Seven deadly sins: pride

By CHELSIE STANDFILL
For UNLEASHED
Pride — also known as arrogance, vanity, conceit and the most deadly of the Seven Deadly Sins — is the source from which all other misdeeds arise.
Pride is self-obsession, or the act of loving one’s self most. A prideful person fails to acknowledge others’ achievements or to praise them.
Unfortunately, many teens are overly prideful. They care more about themselves than others and think they are better than everyone else.
Athletes are the ones most likely to fall victim to the pull of pride. The constant cheer and accolades tends to go to their heads. They begin to believe they are the best and somehow, likely due to their athletic abilities, superior to others.
And athletes aren’t the only ones to become victims of pride.
Many students with 4.0 grade point averages tend to think their excellence in class makes them better than their classmates, who might not have such outstanding grade points. Some of these straight-A students criticize others for not being as academically dazzling as they are.
Pride makes people become condescending and pompous. This is especially true in a high school environment. Many teens are too prideful to see when they are wrong and so they rarely admit to it or apologize.
Pride can destroy friendships. When one friend is more concerned with herself and doesn’t treat the other with kindness and respect, the friendship tends to dissolve.
So, even if you are better at sports or science than your peers, swallow your pride and reach out to help those who struggle in the subject in which you excel.
Take care to recognize when you are feeling prideful and take that opportunity to help someone. Lend a hand and remind yourself you’re no better than anyone else.

— Chelsie Standfill is a 2008 graduate of Highland High school and a former member of the Unleashed team.

Seven deadly sins: lust

By CHELSIE STANDFILL
For UNLEASHED

Desire, infatuation and passion.
These lustful feelings are common in people of all ages. But they’re different in young people and young relationships.
Teens typically don’t have much experience with romantic relationships, so many times lust can totally take over and lead to immoral things.
That’s one of the reasons it’s one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Many teens become involved in a new and exciting relationship and totally lose focus. They forget what’s going on around them and tend to zero in on that one person. It makes it hard to think in class when the person you lust after is sitting right next to you.
Young relationships are often fun and good ways for teens to learn how to deal with temptation and heart break. Yet many teens have a hard time distinguishing between love and lust.
How should you differentiate between these two emotions?
Love is usually emotional, while lust is typically a physical force. Love generates a feeling of special connection with another person while lust generates physical reactions, like sweaty palms and an increased heart rate.
Teens need to learn which is which. If they don’t, it could lead to problems down the road. It can lead a teenage couple to do things they might later regret.
Having sex too soon can destroy a relationship. But it can be particularly harmful to a teen relationship, especially if it leads to an unplanned pregnancy.
Lust can be hard to control and difficult to ignore. Teens need to be careful, slow down, step back, and learn to have power over their emotions.

— Chelsie Standfill is a 2008 graduate of Highland High school and a former member of the Unleashed team.

Chelsie Standfill’s Day — Highland High School

6:30 a.m. Why do alarm clocks create such an annoying buzz to wake you up? What’s wrong with a nice, calming sound, like chirping birds? Oh yeah, they’re still sleeping!
7 a.m. Time for my morning coffee, the only thing worth getting out of bed for. That and school, of course.
7:35 a.m. Walking down my driveway to the bus stop.
8 a.m. Still on the bus, trying not to doze off. Hitting every pothole in the road seems to be preventing that quite well.
8:25 a.m. Finally at school. I realize I didn’t do the homework for first period. Or second period. I feel a hurried panic coming on.
9:15 a.m. Sitting in first period, watching possibly the first movie ever made. And, to go with it, the longest video study guide ever written. Seriously, how many trees went into this?
9:42 a.m. Why did I sign up for a morning physics class?
10:22 a.m. Hamlet: Isn’t this supposed to be some Earth-shaking, remarkable, intellectual piece of literature? A play to enrich the mind and intrigue people? Frankly, I’m disappointed. Shakespeare is overrated.
10:40 a.m. Is Hamlet even in English?
11 a.m. Lunch, greatly underrated. Finally, some natural sunlight and fresh air. Oh, and of course all the new gossip, since this is the first chance I’ve had all day to see my friends.
11:09 a.m. On this short walk to the store, I have learned of two rumored pregnancies and a break-up, and have been informed that I didn’t complete the worksheet packet for fourth-period French.
11:14 a.m. Armed with a cup of coffee, some chocolate and a bunch of new gossip, courtesy of the mile-long store checkout line, I start the dreaded walk back to school. It seems to be a lot shorter than the walk to the store.
11:55 a.m. French is a lovely language. Really, it is. It makes beautiful music. Just take “Les Miserables” for example. But having to learn the past participles and parts of speech takes some of the glamour and mystique away.
12:25 p.m. I’m starting to appreciate French more now that pre-calculus is slowly approaching.
12:33 p.m. The teacher has left the classroom, so every cell phone in the room has appeared and is blaring inaudible music. And one kid is actually dancing.
12:47 p.m. Walking into my pre-calculus class I feel a sense of impending doom. I am possibly the most inept person when it comes to math. When it comes to going away to college and starting your life, most fear moving and becoming self-dependent. I fear college-level math classes.
1:22 p.m. Staring at my feverishly written notes, I again feel that sense of doom. I can barley read half of what I’ve written let alone understand it. Now I have a headache.
1:32 p.m. Walking to my last class, I hear giggling girls and foul-mouthed boys, scolding teachers and a stern principal. High school really is a cliché.
1:43 p.m. I wisely chose to be a T.A. my last period of the day for the entire year. Most people don’t understand why I would chose to spend an hour each day correcting papers, but it’s more entertaining than you’d think. Some of the answers I come across, especially on pop quizzes, could have come straight from Steve Martin himself.
3 p.m. Just stepped off the bus. I’m headed back home. Only 19 more hours until I start the cycle over again.
3:54 p.m. Just finished my mountain of chores: Laundry, dishes, sweeping. Now it’s time to do my homework so I’m not in a panic tomorrow morning.
6 p.m. Homework is finally finished.
7:12 p.m. Now I have some free time. This is probably the most amount of free time I’ve had all week. I think I’ll go zone out in front of the TV.
8 p.m. TV is making my eyes hurt. I think I might actually do something good for my brain and read a little — but only a little.
8:51 p.m. Brilliant idea! Yoga! The perfect relaxation technique before hitting the sheets. A little hot tea, a little meditation and a lot of sleep and I might actually feel awake tomorrow.
9:58 p.m. Feeling rejuvenated and refreshed after my mini yoga session. Well, it’s time to turn in! Good night!