Taking a break from studying, junior Adrian Escusa poses a slumber party with his Pillow Pets.

Feeling mentally drained and physically exhausted after three consecutive days of no sleep, junior Adrian Escusa was walking through the hallways to his next class when he felt a warm trickle down his face. Bringing his finger to his upper lip, he discovered a stream of blood coming from his nose. After so many sleepless nights, his body was reacting to his lack of sleep.

“School is so [stressful] and there’s so much homework,” Escusa said. “Sometimes I just don’t feel like doing it, so I don’t do it. But in the end I feel like it’s better for me to actually do the homework, [which causes] me to stay up even later.”

Even though social networking sites such as Facebook are distractions, they can also be tools for students to help each other with assignments and lessons. Students have created Facebook groups for certain classes, so that they may help each other and give reminders for assignments and due dates.

“Technology itself could make it where we actually have more time to sleep, but we have a tendency to want to play with everything,” HOSA sponsor Dr. Kevin Hunter said. “It’s all about using the technology, instead of abusing the technology.”

 Social networking sites are distractions for many students, but Escusa makes it a point to not allow unnecessary distractions to keep him from his priorities. Instead of using them to escape from his work at hand, he uses them as a break to relieve stress built up from hours of homework.

“When your brain is about to be fried and you just can’t think anymore, you need a mental break,” Escusa said. “I usually limit myself to five or 10 minutes. Interesting stuff might come up on Tumblr. But I put strict limits on myself, because I get tired of having to sleep at 2 a.m. in the morning every night.”

Sleep deprivation causes many students to nod off in class which puts them at a disability when trying to learn the material. A full sleep cycle is called slow-wave sleep, also known as a deep sleep. When students nap in class, they may wake up feeling groggy, disoriented and even sleepier than before. This is due to sleeping too long and entering slow-wave sleep but not completing the cycle.

                “If you don’t get enough sleep, you’re not going to be able to stay awake in class,” Escusa said. “Not only that, but your thought process will be a lot slower than it would be when you’re well rested. When I fall asleep [in class], I don’t feel rested. When I wake up, I still feel unrested no matter what the amount of sleep that I got.”

                For students that are unable to balance their schedule, sleep is not normally a top priority. However, sleep deprivation is a serious condition and can cause harm to a person’s health and mental thought process. It is important to get enough rest every night so that the body can function normally throughout the day, or else it can lead to further health problems.

                “With less sleep, little things become much more difficult to do,” Dr. Hunter said. “Normality is completely changed to something else. Your behavior becomes abnormally erratic. The more sleep deprived you become, psychological issues will start to manifest themselves.”

To avoid staying up late or get more sleep, eliminate distractions when doing homework or tedious projects by logging off Facebook, putting phones on silent or going to the library. Many students find it easier to study when they are isolated so they can concentrate better. Students should also invest in a planner so they can keep track of assignments and dates. This gets rid of the scenario where students have to get back out of bed upon remembering an unfinished task.

“When I don’t have enough sleep, I’ve got problems,” Dr. Hunter said. “Your brain just doesn’t work the same as it usually does. It’s a scary thing with little sleep. You make big mistakes when you’re really, really tired.”

“Students have legitimate complaints and issues they’d like to address about this school,” Victor said. “I wanted to give them an opportunity to address those complaints to the principals.”

Victor’s six classes sent different topics of letters on how the school can change. This year, his classes wrote about issues regarding the cafeteria, restrooms, the electronics policy, field trips and the seven-period schedule for next year.

“How are they going to know if we don’t tell them how we feel?” junior Tichina Withers said. “I’m glad that we don’t have to worry about [not having the freedom to speak].”

For students like junior Michelle Yochum, the assignment gave her an opportunity to express her opinions on the seven-period schedule next year.

“Especially for [programs like] FTI [and] HOSA, it gets really complicated,” Yochum said. “That is just really what upsets me.”

Assistant principal Jeff Dorman loves the idea of seeing people who want to change the school for the better and challenges students to talk to him to make positive differences in the school.

“All the administrators’ doors are open to anyone who wants to discuss [things] with them,” Mr. Dorman said. “Never feel as though your voice isn’t being heard.”

Junior Darmy Robinson does not think enough students communicate their concerns with administration, because he says he has not seen any changes being made.

“If they listened to us, I don’t think that we would have to write these essays every year,” Robinson said. “I think they would’ve probably done something by now and taken care of it.”

Victor’s assignment gave students some insight on the flaws of the system that once ran America and emphasizes how much freedom the First Amendment right gives students.

“You spend four years of your life here,” Victor said. “You might as well do what you can to make it a better place for yourself.”

Seaman Andy Clements actively toured Iraq twice during his 21 years of military service.

After enlisting in the Navy for 21 years, technology teacher Andy Clements officially retired in October. However, he continues to teach elective courses for students interested in the technology field.

After attending college, Clements enlisted in the Navy. His unit was construction, allowing him to work for the Rapid Marine Corps. Due to his devotion to the Navy, Clements found himself balancing two jobs: teaching Industrial Arts and participating in construction for the Navy Reserve. Clements says the most challenging part of serving his country is not being able to see his kids grow up and missing his family and friends.

“My dad was an Air Force officer, so he was real excited that I joined the Navy. And my mom was excited [only] when I would come back home,” Clements said. “No matter how bad the job is [or] how hard the situation is, the worst part is being away from family and friends. I’ve missed three Christmases with my kids and my wife. I’ve missed tons of birthdays for my kids, and that’s just time I can’t make up.”

Because the federal government has a law stating that a person who finishes his or her military service term shall be re-employed by the employees in his or her original occupation or job, Clements was able to choose a school in the district where he would like to teach.

“The district said I could go to any school I wanted to,” Clements said. “Basically, if there was an opening, they would let me go there. It’s a protection that the federal government puts in place for people that have to be gone for a year or two because of military duty. I had heard good things about North, I knew some people here, [and] I heard really good things about Dr. Fegraeus.”

Clements has taught technology classes for the past three years and enjoys working with students who are interested in the same field. Not only does Clements prefer to teach elective courses, but he would rather teach technology classes because they are not considered static.

“My field is always changing, the way I taught five years ago is completely outdated,” clements said. “We teach a new different way, especially here at North Garland with the computers that we have. There’s a lot of schools that aren’t set up with the computer assets that we have just because it’s an MST program.”

Because students can receive educational benefits by earning enough money in the Montgomery GI bill to go to the college of their choice for free after they finish a minimum of four years in the military, Clements encourages students to join the military.

“You can get on the job experience [and] learn a skill for free,” Clements said. “You also get the experience of putting that on your resume. [Going to college for free is an] expensive gift the military gives you to walk away from being in the military for four to six years, plus you still get the education benefits. You have all the skills, you have all the experience and you have all the money to go to a four-year college.”

As a retired member of the Navy, Clements is aware that enlisting in the military is difficult and requires much strength. He believes the military, in general, teaches discipline and respect.

“You need to be physically and emotionally ready for that challenge,” Clements said. “It’s not an easy job. Joining is not a cakewalk.”

Strategizing his next move, Miller is one step away from putting his opponent's king in check.

At a young age, junior Braxton Miller could not imagine what it felt like to talk. He never knew the alphabet existed. He thought everyone communicated through sign language. He was diagnosed with chronic otis media, an infection of the middle ear, resulting in long term or permanent hearing loss.

“Because of the opening in both of my Eustachian tubes, infections were coming in, and we weren’t really able to anticipate this until I was older,” Miller said. “So much infection had swelled up that I completely lost my hearing.”

Unaware that he was then considered a special education student, Miller could not understand the reason why people’s lips could move. He thought that the mouth was specifically used for eating. At the age of two, Miller had his first surgery.

“While I was going to the hospital, I noticed people communicating through their mouths,” Miller said. “I didn’t really know it existed until then, and it really shocked me because about two or three hours later, I was going to have my hearing.”

However, receiving his hearing was delayed. Miller’s mother, a single parent, could not afford to pay for the cochlear implants for both of Miller’s ears. Without insurance, the surgery was said to cost about $20,000 to $30,000.

“Because we didn’t have enough funds to actually get the surgery that I needed, we had to hold it off until we accumulated enough money when I was six years old,” Miller said. “I was able to get the surgery to make my hearing a lot better than it was.”

In the meantime, Miller attended a deaf and hearing school. Although he could communicate with most of his friends through sign language, it was difficult for him to communicate with other kids who lived in the same neighborhood as he did. Even after he received his cochlear implants, Braxton says he was still made fun of.

“Once I got my hearing back, I had to get a special hearing aid [to] help the process move along, and the other kids treated me funny because I had a hearing aid on,” Miller said. “I had this thing on the outside of my ear because I needed it. Back then the technology wasn’t that great so only until recently was I actually able to have a cochlear implant. Up until that point I always had a hearing aid around my ear, and they would always laugh at me and say I had giant headphones or tumors around my ears.”

Four years ago, Miller was able to put his hearing aids away forever. Surgeons made an incision in his ears and used small tweezers to insert a device to replace his cochlea, the part of the ear accountable for hearing.

“I also have plastic parts in my ear right now,” Miller said. “If I don’t take care of my ears, I could lose my hearing instantaneously. I can’t really go into many water parks unless I have a lot of ear plugs, but they easily fall out. [I have to] make sure nothing huge gets inside of them and make sure there’s not a lot of build up and things like that.”

Despite the hearing loss Miller suffered in his earlier years, he also faced many obstacles growing up in Memphis, Tenn. Occasionally, Miller found himself making wrong decisions and spending time with the wrong crowd.

“Growing up, we didn’t have that much money, so we had to live in not that great of a place,” Miller said. “[I lived in] the kind of neighborhood where things happened sometimes, and you get into the things that you shouldn’t get into.”

After seeing his best friend pass away due to gang violence, Miller decided to turn his life around after moving to Texas. Miller became more involved in school activities and attempted to make good grades.

“I never cried that much [until] that day he died,” Miller said. “I never reflected as much as I did that day. It was a weird feeling, because I was really sad that he died. But he taught me a lesson as well. I started pursuing academics, because I thought academics was truly the only way to get out of the situation I was in.”

Achievements made by Miller include being a superintendent scholar after scoring high enough on the PSAT during his sophomore year. Miller dedicates most of his time to Math UIL. In the latest competition, Miller placed second in mathematics and second in calculator. But despite the significant amount of effort Miller puts into his academic achievements, he is fonder of helping others in the community.

“I don’t believe academic things are the best things in life,” Miller said. “I believe what you do for others always lasts, so I’d say the best things I’ve ever done [is help] out homeless people. I worked in a soup kitchen, and I am now enrolled in Habitat for Humanity. We basically tear things apart and we build houses for people.”

Miller already has plans for the future. He wants to become a software engineer and make enough money to pay his mother back for everything she has done for him in the past. Because his mother loves him unconditionally and has cared for him all his life, Miller would like to pursue a higher education and take care of his mother, who suffers from high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease and cancer.

“I feel like education is my only way out so I can help my mother when she gets older since she has an illness,” Miller said. “She’s on disability, and she can’t work. She can’t really get up properly because of all her diseases, so a lot of times she feels uncomfortable. But she’s still extremely active. I want to cover everyone that has helped me throughout my life. I want to be able to cover their retirement, because they’ve helped me so many times.”

Competing since she was five, Spanish teacher Margie Perez has earned a variety of medals.

Spanish teacher Margie Perez heard the townspeople whisper that she and her city gymnastics teammates “did magic.” They had just finished performing for a small town’s population in rural Columbia. Her teammates giggled at the comments. It was the first time these people had seen gymnastics before, and they were in awe.

Starting at the age of five, Mrs. Perez was enrolled in gymnastics. Her mom thought it would be a good way to become an organized person. For the next 13 years, Mrs. Perez participated in gymnastics, acquiring 25 medals.

“My parents were always talking to me, and they were telling me ‘You are good at this. We want you to be here. It’s going to help you with your life,’” Mrs. Perez said.

In Columbia, all students are on a percentile rank based on their academic averages. Mrs. Perez’s mom wanted her to always be in the top fifth percentile of all students in all of Colombia. According to Perez, balancing her school workload and gymnastics was very difficult.

“The majority of the time, I was in [the fifth percentile],” Mrs. Perez said. “For maybe two semesters, in grade 8, I was not able [to be in it]. She [would lecture] me about having to be in the fifth percentile.”

Whenever her town, a school, or a university had an event, they often asked her team to showcase their routines. Her team traveled a lot and performed in many different places around Colombia.

“We went to 10 or 12 cities,” Mrs. Perez said. “There was one competition outside of Colombia, in Venezuela. They tried to have the nationals in different cities every year. We went to every National [competition] and we had small competitions and presentations and invitations. We enjoyed it a lot.”

When her team performed at Nationals, it was a very tense time for them. She had to think very positive when it came time for her to compete.

“When I had national competitions, I was a little more nervous,” Mrs. Perez said. “You have practiced [for] many months, many years and you have just one chance to do well. So it’s a lot of tension. I always [thought] that [I was] going to do my best, because I wanted a medal. I also thought ‘This is the only chance I have [to do well].’”

Despite all of the trainings and workouts, Mrs. Perez made mistakes throughout her career. In one of her local competitions, she became too sure of herself and did not concentrate enough. She fell on a floor event. She regrets it a lot, because she could have received a medal.

“We were training for a National competition and I was doing very well,” Mrs. Perez said. “My coach was so proud of me. But in one of the trainings, I fell badly. I broke my ankle. All my friends went to the competition, and I had to stay at home.”

Her parents supported her throughout her gymnastics career by encouraging her to do her best and to not quit.
“Sometimes I [would fight] with them, because I didn’t want to go to the trainings,” Mrs. Perez said. “I wanted to stay at home or go with my friends or go to celebrations and I couldn’t because I had to train.”

She wanted to continue to be active in the gymnastics world by becoming a coach or a judge. She could not because of her college schedule. Instead, she studied English, French, and Spanish at the Universidad Industrial de Santander. She instead turned to her other passion, teaching others.

“It was a great opportunity for me to grow as a person and live with other people, practice a sport and have a discipline in my life,” Mrs. Perez said. “I’m so organized. And I’m so strict with schedules, because that was the way I had to be when I was training.”

“It’s a completely different environment,” sophomore Kim Dang said. “We don’t have our own classroom or our original teacher.”

Typically, the band hall was closed off to all students who are not in band, but this year they share the room with orchestra. They moved to the band hall due to an increase of students this year.

“[The band hall] is kind of like our sanctuary,” sophomore Carlos Correa said. “We trust each other. But we don’t really know the orchestra kids like that. But if they don’t have a room, what can we do?”

The band and orchestra students share space and storage in the band hall and orchestra room, sometimes interrupting the other class to get things they need.

“I’ve never had a problem with [the] orchestra kids,” band student senior Reed Correa said. “They’re kind of like our house guests.”

Assistant band director Todd Payne says it was logical to have orchestra class in the band hall since band does not have classes during the periods when orchestra does.

“We’re happy to have [orchestra] in here,” band director Todd Toney said. “I hope that they feel the same way. It’s all music.”

The absence of orchestra director Dan Lonie is a change orchestra is going through this year. Lonie had surgery early in the summer for a severe hernia. He suffered respiratory failure and was breathing through the support of a ventilator. He also had a systematic stroke two weeks later and is on the way to recovery, but it is still difficult for him to talk.

“I am lucky that I have wonderful therapy at Presbyterian Dallas Hospital and Remington Rehab at Richardson,” Lonie said. “I am in debt to them working so hard to bring me back.”

Lonie says he is excited about orchestra this year and would like to thank Hering, who he asked to take his place while he recovers.

“I really appreciate my students working so diligently in my absence and Ann Hering for keeping our orchestra so organized and filling in for me,” Lonie said.

According to Hering, she is a strict teacher. She gives the students practice sheets that the students must fill out and have signed every day. Hering says she struggles with teaching the violins and violas, because she is limited to teaching and playing only the cello. The students have to become more independent. Toney has also assisted with musical instruction.

As the principal violinist and concert mistress, the leader of the first violin section of an orchestra, senior Mary Kim says she tries to help out the underclassmen as much as she can.

“Hering and I are kind of filling in the missing gaps for Lonie,” Kim said. “We’re all trying the best we can.”

Kim says that being in orchestra has changed her life and hopes to one day influence others about how music can soothe the soul.

“I see that other schools’ orchestras improve and are getting the benefit of having an actual teacher that can teach them new techniques and rhythms, and we don’t,” Kim said. “It isn’t fair, especially when I want to go to college as a music education major. [Lonie’s leaving has made me] feel under developed as a musician.”

As Lonie gets better each week, he promises to get back to teaching as soon as possible.

“I can tell [Lonie] has become more optimistic and is trying really hard with his speech therapist to get back into his normal routine,” Kim said. “His spirits are high, and he has a great attitude. I’m sure he’s trying the best he can to be there for his students.”

“I’ve been playing for about a week,” Johnson said. “I think ping pong is great. It’s really fun especially if you’re just a beginner.”

Johnson is running for historian of the newest club, the North Garland Table Tennis Federation. The club is open to anyone who is interested and the sponsors are math teachers, Mr. Allen Johnson and Mr. Craig Wilson. Both are willing to help beginning players learn about the sport. The club is not strictly for those who are serious in competitive play, but for anyone who wants to have fun.

“If kids just want to come in and bang the ball around, they can do that,” Mr. Johnson said.

The club has meetings after school every Tuesday and Friday in the cafeteria. The attendance for the first meeting was far beyond expectations.

“If it stays like it is, [this club] is going to be one of the largest clubs on campus,” Mr. Johnson said. “We’ve had over 50 kids show up for [the first two] meetings.”

The goal of the club is to give students something to do after school and teach students about the rules of table tennis. Most people recognize table tennis as ping pong, but there is a difference between the two names.

“Ping pong uses backyard rules,” Mr. Johnson said. “I stress table tennis, because I’m trying to make a distinction between backyard rules and the official rules. The US Table Tennis Association uses table tennis instead of ping pong.”

Despite the number of beginner players, both sponsors have high hopes for the members of this new club.

“This is not for experts in ping pong,” Mr. Wilson said. “There’s a lot of people who have never played. They’re just here to have fun, but we do hope to make a competitive team from the club that can go out and play other schools.”

The club is welcoming new members with open arms whether they have played before or not. All they need is an interest in playing and to have fun.

“If you’ve never played and you want to learn, great,” Mr. Johnson said. “Come out. We’ll work with you and help you learn. You’re an important part of the club just as anyone else is.”

Foreign language teacher Barbara Moula, acts, writes French commercials and adaptations of French dramas for her French students during her free time.

“I love the applause,” Mrs. Moula said. “It’s so much fun to play someone else. I just love everything about performing.”

Mrs. Moula also directs plays for her French II/III students to perform. In the spring, she will put on a performance of Cyrano II, a comedy based on the French play Cyrano de Bergerac, with French II/III students.

“They [the students] have to memorize all their lines in French,” Mrs. Moula said. “It really helps the kids with their pronunciation. The results are always great.”

Acting since high school, Mrs. Moula won Best Supporting Actress of Dallas during her senior year at Woodrow Wilson High School. While attending the University of Texas in Austin, Mrs. Moula was in The Student Repertory Theatre. There, she originally decided to major in drama but after realizing her classmates were too competitive, she changed her major.

“I just act for fun,” Mrs. Moula said. “Everyone [classmates] was too serious. I just didn’t have as great of an interest as they [classmates] did.”

She renewed her hobby by joining the Actors Anonymous Theater Company (AATC) in 2006. AATC was founded in 1997 by Lory Stewart, speech teacher and debate coach at Garland High School.

AATC performs mainly adult sketch comedy for audiences 18 or older; however, every summer they also put on a children’s show. Through their ticket sales, the troupe has raised more than $10,000 for local charities such as the New Beginnings Center for domestic violence and Alzheimer’s Association. They have also raised money for leukemia research and scholarship funds around the district.

“She [Moula] is just hilarious,” Mrs. Stewart said. “She is just very generous and compassionate. She really is the heart of our troupe. Everybody loves her.”