struggle of adjusting to the differences between high school and college. We can no longer rely on our parents to do things for us while we are in college, we are on our own. Graduated student from the class 2019 Kylie Judson, who attends the University of Tampa was lucky enough to share with her how she adjusted in college, being so far from home. She said, “College was definitely harder for me to adjust to, especially being far away, it was a whole new scene for me. Meeting new people was hard for me because I've been surrounded by the same people my whole life.” Having to meet new people all over again is also something that the class of 2020 is stressed about, as we are approaching the last few months of high school. Senior J’von Cooper is mainly stressed about starting over all over again. Cooper says, “I’m already antisocial as it is, so it makes it really hard for me to make friends because I don’t actively go out and make them. Since I already came in from another school and had to make new friends, I have to go to college and do it all over again and repeat the same process for the third time.” Honestly, I’m stressed about adjusting to being by myself and having to figure out how to survive without my parents constant help. I need to learn basic life skills like doing my own laundry or cooking my own meal before I head off by myself. College seems scary as some of us seniors are starting to think about future plans and building new lives for oursleves, but, with alittle adjustment, another 4 years will fly by!  By J’Von Cooper
What is art? That’s a loaded question, with many ways to answer it. Yet, considering the sizable amount of students participating in the arts here at Wethersfield High Schools, it begs the question. With art existing in so many forms, is there any way to define it? Well, according to the people participating in those programs, there are just as many answers as there are people being questioned. However, there is at least one constant within all of them: Emotion. As Andrea Haas, one of three art teachers at WHS put it, “Art is whatever you want it to be.” She continues to specify, “I see art as a means to send a message. Make an emotional change in the person viewing it.” That’s how many of her students view art. As Senior Brianna Boucher said, “Art is meant to mean something”, or in other words, elicit enough emotion to be meaningful. This theme of eliciting a reaction echoes through many of the people interviewed, including an unexpecting source. Jeffery Roets, the current play director and English teacher, had a similar response to the aforementioned people interviewed, and a little more. “Arts not only reflects our emotions, but makes us question them.” he said. “It makes us feel something.” Well, if so many people feel so many different ways about art, what is concrete? Well, as seen by the people interviewed, art means something. What that something is may be different depending on whomever you ask, but it means something to somebody, with everyone saying something.  By: Alexis Almada and Andre Jorge “Come to paint night and flex your painting muscles” -John Martin Wethersfield High School’s National Art Honor Society (NAHS) will be hosting its fourth paint night, “Leap Into Spring” on Thursday, February 27th. Paint night will take place in the art rooms located near the pool entrance. No painting experience is required! The NAHS has been selling tickets ($7 ea.) since February 10th, and will continue selling at the door. The event starts promptly at 6pm and ends around 8pm. To start off the night, guests will have the opportunity to sit in one of the two art rooms and learn to paint a spring themed canvas, instructed by two of the NAHS members. Instructing this year’s spring paint night will be WHS seniors Alexis Almada (room 22) and Kiara Lazu (room 20). Both instructors will be teaching how to paint the same image. This will be their second time instructing paint night! The schedule for the night is as follows, painting is taught from 6pm-7pm and then a quick intermission for pizza and other refreshments will be served from 7pm-7:30pm. After that, everyone will return to painting and deserts will be handed out. Although Alexis and Kiara will be teaching everyone how to make a spring painting, guests are not required to follow along. If you would like, you can paint whatever you want. All supplies will be provided. In each room, painting jockeys will be replacing paint waters, paper towels, and paint as needed. Everyone is welcome to join us for paint night! It’s a really fun event and everyone is encouraged to come. Please come out and help support the NAHS.  by: Serf Piedrasanta
Wethersfield High School’s very own drama club has been rehearsing for their spring production of The Addams Family. Students in the musical started their rehearsals in January, and they continue weekly until March, where they perform for three days. What is The Addams Family? It is a musical following the iconic clan of misfits as they have to handle change. The plot surrounds the daughter of Gomez and Morticia Addams, Wednesday Addams, as she handles her new relationship with a “normal” person. What is a typical week like for these students? We asked two students who have lead roles in the musical, Zane Tinker and Hailey Baranowski, about what they go through each week. Hailey Baranowski, class of 2020, was asked about what her role of Wednesday Addams and her contributions to the overall story of the show. “Wednesday is this 17 year old girl and she has this fiance her parents never met and a lot of the story is based around the conflict of Wednesday keeping her marriage a secret from her mother.” Uncle Fester acts as a narrator of sorts, as he is the only character that speaks directly to the audience and summarizes small parts of the show. We asked Zane Tinker, class of 2020, about what Fester does for the show. He said, “Uncle Fester is the weird uncle who simultaneously acts as the narrator of sorts. He talks to the audience and keeps them updated on what’s going on.” “I spend about 20 hours a week, especially at the beginning when you’re just learning all the songs and dances” Baranowski said about how much time a week they spend practicing. All this time spent in school rehearsing takes a toll on their lives outside of school, and when we asked Zane, he said, “Oh it’s rough, especially when I have another job. I have zero free time,” showing how busy these performers are each and every week. “I really only can spend time with other people who are in the musical.” Baranowski said when asked how exactly this huge time commitment affects her life. This being said, the leads all interact frequently, with members of one group or family being on stage with each other a lot more. But sometimes, outside relationships can make some scenes a bit awkward for the performers. “Getting comfortable on the stage with everyone while saying your lines is very important.” Hailey said when asked about chemistry on stage, but it isn’t as bad as it sounds. “It’s like hydrogen and oxygen. It depends on the people though, and those who tend to stay more focused bounce off each other a lot better than those who don’t,” Zane said when questioned on who on stage bounces off one another well. This shows that when these students put in the effort and focus, they perform a lot better, and get more done. WHS’ musical productions are not your typical high school production. Not only do they try to stick to Broadway levels of formality with complicated harmonies and more singing parts then typical, there are also things that make these productions important to the performers. There are numerous unique traditions special to the high school that make these productions special, and it shows the bond that these students have with one another. “Before we go on stage and before performance,s we all sing songs in a circle and everyone cries on the last day.” Baranowski said when asked about what traditions WHS has that aren’t seen anywhere else. The Addams Family is a drastically different show than last year's production of Mary Poppins. When asked about how this show is going to stand out, Zane said “I think the songs and the show is a lot funnier than Mary Poppins, so it’s going to be a fun show to watch.” The Addams Family is a lot more contemporary than last year’s production, and people who want a more comedic and brash show should definitely be sure to get tickets for a showing.  By: Natalia Travaglini & Eliza-mely Martinez
Studying can be a very hard thing to do for students. There are so many different techniques, tips, and methods to studying. Students are told they need to study for a test, but they are never really taught how to actually study. We were given different techniques, but most of the time they dont really work for us. Depending on the type of learner, for example being a visual, auditory or kinesthetic learner, some studying methods will work amazing and others will not work at all. We interviewed two seniors at Wethersfield and asked them about their studying habits and any tips they have for others. When talking to Haley Dellafera, a senior at Wethersfield High School, about her studying habits, we asked how she studies and it varies depending on the topic she is studying for. For math, she studies by doing problems but for English, she studies by using Sparknotes and Quizlet. Many students struggle with studying, Haley Dellafera struggles with finding the motivation to study. During our interview she said, “Actually finding the motivation to get up and studying for my test has always been a problem for me.” This problem has taken a toll on her grades at certain times in her high school career. Haley mentioned it would be a lot easier to study if she enjoyed the topic, so she tries to find interesting subjects within the topic she is studying to make the process just a bit easier. Since she studies differently for each topic, we wondered if she would keep the same studying habits from high school into college. Dellafera said she definitely wouldn't keep her habits. Most of the time she just tries to get by without reading the book or notes but in the end she can get by without it. In college, she thinks it's going to be a lot different and she has to read, learn, and retain the subject. We interviewed another student from Rocky Hill High School when we asked Ianna Pagan if she believed her studying habits were good she said yes. Ianna explained that she had a good idea as to how she should study. She usually starts by making sure if she is comfortable she has snacks to eat while she is studying. Then she starts to make a study guide that will make it easier for her to know what to study. In this study guide she writes example questions, tips to help her remember, and the hardest topic she struggles with. Ianna Pagan said “I think I will use my studying habits in college because it has never done me wrong, everytime I use this method I get a pretty decent grade” We made sure to get more than one perspective about studying habits in high school and interviewed senior, Kassandra Vazquez as well. Kassandra finds studying using youtube video explanations is the best way for her. A tip she has for other students who are struggling to find good studying techniques is studying for 30-45 minutes and then taking a break to avoid getting overwhelmed. Although finding the perfect studying technique can be difficult, we hope that the tips and experiences shared by two of our high school students could possibly make the task easier.  By:Ellie Kieselback
Stress has got to be one of the worst things to go through and we all know that. This will affect your feelings, emotions and actions. Stress can cause health problems including high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes, which can be a very scary situation. Stress is tiring for the mind and body. It's not unusual to give up on everything when you are stressed and basically anything can cause someone to stress. Ways people can help or prevent being stressed are to get good sleep and rest, manage your time, try yoga, or a stress diary and take deep breaths. Even trying physical activity is a popular thing to help. English teacher Mrs. Ryba said the thing that stresses her out the most is that she has “set high expectations for myself and sometimes my students.” “I believe kids should learn to THINK and work hard and not just get straight As for showing up. I think sometimes people take the easy way out and I'm not good at that . However I do lighten up at times.” Ryba also was saying “training” helps to destress her. “I love to work out, but balancing and finding time to do so stresses me out. The gym is too crowded and people don't respect social space as they used to do so this stresses me out,” she said. The symptoms of stress could be physical pain, poor judgement, feeling overwhelmed, loneliness, isolation, and anxiety. We all need to learn how to cope with stress because the symptoms are harsh. This is all compared back to the stress impact level on everyday life. This is showing not everyone has the same stress but everyone is dealing with it. Everyone is stressed. We are all just dealing with it in our everyday life. We all handle stress diffrenlty than others. However, if we don’t deal with stress in our teens, then it will continue to follow us. We need to learn how to cope and deal with stressful situations now so we can be more successful in the future. Stress will never be fun but there will alway be some things to help the stress. Like I had said before, more sleep,anxiety medication,hot tubs, anything on the relaxing side to help the stress. The world would be a better place without stress, that’s why we all love weekends! By: Kaitlynn Bertucio and Kevin Torres Being students at Wethersfield High School, we have a lot of important news and events to worry about. Especially since we’re seniors, college deadlines don’t make matters any better. Every Wednesday and Friday in second block, we watch Blue Eagle News, a student and teacher run news program informing students and teachers about important information and events that are coming up. Blue Eagle News started in 2016 by Ms. Coco, engineering, video, and technology teacher here at WHS. While many students are involved in the whole process; which includes filming, scripting, editing, uploading, and being on camera, most students don’t know the process behind creating a segment, and they have a lot of questions. A big question is, how does these segments operate? Ms. Coco said, “It is run by a group of kids who had to go through a whole interview process. We meet two to three times a week and I put in a few hours a week with these students.” When we asked Ms.Coco how close she thinks Blue Eagle News is to an actual news corporation, she had this to say, “[The processes are] very introductory, I would like to see it better.” Her ultimate goal is to make Blue Eagle News an even more integral part of school culture. She works hard to make Blue Eagle News better. From adding new equipment and graphics, to adding more students on the team, and even decorating the studio and personalizing different segments. This includes painting one of the studio walls for the sports segment, done by the students. We hope that this gave more insight on how Blue Eagle News runs, and hopefully it will make you better appreciate the effort they put in to produce a news segment twice a week. |
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