The rooms throughout the house are emptied of what used to be, while the boxes are stacked in the corner, filled to the brim. Footsteps descend out of each room, leaving behind the memories that were made there. The hands that packed these boxes and made those memories belong to Emma Valdez, a sophomore who has left what had become her home to pursue a new start that awaits her in Bluffton, South Carolina.

Our mornings in school start the same every day: once the second bell rings students sit down and immediately hear the crackling of the loudspeaker before the inevitable announcements start to blare throughout the school. However, students usually talk over the announcements and place their attention elsewhere. Many students don’t give their attention to the information they hear.