There was a fourteen-year-old girl who walked into Room 139/140 four years ago. I could write a lot of words about her, but I honestly couldn’t promise any of them would be true—so much time has passed.  But...

sometimes, it’s hard to remember much childhood a blur of overlapping pastels untitled and unreliable—mine, but hard to read   but i do remember anxiety anxiety like grass stains...

This was in March when we all went to the park after unsuccessfully trying to get Shamrock Shakes at McDonalds.

i can't shake them a million moths a tornado in varying hues of distress a million moths wings beating bruising patterns into my heart my ribs my throat the black hole between my kidneys a...

This was taken the day that this poem was based on. It was the first time in a while that I had felt so good, and I didn't want the feeling to slip away.

A snapshot from the walk we took at the park, on an early spring night when it was warm enough for me to pull out my summer wardrobe.

Gay pirates and Taika Waititi—that was all I needed to hear before I was completely on board the Our Flag Means Death ship, legs firmly planted on the deck.  But the initial allure could hardly compare...

Hi. My name is Natalie.  A year and a handful of days ago, I became one of three Editors in Chief of The Central Trend. A few months later, I wrote my first editors' column. I was unsure of my topic,...

In celebration of Women's History Month, The Central Trend is doing Q&As with women from across the school to discuss their unique experiences as women in today's society. Check them out!

Name: Jaye Jelier Position: Librarian/Media Center Staff 1. In what ways are you grateful for the women who came before you and fought for the rights we as women have today? How do you hope to...

When senior Meribell Varghese applied to Culvers, it was just a joke. She didn’t expect to be offered the job on the spot, and she didn’t expect for it to end up becoming her “thing.”  But...

Name: Robbin DeMeester Position: English and Theatre teacher 1. In what ways are you grateful for the women who came before you and fought for the rights we as women have today? How do you hope...

Name: Patricia Richardson Position: Science teacher 1. In what ways are you grateful for the women who came before you and fought for the rights we as women have today? How do you hope to follow...

It feels like we started this all just yesterday. It feels like mere weeks ago that I saw my name in an email, the beginning of the fulfillment of dreams I’d held like something opalescent and bright...

Name: Kristy Butler Position: Science teacher 1. In what ways are you grateful for the women who came before you and fought for the rights we as women have today? How do you hope to follow in their...

After the generally failed experiment that was Bagel Kitchen, I held barely fluttering hopes that another bagel shop could redeem such establishments. But when my partner, Rem, suggested that we swing...

A picture of me and my friends trying not to fall while taking pictures of the sky.

Name: Grace Stynes Position: Art teacher 1. In what ways are you grateful for the women who came before you and fought for the rights we as women have today? How do you hope to follow in their footsteps? "Every...

Name: Kimberly Anderson Position: ASL teacher 1. In what ways are you grateful for the women who came before you and fought for the rights that we as women have today? How do you hope to follow...

Name: Lisa Penninga Position: English teacher 1. In what ways are you grateful for the women who came before you and fought for the rights we as women have today? How do you hope to follow in their...

Name: Kelli Potts Position: English teacher 1. In what ways are you grateful for the women who came before you and fought for the rights we as women have today? How do you hope to follow in their...

It’s like I’ve been trying to play life like a game—for eighteen years, but especially lately.  I have a laundry list of things I’m trying to be better at, I collect shifts in perspective like...

She started too many sentences today that she forgot to finish. And now, her head is filled with the beginnings of too many stories, too many thoughts, but it feels surprisingly empty.  In fact, for...

Passionately from the passenger seat, I argued my definition of “spring music,” queuing songs that epitomized my point to play over the aux. A Shamrock Shake rested in the cupholder beside me, my friends...

Don’t get the date wrong; put it next to your name, in the title for your column, due in five hours.  Why are you so tired? Why have the days been draining you when the sun is out more often, when...

I’ve been writing a lot of poetry lately. There’s something about this time of year that’s meant for poetry, meant for my Gatsby-inspired playlist, meant for dreaming.  But I think I spend too...

Kat and I on the trail with our trail snacks

The 2022 Winterfest court nominees

Senior Sammie Wing was, if only jokingly so, convinced that her presence on the bowling team could improve their 0-13 losing record. When she was given the opportunity to actually test that hypothesis,...

While I’ve never been one for breakfast or predictable routines, recently, my morning cup of coffee and blueberry bagel have been the exception to that rule.  I have the appetite of a small bird...

it feels like there's a lot of pressure to make this one, this last poem, something special   the same way i felt like there was pressure all day to make today something special, these...

there’s a tub of speckled pink cookie dough cooling in my fridge, paper bags full of baked goods from Meijer waiting on my kitchen counter, a blue dinosaur stuffed animal, a Dollar Tree greeting...

if i could capture today in a bottle forever preserve this cottony soft feeling, stitched together, nothing missing, no holes poked through me   but here i am staring at the problem...

i started a poem started spilling my anxieties onto the page but i’m so so sick sick of overthinking  of never being content so we’re not doing that tonight   tonight was...

today was r/u/s/h/e/d, don’t forget: to get a signature on that line, remove a comma, change that word, hit publish, time enough to grab a can of iced tea with the bottle of vitamin D...

there’s only so much you can do to drown out certain noises   headphones in, but i can still hear the  thwack thwack thwack of the ping pong ball against the wall   turn...

Today on that couch I felt warm the kind of warm that has me carrying a blanket between classes, finds me with at least three blankets on my bed at all times, never being far from my knit cardigan...

  Exactly one week before my eighteenth birthday, I decided to write a poem every night for seven days, something to help tether me to the moment—as it often feels I am relentlessly and fruitlessly...

As a kid, when time was a concept too elusive for my little fingers to grasp, I always knew I could start talking about my birthday when the grocery store aisles overflowed with cheesy reminders of love—hearts...

The kitchen sink, full of plants, in my best friends' house, on a night when I went home feeling sparkly and golden

TW: This review and book contain mentions of drug addiction and specific substances. There’s an inexplicable peace that wraps me up in a hug between aisles overflowing with books, a vast jungle of...

Mrs. Anderson's Level 1 ASL class, in attendance and hard at work

Kat and I on a picnic last weekend at Natalie's house

While the stunning scenery of Rocky Mountain National Park blurred by outside her car windows, sophomore Paige Harsevoort had her attention pinned to something else entirely.  A first-grader at the...

In metallic ink from the Pilot G2 pens that are smeared across most of my worksheets from today, a single bullet point is scrawled in stunted cursive across my copy of “The Yellow Wallpaper” from AP...

She once wrote that she was one with everything she touched.  It was a time when she felt like the world was hers and she was the world’s. She filled her time with sunsets, 2008 Cadillac escapades,...

Sunlight streaks through the glass panels of the vaulted ceilings high above me, melting into pearly puddles across the marble floors. Ivory pillars ornament the space, and gossamer curtains gently flutter...

Freshman Drew Wright’s driving experience has been limited to the Forest Hills Fine Arts Center parking lot in a stick shift Audi, one that has seen its fair share of excitement in the many years it’s...

There’s a small yellow unicorn sitting on her windowsill, half of what she assumes was once a greeting card taped to her wall, a poetry book at her feet, and strings of multicolored lights hanging around...

At 11:47 p.m. on December 31, I documented my tear-stained face in my Snapchat camera roll, a pale orange memory of crying fifteen minutes before the new year. At 11:59 p.m. on December 31, an entire...

I don’t really do anything halfway—a fact that is particularly evident in the way I watch TV. I watched all seven seasons of New Girl in three weeks. In middle school, I watched the first six seasons...

the ASL 4 class on a field trip to Fredrick Meijer Gardens a few months ago

I possess a few consistent personality quirks—ordering a Shirley Temple every time my friends and I go out to eat, buying beverages I know I’ll hate just because the packaging is pretty, or refusing...

Students studying for exams diligently, making sure to be completely prepared.

English teachers Kelli Potts, Anne Keller, and Ken George can agree on one sentiment definitively: the walls of Forest Hills Central High School have always needed a little spicing up.  In an environment...

Once upon a time, she wrote about herself like she was a story book character, like she was merely an apathetic narrator of emotions she had no control over.  It’s not like that now. She writes her...

Katherine Hartman, Sophie Hartl, Brooke Munson, and Sophie Shields - for Survivor selfies For the first few weeks of the school year, Social Psych lacked the vivacity that most of the classes on my...

I wish I was better at telling my stories in something other than a series of days when tears beckoned to me like a crushing wave beckons to the sandy sea floor.  I wish I hadn’t nearly run out of...

Name: Israell King Grade: 12th 1. What is your role?  "I play No.40, Shopkeeper, and Woman on Train. I also play various roles throughout the production as an extra." 2. Why did you decide...

This year, FHC's theatre department, directed by John Donovan, is putting on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.  The show will be running from Thursday, Nov. 11th until Saturday, Nov....

Name: Jonathan Mossner Grade: 10th 1. What is your role?  "My role is Christopher." 2. Why did you decide to try out for the play?  "I've tried out for [plays] before, and I really enjoyed...

Name: Zach Guikema Grade: 12th 1. What is your role?  "I am 'the man with socks,' Reverend Peters, and I also play other various roles." 2. Why did you decide to try out for the play?  "I...

Name: Tara Brace Grade: 11th 1. What is your role?  "I play Mrs. Gascoyne—who is a teacher for Christopher's school, a lady at the information desk at a train station, and posh woman on a...

Name: Desiree Tuohy Grade: 12th 1. What is your role?  "I play Judy, who is pretty much Christopher's mom." 2. Why did you decide to try out for the play?  "I decided to try out for...

I am a firm believer in listening to Christmas music the day after Halloween.  While the strands of twinkling lights, the fresh zip of pine, and the unparalleled honeyed flavor of eggnog don’t grace...