Sadie Hamilton, daughter of Allan and Sally Hamilton, will present her Silver Cross recital in voice on Saturday, May 12 at 2 p.m. in Sacred Heart-Griffin's Dominican Hall, 1200 W. Washington St., Springfield.

QUINCY — In conjunction with Earth Day, celebrated April 22, St. Peter School was named a top recycler — #15 out of 22,000 participating schools in the United States — by FundingFactory®, the nation's largest fundraising-by-recycling program for schools and nonprofits.

ROCHESTER — Two parishes, St. Jude in Rochester and St. John Vianney in Sherman, have collaborated to conduct a Timothy Retreat at the St. Jude Parish Center May 18-May 19. The retreat is meant to provide an intensive spiritual experience for junior high students, says Dan Frachey, director of Christian formation at St. Jude.

I looked up from my novel to find that nearly everyone else was staring. I was waiting for a 6 a.m. flight home after visiting my family. Everything had been normal. But my fellow waiting-area denizens were starting to look pretty worried — not about terrorism or about flying in general, but about the teenagers onboard our plane.

One great thing about the approaching Summer Olympics is the chance to see the world's best athletes compete in sports we typically never watch. In addition to sports with a wider audience, such as basketball, soccer and tennis, we're exposed to rowing, judo, archery and water polo.

You are special and beautiful.

This is something we don't tell ourselves often enough. In our cynical world, we often echo the words from the movie The Incredibles when the character Dash says, "If everyone is special, then nobody is."

People love celebrating firsts — first steps, first birthdays, first Communion, first date, first car — they all are milestones that become unforgettable memories for whom the event is important.

Brendan Finnell, son of Roger and Julie Finnell of Springfield, will present his Gold Medal Piano Recital at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 31, in Dominican Hall of Sacred Heart-Griffin High School. The SHG senior will perform works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, Rachmaninoff and Grieg.

Everybody lies.

You lie. Politicians lie. Friends lie. Parents lie. The guy in the line in front of you at Target lies.

Jenni Lake and her boyfriend had unprotected sex. Jenni became pregnant. Jenni became a teen mother. If you think that's enough information to form an opinion, you're wrong. What you know about Jenni is nothing compared to what you should know.

I'd like to introduce you to an author named Ken Follett. You may know him already — he's a writer of best-selling thrillers. His novels are in every bookstore in the country. He writes about soldiers, warplane pilots, art thieves and Cold War espionage. He has a devoted stable of fans who eat up each and every book he writes.

Are you stupid?

That may be a question Facebook should consider adding to its application process, especially after some teens were incriminated by their social network activities.

It's an old nursery rhyme, one that everyone who has ever been bullied, harassed or called an awful name on the playground knows by heart: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me."

Everything we do every day has the potential to be dangerous. We often ignore the risks because there's little that we can do to reduce or eliminate them.

For millions of teenagers, that risk comes from participating in sports activities. Recent news stories have detailed that events leading up to the unexpected deaths of three students had nothing and everything in common.

We spend a lot of time waiting to be "old enough," don't we?

Old enough to drive. Old enough to date. Old enough to wear makeup or a miniskirt, to drink, to graduate, to go to college. Old enough to be taken seriously. Old enough for the restrictions to fall off and for life to begin.

There are few issues in the world where everyone seems to be in agreement. One of the areas of agreement, I would hope, is that physically attacking another person is bad.

Imagine what a miracle the telephone felt like at the turn of the 20th century.

All of a sudden, people in Atlanta could speak directly with friends in Chicago without leaving their living rooms. The world shrank immediately. The telephone changed the way people related to the world.

Parents spend years teaching their children right from wrong, urging them to be polite, not to be mean, and to help people in need.

What is "cool"? Is it a Hollywood actress in some Los Angeles bar, glittering from head to toe in designer clothing and expensive jewelry?

The moment you transition from being a student to being a graduate is one of the greatest changes that takes place in your life.

Katy Perry looks like she’s having an awful lot of fun in her video for Last Friday Night — partying hard, dancing to Hanson, getting a makeover from Rebecca Black and throwing up into a roller skate. And when she wakes up, there are tons of embarrassing photos of her on the Internet.

I’m about to state something that should come as a shock to absolutely no one. In fact, some will wonder if what I’m about to state is even worthy of discussion.

Ready? Here it is: Adults don’t understand teenagers.

Parents are people, too.

It’s hard for teenagers to remember that, especially when their parents just grounded them for staying out late or flunking a test.

Olivia Bettis, daughter of Robert and Teresa Bettis of Springfield, presented her Silver Cross recital in voice on Saturday, May 21 in the LRS Theater of the Hoogland Center for the Arts in Springfield.

Sometimes there are moments in our lives that are important and lifesaving; other times, certain moments seem inconsequential but end up having a much deeper meaning than we first realized. One of those moments for me came in a religion class at John Carroll High School in Maryland.

Kristin Marie Grimsley will present her Silver Cross voice recital on Saturday, May 21, at 2 p.m. in the LRS Auditorium of the Hoogland Center, 420 South Sixth St., Springfield.

Sacred Heart-Griffin High School senior Ji Won (Joanna) Song, daughter of Su Hyeun Song and Sun Ock Yu of Yongin City, South Korea, will present a clarinet recital for the Father Robert Spiekerman Instrumental Music Award on Friday, May 20 at 7 p.m. in the Sister Rachel Conway Auditorium at SHG, 1200 W. Washington Street. Joanna’s host mother is Vicki Compton and her guardian is Hye Young Kim. The recital is free and open to the public.

Last month, hundreds of students at one of Nebraska’s biggest Catholic schools got an unexpected surprise: They were kicked out of Mass for not singing enough!

Four Sacred Heart-Griffin voice students of Karen Danner are set to present their voice recitals the weekend of May 14-15. All of the recitals are free and open to the public and will take place at the Hoogland Center for the Arts, 420 S. Sixth St. in Springfield in the LRS Theater.