Staff Members Talk About Their Craziest Moment of 2022

“Fishing with the Sharks, Soon Gone wrong”
Katherine Ceballos and her parents were fishing on a dock that was
located in Sarasota, FL. This took place while they were on summer vacation. This was their first time fishing with no experience. During this experience everything went well until they started fishing, and the shark Katherines dad caught wouldn’t let go of the hook.

During summer vacation in mid July, Katherine and her parents decided to try fishing for once. Little did they know what they were going to catch. One hot morning, they were bored, Katherine said “we should try fishing! We´ve never tried it; this could be fun!¨ Everything was normal at first, they didn’t catch many fish, and also did not catch anything at all. Later in the day they went to a shop nearby to buy some shrimp to use instead of the rubber bait.

They switched places where they were fishing, nothing, so then they thought that problem was the bait. It seemed to work; Katherine caught her first fish, a catfish, then many more came. They continued fishing, catching more and more fish, mostly catfish. Sharks were seen at one point, but they didn’t really pay a lot of attention to them, little did they know what was going to occur. At some point they started to catch stingrays, but they released them back into the water; they were not difficult to release.

Time went on, and they were about to go back to the beach house before the sun set. This is when Katherine’s dad decided to go for one more fish. This is where things went wild. All of a sudden Katherine’s dad couldn’t seem to pull the rod back up. It took a while to lift it. He thought he had caught a massive fish! After trying to pull it up for a while, he finally got it out of the water, revealing a baby shark.

“It’s a shark!” Katherine’s dad exclaimed. Everyone was amazed, and terrified at the same time they were left speechless, struggling to release it. Katherine’s dad thought it was a good idea to lift it onto the dock, and cut the string off, so it would be free. Once the baby shark was on the dock it started to fight back and tried to bite Katherine and her parents. Everyone panicked, and Katherine’s dad grabbed a wood plank that was on the dock, and then started to push it back into the water, the shark was still trying to bite them. That’s when the string went snap! The shark then was pushed back into the ocean.

Thankfully no one had gotten hurt, and then headed back into the house, after experiencing an adventurous, and scary event. They later told their family about the crazy event. To this day they haven’t fished since the event, and don’t plan on fishing again any time soon (Katherine Ceballos).

“Heritage High School Students Barely Survive Cracker Barrel”
Six Heritage High School students almost literally died over the unbearable amount of time their food took. Cracker Barrel’s recent notoriously slow service is getting out of hand.
Earlier this month, Heritage High School students Miles Clark, Rhett McDonald, Charles Williams, Quentin Hoffman, and Ian Dunn decided to take an exciting journey to the Ringgold Cracker Barrel. The four boys were seated quickly with nothing but sweet buttery biscuits on their minds. The waiter quickly took the boy’s orders, and all seemed well. About 20 minutes into waiting for their food, a terrifying thought kept creeping in the back of the boys minds… It’s gonna be a while before they get their food. They were right.
In the midst of a starving freak-out frenzy, the boys fought tooth and nail to find something that would help rid their minds of the anticipation. They did everything they could to keep it together, but hope was fading fast.

When all seemed lost, finally, after another 45 minutes, their food finally arrived. The dreadful, painstaking wait was finally over. Even when it started going up for the boys, they noticed the waitress got all of their orders wrong. Even after quite possibly the most treacherous journey in history, they boys didn’t even get what they asked for. Even though the trip seemed like a total failure, it gave all the boys a reason to spend some quality time together, and ended up being a lot of fun (Miles Clark).

“Georgia Girl and Her Mother Fall Into Quicksand at Florida Beach”

Two members of the Collins family were on their annual family summer vacation, this time at Dune Allen Beach. When a turn for the worse happened. As the girl, Kendra, 17, recalled, “I was walking along the beach, when suddenly I fell into a patch of quicksand. I was so flustered. It went to my knees, and it had seaweed, I had no idea what I was stepping on.” Her mother, Megan Collins, 42, also gave her statement on the incident. “As I stepped into the wet sand, I was caught off guard, both literally and figuratively. I watched as my feet quickly disappeared into the rapidly dissolving wet sand up to my knees. My first instinct was to reach for Kendra’s arm to prevent her from experiencing the same fate.” but she was too late, the girl had already fallen into the watery abyss. “For a moment I was petrified, not at being trapped, but rather at what my feet were actually touching and the unknown.” The ladies came out of said watery abyss, by wading through it. They came out fine, maybe with a little mental trauma (Kendra Collins).

“Crazed Man Chops Teens Finger Off”

Local man Brian Wamsley attempted to chop 16 year old John Hurst’s finger off, due to him being so much better at fishing than his son.

While in Florida this summer Brian’s son Evan Wamsley was being out fished by John so badly that his dad thought he had to step in to give his son a fair chance.The teens Evan and John were having a friendly fishing competition on the fateful Friday afternoon. It started off slow, but John was up to a quick lead, catching five snook while Evan was still empty-handed. Finally, Evan caught a small catfish; though he thought he was hung, he still managed to capture it. At about 2 P.M in the afternoon, the Wamsley family and John decided to park the boat on the bank of a deserted island. In two casts John was already hooked up to another fish, this one being the largest of the day. “Dang that big fish and Evan you suck.” John said. The only problem was the fish swallowed the miro lure, which was expensive and rather large. So in efforts to remove the bait John was using a knife in absence of pliers. Brian was then seen taking the knife from John and slicing his finger. Blood shot out everywhere as John let out an agonizing yelp: “Ah, that kinda hurt a little,” he said. John, being the manly man he is, washed off his wound and picked back up his rod, continuing to out fish the lesser man Evan.

By the end of the day when the rental boat was due, John was up in fish count 16-1 on Evan, catching the most and the biggest. Snooks are very desirable sport fish, but they decided not to keep them. John’s finger made a full recovery after many weeks in pain and suffering. “I’m truly lucky to be alive.” John said (John Hurst).

“A Girl Finally Conquers the Fear of Breaking a Board at Her Martial Arts Studio”

A fourteen-year-old girl named Abigail has gone to Ed Rose Martial Arts Academy for over two years. In the past during testing, one thing scared her the most, and that was breaking the board. She could never find the one technique that worked for her. Abigail had tried palm heel strike, elbow strike, and front kick, but nothing had worked. She was always so scared when she went to hit the board that she had never followed through, had enough speed, or had enough power, but this time was different.

Abigail had her belt test on Friday, August 5, 2022. She also tested with her mom, Nicole. The time was seven PM to seven forty-five PM. Around seven thirty, she had just finished performing her form (a set of moves performed together), one-steps (a few moves performed together to show you know the moves you should know), and sparring (fighting using sparring gear to protect you while you fight). Abigail was alway prepared for those, but she was worried about that board. She prayed, hoped, and prayed and hoped some more. When it was time to break the board, her legs were trembling, and she was shaking out of her skin.

Abigail went up to the board and took a deep breath and only thought about how she could do it. The board holder asked her what she wanted to do. Abigail made the very tough decision of what break she wanted to perform. She took another deep breath and said, “I am confident with a front kick.” The board holder took his position
It was time. Abigail took a second to make sure she was the right distance. She was ready. The instructor, Mr. Rose, asked The students if we were ready and she said yes with every bit of confidence she had. When Mr. Rose said go, Abigail used all of the speed, power, and accuracy she had. When she hit the board, it didn’t break. Abigail wasn’t ready to give up.

Mr. Rose told her, “Don’t let your head go backwards. It should following along with the rest of you threw that board.” From that moment on, that’s all Abigail thought about. Mr. Rose let me set up the board again and it was time. The one moment she had been waiting for. As soon as Mr. Rose said go she went all the way threw and cracked the board in half. “It was like a wait off of my shoulders. It felt amazing and like I could do that again easily,” Abigail states.

This was an amazing experience and accomplishment for her. When someone is in Karate/Martial Arts they start breaking boards at blue belt (the 6 belt from white). She had never really done great on breaking the board. She was always afraid of hurting herself but this time was different. “My next goal is to break the board first try at my next belt test,” Abigail says with passion in her eyes.

“Clumsy Teen Drops Brand New iPhone Into Lake at Work”

In the early morning on July 20, seventeen-year-old Evan Wamsley dropped his brand new iPhone into the waters of the Lakeshore Marina in Chattanooga, where he worked for the summer.

Evan Wamsley frantically jumped into the water to catch his phone from sinking to the bottom of the lake. Evan said “I felt frantic jumping into the lake trying to retrieve my cellular device.” He came soaring back to the surface of the water empty-handed. Evan had this phone for only 1 week prior to dropping it. At this point, he began to rage, smacking the dock with his hand. John Hurst (his co-worker) “reportedly” blurted, “Oop he’s getting a Samsung.” He began his ten-minute search for his brand new phone. He roughly sketched out an eight feet radius around where his phone was dropped. Right before he was about to give up, “his co-worker “ Bryce McGee suggested he search closer to the dock. He went down about a foot off of the dock and came right back up with the perfectly working IPhone.

When his phone dropped in the water, he searched for goggles in Ray’s boat (the forklift operator). Bryce helped Evan in the search for his phone about three minutes into the search he figured he might as well help since the marina wasn’t busy at the time. The only reason why Evan had gotten this new phone was because his old one got water in it and broke. This would have been the 2nd phone lost to water within 2 weeks. Evan had fallen into the lake at work by tripping over a cleat. Evan was only in the lake for a couple of seconds but his old phone was cracked so the water seeped into the internals of the IPhone.

“There is Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself . . . and the Terror of Events Through Gigantic, Yellow Spiders”

Senior Azrael Woody at HHS had recurrent nightmares during the months of June through July of a “terrifying, gigantic, yellow spider”; anxiety spiked through the roof. This caused significant anxiety to course through them, but suddenly disappeared.

Throughout summer, Azrael was said to have had nightmares almost every single night. These nightmares continued for months, but they suddenly stopped after an event that changed their life for what seemed would be eternity. Azrael took it upon theirself to figure out what the issue was, only to be confused and interested by the outcome. They claimed, “In the nightmares the spider would suddenly jump at my face. I would push it away, but it would keep coming back. Then I would suddenly wake up barely breathing correctly.”

The nightmares contained Azrael walking throughout a random, old, crumbling house. The floors cracked underneath them in the nightmares. As they started to walk farther into the house there was a cupboard. It seemed to be just like the one from Harry Potter, yet it was more rustic. It seemed to be breaking apart. Azrael continues to venture through the house only to come back to the cupboard. As they opened it the door creaked, whined, and croaked.

A scream rang throughout the house as Azrael hurriedly pushed the gigantic beast away. It would swing back towards their face as they continued to push it away with great fear. The long, dark, yellow legs grasping at their skin. The spider’s bright, red eyes staring into their soul. As they pushed it away one last time they suddenly woke up unable to breathe. Tears pricked at their eyes each time they woke up from a terrible experience.

One morning on July 16th, after continuously waking up in horror, they woke up from another nightmare. The same nightmare that had been going on for months to be exact. They were fed up and made a call to their aunt. They announced their troubles to their aunt, who knew a thing or two about dreams.

The conclusion from their aunt was that their nightmares were their own mind trying to tell them something was wrong. Azrael’s anxiety had been rising constantly due to stress levels, but little did they know their anxiety was also due to a certain thing in their life. To be more specific, the ‘certain thing’ was an event.

This event was soon to happen with their mother. Azrael struggled with their mother and communication. Being seen a certain way by their mother, but being the exact opposite wasn’t exactly easy. They had been wanting to talk to their mother about their haircut for senior pictures, although their mother refused, due to the fact that she wanted them to be her image.

After the squabble, Azrael’s nightmares seemed to disappear. Their mother regretted her actions, and now is more open to Azrael’s own self. There were no more giant spiders. As a character in Gravity Falls said, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself, and giant spiders.”

Azrael continues to work on controlling their anxiety, and on growing as a person. They are trying to convince their mother to be more open, and to be more accepting of change. It is a hard battle. Perhaps it is even the hardest battle they have ever fought.