in other words
By Jason Berghorst, reporterAugust 21, 2024Sometimes it’s good to step outside your box. Other times it might be good to step off the dock and into a small fishing boat. In my experience last weekend, the two mean the same thing. As a teacher, my summer ends this week. It’s been a great summer and I’m always thankful for the opportunity to rejuvenate and reset for the new school year. My last opportunity for rejuvenation came last…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterJuly 31, 2024“Everything in moderation … including moderation.” I like to think I’ve been living out this famous quote by Oscar Wilde this summer. As a teacher, my time is more flexible in the summer. Although it feels like my days are mostly filled with this part-time job, online classes I’m taking, and meetings for church and other organizations I’m involved with, there’s no doubt I have more time to…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterJuly 03, 2024I recently spent five days in New York City — my third trip there but my first time staying in the heart of Manhattan near Times Square. I think few vacation destinations in the United States can be more different from Luverne than Midtown Manhattan. The height and number of buildings. The crowds and constant rush of the people. The traffic jams and nonstop, pointless honking. The sheer…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterJune 05, 2024It’s graduation season. For me that means the end of the school year, returning to part-time summer work at the Star Herald, and graduation parties. In my role as a high school teacher, I’m usually invited to 25 to 35 graduation open houses each year. While it’s not possible to get to all of the events over the five consecutive weekends, I get to as many as I can. In my 22 years of…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterAugust 08, 2023“Thanks for coming!” Maybe you’ve heard or said those words recently or often in your life. I sure have. I’m a “thank you” sayer. I’ve thanked police officers after pulling me over and even said thank you to another driver who hit my car in a parking lot. To be fair, the thank you was at the end of our interactions after the accident. I was thanking the man for taking responsibility, working…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterJuly 04, 2023Two years ago this month, I wrote a column about my Top 5 wish list for Luverne. I thought it would be fun to look back at my 2021 hopes for my hometown and see if any wishes had been granted. The following made my list two years ago: 5. Dar’s Pizza opening a Luverne location. 4. Kwik Trip coming to Luverne. 3. A larger Lewis Drug in town. 2. A permanent Star Herald sports reporter. 1. A normal…
By Jason BerghorstSeptember 20, 2022My day job is teaching world history and psychology classes to high school students. Each year in the second or third week of the school year, I teach about cultural diffusion in world history. Simply put, cultural diffusion is when one group shares its ideas, technologies and/or ways of life with another group. We study how this process happened in the earliest civilizations and how it is still…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterAugust 09, 2022A few weeks ago, my 11-year-old television quit. My first course of action was to ask two tech-savvy friends for TV advice. Both suggested a “smart” TV. One specifically suggested an Amazon Fire TV that he had purchased online earlier this year. Being a middle-aged, traditional shopper, I wasn’t quite ready to purchase a TV online. So, off to Best Buy I went. No doubt the young salesperson saw…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterAugust 03, 2021A few weeks ago our church hosted a “Christmas in July” Sunday just for fun. Adrian’s town celebration is known as “Christmas in July.” Of course, there’s Christmas in July on the Hallmark Channel. And, not surprisingly, more stores are offering “Christmas in July” sales. All of this Christmas talk caused me to think of a wish list. I’ve written about my personal wish list for Luverne in…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterJune 08, 2021Recently a friend sent me a link to a satire video that had some fun with graduation open houses. “So spot on,” the friend remarked in the text. The video highlighted the most universal aspects of the traditional open house: •Hastily cleaned garages with the normal garage items hidden behind a tarp. •Display boards of photos from childhood — extra credit if the yearly school photos are lined up…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterMarch 23, 2021If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. That old “rule” seems to be forgotten on social media. It seems like negative, divisive, and/or false information is posted or shared much more than positive or uplifting content. You know what I mean. The same few people who constantly produce posts that are either bashing one political party, sharing false information or…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterFebruary 16, 2021Another birthday came and went for me this week. While it wasn’t a “significant” birthday, it provided me with a reminder that I am, indeed, getting older. I’ve long passed birthdays that allowed me to drive, vote, or drink legally. I’ve even been eligible to run for president for a few years now. While the number might not matter as much these days, I’m definitely noticing the years passing by.…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterDecember 01, 2020What will your life be like in the year 2045? That’s the question my ninth-grade students had the opportunity to think and write about recently. What will life be like in 25 years? What jobs will they have and where will they live? How will the world be similar to and different from 2020? The assignment to write two pages imagining life in 2045 is how we start the Careers Unit. I learn so much…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterSeptember 15, 2020Last week I stepped back in time. I only went six months back in time, but it felt like so much farther. As we started the new school year, I turned on my classroom flat-panel display. It’s a large TV/computer screen that I use to teach every day. When I turned on the screen for the first time this school year, I was surprised what I saw. The same Internet tabs that I used on March 16, the last…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterJuly 21, 2020Hi! I’m Jason, a teacher trying to fill in for the summer.” That’s how I responded to Kevin Kyle, the sports editor of the Pipestone County Star, at Redbird Field Sunday. He saw me standing safely behind the net with a notebook under my arm and camera raised, attempting to get quality photos during the Pipestone at Luverne amateur baseball game. Kevin was on the other side of the net where hard…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterJune 23, 2020We all want to be right. We all want and need to be part of a group. We believe that those who share our opinions are also always right. These three concepts form the basis of partisan politics. Republicans agree with and defend other Republicans and Democrats do the same for other Democrats. My team vs. their team. Conservatives vs. liberals. We’re right. They’re wrong. It’s how it works.…
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