Prom here at Highland is in about 8 weeks, on Friday, May 6th, at the Landmark Center downtown St. Paul. This year the theme of our prom is “Great Gatsby.”

When’s the right time to look for your dress? Your tux? Find your date?

In my opinion, if you know you are going for sure then it’s definitely not too early to be planning for prom. If you aren’t sure if you’re going this year, then you still have a lot of time to make your plans, just make sure you have enough time; planning last minute is never a great idea and will most likely cause you to be stressed out because of so much you have to do in such a little amount of time.

Girls, the sooner you get your dress, the more options you have when choosing your dress. It’s not too early to find your date either. It’s good if you know who you’re going with, so girls when you’re shopping for your dress who can try to accommodate the colors with your date’s preference as well.

Making hair appointments now would also be a great idea because around the time of prom your salon will most likely be getting packed with hair appointments.

If you’re wanting to get in better shape, or possibly tan for prom, it’s never too early to hit up the gym or tanning salon to get the best results for prom. Now that does mean you might change sizes, so if your plan is to lose/gain weight for prom maybe you’d prefer to wait it out a little longer to get sized for your dress.

Boys, you don’t have nearly as much to do as us girls. Getting a tux isn’t as hard as picking out a dress. Usually, teen boys who only wear a tux occasionally will rent their tux for prom.

Maybe, you would like to get in better shape for prom, it’s never too early to go to the gym. Of course then you could still pick out your style and colors of your tux, but sizing, you might grow or change sizes so maybe you would want to wait it out to get sized for your tux.

It’s not too early to ask a girl to go to prom with you. Girls that are already wanting to plan for prom now are probably worried about not having a date. You should try and plan out who you are wanting to go with, considering the boys usually ask girls.

I asked 5 boys and 5 girls if they think it’s too early to start planning for prom, and if so why is it too early in their opinion.

4 out of 5 of the boys said it’s too early. The one boy who said it’s not too early is the only one out of the 5 who has a set date already. The other 4 said it’s too early simply because prom is too far away and they don’t need to worry about it yet. They have more than enough time to get everything together that they need.

3 out of 5 girls said it is too early to plan for prom, but 2 out of those 3 said if they knew they were going for sure they would be planning this early, but they don’t have dates yet and don’t want to go as a single to prom this year. The other one said it’s too early because there’s plenty of time. They don’t think they need to start planning until a month or even a few weeks ahead of time, and “What if I get fatter or skinnier?” she said.

There are many pro’s and con’s on planning ahead for prom. You will have more than enough time to make sure your plans are set and ready, and you will have many more options if you plan now. Plus, if you get your prom tickets early, usually they go on sale the middle of April, your ticket will be cheaper.

If you plan now though, things might not go as planned as well, you might change sizes and have to get your dress hemmed or change sizes last minute, and your choice of style might change. Also, your date might not follow through and you might have to find a last minute date.

The idea of selling Jamba Juice once a week during lunch time has been around for a few years now. The idea originally came from Dr. Tucker, which he had done before at Southwest High School. Dr. Tucker then mentioned the idea to James Farnsworth at a meeting.

What will happen is, they will ask the Jamba Juice store on Grand Ave. to bring and sell pre-made smoothies once a week during our lunch time. Then the new Scots Cafe will take 20% of the proceeds to use for operating the cafe.

Right now, they are still working on a time to meet with Jamba Juice to set up the plan. This is all the information I have on the Jamba Juice, but keep checking back for updates. Hopefully the idea will go through sometime this year.

What is pep fest ?

Pet fest is an event in high school were all the grades (9,10,11,12) come along to celebrate the activities and sports students have participated in during the fall, winter, or spring season depending the time of year. What happens at this event is that the captains of the sports, or clubs, come up front and speak about each of their groups and encourage kids to join them later on.

After that, what usually happens is that the sports that just finished their season goes and presents some type of dance or routine.

What pep fest is really about is that kids get to have fun and look and what’s been happening in school, and it encourages them to try out for those sports or clubs.

In order to find out about how people feel about the pep fest, I decide to go and interview some people at Highland Park Senior High.
This is what one of the freshman cheerleaders, Sophia Vasquez, said when I asked how did she think pep fest went? She responded “good.”

After that, I asked how did she feel about being a part of pep fest? She said, “I didn’t really think about it until that day. I got really nervous and then after a while into the dance it felt natural.”

The next question I asked was what did you think stood out the most in all of the performances? She responded, “The cheer performance of course especially when Vanessa got thrown in the air that was really cool.”

My last question was what did you think pep fest is really about? She answered, “It’s about making more people exited about this activities,” and as she said to “pep them up.”

The second person I interviewed was Sophie Cocchiarella.

The first question I asked was what did you think of pep fest? She responded, “It was fun and really good.”

After that I asked her how did it feel to be a part of such a big event like the pep fest? She responded saying, “She felt very nervous about it because there were so many people around watching but exited at the same time.”

Next I asked what did she think stood out the most from all the performances?

She said, “I felt like it was the gymnastics team and skiing team because they don’t usually do those things they did in the pep fest.”

Then there’s me. What I thought of pep fest was that it was one of the most amazing memories that I’ll have from this year.

Who did I think stood out the most you ask? I honestly think it was the gymnastics girls because they don’t usually go and perform in front of the entire school, only on this occasion.

Last, what did I think pep fest is really about? It’s about people getting together to watch their friends who are in sports and support them. Also, to make friends, enjoy the show, and make them want to join those teams, clubs, etc.

All students that take Spanish, and who are in the Spanish Immersion program, went on a field trip to the Minnesota Zoo.

Why the zoo? The zoo hosts a Spanish language day where students from Highland Park Senior High and Great River School attend.

There were presentation boards set up around the zoo, and there were presentations as groups of students came around. The presentations were in Spanish and were presented on animals that they have at the zoo. The groups presenting where normally groups of two to three.

There was a specific set-up where you were meant to follow a path so you could see all the displays. You would need to follow a brochure that they gave you at the start of the trip. The students went in a circle and ultimately ended back up at the aquarium.

The whole field trip took 5 hours, and all students were back at school by 7th period. Overall, it was a fun day of learning, as students were able to walk around and explore outside of a typical classroom.