Sarah Dairiki

The Dancing With The Stars finale of season 18 took place May 19th and 20th and was intense, as all three couples danced their hearts out both nights in hopes of winning the mirror ball trophy. In the end, Maks Chmerkovskiy and Meryl Davis took home the trophy, which is an add on to Meryl's recent winning of the gold medal with her ice-dancing partner Charlie White. When their names were announced as the winners tears of joy were present, and the looks on their faces were of pure excitement. Chmerkovskiy claimed minutes after the win that winning the show unleashed pure joy within him, claiming that even though the trophy is "just plastic, it means so much." In his many years of being on the show as a professional dancer, Maks has come so close to winning the trophy, only to come up short in finales, earning second or third place. But with Meryl, he claimed that he knew she was the one that would win it all. The finale started off with the elimination of James and P...

I wanted to try out this poem writing thing, as there are a lot of teenagers who are amazing poets, and poems that I read online with teenage authors are actually really relatable. Because of that, I wanted to try it out. So here is a poem that I wrote myself: From the start of the summer of 2013 I felt a spark, a connection Almost as if it were a dream He talked to me, laughed with me, Made my heart palpitate with glee Until the day where I told him how I felt as my feelings were due, And his response caused my heart to break in two My closest friends knew that I was sad They said "it was just a crush" and that I should be glad But thinking of him Makes me feel torn apart within "This crush, I am over it" I say Yet I am tortured everyday I see him in the halls, in class too Constantly reminded my feelings are overdue He smiles at me in school And I always remind myself to play it cool To him I am just a friend Nothing more, nothing less Hi...

A sudden change in relation to the Career Technical Education requirements evoked a spread of emotions throughout M-A’s student population, bringing both shock, uncertainty, and even a “thank god” feeling. On Feb. 26, 2014, district administrators decided to invoke a new rule which states that students can fulfill their CTE credits if they were in a foreign language of level three or higher, making it so that they do not have to enroll in a CTE class. Students were informed of the change via letters home, and it quickly became the topic of conversation for the days that followed. “A few years ago, maybe five or six, there was a big push in the state to impose CTE course requirements, and new standards were written for courses to qualify as CTE,” states Instructional Vice Principal Steve Lippi.  With this statement problems arose for M-A, as there were specific expectations that had to be met in order for a class to be qualified as a CTE class. When asked about the effect...

The end of the school year is coming up for myself and all other teenagers, and we are all struggling with two things: staying focused and continuing to actually try until June rolls around and the final bell rings, allowing us to be free from school for 2 months. I can clearly state that the majority of juniors at my school have caught a very early case of senioritis, one of those juniors being myself, and I am sure this deadly "disease" is spreading to everyone else too. I have recently found my mind pondering the smallest details that should be gone ignored and somehow connecting that back to how my life will turn out in the future and whether I will actually go to college or what not and end up at the brink of insanity because of the fearful thought of college applications. I have clearly been stressing way too much over the past few months, and I wanted to create a list of ways that I relax, with the hopes that these tactics will help those other juniors or even seni...

So I normally post weekly blog updates and not ones twice in a week, but I just needed to post an update on my musical lifestyle. So today I picked up my guitar for the first time since I stopped taking lessons in June 2013. I had been itching to play again, as music was the only thing that kept me sane, well the only thing besides horses. Music was such a big part of my lifestyle, as I grew up with music since I was three, and not playing for so long made me realize that by abandoning music I was letting go of a huge part of my life. I realized that I didn't want to let it go because I would regret it in my adult years, so that is why I finally made that step and picked my guitar back up for the first time. When I opened up my guitar case I finally felt like I was at home, and as I tuned my guitar I felt so satisfied. I noticed I was flinching at the ugly out of tune sounds my guitar made and smiling when I attempted to ply a chord and saw my fingers moving to place themselves o...