Online@ www.nw-tigers.org/the-octagon
Volume 68, Issue 8 January 6, 2017
About 21.4% of teenagers in the U.S. experience debilitat-ing mental illness (es.) That’s about one in every five middle-high schoolers who struggle with this. However, the me-dian rate of illnesses untreated go from 32.2% (schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders) to an
alarming 78.1%
(alcohol dependency). So why is this? Why aren’t people seeking help? There are a num-ber of reasons, but they can all be generalized into two main issues: stigma and availability.
Psycho. Crazy. Re-tarded. Dumb. Maniac. Mental Case. Spaz. These are just some of the words people care-lessly use, but they’re more than just words, they have an impact. Have you noticed what these insults have
in common yet? They all degrade people with mental illnesses or disabili-ties. I know, this seems like a stretch, but things like this condition us to think that neurodivergence (mental illness or disability) is bad, awful, and scary, and so are neurodiver-gent people.
This seemingly small thing isn’t so small when you’re au-tistic and you constantly hear people call annoy-ing or bothersome things “retarded.” People with psycho-sis (remember psychopsycho-sis By Jay Gaare
Today:
5:45 / 7:15 PM:
Girls Basket-ball vs. Lady-smith @ NHS
Saturday:
DECA Districts
@ UW-Stout
10:00 AM:
Var-sity Wrestling @ Eau Claire North High School
Monday:
5:00 PM:
School Board Meeting
Tuesday:
5:45 / 7:15 PM:
Boys’ Basket-ball vs. Cum-berland @ NHS
Thursday:
5:00 PM: Wrestling @ Virginia HS
5:45 / 7:15 PM: Girls Basket-ball vs. Chetek @ NHS
1/08
Dakota Meyers
1/11
Malachi Helenius
1/12
Courtney Olson
Happy
Birthday!
Pg. 4 Winter Sports Pg. 3 Senior Prof’s
Pg. 6 Tiny Mouse Shop
Friday, January 20, marks the official date for swearing in the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump.
The presidential inau-guration marks the first day of the president’s four-year term. The event takes place in front of the U.S. Capitol.
At the inauguration, Mike Pence will be sworn into office first and it will be followed by
Donald Trump’s oath to office.
Trump will then pre-sent his inaugural address to the nation; a speech that is known to set the tone for the president’s term. This year Trump’s speech is reportedly on the topic of “dreaming big.”
The rest of inaugura-tion day is typically filled with celebration. Parades, formal dances, and musi-cal performances from celebrities are expected
in the day’s festivities, but this year there might be a change of plans.
This year a number of “A-list” celebrities have declined their invitation from Trump to appear at the inauguration. Each celebrity has a different reason for not performing at this inauguration.
Elton John decided to decline his invitation to perform saying, “I don’t really want my music to
By Jennifer Thul
See ‘Inauguration’ pg. 4 See ‘Stigma’ on pg. 2 The Amberwing medallion each
olent) hear criminals labeled a “psycho” or “madman,” or those with eating disorders hear their peers joke about others who can’t eat without throwing it up.
Basically, words and phrases like these teach us to hate, avoid, and/or shun people who have neurodivergence.
Stigma lies deeper than just insults, though. Bullying and harass-ment is a common expe-rience among those who are neurodivergent,
es-pecially those whose differences are visible. If you already have mental health issues, and you’re being bullied for them, it’s very likely that those issues would get worse. Or if you have a mental disability, and are bullied because of it, mental illness(es) can arrive because of that trauma.
If you are bullied be-cause you are different, and because some things are harder or impossible for you to do because of that difference, that cre-ates shame around hav-ing specific needs or accommodations. One is less likely to be open about their neurodiver-gence or ask for help
to have it.
Now there’s also the issue of availability. When you live in a rural area it’s considerably harder to make it to town often than if you lived in say, the Twin Cities.
Not to put people off on getting help, because it is possible, but for some driving 45+ minutes to make it to Duluth is a real issue. And then, in other areas, they may not be so for-tunate to at least have good options (although 45 minutes away), or might just have a few lacklus-ter programs or thera-pists with bad reputa-tions. This can deter someone from seeking professional guidance, or make it impossible if say one is transgender and they need a gender therapist and there are none.
Cost is also a huge factor. If you don’t have insurance, medical care can make for a very ex-pensive bill. As some-one with anxiety, I know that there is often unjustified guilt that tags along.
Meaning that you can feel like a burden or in-convenience for needing help or for the cost the help you get costs; newsflash, you aren’t a
burden!
Taking medication for mental health is a valid and useful tool when used correctly and when the medicine is right for you. It can seriously work wonders; however, self-medication like al-cohol, marijuana, street drugs, abused prescrip-tion drugs, etc. is dan-gerous and does way more harm than good. Keep in mind there are also online re-sources, call centers, text-lines, and friends and family you can reach out to. Know that it’s not shameful if you have to go to therapy or doctor appointments. It’s okay to spend three weeks at Amber-wing like I did. It’s a great program and liter-ally anyone can use the skills they teach. Miller Dwan is also available if you’re feeling like you or your friend is in im-mediate danger to them-selves.
If you need help, get it. Don’t do this alone.
Please don’t start self-medicating as an alter-native, but if you have, please seek treatment for it.
Even if you find it hard to love yourself, know that others love you.
You’re valid, loved, and needed on this earth, so please make sure you’re taking care of yourself.
Courtesy of Kat Selwyn Layton
Sr. Editor:
Jay Gaare
Jr. Editor:
Ashley Olson
Staff Members: Yuri Achucarro Katelynn Clemmer
Janaia Fudally Ashton Goette Alayna Johnson
Lilli Kovaleski Miranda Maki Jeffrey McClure
Ashley Olson Crystal Taylor Jennifer Thul
Advisor:
Mrs. Thompson
Q: Describe your mid-dle school self.
A: “LOL” (all I did was laugh).
Q: What would you do if you found $100? A: Spend it on my nails, or go shopping.
Q: What do you wish was on the school lunch menu? A: Noodles & Co.
Q: Favorite sports team/player?
A: Minnesota Vikings, Adrian Peterson,
be-cause I grew up with him being the best run-ning back in football.
Q: What trend do you find the most ridicu-lous?
A: Neck chokers.
Q: If you had to marry a celebrity who would it be?
A: Zac Efron or Justin Bieber.
Q: Write a small thank you to any men-tor who has helped you in these past four years.
A: Mrs. Wise, she was my school mom and I couldn’t thank her enough for all that she’s done for me.
By Jeffrey McClure
Alexa
Prior
Q: Describe your middle school self.
A: Tomboy.
Q: What do you wish was on the school lunch menu? A: More beefy nachos be-cause that’s the only school lunch I eat.
Q: What's the most embar-rassing hair/makeup/ clothing style you used to have?
A: Wearing “Aye she’s mine, Aye he’s mine” shirts with my middle school boyfriend.
Q: Favorite sports team/ player?.
A: Allen Iverson because he doesn’t have to practice.
Q: Write a
small thank you to any mentor who has helped you in these past four years. A: Thank you, Hannah Mon-tana. You taught me body makes mistakes, body has those days, every-body knows what I’m talking about, everybody gets that way. #Nobody’sPerfect
Q: If I were given a _____ (an animal), I would ______.
A: If I were given a pig, I would make bacon.
Q: Worst experience in high school?
A: Running an entire basket-ball practice my sophomore year because Allison Ruffi took my laser pointer and shined it at a teacher.
Alexa Prior, Lyndzee Parker, and Emily Albright.
Q: If your future went exactly as planned, what would it look like? A: I would be finan-cially stable working as a dental hygienist and living in a nice house with my dogs.
Q: Describe your middle school self.
A: Braces, bad style.
Q: What trend do you find the most ridiculous?
A: Chokers
Q: What do you wish was on the school lunch menu? A: Taco John’s
Q: What's the most embarrassing style you used to have? A: Leggings/tights under jean shorts, big fuzzy sparkly neon boots from Justice.
Q: If you could only have one flavor of ice cream forever what would it be? A: Chocolate.
Lyndzee
Parker
Emily
Over holiday break all of the sports teams had a tournament. Wrestling competed in the Northern Badger Classic in River Falls. The girls basket-ball team played in the Wood City Coaches Classic while the boys’ team played in the Esko Coaches Classic also. The wrestling team
finished ninth out of 40 teams in the Northern Badger Classic. Seven of 10 players advanced to the second day of the tournament. Calen Kirk-patrick and Donny Pool-er both made it to the fi-nals where they got sec-ond place.
Also placing for the Tigers were Jameson Pflug, seventh; Morgan Berggren, eighth; An-drew Hanson, ninth; Alex Isakson, 10th; and Luke Gregerson, 12th.
Last night the wres-tlers competed at home against former Coach Coleman’s new team, the Superior Spartans. The Tigers emerged victori-ous 50-25.
The boys’ basketball
team won two of the four games played since Christmas break began. At the Esko Coaches Classic, the varsity won
one game and lost one, while the junior varsity won both. This past Tuesday night, all three Tiger teams (varsity, jun-ior varsity and C Team) defeated the Cameron Comets at home.
Last night they trav-eled to Bloomer where the varsity lost. Their next game is Tuesday at home against Cumber-land.
Meanwhile the girls’ team has scored quite a few points, winning each of their three games. They were the victors at the Wood City Coaches Classic and de-feated the Cumberland Beavers on Tuesday night.
The girls play at home tonight against Lady-smith. JV game begins at 5:45 p.m., and the varsity game at 7:15.
By Jeffrey McClure
election campaign. I’m British. I’ve met Donald Trump, he was very nice to me, it’s nothing per-sonal…”
Justin Timberlake and Katy Perry were both sought-after celebrities for the inauguration. Both celebrities said no to the opportunity. After all, Katy Perry is known as a supporter of Hillary Clin-ton and Timberlake held a Clinton fundraiser at his house.
After much debate, it has been decided that The Rockettes will make an appearance at the inaugu-ration; however, some of
the dancers in the group are opposed to the idea of performing for Trump.
Madison Square Gar-den Company (owners of The Rockettes) recently made a statement saying that each performance is voluntary for each of the dancers. The do not need to perform at an event if they do not wish to.
Another celebrity, Alec Baldwin, tweeted that he would love to perform at the inauguration. Alt-hough he was never offi-cially invited to perform, he said in a tweet that he would sing AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” if he were given the opportuni-ty.
So far the only con-firmed performers at
Trump’s inauguration have been Jackie Evancho and The Mor-mon Tabernacle Choir,
Jackie Evancho is most well-known for her run-ner-up finish on the show America’s Got Talent. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is from Salt Lake City, Utah and is made up of 360 volunteer sing-ers.
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir will be making an appearance at Trump's inauguration.
The best part about the New Year is that it’s a clean slate. There’s a sense of comfort in leav-ing the past behind, feel-ing encouraged to let bad habits end with 2016, and becoming motivated to make positive changes in 2017.
The reason why New Year’s resolutions can actually work is that there’s something about a
fresh start that not only drives us to be better, but reminds us that it’s pos-sible to wipe our slate clean and change our ways.
The mentality behind “a New Year equals a fresh start” is incredibly powerful and motivating. There’s a reason why January is the busiest month of the year at your local gym. People are more likely to take action and put in effort toward achieving their goals when something external
has represented a new beginning.
The best thing you can do is make specific New Year’s resolutions, rather than just make a mental note that you’d like to “exercise more often” or “spend more time with the family.”
Here is a list of the top five resolutions that many people strive for when each new year be-gins.
1. Put your phone down during life’s important moments.
Many of us may have this resolution. If you learn to put down the phone during memorable moments, you’ll take in and enjoy what’s hap-pening so much more. When you’re on va-cation, take it all in and keep the phone in your hotel room for a few hours while you go out exploring with all your senses. When you’re out
with friends, enjoy
their company by putting the phone down. In gen-eral, your best year yet will be 2017 if you can break your addiction to your phone.
2. Weight loss.
It’s the most common resolution counting for about 40% of all New Year resolutions. Unfor-tunately, our determina-tion usually lasts just a few weeks and people soon get back to their unhealthy routines: Eat-ing whatever they want, whenever they want. (Though remember you can diet and exercise un-healthily too. Be kind to your body.)
3. Saving money.
Improving finances is a resolution that about 14% of people make. These days, as much as a third of all Americans have no money in their savings account, so let’s hope the resolutions for 2017 will improve that number.
4. Get organized.
Time management and better organization is an-other important area many people wish to im-prove and January is a
great time to start work-ing on it. Many of us could spend hours mak-ing a mess but have no desire to clean it up and be organized.
5. Spend more time with family and friends.
If you manage to keep the previous resolution, it might be easier for you to follow this one as well.
The beginning of the year is also an ideal time to spend more time with kids or reconnect with family that you haven’t seen in awhile.
Unfortunately, peo-ple tend to get back to their working routine soon with only small numbers of those who can maintain the goal throughout the whole year.
There are so many more New Year’s resolu-tions out there some more being, exercising, managing stress, travel-ing, getting a job, doing better in school, getting more sleep, etc.
Do you have a New Year’s resolution? If not, consider setting one for yourself. It may not last but at least you can say you tried.
By Crystal Taylor
Do you have some problems in life using or fixing stuff in life you use every day? Well here are some of the best life hacks.
Spring Phone: Do you sometimes have to buy new iPhone chargers be-cause the head of the charge broke or bent? Well did you know that if you put a spring on the head of the charger you can prevent bending the
charger from breaking and you have lots of money.
Newspaper with Pop Can: Do you sometime bring pop to school? Well did you know that
if you wrap a cold can of soda in newspaper the can should stay cold for three hours.
Wet Pizza: Your family if having pizza for By Yuri Achucarro
See ‘Life Hack’ pg. 6 “...There’s a sense of comfort
doesn't eat all the pizza so you think that it would be a good for lunch, so you put in the refrigera-tor, but when you get to lunch and you realize that the pizza is hard and cold. Well did you know that if you put your pizza on a plate and fill a cup with water. After that you put it in the micro-wave for a minute. After that minute the pizza will be hot and good to eat.
Fix scratches with Toothpaste: Does your car get scratched a lot or have a lot of scuffs? You can solve that by putting some toothpaste on a damp rag and just rub it
Walk like a Penguin:
Do you hate walking on ice because you think that you will fall and get hurt? Well, if you keep your gravity over your front leg you can save yourself from falling down on ice. Be a pen-guin when you walk on ice the next time.
Key Coloring: Do you lots of keys on your keychain? And you can't tell which one it your house key, garage key, locker key… If you dip your different keys in different colors of nail polish, you can tell which key is which.
rip open and the juice of the food leaks out and you have to clean it which makes you work harder?
If you want to prevent that from happening, put two or three pieces of old newspaper on the bottom of the trash can (inside the bag) and you will save time cleaning. It will absorb the juices of the waste food. (Like milk, juices, and so on.)
Out of Strawberries:
Do you love strawber-ries, but hate the leaves on the top? Use a straw to remove them without getting yourself dirty.
until you get to the leaves of the strawberry.
Bubble Spoon: When you are cooking pasta or boiling eggs, does the water boil over and make a mess? If you place a wooden spoon on top of the pot, you can prevent the water from boiling over.
Spaghetti Light: Ev-er burned yourself when lighting a candle wick that is really hard to reach? Try lighting a piece of spaghetti and then use that to light the wick without burning yourself.
It can be easy to miss the all the little details just walking down the street, and usually they aren’t too important, but walking through the streets of Malmӧ, Swe-den, there’s some little shops you really don’t want to miss.
Don Bluth, Disney, and Astrid Lindgren
were credited for provid-ing the inspiration for these magical shops for mice, a bakery and a cheese and cracker shop to be specific.
Located in the neigh-borhood of Mӧllevången, the little shops have min-iature chairs, tables, and basically anything you’d find in a human sized shop, there’s even
vari-ous decora-tions, like posters and curtains, and actual food. The stores are made out of items found by the creator, an anonymous member of the artist group Anonymouse MMX, like
caps, tin can lids, match-es, buttons, a lamp shade, Italian stamps, basically keeping the idea to use items a mouse itself may collect and reuse.
Unfortunately, the shops aren’t actually open for business, they remained locked, until they are destroyed by humans or eventually become an organic part of Malmӧ. However, hu-man interaction with the
shops has become fairly popular, some people have even baked minia-ture bread rolls for the bakery, and created dec-orations for the shops. The mysterious mouse artist plans to create more little shops within the neighborhood, and already has plans in the works for more additions to create an adorable mouse-sized village. By Ashton Goette
Two shops named Noix De Vie and Il Topolino.
