Day one
All photos are property of Carla O'Hara
The Sunrise of a New Year
By: Johnny Lunetta, Tyler McGill, and Justice Lovell
On the day of the senior sunrise, all the seniors got together with their friends and all sat down on the turf to have bagels and ease into the first day of school. The best part of the senior sunrise for most was probably seeing friends they haven't seen all summer and getting to catch up with each other's lives, have fun, and engage in interesting conversations. In my opinion, most people didn’t even watch the sunrise, most students just enjoyed the moment and talked with friends. It was worth going because it's always a nice sight to see when you look at the sunrise, especially with being surrounded by people you know and love.
Many students had mixed feelings about this year's senior sunrise, the main divergence in this sunrise was the change of it being held on the first day of school instead of the last. Most students didn’t really like this change and felt that it should’ve stayed on the last day of school to uphold the tradition. There were many new ideas given by the students interviewed on the topic, including a very interesting idea of a senior sunset.
A Student at Comsewogue High School, Laurel Press, invited this new and exciting idea in Johnny Lunetta’s interview. She says “Since we did senior sunrise on the first day, I think we should do a senior sunset on the last day, but maybe at the beach”. I feel that many people would love the idea of this, and as students, maybe we can come together to get this approved. The senior sunrise is a very important part of senior year to everyone at Comsewogue and has been a staple for seniors for many many years. There’s a special joyful mood that surrounds all the senior festivities, especially senior sunrise. For example, students like Chris Menno stated that “It was bright in the morning, tired, and had some beautiful bagels”.Overall the feedback about the sunrise was positive and there were great new ideas for improvements that many students believe can bring us closer together and strengthen our relationships with one another. I hope we can keep this tradition alive for many more years to come and make some improvements to keep the tradition of senior sunrise fun, fresh, and exciting!
become your own Captain
By: Haley Garafola & Aleayah Arman
Motivation, inspiration, and perseverance are 3 of the main factors when it comes to any form of success. In this case, we’re introduced to the success of one man, referred to as “Sunshine” on the popular Discovery channel show, the Deadliest Catch. We were initially introduced to this inspiration at the start of the school year. He brings his story of how he followed his dream of becoming a crab fisherman and where he is today.
Nick Tokman, otherwise known as "Sunshine," speaks about his coming-of-age story, how he met his passion, and the road he took to achieve it. In his presentation, he spoke about many different topics such as his financial stability, family security, and personal experiences with abuse. He uses these topics to connect and relate to his audience. And as a result, we are met with lots of different feedback from students. As students started to settle down into their classes for the semester the recurring question has been; what did the students get out of the presentation and what was it they felt about the message?
A student referred to as Jelly, expresses her outlook on the matter stating that “I felt very sympathetic for him and I can relate to some of the issues he has gone through. Like problems, relationship issues, and with parents. I felt really bad for him but also proud because he was able to get through it, or move through all of that through his life to become such a big person.” And further continues,” whether it be big or small so they probably really related to him and felt more connected and felt like they needed to listen to his message more. So I think it was good that he brought out his real issues to share with us.”
This further emphasizes that Nick Tokman's message "Become your Captain" really affects the audience as a whole. Claiming that his different topics related to the audience and positively impacted them, Jelly stated “It was nice knowing the different ways he got through his tough times and how he became such a large figure.”
As a result, and to bring a new different perspective, we heard from Juliana, who felt in response to the question, if there was anything you would change about the presentation what would it be? he responded, “I honestly can say I wouldn’t change anything because I thought the message was really powerful with telling people to be themselves and not be scared of anything; just go after their dreams, so I think it was a great message.”The message was really powerful from both perspectives concerning? different topics
the message our speaker Nick Tokman communicated on his way to becoming a crab fisherman was that not only did he use his experience and his coming-of-age story to express it in a motivational light, but now he shares it with students from beyond the seas.
Become your captain has been a motto and phrase that he likes to leave with his audience because it leaves a lasting impression: that it is up to you and only you, to choose what you do with your life.
Courtesy of " An Unlikely Story"
Property of Comsewogue High school
Video by Emoni Barrett
Video by Dyllan Northover
Photos property of Mrs.O'Hara
Fun on the first day
By Riley Candreva and Terence Lian
The first day of school was a transitional day for all of the students here at Comsewogue High School. Students had to transition from their summer sleep schedules to waking up at the crack of dawn to catch the bus. There was also the transition from an eight-period day to a nine-period day. This can be a stressful time for students returning to school, so the administration decided to let the students have a little fun.
After the first day of school, Nick “Sunshine” Tokman held a presentation in the auditorium. After his presentation was finished for upperclassmen, and before his presentation for lowerclassmen, students could go to the field, cafeteria, or gym to partake in fun activities set up by the school. Activities included chess, spaghetti towers, giant Jenga, stomp rockets, cornhole, spikeball, and kan-jam. The school also hired a DJ to play popular music for the students to enjoy. Some students chose not to partake in the events and just hung out with their friends.
Most students gravitated towards the yard games such as cornhole, spikeball, and kan-jam, while games like the stomp rockets couldn’t seem to attract anyone. We noticed that there was a bit of a trend that the outdoor activities seemed to have more people there than the indoor activities. The overall reception to the games seemed positive as most students appeared to have fun.
We interviewed a few students around the school to ask how they spent their time during the events. We asked a student what he did after the first day and he said, “ On the first-day class was short and outside activities like cornhole” “Did you enjoy the events outside? “Uhh yeah it was pretty fun” “ It’s nice just to be outside”
We interviewed two other students. One of them said that they played chess in the cafeteria and hung out with her friends. She thought that the events were a good idea to help students settle back into the school year. Another student that we interviewed said that she stayed in the cafeteria and spent her time playing games with her friends.
We also surveyed ten students. We asked them what they thought about the events after the first day and if they would like it if the school did it again. Out of the ten students we surveyed, all of them enjoyed the events and would like for the school to do it again next year.
After the events were over, we all went home and most of us probably got some sleep, but likely will remember this first day of school as a day when we got to have fun and play games with friends.