I am most myself when I am surrounded by people. Friends, family, or complete strangers, the relationship I have with them doesn’t matter; my best days are those soundtracked by lively chatter, and...

In lieu of any new column ideas, I turn, as I often do, to my Notes app. For whatever reason, whenever I’m suffering through a particularly severe bout of writer's block, I open that specific app...

Another column, another cliche, another coffee shop.

After three years of excelling in all things English and History-oriented, I surprised basically everyone in my life by adding Advanced Placement (AP) Chemistry to my senior year schedule. For weeks into...

It’s the end of the first semester of my senior year, and I’m trying to write a column about it. But I’ve written so many columns about time, change, and growing up, and none of them have come out...

My existence tonight feels like an unsolvable riddle. Alone on a bench in a park I used to be familiar with, nothing is recognizable. I spent the day decoding glances and deciphering laughs and finding...

To my family: Carolyn Alt - "Homeward Bound" by Simon & Garfunkel Thank you for the shopping trips and the grocery store runs. Thank you for the lunch dates and advice. Thank you for calling...

There are a few rare moments in life in which I am not acting.

In 2020, when I was 12 years old and had absolutely no taste, there were only three songs that I listened to consistently: “Wondering” from High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, the theme song...

I fell asleep at my desk last night with my light dimmed low and a candle burning.  It was then, as I lay sprawled across the wood like some old, overworked poet or crazed scientist, that the moon...

I am sitting criss-cross applesauce on a coarse, well-worn rug in a kindergarten classroom. I can see the sun filtering through the window into my teacher’s hair as she reads poems to us. Oh, the...

For junior Andrew Payne, the most memorable moments from his career thus far in the FHC Marching Band do not involve playing his instrument—percussion—as one might expect, or even music at all. While...

Watching the news, reading the news, or just happening upon the news on social media, is widely regarded as one of the most detestable, depressing, and demoralizing acts a person can partake in. All of...

Every morning, I wake up—way too early, in my opinion—wash my face, brush my hair, put on an outfit that I pretend I haven’t worn twice in the past week and a half, and pack my bag for school. Then,...

I get restless when I sit still for too long. I used to get yelled at for it. My teachers would tell me to stop clicking my pen, stop swinging my feet in my squeaky chair, and stop braiding my friend's...

Whether Austen or Orwell, Brontë or Hemingway, Shakespeare or Dickens, almost everyone has read a classic novel. Whether voluntarily or forced by their tenth-grade English teacher, most have, at the very...

If I was invisible for a day, I’d go to Culver’s in the morning and sit sideways in a booth on the far right side of the restaurant with my back to the window and my feet up on the seat in front of...

To Mama - My Costco buddy Thank you for being the funniest, warmest, most spectacular mom anyone could ever ask for. You’re my hero and my biggest inspiration; I’ve never looked up to anyone the...

The night is littered with ghosts. The day is too, I guess, but sunlight shrouds them with her smile. I don’t like science, but I like the sky.  There’s something romantic about it all, isn’t...

Everything, now, is about you. Maybe it always has been, but you’re haunting me closely today. Your breath is warm; it spills down between the lines around my eyes and mouth as I whirl to find...

Our streets are quiet now, much quieter than they ever were with you. A new family moved in across the street, a new boy with a new car and a different dog. They still use your pool, but I haven’t...

In early spring, when Singer-Songwriter Stevie Nicks first released her tour dates and Grand Rapids made the list, I begged my mom to let me go. I used every reason I could think of, from “It’s the...

Between the leaves and stems of her mother’s house plants and her grandmother’s garden, junior London Castro found one of her greatest interests: science. As high schoolers, many students are pressured...

Usually, when I’m getting ready in the morning, I listen to my favorite music or the newest episode of a podcast I like. However, on June 26, my morning routine changed entirely when I opened TikTok...

I tore a muscle in my arm, reaching for the words I wanted.  They’re still just a little too far away.   I tried to patch it up with pretty metaphors and long-winded rhetorical artistry, but...

My skin smells like strawberries and sunscreen; my fingertips are stained pink. I sit in the same sand I have many times these past few months, remembering. I spent days tanning and sleeping, laughing...

On Aug. 18, 2023, Irish singer-songwriter Hozier released his third studio album, Unreal Unearth, and, in short, my life was changed forever. Aside from his most famous singles like “Take Me to Church”...

Nine months ago, I was afraid of you. That feeling seems silly now, but I remember it all the same. I was afraid of nine months spent withering away under the blurry, grey gaze of another year’s boredom....

I already know how this story ends. Again, I am tumbling through the dark abyss of nothingness behind you. Again, I watch as your shoulders tighten in doom. Again, all I know is that I love you. We...

You already know how this story ends. Again, I am stumbling through this cave ahead of you. Again, we are doomed. Again, all I know is that I love you. We won’t make it out; we never do. When our...

When Senior Eva LaBeau was young, she spent many nights with her grandmother, bonding, playing, and watching TV shows, especially medical ones. Although she didn’t know it at the time, this fascination...

Growing up, senior Litany Gaines spent her free time wishing she could break into the houses she passed on the street. However, it was for all the right reasons. “I’ve always admired buildings,...

“If you were anything, you’d be poetry, and your cursive looks like you’ve been writing since, like, Emily Dickinson was alive.” I didn’t know I knew her that well, but the girl in my physics...

Math quiz first hour. Spanish quiz third hour. I forgot to study for both, despite them being the only thing I thought about all day. English homework is due, and somehow, I’ve forgotten to do...

A week and a half ago, I was lying on the South Carolina beach in a bathing suit and walking through Charleston in shorts and a tank top every day. When I returned to Michigan last Sunday, still in shorts...

I am standing in a room of mirrors. One before me, one behind. All I can see is me. But the mirrors are perfectly centered, perfectly positioned across from each other, and time stretches long between...

Not for the first time, the extremely popular short-form video app TikTok is under pressure from the United States government. For the past year, European, Canadian, and American lawmakers have been doubling...

On Tuesday, Mar. 5, 2024, Nikki Haley faced a major loss to former president Donald Trump in the ‘Super Tuesday’ primary elections. On the day following her extreme loss, Haley suspended her presidential...

I’ve decided to blame you for the warped time machine I find myself flailing through. It’s been four years, and I guess I decided that you’re at fault for the way they have passed like water slipping...

“I looked up at the mass of signs and stars in the night sky and laid myself open for the first time to the benign indifference of the world” (Camus 122-123). This quote is from the book I finished...

This is only the fourth time I’ve met you; this is only the fourth time that I’ve gotten to sit and write your name on my paper. I’ll get to spend the day with you about 16 more times in my life,...

Elite gymnast Simone Biles is inarguably one of the greatest and most well-known gymnasts of all time. It’s impossible to think about gymnastics without her name coming to mind. With 30 medals, Biles...

Of all the holidays celebrated across the world, Valentine’s Day is very possibly the most hated celebratory day. At the very least, it's one of the most controversial. For some people, Feb. 14 is...

One year ago today, I wrote that I had started February to find and make a list of everything I find in my life that I love. In the 12 months since I started that list, it has grown immensely, and I...

To be loved is to be known.  When you left practice early, you put my shoe in your locker so, while looking for it, I would find my phone and the jewelry that I put in there four hours prior.  You...

If there is one thing that will never fail to make me cry, contemplate my existence, and then be unable to think about anything else for at least three months, it’s books and movies set at New England...

You’ve been on my mind a lot recently, though I haven’t the slightest idea why. Maybe it’s the books I’ve been reading or the music I’ve been listening to.  Either way, I keep finding...

No part of Hollywood is ever free of scandal, and no other part faces it quite as much as the Golden Globes. After the severe backlash caused by Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2023 Golden Globes,...

Dear, woeful words, I have grown rather tired of you, I’m afraid. I don’t mean to be rude; I promise it’s nothing personal. It’s just that I have this tendency to let my festering disinterest...

Right up until about eighth grade, school was never something I struggled with. It wasn’t necessarily easy, but it was never really something that took a lot of effort and time for me. When the change...

The holiday break is the second most highly anticipated two weeks of the entire school year, second only to the warm and sunny days of spring break. While most people may not be as likely to be caught...

When junior Anna Krampe became a youth group leader for her church, she never expected to be spending her Thursday night eating a mysterious concoction mixed and made by the kids in her group.  “One...

On March 17, 2023, Sabrina Carpenter released her song “Feather” as a bonus track on her Emails I Can’t Send album. Seven months later, on October 31, 2023, Carpenter released the music video for...

It’s December, again. I’m fighting against the urge to write a column about the unnatural passage of time, again.  Everything is happening all over again, and I don’t know how to stop it. My...

Ella Peirce Last year, I said that I couldn’t survive the class without you, and nothing has changed since. Since I wrote that, we’ve started copy editing, become staff writers, and started a podcast....

Millie, I can’t sleep with my window closed, and you can’t sleep with shoes on your floor.  You give everything in your room its own place, and I let all my belongings fling themselves wherever...

Christmas and fall aren’t mutually exclusive, and I’m tired of people pretending they are. Being the extremely indecisive person I am, I’ve become increasingly annoyed whenever a new person asks...

I can’t sleep with my window shut.  Even in the winter, even when I wake up with frozen hands and misty breath, I need to crack it open or I’ll be awake forever. I don’t know when it started,...

Nothing’s new. It’s a pretty well-known fact; a pretty standard thing to be taught in eighth-grade science. The law of conservation of mass.  It’s scientific, it’s practical, it makes...

In many shows set in high school and coming-of-age movies, senior year is portrayed as one of the most nostalgic times of the characters' lives. Senior Gia Monterusso is no exception to this theme; in...

Dear fall, I always say I can’t decide which season I love most, and then September hits, and you’re here, and I don’t have to wonder anymore. I indeed love every season. I love summer—year...

When senior Andrew Oderkirk was eight years old, his family moved to Manchester, England, where they planned to stay for three years.  Being as young and unknowledgeable about other countries as he...

Understanding the biological differences between sexes is crucial to knowing the best course of action in caring for both genders. This understanding is severely lacking in the medical world and has been...

Dear old me, I’m sorry. I’m sorry about all the things I didn’t do. I’m sorry about everything I didn’t accomplish. I hope you aren’t too mad at me. I hope regret is last on your list of...

When I first started telling people that I was going through the process of being evaluated for ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), I was consistently met with the same responses.  “You...

As a firm believer in the admittedly cliché statement “the book was better,” my expectations were not exceptionally high when I sat down to watch the film adaptation of the novel Red, White, and...

To the most unremarkable things, Do you ever get tired of being the "justs" and "onlys" of the world? “Just water for me, please.” “No, I only want one, thank you.” “I spilled, but...

Dear 10th Grade, I am afraid of you. I’m scared that you will be just like every other school year. I’m scared that you will last too long, and I’ll grow bored of you too quickly. I’m scared...

Throughout the year, I have written a total of seventeen columns that were published in The Central Trend. All of them turned out to be different—and slightly worse most of the time—than I originally...

I really, truly, do not know how to write anymore. Beautiful words escape me. Everything sounds too forced. I’m sure I’ve written that sentence before.  I read poem after poem, and I cry.  I...

I used to be the girl who got up extra early on school days because I couldn’t wait to get on the bus, and although I spent over an hour getting yelled at to hurry up and get ready quicker, I wasn’t...

There are hundreds of unique sports played around the world, and while some are more absurd than others, one of the oddest and most unusual-sounding sports is the very one that sophomore Grace Berlin has...

My summer begins the second my meet season is over.  It could be hailing and five degrees below zero outside, but if I’m in the gym, and I don’t have another upcoming meet to think about, I’ll...

Winter Sundays might be the most detestable part of my life.  Of course, that’s an exaggeration, but every single Sunday, from the end of December to the beginning of April, any positive feelings...

Title: The Missing Piece Grade: Senior What is the premise of your film?  "Our film is to show the school what it means to have a big piece missing from the school forever. In our movie, two...

Film: Rumor Has It Grade: Junior What is the premise of your film?  Our film Rumor Has It, is sort of a play on Gossip Girl and Mean Girls along with a reality TV show twist. Our main character...

Time is the steady drip of water filling up a bowl. It’s slow and boring and frustrating, and you can’t stand how long it’s taking. But one day, you look down into the bowl, and it’s already filled...

For most of my childhood, whenever I thought about “the olden days” or pretty much any time preceding 1970, the color scheme in my head was entirely black, white, and gray. Black and white movies,...