Sometimes, when I succumb to boredom, I travel to the land of YouTube. I’ll admit, I’ve watched all sorts of things: Family Guy clips, funny kitten videos, stupid home videos, celebrity news gossip, and the list goes on. But most recently, I watched a series of videos about the world’s “important thinkers.” I’m talking Steven Hawking, Bill Gates, Abe Lincoln, Albert Einstein—you know, that crowd.

But after watching a few videos about the accomplishments of these great individuals, I found myself saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?’ Why didn’t I think to run a tungsten filament through a vacuum and call it a light bulb? Why didn’t I think to put some fancy food coloring in water, add high fructose corn syrup, and make a fortune off of “vitamin water”? Why didn’t I think of adding a fancy name—“Beanie Babies”—to little stuffed animals? Why didn’t I think of the cure for the common cold, the invention of penicillin, or the advent of the modern engine? Think of all the things that people have thought up: telephones, MP3 players, Kibbles cat food, Puffs tissues, Crayola crayons, Doritos nacho cheese chips, jet engines and Kool-Aid.

I get this feeling. You know what I’m talking about? That feeling when you see or learn about something and you think, “Ah darn. Why didn’t I think of that?” I see a bag of Tostido chips and think, well, why didn’t I grind up corn meal, give it a catchy name and stick it on supermarket stands?

Believe it or not, I’ve found the simple answer to that rhetorical question. Why didn’t I think of that? Simple. Because I have been too busy in school learning about the things that other people have already thought of. That’s what high school is: a place where we are taught things that other people have already thought of. Theorems, principles, economic theories, chemical reactions, grammatical structures, fifteen ways to criticize the way I phrased this sentence, et cetera. But as I’ve come to realize, there is a distinct reason why we have endeavored through high school: so we can replace and become those brilliant minds.

We ARE the next generation of people ‘who thought of that.’ When a kid twenty years from now is walking down an isle of Toys “R” Us, sees that world class tricycle, and thinks, ‘why didn’t I think of that?’, well guess who thought of it? Patented by Sir Michael Chiauzzi, developed using the principles of wind resistance that he learned in physics. And when you walk into CVS and you need a prescription for the superbacteria that allegedly inherits the world, guess who genetically engineered the concoction you swallow? Paul Kuta, sitting behind a microscope, finagling a new way to impair the production of peptidoglycan that he learned about in AP Bio with Mr. Dempsey. What if you’re on a plane sixty years from now and you encounter a storm so big it could only be the product of global warming? Who is going to guide your plane to safety? Christian Halsey, who calls upon his days of pilot training from his teenage years.

Simply put, ABRHS class of 2010, we are the future! High school is over but has served an important purpose: high school has helped me to learn how to think, how to organize my thoughts and communicate them effectively. I am convinced that this school has given us the hammer that we need to make a dent in this world. However, it is up to each and every one of us to wield that hammer to do something real. There is so much potential, so many niches to fill, so many ideas that have not yet been thought of. But if we are not to devote ourselves to thinking about the eventualities of our world, then who is?

Fate has a strange way about it. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that thirty years from now, each and every one of you will be struck by a random, serendipitous Acton-Boxborough reunion. The phone rings at dinnertime. “Hi, this is Sophia Carreras calling on behalf of Invisible Children. Could I have a minute of your time?”

“Sophia? Carreras? This is Alex Cantrell—didn’t we go to high school together?” Or, “Fellow citizens, I, Connor Maher, come before you as the president of the world.”

“Connor? Maher? This is Alex Cantrell—didn’t we go to high school together?”

Or, “He’s pulling away, he barrels down the straight away and 42.79, it’s a new four hundred meter world record by Steven Forgo…”

“Steven? Forgo? Didn’t we go to high school together?”

Look around you. You are surrounded by an infinity of unknown potential. Each and every one of you could be the next groundbreaking clothes designer, or the next musical phenom. That kid you never talked to in sophomore year English class might be the next astronaut, pioneering the way for humanity on Mars. We are inheriting the duty to think of those things that no one else has yet thought of.

This duty should not be taken lightly. Be as inventive as Mr. Clinton, harnessing solar energy to power fish filters while using the fish waste to fertilize soil for tomato plants. Be as impassioned as Mr. Romano and Mrs. Marsh, leading this class to victory. Live so uniquely that there isn’t a metaphor that can describe you. Someday thirty years from now, I want to be wasting time on YouTube (if it still exists) and come across the latest greatest invention that cures cancer and rids the world of poverty simultaneously and see that it was a fellow AB grad. Because that’s how great you are. That is what you’re capable of.

And to any of you underclassmen out there who are listening to this speech and thinking, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Well hah, I beat you to it.

So I’ll leave you with this: a call to duty, a rise to action. A command, an urgent plea: become the next generation of thinkers! Explore, imagine, create, design. I demand from you nothing less than ingenuity, and I ask that you step into the shoes of the Einstein’s and Edison’s of our past. Think of what has never been thought. Do what has never yet been done. Dedicate your life to never having to say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Become that thinker in the first place.

Thank you, class of 2010. It’s been an honor.

Crayons smell like childhood. Actually, pretty much anything Crayola smells like childhood. So do grass stains, strawberry flavored Twizzlers and freshly opened band-aids.

Summer is sunscreen, hot asphalt and a soft undercurrent of sweat. Saturdays are the warm smell of your pillow as you roll out of bed at 10:30 and that stale popcorn smell of movie theaters. First period is the confusing mingling of coffee and toothpaste.

Every time period has a unique smell set, a kind of sensory catalogue. So what does that make high school? High school smells like the spill of ink splashed out across open notebooks as freshmen try to write down every word their teacher says. It’s that satisfactory burned smell left over in chem lab that makes you think science would be a lot cooler if it always ended in lighting something on fire. And it’s like a fresh book in English class when you know you are the first person to ever crack the spine. It’s also whatever it is they’re cooking in the cafeteria, week old gym clothes crammed in lockers, and people. High school smells like people. But right now, high school smells a whole lot like nostalgia.

What does it all mean? Well, I’m not totally sure, but recently I’ve been having a little trouble wrapping my mind around this whole idea of memory. It’s a little overwhelming. But I heard somewhere that smell is the sense most tied to memory, and smell is something I understand. So I decided to break down my high school experience into little scent units to better understand what it is that I’m actually leaving behind when I take my diploma. Because, despite what you have been led to believe in the past, high school will never be summed up in a line from a movie or a quote from JFK. The smells hold the key. I know this because every time I smell fresh wax it’s like I’m sucked down into a high school cliché vortex and I am right back to the first day of freshman year.

So, here are the smells, care of Acton Boxborough Regional High School, that have made me who I am today. Chlorine. Chlorine is freshman gym, feeling self conscious in my bathing suit, getting a little too into water polo. Chlorine is also late nights at speech and debate practice walking out to the senior lot as the swim team is finishing practice and the entire west wing smells like pool. The smell of charcoal is hours spent in a half dark art room bent over a drawing board as Ms. McKay and Ms. Greene correct technique and praise composition. Any kind of strong cheese is Mr. Green’s second period Euro where you don’t want to be the classless one who doesn’t try whatever the cheese portal has to offer, but you aren’t sure if your stomach can handle anything so pungent at 8:30 in the morning.

It seems we’ve taken the first step in conquering the elusive “memory,” but it’s clear that smells are just the beginning. We still have a lot more memories to explore. With all the moments these smell memories have uprooted from the depths of my consciousness, I’ve just realized how many more little details I want to remember. We have spent twelve years with the people seated around us. Twelve years. That is a lot of memory material. Granted, some might say “blackmail” material, but we’ll try to be more positive.

So I’ll take a deep breath, recall the smells of M + M’s from the principal on our birthdays and dusty rubber kick-balls and stir up some equally dusty Gates School memories. Bryn Clark and I had teddy bear picnics every Thursday afternoon for all of first grade. In second grade, I spent hours playing Wheel of Fortune on N64 in Carl Budlong’s basement. We cheered every time we won the washing machine. Then there was that time when Colin Berry got locked in my shed and tried to break his way out with a wiffle bat. In sixth grade, Mr. Curren’s class, Dana Duquette and Sean Macaluso ate my Free OK’s. They actually ate my homework passes. That was a lot of paper.

These memories are what make this class so fantastic. It’s the little things we have to struggle to remember. That’s what’s so confusing about memories. It’s the stories we really want to remember that we always lose. I challenge you all to remember some tiny interaction you had back in the day. Maybe you don’t talk to that person anymore. Sometimes I forget I even spent every day in the same building they did, but it doesn’t matter, because I don’t want to forget these things and people who made these years of controlled chaos bearable.

Class plays freshman year, I slapped Josh Linden in the face everyday in rehearsal for a month. I’m sorry. In freshman gym, Macauley Brooks and I learned that we both equaled half a boy when Mr. Marashio put both of us on the boys’ team in water polo to balance out the one missing boy on the other team. In earth science, Lindsay Lavin, Erin Fry, Erin Oxnard and I spent way too long playing in the sand of our stream table.

I guess what I’m saying is that every time we tripped up the stairs in front of the seniors in the west wing, every time we made the trek to K-Mart because we were just too lazy to get a spot at the pumphouse, every drive to nowhere, every concert, every beach trip, every train ride, every pop quiz, every minute we spent plotting our escape from this school and this town and this godforsaken state in the middle of January got us to where we are today.

Remember it all even in these moments of overwhelming excitement and fear and hope for the future. Because, deep down, you know that you will never escape this school, because your nose just won’t let you. So, before you go off, before you burn your notes, pack everything you own to go to college two months in advance and friend all your teachers on Facebook, take a moment and look around. Stop and smell the-—wait for it—memories. Because you know, Acton Boxborough Regional High School graduating class of 2010, every time you smell fresh-baked cookies or stale locker room or stress, you will be transported back to this place. And every time you smell crushed grass and whatever it is these gowns smell like, expect to find yourselves right back here in this moment. Take a deep breath, because this, right here, is the smell of success. Congratulations, seniors!

Some of us find our calling for The Spectrum after writing our first editorial, news article, or movie review. Others have meandered onto the path unexpectedly throughout the years. For Lily Liu, Specials editor for the past two years and soon-to-be Georgetown freshman, writing for The Spectrum was not always the first thing on her mind. “Like any ambitious little AB freshman,” she reflects, “I was first drawn to The Spectrum because I needed an extracurricular.” With “hardcore academic teams” out of the option, she settled for The Spectrum, which seemed at the time “a perfect balance between something academically-related and something upbeat and fun.”

For Lily, what she will remember most about her time at The Spectrum are the editors’ meetings. She says, “That’s where I really got to know everyone… sitting around in a circle and bouncing our ideas off of each other was so much fun!” An editor needs to not only know the ropes of leadership, dedication, and of course, engaging writing, but also have a great capacity for creativity. Nothing is more crucial to the Specials section in The Spectrum. Over her two years working for The Spectrum, Lily has had section themes that include AB diversity, Olympics, healthy eating, and insight on the AB faculty.

Editor-in-Chief Jackie Surdan reveals, “Specials is one of the more challenging sections to edit. The themes for each issue must be interesting enough to grab readers’ attention and broad enough that many different articles can be written on the topic. Lily did a great job coming up with new and interesting ideas for each issue for which she was editor. Her happy, bubbly personality made her an awesome colleague, and though we’ll miss her, I know she’ll be very successful at college.” Advisor Ms. Hammond adds, “I always looked forward to seeing how the germ of an idea presented at an editors’ meeting would play out in the actual articles Lily managed to generate. She never let us down, bringing a sense of humor and creativity to this section. I’ll miss her, and hope she keeps a corner of her college career open to the student newspaper.”

The Spectrum has taken up a central part in Lily’s memories of AB. Reminiscing, she distinctly recalls the time when Jackie promised to buy her a dark chocolate Hershey’s bar because she wrote a last minute article for the graduation issue last year, Lily comments, “It took her a couple of months to actually get me the chocolate, but it was totally worth the wait!”

When asked about what she plans for the future, Lily responds, “Tabula rasa! The future is wide open for me, and I’m not exactly sure what I want to do with it. I just know that AB has given me a strong foundation, and everything I’ve learned here, in school, from my friends, or from extracurriculars, will definitely help me succeed next year!”

Spectrum editor is yet another term to add to the list describing Lily, including piano prodigy, track captain, elephant enthusiast, and avid eater. For Lily, her role as an editor is a position that has evolved into something that will be a part of her wherever she goes. Good luck, Lily!

The Spectrum

Senior Skip Day is not unique to Acton-Boxborough Regional High School. It has a history of almost four decades, when high-school students from our parents’ generation started the tradition. Senior Jennifer Endress states, “My mom says she skipped when she was in high school!” This practice also gained popularity in the 1980’s from the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” a movie that documents a determined senior’s pranks when he decides to skip school.

Despite the general enthusiasm of the senior class for Senior Skip Day, many seniors had doubts about skipping or hit some sort of complications. Several seniors explained that the chosen day was “too early,” and that it was “still third term,” referring to the fact that Senior Skip Day is usually closer to the end of the school-year, when the material taught is a review of old concepts, rather than new information. Furthermore, a number of senior athletes opted to stay at school because of the athletic policy: athletes cannot compete in their events that day if they do not come to school for at least four academic periods.

On the night before the designated day, principle Dr. Callen sent an e-mail to the parents of the student body, warning against the possible consequences of the tradition. Contrary to the general student belief that she is against the tradition itself, Dr. Callen clearly explained her concerns about the safety of the seniors due to Senior Skip Day. In her email, she stated, “…given the reports we are hearing from members of the student body about alcohol use over recent months, I feel that it’s imperative that I share my concerns about student safety. While certainly many of the students who choose to participate in senior skip day are not planning to engage in risky behaviors, I think it is probable that at least some will choose to drink, drive too fast, or do other things that put their own and/or others’ lives at risk.”

That being said, a few teachers offered incentives to keep their seniors in school. Some gave bonus points on a quiz, while others gave easier tests to students who chose to stay. The regular truancy rule was also in effect: students with unexcused absences would lose three points on their term grade for the classes they missed. Although the teachers’ incentives were somewhat effective, the truancy rule did not inhibit seniors from skipping. As one teacher noted, Senior Skip Day could also be called “Senior Sign-out Day,” as many students had their parents write them notes to qualify for an excused absence.

Senior Skip Day is always inevitable. The excitement of “Senior Second Semester,” famed for its more relaxed approach to school, as well as the nicer weather causes seniors to yearn for a day off. This is a tradition that, at this point, looks like it will live for a long time.

Mystery as well as humor surrounds the history of this lighthearted day. The true origin of April Fool’s Day is unknown, but there are quite a few theories as to what started all the pranks. Some believe that the Persian tradition of Sizdah Bedar, which was celebrated with jokes as early as 576 B.C., is a precursor to this day. Another possible explanation is that April Fool’s Day stemmed from the changing of calendars; many early cultures celebrated New Year’s Day on April first until the Gregorian calendar was put into use, with January first as the new date. Some continued to celebrate New Year’s on April first because they did not know of the new calendar and were dubbed ‘April fools’ by those who had tricked them.

The AB community’s perception of April Fool’s Day varies. Some AB students, such as sophomore Ruifan Pei, dismiss April Fool’s Day as a holiday “for the weak-minded.” But others rise to the occasion and truly get in spirit. “I usually try to get my sister to drink something ridiculous,” says sophomore Emily Hatch, “by telling her it’s something normal.”

The anecdotes only continue. “Kick me!” signs and “poissons d’Avril” (“fishes of April”) adorned the backs of a multitude of unlucky students. “I spent my entire history class completely paranoid,” remarks junior Sonia Xu. “I couldn’t even focus because there were these guys trying to put signs on my back the whole time!”

Students were not the only ones who displayed their senses of humor. Mr. Steege walked into his junior AP U.S. History classes in good spirits and then suddenly looked grim, saying that the Collegeboard had moved up the AP exam. “The class was silent after that,” recalls Editor-in-Chief Jackie Surdan, a member of Steege’s third period history class. “And then he suddenly broke out into this huge grin and then we all knew.” Sophomore Jason Liu enjoyed the hilarity and mayhem of the day, saying that the best part of April Fool’s Day is “when teachers try to fool you.”

Teachers of the English Department woke up at 4 a.m. on April Fool’s Day and snuck into all the math classrooms. In the wee hours of the morning, the teachers rearranged the desks into circles and wrote phrases on the whiteboards like, “Solve 2x + 2y = 3 and discuss your feelings about it.” The math department only returned the favor by putting all the desks back in order. English teacher Mrs. Anthony remarks, “I guess the April Fool’s joke was on me and my compatriots, Mr. Goldner and Mr. Lochrie.”
Ultimately, many at AB look forward to the day they can pull out their whoopee cushions and zappers and let loose. April Fool’s Day is a great day for students and teachers alike to have some fun and get back at friends.

Spring came early this year. The sun is out earlier and earlier each morning, and with recent summer-like temperatures in the 80s and 90s, the long awaited senior slide has finally arrived. Technically speaking, senior slide typically begins after third term. At this point, college application materials are sent out, and all we want is to get outside and distance ourselves from the classroom. Most of us end up slacking off on schoolwork, lounging around on weekends, and carefully planning our days so that we encounter as little work as possible. As some seniors put it, senior slide is “[w]hen you leave your backpack in your car trunk from 3 p.m. to 7 a.m.”

And while our teachers remind us that we are still in school, and our parents pester that we need to work harder, we are left wondering if a senior slide can really be an awful thing. The truth is that in most cases, a little slacking off will not hurt too much. As our last year in high school comes to an end, most of us just want to relax and remember these last weeks as fun and memorable.

Senior slide becomes more serious when kids start falling behind a lot in class, sometimes leading to failing grades. While the cure for senioritis and the final end-all to the senior slide is graduation, failing grades can result in a student’s inability to graduate on time. Also, while many of us think that the whole college process is over, some colleges actually do consider grades after a decision has been made. Students planning on transferring or switching programs next year should keep in mind that final high school grades from senior year are very important in these scenarios.

Many look ahead to walking across Leary Field in June. However, homework seems to be the biggest victim of the senior slide. Senior Alicia Shorey said, “I’m too lazy to even B.S. my math homework; that’s how bad it’s gotten.” The stress of having to get homework done every night for the past three years has been both demanding and hassling. Now that school work has fallen lower on the list of priorities, many seniors share the same feeling. “The stressful thing isn’t trying to get things done on time but rather getting them in before they are five days late,” remarks senior Venkat Mathiyazhagan.

Homework is not the only thing that has fallen short throughout the AB senior community. The recent warm weather has even inspired senior beach days, diverting many kids from the senior lot over to beach lots. Staying indoors in class for most seniors now becomes torture, and the prospect of taking the day off is too tempting.

Every year, teachers and parents witness this phenomenon: when seniors stop doing their homework, give up on extra-curriculars, develop mysterious illnesses, sleep until noon on school days, and “forget” to go to gym class. June, graduation, and summer are all just around the corner, and the wait is certainly not going to be easy.

The first Olympic Games were held in 776 B.C. in Olympia, a rural sanctuary site in Western Peloponnesos in Ancient Greece. Its purpose was to honor Zeus, the father of the gods and goddesses of Grecian religion. Before the start of the Olympics, the Grecians sacrificed 100 oxen to the deity and made sacrificial burnings in honor of Zeus. A priest would predict an oracle during the burnings.
In addition to its religious ties, the Olympic Games also served a political purpose. As the Grecian city-states grew, states wanted a means of displaying their supremacy over their neighbors. By winning the Olympic Games, the city-states showed their periority over their competitors. Since the Greeks also believed that the gods favored the Olympic champions, each city-state aspired to win the Games in order to receive protection from the gods.

By contrast, the final purpose of the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece was to unify the Grecian city-states. Despite the inevitable rivalries, the leaders of each city-state agreed to an “Olympic truce” to stop hostilities between their people during the games. This agreement to peace resembles the intention of the modern Olympic Games
– an effort towards international community and cooperation.

The modern Olympic Games have evolved a lot since they first began in 776 B.C. In fact, the first Olympic Games consisted of one event: the stadion – a 600-foot foot race across the stadium. As the Olympic Games were held in Ancient Greece every four years for nearly twelve centuries, more events, such as the pentathlon, the pale (wrestling), the pankration (an “all power” race that combined racing and physical attacks), and the pugme (boxing), were added to the festival. During the first modern Olympic Games, held in Athens, Greece in 1896, 14 nations sent a total of 245 men to compete in a total of 9 sports and 43 events. Later, in 1924, during the first Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France, a total of 16 nations sent 258 athletes (including 11 women) to compete in 16 events. Today, the Winter Olympic Games have grown to incorporate 15 sports 86 events, with a total of 2,623 athletes competing in Vancouver!

The Olympic Games have come a long way from their grand religious origins. Before, women in Ancient Greece held their own games in honor of the queen Hera, and were only permitted to run a distance fivesixth’s
the length of the men’s race, today, women athletes are as coveted and recognized for their outstanding abilities as their male counterparts.

The Olympics represent unity, acceptance, and competitive spirit. They are a reflection of the world’s willingness to put aside strife for a while and harvest a spirit of fun.

• The entire Olympic Program, including construction and games maintenance, was budgeted to cost about $1.7 billion U.S. dollars
• The construction of new Olympic buildings and upgraded sports facilities cost nearly $580 million. New sport competition venues for the 2010 Winter Games include the Richmond Olympic Oval, The Whistler Sliding Centre, University of British Columbia Thunderbird Arena, Whistler Olympic/Paralympic Park, Cypress Mountain, and the Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Center.
• The Canadian Government stresses its eco-friendly approach to the structure of the Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Center. The Center captures rainwater to flush its toilets, and the shower systems use “low-flow” water systems which reduce water usage by up to 30 percent.
• Vancouver selected three mascots for their Winter Olympic Games: Miga, Quatchi, and Sumi. The three creatures are based on native mythology. Miga, a sea-bear, and Quatchi, a sasquatch, represent the Olympics, while Sumi, an animal guardian-spirit, represents the Paralympics, which follow the Olympic Games.
• In conjunction with the International Olympic Committee, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) developed an “Anti-Dope” policy, which they hope will be enforced in the next Olympics as well. The policy states that “Real sport is pure human energy” and aims to “ensure all athletes can compete on a level playing field.”
• In an effort to stress Canada’s “linguistic duality,” VANOC provided translations in both French and English in its Olympic programs. French is in fact one of the official languages of the International Olympic
  Committee (the other official language is English) because the founder of the Modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was a French nobleman.

The Georgian team considered withdrawing from the Olympics. But the team later decided to stay in Vancouver in order to honor their comrade. The Georgian athletes who competed donned a black stripe on their helmets in memory of their fallen teammate.

Responding to the accident, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) raised the walls at the turns of the course. In addition, the committee shortened the length of the track by moving the men’s luge starting point to that of the women’s. However, the International Luge Federation (FIL) maintains that Kumaritashvili’s death was not due any unsafe track conditions.

Since 1975, there have not been any luge accidents at the Olympics. Kumaritashvili was a promising
young athlete. He competed in the Luge World Cup in 2008 and 2009, placing both years. Kumaritashvili graduated from Tbilisi Polytech University. “It’s a big tragedy for all (of) luge,” said Atis Strenga, Latvian
luge federation president, “I hope, we all hope, it’s the first accident and the last accident in this race.”