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St. George’s Independent School Collierville, tenn. Vol. 2, Issue 5 GryphonLodge.com @ NewsGryphs
May 9, 2018
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ABOUT US
The Lodge is dedicated to serving as an authentic voice for the students of St. George’s Independent School. We at the Lodge strive to be an open forum for student expression, to act in the best interests of the student body and to embody the principles of journalistic excellence. The Lodge is affiliated with the Tennessee High School Press Association and the National Scholatic Press Association. The Lodge is funded by advertisers, donors and St. George’s Independent School and is published once every six weeks during the school year by schoolprinting.com. The Lodge prints and distributes 300 copies of each issue to 700 students and faculty on the St. George’s Collierville campus. Bylines indicate the primary writer(s) of each article, and additional contributors are indicated in the shirttail. The Lodge provides free advertising for student clubs, events and activities and paid advertisements for local businesses. The Lodge welcomes letters to the editor and article submissions. To submit a letter, article or request for advertising, email our staff at thelodge@sgis.org.
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Cover photograph by Laura Beard with special thanks to Ms. Lori Good.
STAFF
Editors-in-Chief Carolyn Lane ’18 Annie Murff ’18
Editors
Annika Conlee ’18 Lauren Purdy ’18 Merryn Ruthling ’18 Caroline Zummach ’18 Emma Bennett ’19
Designers
Katelyn Grisham ’18 Laura Beard’19 Kaitlyn Bowman ’19 Will Brown ’19 Andrew McDowell ’19
Photographer
Alice Crenshaw ’18
Illustrator
Emily O’Connell ’18
Reporters
Hudson Beaudry ’18 Spence Burford ’18 Connor Lambert ’18 Emma Pounders ’18 Omar Yunus ’18 Evan Dorian ’19 Rainey Zaugg ’19 Andrew McDowell ’19 Sidney Marr ’19 Cary Robbins ’20
Advisor
Dr. Margaret Robertson
PLAYING THE GAME
Sullivan
PINBALLIN’
VOICES OF THE FIGHT
Round the Clock
PUBG/FORTNITE
AROUND THE CLOCK
IT’S A MATTER OF REALISM
CONTENTS
9 10 13 14 18 22
SASSY HOROSCOPES
St. George’s:
Unfilter ESPN. YouTube. Pinterest. Netflix. You can’t access these websites on St. George’s wifi. Here’s why.
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By Annie Murff hings teenagers love: Netflix, Crash Course videos, Vine compilations, ESPN top 10 plays, Khan Academy
and Spotify. Things no longer accessible through St. George’s wifi: see the list above. This year has seen a number of changes in web usage policies at St. George’s. In December, students lost the ability to access popular websites like Netflix, ESPN and YouTube and to read articles with certain keywords on the St. George’s wifi network, leaving many students to question why such a change occurred. According to Mr. Scott Garmon, director of technology and network systems, limited amounts of bandwidth and the Child Internet Protection Act guidelines are the two main reasons why students may encounter blocked access. In order to understand bandwidth, Mr. Garmon says it is easiest to think of it as a water-pipe. “It [bandwidth] is the amount of data that we can push through a water-pipe,” Mr. Garmon said. “The bigger your pipe, the more data you can get through it.” According to the Southern Regional Education Board, the FCC minimum internet access goal for 2018 was one megabit per second per student. Currently, St. George’s has 300 megabits per second of bandwidth shared across all three campuses, though Mr. Garmon says there are plans to increase that amount to one giga-
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byte. Given the limitations of the current amount of bandwidth, the school must use what it has wisely. “Different things on the internet use different amounts of bandwidth,” Mr. Garmon said. “Sending an email uses a very small amount, but when you start streaming something like a video, that uses a lot of bandwidth.” The school’s finite amount of available bandwidth is partly why websites such as YouTube and ESPN, where students would tend to stream videos, have been blocked. “It was causing our network to slow down and we were having connectivity problems, so there were a number of those things that we blocked off the network,” Associate Head of School, Mr. William Bladt, said. “The fact that even a small number of people [are] getting on there and streaming [uses] such a massive amount of memory that it causes system issues.” Another issue that contributes to these restrictions is the fact that all three St. George’s campuses share the school’s finite amount of bandwidth, limiting the amount that each campus can use without experiencing negative side effects on the other campuses. “We are tethered together, Collierville, Germantown and Memphis campuses,” Mr. Bladt said. “We have to be considerate of how we are affecting the other two campuses too. We can see things go to a standstill at Memphis if we are pulling too much at
this campus.” However, the limited amount of bandwidth is only one reason for internet blockage and web filtering on the network. Mr. Bladt pointed to what he sees as the school’s duty to protect students from inappropriate content as the other. “There is a responsibility that we have to keep people from accessing specific sites with information or imagery or messages that we would deem to be harmful for teenagers,” Mr. Bladt said. For Mr. Bladt, this responsibility is a result of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which was enacted in 2000 by Congress to “address concerns about children’s access to obscene or harmful content over the Internet,” according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). According to the FCC, “CIPA imposes certain requirements on schools or libraries that receive discounts for Internet access or internal connections through the E-rate program – a program that makes certain communications services and products more affordable for eligible schools and libraries.” Schools and libraries that follow CIPA “must block or filter Internet access to pictures that are: (a) obscene; (b) child pornography; or (c) harmful to minors (for computers that are accessed by minors).” If a school does not receive such discounts, they are not legally required to follow the guidelines imposed by CIPA.
St. George’s does not accept E-rate funds, and as a result, is not required to follow CIPA guidelines. However, according to Mr. Garmon, the school continues to follow CIPA guidelines to protect students of all ages. To do so, St. George’s uses content filters to either block entire websites that are deemed non-educational or specific keywords, such as “sex” and “guns.” “If you do a Google search on, say, guns,” Mr. Garmon said, “the content filter applies these different algorithms, and either it is passed or it is not passed [through the filter].” These filters can cause some challenges. Because the school’s entire wifi system is connected, from the Memphis Campus to the Collierville Campus, individual campuses cannot establish their own Internet filters so they can prevent seniors from accessing certain material because it could be inappropriate for a kindergartener. “Our whole school is connected, from our pre-K to our seniors, to the same filter,” Mr. Garmon said. “One of the problems that you run into is trying to maintain a balance between upperclassmen that need access to more adult-content related material and a third or fourth grader.” Senior media literacy student Maggie Vento has run into this keyword filtering algorithm firsthand. “We had a project where we had to do research on a controver-
red sial topic or on a big news story and my topic was “marijuana [legalization],” Vento said. “I couldn’t Google anything because marijuana was one of the words that was blocked.” There are ways to bypass these keyword filters, either by whitelisting individual websites, giving select students bypass codes or teaching the filter to recognize trusted sources. “What our web filter has the ability to do is to actually place source above keyword,” Mr. Bladt said. “For example, we can make anything published by the New York Times visible, even if it had the word marijuana, but a website that’s like ‘how to grow marijuana in your house’ is blocked.” “Whitelisting” has become especially relevant for classes like yearbook that need to access to certain online products. “Yearbook is removed from it,” Mrs. Emmy McClain, Associate Director of Student Life, said, “because in yearbook, we are using an online platform, Studioworks, and so that has been bypassed.” However, most classes have to manage with the content filtering and find other ways to get their information. This can pose problems for classes such as Marketing and Design, which uses websites that are frequetly blocked. “If a child wants to dive deep into something, I usually say, ‘Hey if you Youtube ‘how to change eye color in Photoshop,’ you’ll see a step-by-step video’ and that has been something that has just
stopped,” Mrs. McClain said. “That’s hard for us because I don’t really have a quick and easy solution for them to figure it out.” Some AP Psychology seniors also ran into issues with streaming videos while completing a project for class. Senior Julia Fogel struggled to access websites such as YouTube that contained videos
as roadblocks in some classes, some teachers see an upside. “I work in classes that are supposed to build creativity, so I always tell my students, ‘Don’t go straight to Pinterest’ because I think some kids are reliant on other people’s ideas to spark ideas of their own,” Mrs. McClain said. “I try and help them realize that you
“There is a responsibility that we have to keep people from accessing specific sites with information or imagery or messages that we would deem to be harmful for teenagers.” that were needed for a presentation on psychological disorders. “It was kind of annoying be cause we had all of our notes on my computer and then having to use Mrs. Philpott’s computer made it really not practical,” Fogel said, “because we had to have two computers up there while we were presenting.” Despite these web filters serving
have a lot of things in your mind already, and you don’t have to go see what somebody else did.” Not having access to some of these websites also pushes students to use the resources at school that are not blocked, such as databases and periodicals that are available on the school’s library website. “It’s an extra step to go to the
library’s database to start searching, but there’s a ton of junk you find on the first page of a Google search,” Mr. Bladt said. “When you are looking at a set of periodicals, you are not being bombarded with that stuff. It’s an extra step, but it’s a smart extra step for students who are doing research.” The school is continuing to make changes to the web filtering systems in order to follow with CIPA guidelines and cater to the needs of its students. “What needs to happen in the future is to segment our content filtering between lower school, middle school and upper school, and that takes time, money and resources that the school is well aware of,” Mr. Garmon said. “It’s a constant process to tweak our filter, as thousands of websites appear everyday day.” As a part of this process to improve the school’s filters, Mr. Bladt said he welcomes students’ opinions on how to increase the quality of the academic experience at St. George’s. “If there is anybody who is interested in the process of looking at this stuff with us, we’d love to engage with those students,” Mr. Bladt said. Illustration by Alice Crenshaw.
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Self-Care S
with Sidney Marr
elf care is a universal activity that we undertake deliberately to take care of our emotional, mental and physical health. Individuals discover their personal self care routine based on which activities make them feel best.
As an adult, it is very important to make sure you get a sufficient amount of sleep, eat nutritious foods and exercise regularly. Taking good care of yourself physically benefits your health academically, emotionally, psychologically and socially.
Sleep The average sleep a high school student gets is between seven and seven hours and fifteen minutes, compared to the suggested nine or nine and a half hours of sleep each night. Sleep is especially important for teenagers, as it helps with hormones, memory, learning and energy. Sleep is the body’s way of repairing itself from the damage of the day. Illustration by Emily O’Connell
Sleep also helps you make decisions, solve problems, pay attention and be creative. Freshman Harry Henderson makes sure he is getting a good amount of sleep in order to have enough energy for the following day. “With enough amount of sleep, I can focus on my school work and my sports,” Henderson said.
How To Help If you are having trouble falling asleep: • Instead of looking at your phone before going to bed, pick up a book. According to the Commander Naval Education and Training network, the blue light that the LED screen on your phone gives off can slow down or prevent the production of melatonin, the hormone in our brain that signals us that it’s bedtime. • Dab some lavender oil onto your wrists, or just simply smell it. The Sleep Foundation says lavender helps calm the senses and induce sleep. Whenever you feel yourself starting to stress: • Breathe deeply and make your exhales longer than your inhales. • Talk to a good friend or pet your cat/dog. Interactions between humans, as well as their pets, releases oxytocin, “the happiness chemical. “ • Take a nap.
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Hygiene
Cleaning and caring for our bodies is important to sustain a well balanced hygiene; good hygiene prevents illness and infection from bacteria and viruses. Some basic hygiene habits include washing your hands, brushing your teeth and taking a shower regularly. Having a beauty ritual can ease stress and promote positive behavior, as it calms and relaxes your mind and aids with depression and anxiety. Senior Braylyn Little is consistent at keeping a steady and regular skin care routine and believes it is a soothing stress reliever. “If I put on a face mask, I feel a lot more relaxed. If you have a clean face or body, you feel better. I feel like it is a way to relieve you,” says Little.
Stress
Exercise is one way to relieve and reduce stress, as it improves physical condition, fights diseases and maintains mental fitness. Exercise releases endorphins, chemicals in the brain that act like natural painkillers, which reduces stress. If your body feels better, so does your mind. Other activities that have this effect can be simple therapies, like meditation and breathing exercises. Sophomore Paiden Reed says that having a relaxation routine allows her to compose and collect herself. “Sometimes when I am getting really stressed throughout the week, I just take time to relax and try to do yoga.” Reed said. “It’s nice to be able to do that after going through a whole day of school where you’re constantly going and going.”
Self Love
Sustaining a good mental health is also included in self care. One of the best ways to overcome anxieties or insecurities is to fill your life with people, activities, or anything that makes you happy. Junior Justin Bray understands the importance of self love and taking time to appreciate yourself. “I think that if you can’t love yourself first then you can’t love others,” Bray said. “That’s one thing I try to do well is be good to other people, so in order to do that you have to be good to yourself first.”
Illustration by Laura Beard
Self-confidence allows you to believe in your own abilities, leading to your success and/or happiness. Eighth grader McKinley Farese believes that having self-confidence is essential to remain healthy mentally. “Self confidence really helps me with my self love because just waking up every day and just being confident allows me to love myself for who I am,” Farese said.
Conclusion It is normal as a high school student to experience feelings of stress and anxiety; however, it is important to know that there are ways you can ease and maintain this chronic stress. Taking care of yourself and your health can make you feel energized and positive. It is important to have a relaxing and radiant routine for yourself that can distract you just for a moment from the work that can be stressful for you.
The Lodge 7
5030 Poplar Ave | Memphis, TN
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GETTING WARMER
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H O R O S C O P E S
By Emma Pounders, Rainey Zaug, Will Brown and Emma Bennett; illustrations By Emma Pounders; design By Will Brown
S A S S Y
Capricorn (December 22 - January 19)
Everyone already knows you’re smart, so not getting those two bonus points on the test doesn’t really matter, just like everything else in life. Now be like “Frozen,” and let it go!
Aquarius (January 20 - February 18)
Your apathetic attitude is envied by every teenager who is suffering through the emotional highs and lows of the final quarter of the school year. Keep being your original self, but try to avoid any destructive tendencies, you lil’ sociopath, you.
Cancer (June 21 - July 22)
You know that shirt you bought that you LOVE but are too insecure to wear? NOW IS YOUR TIME! This summer is all you, birthday baby! Just don’t be negative about how short of a time we have…(you have that tendency, buzzkill).
Leo (July 23 - August 22)
Wow, you’re actually reading this? Congrats for finally doing something even though it’s still self-involved. We know you love yourself enough already, but to boost your inflated ego even more, you should know you share a sign with Barack Obama. ‘Nuff said.
Pisces (February 19 - March 20)
Stop playing the victim and start playing the flute, instead! Let your talents take you on a magical journey that Bob Ross himself would be jealous. That wise man once said, there’s nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend.
Aries (March 21 - April 19)
Take the ram by the horns, and do it. (Please continue reading, this is supposed to be short because we know you are impatient, but we don’t really care. We’re just going to type a lot of fluff, we know your egotistical self is going to make you read this whole thing anyway.) As we were saying, just do it.
Virgo August 23 - September 22)
We get it, the painting is slightly off center, just please stop nudging it. Also, your ratio of selfies to pictures posted on Instagram should be FAR lower, so let’s just... calm down a little bit...for all our sakes.
Libra (September 23 - October 22)
You keep the peace between your friends and family and that can be tiring. So here we are, giving you full freedom to be the FUN friend for once, not the mom friend. Also how about forgiving your friend for spilling their coffee on your Friday dress shirt. It’s been three years. Seriously, practice what you preach, “mom”!
Taurus (April 20 - May 20)
Scorpio (October 23 - November 21)
Gemini (May 21 - June 20)
Sagittarius! Can I call you Sagi? You are SO fun to be around, and you have such a service oriented heart. You go, Glen Coco! Go do community service with your friends this summer. Just don’t guilt trip them (as you usually do) if they don’t have fun…
Even though that boy you talked to one time in seventh grade asked that other girl to prom instead of you, to heck with ‘em. Bees may have honey, but they also have stingers. Interpret that as you will...
Black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow... OOH! Yellow and black. Gemini, channel your inner Barry B. Benson and make some actual decisions this summer. Maybe save the bees?
Hey, horror movie fanatic, when you aren’t completing feats of intense courage, find the will to be okay with commitment. You’ll be so much happier, Scorpio, if you find people to invest your time and TRUST in. Work on that, girly pop, and you’ll make great things happen.
Sagittarius (November 22 - December 21)
Students adjust to the changing landscape of college applications
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By Evan Dorian here are tons of really smart people out there,” senior Nick Bourdeau said. “You just can’t get your hopes up too much.” That’s the word of warning Bourdeau, a future Virginia Cavalier, would give to those with high expectations for getting into some of America’s most prestigious schools. He may not seem like the type of student who would need to temper his expectations for being admitted to a number of competitive schools: he scored a perfect 36 on his ACT, took 7 AP classes and registered a 4.8 GPA. He also played varsity football and baseball all throughout high school and was a captain of both teams as a senior. While it seems like a student of his caliber should have little problem getting accepted into most schools of his choice, Bourdeau was denied by four of the 11 schools to which he applied, and sent to the waitlist by one other. Bourdeau’s experience was not unique. A growing college-age population, a rise in the number of young people seeking a college education and increased competition from foreign students mean that acceptance rates have seen a significant decline, according to U.S. News and World Report. Many of the most selective schools in the country now boast acceptance rates in the single digits. “I don’t know if I was too confident, but you see that it really is difficult to get into these schools,” Bourdeau said. In order to adapt to these changes, students are strategizing new ways of being admitted to the colleges of their choice, and applying at either the early decision or early action deadlines are a popular way of doing that. An early application helps a student stand out. Making oneself stand out as an applicant is about “checking the boxes in the application process,”
according to Mr. Timothy Gibson, Director of College Guidance and Student Life. “Lots of selective schools have to deny a lot of students who could easily be successful with them.” Students who want to get ahead of other students by showing interest or finding out earlier if they’ve been admitted can use early application systems. The early decision system allows students to apply to a school of their choice considerably earlier than students who apply at the regular time and find out sooner if they’ve been accepted. However, if they are accepted, they are
A full third of this year’s senior class at St. George’s applied using early decision or early action, which, according to Mr. Gibson, is considerably more than usual. “[Early action] has grown in popularity among colleges more recently, and it’s an opportunity to provide another touchpoint for prospective students,” Mr. Gibson said. “I don’t know that schools were prepared for the fact that students were going to submit their applications early action. Now it’s actually shifted, the regular decision deadline to the early action deadline. So we have few students who apply regular.”
Lots of selective “schools have to deny
a lot of students who could easily be successful with them.
required to pay the tuition – in other words, it’s binding. Early action, on the other hand, is non-binding, so students are not required to pay the tuition until they officially decide that they will be attending the school that accepted them. Some of America’s most selective schools have seen increased numbers of early applications in recent years. According to Collegiate Gateway, Ivy League schools, on average, have seen a 31.5 percent increase in early applications since 2014. The most significant increase of the Ivy League schools was Harvard University, which saw a 41.3 percent increase. Northwestern University, which is not an Ivy League college, was the only school with a higher rate, 41.7 percent.
”
Mr. Gibson framed this dilemma through the eyes of high school seniors, who would generally rather apply earlier and hear back sooner than wait to apply and sacrifice an earlier response date from their chosen school. “If I’m applying with a common application, and it’s done, and it’s two more essays, I may as well meet the November 15 deadline instead of waiting until January 15 because I’d like to know in January instead of finding out in April,” he said. Early applications are not without controversy, however. “While many colleges would argue the competing deadlines are necessary to serve their interests, I think students would be better served by one deadline,” Ms. Whitney Lewis, Director of Admission at Oglethorpe University,
said. “While it’s true many acceptance rates are higher when you apply early decision, if you want to compare financial aid packages or are not 100 percent set on a college, you should apply early action or regular decision.” Ms. Lewis’ sentiment was shared in part by Mr. Ryan Cassell, Director of Admission at Sewanee: The University of the South, though he had a different perspective on the role the deadlines play in the college process. “I do believe that early decision has a role for students and colleges,” Mr. Cassell said. “What does concern me is when a college admits such a high portion of the class in early decision that they do not have the opportunity to admit as many in a non-binding round.” The early decision and early action deadlines are ultimately used to separate students who are interested enough in a school to commit to a binding application from those who would prefer not to be bound to a decision but would still like to be ahead of other prospective students in terms of how much interest they show and how soon they hear back. Senior Carlos Rivera-Peraza applied early action to every school that allowed him to do so, including the University of Miami, where he will spend his next four years. He understood that by letting the school know of his interest early in the process, he was doing his best to stand out as an applicant. “[Early action] shows the schools who really wants to go there and who has their stuff together, and who can get it all in early,” Rivera-Peraza said. He appreciates the way the early action process allows students to express their enthusiasm for the schools to which they apply, which in turn allows colleges to determine which students are the best fits for them. Senior Maggie Vento, who
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will be attending Texas Christian University (TCU) echoed Rivera-Peraza’s sentiment. Going into the application process, Vento knew TCU was her number one choice, which led her to use the binding early decision system when applying. “I was very sure what I wanted,” Vento said. She saw the benefits of early decision, citing the ability to meet others with a similar passion for the school as a factor that played into her decision to apply early. “I think [the early decision system] is totally worth using. I feel that people see early decision as representing eagerness, and they feel that universities would want to admit more students who are passionate about that school.” Like Rivera-Peraza, Bourdeau applied via early action to every school that offered it, but unlike Vento, he stopped short of applying early decision because he didn’t like the prospect of being bound to a school if he were accepted. “You’re locked in with early decision,” Bourdeau said. “You’ve got to know that you’re going to go there if you get in, and I wasn’t willing to do that anywhere because I didn’t feel like it was right for me to apply early decision and just be locked in because you never know, you could change your mind.” While the early application systems are appealing to many students because of the prospect of showing a special interest in the school and hearing back earlier in the school year, applying via early action or early decision does not guarantee a student a higher chance of admission in comparison to regular decision acceptance rates, perhaps contrary to popular belief. For example, at TCU, only 28.5 percent of 2015 early decision applicants were admitted, compared to a full 44 percent of regular decision applicants, ac-
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cording to a study of acceptance rates done by Steve Frappier, director of college counseling at the Westminster Schools of Atlanta. Over the course of the last five years, Brown and Harvard took opposite approaches to admitting students who applied early, with Brown’s acceptance rate for early action and early decision increasing from 18.8 percent to 21.1 percent, and Harvard’s decreasing from 21.1 percent to 14.5 percent. Even students who apply early decision or early action may be denied, deferred or placed on the waitlist. When a student’s admission to a school is not
denied, others find their problems in the overall issue of determining the best number of schools to which they can apply. And whether they apply early or not, certain advice holds true. Senior Margo Valadie, who will be attending TCU next year, recommends that students pace themselves as they apply to colleges. “I expected it to be more of a process where I would be gradually doing things,” Valadie said. “It got down to the one day, and all of my applications were due on that day, and there was just a pile of stress that was honestly
guaranteed, but also not ruled out, the postponement of acceptance is known as a deferral. A student can also be sent to a school’s waitlist, as Bourdeau was in one instance, meaning that the student is neither accepted nor denied, but could potentially be accepted if a student who has been accepted decides not to attend the school. “I wouldn’t say I would discourage people from applying early action, I’d just say don’t be surprised if you get deferred,” he said. “It doesn’t mean you’re not qualified enough to get in. There are just probably a whole lot of other reasons [for deferrals].” While some students cope with the struggles of being deferred or
horrible.” Additionally, Valadie believes over-applying to schools can contribute to this stress and recommends that students determine how best to devote their time and energy among the schools to which they apply. “I think over-applying to schools is probably one of the worst decisions you can make,” Valadie said. “Because all you’re doing is spreading your time over schools that you can easily have narrowed down, so I think five was probably the right amount for me. I think you could have a couple more or a couple less and still be in a good position. I heard people were apply-
“
School’s not just going to go away just because you have college applications to do.
”
ing to 12 or 13 schools, and that’s awesome for them, but honestly, that would’ve been the worst idea for me because you’re spreading out your time over essays that you probably won’t need.” Regardless of the number of schools to which a student chooses to apply, Rivera-Peraza recommends that students pace their time to avoid the stress Valadie faced. “I’d say just don’t procrastinate as much because you’re going to get really stressed if you try to write all your essays on that last day,” Rivera-Peraza said. “Set yourself deadlines that are ahead of the actual deadlines. School’s not just going to go away just because you have college applications to do.” Valadie wanted to remind rising seniors not to be devastated if not everything goes their way. “Keep your options open,” she said. Don’t get too attached to any one school, even if you know you’ll get in there. Just make sure you’re doing your research, keep your options open and if you get rejected, it’s really not the end of the world.” Design and photography by Katelyn Grisham. In the photograph: From between the college signs, senior Sarah Gatlin is seen studying in the senior lounge. Applying to college has gotten more complicated in the last few years.
Pinballin’
The underground sport that’s making new fans By Laura Beard
P
inball seems like a ghost of the past, haunting the shadowy corners of pizza places, bars and laundromats. A reminder of a distant era, way before apps or Fortnite. But, the new (or perhaps old) sport is emerging across the city of Memphis. With a dedicated following and new players every year, pinball is bringing people together from far and wide. Mr. Ethan Sullivan, a St. George’s chemistry teacher, first experienced pinball as a graduate student in Santa Barbara, Calif. at a local pizza place with cheap pasta and pinball machines. He and his friends bonded over the game, and he brought that love for it with him when he moved to Memphis. “I thought that it was just like try to keep the ball alive,” Mr. Sullivan said, “It turns out that pinball games are much more complicated than just keeping the ball alive. There is always a rule set and goals and things that you are trying to do, and I just fell in love.” In the summer of 2017, Mr. Sullivan managed to place seventh in the annual Tennessee state tournament. However, Mr. Sullivan has recieved some skepticism about his “pinballing” from the uninitiated. “I mean, I try not taking anything personally as a life rule, but you do get that response, that
people think it’s silly,” Mr. Sullivan said. “When they realize that you’re dedicated to it, they have a different impression, a newfound respect.” Junior William Wilson found out about Mr. Sullivan’s love for competitive pinball one day after class ended, when Mr. Sullivan pulled up the standings for an upcoming pinball tournament. “I think it’s pretty cool because most of the time we don’t know about our teachers lives outside of school, so it’s really cool to see another side of their personality,” Wilson said. “His personality is just [to] try everything.” Sullivan brought that adventurous spirit with him to the Memphis competitive pinball scene. “When I moved here to Memphis a couple years ago, one of my wife’s friends from childhood just totally coincidentally happened to be super into pinball,” Mr. Sullivan said, “and not only that, but she was starting up the competitive scene here.” Ms. Ace Madjlesi first discovered pinball in college due to social anxiety, when she realized that pinball was a way for her to go out with friends but avoid talking to people. In 2006, her sister moved to Portland and introduced her to competitive pinball, and Ms. Madjlesi started to compete whenever she visited.
In Memphis, where she lived and worked after college, pinball was not accessible. Ms. Madjlesi decided to build the pinball scene from the ground up. “If I saw a laundromat I would just pull over and check for pinball machines,” Ms. Madjlesi said. “I literally did not have enough pinball machines in one place to host a tournament.” Ms. Madjlesi ran her first competitive pinball tournament in 2014, two years before Mr. Sullivan would move from Santa Barbara. Trey Crews, another competitive pinballer, can person-
ally attest to the growth the pinball community has undergone. “When Ace first started to organize these events, you’d see the same 10 people,” Mr. Crews said. “Now it’s more like 50, 60 people.” With plenty of new high scores to set and people to meet, pinball in Memphis is only growing. “You put the pinball where the people are,” as Mr. Crews says, and the rest is history–or future, depending on how you look at it.
Mr. Sullivan focuses his attention on victory over his opponents. He started playing pinball as a college student in Santa Barbara, Calif. and has loved the game ever since. Photography by Katelyn Grisham.
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we fight against gun “violence every day, so
others will not have to go through what we have been through.
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voices of the fight I , n their grief families come together to combat gun violence
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By Cary Robbins Edited by Lauren Purdy and Carolyn Lane
hen my brother died, the moment that someone told me that he had been shot, I actually thought it was a dream,” senior Bryan Payne said. “I didn’t want to believe that it was true. Why did it have to be him?” Cameron William Selmon, Payne’s older brother, was shot and killed when he was 19 years old on Oct. 22, 2015 at Tennessee State University. Payne was only a sophomore at the time. Payne remembers playing football with his older brother in the backyard when they were kids. Like many sibling relationships, Payne was always following his brother around the house, wanting to spend time with him. Mr. Bryan Payne, Payne’s father and Selmon’s step-father, knows that Payne does a lot of what he does because he wants to be like his older brother. “He was lil’ Bryan’s best friend. [Bryan] loved his big brother. That’s the reason Bryan is playing football now, because Cameron played,” Mr. Payne said. “If Cameron played baseball, Bryan probably would be playing baseball.” Payne remembers his brother as an inspirational person. “Around Cameron, there was really no dull aspect of life,” Payne said. “He was always happy and lively. He made everybody else’s lives brighter and their day brighter. Regardless of what he was going through, he tried to make other people have a better day.” Mrs. Stacie Payne, Payne and Selmon’s mom, loves to hear people say they knew her son. She says that Selmon had connections
with people from around the Memphis community. People still come up to Mrs. Payne today and ask her if she is Selmon’s mom. “He’d never met a stranger,” Mrs. Payne said. “I mean there were so many people that liked him. He was a good son. I loved him, and I know he loved me.”
It was around eleven o’clock at night, as the family
was getting ready for bed, that Mrs. Payne and her family got the call that their son, who was visiting the Tennessee State University campus in Nashville at the time, had been shot. “I could just remember screaming in my bathroom and waiting for everybody to get ready. I think we just threw clothes on and got in the car and just left,” Mrs. Payne said. “It was the worst night of my life. That was the worst news I have ever gotten in my life.” They drove to the hospital in Nashville, still hoping that it might be a false report. “That was the longest drive I’ve ever had,” Mr. Payne said. “It was only three hours, but it was like forever when you’re going up there with those emotions.” When they arrived at the hospital, they had to identify Selmon from his picture. He had died on Tennessee State’s campus. “I remember feeling like an elephant trampled on me. I feel like it was hurting that much to my heart,” Mrs. Payne said. “I felt how this was so unfair to me because I never imagined that I would have to bury my son. I always thought that my children would bury me.” Several local news outlets re-
ported that the shooting took place after a dispute between Selmon and two other men at the school. Selmon’s parents lost their child, and Payne lost his best friend and brother. “I’m a mom who basically has no answers,” Mrs. Payne said. “Nobody is being held responsible for killing my son, so I would just like people to think, ‘what if I was your mom? What if your mom was in the same situation? Would you want her to feel this way?’ I don’t think they would.” The Payne family is still haunted by Selmon’s death. “When it first happened I was mad because I just didn’t know who would do this, and I was mad at whoever had done this. I started to get sad because it sunk in that I would never see my brother again. The last time I saw him was two months before he died,” Payne said. “It took me a while to actually be happy again.” Mrs. Payne continues her same everyday routine, but some days are harder than others. “As a mom, I’m heartbroken because I feel like I eat, I sleep, I wake, I breathe without my child,” Mrs. Payne said. “It’s just not fair for people to think they can
play God. Who has a right to take a life? It’s not right. It’s just not right.”
Gun violence has been in the news recently after
the mass shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Flor. and in Las Vegas, Nev. USA Today reported that in 2016, there were 14,415 homicides using guns in the United States. NPR reports that the United States is the 31st country with the highest number of deaths of people who have died from gun violence. During 2016, there were 3.85 violent gun deaths per 100,000 people in America. Countries in South and Central America and in the Caribbean have the highest rates of gun deaths in the world. Payne’s family is just one of many who have been affected by gun violence in the Memphis community. According to the Commercial Appeal, there were 200 homicides in Memphis in 2017, with 14 ruled justified. 129 homicides have been solved, but 71 still remain unsolved. In 2018, Forbes reported that
“I never imagined that I would have to bury my son. I always thought my children would bury me.” The Lodge 15
Memphis is the fourth most dangerous city in the United States, with a violent crime rate of 1,583 crimes per 100,000 residents. In 2017, The Commercial Appeal wrote that there were 28 fewer victims of gun violence in Memphis than in 2016. 2016, the year after Selmon’s death, was the deadliest year recorded in the city in two decades.
After Selmon’s death,
Mrs. Payne met mothers who had also lost children as a result of the gun violence epidemic in the Memphis community. Shortly after, she began working with Moms Demand Action, an organization that was started after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, in which 27 people were killed, including 20 children. In 2017, the organization spawned “Angel Moms,” a smaller group of 12 moms who had lost their children to gun violence in Memphis. After becoming a part of Moms Demand Action and the “Angel Moms,” Mrs. Payne met a woman named Mrs. Tara Cash, who had lost her son to gun violence six months before Selmon died. Mrs. Cash reached out to Mrs. Payne after hearing of Selmon’s death. Mrs. Cash’s son, Curtis Lloyd Johnson, was 18 years old. He had been accepted into college and knew he wanted to study computer engineering. Johnson died from an unintentional shooting on April 22, 2015, just two weeks before his graduation from Southwind High School. “Of course when he passed, we got his phone, and we saw that one of the students had texted him about leaving school early one day, and he said ‘Nah, I’ve gotta go to school because I’ve gotta make my mom and dad proud, and I’ve got to walk across the stage,’” Mrs. Cash said. “So, when I think about him leaving, I know that he wanted to make us proud, and he
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wanted to graduate.” Johnson had gone to a friend’s house after school, where another boy was showing off a gun that his father had given him for his 18th birthday. The gun went off and killed Johnson. According to the victim’s mother, the owner of the gun only served 90 days in jail. “I was still walking around breathing on the outside,” Mrs. Cash said, “but inside, I felt dead.” Mrs. Cash was shocked when she heard that her son had been shot and killed. She remembers the car ride going to the hospital and hearing that Johnson had died before she could say goodbye. “People don’t understand, it could happen to anybody because I never would have thought in a million years that it would have happened to me,” Mrs. Cash said. “I see it on the news all the time. You see it reading the paper, or you hear about it online. But, you would never think that it would knock on your door, touch your family. I just want people to know that it doesn’t discriminate.” Johnson’s cousin, Christopher Thomas, was also a victim of gun violence. Thomas was killed on February 8, 2015. His mother, Mrs. Tara Thomas, is also an Angel Mom and member of Moms Demand Action. She recalls the moment she heard her son had been fatally shot by a driver who had hit his car. “My son had gotten a call from somebody else through his girlfriend and said that Chris had been shot and that he was dead,” Mrs. Thomas said. “At that moment, I was in a state of shock. I was frozen. They say time heals all wounds. At this point, it’s been 1,143 days, and these wounds have not gotten better.” Thomas was only 22 years old when he died. He had never been to jail, and he worked two jobs to support his family. At the time, he was father of a three-year-old little girl, and two weeks after he passed, his family found out that
“You see it reading the paper, or you hear about it online. But, you would never think that it would knock on your door, touch your family.” he was father again. “I don’t put a time limit. I hate when people do say ‘Hey, it’s been three years.’ No, it’s been 1,143 days for me,” Mrs. Thomas said. “I count the days, and that’s all I can do. I don’t worry about anybody else or anybody’s time limit on how I should be, or how my family should be. Until you step in our shoes, you don’t know how you’re going to accept it or take it.”
Organizations such as Moms Demand Action
and the March for Our Lives, a campaign started in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, are trying to help stop the problem of gun violence by teaching people about the consequences of gun violence, especially in their community. Today, Mrs. Payne commemorates Selmon’s name by teaching youth how gun violence has affected her life and other families through a rally that she started in 2016 called “Silence the Violence, Stop Gun Violence Rally,” which she began in order to bring awareness to gun violence and to help cope with her son’s death. “I always say, I never want Cameron to have died in vain,” Mrs. Payne said, “so until I take my last breath, I’m going to
always campaign.” This is the third year Mrs. Payne has done this campaign, whose mission of this campaign is to become advocates for families in the community who have lost loved ones due to gun violence. “If we can help one person, if there’s one young kid that comes to the event that hears something that we’re doing or hears the speaker or sees a heartbroken mom, even if one child could take something away, then I feel like we’ve helped somebody,” Mrs. Payne said. “I know we can’t save the world. I know gun violence is not going to end, just being realistic. But if you can help somebody, I think that, not that we’ve done our job, but I feel like Cameron didn’t die in vain.” This rally has speakers from different organizations around Memphis discussing gun violence, as well as recipients of the Cameron William Selmon Scholarship. The nonprofit organization hopes to grow nationwide. “It is my hope that we can travel because gun violence is not just here in our city,” Mrs. Payne said,.“What I’ve come to see is that it’s widespread, so I would
Senior Bryan Payne speaks out about the death of his brother at the March for Our Lives rally in downtown Memphis on March 24. Payne was one of many who spoke about how gun violence has affected the lives of those who live in the Memphis community. Photograph by Cary Robbins.
love to be able to do an event like this somewhere else.” The Payne family said they were committed to fighting against gun violence for the long term in an effort to help their community and those who have lost their loved ones. “Say this happened to another family 20 years down the road, I want me and my mom to go and help them rally, like people have helped us at this time,” Payne said. “I don’t want this to stop after we find justice because I don’t think it’s fair.” Like the Paynes, Mrs. Thomas wants people to understand the seriousness of shooting someone. Her advice is to always think. “Think twice before you pull that trigger, it just may save a life,” Mrs. Thomas said. “When you pull that trigger, not only are you killing that person, you’re killing families. You’re killing dreams.” Mrs. Cash thinks that there should be more of a limit on the accessibility of guns. “People don’t know how to re-
solve conflict, and they think that guns are so easy to get now,” Mrs. Cash said. “They know where to find guns on the street, so everyone wants to carry a gun around because they think it’s cool.” Mrs. Cash stresses the importance of making people understand the emotional consequences of gun violence, how her son’s death has affected her family as well as the person who killed her son. This is why she wants to educate people about the impact that gun violence has on all of the people involved. “One bad decision can completely change a person’s life,” Mrs. Cash said. “It’s changed my life, and you can bet it changed the boy’s life that killed my son too because he’s a felon now. He will always be a felon, and he’s killed somebody, so can you imagine how he sleeps at night?”
Payne presented a speech at the March for Our
Lives in downtown Memphis on March 24 near the Civil Rights
Museum, talking about the death of his brother. “Some bystanders might ask questions such as, ‘Why do they continue to fight? How have they been persistent for so long? And what is their goal in doing this?’” Payne said. “As I think of these questions, the thought that comes to our mind is, ‘We fight against gun violence everyday so others will not have to go through what we have been through.’” Payne does not want this to be the last time he and his family stand up to talk out about gun violence because he wants all people to know how it has affected him and his community. “I guess every time things like this happen, people try to rally and stand forth for it, but I feel like it happens for a couple months and then it kind of dies down,” Payne said. “I feel like they should do [it] year round, regardless of what happens. They should always do it just to make sure that everybody knows that this isn’t the right idea and that this shouldn’t be
happening.” Payne and his family will continue to be advocates for others who have lost loved ones, and they will continue to try and bring education of gun violence to the youth. Payne says that Selmon is why he does all of this. “I know that he’d be proud of me right now, and I just keep doing things to make him proud because I don’t want to let him down,” Payne said. “I just want to make him proud all the time.” Full Disclosure: Cary Robbins and Bryan Payne are in a relationship. The Lodge staff has taken significant steps to ensure that this article remains unbiased. Design by Carolyn Lane.
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Around the Campus happenings
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CK
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t all hours, the St. George’s Collierville campus is abuzz. In the academic building, teachers arrive around 7:40 a.m. to prepare for the day. Meetings can occur before school and students are able to come in and ask questions. While the typical school day starts at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 3:15 p.m., campus activities run around the clock.
By Annika Conlee
The lights on the boardwalk glow at night. “This is really more like a boarding school without sleeping over. There is always stuff going on,” history teacher Dr. Marianne Leung said. “It feels like a community, and people move really freely around here.”
The gryphon reflects in the surface of the pool. The pool is constantly in use with our own school practices, several schools renting lanes and Memphis Thunder, a competitive swim team, practicing both in the morning and evenings. During water polo season, our St. George’s team also practices while many other teams rent lanes. Swim lessons also take place every day through the swim school.
After hours, happenings can sometimes have awkward results. “One time, many many years ago, I heard the alarm going off over here [the academic building] when I was at the fieldhouse,” English Department Chair Mrs. Heidi Rubín de la Borbolla said. “It was because a student had arrived for Saturday school and had pulled the door that hadn’t quite locked and triggered the alarm.”
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Lights illuminate the interior of the library. The annual senior prank shows the comfort students feel on campus. “[The class of] 2009 put ‘You’ll always remember the class of 2009’ on bookmarks, and we still find them. They are on bright pink paper, and every so often we still pull a book and there one will be,” Director of Library Services Mrs. Leah Allison said. “That was pretty funny: a gift that keeps on giving.”
A bike hangs suspended from trees in the woods Many wild creatures have been spotted on campus, including deer, bobcats and marsh hares (giant rabbits). Occasionally they get too close for comfort. “We’ve even had snakes in the locker room in a shower. A student came and got me and told me it was there,” Executive Assistant to Athletics Mrs. Sharon Lathum said. “Then we had a big one out on the sidewalk, and it was poisonous. They took a hoe and chopped his head off. It was just lying on the sidewalk and it got scared into the bushes. They didn’t want someone to get out that door and for there to be a snake.” The boardwalk guides students to the academic building. When there is excessive rain, the river will flood many of our fields resulting in some challenging circumstances. “One time when it [the river] receded, the soccer field and soccer goals had dead fish caught in them. When the water went away, they got caught in the nets and died. It was not a good smell,” Mrs. Lathum said. “I’ve seen one of our maintenance guys standing at the corner and casting out into the middle school football field, fishing.”
The academic building glows in the moonlight. The openness of our campus gives faculty and students a sense of freedom. “This is the first school I’ve worked at where I’ve had this kind of access,” Mrs. Rubín said. “I think it makes me way more productive because I can come up here and do what I need to do.”
Design by Kaitlyn Bowman Photography by Katelyn Grisham
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OPINION
Beyond the birds and bees
High schoolers deserve comprehensive sex ed
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By Merryn Ruthling
e can all agree that education is a basic human right, so why are so many youth in America being deprived of it? Many adolescents do not have access to sexual health education with fewer than half of high schools and only a fifth of middle schools teaching the topics recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Making the issue worse, the government’s proposed 2018 budget aims to eliminate funding for comprehensive sex education and pour $277 million into a limited form of sex education that has been proven to be ineffective. While sex education may be awkward and uncomfortable to discuss, there are reasons why the CDC and hundreds of other health organizations consider it essential. Comprehensive sex education informs youth topics ranging from how to prevent unwanted pregnancies and the transmission of STDs to making safe, responsible decisions about their sexual health. The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine strongly endorse teaching sex
education in schools, and Planned Parenthood’s most recent poll shows that 96 percent of parents think it should be taught in high school. Despite this overwhelming public support for sex education, only 24 states and the District of Columbia mandate it. Additionally, there is little to no instruction for how or when it should be taught, so curriculum is often decided by individual school districts. Without clear guidelines from the federal government, many schools have opted to teach abstinence-only sex education, which attempts to prevent premarital sexual activity by promoting marriage as the only appropriate context for sexual activity. According to the organization Advocates for Youth, this form of sex education has received large amounts of funding, with over $1.5 billion in state and federal funds being allocated to it since 1998. Proponents of abstinenceonly sex education correctly state that abstaining is the only way to prevent unwanted pregnancies and the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases. However, they also falsely claim that this approach delays sexual initiation
and reduces teen pregnancy despite study after study proving its ineffectiveness. According to a Cochrane meta-analysis that looked at studies of 13 abstinence-only programs together, abstinence-only sex education had no effect on when youth became sexually active, how many partners they had or whether they chose to abstain from sex. In fact, the study showed that youth enrolled in the program were actually less willing to use contraception when engaging in sexual activity. This method also completely ignores trends in American sexual activity. Abstinence-only education is geared towards preventing sexual activity until marriage. Yet according to the organization Advocates for Youth, the median age of sexual initiation among Americans is 17 while the average age of marriage is 25.8 for women and 27.4 for men. Many teenagers are not being informed at all, with 43 percent of adolescent girls and 57 percent of adolescent boys not receiving any formal education about birth control before the first time they have sex. According to the CDC, the United States continues to have
the highest teen birth rate of any of the world’s developed nations, and STD rates are at a record high. In the face of this evidence, it is both dangerous and irresponsible of school systems to take this approach to sex education. It is even more concerning that government administration is both funding the abstinence-based programs publicly rejected by the medical community while cutting funding to evidence-based programs such as the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPP), which has witnessed a 35 percent decline in teen pregnancy since its implementation in 2015. Abstinence-only sex education ignores the reality of American sexual trends, and operates on the false hope that not educating youth about their sexual health will make them less likely to engage in sexual activity. For ethical, practical and safety reasons, the U.S. government needs to stop funding failing systems and make sure that young people get the education they need and deserve. Illustrations by Katelyn Grisham.
OPINION POLICY: The Lodge opinion section is a venue for the free expression of the student views at St. George’s Independent School. The opinions represented in this section are those of the authors alone and do not necesarily reflect those of the Lodge staff or of the St. George’s community at large. The Lodge strives to be an open forum for the thoughtful and deliberate exchange of comment and criticism and therefore welcomes letters to the editor. Letters to the editor will be printed in the opinion section of the newspaper, should not exceed 300 words and must be signed and accompanied by a verifiable email address. These letters will not be printed if the content is judged obscene, violates the privacy of others or encourages physical disruption of school activities. CORRECTIONS AND RETRACTIONS: The Lodge strives for accuracy in all articles. However, mistakes are sometimes made. When this happens, you will see corrections here. Issue 4, page 4: We misspelled Ms. Crista Smothers’ and Madline Clarke’s names and we misidentified the student pictured with Ms. Smothers. She is Mariah Nellessen, not Madline Clarke. Issue 4, page 22-23: We neglected to credit Emily O’Connell for her illustrations for “Beacon of Hope” and “Justice for All.”
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EDITORIAL
Support free student journalism
T
he National Scholastic Press Association implores high school journalists to follow a seven-principle Code of Ethics: be responsible, be fair, be honest, be accurate, be independent, be accountable, and minimize harm. For many high school journalists, these principles are not just suggestions, but mandates which they dedicate their journalism careers to upholding. Yet, despite the best efforts of both high school and college journalists, maintaining these principles is more difficult than one would think, especially when it comes to maintaining independence from the school administrations which it is their duty to cover. In today’s society, many student journalists work for publications that exist under prior review or prior restraint, meaning that school
administrations have the power to review a publication prior to its printing and restrict the content as they see fit. Across the country, some schools have used this power to punish student journalists and their advisors for covering important stories and exercising their editorial discretion. At Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., student reporters revealed that the university’s president used school funds to remodel his home. Soon after, the newspaper advisor was removed from his post and the paper was condemned for its “negative” reporting. At Neshaminy High School in Langhorne, Pa., the newspaper’s editorial board called out the school for its racially insensitive mascot. As a result, the board of administrators implemented a twoweek prior review waiting period before the publication of any new
edition. At Wichita State University in Wichita, Kan., an investigative series revealed that the administration had been adding fictitious students in order to boost its attendance figures. The administration cut the newspaper’s budget by nearly 50 percent. These articles are ones that the students enrolled at those universities and high schools had a right to hear, and they are ones that, had not a student journalist covered them, may not have been told at all. Good student journalists understand the incredible pressures school officials face. In this moment, when social media can quickly turn small stories into big ones and well-intentioned comments can be twisted and taken out of context so easily, schools are understandably nervous about their image. Student journalists
take those concerns into consideration when deciding what stories to publish. Schools are not perfect and never will be, but with thoughtful and persistent reporting, student journalists push our schools and our communities to be better by calling attention to problems and bringing to light potential solutions. So support press freedoms for journalists, no matter what their age or what beat they cover because in the end, they make us all better. Staff editorials represent the opinion of the editorial board: Carolyn Lane, Annie Murff, Annika Conlee, Lauren Purdy, Merryn Ruthling, Caroline Zummach, Emma Bennett, Katelyn Grisham, Kaitlyn Bowman and Will Brown. Letters to the editor in response to the editorial are encouraged.
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The battle royale video game genre has become incredibly popular in the past year. This type of game involves 90-100 people dropped into an area where they are meant to gather supplies and survive. The last man standing is the winner. Currently, there are two battle royale games that dominate the genre and have become a matter of debate among players: Fortnite and PUBG. Fortnite is a cartoonish, playful take on the battle royale genre. Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, or PUBG, is more realistic and intense. Fortnite players feel that PUBG’s realism takes away from the fun and makes it too boring, while PUBG players say that Fortnite’s cartoonish graphics and unrealistic gameplay make it childish and less skills based. Many argue…
PUBG stands above the rest as the epitome of a battle royale game
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By Connor Lambert
ou see something move in the distance. Is it an enemy, a friend or is the map still rendering? You hear branches snap and boots hit the ground. All around the tension is building. You check your stores; with low ammo and only a frying pan to protect yourself, you lie down and wait. The bushes shield you from other players as they walk past you. Unbeknownst to them you spring from your hiding spot and dash them across the head with the pan, their body disappearing before you, leaving only a crate of loot and a “winner winner chicken dinner!” for you. This is just an average PUBG experience where real-life man-
Source: Playerunkown Battlegrounds
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agement and gunplay create an atmosphere so thick with tension you need a knife to cut it. In contrast, Fortnite is graphically appealing, but that’s all it is: all flash, no substance. Fortnite has continually introduced new gimmicky mechanics such as rocket riding and guided missiles, and while yes, these can be fun, they lessen the skill required to play the game. PUBG on the other hand is what a battle royale game should be. It makes you think and improvise with mechanics so realistic that you feel like a tribute in the “Hunger Games.” Every move you make in PUBG generates sound, forcing you to pay attention to the slightest footstep or door opening. Tension and apprehension are what make
PUBG the true winner of battle royale games over Fortnite. If you’re stuck in a house and you know you’re surrounded by a squad, what do you do? Hole up inside the house and Home Alone your attackers or risk breaking the window and making a run towards the attackers’ empty vehicles? These decisions root you in the game, while in Fortnite you would just have to build your way out. Where is the strategy in that, the nuance, the tension? Granted, there might be some skill in fort-building mechanics, but it is a gimmicky mechanic that replaces tension with a flashy distraction to real gameplay. Fortnite exists purely as a cheap knock off of PUBG, replacing the intricacy of PUBG with meaning-
less emotes and skins while continually adding new features with no regard to keeping the game balanced. Fortnite is justifiably a cultural phenomenon, but its childlike gimmicks and gameplay don’t deserve a direct comparison to PUBG. Nothing compares to the blood-pumping, heart-stopping, sweat-dripping, controller-clenching experience that is PUBG.
Illustration by Emma Bennett
Source: Flickr
It’s a matter of EntErtainmEnt Fortnite proves that fun makes a battle royale game successful
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By Hudson Beaudry
“
here are we dropping, boys?” This is the question that millions of gamers all around the world have been asking each other the past six months. Even if you’ve been living in a cave for the last year, you’ve still probably heard of Fortnite. Fortnite has exploded all over the world, with European Futbol players celebrating with Fortnite-themed dances after scoring goals, UMBC basketball players comparing their highly improbable win against Virginia to a Fortnite “dub” and the many cringey Fortnite-themed promposals. Fortnite has taken the world by storm in recent months. After releasing its Battle Royale mode in September, there are now over 3.4 million concurrent players,
breaking records previously set by PUBG. The streaming service, Twitch, has exploded due to Fortnite’s success. Recently NinjasHyper, a streamer who makes millions playing the game, broke Twitch’s records when he played with Drake and several other celebrities. Because of the pop-culture fame it has garnered, Fortnite’s popularity has only grown larger and larger, yet unlike popular franchises like Call of Duty, which rarely live up to the hype, Fortnite is both popular and fun to play because it’s a fundamentally well-made game. Fortnite started from the bottom, and is now, within less than a month, the top-grossing game on the App Store. At the heart of Fortnite, the idea of fun reigns supreme. Unlike many battle royale games, specifically PUBG, Fortnite is a
cartoonish game, with the emphasis placed less on accuracy and realism, and instead on immediate action, cooperation and creativity. While often misconceived as a game for younger children due to its cartoonish style, Fortnite is made for all ages and only mastered by a few. While it tends to be easier to learn the shooting portion of the game, it takes a great deal of work to master the Minecraft-esque building mechanics. With a smaller map, firefights are much more likely to break out than in PUBG, allowing the players to quickly jump into the battle and be ready to attack the other players. Creativity is a huge part of Fortnite, manifesting itself in the options for player skins or outfits, dances and pickaxes. Different, interesting items, such as the impulse grenade, give the player
the ability to make insane jumps and kills, which is unheard of in a realistic game. When realism isn’t the goal, battle royales have the ability to be much more fun, without sacrificing their competitive side. Overall, Fortnite is a fun, free and wholesome gaming experience that one can rarely find elsewhere. The game emphasizes cooperation, teamwork, competition and creativity for so many people. So “where are we dropping boys?” It really doesn’t matter, as long as you’re enjoying the game.
Illustration by Emma Bennett
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Davis Irving has been playing golf since the sixth grade. Irving committed to the University of Central Arkansas in November 2017. “I am looking forward to getting to compete against some really good players,” Irving said of playing at the collegiate level. Irving attributes his success in golf to his consistency in practicing and his effort to focus on academics and athletics. Despite his success in the sport, Irving says he is still trying to get better.
Photograph by Alice Crenshaw Taking after her father, senior Claire Murphy has been playing lacrosse since she was in fourth grade and will continue to play at Rhodes College next year. She is glad that she will have a balance of academics as well as sports at Rhodes. Murphy has always loved the different skills she can bring to the table during lacrosse practice. “It’s not the same thing every time, every practice,” Murphy said. “It’s always just creative and moving and fast-paced.”
Photograph by Ms. Nathalie Peraza Senior Dalton Reese is looking forward to continuing his athletic career and playing the game he loves at the University of Tennessee next year. He began playing baseball when he was five, and although he played many sports when he was young, baseball stuck with him the longest. “Baseball is what I always worked at, what I was always doing,” Reese said. “It’s a daily routine for me.”
Photograph by Omar Yunus Senior Gabby Acker committed to Sewanee for swimming in March. Acker has been swimming for nine years and attributes her success to “a lot of dedication to what I am doing and loving the sport.” Acker is looking forward to competing at the collegiate level at the Tennessee-based Division III university. Acker says the most exciting thing to look forward to is “being on top of the conference.”
Photograph by Ms. Jeanne Franklin
Committed By Cary Robbins and Rainey Zaugg Design by Kaitlyn Bowman
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Senior Lathan Spadafora was basically born playing soccer as he was only three years old when he began his soccer journey. “I started playing soccer because my mom signed me up for it,” Spadafora said, “and I continued playing because I really enjoyed it.” Spadafora is excited to go to the Air Force Academy next year and have the opportunity to play soccer. “I’m looking forward to competing at one of the highest levels there is and getting better,” Spadafora said. “Go Falcons!”
Photograph by Alice Crenshaw Senior Bryan Payne will be continuing his football journey at Carson-Newman University. “I started playing football because I saw my older brother playing it, and I wanted to be like him.” Payne said. “I kept playing football because I just began to love it.” Payne started playing when he was five, and he is ready for the competition that the college level holds for him. “I just dreamed of playing at the next level past high school forever,” Payne said.
Photograph by Angie Heger In November, senior John Kimball committed to Millsaps College for tennis. Kimball has been playing tennis since sixth grade and has worked hard to be where he is now. “I would practice five to six times a week,” Kimball said. When asked what he is most excited for, Kimball said “just playing college tennis and being on a college team.” Kimball is excited to represent Millsaps and St. George’s in his continuing tennis career.
Photograph by Sidney Marr Senior Miaya Smith will continue to play volleyball next year at Christian Brothers University. She began playing volleyball when her mom told her to join the team in sixth grade, and she “ended up doing pretty good.” Smith is excited to meet new people at her school as well as continue to play the sport she loves. “I’m excited to push myself,” Smith said, “and to be able to play on a higher-level team.”
Photograph by Ms. Andrea Thompson Senior Colin Truitt began playing baseball when he was only five years old. From that day forward, Truitt has “always loved the sport,” playing mostly midfield and catcher. Truitt committed to Harding University, an Arkansas-based Division II college, in July. “I am looking forward to playing better competition,” Truitt said. Gaining a whole new team as he moves his baseball career to Harding, Truitt is also excited to meet new people.
Photograph by Omar Yunus
The Lodge 25
Congratulations, Class of 2018.
26 The Lodge
Love, The Lodge
The Lodge 27
GABBY ACKER wills her love of the song “Look at Me Now” by Chris Brown to HAYLEY LAMBERT.
EVE ARICK wills excessively crying at every “last” event and every single senior event to OLIVIA YUKON.
AHJAYLA BAILEY wills her tardies to DARIYA JONES.
CHLOE BOGGAN wills the key to SPENCER COTHAM.
NICK BORDEAU wills his dugout chair to JACQUAVIOUS PRYOR.
BEN BROWN wills his JV captain band to OSCAR HIGAREDA.
SPENCE BURFORD wills his hair style to JAYLEN SPEARS.
TANNER COHEN wills his emotions to CHARLIE HANCOCK.
ANNIKA CONLEE wills the last Annika standing to ANNIKA THOMPSON.
JULIA FOGEL wills holding down the fort for Rob to MARY MILLER GOLDBERG.
MARY MORGAN BARRON wills her daily Uber service of Andy to PAULINA HUTCHISON.
OLIVIA BARTON wills being the favorite Barton at St. George’s to MEGHAN BARTON.
HENRY CHRISTOPHER THEO CARR wills Mr. wills The One BreakLink’s big keyboard fast Club to RAINEY to STEVEN WHITE. ZAUGG and PAULINA HUTCHISON.
HUDSON BEAUDRY wills his countless hours with Mr. Gibson and Ms. Hardy to ANNA KATE BEAUDRY.
KIRBY BETCHICK wills driving Abby Grace Dodson everywhere to ANNIE BRAN.
LIL BIRD wills the power to save the wetlands through her duck intuition to CAMERON HEAD.
SOPHIE CHRISTOPHER wills AP Gov. to CAMILLE HARKNETT.
MAC CLARK wills his laziness to JACK SIMPSON.
ABBIE CLOUTIER wills “her” wildcat trophy to KATIE SCHAEFER and THE VARSITY GIRLS BASKETBALL TEAM. OLIVIA FITZGERALD wills the Dream Team to ANN WALLACE SCOTT.
ALICE CRENSHAW AARON CONNATSER wills her extensive wills his love knowledge of French of Coca-Cola to and her senioritis to AIDEN TANZER. BLAIR SMITHWICK.
HUNTER DENLEY wills the official math tutor title and his Fortnite skills to JACK BECKHAM.
HALEY DIETZ wills Steve and Rodney to ANN WALLACE SCOTT.
MICHAEL DOAN wills Coach Whicker’s yelling tips to KELAN PARSONS.
MATTHEW DOUCETTE wills his torn up wrestling shoes to THE VARSITY WRESTLING TEAM.
ELLIE FRANKLIN wills her softball chain to LINDSEY PEPPER.
SARAH GATLIN wills being the most dramatic to OLIVIA YUKON.
LUKE GEORGI wills his golf skills to ELI REESE.
GRIFFIN GILLAM wills Connor Green’s first-baseman’s mitt to WIL WOOD.
DORY GOOCHER wills keeping the girl power strong in MME to ELIANNA HILLS.
DAVID GRABER wills his economics grade to CAMERON and COLTON TURNER.
AMELIA GRIFFIN wills her sassiness to ALEXIS TURNER.
KATELYN GRISHAM wills her authenticity and her hand-medown clothes to JOY HUFF.
GRIFFIN HANCOCK wills his 59 tardies to JACK SIMPSON.
ANNA HARBERT wills her nail game and a portion of her love for Dr. Leung to HANNA GILMORE.
JAY HORNER wills the lighting controls to SIERRA SELLERS and DAVID OGLE.
HAGAN IMORDE wills his jelly layups to WILL JOHNS.
SENIOR WILLS
DAVIS IRVING wills will his #2 soccer jersey to THE RAFTERS.
SOREN JENSEN wills his hard work to COOPER MCCREERY.
LAUREN JOYNER wills her Swell water bottle to OLIVIA YUKON.
GRACE KENLEY wills the soccer defensive line to SOFIA RIVERA-PERAZA.
JOHN KIMBALL wills his leadership of the tennis team to NEEL JOSHI.
CONNOR LAMBERT wills his long, storied athletic career to his brother BENJAMIN LAMBERT.
CAROLYN LANE wills Doc Rob’s Ole Miss Snuggie to EMMA BENNETT.
HEATHER LARGE wills the “velcom” greeting to SAMANTHA GARRETT.
BRAYLYN LITTLE wills the winter cheer team to ALEXIS TURNER and KAITLYN BOWMAN.
WINSTON MARGARITIS wills his leadership of Nirvana Ultimate to WILL JOHNS.
SID MARTIN wills his goofiness to PRESTON TRUELOVE.
BENNETT MATSON wills his presidency to ANN RAGAN GRISSOM.
GINNY MCCARROLL wills the beamer/trap car to OLIVIA YUKON.
RAGAN MIDDLETON wills wearing hoops everyday to ANNIE BRAN.
CARSON MORIARTY wills trees, Zach Williams and prom 2017 to SIDNEY MARR.
BART MUELLER wills saying pigeon during the lacrosse stretch to CAMERON or COLTON TURNER (he can’t tell the difference).
HARRISON MULLANEY wills his #4 jersey to WILL JOHNS.
ANNIE MURFF wills the inability to climb a tree to RACHEL UMANSKY.
CLAIRE MURPHY wills being the go-to college sign maker to MAGGIE MURPHY.
PIERCE NELLESSEN wills one IQ point to TIM TURCOTTE.
FE NOVOA wills her average of zero points in a season to MAE VANN.
CLASS OF 2018 EMILY O’CONNELL wills the title of “Best O’Connell” to ERIN O’CONNELL.
LEXI OLIVER wills being Camille’s dance jam partner to WESLEY GOODWIN.
CARLY OWENS wills her wacky Wednesday psychedelic cat shirt to MEGHAN BARTON.
BRYAN PAYNE wills being the G.O.A.T at football to THOMAS LAMBERT.
ANNA GRACE PORTER wills the academic skills that helped her go to Tennessee to IRIS BRASHEAR.
EMMA POUNDERS wills the theatre department to WILL BROWN.
LAUREN PURDY wills her winged eyeliner skills to KAITLYN BOWMAN.
DANIEL QUESADA wills his JV soccer captainship to RYDER BRAGG.
DARREN RATLIFF wills “being the most stylish to ever walk St. George’s campus” to GABE LOVE.
GRAYSON REAVES wills the defense to CAMERON HEAD.
DALTON REESE wills his throne to SPENCER SMITH, the third king.
CARLOS RIVERA-PERAZA wills Taco Tuesday to OSCAR HIGAREDA.
EMILY GRACE RODGERS wills her helmet to RAINEY ZAUGG.
TREY ROYALTY wills his sick dance moves to JAYLEN SPEARS.
PARKER RUFFIN wills $100 to WHOEVER FINDS IT IN THE LIBRARY.
MERRYN RUTHLING wills the hoop house to JACQUELINE COLE, SAM PATTON, AND ALEXIS BOURDEAU.
BEN SAWYERS wills the entire Modern Music Ensemble to DAVID OGLE.
KATE SEABROOK wills necking herself at any and all appropriate times to ABBY WALKER.
GRAHAM SMITH wills his good looks and magical lacrosse powers to WES SMITH.
MIAYA SMITH wills all things volleyball to ANNIKA THOMPSON.
SHYNIA SMITH wills her love of the television show “Riverdale” to MAGGIE MURPHY.
STEVEN SMITH wills his upstairs pingpong room to JACK GRADDY.
LATHAN SPADAFORA wills the Goathouse to LUCAS YANOK.
EMMA STEVENSON wills her sense of humor to SOFIA RIVERA-PERAZA.
ANNA CAMILLE STODDARD wills her car, Morgan Freeman, to LATIMER STODDARD.
NICK TAYLOR wills the juice to KHALIL MOORE.
MARGO VALADIE wills endless jam sessions to SAMANTHA PATTON and THOMAS MANN.
MAGGIE VENTO wills her notorious dance move, “the death drop,” to JACK VENTO.
SARAH GRACE WADDELL wills conquering Student Gov. to ANN RAGAN GRISSOM and RAINEY ZAUGG.
LUCAS WILLIAMSON wills maintaining the distance track team to GRAHAM GUMBERT.
NATALI YANOK wills always having a dumb comment in every situation to LUCAS YANOK.
BRENDAN YUKON wills his top speed to CHARLIE HANCOCK.
OMAR YUNUS wills his calm and quiet demeanor to KYLE GASAWAY.
CAROLINE ZUMMACH wills PEYTON ZAUGG wills her volleyball wacky the weight room Wednesday Walmart to JUSTIN BRAY. cat t-shirt to MAGGIE KAY IMORDE.