I fell in love once. On a sunny day in late August, running through unfamiliar hallways to an unfamiliar home. I fell in love as the summer faded, as the leaves changed, and as the snow fell. I fell...

For senior Lindsey Fortino, one of the defining aspects of her time in high school was dance. Participating in both the FHC Varsity Dance Team (FHCVDT) and dancing at her studio, Lindsey has been immersed...

I decided long ago that I’m not the kind of person who has a house for a home. My real home is far more fluid than a couple of walls could ever contain.  My home is wherever I am with my favorite...

As I look toward the future—not just the future, but my future—I try to walk forward. One foot in front of the other, just like I take life one day at a time. But I am yanked backward. I...

Senior Claire Bergsma has been playing soccer her whole life, yet this year, she has embarked on a new adventure: playing for FHC’s own Varsity Girls Soccer team. Though this is Claire’s first year...

I saw a shooting star last night. It fell across the backdrop of a pitch-black sky, speckled with stars and a bright crescent moon, outside McDonald’s after practice. My stomach hurt from laughing,...

Nothing hurts quite like repetition. The light drum of my schedule, my route, and the places I frequent. This is the way to the coffee shop that I have written countless columns—just like this...

As a follower of women’s figure skating for years—and as a figure skater myself—I will never forget the day in 2019, in Detroit, when 11-year-old me got to watch 13-year-old Alysa Liu land two triple...

Everything is cliché, everything has been done and said already, and everything has a predecessor. I am watching idly as the seasons pass before me, lacking the control and lacking the ability to care....

At the dawn of this new year, the first virality of 2026 began to take form. 365 buttons. Essentially, a girl on TikTok said she was buying 365 buttons for the new year to be more conscious of time...

Maybe this is the real finale. Right here, right now. Though the waiting is killing me, I do realize that these are the last few moments before I’ll know what my future holds.  No decisions...

I am a mod-podge of lyrics, so every time I sit down to write, I have a hard time not repeating the words flowing through my head right back to you. Currently, “Your Top 100 Songs 2025” is playing. I...

I used to hate carbonation. Why would one want to sip on something that kind of hurts, makes my eyes squint involuntarily, and doesn't even taste that good? When soda was the only option somewhere,...

It’s been said before, and I completely agree: I feel naked without a necklace on. I’m consistently reaching for my neck, looking for a small charm to grasp and twist and fiddle with. And I have...

And soon they'll have the nerve to deck the halls that we once walked through. This is one of those lyrics that I’ve always been drawn to. The nostalgia, the emphases on “nerve” and “we,”...

I spend too much time on my phone, just like most everyone else. I, however, have never really tried to limit my screen time, and it hasn't been a huge problem, but lately I think it's become excessive. Still,...

Of the many TCT traditions I subject people to each year, The Countless Thanks has to be my favorite. No matter how bad my writer’s block, how cynical I’ve been so far that year, I always find that...

I will be something, somehow, someday. My comfort daydream when this doesn't feel true: I'm perpetually on a train, and it’s holiday break. Christmas or Thanksgiving (preferably Christmas). My train...

Each October, people joke about their “October canon event.” A life-changing disaster that takes place each October, like clockwork, that is different each time yet consistently disconcerting. Nowhere...

Each October, I cross my fingers. Nothing bad will happen, nobody will die, nothing bad will happen. There's a pattern in the leaves, etched into the quickly setting sun each night, a rhythm that...

Perfect takeoff songs are important in order to have an enjoyable flight.

The jump from middle school to high school is a rigorous leap for students. Harder classes, a larger school, and a lot of pressure to make these four years count. Starting last year, however, the...

If I could only listen to one artist for the rest of my life, I would pick Lorde. This is a bold statement, considering she only has four albums so far. But I don't care as much about quantity. Her...

Friday night lights are a highlight of the week for high school students each fall, whether they’re on the field, in the stands, or by the end line, providing the soundtrack for the night as a member...

Only a few more moments. It took me a while to figure out exactly how the weeks seem to drag on and fly by, how the months turn to years before my eyes. What it took me four years to figure out,...

“Dearest reader, I’ll let you know when I’m ready. Or maybe you’ll see it in the clouds first.” I keep looking up. My neck is killing me. My head hurts. The sun is in my eyes. I am tired...

It’s hard to imagine bouncing back, as I stare at the gray sky and my freshly emptied matcha. I used to think I wouldn’t. I used to let the lows become the highs because there wasn’t an upside;...

Whether because of a bulletin board, her brother, or a journalism conference, senior Alex Smith discovered several of the incredible extracurriculars that defined her high school career. In her four...

Everything, Everywhere, All At Once: The multiverse scene, when Michelle Yeoh is experiencing all the universes at once, film frames moving faster than one can process. That's what spring feels like. I'm...

While striving for excellence is certainly important, mindsets like "5 or nothing" make students forget that a score of 3 or 4 is still mastery.

Before I had writing, my passion, my one thing, was figure skating. And it still is my thing, I just have two passions now. Last weekend, I skated in my second-to-last spring ice show. Suffice it...

The only way I can describe my current state, ironically, not even in my own words, is the phrase “writer’s block.” I guess it’s nice that I’m enough of a writer to be blocked, but I just...

I like things like sunburns. Watered-down drinks and fluttering eyelids, both victims of long conversation. Dried flowers and wrinkles, couch indents and candles burnt almost to the end. I like...

I know that I’ve changed, but it never really hits me until extremely particular moments. Just another part of spring, I guess. I used to love looking at my camera roll, but now it feels weird. I...

The weather is beautiful. Spring is in the air. And I need a drink to sip while appreciating the warmer days. Summer has fruity lemonades, fall has pumpkin spice, and winter has a variety of festive...

Lately, my feelings have been dense. They fluctuate between heavy and light and easy and difficult, but they remain dense.  Every thought packs a punch that I have to take, that I have to feel hit...

I don't know what I’ll do when I grow up. I don't know what I’ll write, I don't know what I’ll think, I don't know how I’ll remember to eat or how I’ll wake up every morning and leave my bed...

I love Valentine’s Day. Pink, hearts, and flowers are some of my favorite things, regardless of the official romantic meaning of the holiday. This year, I loved it a little extra—thanks to Sabrina...

“You seem like you would have a February birthday,” she says, unknowing that I turn 17 in three days—by the time you are reading this, I will be. She makes me a scrapbook page adorned with light...

Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing...

Every time I watch the snow flurry in front of my car’s headlights, I get a little closer to being who I want to be. Someone who is hopelessly, completely, utterly happy with her life.  I’ve...

During the winter, in a time scarce of motivation, energy, and will, I tend to gravitate toward R&B, rap, and hip hop more than usual. With lyrics that I don't have time to learn, fast-paced beats,...

If you were to count up the hours of my life and the activities I have occupied them with, I believe a shockingly large portion would be dedicated to sitcom watching and rewatching. However, this is...

When artists die and go wherever wandering souls end up, my theory is that they are tasked with painting the sky each day.  I say “tasked,” but to them, it isn’t work.  Some of my favorite...

Each year, I walk between rows upon rows of pine trees, toeing the line between nostalgia and living in the shell of my former self. It’s a tradition, driving myself to the brink of insanity. This...

To Alex and Rowan: “You got so much to do and only so many hours / In a day, hey” - Vienna, Billy Joel Going into this year, I had no clue what to expect. A new teacher, no more Editors’...

I think falling back in love may be better than falling first. Maybe that thought is too nostalgia-driven, but it's my truth. To love fully is to attach strings to everything. There is a corkboard...

Outside of this window sits two trees, one blocked only by the glass and the other overlooking the traffic. Watching the traffic lull, watching the lights turn, watching people and people watching. I...

It’s a simple fact that certain songs “hit harder” than others. Not every song can be screamed in a car. This element transcends genres and moods. It’s not an exact science, but I believe it boils...

I know I am too young, and I know I have time, but it seems like every day ends and begins with a flash of green.  I am only sixteen, but every passing moment I am without the feeling of forever, I...

So much joy around, but my soul is waiting for more.

Sept. 4 It was picturesque. 8 p.m., coasting down Cascade Road, the sky above me variegated with warm hues, music blasting, and my window open. It was perfect. Pinterest-y, if you will. I don't...

I think I am in love with September. I think I’ve escaped the inescapable, attained the unattainable, and broken the unbreakable. I think my love is, for once, requited. And even reciprocated,...

From the palm trees and the ocean seas of Florida to the hustle and bustle of downtown Ada comes a contemporary coffee chain with a delightful atmosphere and a delicious menu: Foxtail Coffee Co. Foxtail...

I'm going to be candid. Once I comprehended what I was getting into by taking Writing for Publication, I was immediately sure that I had found my place. I began to understand why the school surveys...

From several percussion instruments to the saxophone to the trumpet to the trombone to the clarinet to the flute to the french horn to guitar to piano, junior Cameron Penner can play a lot of instruments. Obviously,...

Opinions expressed in editorials on The Central Trend are the view of the individual writer and are not the opinion of the entire staff of The Central Trend or the Forest Hills Central staff or administration. According...

“I cry a lot but I am so productive, it’s an art.” This is a lyric from the song, “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” by Taylor Swift that rings true amongst many, present company excluded—I...

This year, Junior Audrey VanSkiver, inspired by her sister’s fond memories, decided to go from sitting in the FHC Auditorium seats year after year to performing up on stage herself, and she has no regrets. “My...

It’s a late summer evening, but Stranger in the Alps by Phoebe Bridgers is playing from my record player like it’s mid-autumn. Music doesn’t have an official season, but the ghost on the album...

Around this time last year, Sabrina Carpenter began opening for Taylor Swift on the South American leg of the Eras Tour.  With Swift’s global reach leaving all eyes on Carpenter, she gained popularity...

As I sit in my bed, surrounded by a cloudy haze of vivacity, opalescent clouds swirling at the foot of my bed, slowly ascending onto my comforter, I’m reminded of the times that led me to where I am. I’m...

“I know it’ll be June before I know it, and I’ll grow without even realizing it. And my garden will grow with me. My flowers and I—eternally in bloom.” As the summer approaches, I find myself...

Various times throughout the process of interviewing basketball coach and English and Writing for Publication teacher, the one-and-only Ken George, he was passed by a colleague or a student, and each time,...

I think I would love you anywhere, anytime. I think I would love you if I were the moon and you were the sun, never meeting but tied over by fanfare and fairytales. I think I would love you if I...

There’s no place like home; there’s no place like home; there’s no place like home. You click your red—specifically ruby, for storytelling’s sake—Converse together, and the dreamscape of...

In each unplowed, untamed, unbridled field I run through, I find a flower. I glance around with internalized guilt coursing through my ivy-covered veins, and I pick it.  I steal it, and my frolicking...