Woodstock Union High School

Memories
Written By Leah Kanoff

Memories are something that stay forever.
They hold her back, they move her forward.
Thy maker her laugh, cry, makes her wish she could turn back time.
Some memories break her heart in two.
Let go? Or, hold on?
Twelve written pages later, she hasn’t stopped writing, hasn’t make up her mind, hasn’t sent the letter.
Letting go makes her want to hold on even more, but holding on breaks her heart too.
Can she really let go of someone who has helped her so much?
But can she change herself to hold on?
Change her heart to not want more? Change her heart from falling in love?.....
Sure she can try, but could she really do it?
Would she only lying to her own heart then?
Her heart skips a beat when the phone rings, reminding her how much she really want to pick up the phone and just talk to him, but doesn’t…….
But she can’t live for yesterday she has to start living for tomorrow, the future, not the past.

The beautiful sun fills my body,
Temperatures rise slowly but surly.
The spring and summer are my favorite,
The smells, sounds, and all other senses tingle
Lacrosse in the spring, work in the summer.
College is almost here, nobody can wait.
The excitement, anticipation, and anxiousness,
fill my heart and head.
For this fall I cannot wait.
3 more weeks, 19 days, graduation will come,
Are we ready? Can we do it?
We all have these questions, when will they be answered.
Anywhere we go we will all have a place to call home,
and people we call friends.
Our lives are just starting on this warm spring day.
Here we go into the world unknown,
One day we will have our own family, lives, and fun.
That day will soon come, but first we have to graduate.
Its deffinitly going to be our day, the day
of friday the 13th.

Forbidden
By Leah Kanoff
May 2008
Written for anonymous

The pain and happiness of everything coming to a closure is more then she can bare.
Schools getting out for the summer, the girl tells herself she should feel happy, but why does she feel so melancholy?
The feel of the summer breeze pushes back her long hair, letting a tear fall from her eye, as she sits on the rock in the middle of the river.
Is it the thought of knowing that when school starts again, she’ll never see her cousin again roaming in the hall ways?
No, it isn’t just that.
It’s something else.
It’s the thought of her missing something, somebody, him, the someone she never had or could ever have; but has she secretly been wishing she could?
Too scared to really open up to anyone, there was something about him that made her feel safe, she found some kind of trust in him, which allowed the door to fall open.
Yes, the girl knew her answer; it was the fact of probably never seeing him again.

Not another one...
The groaning filled the room
But the teacher stood there,
Unnoticing,
Unaware of the dread,
Kids sneaking in notes,
Copying,
Last minute studying,
She just hands them out,
Hands out the most dreaded paper,
The test

My name is Addison Olevnik. I want to talk about what I have messed up in life. This is not just so I can rant about my problems, and none of this is made up, I am just stating my experiences in life to hopefully open your eyes, and to hopefully help you avoid mistakes.

Well lets start at the beginning of my education, elementary school. Starting at about 5th grade, I just never was able to do homework. There was a huge lack of interest, feeling school was just going to fly by. Well I was obviously wrong. Until 8th grade, it was the same, nearly failing due to lack of doing my homework. Even through all the meetings with teachers I just never started doing my homework.

Then came freshman year, grade 9. By 9th grade I was no better at doing my homework. Still had tons of meetings, detentions, and conflicts with parents. However by the end of grade 9, I ended up failing and missing half a credit. Well now I am at the end of 10th grade, and apparently that motivation of needing to make up that half credit didn't help any. I am now failing most of my classes, but now feel like I need to change that.

I sat down with several people and talked about different things. My study hall teacher Jan Noskey has been a ton of help this past month. After realizing I needed help, I talked with her about how I could get the fullest out of math courses. So she helped me with that, then afterwords we worked on improving my grades in other classes. It is probably too late to fix it, but it will be nice to actually try for once. Thanks to just her and my counselor, Robin Ellison, I finally have an understanding as to why education is important. Hopefully I will now be able to pick up the pace, and get somewhere in life.

Un Spoken
By Leah Kanoff

Ever have a time where you would imagine and reply the conversations over and over again in your head, remember the feelings that were shared, the looks that were given, every last word that was spoken, but then they never really were spoken after all, were they?
Something is planned to go one way, but with no warning out of the blue it back fires on you and away it goes in a total new direction.
And then that’s when you realize life is about give and take, learn and forgive, and that maybe every feeling you have can go any which direction it wants with no warning.
Have you figured out that being spontaneous is actually planning? And then you’re no longer spontaneous, but you have to act like you haven’t been planning.
You wonder, did you hear every word I spoke, read everything I wrote? Can they feel all the unsaid words that are never spoken, because they have no voice? And then they’re left standing wondering what and where all those unsaid words go.
Given the chance multiple times to share every word, every feeling every thought, never once do you open your mouth.
And yet we wonder why we suffer? Why our hearts become broken. Why we never get to be with the one we like. Why does it feel like we fall for people we never can be with? Why were never with the ones we love. Why everything is complicated and confusing.
We sit hopelessly, hoping that one day, he or she will really know how you feel.
But life is not like a movie, and if the words feelings and thoughts never slip past your lips, how will the person ever know?
And no matter what, we always run round and round in circles, hide behind a bush, trying to find a way to say what you want to say, but never find the courage too, we hope that the other one says it first, until it is too late and every feeling and word gets pushed further and further away from you and those words and feeling will never be spoken, or will they………

Falling
By Leah Kanoff

Fallen through the pain
Falling through the lies
Fallen through the things that were once too hard to bare

The stillness is too great
But the change to difficult to make
She bleeds salty tears

Fallen through the pain
Falling through the lies
Fallen through the things that were once too hard to bare

From the outside, she looks like any normal girl
Smiles and laughs, as she covers the untouched truth which lies deep inside her
Oh make up can play so many tricks, cover up what you don’t want others to see
Make an appearance of who you are, but aren’t
She covers many things as she cuts, cuts her way through life, love, pain, friendships, school and the lies she believes as truth

Fallen through the pain
Falling through the lies
Fallen through the things that were once too hard to bare

Perfumes cover the sense of uneasiness
Untouched she lies and says she is fine
No one would ever know the truth she bares deep down within her heart

Fallen through the pain
Falling through the lies
Fallen through the things that were once too hard to bare

The silence of nothing being spoken hides everything away
She fears to change and uncover her happy fake smile, for the tears she sheds
She reaches out trying to find the words she has buried away within her, none however she can find
Even if the words were ever found, to scared, to hurt, to confused, would she ever share the truth again?

Fallen through the pain
Falling through the lies
Fallen through the things that were once to hard to bare

No one sees the untouched truth which lies deep inside her as she hides it way with a laugh and a smile
No one sees the things she cuts through, as she covers up with make up
No one can sense the things she goes through by the perfume she wears
No one can tell the lies she says when she says she is fine

Fallen through the pain
Falling through the lies
Fallen through the things that were once too hare to bare

The afternoon sun shines bright
on the faces staring out the windows
of the dark, suppressive school
everyone just wants to be free,
to feel its rays directly
to feel its warmth upon their skin
to feel its reassurance
that it's not going anywhere,
but that summer is most certainly
almost here.

You and your friends are in tears
Leaving behind the high school years
You hope it will be fine
You look forward to having so many good times
But now your whole life is up to you
You’re a little afraid of all that you must do
But let life happen as it may
It will straighten itself out
It’s time to celebrate
You’re free for the moment
Having fun now is what it’s all about

Prom

By Sierra Hutt
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

Soft black heels
Night black tux
A blue, flowered dress
And a matching tie
A couple together
For over a year
Entering their prom
Arm in arm
Swaying to the music
Of their high school song

Beauty
By Leah Kanoff

What is beauty?
The shininess of a young girl’s hair as it glistens in the sun?
Or the single tear that falls from ones eye?
The aquamarine color in his eyes?
Or watching the poor young girl who sits on the hill and watches the sun rise?
What is beauty?
Beauty, the word that can contain a thousands meanings.

Prom Night

By Melissa Werle
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

Jitters before
Who to ask?
Will they say yes?
Flip-flops in their tummies.
Dresses, dresses!
Pink, purple, blue, yellow.
Make sure everything’s perfect!
Shoes, flowers, jewels.
Where will we go before, after?
Bright lights everywhere
Waiting for darkness
Then they can dance.
Ready to go now!
Dark limos for glamour.
Feeling so special, so important
Ready for the night.

Palms sweaty; hands shaking; target in sight
That boy, your boy, is over talking to friends
You ask for a private word then walk away
Hand in hand you go to the secret spot
Together you sit against the wall and no one speaks
Finally you break the tension in the air
I think we should take a break from this
Hopefully he’ll take that well you think
Sounds good, I was thinking the same
His response shocks you so much you turn
To look into his eyes; they show so much
Looking back into your eyes you move forward
Your lips touch before you know what’s going on
So much for the break, but then again,
Was it really what you wanted anyway?

Salvation

I was lookin’ for a change
To salvage what still remains
I was lookin’ for a change
We packed our belongings
Little and few
And we made for Alaska
What laid ahead no one knew
We drove all night
And we drove all day
As we watched the scenery change
We sat in silence with the music on
We sat in wonder could this be wrong
We watched one another but from afar
We sat together daydreaming’ in our car
And we’re headin’ for Alaska
Clear and serene
Headin’ for this heaven
Lookin’ for a new scene
But what could have happened
If we had stayed
Stuck forever in the same old place
What could have happened if we were afraid
Unable to move from place to place
But we drove all night
We drove all day
As we saw the scenery change
We hummed in silence like we weren’t there
With our minds unbound without a care
And we made for Alaska with our future in our hands
We made for this heaven to give life a chance

The wind, the snow, the ice
When climbing up this monstrous mountain
You begin to think twice
The environment was barren, no animals, and no trees
Just snow, everywhere
But the temperature read sixty five degrees
The sun was shinning brightly, lighting up the sky
No clouds, no trees, just rocks and snow
From the top the mountain side seamed to glow
The beautiful sight I saw
The mountains ranges, the amount of snow, and the valley down below
From this incredible height
My heart began to ignite
Skis strapped to our backs
We unhooked them in a flash
The snow we began to attack
Skiing down the steepest slope
At that moment I could only hope
That we would be able to make down in one piece
As the atmosphere decreased
I felt safe, I felt at peace