Dear esteemed readers,

Welcome to a shiny, brand-new column here at The Roaring Times– Just Peachy!

So often times, we as humans and high schoolers, barely feeling like humans at times, tend to get stuck in a pretty gnarly rut.

This rut, simply put, is living up to only mediocrity.

People get hung up on whether they were awkward in one conversation, they stress over what others say about them- they simply go through the motions.

Here’s the thing: Mediocrity is a made up concept.

The world has been built on human achievement. Think of beautiful things like airplanes, movies like Casablanca, moveable type- so many things, all made by humans.

So it is pretty weird that people tend to call their innate abilities to create, to exist, to take leaps of faith, to do anything extraordinary, mediocre.

Really, every act is extraordinary. Even just smiling takes forty-three muscles. Just stopping and breathing or a few seconds is a rarity. Writing in intricate cursive is extraordinary. Simply put, humans exist, press forward, and are anything but mediocre.

So, here is where Just Peachy comes in. We love celebrating human achievement and “everyday extraordinaries.” We revel in people actively trying to better themselves and others around them.

And we want to showcase this in a bunch of really fun, interactive way. Here are some things to hope for from Just Peachy:

• How-to articles: These will contain ways that people can get hands-on and grow together. Some possible topics will be how to show love to yourself and those around you, how to develop talents, how to become a well-rounded individual, etc.
• Interviews with fellow Pitman students: Here at Just Peachy, we believe that everyone has a story to share. We hope to be a platform for invigorating and uplifting stories from fellow PHS students. Whether it be an open forum online or exact transcripts between interviewer and interviewee, we want to hear from you!
• Just Peachy’s Favorites: Okay, we might be inspired by Oprah with this, but we want to share what we deem to be awesome media and experiences. Expect from us our favorite books, movies, apps, places to eat, places to go- I’ll stop there but we have so much to share!
• Monthly Book Club: An amazing part of the world and human work is literature. We believe in books here! So, we want to connect with our readers and hold a monthly book club. We will share the planned books on various platforms and maybe even hold open forums where you can tell us about the book!
• Videos: Film is a very big part of human media consumption- we want to cater to that! We hope to feature members of the Pitman community in video form.

We have so many big things planned for the future and we cannot wait to connect with our readers and together become an enlightened, sunny people!

Love,

Olivia Hixson, Editor in Chief of The Roaring Times, and the Just Peachy team

P.S. If you have content, questions, or ideas you want featured on Just Peachy, never hesitate to drop by Ms. Hall’s room, B124, and talk to us!