By Claire Denne,
Graduating Newsletter Editor
One thing I’ve loved since childhood is taking pictures, most likely inspired by my mom’s time as a photographer. The feeling of nostalgia and love I get when gazing at old pictures is incomparable to any other feeling, and I wanted to hold onto as much of my senior year as possible.
An addition to my life that has filled me with so much more love and purpose has been Rampage, an experience that I believe I will always look back on. Because of Rampage, I’ve learned more about myself, the purpose I have in life and met some of my best friends. I feel like I’ve grown in working with new people and taking on different responsibilities. But outside of the work aspect, Rampage has brought me so much closer with people I would not know otherwise, and has allowed me to create memories I can reflect on for the rest of my life.
Rampage Halloween:
As my favorite holiday, Halloween allows me to combine my creative expression with my favorite movies, characters and pop culture icons through costumes. Since I was a child, I’ve always loved seeing others’ costumes and the freeing feeling that comes with Halloween and the ability to dress up as whoever you want without feeling uncomfortable. In Rampage, Halloween is the time to choose a group costume and put your own spirit into it. This year, with the Pixar theme, I choose to be Mr. Potato Head while my friend was Mrs. Potato Head.
AP Science Experiments Trip:
One time that helped me grow closer to my friends in Rampage was the time we joined the AP Physics and Chemistry classes on their field trip to Emperor Elementary to take pictures of their experiments. Because I was writing an article on these projects, I was able to view them firsthand when they presented their experiments to the elementary school students, and two of my best friends in Rampage went with me. Although it was a very last minute decision to go, this field trip ended up being one of my favorite memories from working in Rampage, and that article is still one of my favorites because of it.
Changing the School Calendar:
Working in Rampage has also helped me understand the power that I have to create change with my written work. I felt this the most powerfully this year after I wrote “Extend winter break by one week,” because I was then able to work with three other students to present to the teachers at other schools in the district to explain why our school district needed to change the calendar to allow finals to be before winter break. I’ve always been drawn to activism in mental health, especially because I aspire to be a psychologist, and creating this change in my community to let students have a complete mental break in between semesters has only strengthened my purpose in this.