Mackenzie L

You Only Live Once

12/11/2021

A quote that I live by that I believe everyone should live by is ”you only live once” aka YOLO. This is the most inspirational quote ever said, and it’s something that really resonates with me. Yolo means to never have any regrets, and to always live life to the fullest. It also means to make good decisions because you only have one life to live and you want it to be the best life possible.

Any time one of my friends wants to go out and do something fun, but I am just not in the mood and I would rather stay home, I just think to myself, yolo. And then I go because I only have one life and I don’t want to spend it staying at home and not taking advantage of fun activities.

Yolo is also how I convince all of my friends to go out and do fun stuff. Any time my peers don’t want to go out after a football game or go to a school event I hit them with a yolo. I express to them how we only live once and, as seniors, we will never be in high school again. We won’t ever get to go to a high school football game and stand in the student section for the rest of our lives. That is why it is so important that we take advantage of every little thing that presents itself because we may never get the chance to do it again.

I encourage anyone who is reading this to always remember yolo. Any time you are debating if you should do something, remember that you only live once. Maybe that means you shouldn’t do something because it could mess up your life or be dangerous, or maybe that is what tells you that you can’t waste this opportunity. Whatever the decision is, I promise you that thinking about the fact that you only live once will help you decide what to do. #YOLO

Hopes For My Senior Year

10/14/2021

The pandemic has striped everyone from things they love. We have lost time with loved ones and have dealt with not seeing friends. People have faced job loss and even more challenging situations, too. As for myself and my peers, we keep losing our high school experience.

I am very thankful that I have not had any major problems in my life because of COVID, but not being able to experience certain events in high school that I have always looked forward to does not feel good. I am beyond grateful that things have gotten more normal for my senior year, however, things are obviously not like they used to be. My hope for this year is that I can experience as close to a normal senior year as possible, and that I can make the most of it.

One thing I am really looking forward to in my senior year is being able to have a student section at all of our sporting events. All through high school I have loved dressing up for the various themes and cheering on our teams. Not being able to have that last year was upsetting. This year I am one of the student section leaders, so I want to be able to go all out like we used to. Thankfully, so far we have been able to have a normal student section and it has been the best experience ever. It has already given me lifelong memories. I hope and pray that we can continue to have a student section for the rest of the year so we can show our winter and spring athletes support.

Another thing I have always looked forward to participating in during my senior year is the Powder Puff Game. Every year, the day before the homecoming football game the junior and senior girls are able to participate in a flag football game. I remember going as an underclassman and being so eager to experience that for myself. Unfortunately, last year powder puff was canceled due to COVID. As of now, we have heard no information about powder puff for this school year. It is very upsetting to think my senior class will be the first and possibly the only class that has never experienced a powder puff game. I hope to put on a game in the spring, if possible, because this is one of those events that upperclassmen looked forward and deserve to experience.

Speaking of homecoming week, I was extremely excited to be able to have a homecoming dance this year. It was far from normal with all of the restrictions, but I am very grateful for the administration and the leadership class for working so hard to make this happen. I have always looked forward to my final homecoming dance and having the opportunity to be on court with all that is happening is beyond amazing. I hope we can continue to have dances, and that courtwarming and prom will be back to normal.

All throughout high school, I have been apart of student council so being able to be an officer is something I have always looked forward to. This year I have the honor of being vice president so I am excited to plan all of the school’s events. I am just hoping that we will be able to have events to plan. As of right now, things are going great and we have been able to plan almost everything we normally have, which is amazing. Hopefully later this year we are able to plan in-person pep assemblies, the Children's Relay for Life, and Mr. WHS.

No matter what gets in the way of my senior year, I am determined to make the most of it. I am thankful things are going well so far and hope they continue to only get better. I hope that other students are making the most of this school year, too. One thing we can learn from all that was lost, is that we shouldn't take something as simple as a school dance for granted ever again.

Until next time,
Kenzie

Failing to Succeed

3/2/2021

Failure builds success. Many people believe this, while others may think there is no good to be found in failing. Personally, I believe there is no better way to learn than to learn from your mistakes. In order to succeed, you have to grow, and to grow, you have to fail.

We are all humans and humans are not perfect. Everyone makes mistakes and that's okay. No one should hold themselves to the standard of perfection because that's simply not possible. It is good to have high expectations for yourself and to do everything to the best of your ability. However, if you fall short here and there, you can’t beat yourself up over it. Falling short of your expectations allows you to look back and reflect on what you did in order to do better next time.

I think failing is critical to the ability to succeed. You see it every day in celebrities that fail and fall short of their “role model” standards. Take Justin Bieber for example, he went through a phase where he was in jail, abusing drugs, and just falling off the wagon. He lost a lot of followers and his career could have been over, however, he learned from that and made a life again. He now has an amazing following and is using his platform to spread the word of the Gospel. This is just one example of how failing builds success.

Cancel culture is something that doesn’t allow people to fail and learn from their mistakes. When someone in the spotlight of social media makes a mistake that upsets people, cancel culture does their thing and can end that person's whole career based on that one mistake they made. This leaves that person no room to grow. When this happens they usually lose everything they had including their social media platforms. Then, it becomes almost impossible for that person to grow and come back from that mistake because everyone has already decided to hate them forever.

I think it is important to look back at your life and think about times that you have failed or made a mistake and how that allowed you to learn and grow. Without learning from our mistakes and accepting our failures, we will continue to make those mistakes and continue to fail. The true key to success is the failure that gets us there.

Take a Look Around, the Positives are Easy to Find!

1/22/2021

This school year has looked far different than usual. With the masks, social distancing and only seeing half of the school due to a hybrid schedule, it has been a struggle for many people. It can be very easy to go on and on about all the difficulties, and annoyances the first semester has brought. However, when you take the time to look back, you can remember the positive parts of this school year.

When I reflected on how my first semester went, the first good thing that came to mind was all the fun I had during cheer. We were able to go to all but one of the football games and cheer on our team. We were all so thankful to be able to cheer at so many games! None of us thought we would get that opportunity. I was very happy that my first year of cheering for the high school had a lot of normalcy to it. Besides the masks and lack of fans in the stands, we were still able to have the majority of our team at every game, and participate in stunts like every other year.

Aside from cheering for football games, in the first semester, we were able to start cheering for basketball season. Our team has faced a lot more challenges during basketball season this year compared to last. However, with our team being so flexible, we have been able to perform to the best of our ability at every home game. Unlike football season, there is always a student section at all of the boys' games we cheer at. I am more than excited that we have a student section to cheer in front of. Let's be real, half of those people in the stands aren’t there to watch the cheerleaders, so it is great to have some of our peers in the audience cheering us on.

Other than cheer, school itself has been a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be. After the hybrid schedule changed our attendance pattern, we started going every other day. Thanks to that change, I was able to get into a nice routine. The first couple weeks of online eLearning days were rough. I slept in super late and procrastinated all day. However, after some practice, I have found a routine that works for me. Having this routine makes me feel so much more accomplished and makes me feel good knowing I can motivate myself to be productive and get things done effectively.

I encourage you to look back and notice all the good things that have happened to you during the first semester, take note of all the good memories and maybe you will realize it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. It definitely made me realize I was overlooking a lot of the good moments. Our lives are far from normal right now, but don’t let the struggles you are going through block out the good things, they are important to hold onto.

Just Because She's Beautiful, Doesn't Mean You Aren't

12/11/2020

Social media is everywhere these days. It's almost like our lives revolve around it at this point. Chances are you’ve spent your fair share of time scrolling through Instagram or TikTok today, I know I have. I mean, who doesn’t want to see what's new in fashion and what new dances we’re doing this month? Social media can be a fun interactive place for us, however, there are parts of social media that aren’t so glamorous.

TikTok is one app that I have recently seen turn ugly. When scrolling through the endless stream of videos, I see way too many of them that are exposing users to new insecurities they may have never even thought about before watching that video. I always see videos talking about a certain part of their body they hate about themselves, when I run to the comments to see what people are saying, almost all of the comments are talking about how they can now add another insecurity to their long list.

Social media sites such as TikTok should be trying to uplift their viewers rather than making them feel more insecure.

This is hard to do in a lot of cases because many videos aren’t even trying to cause others to feel insecure. Many videos simply show someone who some say has the “ideal” body or face structure. I say ideal because there truly is no "ideal" body type, everyone is unique in their own way. The comments are flooded with people comparing themselves to that creator.

The creator may be trying to be confident in a fun video, yet all others can do is sit there and compare themselves to them. Viewers may think, “Why does she get to look like that, and I don’t?" I catch myself doing the same thing, but I think the most important thing to remember that has always helped me is the saying, “just because she’s beautiful doesn’t mean you aren’t”.

Confidence is a hard thing to obtain and social media doesn’t make it easier, intentional or not, it tends to do more harm than good.

On the bright side, I have seen more body-positive, uplifting videos pop up on my "for you" page. Even though there are still far too many negative posts, I can see a slight change
occurring.

If you see your self-confidence struggling due to social media, take a step back and log off for a while. Look in the mirror and remind yourself you are beautiful, sometimes it's just mind over matter. And always remember, just because they are beautiful doesn't mean you aren’t.

Until Next Time,
Kenzie

Everything Happens for a Reason

8/2/2020

When it comes to my past, there isn’t much I wish I would have done differently. I think everything is a learning experience and mistakes are just a part of the process. However, I do wish I would have not spent so much of my time stressing.

Everyone has complete control over their own life to a point. However, there are certain things that we just can’t control. Recently, I have gained a new perspective on life that I wish I had earlier. I am now a big believer that everything happens for a reason. This has helped me through so much and allowed me to let go of so many of my worries.

When it comes to stress or worrying, if you think about it, it is so pointless. It does not help you get what you want and it doesn't change something that has already happened. I know it is easier said than done, but learning how to let go of stress is the best thing I have ever learned how to do.

My mom has always told me, “Think where your feet are.” My feet are in the present, not the future or the past. I can't change the future or what has already happened, but I can change what I do today. I can also change how I live in the moment. Therefore, there is no sense in worrying about the past or the future, only the now. I never really understood that until recently, but learning to live by that mantra has transformed my life.

Learning to believe that everything happens for a reason has had a huge impact on my life. Things won’t always go my way, so believing that no matter what, it is still happening for some reason is so reassuring. It is important to live in the moment and not take every little thing so seriously, it is more important to just enjoy life. Of course, there are exceptions to that and times when it is very important to be serious, but as for the little things, just enjoy them.

After learning how to let go and worry less, I have been a much happier version of myself. It is definitely something I wish I could have done differently earlier in life, but I am so glad I have learned how to do it now. I encourage everyone to try to let go of their worries. It truly is life changing.