When asked how he learned to swing dance, Dick said his sister taught him and she learned when she was in college.

“It’s a fun way to have fun and have a good time with friends,” he said.

Newcomer decided to start a club at school focused on swing dancing, so that more of her friends and other students can also learn this unique style of dance.

“If you go anywhere [to swing dance] it’s mainly old people, so that’s why I wanted to start the club,” she said.

When asked to describe swing dancing, Newcomer said, “20′s [dancing] would probably be the best description.”

They will hold their first meeting on Monday, Jan.30 at 3:15 p.m. in Rm 183 after school.

“I’ll teach how to lead, how to follow, all the basic moves, and I’ll hope people can figure it out,” Dick said.

Carrying his trusty flashlight, Howard confidently strode through the halls, illuminating the school for students and staff alike.

Here is our hero’s story:

“I was in one of my teachers’ class studying during their planning period, and I asked to go get something real quick. On my way there the lights flickered, then they went off. I was in the stairwell, so the doors closed. I walked back to see what happened. A few teachers and I thought there might be a city-wide problem, so we went to see if the traffic lights were still on,” Howard said.

Howard was then asked why he had the flashlight on him (that may have just saved his life).

“My flashlight was a gift from my mom. I don’t remember why I was given it, other than for emergencies. I used to bring it to school last year, but not much. Second semester we had a power outage for like five minutes. I was in an interior room with no natural light, so I thought ‘hey, I gotta bring this to be prepared’, and next thing you know, I have it on a day like this,” he said.

In her free time, Lamp teaches herself Japanese.

She began in eighth grade, when her friend introduced her to anime. “I’ve always been interested in art, so I grew to really enjoy that style of cartooning. Through that, I started learning a lot about Japanese culture and I thought it was really interesting. Their language was what stood out the most to me though” she said.   

Lamp uses a variety of different methods including flashcards, books, websites, and even Japanese music.

“You hear a lot of words you’re learning which helps with memorization and pronunciation,” she said.

Since she doesn’t learn the language through school, she doesn’t have the extra stress of homework and tests, and she can learn at her own pace.

However, she claims, “It’s difficult because you have to use a lot of self- discipline, or else you won’t get anywhere.”

Aside from learning Japanese, Lamp learns Spanish in school. Once she is fluent in Japanese, she wishes to learn Korean.

As advice to those who wish to learn a language on their own Lamp says, “Learning about culture and some of the history is really helpful. Also, when you learn words, try and use them when you can.”

However, sophomore Jessica Brow did not discard childhood collection of Beanie Babies. Instead, she felt the desire to let her collection grow.

Since she was about two years old, Brown has constantly added new members to her collection of Beanie Babies. Most of the additions to the collection, she has received from her parents. Brown’s collection has grown to be massive due to all of these donations.

“I’m not even joking. I have [almost] a thousand!” she said.

These days, the collection is so large that many of the Beanie Babies are still in the original packaging.

“I’m just too lazy to take them out of the boxes. I have so many,” she said.

There are many  unique Beanie Babies within her collection. Brown owns many Beanie Babies from out of state areas and foreign cities.

“If they go on a trip, they’ll bring one back from that city,” she said.

Brown’s favorite piece of the collection is her customized teddy bear Beanie Baby with her name on it.

“It’s pink,” she said, “and it says my name on it. It’s so cute!”

Lawrence takes his Lego collection to the next level.

Today, he estimates he has over two million individual Legos.

“Before I can even remember, I’ve had Legos,” Lawrence said.

His collection started at the age of six, when the first Bionicle line came out. Lawrence said the Bionicle’s story and the pieces really fascinated him, and he wanted to learn more.

Lawrence said recently he has stopped buying Legos and instead getting donations from his friends. He’s already received so many donations that he now has a room dedicated to his collection.

Building with Legos isn’t just for fun, Lawrence said it also influenced him to learn more about engineering. Today, he attributes his love for science to his early interest in Legos.

“There are over 1.6 million ways to combine six Lego pieces,” Lawrence said, “With the 2 million that I have, imagine what I could do with it.”

Hertel first realized a career as a fashion model might be possible when her sister’s friend, Anna Bryant, told her she “had such potential as a model.  [Bryant] is also a model.”

This was affirmed when Bryant “showed some of my pictures to a company and they said they would love to have me.”

Luckily, Hertel’s parents and family were also very supporting of her dream to become a model.

As for her future, Hertel doesn’t have any definite plans one way or another.

She said, “Modeling isn’t my first plan; it’s a second plan.  If it comes along, it would be great.  I know I really want to finish high school first and go to college before I decide anything.”

Ever since she was young, Youngberg has been painting her own nails and within the last three years she has started to paint designs on her own and others’ nails.

When asked why she first started painting nails, Youngberg said “Because it’s fun.” 

She said that her nails are basically her art canvas.

“I make up half of [my designs] and then I get the other ones from places like Youtube,” Youngberg said.

She said her favorite design she has ever done is cheetah print.

Youngberg owns around 50 bottles of nail polish along with multiple nail brushes and other nail art tools.

Although she has everything she would need to start some kind of a nail art business, when asked if she wants to do something with nails in her future, she said, “No because it’s not a practical career.”

For now, painting nails is only a practical hobby for Youngberg.

“I started working with Maurice Hirsch in June of 2006.  He showed, trained and bred horses for 30 years he is in the hall of fame for the Paso Fino horse. He was president of the association,” Morse said.

“I started training with him, and went down to Kansas City to pick out a horse which I started working with. We just sold her, her name was La Siloueta de La Pina,” Morse said.

She would run his private barn and take care of his horses, dogs and clean the stalls.

Morse said, “I’m working with his 4-year old-colt which I have known since he was a yearling. His name is Montoya de La Pina.”

She said this summer she will start training other people’s horses, and that she hopes to show with Montoya de La Pina this summer, and take him to Nationals.

When Bednarek was three months old she was adopted from China.

“In China there’s a policy that parents can only have one child because there’s an overpopulation problem and you also can’t bring a child to an orphanage,” she explained.

Bednarek was left in a zoo and was picked up and brought to the orphanage by the police not long afterward.

She was brought to a doctor to ensure that she had no health problems and was then put up for adoption.

“I actually don’t know my exact birth date and the doctor just had to estimate what it was by my belly button,” Bednarek said.

Now she celebrates her birthday every year on the estimated day.

Bednarek said that because she was adopted, she has strong beliefs toward certain subjects.

“It makes me pro-life because I realize that if my parent’s would have aborted then that could have been me,” she said.

Bednarek also said when she is older she would be interested in adopting a baby from China, just as her adoptive parents did.

“When I was in 6th grade, there was this piece called ‘Kazoo Symphony’ and I started playing it with the other kids; our teacher gave us kazoos. And I just started playing, and I guess it just really stuck,” Baldwin said.

Her collection includes various pieces in bright colors. Baldwin said, “My favorite is the Hawk Nelson one, because it had a special memory with it.”

She continued, “I went to a Hawk Nelson concert a few years ago. They have a song that has a kazoo solo in it. I bought a kazoo at the concert and played along in the audience. Everyone looked at me like, ‘wow…’, but whatever! It was really fun.”

Baldwin says she’s likely to continue to play the kazoo in the future. “Whether it be entertaining little kids or maybe it’s in a symphony piece that’s really silly. I can see myself continuing to play.”