Friday, December 12, 2003

Carpe Diem!
By Grace De Jong

Carpe Diem! Seize the day! Live life to the fullest! Be passionate! LIVE!
Have you ever met the person who grasps each day as a gift from God? The person who wakes up every morning, happy to be alive, and eager to fully submit himself to the work and place the Lord has given him? The person that lives?
In our American literature class, we juniors have been studying the transcendental writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Emerson taught spontaneity and individualism. He also emphasized non-conformity and living passionately. Thoreau took Emerson’s ideas and put them into practice. Thoreau abandoned society for two years to live by a pond in the middle of the woods, just so he could flee the conformity of society life. In Walden, Thoreau states that he desires to “live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”
Although these were wicked men with sinful motives and sinful goals, we can still apply their attitude of living life to the fullest to our walk in life. We must live our lives fully to the glory of God. Everything we say, do, or think must be to His honor. No matter what we do, we must carry it out passionately so that we are different from those of the world, who live their lives for themselves and live it in vanity and regret. I Corinthians 15:58 shows us how we must live, “Therefore, my beloved brother, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
Being non-conformists and “seizing the day” wasn’t easy for Emerson and Thoreau in their wrong views, just like it isn’t always easy for us to have our Reformed biblical beliefs and live passionately through them without being criticized by others. Even though others may jeer and mock us for living our life to the glory of our Savior and taking each day as a gift from Him and for Him, we can never allow our beliefs to waver. Our hope and comfort in each day, the hope that makes us different from the world, is that we have a Friend and a Savior who provides and cares for us! That is the only reason for our existence; so…carpe diem! Seize the day! Live life to the fullest! Be passionate! LIVE FOR GOD!

Knocking Down Pins!
By Melissa De Jong

As I take a step towards the dotted line and concentrate on aiming for the third arrow on the right side of the pins, I move several more steps and release the ball. I hope that it’s a strike!
In P.E. III, the junior and senior girls have bowled for the past two weeks at South Holland Bowl. Mr. Medema taught us some tips for “beginner bowlers,” including choosing a ball that feels comfortable and has the proper finger positioning.
Should one aim the ball at the pins or the arrows? Aiming the ball at the pins is not the mark of a good bowler! When choosing a target, one should aim at the arrows on the lane, and not the pins. The closer the target, the more accurate the throw.
When approaching the pins, one should keep his head up and shoulders straight forward, walking in a straight line and not drifting off to the left (if he is right handed) or the right (if he is left handed). If the bowler is right-handed then he should stay on the right side of the dots and if the bowler is left-handed then he should bowl from the left side. Bowlers bowl like this because of physics; to take advantage of physics bowlers should use the correct angle and increase their chances for strikes. Right-handed bowlers who don’t know these tips bowl on the left side of the dots. The throwing arm should be straight and relaxed so that while swinging the bowler stays balanced. Swaying will cause the ball to go to the gutter.
Each of us must keep our own scores as we bowl. When recording scores, we use symbols. These symbols are: “X”, “/”, and “-.” “X” means that all the pins were knocked down and it is called a strike. “/” is known as a spare, which is used when a couple pins are knocked down the first time and the second time all the pins are knocked down. “-” means a gutter or miss.
We can have fun while bowling, even when there are all these rules to follow! If we go with a good attitude and try to have a good time, I can guarantee that we will have fun!

Required Reading
By Gina Verburg

The U.S. history class, composed of the juniors and seniors, is going back to a requirement of grade school. We’re not passing out milk to the rest of the classes or setting up chairs for chapels. The juniors and seniors are now required to read a book for U.S. history class.
So far in history we’ve covered everything from the discovery of America to the events prior to the Civil War. We’ve read articles on subjects such as slavery and Patrick’s Henry’s famous speech, “Give me liberty or give me death!” We’ve taken sides as to whether or not both the Revolutionary War and the California Gold Rush could be justified by Scripture. Our latest assignment is to find a book that expounds on what we have learned so far and to write a report on it.
Mr. Van Uffelen is giving us until December 17 to finish our book, gather the main ideas, and present all our information in a well planned report to the class. Somewhere in our report we must prove that our book deals with something we studied in class. Given the amount of time that we have to finish all of this, I would predict that our reports will all be very good and that we will all learn something new, not only from the books that we are required to read, but also from the reports of our classmates.

Exam Schedule

Exams are scheduled for January 14-16 this year. The schedule is as follows:

* Note the time changes for the January 9 games.