Aryn Henning Nichols

The ability to make my own choices is honestly something I’ve never lived without. I mean, of course as a younger kid there were decisions that my parents or other adults made for me, but to be able to live the lucky, choice-filled life that I have become accustomed to is something I’m really grateful for. 

However, I associate choices with decisions, and oftentimes, deciding is super hard. Throughout your whole life, you have to make completely different decisions about different situations with different levels of importance. 

For example, I remember one time, when I was maybe seven years old, my grandma took me along to Walmart. Being the American Girl Doll obsessed kid that I was, I went straight to the doll aisle and spent a good amount of time perusing the shelves, eventually finding these two mini, Walmart baskets, each filled with a different type of (fake) food. Of course, I did that completely torn, trying-to-decide-how-I-can-live-with-only-one-or-another face that all children do, but after a while, I figured out I actually had to decide on just one. I remember this story because I spent so long debating which one was the better option (sorry grandma), but eventually, I decided, and we got my mini basket of food and left. It was put to good use, by the way (thanks grandma). The point of all this is to show how what seems like a simple decision can feel really hard in the moment.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve had to make more and more decisions about all sorts of things. Some recent ones are what activities I want to do for school, what I want to request for my birthday, and how can I get rid of some of my clothes and junk I’ve collected over the years? In the coming years, I’ll have to decide my choice of career, even begin to set up my life and figure out who I’m going to be, and the people I want to be there with me.

There also are certain things I will choose to prioritize this school year. Sports is a big one, as we start school sports in seventh grade and I’m very excited to have the opportunity to participate in them. I’m doing cross-country this fall, basketball in the winter, and track in the spring. So, I’ll be busy, but I’m going to do my best. I’m also going to prioritize my relationships with my friends and family. This is really important to me, as some of my friends and I are doing different activities and have different school schedules, so we can’t hang out as much as we can during the summer. Friends are super important as you go through school and just in general and I am so lucky to have them, and grateful to have been able to make more friends throughout my life. My parents are also (along with being my family) some of my best friends and I’m so fortunate to have that kind of relationship with them. In order to prioritize these things, I’ll need to really just let go of thoughts or people that don’t benefit me or that hold me back and move on.

Rounding out that list of rules or goals is the often said “last but not least” final priority: to have fun. Not just this year, but whenever I can. There’s almost always a bright side that you can find, always a way to move on, to forgive and forget. I think I got this way of thinking from my mom and I’m glad I did. It’s not really something you inherit, but being able to be positive is the key to having fun. So, the next hard decision I’ll face, or problem I have, I’ll find a bright side, a solution, and move on to the next fun chapter.

Roxie Nichols

Roxie Nichols, daughter of Inspire(d)’s Aryn Henning Nichols & Benji Nichols, is a seventh grader at Decorah Middle School.

We created Future Focused, a new Inspire(d) column written by pre-teens and teens, to help give the next generation an opportunity to share their voices. This issue, we have a lovely piece by our daughter, Roxie, all about making choices (and how difficult that can sometimes be).  Agreed! You can read all the Future Focused pieces published so far at iloveinspired.com/category/future-focused. Here’s to Listening to the Next Generation! – Aryn

The very first Inspire(d) Magazine rolled off the presses on October 4, 2007, so we celebrate our birthday every fall! Want to celebrate with us? Make a few of these Confetti Poppers at home, and pop off some shredded paper in a mess of the best kind!

Supplies:

Confetti Poppers templates: Blue and Orange or Pink and Purple
Toilet paper tubes
Scissors
Balloons
Packing tape
Shredded paper
Not pictured (whoops): glue stick
Optional: Washi tape for decoration

Print out your templates (we recommend making all four colors – blue/orange and pink/purple!) Cut the Yay color blocks out of the backgrounds.

If you have different colored balloons (like I did), decide which colors you want to go with each tube cover.

Pick up your first balloon, and tie off the end (don’t put any air in it or anything).

Then, cut off the rounded tip of the balloon.

So it will have a hole at the top like this.

Next, pull it over one end of the toilet paper roll. It will fit tightly.

Take your packing tape and tape the balloon all the way around the tube to keep it secure when it’s time to pop the paper out.

Once that’s done, line up your first tube cover (I combined blue and green for this one) and tape one end to the toilet paper roll (overtop the secured balloon).

Roll the paper around the tube, holding it tight. Grab a glue stick (sorry I forgot to include this in the supplies photo) and glue the other side of the paper to completely fasten it to the tube (now a confetti popper!). Hold that side in place until the glue fully sticks.

You can decorate the top of the confetti popper with washi tape or another decorative way if you’d like.

Roll the washi tape down into the tube to make the top looked finished off (mine could certainly look neater though!).

Take your shedder paper bits and cut them up a bit more (they don’t fly out of the tube at their normal size).

Grab your finished confetti poppers and put the freshly cut up shredded paper into the tubes. Fill about half way.

Once you’re ready for your celebration, pull the balloon end down and release! Wooo! Paper bits everywhere! Party mode activated!

As summer days slip away and goldenrod buds swell, birdsong is replaced by a six-legged symphony. The three tenors of the Driftless Area – cicadas, crickets, and katydids – take center stage, filling balmy air with an operetta of buzzes, clicks, and chirps heralding the approach of fall.

Cicadas are the loudest of the diminutive songsters. They resemble enormous flies with square heads and long, clear wings. Using special abdominal organs called tymbals, male cicadas buzz intensely from the treetops to attract females. An aggregation of toned and tuned males can crank out a collective buzz exceeding 100 decibels, comparable to a rock concert (move over Bruce Springsteen).  

Similar to birds, each type of cicada has a signature buzz. The Driftless Region has nine cicada species. The dog-day cicada, also known as the heat bug, because it emerges mid-summer, is the most common. It sounds like a buzz saw. Periodical cicadas are bona fide celebrities, famous for synchronized mass emergences and a deafening din, the culmination of 17 years underground as nymphs feeding on tree root sap. Their first breath of fresh air after more than a decade of dining in dirt may help explain their acoustic exuberance. Cicadas live brief but spectacular lives, with most surviving for only four to six weeks. By late summer, the cicada chorus falls silent.

Katydids resemble a cricket-grasshopper mash-up. They are distinguished from both by antennae longer than their bodies. The 20 species of Driftless katydids are avowed vegetarians, opportunistically munching leaves, stems, and flowers. Their size (one to four inches long) and soft bodies make them a favorite prey for birds. Their leafy green color helps to conceal them, as do nocturnal performances.

Male katydids tune up as the moon rises, rubbing their wings together – a behavior called stridulation – to create their eponymous sound: “katydid, katy didn’t, katydid, katy didn’t.” Despite their apparent indecision, the song is an effective attractant for female katydids keen on finding a mate. Late summer is peak Katydid season, although a few intrepid individuals manage to endure until fall.

Crickets are the last, but not least, of the miniscule musicians. They’re the toughest of the lot, chirping well into fall, long after the seasonal curtain drops on cicadas and most katydids. 

More than 900 species of crickets live worldwide, with 100 species found in the United States. In the Driftless, the most common is the field cricket, a sturdy little bug with a rather pedestrian exterior. Contrary to the dapper image portrayed by Disney’s Jiminy Cricket, complete with a blue top hat and umbrella, the field cricket is clad in monochromatic black. The lack of “spiffy” helps conceal these ground dwellers from a host of would-be predators. Unlike cicadas and katydids, most crickets are omnivores, noshing all manner of vegetation and even the occasional aphid or small spider. 

Like katydids, the field cricket’s signature chirp is the product of stridulation by males looking for love. They begin their solo performances in July and continue into October, until ultimately thwarted by frost. Because crickets are ectothermic (cold-blooded), every aspect of their lives, including chirping, is regulated by temperature. As it gets colder in the fall, the crickets’ chirping becomes slower and slower. Amos Dolbear, a 19th century American physicist and very bright guy, realized the Fahrenheit temperature can be estimated by counting the number of cricket chirps within 15 seconds and adding 40. Clever.

This fall, long after the cicadas and katydids have signed off the airwaves, step into the cool autumn air to enjoy the crickets’ waning serenade. And don’t forget to estimate the temperature.

Mary & Craig Thompson

Mary and Craig Thompson live in wooded bluffs north of La Crosse. They now rely on crickets to tell them when to don their hoodies.