An ode to my best friend;

You are my sunrise, that brilliant orange softness rising up above my darkness. I forget sometimes how much of me you really can see. You’ve been there for me in the times when my skies turned a dark maroon colour, with dark grey and black clouds hovering there above me. You are the warmth of a spring breeze through an open upstairs window, wrapping me in such effortless comfort I forget that it may rain later on. You are a melodious tune coming from somewhere down a crowded street, in the middle of December. You are the ones who holds all my secrets like your own, the one who shares my fears and joys. But most of all, you are the one who loves me when I am most definitely unloveable, you are the one I am truly safe with, I can hide myself within you but also free myself around you. I love you so.

you know what i wish someone would have told me? that being an artist, is a nightmare. I’m an artist, specifically a poet. And I’ve had conversations, and relationships with all manner of artists; performers, actors, sculptors, designers, writers, painters, musicians, singers, photographers, dancers, and other poets. we’re all artists of varying degrees, and yet, all our lives are somehow all riddled with nightmarish qualities. We all have stories to tell that live inside our chests, stories we’re dying to rip out of our souls. the mediums we choose to execute this, are different; but the results are always the same. we create art from our sufferings. I’ve always been a firm believer in equality of any and all kinds. for any cause or reason, and suffering is one thing we all do. All of the time.

Know this, if everything that you are is too much, or all you have to give is not enough. It is not your shortcoming, but theirs.

If they cannot love the wholeness of you, do not give them pieces. Yes everything happens for a reason, but if you make yourself empty just to keep someone full, who are you really helping?

Be gentle with your broken heart, dear one. For it knows not that one day it shall be whole again. Take this time to process the hurt, let it consume your entire being. For living for someone else will suck the life out of you without your knowledge. One day when you have no more left to give to their greed, they will get up and leave your empty soul there where you placed it.

Do not cry, do not turn harsh.

Just breathe and go into the night with your head held high. For you know that loving someone so much who does not love you, was still the best thing you could have hoped for. Even though right now it hurts, relish in the fact that you sweet one, were so in love, you halved yourself just to make them feel full.

One should never have to cut themselves into slices to be loved. If you ever find yourself holding a knife towards your own heart, stop and remember that love grows us. It should never diminish us.

Wish them well, even though they may not wish it back. For you my darling, are a compassionate lover who mourns the loss of a partner but can smile knowing you gave them more than they ever deserved.

And if one day you find yourself in their eyes again, remember that you are too much of a universe to fit in the palms of one that cannot see their own stars shining.

We’re In It Together for the long haul!

By: Emily George

Picture yourself, a young impressionable teenager far away from your home and family; plopped down in the middle of a foreign country, specifically in a small Ohio town, with no idea what your next few months will look like. Could you do it? I know I couldn’t.

These 7 young adults did just that and flourished.

Mikolaj, Nini, Kazuki, Sara, Mehmet, Gloriya and Edward, are all students at Worthington City Schools.

 The majority of the team is made up of first year DIers, with Mik being the only DI veteran. Mik hails from Poland and had competed in DI in his home country two years prior to this year. His hometown team made it to Global Finals twice before, and when Mik was celebrating his current teams advance to Globals, he got word the team he left behind in Poland will also advance. Mehmet, who hails from Turkey, is a theatre enthusiast, participating in this year’s theatrical productions uses his experience from the stage to bring the team’s skit to life. Kazuki, originally from Japan, is on the Lacrosse team and loves to use his team spirit to incorporate his teammates varied ideas into one cohesive storyline. Nini, from Georgia, is an artist, and used her talent to help paint the team’s moving wheel as part of their set and team choice element. Edward, from the US, uses his infectious enthusiasm to add personality to the script they have written. Sara, who comes from Palestine, uses her ingenuity to help her team create one of a kind props and costumes using Duct Tape for their Team Choice Element, as well as helped write the script. Gloriya, who hails from Ukraine, used her artistic talent as a musician to write and compose an original music piece that was used in their performance. Together these 7 young adults have worked together as a “Mini UN” as their Team Manager Robin affectionately calls them, to use their unique abilities, different ideas, and individual strengths to compete in this wonderful competition.

Worthington City sent 27 teams to Destination Imagination at the Regional level, one of several that made it to the State level and The Scheme Benders was the only team to advance to the Global level. These kids have worked hard for months, first twice, then three nights a week after school, in between sports and extracurricular activities; eventually meeting every night to brainstorm their ideas, design costumes and props, discuss storylines and build their set from the ground up, and put it all together into their amazing 8 minute skit.

Destination Imagination is a wonderful program that gives children and adults ages 4 – 25, the opportunity to learn new skills; like how to build a set of four just under one foot high wooden structures that could withstand 300 lbs, or how to manufacture a spinning wheel affixed to a standing background. It teaches them to work together and be diplomatic, to use little bits of everyone’s ideas in the script, help each other design and sew costumes. It gives them the opportunity to learn about new places or to learn a word or a phrase from a different language. It brings people from all around the globe together and gives these kids a community of friends and companions the world over. DI teaches us that while we are all our own individuals, we’re all in it together.

Hey pups…soooooo wow I’ve been AWOL a LOT this year. I’m so sorry about that…things have been…nuts. I turned 25, spent 10 days in England and got a new job. I’ve been in a bad head space lately however, which sucks. I’ve been ill..I’ve got seasonal depression and I’m stressed to the max.

This year was good to me and bad to me all at once.

When things so haywire, I self medicate and unfortunately I binge eat late at night, and during the day I micromanage my caloric intake to an unhealthy extent. So because things have been really bad lately things spiraled out of control and I started taking my excedrin again and considered picking up some slimquick today…but thought better of it. I worked hard to get here and I can’t skate backwards like that.

Things just have been so strange recently and it’s made it extremely difficult to keep up with writing anything…and for that dear pups I’m sorry.

What’s up everybody? (read: no one) long time no see! i feel so bad that i’ve been lacking on keeping this blog updated since i literally pay to keep this url. i could lie and say that i’ve been busy and have no time to update this…but as we all know…that’s a total crock of shit. i’ve been being very lazy as of late so, i’ve literally done nothing but sleeeeeeeppppppppp. which i guess is a blessing in disguise. i got my teeth cleaned a few weeks ago, and have to get a hearing test next week. but this weekend, well…yesterday, i was an appraiser at the state competition for destination imagination(DI) for the first time ever. it was so much fun i may even sign up for globals next month! and now i’m sitting at starbucks car shopping online!

well that’s enough for now i think l8r sk8rs!