May Fete: Honoring Our Senior Girls

by Meredith Penczek

It’s been a tradition for many years. May Fete is something every girl looks forward to. It’s something that brings people together. May Fete is the underclassmen girls’ way of showing our appreciation for the graduating girls.

Every girl who attends PCHS not only looks forward to being in May Fete, but they often think about how their own night will play through. Many of the freshmen girls are already thinking about who they’ll walk out with. Sophomores are thinking of their Father/Daughter Dance. The juniors are eyeing dresses. But there’s nothing like being a senior girl and knowing that your night is approaching.

The senior girls get to pick their best friends to walk out with. They will walk out while being announced under the spotlights while cameras of their friends and family flash. On occasion, you can even hear crowd members shout their names. After all the senior girls have walked out, the May Fete Court is announced. May Fete Court is made up of five senior girls who were voted in by their fellow classmates. The May Fete Court girls are picked not because they’re popular or flashy, but because they are genuinely nice girls who are friendly towards everyone. Each year, a ballot of the five girls is sent through the school to vote for the May Fete Queen. Like Homecoming Queen and Winter Carnival Queen, it’s always a big honor to win the title of May Fete Queen.

Every class (besides senior) makes their own dance to honor the graduating girls. There are more than just three dances though. There are the Freshmen, Sophomore, Junior, Teacher, Tumbling, May Pole, and Flashlight dances, and a few other surprise dances. Most of the surprise dances are concocted by the senior boys with the help of the other underclassmen girls. There have even been dedication songs in more recent years sang to the senior girls. Ever year, it’s tradition to keep the theme of that year’s May Fete a secret to everyone but the participates until the night of May Fete.

Every Sunday the underclassmen girls meet to practice their dances. They have designated choreographers who are given the song and focus on making the dance. “Most of the choreography is made up at practice because our dance has to work our space,” said freshman choreographer Randi Hays when asked about making up the dance. May Fete has a history of causing a lot of drama throughout the classes, but if you asked, most of them would just smile and shake their heads.

Nothing is better than May Fete night, whether you’re in the stands watching, on the floor performing, or sitting on the senior chairs.

Teens and Stress

by Rachel Kenderdine

Every day after school, junior Nikki McMullen goes to work at her job at McDonald’s. After working any number of hours, she comes home to a day’s worth of homework, household chores, and a variety of other parts of life to juggle. Nikki is one of millions of teens dealing with the issue of stress in their lives.

According to lifespan.org, teen stress is caused by many factors, including school, peer pressure, body issues, family and friend problems, and extracurricular activities. Guidance counselor Mrs. Garzolini-Skelton agrees.

“I think peer pressure is a lot of it, I think parents, I think schoolwork, and a lot of time it’s just their family situations or family life,” she said.

Nikki McMullen, a junior at PCHS, says that stress in her life is caused by, “School, but not just school, the classes I take. Extracurricular activities can be stressful on top of school, and work for me is extracurricular.”

Stress can be bad for both the person affected and the people around them. On top of physical symptoms of stress, such as headache, stomachache, and loss of appetite, mental symptoms can also appear.

“Some turn to self-injuring, or a lot of time when people are stressed it causes them to act out, like getting into an argument or acting out in class, and they act out towards an innocent person who gets the brunt of it when really they’re stressed about other things,” Mrs. Garzolini-Skelton said.

Mrs. Garzolini-Skelton also said that teens under stress need to realize that they can find ways to relieve stress. “The most important thing that I feel like anyone can do is realize that sometimes things are out of their control. You can’t stress about other things that are out of your control. And to have someone to talk to. It’s important to know you have that option,” she said.

Nikki said that when stress gets to be too much, she finds a way to relieve it. “I definitely just remind myself to have fun, and do things I enjoy doing,” she said.

If stress does get to be too much in your life, find someone to talk to.

212: Now We're Boiling!

by Meredith Penczek

What difference can one degree make? How can one degree be the deference between just hot water and the ability to power a steam engine? That’s all the deference between 211° and 212°. So it’s only natural that FFA names a leadership conference about taking things to the next degree. Freshmen & sophomores of the Paris FFA went to the 212 conference in Chicago , IL over the 28th and 29th of January. Only nine of the members were able to attend due to the illness going through the school. The attending members were Bailey Lawson, Sami Lawson, Holden Gates, Dalton Hall, Blake Webster, Jared Ryes, Alyssa Kispert, and myself. Ms. Hewitt and Mr. Steve Cox were the accompanying chaperones

The conference was created to help members work on their leadership skills. We worked in four main sessions, Passions, Virtues, Decisions, and Character. We learned about doing thing that made us happy by turning our passions into our virtues that will effect our decisions and then our character. We also were given skills to help make good decisions. We were involved in many activities that got us active with other attending members by everything from making a miniature Eiffel Tower to making little towers out of note cards and masking tape to just hanging out and enjoying ourselves.

At one point, three of the members (including me) were asked to volunteer for something without any details. We were taken out into the hall and told that our job was simply to tell a story to the group. We each chose our stories. The boy that went first Alex’s story was about getting lost in Chicago , mine was about getting my stitches, and the last girl Monica’s story was about her getting her dog. The people inside the room were instructed to have certain reactions to each story no matter the story. Poor Alex wasn’t even aloud to tell his they were so rowdy, I entered and left a completely silent room, and Monica had her room exploding with applause and cheers. This was a learning experience for all of about not only ignoring people’s negative reactions, but respecting other people.

We also learned about A-Pars. A-Pars are people who you can trust and are much like your partners in everyday life. They are there to help you make decisions and talk to you when you need it. We were given the idea to write a letter to someone we could keep as an A-Par at home.

The conference created a great opportunity to meet new people and make new friends. We met people who we can never forget and will always stay in touch with (Evan “Lion Boy”, Derek “Sasquach”, Sadie, Monica, Jasmine, etc.) Bailey Lawson said, “My favorite thing about it was meeting new people.” Some of the attending members are also keeping in touch with the conference speakers.

“This is one of the few conferences or events that our chapter tries to pay most of the expense on. It really helps the kids that pay attention and who are active within our chapter.” Said Mr. Steve Cox when explaining the conference to his ag classes.