I have spent the past two weeks debating what to write this “final blog” about. It’s hard to summarize the craziest four years of my life in a few paragraphs. It’s hard to look back at this long string of events called high school that I somehow will be done within a few days and put it all together....

You finally registered to vote, found your nearest polling spot and have looked forward to this moment for years. You get to the ballot and see dozens of names you have never heard of. How do you know who to vote for? Completely uneducated, you circle random candidates but have yet to learn what they...

The beginning of 2024 already gave audiences multiple highly anticipated movies such as Dune 2, Challengers and Civil War. These films grossed highly at the box office and were received well. Although the year is nearly halfway over, countless movies are still set to release throughout the rest of 2024,...

Texas covers over 268,000 square miles, making it the second-largest state in the United States. Its diverse landscape makes for some of the world's best day trips and sightseeing. From tulip fields to hidden waterfalls, here are eight fun trips that can be done in a day in every region of Texas to take...

Pancake breakfast, homecoming king and queen, soak a senior, 24-karat gold prom. Senior class president Annelise Vinson helped set up events that made the senior year memorable. Ms. Danielle Panzarella took on the role of senior class sponsor after working with student council to plan events since 2018. Ms....

Senior year continuously fills students with pressure to decide their entire future. Whether going to college, taking a gap year, technical school, or jumping into a career, senior year ultimately defines where students will go after they walk across the stage at graduation. Academically, senior year...

In the fifth grade, I stepped into a large rectangular room filled to the brim with various instruments ranging in size from a small notebook to over 6 feet tall. I had been insanely fascinated by the idea of a musical instrument until this point. It almost felt like walking into a Toys R Us. How...

Junior Hannah Mabe walks through the rows of chairs and stands in the orchestra room, reaching her seat to start a long and detailed rehearsal in preparation for their next performance. The Ben Barber Varsity Chamber Orchestra prepares for the annual University Interscholastic League (UIL) contest, where...

Tipping in the United States increasingly becomes a nationwide debate with over 75% of transactions in food and beverage now asking for a tip. Seven in ten U.S. adults now say that tipping is expected in more places than it was five years ago, leading some to call it “tipflation.”  From to-go...

People often hear about the stock market and its importance in American society and economics but have no idea of how it works. One of the most important aspects of the stock market is investing. Investing, simply, is putting money into the stock market to make some sort of profit. This can either lead...

The United States of America is in the middle of an educational crisis. Test scores are plummetting, school funding is becoming unattainable and students are graduating from 12 years of public school education with no knowledge of how to survive in the real world.  This disaster of an education system...

“A bill that would create a school voucher program to let parents use state funds to pay for private schools — a longtime conservative goal and a big concern for public education advocates — was approved in the Texas Senate on [Oct. 12],” said Brian Lopez with The Texas Tribune.  School vouchers...

"1956 – France. A priest is murdered," the synopsis for the film reads. "An evil is spreading. The sequel to the worldwide smash hit follows Sister Irene as she once again comes face-to-face with Valak, the demon nun." The Nun II is an American supernatural horror film directed by Michael Chaves...

Head dance coach Brooke Parlin advanced to the semi-finals for the annual Texas Dance Educators Association (TDEA) Director of the Year award in the last week of August. Parlin originally received the nomination for the award at the TDEA convention in January 2023 and progressed to the top nine dance...

High school students often have questions about endorsements and what purpose they serve. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) determines an endorsement as a set of courses that allows a student in high school to explore areas of interest they might have. Mansfield ISD requires all eighth-grade students...

Junior and senior years of high school often become stressful for students who plan to go to college. From lengthy applications to intense deadlines, college can turn into a whirlwind of unknowns and worry. However, incoming freshmen have nearly unlimited access to resources for applying to universities...