 Friendship is an important opponent of life. Our friends are the ones who help us through the great obstacles of life. The ones who laugh with us and share our secrets. The ones who get us through a long night, or scary movie. The ones who gossip and play with us. The ones who laugh at our jokes (even if they aren't funny), and hug us when we cry. Friends are important in life, and in school.
There are so many things that our friends help with at school. Have you ever hoped you get a class with one of your friends? Have you ever wished you were in the same pod so you could see them every day? Have you used a bracelet to sit with your friend? Of course, you have!!! Friends are super important to have in school. They influence our lives, for example, they can make us study harder, or eat healthily. Our friends might play Basketball, influencing us to play too, so we can see them, but also get healthier. But our friends also make us feel better. For example, our pod went on a Field trip on Wednesday, October 11, 2019, and my friend and I were in the same team-building group. There was a rope course, but it was tall. My friend ( we’ll say Ava ) was scared of heights, but I wanted her to be brave and go on the rope course. Ava didn't really want to go, but after I encouraged her, she agreed to do it with me. I was really glad she did because she got to face her fear! I gave her a little bit of peer pressure. Peer pressure isn't always bad. Peer pressure is when your peers (friends) are influencing you to do something. It does not always have to be bad. Peer pressure can be your friends getting you to study for a test, or give them that other cookie you have so you can be healthy. But, peer pressure also isnt always good. You should never let someone pressure you into doing something bad, like running in front of a car or having a beer. If your friend tries to peer pressure you into doing something dangerous or bad, tell an adult. Your friend should NOT be your friend. Don't let people take advantage of you, your better than that. To wrap it up, let's just think of what life would be like without our friends. Not very good. Our friends are trusted people who we love, and listen to. Our friends listen to us, share with us, and laugh at/with us. Our friends are the ones who support our decisions no matter what and stick with us through anything. They are one of our most important things. Thank you to all of my friends, for always supporting me. I love you all. Story by Veda Dougherty SOURCES Link 1 Link 2  Have you ever been in a completely dark space? If not try it, go into a closet and close the door. What do you feel? What do you hear? Do you smell anything? Can you touch anything? Do you notice anything different? Take a second and pay attention to each of these. The longer you stay in this space the more you may realize your senses become heightened. This experience gives you the tiniest glimpse of life as a blind person.
When you lose your sense of sight your body does everything it can, to compensate for that. According to https://www.livescience.com "there is tremendous potential for the brain to adapt.” For example, the portions of your brain that are associated with hearing, touch, and smell become more sensitive to stimulus when you are blind. There's evidence through MRI technology that the brains of blind people will rewire themselves to allow for the other senses to work more acutely. In an article by the Smithsonian, they state that “the brains of blind people appeared to be wired differently when it came to things like structure and connectivity.” The area of your brain called hMT+ is responsible for tracking moving visual objects. In blind people the hMT+ tracks auditory objects such as moving cars or people. Have you ever happened to notice a blind person crossing the street, or doing a day to day activity? Take a second to notice their movements and actions? Do you notice them tilting their head? Or maybe using their hands? This is an example of the hMT+ region of the brain working efficiently. The heightened activity allows for these other senses to kick in. The is the human body working at it's best. Story By Talula Perry SOURCES: https://www.thoughtco.com/what-do-blind-people-see-4153577 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190422151020.htm https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/blind-peoples-brains-rewire-themselves-enhance-other-senses-180962653/ https://www.livescience.com/58373-blindness-heightened-senses.html https://morninggossip.com/2017/03/blind-peoples-brains-rewire-enhance-senses/  If you would've never thought your 80s and 90s childhood would come back into style, you were wrong. Living in the 80s you thought those trends would be popular in your time and your time only but all those mom jeans, crop tops, and scrunchies are coming back into style and there making a big hit!
Overall in the past few years the 80s and 90s are clearly making a comeback. It seems like all those trends are starting again and social media sites are really loving it. Remember when all those hair clips and chokers were all you saw in stores? Well, walk into any PacSun, Forever 21, H&M and American Eagle and you'll find yourself looking at giant racks full of puka shell necklaces and butterfly hair clips. Everybody remembers whenever we made all those daring decisions to wear shoulder pads and ruffled blazers, heres a little knowledge on all those interesting decisions… Shoulder pads - They were originally for football players to protect themselves while wrestling, but later it started to become a trend for women and teens that didn't end up happening until the later 1980s when Elsa Schiaparelli was really bold and decided to change up her style. Scrunchies - Some people only thought they were a new trend but in the 80s but they’ve actually been around for a while. The scrunchie was invented by Philips E. Meyers in 1963 but was not popular until around 1987 when some girls started wearing them and spreading the worldwide trend about them. Mom jeans - These baggy jeans started around the 1990s and were the only thing you'd see moms wearing, but now in the later 2000s all the teens and young adults are loving them and adore their baggy soft and comfy look. Fanny Packs -By now its no secret fanny packs were a trend, the most hated and loved of all the handbags, they have constantly changed up the styles and added new models and looks to these cool retro purse like bags. These fun bags have also showed up a few times during fashion week on models and spectators (invented in 1962). Story by Stella Ballard  Have you ever wondered when the sun will die? Well the sun has a long time to go so don’t be scared or worried. In this article I'll be talking about the history, the lifespan of the sun, and the components of the sun. The sun will live on for another 5,000,000,000 years and after that 5 billion years the sun will become a red giant and get warmer yet cooler at the same time. It will also get five times brighter so it will burn everything. The sun will not grow any as we know of but the chances of us living through this time is very slim
The Sun is a giant floating gas ball in the center of our solar system that keeps every living thing on earth living. “The sun is made up of gas 70% hydrogen around and around 28% helium. Carbon, nitrogen and oxygen make up 1.5% and the other 0.5% is made up of smaller amounts of many other elements such as neon, iron, silicon, magnesium and sulfur” “according to Cool Cosmos. These gasses make up the sun and the way the gasses burn with each other is why its been going for so long and why it will be living so long and bright. If we do not have a sun we would die. The sun is in a very specific spot and over billions of years our species has evolved to only live in this climate and only this climate. If the sun goes away the world would have an ice age again. If the sun gets a little bit closer the world would become a desert and the sea would dry up. If the sun gets too far away it we will have another ice age as well. We have become very sensitive to change in our solar system and if any change happens the whole world would start all over again. Thank you for reading and these facts all came from the sources. Story by Jasper Grein |
