Last post but come back next year!

Well I guess this post will have to wrap up this blog for the year. Its been a lot of fun, but still sad at times. I’ll tell you it is crazy coming up with a topic each week without letting any one know who you are. I can’t exactly run around the school doing interviews or asking questions and then have that info magically show up on my blog if you know what I mean. And promoting my blog? Forget about it! You sort of loose that anonymous vibe when you tell someone to read your anonymous blog!

But thanks to all of you who have been reading my blog right along! I remember that time when I looked at how many votes I had on a poll and I was like “TEN!? SERIOUSLY!? I have readers!!!!!” Thanks to my followers also! I also want to thank the people who have been promoting my blog on either facebook or their own blog. And thanks to AQ Girl! She came in a little late in the year with her own blog but its still been awesome!

And lastly I would like to thank the Nazareth girls for not only reading my blog but for making the last six years of my life amazing! I had an awesome time and have plenty of memories I love to share.

Goodbye to everyone until next year! Remember, my email will still be up in case you would like to reach me over the summer. I’ll be posting sometime before school starts next year.

And yes I would like to say (although you might have already figured this out) I am from the class of 2011 and will be spending my Senior year at AQ. (I was SO close!!! Just had one more year!)

~Miss Naz~

Design Contest

Hey! Little mini post here! I know I usually post just once a week but I felt that this needed it’s own special post. So I have been playing around with designs for my blog, and I know you must be thinking “But it looks the same!” Well that’s because I couldn’t really find a design I liked, one that really screamed Nazareth! And after three days of throwing away designs (some where so bad they went to the shredder!) I decided I could use some help. And who better to ask for help from than the people who read my blog!

So! Here is what I need. If you have a google account (yes all you need is gmail!), create a lay out that includes the colors blue and gold (do I even have to explain why?), press “print screen” and send me a copy of your idea! Then I will look through the designs and decide my favorite. How will you know if yours won? Well the one I pick will be the new lay out for SOS!

If you don’t have a google account, no problem. Just head over to the comments and give some suggestions you may have. And no, I can’t place a picture of Nazareth in the background. Yes I have tried…. many times….

So this post is done! Don’t forget that my email in on my click here Blogger Profile click here!! I hope to see new ideas coming in! Of course if you like the current design that’s cool too.

OK well I’m done with that announcement. Go ahead to this weeks post that is actually about Nazareth! Trust me! It’s a really good one!

~Miss Naz~

Ideas on Change

So while I was sitting around brainstorming ideas for my next blog post this week, I was talking with AQ Girl on Facebook. She told me that she had just taken a personality quiz that she thought was very accurate. (Yes, hang on. This does have something to do with Nazareth.) She sent me the link and I took the quiz. The results told me that I “embrace change when it is necessary while still resisting it when you think it is not.” Of course I naturally started to think about Nazareth.

First of all I have to ask the question, “Is this change necessary?” Does a school, that has so many supportive alumni and students have to close? Of course not! Yes I will agree that maybe our school was tight for money, but do we give up the second that little red line on the profits chart starts to go down? Of course not! If we had done that years ago, we might still have been stuck in the Great Depression! (OK maybe not…. But you get my idea!)

But in some ways yes, change is necessary. Our school closed, and apparently we didn’t get any say in it. Now it’s happening, has happened actually. At this point, it doesn’t look like we can reopen the school for next year (although you never know about future years.) In this way, yes, change is necessary. There is no way any of us can go back to Nazareth Academy next year with the same building, same students, same teachers. Change is necessary.

So yes I will embrace the change when I switch to AQ, maybe make some new friends. However I do resist the idea that Nazareth Academy is gone because it is not gone! I also hope that one day Nazareth Academy will reopen where it belongs, at 1001 Lake Avenue.

So this week I leave you with the words of advice that my Freshman self wrote to my Senior self in the letters we all wrote on the first day of high school: Remember this your last year. Do your best to get through.

~Miss Naz~

Exams

Happy Fathers Day to all you dads out there! Also, can you guys believe this is my 20^th post already?!

OK so it has officially been one week since the school closed (it’s OK, Nazareth Academy will always be open in my heart.) Even though school is over, many of us are stuck in the annoying process of final exams, or in this case, Regent Exams. Not fun.

But just a few more exams and then we will have to walk out of Nazareth Academy sadly. As much as I want to get these exams over with, I still really want to stay at Naz. I would like to wish our Seniors good luck too! The very last class to ever graduate from Nazareth, the 139^th graduating class, the class of 2010! I would list your names but I don’t think I’m allowed to do that on a public blog…. But don’t worry, we know who you are.

Now, after that announcement, I have another. My blog, SOS, may also be closing soon, unless I can get some more ideas. But don’t worry! I’ll only be closing for the summer! I will definitely have more to talk about next year! You know I wouldn’t completely abandon you guys, right? Right. I’ll be here for just a few more weeks and then I will see you again in September!

Just one more half a day of Nazareth ever sadly. Well for me. Good luck to everyone while taking their last few exams!

~Miss Naz~

It's not over yet

Well there it is. The last day we will ever spend in Nazareth. Man have I had some great times!

I might have to make this post brief seeing that I am writing this only seconds after I got home from school on Friday and I am not sure how long I will actually be able to see my computer. But one thing I do want to say is I will miss everyone soooo much! Nazareth has shown me some of the best years of my life and I can’t even imagine going to a new school next year!

And, sure, Nazareth Academy the location is over. But Nazareth Academy is NOT over. And no I don’t mean its not over because it is going over to Aquinas, I mean that I don’t think the world has even seen the beginning of what Nazareth Academy can do. Nazareth Academy will always be open no matter what! They can close our school but they can’t get rid of what Nazareth has taught all of us, what makes us different from all the other schools around. At Nazareth we have heart!

I have been talking with a friend of mine who has never attended a Catholic school before, let alone Nazareth and she told me this: “you think you’re crying? I’m graduating!…. ya i could image you are such a close knit group because there are so few of you!” And here is what I had to say to her: “Naz girls love our school. We consider it our home and our sisters. It’s not just the students that are family! The alumni are too! All of us are very close and I know it sounds crazy but there really is a connection between all of the Naz girls, no matter what graduating year!”

Well, I think I am going to have to leave now for the reason stated before. And yes I will continue to post so please come back next week.

Goodbye for now!

No longer a student, but forever an alumni, ~Miss Naz~

New Uniforms?

So if you have been reading my blog, you will remember my post, Naz Girls, where I said, “Being a Naz girl means having the confidence to walk up to anyone wearing a Nazareth shirt, no matter where you are, and starting a conversation.” Well, the other day I had yet another experience of this.

After school, I made a quick stop at a store pretty far from Nazareth. While I was waiting in the check-out line, the cashier saw my uniform and asked, “What year?” After I told her what class I'm in, she started asking me if I knew a family member of hers that went there. That’s what I always look forward to! But you know, there is a little problem. How are these people going to recognize us next year? Well...I mean by other than our amazing personalities and dashing great looks, of course!

Next year, we will be wearing our new schools uniforms (unless, of course, your new school is letting Nazareth students wear the Naz uniforms.) Honestly, I don’t know if I like that or not yet. I think it will be hard next year to wear a shirt that says “Aquinas” or “Bishop Kearney” on the front without dying a little inside every time we see ourselves wearing one. I mean, don’t get me wrong. To all of you AQ and BK people out there: It's not that I hate the uniforms...it's just that after so many years of being filled with Nazareth pride, I think we can all agree it would hurt terribly to become anything else.

Of course, there are many more questions traveling around Nazareth right now. Do the juniors really have to buy all new uniforms for just one year? Are their uniforms even as comfy as the Nazareth uniforms? Can't I wear sneakers any more? Does AQ even have a uniform, or do they just raid JCPenney?

Well last week I asked the question: "Do you think we should have a say from Aquinas students more often?" And since two of you said yes and you were the only voters (Come on people! Show a little support here! Tell your friends!), AQ Girl and I came to an agreement. Now, we figured since the schools are “merging,” (HA! Yeah right...merging. I laugh every time I hear that!) we would NOT want a merge on the blogs. So we decided to have two separate blogs: one for AQ and one for Naz. From now on, every story I write will be complimented by a similar one on the AQ blog (Always Strive for that Which We Were Made). So, to hear AQ Girl's ideas on Nazareth getting new uniforms, head on over to her blog now!

See you next week on SOS and please read, comment, vote on polls, make a sound, wave a flag, light a flare, do any thing! Let me know you are reading and send me some ideas! Actually… don’t light a flare. I love you guys, but I really don’t want to see you on the news tonight…

~Miss Naz~

Interview with AQ Girl

So we have heard the Nazareth side of all of this, we know the Nazareth worries and concerns, and I think its time for some answers. We have heard them answered before, sure, but how can we know they are honest if the students answering them are surrounded by AQ teachers? Well, now we have a way for them to be honest, by holding an anonymous interview with one of the AQ students. If you read the comments, you have heard from her before, so here is AQ Girl to answer some of the concerns I have heard:

1) Do you think it’s going to be hard for the schools to adjust (not just AQ but BK, Mercy, all of the schools)?

- Oh, the difficulty in changing schools (especially in your senior year) is inevitable. I always say that there are people who try to make it easier for all of you, but I never refer to it as an easy process. I would hate to leave AQ before graduating. In terms of the schools accepting the Naz girls, I think it really depends on the person. For me, it'll be really easy to adjust because I'm so close with a few of the Naz girls and I appreciate Nazareth so much that I'm willing to make room for the new girls. However, there are people who aren't familiar with Naz girls, so they resent it a little. I think they'll realize that the girls really mean no harm and they'll get used to them. Hopefully, more friendships will be made!

2)
Do you think that with all of the new students coming over, that it will be really crowded in the school?

- For those who aren't familiar with many Naz girls, it might be more difficult for them, and they might feel as if more people are just taking up more space. However, AQ had 1200 students in the late 90s. This is when we lacked the Art Center, Student Union, and New Gym. Judging by those facts, I think it won't be that difficult to move around! I know the Naz girls are used to having room to do cartwheels on their way to class. It honestly won't be like that. I came from a middle school of a student count comparable to Naz's, so I think it just takes a certain finesse that you build over your first few weeks with us.

3)
Also again tell me honestly, do you think that the Aquinas students are happy to have the Nazareth students?

- Nobody really seems angry about the Naz girls. The only people who seem to have negative feelings are people who dread certain Naz girls they've had a falling-out with in the past (and you know there are certain girls like that, at both AQ and Naz). At first, it was really shocking to some people. However, we've gotten used to getting more students in our family. Naz Girls will be a great addition.

4)
Do you think the Nazareth students will be treated the same as the Aquinas students, both in sports and in the classroom?

- I am sure you girls are gonna be able to play on the normal AQ teams. I think it's the teachers' jobs to treat us all equally, and if they don't, they shouldn't be teachers at all.

5)
How did you find out about Nazareth closing and how did you feel?

- I was at the "surprise assembly" with most of the other AQ students. I wasn't expecting it at all and yes, I was shocked. But on the other hand, I was really happy because I knew I'd have a few of my closest friends who I was missing back in my everyday life.

6)
What do you think is the biggest difference between Aquinas and Nazareth? Do you think Aquinas girls and Nazareth girls are different?

- I think the biggest difference between AQ and Naz is definitely the number of students. That's pretty obvious, though. Otherwise, the dress code is very different. I've gotten used to dressing as if I'm going on a job interview every day, but I think it WOULD be awesome to wear sneakers in the halls. Who knows...with the Naz Girls, we might be able to make it happen someday at AQ. *winkwinknudgenudge!*

So there it is! An interview with an Aquinas girl with no one around to possibly change the answers.

These were just some of the questions or statements I have heard during these past few months, and I am sure there are many more. If you have a question for AQ Girl, leave it in the comments or email it to me (again my email is found on my Blogger Profile) and I will give it to AQ Girl so she can answer it in my next post!

~Miss Naz~