Woodstock Union Highschool

Vermont: A Special Place
Growing up in Vermont is something that is truly unbelievable. It allows for you to experience so much and get a totally different and unique outlook on life that you wouldn’t get if say you lived in Las Vegas. Vermont is such a peaceful place that comforts you in many ways.

Running over the thin, winding path through the deep mysterious woods, the long night was ending and the mist was beginning to stir in the early morning. The branches stung my face as I flew past them, my bare feet felt the tiny pebbles slide under them, I jumped over old rocks that seemed to have been there for centuries. The darkness emanating out from the woods kept me from leaving the worn trail--my skin tingled as the cold hit the tiny cuts on my bare skin. The salty air from the ocean surrounded me. I had been lying in my bed staring at my overpoweringly white ceiling, wondering about my life, what it meant, and what was going to happen. Labyrinthine questions flowed through my head, and I knew I’d be awake for far too long. Lying in between my sheets with the weight of my comforter on top of me, giving me a sense of security, I was alarmingly awake. Car lights zoomed past my window, as if each place they were going was an emergency.

Facebook

By Maya Tracey
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

Addicting, social, distracting, classy
Facebook
A word recognized worldwide
Started out as a college social network
Started spreading through high schools
Keeping in touch with the latest gossip
Finding long-lost friends
Snooping around friends' pictures and profiles
First it was MySpace, now it is Facebook
Some say they switched because they find Facebook to be classier
So many applications
So addicting
Why are we so addicted to Facebook?
Maybe it’s being “socially in it”
Keeping in touch
I think the question is
Why are we so addicted to being socially accepted?

In our country we are extremely lucky to have a democratic system. Many of us, including me take this for granite. When each citizen in our country finally blows out eighteen candles, they have a voice, a voice that can change our country. Voting is extremely important because it gives one a change to make a difference in the country, and help with change. In some countries, if one speaks against the government, they are sentenced to prison or death. In our country, we have the right of liberty, petition, and the chance to be heard. Although one voice seems like it wont make very much of a difference, imagine if everybody thought like that and a majority of people didn’t vote. Now that would impact the election greatly. In the 2008 election, with McCain and Obama I believe that this election in particular is an important one. Our country has had the same leader for eight years now, and our country has gotten use to it.

since when do you have the right
to tell me who i should be
since when do you hold the key
to my heart and soul
i should be aloud to dream
without the ringing of your deadly screams
who asked you
for i definitely did not
please just stop on your life lessons
and listen to your own advice
because i am sick of hearing your voice
since when am i actually you
that i have to act on everything you say and do
leave me to be alone
because sticks and stones
arent the only things that break my bones

what have you done?
to me

what have i done?
to deserve this pain
this blood stained
soul
the blurry visions
the endless missions
in search for
love

what have you done?
to me

what have i done?
to have your hurts
put upon me
to not be able to
sleep
to eat
to live
to love
to be

what have you done?
to me

I scream
but you can't hear me
the walls are
empty
the ceiling and floor
are closing in on
me
the darkness
makes the light
bright
my fists pound the walls
yet leave me with no
sound
the throbbing in my
head
brings my surroundings
closer

to read people's minds
danger
to fly
dangerous
to read people's minds
flying across untouched land
to fly
reading the world under you, never to stand
to read people's minds
secrets
to fly
creating new mysteries, you are the keeper
to read people's minds
a brick wall at the unanswered answers
to fly
flowing through the weightless air, useless questions
to read people's minds
unforgivable
to fly
unforgettable

i ran through the woods
to find
you
i stumbled over the cold roots
to see
if you were still there
i sprinted across the sand
to maybe glimpse
the history
i slowly walked across the creaking wood
only to find
the end of our
memories
i ran through the woods
never to find
you

Soaring through the sky, with the birds and clouds, looking down on the world like they were tiny ants; if I were to have any superpower in the world, it would be to fly. Now, flying is a superpower which everybody picks, but there is so much versatility to that power. Unlike super strength, or invisibility, you could use it anywhere, and it would make life easier.

They say, teachers, adults, parents, that high school is preparing you for the ‘real’ world, that school is easier then the things you will face in the real world. They say that school is meaningful and that you will use everything you learn, they say that books such as The Scarlet Letter, readings like Shakespeare will help you further your career, and that by reading these books they will change your life. That’s what they say… and they’re wrong.

High school is the real world.

High school is full of those real life people you will meet, those long hours, working on weekends, vacations. Teachers like bosses, some are nice, some expect work to be done, sick or ill, they still want it in, which leads to the long weeks. Almost seven hours of school each and every day, then to come home with more work. Perhaps two or three hours more, a day of nine or ten hours of work. They say that a day job can be stressful and that you’ll work long hours. But you’re already doing that.

High school is the real world.

There are those who don’t believe this logic, they say that when they were in school times were just the same. They are not the ones with the homework, the ones with the exams to pass, the tests to fail. Times have changed. They may have walked uphill both ways, but the students of this modern world are climbing a vertical mountain.

They say that life beyond the safety of school will be a struggle for some, it will be challenging and tough, isn’t that what high school is? Students who have spent sleepless nights, up till twelve, then rising before the sun, countless hours spent on projects that are simply discarded after a small letter grade. A reward? Working long hours in an office to bring new ideas, to bring together a letter, a document, a film, a story, is much more so, these are not simple discarded, but regarded.

High school is the real world.

Grandma

By Leah Thomas
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

G reat friend
R eally good cook
A nd above all
N othing bad
D oes love to play with
M e, house and tea parties
A grandma is oh, so special

Calloused hands lifted the shovel up once more as the farmer sighed; his hands were round and large, crooked from years of working hard, sunup to sundown. Setting his hands upon the cracked wooden shovel he turned towards me, I cast my eyes down, embarrassed, and studied the old shovel. It was cracked and missing the top of its handle, the metal bottom part was rust covered for years of use.

Verse 1:
In my search
for a better day
why mush I look this way
I try to break through
But the world keeps on tellin’ me
I must fit into it’s puzzle

Chorus:
Well the world keeps on tellin’ me
To feel this way
But I know I
I forget sometimes
To be my own
So I work harder everyday
(mmhmm)

Verse 2:
Who can ask?
What’s to say: What the world’s puzzle is anyway?

Spring is here
With nothing to fear-
Let’s cheer- Good bye snow
Slow, slowly water will flow
And flowers will grow!
The flowers will begin to bud, in the mud.
There will be a flood of spring-
The bees will begin to sting
I can’t wait for spring to begin

Mud
Look at this nasty crud
It over here
It over there
This nasty stuff is everywhere
It squishes and squashes in between my toes
When will mud season be over, no buddy knows
Every other season has something special
Winter has snow
Summer as sun
But mud season is just no fun

It’s a terrible act
It’s a terrible fact
That all people do
Attacking others and leaving very few

Bullying is a disease
It will never cease
Destroying people with the simplest of ease
We have to stop this
I ask you please!

Pride is something that you hide inside
Pride is something you recognize
Something that lies behind the eyes

Pride is an overwhelming feeling
It builds and builds it’s the strongest of feelings
Pride it what lies inside

Mud Season
The Paved roads are fine
They’ve got no good reason
It’s the back country roads that are covered with brine
Stuck in the mud, tires no longer seen
Yelling and shouting as it spins out of control
The once washed can, now no longer clean
Afraid to say this it might just roll
The roads of the sticks
Come with so much more taste
Each comes with it’s own little tricks

Iraq: This is War

By Leah Thomas
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

The dust and the heat
Dry deserts, darkened skies
Walking on tired feet
Out here there is no use for ties
Oil and disaster has made us come
What will make us leave?
Will we fight until numb
Until our homeland has to grieve
We’ve been here too long
But we don’t give in, don’t give up

Faking it has never been hard
People do it all the time
Tis as easy as flipping a card
Or squeezing a lime

A lie
A sweet little story
A cunning move, ever so sly
There might be more, hidden deep in a quarry
But how can one little lie, on move of deceit
An escape to get away from a pressured situation
Ahhh but it is so sweet
With the tall tale, the lie and it’s creation
Maybe meant to protect one you love
Save them from the terrible truth
Bringing them up, up and above

C.heating
H.ow do you feel?
E.verything lost; last resort
A.lso a feeling of guilt
T.alented way of getting by
I.sn’t everything that way?
N.othing is done truthfully
G.oing down hill

The class settles down now, preparing for a small quiz. Last minute
reviewing coming to an end as people hide their notes back inside
their binders. Last minute whispers are exchanged to friends as the
teacher, "shushes" everybody quiet, "tests are out, no more talking,"
she shrieks. Everybody is well on their way, almost done with the

By Leah Thomas
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

Mr Bush,

Pop Pop
Chomp Chomp
It Blow…It GROWS
Sticky Bubblegum sticks to my nose
Sticky bubblegum sticks to my clothes
Sticky bubblegum sticks to my hair
Sticky bubblegum sticks EVERYWHERE

Life is full of so many things
I know this for a fact
Fun things, crazy things, wonderful thing
Everything if full of life, but what is it really

It is the feel of wet dew across your feet
Summer Nights spent by a fire, catching fireflies

Walking at night viewing the millions of stars under
One moon, it’s light making everything visible,

Wheat
Egg plant
Ina beans
Green Bean
Hungarian Rice
Tasty Weat

Oops, I made a mistake
I won’t get mad at myself
Mistakes happen often

Everything is wrong
Nothing seems right anymore
Mistakes I have made