Search Results

My family’s house has never been the one that was decorated like a ginger bread house for Christmas. We are simplistic when it comes to the holidays. My mother may put up an artificial tree with enough ornaments to fan out over the branches. Sometimes she puts a velvet ribbon or two on the door. Whenever people come over, they ask why there presents aren’t under the tree, and my mother grumbles about how she waits until Christmas Eve to stuff all of the presents under the tree. Lately, I haven’t been wanting many presents, which has satisfied my parents as they close their wallets before everyone else. My simple request has been that I have enough money to buy what I want from Amazon. On the Christmas of my ninth grade year, I managed to persuade my mother into signing up for an Amazon prime membership. After we ordered our first package, it fascinated me how seeing a tan cardboard box, with black duct tape and the Amazon symbol, can give you so much glee. I became immersed in the American holiday tradition of purchasing with little to no restrictions, simply for the enjoyment of it. For whatever reason, the idea of sitting down at a computer screen, dabbing at the corners of my eyes in between each flash of green that appears after they notify me that they’ve received my order, couldn’t be more satisfying. I crack my knuckles before alternating between keys on the keyboard, searching for new items that I’ll probably forget about when a new box crowds the porch. My eyes glimmer like a child’s when they meet Santa Claus for the first time at a crowded mall with other children attempting to shove their way towards him. I greedily carry the package off to my room and rip apart the box, tossing the remains of it on my bed. I don’t know why I have such a fascination for the many terrains the box traveled just to get to my porch. Every time I order something, I like to see the location it’s coming from. Sometimes it says something as nearby as Atlanta, Georgia, or somewhere as far away as Rhode Island. I like opening the box and imagining that the person who packaged it wondered what type of person I am and why I admire that particular item. I’ve made the decision that my favorite Christmas colors are not green and red, or silver and gold. In fact, they’re tan and black. -Christina Sumpter, Senior Creative Nonfiction Editor

I don’t indulge much in relationships outside of my writing. Somehow, it’s easier for me to figure out how people relate to each other when they’re fictional. I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that I have control over those relationships, I can chose how those people meet and get to know each other. Real life is a lot less simple and rarely ever in my control. I can think about a person’s significance in another’s life when I know there’s a set story to follow. Putting two characters into a specific environment and deciding on how they connect to it and each other comes in the larger scheme of things. With my personal life, I never know how it’s going to play out. I’m not sure if it is ever better for me to share something with another person or what will go wrong if I keep my mouth shut. It’s that uncertainty that keeps me from looking too far into actual human relationships. Despite that, I can easily describe my relationship with certain things or ideas. I know that I’m fond of certain things and can’t stand the sight of others, and that I connect very strongly to certain perspectives on societal issues. But take that and apply it to another living, breathing person, and I’ll be too lost to function. I’m not very good with people or the development of relationships. Most of the time it seems like both those things occur in my life by accident, while I’m kind of just dragged along for the ride. It works fine if I take myself out of the equation and throw a few characters in, make a story out of it. Then, I’m suddenly an expert in the realm of feelings and relationships and I can build them all up out of nothing. I suppose it all depends on the medium through which it happens. Real life, not so much. On paper, it’s almost perfect. -Ruvi Gonzalez, Junior Fiction Editor

Poetry isn’t a thing, but a being. It gives voices and confidence to many people that become the very artists that many of us look up to. As a poetry editor on the Élan staff, I made it my goal to commit to more exposure of the art and form of poetry. Throughout April, National Poetry Month, the staff has worked to push poetry out of corners, like lining the hall with poems and even distributing poetry grams. However, one major accomplishment met my goal for the promotion of Poetry Month was to hold a school wide slam. Holding the slam this year was extremely important to me because it was abandoned last year. It was hard for me to watch all of the preparation and promotions go to waste, to watch our audience dwindle until there was no one. This year was like starting over, like taking the hand of a child and teaching them how to walk or speak again after months of practice. Doing the slam this year became a child that whined and wrecked things until it had my full attention. The Poetry Slam grew and matured, becoming a project that held an ample audience that was ready and willing to sit and listen to poetry, letting it take over. I cannot put into words how wonderful it felt to watch each participant go up and give the audience piece after piece, as if to introduce themselves formally as artist with words that matter. The slam was a good way to promote poetry because when you host an event, the people that support are those who love to allow themselves to become one with art. Art is more than a thing, but a being that sprouts an obsession, passion, and true love: poetry. --Brittanie Demps, Poetry Editor

While we have been taking a break from Blogging over the Holiday season, the Elan staff would like to share a few of our New Year's Resolutions with everyone. A new year brings with it new opportunities, new goals, and new writing to create and explore. What are some resolutions that you've made? My New Year's Resolution this year is to win the Batten Award Scholarship and not pay a single cent for college! -Mariah Abshire, Editor-in-Chief I don't know if this is weird, but this is my very first New Year's Resolution, which is fitting because 2015 will be a start of something completely new for me: college. In the year 2015, I want to 1) figure out my future, 2) hold off Senioritis for as long as I can, and 3) be ready for anything! -Shamiya Anderson, Creative Non-Fiction I want to maintain relationships with people from school after I graduate and continue to write poetry. -Taylor Austell, Layout and Design Editor I want to continue to write after I graduate, and I want to devote more time to studying (math especially)! -Sarah Buckman, Editor-in-Chief I have never been the person that made New Year's Resolutions but I have decided to try something new this year. In this upcoming year I have decided to be happy, find my Zen. I want to keep a positive outlook on life despite anything bad that may happen in this upcoming year. -Anna Dominguez, Junior Poetry Editor My New Year's Resolution this year is to write some bomb fiction next semester and meet Blake Griffin! -Madison George, Social Media Editor This coming year, I hope to expand my writing into more personal endeavors. I've been slacking, in terms of writing outside of school, and I think it's starting to take a toll on my overall enthusiasm for writing. I'm going to work on taking it back next year, and start to immerse myself in some writing that is really close to what I want to see coming from myself. -Ruvi Gonzalez, Junior Fiction Editor I've never really stuck to my New Year's Resolution but since this is my last year at home, why not stick to it? This year I'm going to get a job. -Grace Green, Poetry Editor It shouldn't take a set date to make changes for the better. A New Year is a new opportunity, but so is a new day; acting on a decision to change should happen at any moment, not just at the turn of the year. Ironically, my resolution is to keep that in mind. -Jordan Jacob, Junior Editor-in-Chief In the upcoming year of 2015 I hope to come to some sort of resolution in terms of what I want to do as a career in life. I will be a senior by next Autumn, and I really want to have a good grasp as to what I want to do later in life. - Briana Lopez, Junior Social Media Editor I don't normally do New Year's Resolutions because they typically get forgotten. Plus, why wait until a New Year to make a new you? But I think I'll play along this time. Next year, I'll be funnier and more responsible. There it is. I think it's ambiguous enough to follow. -Rey Mullennix, Fiction Editor Resolutions are embarrassing. My resolution when I was seven would probably have been to stop picking my nose. My resolution when I was nine would be to stop sleeping with a night light. My resolution this year is to stop eating so many Reese's. I eat them for breakfast sometimes, I eat them when I get home from school... It's a problem. Maybe I could start eating some cantaloupe or kiwi or something. Anything healthier would be an improvement. -Kat Roland, Art Editor I resolve to read more poetry books, care less about the Kardashians, and most importantly, to feel how I feel and do what I want instead of letting other people's expectations be in charge of my actions and thoughts. -Savannah Thanscheidt, Web Editor This year I want to have more spontaneous moments. Being a senior and having less than a year before I run off toward another adventure I want to not worry about stuff and have more genuine moments of fun. -Chrissy Thelemann, Submissions Editor I do not have a resolution for 2015. I don’t think people should focus on changing because a new year is coming up and everyone is buying into the “New Year, New You” perspective, but people should instead focus on change because they are striving for personal growth. I think making plans are good for yourself on a yearly basis, but for myself personally, I’m still trying to make good on the ones I promised years ago. -Stephanie Thompson, Marketing Editor

The first semester of my senior year has just finished. I will never have another first day of high school, I will never be scared of my school's mascot -a hideous puffin- at orientation, or be forced to take another Douglas Anderson-style mid-term again. I will also never have another poetry class with Mrs. Melanson, never hear "So, my children..." with a flourish of her hand as she explains just how synesthesia reflects on life as a whole. It's bittersweet. I've just started Senior Fiction, it is day three and I'm already waiting to see my prose grow the way my poetry did in the semester prior. Writing story starts, reading flash fiction- it feels weird. So far, what I've realized is that the most interesting part to every beginning, is the ending it leaves behind. I first realized just how true this was when I began "Casual Vacancy," by J.K. Rowling. The story starts when a man dies, and the entire town learns about his death. They feel things about it, their lives are changed by it and new things happen to them through it. The end of a man's life became the beginning for so many other things. After this realization, I started thinking about other stories I'd read, other myths and parables I'd been taught. Adam and Eve begin life on Earth after their lives as angels end; monarchies are squished to bring forth republics, if Hester Prynne is going to raise her child, her good reputation and even her infatuation with the baby's father has to be over. Sometimes good endings lead to bad beginnings, and sometimes it takes a little tragedy to bring the dawn in. I've often thought about being a history teacher after school, and with that idea in mind, it's really hard for me to "leave the past in the past." We, of course, shouldn't hold onto the past, we should grow from where we've come. But at the same time, as we start a new year, a new semester or job or relationship or short story, I think it's important to reflect on where we -or the character's we're writing about- have come from. It's important to know how all of the things that are constantly ending, relate with what's to come. -Savannah Thanscheidt, Web Editor

This year the Élan staff has a lot to be thankful for. We are thankful for our wonderful staff, our lovely supervisor Mrs. Melanson, our Winter 2013 book, and of course our readers. This is what we are most thankful for this year: Emily Cramer (Editor-in-Chief): For Cormac McCarthy, who showed me that it’s okay to break the rules. Sarah Buckman (Junior Editor-in-Chief): For Creative Writing seniors! Emily Leitch (Layout and Design Editor): For Paul Legault for inspiring me to be the poet that I am today. Taylor Austell (Junior Layout and Design Editor): For the teachers and the staff that allow me to grow into the person that I am today. Kiera Nelson (Fiction Editor): For women like Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou, and Alice Walker who inspire me to be the best combination of a writer/womanist that I can be. Zoe DeWitt (Fiction Editor): For Tom Hiddleston reciting poetry, especially Shakespeare’s sonnets. Raegen Carpenter (Poetry Editor): For Rachel McKibbens, who proved to me that you can be both a witty, tattooed goddess, and a poet. Brittanie Demps (Poetry Editor): For the culture and atmosphere of Douglas Anderson. It’s given me the chance to grow into the person that I want to be and to express my passion in writing. Mariah Abshire (Junior Poetry Editor): For the Creative Writing department as a whole and all the opportunities the teachers and staff expose me to. Emily Jackson (Nonfiction Editor): For the creative writing department that has supported me and my writing for these past four years. Shamiya Anderson (Junior Nonfiction Editor): For being in a department that thrives and helps me grow as a writer. Haley Hitzing (Social Media Editor): For Yusef Komunyakaa for making me fall in love with poetry. Madison George (Junior Social Media Editor): For an amazing Élan staff to work with. Makenzie Fields (Submissions Editor): For the Dodge Poetry Festival for opening my eyes to the wonderful world of poetry. Stephanie Thompson (Public Relations and Marketing): For John and Hank Green.