![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)
A Girl With a Mission
Junior Decides to Graduate Early, Discusses Future Plans
Junior Lacey Hurley smiles proudly at the Cedar Ridge football game while performing with the celebrities. Hurley decided to graduate early this year after discovering that she only needed three more credits to qualify. “I decided to graduate early just because I really felt like it was something that had been on my heart for a while,” Hurley said. “And it was just something that I was really called to and I was just excited.”
September 11, 2019
Four years of high school, for an average student, is expected before graduation. Despite this being typical for many schools, some students decide to take a shortcut and graduate early.
Junior Lacey Hurley decided to graduate early after finding out that she only needed three more credits in order to qualify for graduation. However, she has more reasons than just credits to be leaving high school this year.
“I decided to graduate early just because I really felt like it was something that had been on my heart for a while,” Hurley said. “And it was just something that I was really called to and I was just excited.”
After graduation in May, Hurley plans on embarking on a six month mission trip with the company World Race. World Race will take people from ages 18 to 35 on different mission trips, ranging from one to 11 months, depending on the age group. The trip Hurley is taking will leave in January of 2021, so in the meantime, she plans on getting an internship with her church, as well as finishing her own book which is a teen daily devotional.
“It honestly just depends on where the lord calls me on those few months that I’m home,” Hurley said. “I know that whatever I end up doing it will be good! I trust that it’s exactly where I’m supposed to be.”
Hurley said that the reason she wants to go on this trip is because she wants to share the love, promises, and hope that Jesus can offer people, as well as see the world.
“Honestly I just wanna make them feel loved and I believe that every single person has the right to know Jesus, and every single person deserves hope, and every single person deserves truth,” Hurley said.
Graduating early may not be the best thing for everyone. Besides being the Junior Lieutenant for the Celebrities, Hurley is enrolled in nine core classes. She is taking two different science classes, and an English and economics course online.
“If you have a dream and you wanna chase it and wanna get there quicker and you wanna speed up the process then do it, but know that it takes work,” Hurley said. “Know that it takes time, and it’s not something easy, but in the long run it’s worth it.”
Overall, Hurley says that she has received a lot of love and encouragement for her decision and is so excited to pursue the path that has been on her heart.
“You have to do what makes you happy and what you feel like is best for you,” Hurley said. “You have to make the choices that you wanna make, regardless of what people think about them and you have to do it with confidence knowing that if that’s your calling that’s what you need to chase, that’s what you need to go for because if it’s really where you’re supposed to be and that’s really what you’re supposed to do then nothing should stop you from doing that.”
