A team puts their hands in before separating for a game. Most students join an activity because they love it, and don’t expect to make friends along the way.
Chosen family
School activities form bonds between students
Lights pour out onto the stage, casting light onto the audience that is beginning to filter in. The wings surrounding the stage are dark, empty of the usual hive of busy students it holds. Even the green room, used to a constant stream on coming and going students, is empty. Production staff, crew heads, and crew members alike have filed into a dressing room for a favorite tradition. Their arms are around each other, forming a circle, waiting expectantly for the moments to come. Theater has an affinity for traditions, all created with the intention to create a tighter bond among all involved. Senior Janelle Klos, the troupe’s president and stage manager, didn’t expect to make such good friends when she joined freshman year.
“Honestly, I did not expect to bond with people, because the only theatre experience I had prior to high school was being in a play in fourth grade, and none of us were close,” Klos said. “[Theatre is] one of the only things I look forward to when walking into school every day.”
The stress, hours together, and love of theater creates strong bonds amongst those involved. Similar to theater, other people in clubs become close because of the work they must put in together. Senior Laurel Ammond, who participates in marching band, believes everyone is good friends because the work has made them get along.
“I think it’s just the fact that we’ve struggled through so many things together, like staying outside for four hours, one hundred degree weather, or whenever people are feeling well, people are always there to look at each other for help each other through injuries,” Ammond said. The struggles they go through cause plenty reasons for stress. Even so, the friendships created remain strong through moments and traditions. Senior NJ Heckencamp, captain of the girl’s tennis team, believes that their trust in each other is so strong because of their circumstances.
“One big difference with our sport is it isn’t a big team sport. It’s a very individual sport, so we don’t get mad at each other a lot. Like if the soccer team or the football team if one person’s messes up the team they mess up the whole entire team.” Heckencamp said. “For tennis, though, we keep it separate about how we play because we know that no matter how good or how bad you are, you’re still going to have a support system and it doesn’t really affect any other player except for your doubles partner or yourself.” The trust they hold in each other is why their bonds are so strong. Many team sports and clubs feel this way; but how they choose to bond influences the strength of their friendships.
“When rehearsal ends, we’re just kind of like, ‘What now?’, because we don’t really want to go home. So sometimes we’ll do homework at someone’s house, or get something to eat, because we just want to be around each other constantly.” Klos said. Friendships are not only made and kept during the time they see each other. They are created outside of school, and teammates become true friends. Those in group activities often call themselves family, and in some cases they truly create bonds just as strong as their real family.
“One thing that makes us all bond together is how much we care about music, and how it brings everyone together,” Ammond said. “We focus on communicating through differences and not focusing on what makes us different.”
Over 20 years of violence
For over 20 years, there has been an increasing trend of mass shootings in the United States. In a land that stands for freedom, peace, and bravery, we have allowed such vicious attacks on innocent people to happen over and over and over. While we may not have fought a physical war on our soil in a great deal of time, as Americans, we have been fighting against mass shootings.
This all started with Columbine in 1997. For a while, these “incidents” came as huge shocks, only heard of once every few years or months. But now, in 2018 for freedom’s-sake, they are a monthly, sometimes weekly occurrence. It is absolute ludicrous that a nation as advanced as ours struggles with a problem such as this one.
Granted, many still hold the 2nd amendment near and dear to their hearts, terrified that their guns will be stolen from under their beds by the Democrats. But restriction on guns does not, in any way, have to mean that people using guns for recreational (hunting and other sports) or protection purposes should have their guns taken away. It means that there is an insane phenomenon killing innocent lives, many of whom were only trying to receive the free education we offer. The same people against gun restriction are often against abortion rights for women and stem cell research for therapy use, which in essentiality means that unborn fetuses and embryos whose cells haven’t even decided which organ to make are worth more than living, breathing students whose families sent them off to school or work or wherever they happened to be going before their viable future was knocked out of existence.
Outlawing guns is not the solution. Putting more security on campus is a solution. A better mental health check during firearm purchase is a solution. Getting the government to wake up and listen to the people whose children are dying instead of the people who sign their checks is a solution.
We as a country need to vote into office people who want to help keep our future safe. That includes both parties, that includes anyone who is willing to listen to their constituents. This is a problem. We know it is a problem. Now we need to make the government do something about the problem.