My dear fellow homo sapiens, I’m more familiar with textbooks and periodic tables than newspapers, so you’ll have to cut me a little slack if my writing seems a little different. This is my first year on the newspaper staff even though I’m a senior—a result of College Board’s advice to become a “well rounded individual” and my wandering quest to gain as many eclectic (fancy word!) skills as I can during high school. I enjoy reading, listening to a surprising variety of music and having epiphanies and random arguments about words. My friends may warn you to never say the word “sluggish” within my hearing, since it shows an obviously biased and unfair preference in the English language for slugs. No one ever says the word “slothish” or “turtleish”, as in “I’m worried about Laura; her actions are very snailish today.” Sincerely looking forward to an interesting, slug-free year and wishing you a very merry unbirthday, Laura Baker [email protected]