By Joseph Ramos

Head Editor

Owen Bracy does not dance. 

“Of all the things I am not good at, dancing is up there,” Bracy said. 

The exception is when he shuffles an hours-long playlist with every song he has ever added to his music library on it.

“A very small head bop … maybe a foot tap if I am feeling adventurous or I am alone,” Bracy said the playlist earns.

Fortunately for the 16-year-old junior, he is entering his first year as a staff reporter for The Yorktown Sentry — a place where minimal rhythm is required.  

In joining The Sentry, Bracy wanted to follow an interest held since middle school. He said the involvement with journalism he would get while covering the school would aid him in pursuing it as a potential career.  

“Being able to both discover information and be able to communicate it and share it, as a role, interests me … the sooner that I get a formal [journalism] education and get experience, the better,” Bracy said. 

Aside from journalism, Bracy is passionate about film. A member of the school’s film club, he also makes his own short movies. While already creating what he feels to be a quality work, Bracy fears his emotional range will limit his future projects. 

“I don’t feel like I would be able to make an effective drama … I am also not funny enough to actually deliver on a comedy. I have made, in my opinion, one good film which was supposed to be funny but played straight. I feel like that is a safe place to be,” Bracy said. 

If Bracy was given the chance to take his interest further and actually live in a movie, he showed caution in selecting what kind. Blockbuster adventure movies or films set in fantasy worlds seemed the obvious choice, but Bracy felt he would grow annoyed by their perpetual conflict and instead opted for the love-struck utopia of a romantic comedy. 

“Any interesting movie universe or an alternate reality would end up being more of a nuisance … It is cool to think about, but really better the devil you know. Honestly, any rom-com where things always have a magical way of working out [would be best],” Bracy said.

Ever the pragmatist, Bracy said he would spend his time on earth as opposed to the sea or the air, if given the choice. This is, of course, if he did not have a 19th century German airship on hand. 

“You live on the land. You don’t live on the sea. You don’t live in the air. Unless you live in a Zeppelin all the time,” Bracy said. 

However, Bracy does stray from reason when it comes to the conspiracy theory he most believes in.

“I was once told that the modern strain of lyme disease actually came out of nowhere in the 1970’s in Maine. Some say people were very close to a testing ground,” Bracy said. 

While this outlandish view warrants concern, The Sentry is still fortunate to have Bracy, his quick wit and his needed rationale for the coming school year. 

By Owen Bracy

Staff Reporter

Senior and head editor Joseph Ramos speaks like an editor at heart, sometimes even correcting his own grammer mid-sentence. Ramos habitually displayed this when explaining his personal development in music taste.

“…freshman year me and Aidan, got very into…. Aidan and I got very into Chance the Rapper,” Ramos said.

Today, Ramos will mostly only listen to one of two playlists on his own time. The first is ‘car music’, a strange and disorganized mishmash of songs.

“I think it just hit 24 hours long, I just kinda toss every song in there and when I’m in the car just hit shuffle and skip through,” Ramos said.

The second is “songs with birds chirping,” a playlist that is very self explanatory in its selection.

“If I hear a song and it has a bird chirp in it I’ll add it to the playlist,” Ramos said.

There’s a surprising diversity to be found, with no artist or genre in particular to be found in the playlist.

While many find music to be helpful while focusing on their work, Ramos finds it distracting.

“I’m not good at doing work when I listen to music [….] I like to be fully into the work or fully into the music,” Ramos said.

If Ramos should be fully into the work but is not, there is a handful of things he will be doing.

“[I will be] reading newspapers […] or otherwise getting caught on Twitter or Instagram [getting] sucked into that hole,” Ramos said.

Ramos acknowledged that he might be able to spin reading the news as some form of journalistic study.

“It’s essentially doing work,” Ramos said. 

Ramos has been a member of The Sentry since his sophomore year and his time on staff has instilled in him not just this grammatic penchant, but has changed him as a writer, student and person.

“You don’t really think much about the behind the scenes aspects … to be best for you as a student,” Ramos said.

Sophomore year, Ramos declared that he had yet to have an embarrassing moment in his life. Since then his outlook has not changed significantly.

“I definitely have and I just can’t think of it … definitely not before sophomore year,” Ramos said.

Also since sophomore year, Ramos has stuck to his guns that Tupac Shakur is alive and well in Cuba (“or elsewhere”).

“There’s evidence out there, I don’t know it, but people do and that gives me confidence,” Ramos said.

Ramos has at least some appearance of confidence about himself, whether it be leading the school’s newspaper or knowing seemingly every single person walking down the hallway, there is a persistent air of positivity that follows him. During the interview, in less than 20 minutes, Ramos made small conversations several times as people walked down the hall during eighth period. Certainly, The Sentry is fortunate to have a head editor as charismatic as Ramos.