![After placing second in their respective LDEs at the Capital District contest in early November, freshman Jesus Jaramillo-Gallegos and freshman Wyatt Pickett will compete at the Area XII LDE contest in Georgetown on Nov. 23. Jaramillo-Gallegos is competing in Greenhand Spanish Creed Speaking, while Pickett’s LDE is Greenhand Creed Speaking. “Honestly, [I’m excited for] just traveling around, maybe meeting more people,” Jaramillo-Gallegos said. “And [I’m] nervous about probably just not being able to define my weak areas. I feel like I did decent for my first time ever doing this. I just think it’s fun.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Navy-and-Yellow-Simple-Group-Project-Presentation-1200x675.png)
![Holding up T-wolves, the tour group poses for a picture in the Chinese classroom. Sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung and senior Yushan Pan gave a tour to Taiwanese diplomat Andrea Yang on Nov. 8. “I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.” Photo by Skyler King](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Main-Taiwan.jpg)
![Standing in front of a small audience, senior Kimberley Walters shares a social criticism poem titled “Pity the Nation” by Lawrence Felinghetti. Every month, sponsored by the poetry club, the library hosts a poetry reading. “I never thought I would be interested in [poetry readings] because I’m not the biggest poetry fan,” Walters said. “I think poetry is a very succinct way to express feelings and get a story across. Whereas lots of books have a span of a whole story, but it’s put in a lot of words. The power of poetry is that you can be so succinct within, and there’s a lot of power within the words that are used.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KIM-1200x800.jpg)
![Delicately placing the string to form the shape of a cornucopia, seniors Haley Burton and Avery Nelson create the November arrangement for the Flower of the Month Club. This club is led by Advanced Floral Design Students and provides a monthly arrangement to community members who subscribe to receive them. “I think flower of the month club is a really impactful way to show your loved ones ‘hey I really care about you,’ or even if they’re just for yourself, they’re a little pick-me-up throughout the month that [say] ‘I’m doing ok, and these flowers make my day a little bit brighter,” Nelson said. “I like giving people flowers because people value the flowers more and they value themselves more.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Ava-Holmes-3-edit.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, Author Ehigbor Okosun, members of Page Turners, and other students reflect on the author's visit. “I thought the visit was great,” Senior Amia De Leon said. “It was interesting talking to her and [getting to know] her process and her thoughts and books in general. But I think the reason it went well [was that] people got to ask questions. I'm glad that she said so much in response to the questions and it wasn't just one and done. [The author’s responses] felt very articulate.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sebastian-5-1200x800.jpg)
![Standing in front of the field at a freshman football game, cheerleader freshman Jacob Gaudreau along with teammate freshman Bella Gibson pose for a photo during halftime of game. “[Cheer has] definitely given me a much more outgoing personality,” Gaudreau said. “I used to be very introverted, so it's definitely made me more extroverted towards people.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Ingrid-204-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding a wooden pizza toy, senior Taylor Peterson plays with small children in Bucaramanga, Colombia. During the summer, Peterson traveled to Colombia to help build an elementary school that only had two classrooms but five or six grades with one teacher. “We add[ed] two more classrooms,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of hard when you have two or three grades in one classroom and you only have one teacher. It’s very hard to actually get some beneficial learning. [The extra classrooms will give the students] a better quality of education because they’ll actually have a place specific for their learning.” Photo by Taylor Peterson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Taylor-P.png)
![Sucking in a breath of air, freshman Lily Pope competes in the 200 yard individual medley. On Oct. 25, the swim team competed in the AISD Swim Invitational. Overall, the girls team took second place and the boys team came in eleventh. “My favorite stroke is butterfly because I do the best in that stroke,” Pope said. “I feel like [butterfly] can test how [your ability] to convince yourself to keep going. The hardest part of swimming is convincing yourself to stay strong and keep pushing during a hard race [when] everything is tired.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/POPE-1200x804.jpg)
![Swinging with his arm extended, senior Nolan Park hits the ball smoothly over the net and to the opponent’s side. Park is one of four varsity tennis captains and helped the team win district championships. “Winning district champs was a pretty awesome feeling,” Park said. “We had lost to Liberty Hill a couple of weeks before, but when we played them [again], we came out and really took care of business. We took them out and it was just a really awesome night.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kassidy-419.jpg)
![Standing proud, varsity senior athletes Rafael Escobar, Griffin Jacobs, Jakob Martin, and juniors Jackson Springer and Jack Morris pose with their newly earned medals. The varsity team finished third out of 14 teams on Sept. 25. “The team's primary goal is to win the district championship,” head coach Cody Price said. "We're confident that with our action plan in place, we can accomplish this mission. [For the next tournament], our preparation involves assessing our strengths and weaknesses, celebrating milestones and creating individual development plans." Photo courtesy of Cody Price](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/golf.jpg)
The male protagonist runs through the airport, his feet pounding on the ground. Despite her small five-foot-three frame he can see her head weaving through the crowd, just out of reach. The overhead speakers call her flight and she lines up to board the plane. Just as she takes her seat and gives one last goodbye glance towards the city where she met the love of her life, a stranger slides into the seat next to her. He’s breathing heavily and she looks over at him in curiosity. Their eyes meet and they both know. They can’t live without each other.
This is the ending of many romance novels, and it is loved by authors because it’s a story wrap-up that leaves readers right on the edge of their seat, wondering if the promised “happily ever after” that comes from reading this genre will happen despite the impossible circumstances. Every year I read on average 36 romance novels and they all involve these “impossible circumstances.” Whether they are star-crossed lovers, friends, enemies, competing business partners, or two unlucky people that find themselves destined to be together, the couple in every book manages to end their story with a sky full of fireworks while they whisper to each other, “I love you.” However, not all these books are good books.
In my experience with most of the romance books I’ve read, I find myself hooked in the beginning, suffering through the middle, and ending up only mildly satisfied with the kiss at the end. But I don’t want to be mildly satisfied when I finish a book, I want to be grinning from ear to ear, blushing a little and celebrating the couple I just spent hours reading about. So what is a good romance book? The first key part of a romance novel, while it may seem obvious, is the two protagonists have to actually fall in love.
Sometimes you reach the end of a romance book and realize the two leading characters don’t know anything about each other. I mean I get the whole “love at first” sight thing, or “when you know you know.” My grandma proposed to my grandpa on the second date and they are still happily married after 50 years. My own parents met in January of 1997 and got engaged in that following April. But, for both my grandparents and my parents, they both had enough time to build their relationship and feel the chemistry. The time the two protagonists know each other doesn’t matter, but if there is no connection between them that I, as the reader, can feel, then the book is only getting a maximum of two stars from me.
Next, enemies to lovers is the only trope worth reading. I don’t want to spend hours reading about two friends that suddenly realize they have feelings for each other and now their world is going to end. Boring. Instead I want a prideful Elizabeth Bennet and a rude Mr. Darcy to transform into a dashing Westley and a beautiful Buttercup, who were willing to sacrifice anything for love like in the story of “The Princess Bride.” Lots of people prefer the trope created from “Romeo and Juliet,” where two star-crossed lovers will do anything to be with each other, but that’s way too dramatic for me. I’d much rather read witty banter between two sworn enemies that are falling for each other over hidden feelings and secret meetings.
If you’ve ever read a romance book or watched a romance movie, you’d know that this genre follows a very simple pattern. The two leads meet, spend time together, fall in love, then they fight and make up and their story ends with a kiss. The climax of these stories is when the fight occurs, which is always a misunderstanding that can easily be resolved if the two protagonists actually talked to each other about. But let me tell you, this fight can make or break a novel. Misunderstandings are what take the main couple from I like you to I love you because, according to every romance book, two people can’t realize that they can’t live without each other until they are torn apart. If this misunderstanding is quickly resolved, then the book feels like it’s missing a huge part of its story. People that read romance novels want to see the male protagonist running through the airport to stop the girl from boarding her flight; they want to see the two characters searching for each other and the moment when they decide to forgive each other after realizing they love each other.
I read romance books because I enjoy the fluctuation of emotions they make me feel. If a romance book isn’t full of undeniable chemistry, quirky main characters that claim to hate each other, and a very climatic fight, then it’s basically as exciting as the “It’s a Small World Ride” at Disney World. Super boring, very repetitive and also really annoying. If I’m reading a romance novel, then I want it to be a thrilling roller coaster ride that makes me grip the handles tight and triple check if my seat belts are buckled correctly. If you want to read romance novels but you don’t want to read a bad one, here are a couple of my favorites: “Cross My Heart” by Julie Wright, “Edenbrooke” by Julianne Donaldson, and “Listen to Your Heart” by Kasie West. Happy reading!
