My Favorite Home Workouts
By Kristina Drendel

Home workouts have received a huge influx of popularity in the past couple of months. Many people are still stuck at home despite some gyms beginning the process of reopening. However, many people may find that they do not want to go back to gyms, and instead are turning to home workouts. One of the easiest ways to find workout plans is through the internet, with YouTube serving as a fantastic resource for people who want a plethora of challenging and free workouts. I’ve tried a multitude of different fitness channels and videos and have listed some of my favorite ones below!

The Fitness Marshall’s Dance Cardio: This is one of my newest discoveries but is probably my favorite channel. This channel features tons of cardio style dance videos which are set to popular, upbeat songs. I love these because I never feel like I’m working out, but instead feel like I’m having fun while also burning a ton of calories! This channel keeps the videos short, but you can combine several videos to make a playlist of your favorite songs to dance to.

Tracy Campoli’s Bat Wings II Workout: Arm workouts can be tricky to do at home as many people have very few weights they can use, if they have any at all. Tracy’s workout is great because you work your arm muscles (especially your triceps) without the need to add any weight or use any equipment. You can of course add weights if you choose, but believe me when I say you will still feel the workout without them.

Sami Clarke’s 10-minute Abs: I’ll be honest…I hate doing abs. I find a lot of ab routines to be too repetitive and very few seem to give me the results I’m looking for. This hasn’t been the case with this workout, however. Sami Clarke keeps the workout short but still makes your abs burn by the end. I frequently feel it the next day, even though it’s just ten minutes. I also love that the video is challenging while still feeling completely possible to do.
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If these videos aren’t for you, no worries! There’s a ton of different videos in all sorts of styles to be found on YouTube. Remember that everybody is different so what works for one person may not necessarily work the same for you.
 
 

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My Summer Reading List
By Kristina Drendel
 
I love summer; I’ve always found it to be the perfect time to catch up on reading. During the school year, I get so stressed between classes and work that my reading list is frequently pushed to the side. But when summer comes around, I finally have plenty of time to put a dent in the list of books I have been wanting to get through! One of my favorite summertime activities is just sitting in the sun and reading for hours and hours on end. If you’ve been looking for some great reads for your free time this season, I’ve compiled a short list with books I am currently reading and books I plan on reading.
 
One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus. I think this book is one classic example of YA novels being pushed to the side and disregarded just because they are considered YA. Don’t let the teen label fool you! This novel is thrilling and enjoyable for both adults and teens alike. I don’t typically enjoy mystery type novels as I find they frequently give too much away too soon, but this one had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. The final plot twist completely blew me away and I bet it will do the same to you.
 
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I was one of the few teenagers who never had the pleasure of being assigned to read this classic while in high school but always wanted to! Most people know that the book centers around the theme of censorship and with the new internet censorship bill proposal, this classic is more important than ever.
 
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I know very little about this book, but had it recommended to me by several people I follow on social media and it seems intriguing. It’s been a while since I’ve read any gothic or horror type fiction, so I cannot wait to dive into this ghost story of two children and their governess.
 
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster. This is another novel I don’t know too much about but have seen recommended a bunch as of late. Travel/adventure stories don’t typically interest me (looking at you, Heart of Darkness), but with it being highly recommended, I wanted to add this one to my list. It is also currently ranked #25 on Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels of All Time.
 
 
 
 
Edited by Princess Berry

​The Pros & Cons of Audiobooks
By Elizabeth Dubos
 
Audiobooks are digital or physical recordings of a book. An unabridged audiobook has all the original content; This means the narrator does not skip or shorten parts of the story. An abridged audiobook is the shortened version with fewer words and phrases. However, the abridged version maintains a sense of the original book, so listeners do not get confused.
Audiobooks are available in libraries, bookstores, and monthly paid subscriptions. Would you like to give audiobooks a try, but are unsure on whether or not you’d like it? Here is a list of the pros and cons of listening to audiobooks.
 
Pros:
 
1. Convenience or active lifestyle. If you’re a person who feels like there’s never enough time in the day, then you should consider audiobooks. Audiobooks are excellent to listen to while cooking, cleaning, studying, exercising, or listening to on a commute via car, plane, or train. You can easily hit play and feel like you’re not missing out on reading because the narrator will introduce you to new plots, settings, and characters for you to enjoy. Audiobooks also allow you to multitask. Next, audiobooks are convenient because you don’t need to carry a physical hard cover or paperback to enjoy the story. You can pop in your headphones and listen to the story on your phone or tablet.
 
2. Eyesight. People who are blind or have difficulty seeing should not lose out on the opportunity to hear an amazing story. Narrators use various voices and speeds to help listeners envision the story they’re listening to. It’s an audiobook narrator’s job to help the story come alive for those who cannot physically read it. Also, audiobooks are excellent for those who work at a computer all day; At the end of the day your eyes are strained, and you get a headache from reading. Listening to an audiobooks de-stresses your eyes, thus allowing you to relax.
 
3. Educational. Are you an auditory learner? Do you have difficulty pronouncing unknown words or names? Audiobooks are great for those who are dyslexic because it teaches them how to pronounce words or names. Next, audiobooks are great for children because instead of TV, it’s audiobook listening time to stimulate their minds.
 
4. Environmentally friendly. Do you wish you could do more to save the environment? Audiobooks are environmentally friendly because they do not use paper, ink, or chemicals or manufacture; Therefore, you would be a saving trees!
 
Cons:
 
1. Technology dependent. If you’re not technology friendly, then audiobooks may not be good for you. The majority of audiobooks are digitally available; Therefore, you’re going to need a phone, tablet, or laptop to access your audiobook collection. Plus, if you want to download new audiobook content you need access to Wi-Fi. It’s much easier to open a book, than it is to figure out how to use audiobooks on a device. 
 
2. Expensive. Yes, libraries offer you access to their digital audiobook collection, but what if it’s not available or you don’t like anything you see. This may cause you to seek out a monthly audiobook subscription service like Audible, Amazon Kindle, or Scribd. While Scribd is the most affordable option with the most access to content, not everyone can afford to spare an extra $9.99 a month.
 
3. Visual learners. Audiobooks are not recommended for visual learners. For example, it can be frustrating if you’re trying to cook a recipe and not understand the recipe’s technical terms. If you are a visual learner, it’s easier for you to read a cookbook and look at the pictures.
 
4. Audiobooks are less engaging. If you’re the type of book lover who enjoys re-reading their favorite sections, then audiobooks may not be for you. You cannot re-read a section, take notes in the margins, or highlight an important or favorite quote. Now you’re making your brain work harder to organize and understand all the questions and content to better connect with the book. It’s important to connect with the material to fully understand its importance.
 
Edited by Kristina Drendel

Crushing Your Comfort Zone
By Morgan Mitchell
 
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch
 
Staring at the charmingly tiny two-story building, I fumbled with my car keys and barely remembered to lock the door before hastily stuffing them into my purse. I walked around to the other side of the car to meet up with my friend, Abby. After thanking her again for coming with me, I received the same response I had on the other occasions, which was her hand waving enthusiastically through the air as if she were trying to brush away my gratitude. It was an entirely friendly gesture, not at all intended to convey hostility or dismissal. She had wanted to come herself, and besides, she’s the type of outgoing that would enjoy meeting up with a friend anywhere. As an introvert, I admired her ability to experience new adventures with more excitement than trepidation. I did, however, have to give myself some credit. Whether I was nervous or not, I had successfully dragged myself to the aerial silks yoga class, and I wasn’t going to back out now. No one need know if my heart was racing. I could simply lift my chin a little higher and stuff my hands into my pockets to hide their tremor.
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Abby and I tried to enter the building through the door on the first level, but it was locked. Forced to climb the wrought-iron stairs lining the outside of the building, we made our way to the second story with the hope that we would have better luck there. Indeed, the handle turned without resistance, and the door was open wide. Only just managing to control my impulse to push Abby over the threshold first and make a run for it, I squared my shoulders and walked in.
As it turns out, we were the first class members to arrive. It gave me time to calm my introverted soul and all the nerves that come with agreeing to group activities of any kind, especially activities that are unfamiliar and thus impossible to prepare for. While Abby and I waited for the other people to arrive, we filled out an emergency contact form and signed a waiver. These forms are standard and required by law, but they certainly did nothing to relieve my stress. Because of my belief that being on time equates to being late—and because of my ensuing frantic need to be early for everything—Abby and I had a respectable amount of time to kill before the size of the class slowly grew in number.

Once everyone was in attendance, our instructor began with an introduction that explained the benefits of aerial yoga and how we should approach this experience as first-time flyers. As I learned, a major philosophy of aerial yoga is that it should be a no-judgment zone. I could decide that I did not like it after I tried it, but I could not dislike it simply because it was different. I realized I needed to check myself, fast. I had come into this class with a fear of aerial yoga because it wasn’t in my comfort zone. Growing up, I joined Girl Scouts, or I played in the band. I was never one to succeed in sports, and I wasn’t interested in physical activity, either. Yet here was a class marketing itself as a way to improve strength and balance, and I assumed it wasn’t for me because I had neither the strength nor the balance that I thought would be required for aerial yoga.

In the midst of my epiphany and my subsequent attempt to reevaluate the class, the instructor transitioned into a time of meditation. I scrambled to clear my mind in order to focus it on the task at hand. The meditation was followed by a series of warm-ups in which we held onto the silk sling with our hands and swayed in place, like flowers flowing in a breeze, to stretch our core muscles. We then sat on the yoga mats, and I placed my socked feet in the slings to practice crunches and other upper-body strength exercises. As someone who can barely do a crunch on solid ground, the experience was interesting, to say the least. We did lunges where we placed our arms in the slings for balance and then bent our knees up and down in a smooth, slow transition. The instructor also showed us how to turn upside down with the slings and then do crunches from this position, which strengthens the core muscles. She allowed the regular flyers to do this step on their own, but she thankfully came to each first-time flyer individually to spot us and help us in and out of the pose safely. As soft and delicate to the touch as the silk slings were, they had enough strength to support me once they were wrapped securely around my waist and I let go with my hands. This activity was definitely the most difficult because it required a lot of trust that the sling would hold me up. I was shocked when I realized that it had also been my favorite part. I had been terrified of trying something new because I just knew that I wouldn’t be capable of succeeding in something that was so demanding physically. In the end, though, it was the activity that challenged me the most that yielded the most reward.

Participating in activities that are outside of your comfort zone is hard. But it’s supposed to be! We would never be able to develop or grow as people if we only ever engaged in activities that are familiar and safe. To broaden our horizons is to stretch ourselves; it forces us to overcome our weaknesses. It can also bend and break our expectations and assumptions in ways that are so rewarding. I went into this experience with my own preconceived notions, but I discovered quickly that I had an incredibly incorrect image of aerial yoga in my mind. It is detrimental to automatically equate different with bad. We cannot possibly know how we feel about something until we have tried it, and we could lose out on a new favorite activity—or book, or movie, or song, or person—if we choose to come to conclusions without first giving it a chance.
 

​The Art of Fanfiction
By Karen Slininger
 
When we think of literature, we usually only consider novels and poems that are created from fresh ideas as part of this category. The characters and plot must be unique, having any references or inspirations be fleeting images. But what if we want to write about characters from a television show in a universe of our own creation or give our own twist to the plot of a video game? That’s what fanfiction is all about.
 
I grew up writing fanfictions about a handful of series, and I knew people who said that writing stories in this way was uncreative and unoriginal, even going as far as calling it lazy. What these critics don’t understand, however, is that I wouldn’t have even started my long journey into the world of writing if it had not been for these series and the incredible amounts of inspiration they gave me. From writing a plausible mission for a group of anime pirates to taking the names and descriptions of beloved wizards and inserting them into a slice-of-life Salsibury cafe scene, it’s fun to write out scenarios based on media that have left a lasting impression on our hearts.
 
Fanfictions have also snuck their way onto the shelves of many bookstores. Remember 50 Shades of Gray by E. L. James? This erotic novel was originally uploaded to a popular fanfiction website under a different name, Masters of the Universe. Why? Well, Mr. Christian Grey and Ms. Anastasia Steele used to be Mr. Edward Cullen and Ms. Bella Swan of the Twilight Saga. This is a classic example of borrowing characters we admire and putting them into an entirely new world, an alternate universe. 
 
Hopefully I’ve proved to you that fanfictions can be built from sheer creative thinking and inspiration as well as showing how it has made its way into our local Half Price Books or Barnes & Noble. Understandably, fanfiction writers save time in the writing process by borrowing ideas from the original content, but there is still a large amount of effort and dedication that these stories require. The longest piece of literature in the world was once In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, containing about 1.2 million words and even winning a Guinness World Record for Longest Novel. But what if I told you that his numbers have since been surpassed by a fanfiction? The Subspace Emissary's Worlds Conquest, a fanfiction based on Nintendo’s game series Super Smash Brothers, has been updating ever since 2008 and has clocked in at 4.1 million words to date. In a 2013 interview with Buzzfeed, Christian, the author who is better known by his online persona,  AuraChannelerChris, admitted that he began writing fanfiction as a way to improve his English and that it quickly became his most treasured pastime. His passion has not only made an enjoyable read for those who love Super Smash Brothers, but it has also moved the goal post for those wishing to create longer pieces of fiction. Can someone like this really be deemed a lazy writer?
 
In short, the craft of creating fanfictions is just as valid as writing the next bestseller, even if the audience is limited by the base content they’re writing from. Creating alternate universes or plot twists for their favorite characters takes a lot of effort, dedication, and, most importantly, creativity. They are written out of passion and respect for the original content that inspired them. Have you ever imagined different scenarios for characters from a beloved series to take part in? It may just be time to break out the notebook and get to writing.
 
 

Wade White
By Emily Chance
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This whole quarantine everyone is going through began to take a toll on my mental health. I didn’t feel like doing anything. I’d sit on my bed for hours, staring at the wall. So instead of slipping slowly into madness, I gave myself a task: write a short story using only one letter. Each word must begin with that particular letter. After a while, everything just clicked into place. Instead of slowly slipping into madness, I’d like to challenge you to do the same thing! This is what I came up with:
Disclaimer: I don’t know a Wendy Williams or a Wade White, or anyone who fits the description of these two characters. Any relation is purely coincidental.
 
Wee Wendy Williams went with Wade White wondering west...
Wading white waters....
 
Wee Wendy went with Wade, wandering west, without waving well wishes.
Wondering whitefolk wept… Wondering where wee Wendy went.
 
Wade was wrathful, wretched...
With wee Wendy with Wade, wading white water wandering west, Wade withdrew weapons within wee Wendy. Wasting wee Wendy's will... Withdrawing Wendy's wellness...
 
Wee Wendy's wrathful wraith wonders white waters weekly, weakly, while watching willows wallow windily.

Wade White wasn't worried....
Wade White went west without whitefolk's wrath.
Wee Wendy was wasted without whitefolk's weeping.
Without whitefolks wisdom.
Whitefolk wonder wearily where wee Wendy went.
 
Edited by Kristina Drendel