![The cross country team poses for the camera after finishing the district meet. The varsity boys, JV boys and JV girls all placed third and the varsity girls placed fourth. “Coach put in the right training for us for this season, so I think we will be peaking this week and the next couple of weeks,” varsity runner and junior Nathan Kukla said. “The chances of making it to state are very high, but we don’t settle for the lowest and there is always going to be that chance, so [we] race for the best.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Heidi-831-1200x900.jpg)
![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)
![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)
![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)
Prom is the thing nearly all highschool students look forward to. The prepping that goes into prom is like no other. Girls shop for the perfect dress that goes along with their nails, hair and makeup while boys plan promposals to ask them out. However, even with all this work and money spent on this special event, prom this year did not live up to the hype.
Prom isn’t just a dance. It’s weeks of preparation and anticipation and then a day of getting ready, taking pictures, going out to eat, attending the dance and the after party. Morning of, my date and I attended a Porsche Car Meet in Austin which not only got me excited for the rest of the day, but even more excited for the dance. After a couple of hours it was time to get ready. I first started off showering and diffusing my hair to get it ready. But, by the time I was ready to start on my makeup, the eyeliner I had practiced and practiced with ran out. Not only did this make me quite frustrated, but also worried about how others would judge my looks without perfect eyeliner. Thankfully, my mom saved the day with her pencil eyeliner, my mood was still ruined. Things were not looking so good. I finished my makeup and put on my dress and heels and was ready to go take pictures, which I hoped would brighten my day.
Fortunately, my date and I chose a beautiful spot down by Lake Travis to take our prom pictures at, which boosted my mood. By this time I was back to being excited for the rest of the day, and at the end of our photoshoot we left for dinner at The Roaring Fork.
However, I forgot that the traffic in Austin sucks. Thankfully, even though we arrived late to our reservation, they held our table and even gave us a booth. The compliments we received on our looks boosted my energy and the amazing food made me even more excited. After trying a desert that almost made us throw up, we made our way to the Bob Bullock Museum excited to attend our first prom.
The second we entered, we didn’t really know what to think. After turning in our ticket, the first thing we saw was a moving camera that was set up in the entryway. Students were able to stand on a platform and pose while a camera spun around them, capturing a video. It was a cool attraction, but placement of it was really questionable as it took up a ton of space and made it uncomfortable when walking around it to get to the dance floor. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I definitely wasn’t expecting such a little area for dancing. Knowing that the museum is quite big, I was hoping there would be some artifacts students could see, but there were none. The dance floor seemed like any other dance floor, but the best part was playing Cedar Park Swag. For the amount of upperclassmen at Cedar Park, there weren’t a lot of seating areas, but thankfully we weren’t sitting much. After heading to the upstairs portion of the facility, which one could reach either by crowded elevator or neverending stars, we made it to the makeshift “casino” that was set up for the “Casino Royale” prom theme. Now I’ve never been to a casino, but I don’t think only six tables with poker, blackjack and roulette cut it. Also, the roulette was definitely rigged.
With the amount of people upstairs, it got hot quickly. Like way too hot. And the photobooth was not what you think. A gold backdrop with a ring light was not the photobooth I was thinking of and was disappointed by its setup. Even though the picture came in the correct style, it didn’t feel right.
Honestly, that was it at prom. A dance floor, tables, drinks, two picture taking stations, a “casino” and not even a museum. I was pretty disappointed. Hopefully my senior year prom tops this one.
After leaving the dance, my date and I decided to go to Main Event to end the night, instead of going to parties. That decision single handedly made my night. Going to an arcade all dressed up, with Icees in one hand and a disposable camera in the other definitely brightened the vibe. Without a care in the world we made the best memories after a mid dance.
Overall, prom was an experience in and of itself but the best part was taking my heels off.
