For the past three and a half weeks, I’ve been fighting a sense of self-focused frustration, despite the overall contentment that the golden arrival of summer has brought me. I’ve been guiltily fending...

Hi. My name is Natalie. If you read The Central Trend with any regularity, you’ve probably read an article or two of mine. For the last three years, I’ve been publishing an average of three articles...

The auditorium milled with thirty-some students, the high-ceilinged space warm with conversation and nerves. Matching “FHC Inspires” t-shirts caught my eye at every turn, each one styled differently...

She walks a fragile line, on these desperate late nights, when the words are elusive and uncooperative. She’s mastered the balance between prose and feeling, yet at times, she’s still entirely at a...

Senior Lynlee Derrick drives like she lives: without hesitation.  In all the ways that it manifests itself, whether it be impromptu ice cream trips with her best friend or hours spent hot-gluing Diet...

After a year of relegation to the digital world, FHC Inspires is back in person, redefining the entire show. This year's FHC Inspires team, headed up by student directors Lydia Bolger and Sarah Bethel,...

The past few months have found my sticker-adorned laptop consistently overloaded with tabs partitioned by windows correlating to each of my six subjects.  This system has become a necessity, the only...

Once, she was seven, and she doesn’t remember much about being seven—mostly the feelings. She remembers how all-consuming those feelings were, the enormous anxiety too great to fit into her small body,...

Senior Abby Wright’s final year of high school found her spending more time than ever in the small town of La Porte, Indiana. While she’d often resided there during her summers, only this year was...

it has to be like this impromptu beautiful in simplicity heart racing, fingers dancing   and in a way she's been avoiding   but how else, to capture the epitome of youth   how...

She’s consumed by conflicting consternation on these late Friday nights, the time for adventures, for laughter in bubbles and bursts, for the epitome of teenage folklore. She feels the shadowy black...

Name: Gavin O'Meara Grade: 11 Role: Troy Bolton What’s your pre-show warm-up routine? "I usually go through both a vocal and physical warm-up. My vocal warm-up consists of a lot of scales...

Name: Thomas Smith Grade: 11 Position: Head of Tech What’s your favorite time-killer activity during scenes? "I run and manage most of the technologically related parts of most shows that...

Name: Josie Butler Grade: 9 Role: Mrs. Darbus What’s your pre-show warm-up routine? "I don't really have one, but I guess I'd say making sure to drink water and going over lines if I need...

Name: Nick Stockenauer Grade: 12 Role: Coach Bolton What’s your pre-show warm-up routine? "I don't have one." Why did you decide to try out for the musical? "Mrs. DeMeester suggested...

Name: Abbey Calderwood Grade: 11 Position: Student Director How do you get in your zone before shows? "I make sure everything's running smoothly and everyone's ready to go." What’s your...

Name: Sophie Young Grade: 12 Position: Head of Hair, Makeup, and Costume How do you get in your zone before shows? "I don't really think I'm ever out of the zone during shows. If I'm working...

Check out these Q&As with a few of the main cast members and the three crew heads of FHC's production of High School Musical Jr! Go to fhfineartscenter.com to purchase an in-person ticket or live stream...

Poetry is the language of unfathomable pain, of broken people. Poetry is the language of exquisite moments out of time, of mundane beauty rendered in words. Poetry is the language of this moment, with...

Alumna Meredith VanSkiver vividly recalls sitting in the audience of the Candlelight Ceremony her freshman year, enraptured by the sea of glowing candles, longing to someday be recognized in her senior...

Every time I sit in front of this blank page, with too many fragments of ideas competing to become whole, the fear creeps back in—that I will run out of things to say, run out of ways to say the same...

Name: Vicki Felton Years at the school: 18 Field: Special Education What are some of the most exciting experiences you’ve ever had? "Some of my most exciting experiences have been when I'm...

Name: Amy Stone Years at the school: 23 Field: STEM What would you consider to be your greatest achievements?  "Graduating third in my class at Rockford High School [and] winning the Distinguished...

Name: Tracy Will Years at the school: 22 Field: Math What would you consider to be your greatest achievements? "I am proud of the family I've built. I have a great husband and two children,...

Name: Ms. Zilhaver Years at the school: 4 Field: The arts What would you consider to be your greatest achievements? "My ‘greatest achievements’ feel kind of ordinary to me. I am proud of the work...

The moon indifferently illuminates the shoreline where my feet rest in the sand, the cold pressure of the grains leaving a pattern on my skin.  The sun’s jurisdiction ends here; the moon watches...

The Central Trend is celebrating Women's History Month! Read our Q&As with female teachers from every department in the school as they discuss their experiences as women.

Name: Anne Keller Years at the school: 1 Field: English What would you consider to be your greatest achievements? "Up there on my greatest achievements [is] getting my PhD—that was pretty...

Name: Laura Stiles Years at the school: 26 Field: Social Studies What would you consider to be your greatest achievements? "I think that the assembly we pulled off—the Winterfest assembly?...

Name: Whitley Morse Years at the school: 3 Field: Administration What would you consider to be your greatest achievements? "Giving birth to my daughter this past November. I didn't give in to having...

Name: Señora Dykhouse Years at the school: 35 Field: World Languages What would you consider to be your greatest achievements? "As far as my career goes, I am very excited about the fact that every...

The future is ubiquitous in the corridors of my mind. I’ve tried fruitlessly to capture her and put her on the page, but I’ve only managed fragments, tangential points in yet another self portrait.  But...

A mile and a half on roller skates, my palms and knuckles battered, and I’m sore for days after from hitting the ground too many times. But there were people at the park, and encouragement fell from...

Principal Steve Passinault has been committed to ensuring that education could prevail through even the darkest moments this year, but to prioritize the most possible consistency for the school year, he,...

Sophomore Maya Rogne once spent a few nights on the grounds of a former Hitler Youth training camp that had been converted into a summer camp.  The strange and solemnly historical experience composed...

The jar balances on a shelf below the window, shrouded by the sunlight on the best days, a constant in the ever-changing room. It’s painted in landscapes, in the scenery from dreams, in delicate curves...

I’m unraveling knots, flipping through pages, dipping my brush into every bucket of paint. I’m scared to tell this story wrong, scared to distract from the point, scared to make something from nothing...

With no volition to call my own, no strength to change the tape, I am watching something else take control over my life, something I refuse to call me. I like to think that some higher power—Fate, Destiny,...

She's always romanticized what's at her fingertips, captured beauty in sentence fragments.   Like stained glass windows in high and hidden places— her church is everywhere.   Or...

Last March, with another one of Michigan’s lagging winters reaching an inevitable end, the Forest Hills Public Schools district had only clocked in one snow day. It was a stark contrast to the “snow...

I can feel myself slipping again, could feel it potently in the overwhelming desire to slip back under it all. My fingertips are rubbed raw from scrabbling at the rocky precipice till they bleed.   No...

She was just a seed, a thought,  a small yellow bloom in a rippling sea of flowers,  and she can’t swim,  so the sea scares her.    But in that sea of flowers,  she was brought...

I’ve found an unconventional sort of home among the aisles of D&W Fresh Market—especially the version of them with makeshift tape arrows that I shamefully ignore—because my need for the comfort...

I’m not sure if I like lines.    I guess you could say I like some of them, particularly some of the clearest ones.    The bold, definite ones that delineate the blended colors...

Name: Mr. Brad Anderson Classes: AP World History How many of your classes did you show the inauguration today, and for how long? “I started it when the dignitaries started to enter the US Capital...

Name: Mr. Jeff Manders Classes: Civics, Government, Media Communications How many of your classes did you show the inauguration in, and what parts of the inauguration did you show? “It was...

Inauguration Day was a momentous occasion in the capitol—an event with significant precedent that was produced under a warped lens this year, remaining on par with the absurdity and unexpectedness that...

The silence I've come to know isn't really silence. It's merely all the noises that I've never stopped to listen to.   In the absence of every other macabre noise, I can hear...

She grew up on stories, was raised by them, if you will.   Between the pages of worn copies, her memories exist to be drawn up again by faintly familiar words. Between the pages,...

In the search for inexplicable satisfaction—the quest for perfection and just the right moment, the hurricane of “never enough, always more” that spirals around me incurably—I am left with just...

It was November 27 this year—my probable favorite day of the year, the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday but more importantly “Christmas Tree Day.”  When I was younger and the world was still...

Jessie – for letting me stay longer than I should’ve I’ve already thanked you for months of quarantine that would have unmanageably lonely and mundane without you—for the all-nighters, hours...

In his timorous grasp, they quiver. Four teacups, delicate, intricate, finding solace on the table’s steady surface.  “Would you like anything else, ma’am?” He's...

Name: Ben Lowen Grade: 12 Role(s): Snow White, Cinderella, Dwarf, Demon 1. What are the advantages and disadvantages to having a smaller cast compared to other years? "I think that having...

A knife’s alluring glint, over folds of iridescent fabric, whispers her name enticingly.   But the children, little feet on cobblestoned paths. Her love, endearing acerbity...

In the below-fifty-degrees-Fahrenheit chill and at only 7:15 am, the people have already congregated. The lines meander out the doors of each polling location, lines that at some point today will include...

There was blood in the snow.    The first snow of the season,  crystalline grains like crushed up minerals, coalescing into soft hills of white.   Enough to blanket the ground, enough...

It quickly became familiar, the permeating,  sometimes saccharine scent  of color in a bottle.   Stains on my skin became a regularity,  splatters on the floors,  dye-ruined...

1. What was your reaction when you heard your name called? "I was really shocked. I did not expect myself to be represented with that fantastic group of individuals." 2. Why do you think you were nominated? "Honestly,...

Influenced by her brother, Mason, and his theatre involvement, sophomore Ashley Yarnell was aware of at least one area of interest for herself when she began her freshman year of high school. But the spotlight...

Some nights I fall asleep to the monotonous droning of the day’s Supreme Court hearings, playing from my phone beside me. Others, I fall asleep with my phone clasped in my hand, thumb intermittently...

In the sunlight, nothing seems as broken.   She fills the gaps between the shattered pieces, holds them together like an ephemeral glue. Through the glass, all I can see are the...

In the fall of 2019, the National Honor Society was embarking on their newest journey, the Academic Success Center in the library, a space for students to receive tutoring from NHS members in any of FHC’s...

While it may have been barely audible over the onslaught of attacks and defenses being thrown about the debate-stage-turned-battlefield, most of the audience caught at least this much of Joe Biden’s...

Sari was dying.  Angels weren’t supposed to die this young. Not until they’d fulfilled their purpose. Which wasn’t supposed to happen until they’d completed many missions, touched many lives....

Name: Benji Zorn Grade: 11 1. How did you get into improv? Why did you decide to try out? "The way I got into improv is Gavin's mom told my mom to do improv. So then my mom would always continually...

Senior Maddie Ostrowski was once a little girl who placed sticky notes next to the passages she admired in her copy of Harry Potter, bookmarking those places where the words had been weaved together wonderfully....

Prompt from Kaiya Mikel: "It's Friday, and everyone here is bored, wishing they were in the casket instead of Ingrid" It’s Friday afternoon, and everyone here is bored, wishing they were in the casket...

Prompt by Lauren Batterbee: write about the life of a lightbulb   Frail fingers extend toward the faded cardboard box resting on a shelf under the dim fluorescent lights. She lifts the box,...

Amidst the daunting back to school season, the crisp fall breeze carries with it the promise of classic high school traditions that mark the beginning of the year like nothing else. Hunting through sparkling...

So here I am, in the most familiar space, facing a blank page once again.  This place is my home, yet I always struggle here. Here is where the words have no form yet, no shape. Here is where ambiguity...

The whole world paused. It took a breath and held it. It needed time. Time to grow, to heal. It begged us to rest with it, but we couldn’t stop. Even when all the signs told...

As an extrovert on the furthest end of the extroversion spectrum, I initially shrugged off the concept of FaceTime and Zoom calls as a substitute for genuine human contact. It was my all or nothing approach...

The garden was the first thing she ever loved. It was a beautifully lush expanse surrounded by an imposing brick wall. Stone paths meandered through the paradise, twisting and turning to reveal new sights...

Name: Chad Scholten Role: AP Environmental Science and Human Anatomy/Physiology teacher 1. What unexpected challenges have arisen in the switch to online teaching? "One unexpected challenge...

To my morning cup of coffee   And the hum of the coffeemaker  filling the groggy kitchen.  Coffee crackling into a thermos that will later be left forgotten  upon a chemistry...

The glass coffin lid was lifted. The apple was vanquished. True love was discovered. She was a princess once more. But every night, as she desperately tries to quiet her mind, visions dance across her...

Vora de la incògnita – edge of the unknown They were two golden threads dancing through space and time, gracefully entwined for the duration of this sacred epoch. But the curtain was closing on...

Click here for the complete story Vora de la incògnita - edge of the unknown They were two golden threads dancing through space and time, gracefully entwined for the duration of this sacred epoch.  But...

La vida va renéixer – life reborn The world was disparate from above—a rainbow of sundry buildings, a striking expanse of gorgeously neglected fields and yards. He was rendered breathless, attempting...

Papallona emergent – emerging butterfly She got up for the sole purpose of acquiring a glass of water when a flash of color caught her eye. It was the sort of mandatory trip that was just pressing...

Abans de la vida – before life Dim lamplight reflected off the gently rippling puddles and splashed glowing pools against the crumbling cement of the sidewalk. In the darkness, murmurs of activity...