"Judge Not, Less Ye Be Judged" - Matthew 7:1

Final bell begins to ring, all the students wait to go home or to their sports and activities, only to be stopped by blaring accusations from voices outside the building.
“I remember walking out of the freshman hall and hearing megaphones thinking it was some seniors in the parking lot,” explained sophomore Avery Moyes.
These assumed seniors were actually a group of men visiting from Minnesota, here to “preach against a compassion-focused conference called Compassion for Action,” according to the Canby Herald.
Only going by his first name, Ryan, the speaker of the group, stood with three other men with signs on the sidewalk in the front of the main parking lot. By the Gold Gym exit, a fifth man stood, according to many parents on the “Canby Now” Facebook page.
Starting with no audience, the group gained the attention of the students, shouting through megaphones. Assistant Principal Cari Sloan was alerted to the situation by School Resource Officer Greg Larrison, who was on his regular patrol.
After staff attempted to remove the men from campus, Larrison stepped in and moved them across the street to the sidewalk of a local business, Pizza Schmizza. All of these protesters were gathered in the front, as Ryan explained to students that “God hates all who sin,” as shown on his sign.
“Everyone has First Amendment rights, which includes the freedom of speech but this was a disruption to our students and I believe it could have been done in a more peaceful manner,” explained Sloan. Although many students left on buses when they were released, many driving students stuck around.
Students disagreeing with Ryan asked questions about his beliefs. Seniors Kaitlin Carson and Grace Hill kissed next to these protesters to prove a point. “We were both really frustrated, so we agreed to both go up there,” explained Hill. Sophomores Meridian Lattig, Marissa Oswald, and Shane O’Leary took Ryan’s handouts, ripped them, and ate them in disgust. “It was a form of getting rid of hateful messages,” shared O’Leary.
That September day is one that Canby will remember. It is a day that students chose to fight against a statement many did not agree with. Although it was an aggressive demonstration, it sparked conversations and many staff and students found humor in the disruption.

She/Her

Voting for yearbook senior superlatives is a rite of passage. Every year seniors vote for their fellow senior who most fits specific categories like “Best Smile” or “Best Snap Stories.” The votes are tallied and then the winners are named. This year Jarreth Oglesbee, who is openly transgendered, won the “Most Changed” category of senior bests. “I’m not surprised. I even joked about it,” shared Oglesbee. “It is kind of expected.” What Oglesbee did not expect was the change itself, or even the idea of it. Everything started the summer before her junior year. “I didn’t know what a transgender person was until after I figured out I was a transgender person,” explained Oglesbee. There was not a moment where Oglesbee just realized she was a girl. Instead, it all happened incredibly slowly.
“Explaining ‘how you know' is probably the hardest one because it’s the question most based on feelings and that takes a lot of introspection, “Oglesbee shared.
“It doesn’t really change as much as you think it would. It’s not that I changed, but what I knew about myself changed,” explained Oglesbee. “I am a lot more comfortable about myself now, as a result.”
Along with growing out her hair and developing her style, some alterations Oglesbee did not feel were needed. This included her name, Jarreth. “I didn’t change my name because of the uniqueness of the name,” expressed Oglesbee. “I just think of it as my name, not necessarily a guy’s name.” Instead of altering her first name, after graduation Oglesbee plans on legally changing her middle name from Edgar to Luna.
Throughout it all, Oglesbee has had lots of support in many areas of her life, including her family, friends, and teachers. Oglesbee has a very loving, helpful family by her side, but she knows that is not always the case. “These days people like to think of [support] as a black and white thing,” started Oglesbee. “Even though a family member doesn’t support you… that doesn’t mean they don’t still love you and support you even in things related to those things.” However, family support is not all Oglesbee had.
English teacher, and her Speech & Debate advisor, Deborah Groff also noticed and welcomed the change. “Jarreth has always been a kind and thoughtful student - - that hasn’t changed at all.” Groff started. “What I will say is that now Jarreth seems more outgoing and sure of herself. She’s more confident and charismatic.” For Groff as Oglesbee’s teacher and advisor for all four years, she witnessed the transition. “It was interesting. While I’ve had transgender students before, this was my first experience watching such a complete transformation,” expressed Groff.
Senior Kayleigh Looney, Oglesbee’s best friend, and Speech & Debate team member is another component of Oglesbee’s support system. “I’m proud of her for being able to stand up in front of people and talk about something that has literally changed her life,” Looney expressed. Although changing is difficult, Oglesbee’s support system has been helpful in making everything just a little bit easier.
Her support system extended to the Speech & Debate Team, a team that has stuck with her throughout the transition. This year in honor of her transition, Oglesbee wrote and performed a new, and now favorite, competition pieced. The speech is categorized as an After Dinner Speech. “It’s supposed to be a humorous speech with a serious undertone, and it is just like that,” explained Groff. “[The speech] basically details the story of how it all happened.”
In her speech “Real Girl,” Oglesbee introduces herself and explains her story on how she came out and how things have, or have not, changed at school. By the end, she summarizes her point in just one sentence. “There are always going to be people judging you no matter what you do. Even if you try to please everyone there will still be people hating you for it. The only person who it's your business to make happy is yourself.”

We Change Together

Life is all about change. This growth is part of high school. Everyone has experienced those hot summer days where the only way to cool off is to go to the river, often stopping at the rope swing or turtle to mess around with friends and have a good time. Change is transitioning from that last day of summer to the first day at school. From that first day of freshman year, trying to memorize the map of the school and getting lost daily to getting the hang of it even if it took until senior year. Adapting sophomore year when some of us begin driving, and some of us still haven’t quite passed the test. It is going through summer, fearing the return of heavy backpacks and new school supplies sales. Wanting to go back to the hot weather and then complaining about the heat as we sit in the hot classrooms all day.
However, all this change does not alter our process. We will still stay up late to finish that project due tomorrow morning. We all dream for the day of graduation, even as freshmen. All the learning, summer activities, and occasional procrastination make us who we are. All these experiences teach us life lessons and mold us into who we are, leaving behind memories of how we got here.
Cambio represents that things are not always the same while embracing our school’s diversity. Cambio, which means “I change,” symbolizes we change individually, and Cambiamos means “we changed” because we have all gone through this together. Although we change in our own time and way, we learn similar lessons. Life changes and brings you to new places. This is where you have grown and that is worth remembering.

Jedediah Smith

Some people have hobbies, others have obsessions. While obsessions are viewed more negatively, most people prefer to say they are simply very passionate pursuits. Maybe it is connected to an inner feeling, to the Force. Since the beginning or at least first grade, the Force was present in junior Jedediah Smith. Star Wars has been a huge part of Smith’s life ever since he got the nickname Jedi, from his elementary school friend Micah Lehman. Before this nickname, Smith had no idea what this franchise was. This discovery inspired the start of his assemblage of memorabilia. What some may consider just a collection, Smith considers one of the coolest pastimes. Smith’s family are also big fans of the series and the entire Star Wars franchise, but Smith has a clear role. “I’m more of the leader of the collection,” Smith claimed.
With such a big franchise to follow, there is a lot of merchandise to be acquired. However, with so many fans around the world, the demand is as high as the prices. As of now, Smith has legos, hot wheels, soup cans, clothes, and also a PS4 deluxe bundle of Star Wars Battlefront, purchased in an effort to strengthen his stock. At the moment, Smith’s collection is “a whole wall” - in his room. After all these years, it is only his family that truly knows the depth of his selection and the growth in items since he began.
Although none of his collectibles have increased in value yet, Smith believes that will. “The most expensive thing I have is all the Star Wars legos I have gotten throughout the years.” In total, all the lego sets Smith owns add up to about $500, while his Star Wars Battlefront PS4 bundle is around $300. Including a variety of items, his most prized possession is his movie set. Even though he has watched all films several times, his favorite remained Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
Throughout all these years, collecting has proven to be an enjoyable pastime for Smith. Over the course of the next few years, Smith hopes to build upon his current Star Wars possessions, as well as strengthen his commitment to the brand.

Bitter Sweet Goodbye

Senior night for volleyball arrived as they celebrated their last home game. Exciting and emotional, each senior was gifted a night to remember. Most of the upperclassmen have been playing together since their freshman year, creating a bond with one another, as well as their coaches.
Playing their last home game of the season was difficult for everyone. To ease the pain of saying goodbye, “All of the non-seniors on varsity have made blankets for everyone who was leaving.” explained junior Parker Allhands. “We also got personalized little gifts to go along.”
Although it was hard to see part of a family o, the team was happy for their seniors to start a life after high school. After the gifts and tears, it was time for the last league game of the season.
Playing well against Lake Oswego in a close game, the Cougars ended victoriously. “We won a really close game, especially while we continued to push through to the end,” shared Allhands. With a 3-2 win, the team received cheers and shouts from all the families that had come to support them.
“Seniors went out with a band, securing second place in the league that game,” declared head coach Terri Schlatter. “It was a great final night for the seniors.” It could not have been a more rewarding game.
Together as a team, everyone felt food about how they had paid that day. “My team played well that game, like most of the season,” explained Schlatter. “We were very competitive, very scrappy. But we have to beat that team.” Taking the win from Lake Oswego secured Canby a place before the playoffs.
Soon after, the girl’s season came to a close. “Fighting hard feels a little sweeter once you win. Though it hurts when you lose, not as much when you put everything in it,” ended Schlatter. As close as family, the team played well together for the last home game.

Pushing the Limits to Victory

As no other team has done before, Canby pushed the limits with their floors, their dancers, and their props. Each year dancers try many concepts to expand the minds of the dance world. In 2015, the team claimed their first win in 36 years (1979), the winning show ended in a flurry of baking soda. As the team walked off the floor at state their competitors and judges sat in shock. That day four years ago, the now seniors of the team experienced that come back as a team.
“As a freshman that first year, I heard my coach tell me ‘Leave it on the floor,’” shared senior Kyra Renner, which ties to the dancers’ experience as they ran off the floor covered in baking soda. “They are still the words I hear today as a senior. To me, this means killing it on the floor with no words needed to walk off. Knowing you nailed it,” explained Renner.
Since that year, the team has been nailing their competitions, and have kept their title for the past three years, and are striving for a fourth.
The coaches revealed the state routine to the team on October 11. This year, the dancers brought paint into the show. Adding paint invited many challenges. Timing and choreography struggles blocked the dancers creatively from moving forward. Paint could not be used until the state performances in March. The floor for state is used throughout the entire Winter season, so if the floor is damaged, the routine is off.
Without the paint in practice, the team had to be more precise than ever before. Making them work harder for the win, choreographer James Healy’s vision challenged the girls as a whole. This brought them their win, becoming state and grand champions with a 96.37 overall score.
Although it is good to be successful, it is better to be proud of what you accomplish as a team. Canby is not all about winning. It is about opening eyes and expanding the limits of dance. “No one has ever tried anything like this before,” claims captain, and senior, Lauren Gerig. “We try to keep improving and go farther than anyone has gone before.”
Along with her other senior captains, Taylor Smith, Amanda Stephens, and Josie Sheveland, Gerig worked hard leading the team to victory. Head coach Jennifer Chaffee believes that Canby will help spectators see dance as an art form, not just entertainment.

Along the Lines of Acting

Year and year again, the thespians memorize lines and set the stage for the fall play. With limited time to perfect the show, they prepare, especially when it comes to a Shakespearean play. Two longtime theatre students, junior Sarah Davenport and senior Nicholas Turrentine share their success with The Tempest despite the difficulties of Shakespeare’s language.
One of the most difficult tasks in performing arts is executing the art of acting. “You have to actually study the dialect for it to make sense,” claimed Turrentine. Studying and memorizing the lines is time-consuming, but how so depends on the type of play. “It took about two and a half weeks to memorize that play,” said Turrentine. “The English wasn’t what you would expect it to be. You have to change the way sentence structure is in your mind,” Davenport explained. With a bigger part than she has had before, Davenport had a little more difficulty remembering her lines. “For the Tempest, it took me a month to get completely off-book, because our actions were very ‘to-be-determined’ until last minute,” stated the actress. As her actions were undecided for most of the practices, memorizing lines was more difficult for her. Despite such a difficult language, all actors successfully perfected their Shakespearean selves.
Aspiring actors all have their own methods of memorization, even those in bigger productions. Some repeat lines, while others may have to look through the script once or twice. Davenport likes to make an “intentional bunny trail,” meaning she lets the lines connect themselves, with keywords or actions within the play. Her actions not being decided until later made her bunny trail harder to create. Turrentine uses the method of repeating his lines, even if he is interrupted. When people walk into his practice, he elaborates. “ I tell them why I’m saying the line,” he expressed.
Actors use their book up until two weeks before opening night. “We can get out blocking and acting down, and lines are just muscle memory by that point,” shared Turrentine. Blocking consists of a rough run-through of the play, when actors do not completely know the script or show.
Once lines are retained, they stay memorized for much longer than needed for the performances. Even after shows, many thespians still remember all their lines and songs, whether their parts were big or small. “If you asked me to perform the song I came singing up the aisle, I could sing it word for word,” laughed Davenport. Long after plays have closed, they still have the shows memorized. “Sometimes we’ll go out and we’ll just start speaking our lines,” revealed Turrentine.
Through the learning of lines is a lot of hard work, it is definitely worth it. These students have worked hard to change and improve the face of the theatre program. These words will remain with them for many years to come.