By Hallie Landis

This special hour during our school day is supposed to be the least worry some. The truth is, it could be the most stressful time, especially on the first day. The question everybody is mostly concerned with, except what kind of food are they serving us, is: Who the heck am I going to sit with?

Socially, we all want to be accepted. Depending on who is in your lunch hour, that gets tested. Everyone has their own little group or clique of friends reserved to a table. If you don’t have at least one person to be stuck against like a lost puppy dog, then you’re screwed. The cafeteria is one section of the building where a portion of the student population is forced to reside.

I feel, if you have absolutely no one to sit with, then you should be able to go eat someplace else. I’m not saying this will give some students an excuse to roam the hallways and not eat at all, because they will. But if a teacher personally gives their permission to resort in their room, then that should be allowed. No one deserves to be forced to feel like a loner without their friends sharing lunch with them. I have experienced a situation similar to this.

Of course during my last year of high school, I’ve had to deal with the social anxiety of lunch time. My fourth hour teacher luckily allows me to eat in the personal fitness room and all was going well. I only chose to go in the cafeteria to retrieve my food and return back to my safety net. That was challenged when a dean stopped me to state that food wasn’t allowed outside of the cafeteria room. I assumed it wasn’t a big deal with another dean allowing me to leave without a tray and knowing I was going to throw away my garbage.

Apparently this time it was a rule the other dean wasn’t reluctant on. He expressed a complaint to my teacher, which resulted in me just choosing to pack my lunch from now on. I wasn’t going to be forced to be in a room full of strangers, spending my lunch period miserable.

It’s quite sad that the cafeteria has to feel like a prison, instead of a form of social acceptance for every student.

Contact me at halliedawnlandis@gmail.com

By Joely Fry
LifeAtStart.com Reporter

There are a lot of differences between freshmen and seniors, but one of the biggest is school spirit. The homecoming pep rally shows that differences, by participation, spirit links, and overall interest.

During the chants at the rally, freshman show some spirit because they’re excited to be in high school, but they’re still new and awkward. Sophomores lose the new-to-school spirit, and mostly go to get out of class. They, at least in my four years, show less spirit than ninth graders.

By junior year, everyone knows the chants and realize they’re half done with school, but still only about half the students join in. Seniors always show the most spirit.
The biggest way each class participates is through the Student Body Government spirit links. This year, over $200 was raised, but the seniors alone made $187, according to SBG member Jumoke Ayodeji, a senior.

When we ran the chain of spirit links through the gym, senior Eric Duncan told me “Lenny and I were at the front of the links, and when we got done running, there were still people from the end in the hallway. It could have wrapped around the gym twice.”

Each year, school spirit levels change as we get a grade older. Seniors blow the underclassmen out of the water, and juniors aren’t bad, but everyone could enjoy pep rallies more if they showed more spirit. Hopefully, in the future, everyone buys more than $180 in links and gets excited to cheer for our Spartans.

Contact Joely Fry at joely_nicole@yahoo.com.

By Riley Clifton
LifeAtStart Reporter

Roy C. Start High School’s homecoming dance was on September 27^th.

As always, there was quite a turn out. The gym was decorated in purple and yellow balloons. The entrance was covered in mascaraed themed decorations just waiting to be photographed in front of. This year had a great variety of music for many listeners, but there was one mutual complaint. The lights were on in the gym.

After complaining to Mrs. K, the leader of Student Body Government, she explained that the fuse can’t come off because of our new lighting system.

I believe that that might of led to a decrease in dancing because some people just simply aren’t comfortable letting their freak flag fly under the lights.

Start did a great job at making sure we stay hydrated. Whoever had the genius idea to put sherbet ice cream in the fruit punch needs to be thanked. I think that homecoming 2014 was a success and I hope that everyone had as much fun as I did.

I would love to hear what you thought about this year’s homecoming.

Contact me at rileyclifton3@yahoo.com.