South High School
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This Week at South - 7.13: Life Is Not Fair. Now What?!
Greetings South Students, Parents, Staff, and Community Members,
All past issues of this newsletter are available at the following link: TWaS Archive.
TWaS is also sent via Canvas Messenger and linked to my Canvas Module for all students and families to access. It is also shared on South’s FB page.
Part I: The News
Content Disclaimer: I am not omniscient. Don’t see your event or results in the newsletter below? I rely on parents, coaches, and others to send me information to include in the newsletter. Feel free to share positive news and results anytime via my email.
PTSO Looking for School Store Help: The PTSO is looking for school store help. Sign up here:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/409094AAFAE2CA3F94-57820323-ptso?useFullSite=true#/
Week of November 10th Bell Schedule: Tuesday, November 11th is Veterans Day. Students have no school, and our bell schedule will be different on Friday to equalize instructional time. The schedules will be as follows:
Monday 11/10 Regular late start PLC
Tuesday 11/11 Inservice
Wednesday 11/12 Normal Wednesday
Thursday 11/13 Normal Thursday
Friday 11/14 TUESDAY SCHEDULE
Senior Yearbook Deadlines: Senior portraits are due November 24th and Senior ads are due by January 9th. More information and submission instructions on the following flier.
UAA Application Day at South (Wednesday ): Apply to UAA with help from University and South staff in room H204 from 9 to 12:30 pm on Wednesday.
Broadway Concert at South (Wednesday): On Thursday November 6th, there is a big Broadway Concert right here at South! Come hear an evening of classic and contemporary musical theater and support the Choir. The Concert is at 7pm. You can pre-order tickets here: Link to purchase tickets and flowers/candy or get them at the door. See you there!
Speed Mentoring Event (November 21st): South will host its first Speed Mentoring event on Friday, November 21, 2025. Speed mentoring is a fast-paced event where students meet with mentors for brief, focused conversations. It's a chance for freshmen to ask questions, gain insights, and explore various career paths. We would love to welcome parents, alumni, and community members to share about their careers with freshmen in the College and Career Exploration course. Reach out to habberstad_amy@asdk12.org if you have questions.
Sign up here: https://forms.gle/U8VyBTAmgFvbdxZf8
Part II: All Things Activities
This Week in Activities: Swim State, Region Volleyball, and more, all HERE.
DDF Results (10/25): Congratulations to the South DDF Team who took several top places at their October 25th event. Results here.
South XC Ski News: This Tuesday and Wednesday, the ski team athletes have a chance to get together and decorate flyers to help increase team numbers and build some team spirit. Meet in Mr. Ross's room G-107 at Lunch both days. Flyers and markers will be provided.
The ski team is looking for parent volunteers. Visit https://www.southxcskiboosters.com/ to find out about parent volunteer opportunities through signup genius. There will be a fall booster club membership meeting Nov. 12th at 7pm in the South Library. More information on this Flyer.
Hockey Update: Both JV and Varsity earned big wins against West this past Friday in their season openers. JV defeated West with a score of 9-3. Varsity won 7-1, led by senior Trey Lulay with two goals. Henry Olson had 2 assists and goalie Orion Hunter had 6 saves. On Saturday, Varsity took on Eagle River at the MAC and won 3-0. Junior goalie Jaeger Huelskoetter had 13 saves on the night. JV and Varsity will be taking on Service this Wednesday at Ben Boeke and JV will be participating in the Wasilla JV tournament this Thursday - Saturday in the Valley. Go Wolverines!
Swimming Update: South competed fiercely against the seven other high schools in our region. Several swimmers made it to finals in their individual races: Lincoln Altman, Ryan Barrett, Lindsay Dahlstrom, Porter Ellingson, Paige Erickson, Griffin Fencil, Kaydence Giroux, Charlotte Griffith, Grace Hunt, Orion Kendall, Gideon Kern, Alexa Kotter, Henry Lemelson, Daniel Lund, Ellie Rothbarth, Iris Rothbarth, Daniel Schultze, Tui Stanbury, Leah Trotter, Tevin Whitlock, Ruby Willman, and Zoe Zipsir.
Congratulations to our two regional winners - Charlotte Griffith, 1st place in the 50 free and Griffin Fencil 1st place in the 100 breast. Other podium and state qualifying finishes include Griffin Fencil (2nd in the 50 free), Charlotte Griffith (4th in the 100 free), Alexa Kotter (5th in the 200 free and 5th in the 100 back), Tui Stanbury (3rd in the 100 breast) and Zoe Zipsir (4th in the 200 free and 5th in the 500 free). Our lady wolverines took 3rd place in the 200 free relay (Tui Stanbury, Zoe Zipsir, Alexa Kotter and Charlotte Griffith). Our boys 200 free relay also qualified for state (Daniel Lund, Porter Ellingson, Lincoln Altman and Griffin Fencil).
Come cheer your South Swimmers on this weekend as they battle state swimmers at the Swim and Dive Championships, 11/7-11/8 at the Bartlett Pool!
Volleyball Update: Last Tuesday was South’s Senior Night and the last conference games of the season. South Varsity defeated Service 3-1 in front of an electrified home crowd! Thank you to our fans for all of your support this entire season!
This past Saturday, November 1st, South C Teams and JV competed in their final tournament of the year—the CIC Regions Championships. JV and C2 both took home the Regions Championship trophy, with JV going undefeated all day in their tournament out at Eagle River HS and C1 playing strong and finishing in 3rd place overall. Congratulations to our players and coaches on an amazing season!
Varsity Regions play starts THIS TUESDAY, November 4th with two games held AT SOUTH —Service vs East at 5:30 pm and South vs. West at 7:30 pm! The second round of Regions play will be Thursday, Nov. 6th at Service, time TBD. We need a strong student support section to cheer our Varsity girls on as they battle some highly-competitive teams for a State berth. Come out and support us!
Part II: What I’ve Learned
On the morning of August 11th, 2025, staff returned to South High School for the beginning of the new school year. In the days leading to that meeting, I knew we would face considerable challenges that were beyond our control. Furthermore, I reasoned that accepting this reality, and then agreeing on what we could control, would be the best way to move forward. In theory, this approach would align and simplify our efforts, allow us to use common language, and give us back a sense of control.
To share that message, I created a slide called Life Acceptance, using concepts from Scott Barry Kaufman’s book, Rise Above, which is about overcoming a victim mindset and figuring out how to use hardship as a means to grow stronger. That slide contained the following list:
- You aren’t alone in your suffering.
- Life is sometimes unfair.
- Life is unpredictable.
- You cannot completely control your life.
- No one is coming to save (us).
- We are responsible for our choices and reactions to the world, and to one another.
(Adapted from: Rise Above, p. xxviii)
As the list implies, suffering is an innate human condition. No one is special by virtue of their suffering. Additionally, not all of us find ourselves in ideal circumstances; there is no way to predict the future; we have to accept that we will face unforeseen challenges; and perhaps most importantly, we get to choose how we react. In times of extreme hardship, as Viktor Frankl suggested, that choice is our last remaining freedom.
As I noted in the very first newsletters this year, our choice was to return to time-honored learning methods. Specifically, to focus on relationships and community; to set high expectations and define the process for meeting them; to minimize use of technology and return to analog methods; and to focus on the process, to be fully present, and worry less about the final outcome. These, we thought, would best protect us from outside influence and hardship. They would also give students the best chance for learning in a fragmented, overstimulated, and automated world. So far, these priorities have served us well.
To be clear, they have not gotten rid of the persistent challenges, but they have given us some sense of unity and autonomy.
Four months after that meeting, I opened Haruki Murakami’s memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. As fate would have it, Murakami also talks about life’s unfairness. On this subject he writes, “Life is basically unfair. But even in a situation that’s unfair, I think it’s possible to seek out a kind of fairness. Of course, that might take time and effort....” (p. 43).
Murakami, like Kaufman, suggests that when we look around and find ourselves in unfair circumstances, we opt to take action. In his memoir, he talks about starting to run at age 33, which isn’t easy. He had been an overweight, three-packs-a-day smoker who owned a nightclub. He won a local writing contest. Then, he went from living the night life to rising early and running six miles per day, six days per week to offset the sedentary time he spent at his writing desk.
His success was due to persistent, repeated efforts, over time. Self-discipline was the path that allowed him to move forward. He also admits that his books don’t come easy. They are the result of sitting down to write everyday, even when he doubts he will be productive.
This is not unlike what happens to those who experience intense loss or grief. It is oftentimes at the darkest moments when life becomes more poignant, our senses become sharper, and we notice a glimmer and a path forward. In this sense, loss and disappointment can be an opportunity or remaking the system, and restarting the adventure. In some small way this is what we did when we chose to simplify our approach at school. Since the normal way wasn’t working, we turned around and chose a different path.
To conclude, I want to share a metaphor from Susan Cain’s most recent book, Bittersweet, in which she distills the idea that to move forward amidst challenging circumstances, the best we can do is collect the glimmers of light, and to move forward even when it is hard to see:
In the beginning, there was only a vessel filled with light, but it shattered into a million pieces around us. Sometimes it’s hard to see them, and sometimes we’re too distracted to notice. But our task is simple--to remain open to seeing the smallest glimmer, to collect them, and to remember that light emerges from darkness and momentum follows consistent action. (paraphrased from p. 242).
Since measuring misfortune is no strategy for living, and our grievances don’t make us special, we’re better off looking up and taking the next step forward (Bruni). There is always a next move, no matter how small.
As Always, Onward!
Luke Almon, Principal
Part II on Substack: @OnPrincipal