My passion for horse riding

By Anushka Thombre

Hi, my name is Anushka Thombre. I, like other kids, have a hobby. It is a unique hobby; my hobby is horse riding. I found out that I loved animals at a very young age. Last year I watched a Netflix show called Spirit Riding Free about this girl who moves out to the country from the city, and she learns to ride and tame a wild horse. I thought that was the most incredible and coolest show ever. No wonder I got hooked on it, and after watching several shows and seeing magnificent horses, I developed a desire to ride a horse. Now, I had ridden horses when we went to Mahableshwar in India, and Mountain Home, where I did trail riding, which is nothing but sitting on the horse. No fun.  

 I started to google different places I could learn to ride here, in our town; the first place I found was perfect- down the road from our house. I told my parents about it, and they thought it is just one of the many weird ideas that don’t mean much and did not take me seriously. But I insisted, and finally, my dad agreed to check the farm out. On the weekend, we went all excited but found out that they did not have any openings. I was much disappointed, and my parents thought that was all of it. But then Covid hit, and I pestered my parents again. Finally, we found this place called Midland Farm in Alexander, and lucky for me, they had an opening. This second place was excellent, perfect with a bunch of horses. I never knew horse riding was so in-depth, you have basic trotting, and then you have trotting with no feet! Currently, I am doing the English style of riding and progressing towards show jumping. It is a lot of fun to build a relationship with my horses Princeton and Banana Pancake and being on the farm. I thought I would become a pro in a year, but I met a girl who has been riding for eight years! So I have a long way to go. Thank you for reading about my unique hobby and how I started to ride!

Our Florida Vacation

Author: Piyush Ketkar
Illustration: Mihir Ketkar

This whole thing started when my parents said we were going to Florida with our friends, and I was very excited, but when me, my brother Mihir and my parents actually got on the road it seemed boring most of the time, until we stopped for lunch. We stopped at a gas station but we didn’t eat the food inside, instead we all brought our own lunch while we waited for some of our friends to arrive. When they arrived they finished their lunches and we all got going. When we were driving some crazy things happened. First, we got lost in a small town, but we managed to get out. The second, was when we were on a long bridge with a lot of traffic, but there were so many cool things which we saw, and my favorite was the huge battleship which we saw along the way. We finally made it to the other side of the bridge and went on our way. When we were about to get to Sandestin we had to cross yet another bridge, and we had to pay a toll to get in, but I think the toll was totally worth it, because the view was amazing! We finally reached Sandestin! But to get in to the resort we had to review information and all that boring stuff. When we finished checking-in we went to our beach house and went to sleep. What a long day! For four days we had normal fun at Sandestin like playing on the beach, making sand castles and going kayaking. My favorite activity was Bungee Jumping. It was my first time doing it in Sandestin, so I was “a little bit scared”, but when I overcame my fear I realized that it was actually pretty fun! I also want to mention two incidents that happened to us. The first incident took place when our dad went jet skiing and the driver told dad to put his driver’s license in the jet ski. When dad was done jet skiing he picked up his bag and went to the car when he realized that his license was missing! We searched the jet skis, our bags, the whole beach for it and asked people around too, but no luck. We and our friends had lunch at the Sunset Café but all the adults were discussing about the missing license and what could be done next. Later, when we got to the beach house, we heard Aarti moushi screaming in excitement. Dad had accidentally put his license in Aarti Moushi’s bag instead of ours! Whew! The second incident was when we were going back to an ice cream shop after dinner and we saw a black Lamborghini Aventador LP-700-4! My brother and I were excited for that whole night. It was finally time to head back, so we said goodbye to Sandestin and went on our way. Nothing interesting happened except that we all got speeding tickets! When we all arrived home we realized that we missed it so much. What fun four days in Sandestin! I loved those days and I will probably remember them forever.

Trending Video Games

By Anish Patwardhan

 Because of the pandemic, a lot of people have turned to electronics to entertain themselves. People play video games for entertainment, so I conducted a survey that shows what age group uses video games the most. The most played video game is Fortnite and the next popular game is Minecraft (according to the poll), and if you wanted to get a game or device. 

According to the survey, middle schoolers are on video games the most. Most of them play on a personal computer (PC). The most played game is also Fortnite. It is also everyone’s favorite game.

If you are looking to buy a game or device, the survey recommends that you get a PC because it has the most storage. You can also do more things on a PC other than gaming. If you are looking for a video game, the survey recommends Fortnite and Minecraft. Minecraft because it encourages creativity, and you can play it with your friends. Fortnite because it has various updates regularly, which gives you newer content to play. There are also different game modes on Fortnite, so the possibilities are unlimited. 

Happy Gaming!

Prisha’s Pottery

By Prisha Tiwari

During the summer, I like to spend time learning new crafts, painting, sketching, sewing, dancing, etc. Last summer, I sewed my own purple beanie, and this year, I spent some time learning pottery. I practiced making small matkas using the pottery wheel. Matkas are earthen pots used to store water particularly in the summers because they keep the water cool. I love hand painting designs on them.

My Favorite Video Game

Name: Neil Tanmay Bhamare

Video Game: "Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning"

RIP Baldi game, the stup Baldi, mini games. I love some Baldi games and love them all.

Name: Vanessa Michelle Gann

Video Game: "Cuphead"

*Cuphead is a fun run and gun and fighting game based on the cartoons of the earlier days. I would recommend this game because it is fun and challenging. Don't play this game if you break controllers however, because it is a frustrating game that can cause you to die over and over again. Between Cuphead and Mugman, Cuphead is my favorite of the brothers to fight against the devil and get back their souls.

Name: Alanna Renee Gann

Video Game: "Cuphead"

In Cuphead you can run jump and have fun. Also, what else you can do in Cuphead is fight fun bosses. And you get to choose between Cuphead or Mugman, the two brothers. Cuphead has a small nose and Mugman has a big round nose. And in the game you earn 3 super arts. I hope you will be inspired.