We have now arrived at a new semester in the current school year. It is not uncommon for students to grow discouraged around this time, for though they have come far, they still have a seemingly endless road ahead of them.

Every student, teacher and administrator is not here incidentally, but purposely. Everyone is at Ridgeview because although it is not always the easiest, it is certainly the most worthwhile.

It is not uncommon for students to grow discouraged at such times, bogged down in the thick and steamy mud of existential essays and painstakingly rigorous exams. But fear not! There is a purpose to this yet.

A short story by Sarah C.

Just as a liberal arts education prepares its students to seek the good and true, it also teaches them to appreciate the beautiful.

A poem for the winter.

The True, like the Good, is often hard to capture but always worth pursuing.

We are constantly encouraged to be different. In fact, it appears as if our society has taken the opposite view of those dystopian novels mentioned above, for individuality is now considered the social norm.

As the days get shorter and colder, and as we enter into the holiday season, it is easy to get caught up in the chaos and the planning and the stress that this time of year brings. However, it is important to take a moment to relax and reflect on what this time of year is really about.

I present you with a short story to say thank you for efforts in the 1st Quarter.

After delving into definitions of each word, it becomes evident to the newly-minted middle school students that goodness requires virtue whereas greatness entails prominence. The rest of the year and even all subsequent curriculum, hinges on students' understanding of this quintessential principle of the liberal arts.

As you walk into a classroom or club meeting, you can tell the students want to be there. They didn’t sign up because of the title or addition to their résumé. The students participating genuinely want to learn and get as much as they can from “the Ridgeview experience.”

Here's a poem, dedicated to all over-caffeinated, stressed-out Ridgeview students, past, present, and future.

The Spirit Week, students had an opportunity to dress as we otherwise wouldn’t, but also a chance to bond with each other and get a good laugh when our classmates wore ridiculous fashion or looked like they were 80 years old.

The first responders deserve to be honored because of the work they do. They are willing to risk themselves to save others; they sacrifice their time for others.

Ridgeview is unique on this front. Here, students are not only enabled to survive in the real world, but to self-examine and to live well according to their conception of the Good Life.

Over the course of the summer, there is much required reading. For the juniors, the reading included Young Goodman Brown and Other Short Stories. Often summer reading is thought of as a meaningless book meant to impede the freedom vacation brings, but this book rather interested me.

One of the greatest things about receiving a liberal arts education is our freedom to explore different disciplines.

Since graduating from Ridgeview, it has come as a surprise to me to see how many people live an “unexamined life,” as Socrates would call it. Much of my interaction with my fellow man has been superficial, at best, which has left me sometimes wondering if the Senior Thesis really does matter.

Amanda Sanders, class of 2010, reflects on her thesis.