It’s funny. The other day I was reading The Kansas City Star. And I finished the whole thing. Cover to cover. Front to back. I read it all. I’m not bragging – the Star has condensed so much of its content that it’s hard not to read the whole thing. Heck, I even read the business section. And I never read the business section.       It is a scary time to be a journalist, but I think it’s even scarier to be a just-graudated ... Read More

It was always the same routine. I would stand by Mrs. Preno’s desk. Wait for the bell to ring. Pick up the intercom phone, press “all call,” start talking after the “ding ding.”  Good morning Lancers... The announcements. I would then go on to reveal who the highly-coveted Lancer of the Day was, what sports practices there were, what club was meeting after school. Don’t talk too fast, because then no one could tell what I was saying. Don’t talk too slow, because then there ... Read More

So this is how high school ends. Not with a bang, but an abrupt and silent whimper. No final rite of passage into adulthood, no savage midnight ritual to exorcise the last stubborn demons of immaturity and self-doubt from our senior hearts and minds.  Just a few more finals and then a surreal pageant of last minute honors and graduation parties. Handshakes and well-wishers crowd the merry month of May. The clockwork of the assembly line has stopped turning, the overworked machinery lies ... Read More

Nearly every summer through elementary school I spent crouched in front of our mail box. I would wait, trembling with excitement as Franklin, our mailman, shoved the coupons and envelopes down into my hands. I grasped hopefully for my special red-sealed letter. The letter I knew would change would life. My own letter to Hogwarts. Every year I hoped that I would make a teapot explode or that I’d hover down from my bunk bed. But now summers have passed without any owls, ... Read More

When I was little, I wanted to keep a diary. I started at least six when I was younger: a pink one with a heart cutout on the cover (age 9), a black one filled with glittery silvery gel-pen (age 11) and a flowered one with cursive quotes on the tops of the pages (age 12). I thought I’d write in them each night before I went to bed; I pictured pages full of lovely script and stories. I planned to have ... Read More

As a freshman, I couldn’t wait for senior year. I thought of it as the year of freedom where you could get away with anything. I really looked up to the seniors—they always got priority seating at all the games with no arguments, they always got to leave for lunch and they always seemed to come in a few minutes late like it didn’t matter. It’s rather surreal that all those clichés are over now. And to be honest, over the summer I was ... Read More

She didn’t even originally want to run track. No, senior Allie Marquis first joined cross country so that she could prepare for the soccer season which she had been playing for 10 years. But after seeing her rise as one of the strongest runners on the cross country team, track coach Tricia Beahm soon convinced her otherwise. “Trish basically was like ‘don’t do soccer, do track,’” Marquis said. “She told me she didn’t think I would play soccer in college… I didn’t even think ... Read More

Shaking, senior Logan Kline walks up to the three-meter-tall, sea foam board with one thing on her mind: two and a half pike. Her adrenaline is rushing. She knows it’s just more energy to put into her dive. It’s hard to make herself go. But she knows her coach put her up there because she is ready.  “Come on Logan, you got it! Don’t hold back!” KU club coach Eric Elliot shouts. A deep breath, and she nails it. After eight years of diving, ... Read More

Throughout the shark hall at Sea World in San Diego, California heads turned to see who had just belted out “ Oh, look it’s a deadly bull shark!” They were surprised to find it was a three-year old girl whose yell had just echoed through the exhibit. To other visitors it may have seemed like an overreaction, but to now Senior Elizabeth McDonald and her family, her enthusiasm made perfect sense. Elizabeth first saw the exhibit on a video of SeaWorld that her ... Read More

If senior Spencer Knipper were to look up from his preparation of a buttered striped bass, he might see his boss, Chef Debbie Gold. Gold was named a “Chef to Watch” by Esquire in 1997 and has received three nominations for the James Beard Foundation “Best Chef: Midwest” while winning this award once. There he is, a high school senior, cooking meat and fish for the people of Kansas City, alongside one of the finest chefs in the area, at the American ... Read More