Glenwood City High School sophomores write about places that bring them joy
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Editor’s Note: Students in Megan Finley’s sophomore English class at Glenwood City High School were recently given an assignment to write about a place they enjoy, which would be submitted for publication somewhere. Finley told her students that their compositions may not get published and that rejection is part of the publishing process.
Several students submitted their written works to the Tribune Press Reporter. This newspaper – its publisher, editor and staff – was thrilled to have received so many and is honored to bring our readers those students’ pieces over the next few weeks. Each op-ed that was sent to this newspaper will be published as submitted.
The Tribune Press Reporter hopes its subscribers enjoy these compositions, and that it encourages our young authors to also become readers of the local newspaper that shares the stories of our local communities and its people.
Home
Olivia Taves
Nothing is better than being at home and cuddling yourself to sleep every night. Am I right? I mean of course I am everyone wants to fall asleep like they’re cuddled up in a little ball or heck even a burrito for all I care. Just imagine laying in bed and closing your eyes wrapped around your comforter, and your head on your fluffy pillow. Closing your body off from the cold air surrounding yourself. OMG! What about your animals, playing with your dogs outside or playing with your cat, or I mean you know a fish is ok too. (uncomfortable silence).
I love being home because I get to spend time with my family and my friends can come over. I mean I prefer being alone but that’s ok i guess… being home is so amazing you can text whoever you want, watch what you want, and I mean honestly you can do whatever you want. Just if you’re going out, always remember to ask kids.
I love nothing more than being in my room listening to music and vibing. Listening to music when I get home helps me from being crabby because when you’re at school all day you can do literally anything besides work I mean that makes sense it is school. And trust me the music I listen to is not ok for school. So going home and running upstairs to your room and slamming the door blasting that to make your mother or even brothers mad is super funny. You’re up there doing the nae nae just vibing and then your mom pops her head into the door telling you to shut up but you’re just standing there facing her not saying or doing anything then you just shrug and then start to hit that nae nae again.
But I also love sleeping so I dont have to hear the annoying sounds of my family talking about stupid subjects or just boring things. Like excuse me I dont wanna talk about the poops you’re having. How am I supposed to respond to that? I try to lay in my bed and focus on the breathing and the sounds of the little bugs outside. The whole time though I hear my family talking about how their day was. Their laughs are contagious, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like sleeping all night in peer silence.
Waking up everyday and leaving for school is the worst thing to happen. All I wanna do is sleep. Gosh! It’s way too early for this. Then all of a sudden the best part of the week comes around, yeah you know what im talking about the weekend. The weekends are so nice because sometimes the fam has bbqs and so then everyone comes over. I like having these because then I can see family members that I haven’t seen in weeks or even months.
Do you ever just imagine going home and cleaning your house? Or is that just me? Just me ok then. Being in a space that’s dirty or not correct you probably don’t know what I mean by that. I mean having OCD is not the best. Everything has to be perfect. Like for example when I come home from school or with friends I need to make sure my room is clean. I can’t wake up to a mess because trust me that wouldn’t look pretty.
When I get back from school with a bag full of homework it makes me want to scream at the top of my lungs like do you think that I wanna go home with a bag full of papers that I could easily do in class but they dont give you the time. They’re just like “ok take home this sorry I didn’t explain it just do it, do tomorrow”. Like HUH? I’m not gonna go home and work on something I don’t even know how to do. Like hello I have things to do that are important like sleeping. Gosh life is a struggle. Sometimes I wonder how people last through the day at work. I mean I wouldn’t know I have my bed. Home man home. Ahhh feels good to relax.
When my mother or father come home from work I don’t really talk to them but then all of a sudden when my mom gets home it’s a whole let’s barge in my daughters room to annoy her. Like hello I didn’t ask for this mother. Just back up out of the door and slowly close it.
So basically there isn’t always something nice about being at home but there are good features that come with it. And a daily reminder kids just don’t be like me blasting your music cause I mean do you wanna feel that pain of getting yelled at.
Revision Feature Writing
Ian Radintz
Home is a place where you should feel safe. Where you can go and not worry about anything in the outside world. My home is Glenwood City. A house in the countryside away from chaos. For some people, it is a house in the city or an apartment at a college campus. Either way, it is the same concept. A place where you can escape too. When you’re at home you should feel like you don’t need to worry about anything except what you’re gonna eat for dinner, you can walk around in your underwear and not have to worry about security being called on you, and you have free range to the pantry. I’m just saying home, IS AWESOME.
Is this the place that caused people to migrate from cities? The beautiful countryside like the one we live in. In little old Glenwood City, everybody knows everybody. I know this might not sound like a good thing, but this is like having 100 different homes. Everybody is SUPER friendly and has open arms to visitors. This is A LOT different from big cities. Most experiences I’ve had in big cities, most people aren’t nice, unlike Glenwood. Most people are pissed off at the world and just want to go home. Just come to little old Glenwood. Around here, when you have to wait to get gas-an eternity, it is a shocker. This is the place for big-city people to get away to, or anywhere in the midwest for that matter. If you were to take someone from a big city and throw them in a farm family. I bet you after a month, they wouldn’t want to go back. It’s not because of the scenery, ok maybe a little bit, but they relearn what home means. How you may ask. Have you ever been to a farm? You learn how much a hot meal means or place to lay your head after a day of bailing hay means. It teaches you to not take the little things for granted. It allows you to have a greater appreciation for things. And when you send them back to the city, they realize how nice it is to have a homemade meal or how nice people aren’t in the city and want to come back to a place that seems like home now. They leave, They realize, They return.
If living in the small town of Glenwood City wasn’t enough, I live another ten miles away from this little town. I live in Forest. No not “A Forest”. The town is called Forest. An unincorporated little town with one bar and grill and a church. My house however is everything a country kid could want. We live on forty acres with a nice house, shed, the animals’ mom wanted but doesn’t take care of, and our dogs. Yep, this is home. It is a secluded place in the country, but when you live out here you have to make your own fun. Rather than just building forts, or just putting in a basketball hoop, this last summer during quarantine, we got bored so our neighbor and my family decided to build a motocross track to keep us busy. Doing these types of things is what makes me love the country even more than before, and allows you to make your home more of your own. Living in the country brings you closer to your family. Not being around a whole bunch of friends allows you to do more things with your family. My family is an adventurous outdoor type of family, so we hunt and fish together along with other outdoor activities. We all love to go for walks at night through the paths with the smell of fresh-cut hay abundant in the air and listen to the peepers sing. In our country home, we spend the most time together as a family in the living room decorated with the trophy animals our family has harvested doing the things we enjoy doing together, hunting. Don’t all of you guys and gals love just sitting down and watching a movie with your family? But then comes time to choose the movie. Most times mom gets to pick. And like always she picks “ the BEST movies” the perfect hallmark love story. She’s the only one who likes those. Either way, making those memories to look back on is what makes you miss home more the longer you are away.
Even though many people think home is a materialistic thing, I believe it’s a Concept. It’s not the structure whether it’s a camper, apartment, or million-dollar mansion. It’s the concept of being around people who you love and care for. It’s about being able to forget what happened during the day, good or bad, and fix it by spending time with your loved ones in the place YOU call home.
Home
Jayden Quinn
Most people start their day off with some coffee to wake them up enough to get to work. They put in a hard 9-5 and then go back home to relax or in some cases do more chores and work at home. For kids though it is kind of different. We get up and we have to catch the bus to school. We go through all of our classes, get a bunch of homework, go to practice, and then, we can finally go home.
My day starts off at home with a nice cold bowl of cereal followed by a hot and steamy shower. Which is about 10minutes long. I dry off, put some clothes on, brush my teeth and I’m ready for the day. At this time of the year, I wait out in the driveway with the 40-degree weather where I am just barely able to see my breath for the first couple of times. When I see the bus pop up over the hill I walk the rest of my driveway, put my mask on, then get in. I always go to the seat on the way back where there are fewer people but the little bumps in the road feel like you’re offroading.
School is the longest part of my day. I start at 8:20 and go till 3:30. We go through 7 long classes where towards the end of the day you are hardly focusing at all because you want it to be over but eventually it does end. When the final bell rings it means it’s time for football. We rush to get our pads on and jog down to the practice field to do our stretches. We go through a hard 2-hour practice filled with running, back peddling, catching, and any footwork you can think of so we are ready for our games on Fridays and Mondays. We waddle back up to the school because of our sore muscles, put our pads away, and finally go back home for the day.
At home, it is a lot more laid back. I still need to finish my loads of homework I got from school but I get to do it at my pace and in my own comfort. This is different than at school where it seems rushed and we are on a time limit every hour. I usually go straight to the comfy reclining chair in the corner and lay back for a good half hour because I’m exhausted from the day. It is a great feeling when you can grab a couple of snacks and just sit back and watch some tv. Some days when I am overly tired I fall asleep and accidentally get an hour nap in. Even though I am home I still have work to do so I eat supper, then go to my room and don’t come out until I’ve gotten through my assignments. At around 10:30 I shut the lights off and go to bed for the night so I can repeat the day tomorrow.
After getting through the long and difficult week I’m glad to sleep in and stay at home. I can be a little lazy in the morning most days and start the day off with some tv. When my dad needs help at the farm I come down with him to help for the day. Most times it is still hard work we are doing but it is way better than having to sit in a classroom all day. The weekends that I love are the ones where I get to ride dirtbike and 4-wheeler all around our land whenever I want. We have about a hundred acres of woods that I get to rip around on. It’s the best when you come around the corner and go down the dirt trail into what seems like a tunnel because of all the surrounding trees. When I get to the end there is a split in the trail so there is always a quick debate on what way I go, which usually depends on how much time I have. What I love most about riding dirtbike and 4 wheeler is when I see all the animals crossing the trails like deer and turkeys.
Another great thing about our home is hunting. Hunting is one of my favorite hobbies other than fishing. I get to creep out in the woods just before sunrise behind my house, sit up in a tall tree stand, and just relax until I hear or see a deer meandering around the woods. I’ve limited myself to only shooting bucks now so most days I come up empty-handed but once in a while I get lucky and a buck wanders right past my stand. We usually have most of our family over during hunting season and it is great. We get walkie talkies and communicate on what we are seeing. When we aren’t hunting we all go back to our shop at the farm to warm up and get some food before we go back out when the sun sets and the day is over, we throw a hunting party and all the family members that hunt come back down to the farm. We all usually stay up too late so we aren’t able to get back up in the morning.
Finally, my favorite thing about home is the people. It’s the best when everyone comes over because we play football, video games, or just hang out. When my family comes over it’s nice because I usually don’t see them as often except for my parents. I also really like it when my friends come over because we can mess around on the dirtbike and 4-wheelers or just hang out at my house.
As you can see home is my favorite place to be. I can be myself, do things at my own pace, and there are way fewer rules than what being in public is like. The same applies to all the people who come over because we can just relax and have a great time. Finally, after a long and hard day, the only place I want to be is on a reclining couch, in a small house, surrounded by acres and acres of land. That is what home means to me.
