The Official Student News Site of Parkway West High

Pathfinder
The Official Student News Site of Parkway West High

Pathfinder
The Official Student News Site of Parkway West High

Pathfinder
“[Senior night] was electrifying, to say the least. I had a lot of fun playing [lacrosse] and the senior night ceremonies were amazing. All of my friends, family and teammates were supporting me, which was great. My favorite thing about lacrosse is all of my teammates. We all get along really well. My favorite moment was beating Kirkwood this year and celebrating by doing the “I Wanna Rock Dance.” Being friends with Ali Rehman is what got me into lacrosse and I am very grateful for that.” - Nadir Gheith

Nadir Gheith

Leyton Usry, CJ1 Writer • May 30, 2023

“I spend a lot of my time volunteering at this shelter every Saturday, called Project Downtown. It’s located in Jennings, Missouri, and the poverty rates are pretty bad over there, so what we do is we make food for them and then distribute food boxes to people who need it in a parking lot. I started volunteering there when I was seven, and I have just stuck with it since. I usually volunteer with my friends, and it’s nice because it creates a fun environment with the people I know and the new people I get to meet. I started volunteering there because just seeing how different these people’s lifestyles are from mine, makes me want to take action and help them in any way I can.” - Rahma Salem, 11

Rahma Salem

Angie Ren, Staff Writer • May 29, 2023

“My favorite hobby is volleyball. I’ve been playing since third grade, and I play for a club outside of school, and I also play for the school team. I love the supportive environment in volleyball, and everyone on the club team is my best friend, so volleyball is a way I get to see them almost every day. There was once when I sprained my ankle, and it took me out for a couple of weeks. It’s a bad feeling because you just have to sit on the sidelines and watch your teammates play, and sometimes your teammates will be losing and you can’t do anything to help them. I usually end up spraining my ankle at least once a season, though, so I’ve gotten used to it since almost everyone gets hurt at least once a season. What keeps me motivated in volleyball is not wanting to let my teammates down. I know some of them want to play volleyball in college, and so I always want to play my best to give them the best games and not take away any of their opportunities.” - Abby Vogelgesang, 11

Abby Vogelgesang

Angie Ren, Staff Writer • May 26, 2023

“Boys Scouts is a big part of my life, and I’ve been doing it since sixth grade. In Boy Scouts, we have weekly meetings, and we learn a lot about survival skills and leadership training. I first joined because I like nature in general, and it's peaceful because of the solitude it brings. My dad is also pretty involved in Boys Scouts too, so he inspired me to join in the first place. My favorite part about Boys Scouts is when we travel out of the state and country for different adventures. We’ve traveled to Philadelphia, places on the east coast, and we’ve even backpacked 100 miles in New Mexico. It can be really fun, but there are also some mental challenges because even though hiking and backpacking are fun, it can be really hard to get myself motivated enough to actually do it, but at the end of the day, I want to achieve these things Boys Scouts brings to me, so I always work my hardest to.” - Chris Gray, 11

Chris Gray

Angie Ren, Staff Writer • May 25, 2023

“Dance is a big part of my life, and it has been since I was three years old. It’s not only really fun, but my closest friends dance with me at my studio, so It’s great getting to see them every day. A specific time I was really proud of myself in dance was when I completed my first solo in sixth grade. I felt proud that I was able to perform in front of such a big crowd, and I actually ended up doing pretty well for my first time competing. A challenging part about dance is when I can’t get a skill, and I don’t know the reason why I can’t. It can be really frustrating since all you want to do is be able to improve in the sport you do. I overcome this by just moving on to a different skill for a while to take a break, and eventually, I’ll come back to the previous skill and work on it for a while again. I love dancing, however, I don’t see myself pursuing it in the future just because it is so time-consuming, and dancing in college can be a big commitment.” - Paige Schnarr, 11

Paige Schnarr

Angie Ren, Staff Writer • May 24, 2023

“Something I’m proud of is how much weight I have lost, and the amount of muscle I have gained back. At the start of quarantine, I was around 220 pounds, and I just wasn’t satisfied with how I looked. I felt pretty pressured by social media influencers, and that’s something that motivated me to want to change my lifestyle. At first, I would just play video games all day, and I was losing weight in an unhealthy way, but one day my friends started going to the gym, and I just thought it was finally time to change. Now, I’ve been going to the gym for almost two years, and I have lost around 60 pounds. I try to go almost every day because it’s just a part of my daily routine now, and it’s something that makes me happy. I also feel proud to see how much improvement I have made, but I’m still not satisfied with how I look yet. I want to be able to compete in the future with weightlifting, and I’m hoping to gain even more muscle than I have now.” - Michael Tigue, 11

Michael Tigue

Angie Ren, Staff Writer • May 23, 2023

I’m passionate about doing well in school. I think that as a freshman it’s important to start on the right foot in high school since it can affect how you do later in the year. A lot of people say freshman year doesn’t matter, but I still want to do the best I can on all of my tests and homework so that I can get the grades that I want. Doing well can also give me a cushion for next year and the years after that, and if I do well it can make college cheaper with scholarships. I hold high expectations of myself, and it stresses me out and I get frustrated knowing that I could have done better.” - Camden Wilford, 9

Camden Wilford

Angie Ren, Staff Writer • May 19, 2023

“I joined the Poms team because I like performing. I [have done] gymnastics since I was a little kid but I really wanted to do dance because I wanted to try performing in front of the school and my friends. Gymnastics is also really hard on your body, it takes up a lot of your time. I had practice every day for five hours and that was very exhausting. I wanted to try something new. Dance and gymnastics are similar, you're still performing but dance is more performing to a lot of people and interacting with the crowd, whereas gymnastics is you're doing it by yourself. A lot of my friends were dancing and I had watched them for so many years. I wanted to do that and then when I made the team, I was so happy to get the opportunity. We really bring each other up on the team. The difference between gymnastics and dance is with gymnastics you have to do it for yourself, but in dance you're doing it for other people. I think that really motivates everyone to do their best. I was definitely very nervous when I first started to be seen by everyone and show everyone what I could do. I realized though we practice so much and we know what we're doing, so to just have fun.” -Abby Cauley, 11

Abby Cauley

Amelia Bothmann, CJ1 Writer • May 17, 2023

“I really enjoy playing soccer and I want to go far with it. It's hard especially during my fall season because I was playing softball through school and club soccer for three teams. It was a challenge because a lot of weekends I was going out on tournaments, then coming back was really hard with the lack of rest and everything. I really want to go far and I want to go to college and play a sport in college. I know the next step is playing in high school and then playing in college and then just continuing on. You need to make sure that you're living life to the fullest. A lot of my challenges in sports are injury based and those are the hardest. You have so many people telling you that you shouldn't play because you should want to heal before you do. But the hardest times in my life are when I'm injured. When I can't play and then I feel like I'm letting down my team. But you have to take that step back though and realize if anyone else was in that situation you wouldn’t want them to possibly hurt themselves just to keep playing. You would want them to take care of themselves and get better.” - Stephanie Fussner, 9

Stephanie Fussner

Amelia Bothmann, CJ1 Writer • May 16, 2023

“Something I am hoping to do in the future is college gymnastics. I have currently been doing gymnastics for 13 years, and my parents first put me in because they needed to find a way to get me out of the house. I have practice five days a week, and I compete from December through May. I have met some of my best friends through gymnastics, and my teammates and coaches motivate me to improve because just seeing my teammates work hard and progress makes me want to improve too. I’ve faced a few injuries throughout the years, and it can be really hard to recover from them. Because my practices are so often, if I’m injured I have to miss a lot of the time which can be really damaging to my improvement because gymnastics is all about repetition and it’s hard to get back into it after you take time off. I definitely want to do gymnastics in college, and I’m currently trying to get recruited by emailing coaches and sending videos of my gymnastics skills.” - Ava Bauman, 11

Ava Bauman

Angie Ren, Staff Writer • May 15, 2023

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