By McKenzie Balfany
As you walk through the halls of Southwest, you will see students in classrooms listening carefully and studying their hardest. Students study so they can get into college and get a job for the future. The students also need to study to maintain good grades and in return maintain a high GPA.
In most classes an A equals a 4.0 but some classes, like AP an A equals a 5.0.
GPA starts accumulating when you enter the ninth grade. From the moment you start your freshman year, all the way …

Staff Editorial
We knew about what happened before the school day even ended. Confusion spread through both schools.
At Millard South people feared for their own lives, while at Southwest people couldn’t believe this had happened. For once the schools didn’t look at each other as us against them, but offered their love and condolences.
We learned to know more about what was happening but were left to wonder.
RUMORS immediately floated all around the school making students feel uneasy, but that’s exactly what they were: rumors. And as said before, it was …

By Greg Smith
At 7:30 a.m. most people are getting up, and jumping in the shower to get ready for school.
Senior Abby Graham is just finishing her internship at KFOR, doing this every week, Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays at 5:30-7:30 a.m. Then when she is not working not only is this senior thinking about college plans and what she wants to major in, she is also getting ready to go to work.
Being in high school, having a job, and being an intern is a lot to balance.  Since she was  a …

By Jessica Castillo
The thought of high school is always scarier than reality; as freshman Olivia Willnow found out.
“The transition’s been good. It’s a lot easier than I thought,” she said.
Willnow looks like an average freshman. You’d probably never expect that she was both a rock climber that was nationally qualified and a dancer. And she doesn’t have an accent so you wouldn’t expect that she lived in Georgia for more than half her life.
Willnow loved climbing trees when she was younger and for one of her birthdays she had the …

By Rachel Dowd
Varsity Show Choir “Resonance” is making a couple new changes this year including a new director and new performance costumes.
They began their competition season Jan. 15 with a competition called “Midwest Cup” at the Lied Center.
Senior Mikaela Balfany said, “I really like traveling and competing because it’s really fun and we can see our hard work paying off.” She has had lots of experience in show choir because when she was a sophomore, she was a member of Resonance.
Resonance is made up of 47 members plus 12 people …

By Rachel Dowd
Can you imagine leaving your family for a year and going to study abroad in a foreign country? What a unique experience for those who are brave enough to step outside of their own box.
Junior Marijn Ouwehand is an exchange student here from the Netherlands. He was born and raised in the city of Enschede, which is the largest city in the province Overijssel. The Netherlands is a small country between Germany and the UK.
Ouwehand decided that he wanted to go to another country to learn a new …

By Atley Gustafson
Most students take for granted going to a public school, but senior Austin Nichols said he had to beg his parents to let him come to a public school.
Nichols was home-schooled from kindergarten through 11th grade. After some convincing because of his parents’ ‘beliefs in the education system,’ Nichols said he was allowed to come to Southwest part time. That meant he’d come to Southwest for two classes and the rest he’d be home-schooled.
He chose Southwest instead of any other high school because most of his friends go …

By Ellie Clinch
From a young age, English teacher, Mark Gudgel has known what he wanted to do with his life. When asked if he has always wanted to be a teacher there was no hesitation in his voice.
“Yes, I mean, I think I wanted to be a paleontologist when I was really little and I wanted to be a police officer after that, but around eighth or ninth grade I decided I wanted to be a teacher,” Gudgel said.
There were many things Gudgel says about his job and why he …

By McKenzie Balfany
Everyone has had those days where they pretend to be a ninja, whether they dress up for one on Halloween or they run around pretending to have “ninja skills.” Sophomore Samantha Vallabhbhai can actually break boards like a ninja at her taekwondo school, Swanson’s Academy of Tae Kwon Do.
“It is nothing like the movies. It is way different. The movies definitely depict the ninja scene, but it is nothing like that. It is more disciplined than the movies portray it,” she said.
Vallabhbhai is a third degree black belt …

By Ellie Clinch and Atley Gustafson
Every New Year, our resolutions tend to stay the same. Ours always include eating healthier, working out more, and getting better grades. However, with recent events that include the Millard South shooting, we think we all need to change our outlook on New Year’s resolutions.
New Year’s resolutions help us  think about our lives and the choices we make and have made. Because of this, it’s up to us to decide whether we want to change it or not.
So here’s our new year’s resolution: work on …