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Jason Berghorst

  • By Jason Berghorst, reporter
    August 21, 2024
    Sometimes 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, reporter
    July 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, reporter
    July 03, 2024
    I 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, reporter
    June 05, 2024
    It’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, reporter
    August 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, reporter
    July 04, 2023
    Two 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 Berghorst, reporter
    June 06, 2023
    This column marks the beginning of my 10th summer working part time at the Star Herald. In 2014, Editor Lori asked me if I could help as a part-time reporter for a few weeks that summer when the position was open. General manager Rick agreed, and my temporary fill-in gig began. It wasn’t quite as random as it may seem, however. When I graduated high school, I thought journalism was going to be my…
  • By Jason Berghorst
    January 03, 2023
    While I try not to use words that cliché, I know that’s what it sounds like to others when I say things like “When we were in school …” or “Back in the ’90s”… As I get older, I find myself saying things like that more often. Sometimes these statements are just for fun. An attempt to entertain. Other times they are simply sharing a memory that makes me feel good. Often, though, it’s the history…
  • By Jason Berghorst
    September 20, 2022
    My 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, reporter
    August 09, 2022
    A 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, reporter
    July 12, 2022
    Twenty-five years ago last month I graduated from Luverne High School.  It will be five years ago next month that I returned to Luverne High School as a social studies teacher.  Needless to say, it was fun and interesting to return to my alma mater 20 years later in a new role.  So many things had changed obviously. Yet, somewhat surprisingly, so much had stayed the same.  Sometimes exactly the…
  • By Jason Berghorst, reporter
    December 28, 2021
    I have a habit of inserting unsolicited local history into conversations with my friends, co-workers and students.  Not helpful, insightful historical facts that people find interesting, but often random tidbits of how things used to be.  It’s perhaps an occupational hazard for a history teacher living in his hometown and working in the school he graduated from. But more than that, it’s human…
  • By Jason Berghorst, reporter
    August 03, 2021
    A 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, reporter
    July 06, 2021
    “Things happen in threes.” I’ve heard that phrase, or variations of it, numerous times over the years, most often referencing deaths or other bad circumstances and events. I usually dismiss “happens in threes” as simple superstition. If you wait long enough, eventually three people you know are going to die or three unfortunate things will happen to your family. Don’t get me wrong, I’m…
  • By Jason Berghorst, reporter
    June 08, 2021
    Recently 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, reporter
    March 23, 2021
    If 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…
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