Traveling in the Storm

Traveling in the Storm

            My older sister goes to Upper Iowa University and plays on the girl’s basketball team. For Christmas break they only get 1 week off compared to the rest of the student body who get a couple weeks off. She had a game last night in Chicago at 5:30 pm. They were going to drive the whole way home after the game until they got stuck in the snowstorm last night at 12:30 am. They had to stop at the largest truck stop in Davenport, Iowa till the driver thought he could drive the rest of the way.

            The bus was going to drop my sister off at the gas station in Shueyville, where my dad was waiting to pick her up. They didn’t end up leaving the truck stop till 4:30 in the morning, so my sister didn’t arrive to Shueyville till about 6:30 am. All throughout the night I heard doors slamming and people on the phone. I didn’t know what was going on until I woke up this morning and realized my sister didn’t get home till 6:30.

            I think it is very dangerous to drive in the snow. Especially when there are warnings and blizzard conditions. When the superintendent cancels school because of the road conditions, no one should be out on the streets. For an example, all high school basketball coaches want to still have practice on snow days, but is it really a good idea? Having all these teenagers drive in conditions some have never experienced sounds very hazardous.

            Today as you all know, we have a snow day. This means people should stay in their homes, snuggle up with each other and watch movies J No one needs to be out risking their life driving in these terrible road conditions. As the day goes on, it is supposed to get worse with extremely high winds and more snow. The high winds will make it more difficult to drive because the snow will be blowing all over the roads, causing people not being able to see. Be smart and stay inside today with your family.

(354 words)

Snow Storm

Snow Storm

            I am pretty sure ninety percent of the student body at Kennedy High School today was very excited for this snowstorm. Everyone all day kept saying that there will not be school tomorrow but we don’t know that for sure yet. It is very likely that we will have a snow day with what the weathermen have said. Eight to twelve inches is what we are expected to get within the next day. Obviously the weathermen have been wrong before so we can’t get our hopes up when we don’t know exactly what we are going to get. I hope that they are right though.

            I sometimes wish that the weather men wouldn’t tell us that we are going to have all this snow because if we don’t get any then a lot of people get upset. I would rather have them say we are only going to get an inch and then be surprised with a ton of snow.

            This snowstorm has really popped out off nowhere. The weathermen have told us since Monday night that there was a possible storm to hit Cedar Rapids, but no one was expecting snow Monday morning. When we have been having 40-degree weather just a week ago you wouldn’t expect to get a huge snowstorm a week later.

            I am so happy that we are supposed to get a lot of snow because I can’t stand when we have a green Christmas. Every Christmas in the Midwest should have a white Christmas. I believe last year we didn’t have snow on Christmas and it just doesn’t feel right. Having snow on the ground makes Christmas ten times better than no snow. The traveling is a little harder when there is snow but the feeling of Christmas is so much better.

            As I sit here and watch the snow fall down, I wait and stare at the TV screen for the Cedar Rapids Public Schools Closed Thursday pop up on the bottom of the screen. When will they announce it? Who knows… I hope that it is announced tonight because then everyone is able to sleep in tomorrow instead of having to wake up early and see if there is a snow day. The superintendent obviously knows that there is supposed to be a lot of snow so maybe he will cancel it tonight, knowing the roads will be bad tomorrow.

(400 words)

             

Snap Chat

Snap Chat

            I don’t know if you have ever heard of Snap Chat, but it sure is becoming popular. I know that a year ago my older sister told me about Snap Chat but I couldn’t get the app because I didn’t have an iPhone. IPhones were the only phones that had snap chat till about a couple months ago when it opened up to androids also. It is kind of funny seeing it now just become popular when it was out on the market a year ago. More people have androids than iPhones, I guess.

            If you don’t know what Snap Chat is, it is an app where you can send someone a picture and decide up to 10 seconds for him or her to see it. Once that time is up, the picture is gone forever. This can be a good and a bad thing. It is a good thing when you just want to send an embarrassing picture of your face but don’t want it to show very long. But then it is a bad thing when you want the picture to stay longer and then it just goes away. Also if you wanted the picture to stay with the person, then you could just send it to them as a text message so that the picture can be saved.

            I am getting a little bit suspicious on this app though. I can see people using this app to show inappropriate pictures. Too be honest, why would you do that? Especially no one knows exactly where these pictures go. The people who made up Snap Chat could be getting all of these pictures that you take. It gets a little scary when you hear that people are doing that. If I were you, I would stop because you don’t know where those pictures are going.

            On the other hand I love Snap Chat. It allows me to be myself and take goofy pictures and send them to all my friends. I kind of use it like text messaging but with a picture also. When you Snap Chat a picture you can add a message to it so it is a good way to communicate when you can see their expressions.

            Just within the past few days, there was an update on Snap Chat. This update now allows there to be videos sent between you and your friends. I haven’t quite figured it out yet so I haven’t been using it as much. I feel like adding the video to Snap Chat will bring a lot more users. I would have to say that this app has been the big talk for the past couple months now.

(449 words)

Shooting

Shooting

            Seriously though what is going on in this world? Why does any one think it is ok to kill people? Yesterday as you have most likely heard there was a shooting at an elementary school. It was a man that went into his mom’s classroom and shot her and her students. First of all, why would any person intend trying to kill such young kids? They are only about 5 years old and were killed. Never did they get to play the sport they wanted to later in their life competitively. It is so sad seeing something like this happen in the United States.

            In the past couple years there have been shootings all over the United States. There have been two big shootings within the same year, the Colorado one and now the Connecticut one. It is ridiculous that this is what the world has come to. To be honest, I am scared of this world. No one should be scared to walk around outside, but honestly a lot of people are becoming scared to.

            It doesn’t make sense to me. What are these killers trying to do? Ruin the life of such desperate people? Because they sure do a well good job of it. When I reloaded my twitter yesterday and saw that there were 20 elementary students killed and 6 elementary teachers killed, I wanted to cry. Like if this man really had a problem with his mom couldn’t he have dealt with it another way? Especially not at an elementary school with such innocent little kids.

(261 words)

Just Drew It

 Just Drew It

Wow, what a kid was Drew Wall. I personally did not know him but I knew of him. Being on the volleyball team here at Kennedy, I have heard many great stories about such a young inspirational teenager.  Our coach, Goodall was the aunt of Drew. She found out during our volleyball season this year that Drew’s cancer was back and wasn’t good. The family was told he only had a couple months left which they were not expecting. It was difficult for coach to hear such terrible news, especially during volleyball season. She was supposed to be the JV coach for the girls’ basketball team this year also but decided to resign due to the news they found out, so that she could spend more time with Drew.

It is so amazing to see how many different things Drew was a part of during his short life. From being in all challenging classes like physics and algebra 2 as a sophomore to being involved in tae kwon do. As our volleyball team walked together through the visitation, coach Goodall explained to us that he was just going to try to get his black belt but then became too sick to do it. The organization knew how badly Drew wanted a black belt; they gave him one with his name on it since he wasn’t able to earn one due to his cancer.

Also it is incredible being able to see everyone come together and support him. I have heard that schools from an hour away have been doing purple outs in honor of Drew Wall. They have sold so many of the “Just Drew It” shirts and are still going. The amount of support the family has received, I’m sure is very helpful. What the family is going through has got to be difficult and the more support they get could help them a bit through this such difficult time.

Last night at the girls and boys double header basketball game there was a purple out in honor of Drew. Both teams wore the “Just Drew It” shirts during the warm up to show support. It was wonderful to see that the Wash teams also participated in buying and wearing the shirts. The profit of all the shirts will go to the Wall family.

After the girls game and before the boys game, Stecker gave a wonderful speech about Drew and his accomplishments. The family was down on the court with him and stood proud and strong. I have so much respect and happiness for that family. Seeing how many people that were wearing purple to show their support was just incredible. I know that the family really appreciates everything that people have done for them recently. Good job Cougar nation!!

(465 words)