“So I could be sane, and let them be crazy –because I was not one of them!”—Leighann Inskeep-SimpsonBy: Courtney Ransdell

At first glance, Leighann Inskeep-Simpson looks like an average middle-age woman that you would pass along the street with a gentle smile and a wave. However, there is more behind what meets the eye when it comes to Inskeep-Simpson, 42.

Most of her students at Urbana High School know her as their art teacher. But Inskeep-Simpson has a hidden life. What she would really like to be spending time doing is holing up in some studio to create masterpieces. But life isn’t like that.

“I have been struggling recently with the fact that my family needs so much of my time, and that I don't have much time to make art. Both our oldest and youngest children have special needs and rely on me for a lot of ‘normal things’ from tying shoes, to helping my daughter with her shower.”

As she puts down her coffee cup and crosses her legs, she sighs, “My life would have been different.... I don't know if it would have been better or worse, but certainly different. My hopes and dreams for myself have been put on the back burner.”

She ends by saying, “Of course I love them dearly, but there are many days that I wish I had remained single and/or childless.” However, even though it seems like the struggle with a full time job, special need children, and her hopes and dreams tugging at one end –Inskeep-Simpson does not ever try and ‘take a day to herself’, “only if I am really sick, which does not happen very often“ she says.

Being born in Columbus by her 17-year-old mother, Inskeep-Simpson was put up for a closed adoption, which in the long run has affected her emotionally. “In a lot of ways I never felt like I fit in with the rest of my family. Not only because of looks, but also things we were interested in.”

Growing up on Lincoln Place in Urbana, OH with her adoptive parents and two sisters, Kay and Alana (who were not blood related), Inskeep-Simpson recalled her favorite thing about the house.
“One of the good things about living in the house on Lincoln was that the attic had been converted to a bedroom for Kay and me. There was no heat in the winter except what floated up the stairs, and it was real hot in the summer... but there was space - lots of space, and privacy. If I said I was going to draw everyone would leave me alone. Perhaps another reason I picked to major in art!” Although as she got older, she said she realized a mood change in her mom.
“When we moved to Lincoln Mom's moods became more apparent.... or maybe I was just more aware since I was older. Looking back I would say that she was probably deeply depressed most of the years I was growing up.” She even recalled a time she went on strike.
“She wouldn't cook or do laundry... basically anything around the house for about three weeks. I remember begging someone to take me to DQ so I could get some food (Don't recall why I had to go to DQ in particular.)”

Even though her childhood life was not a glorious walk in the park, she seemed to make the best of it. “It was also a good thing I was adopted.... I felt like I didn't really belong with these people, so I could be sane and let them be crazy because I was not one of them!” Although she legally is not allowed to get information about her mother in Ohio, Inskeep-Simpson admits “I would like to meet my birth parents someday - and I have searched for them, but gotten nowhere.”

Although Inskeep-Simpson’s life has had its up’s and down’s –while speaking to her, and having had her as an Art teacher before, it seems like her job is a prized possession. When asked what her best thing about her job was, she smiled and said “The best thing is building relationships with the students. Some students I see every day for four years.”

As I begin to move onto my next question, she finishes and says, “At UHS the students are sort of like my children. I do care about them and enjoy watching them develop their artistic skills. Some students just need an adult to talk to.... free shoulder to cry on. I also enjoy the other teachers in the basement, "basement buddies" Sapp, Myers and Steinmetz. We help each other out, support each other and occasionally socialize together.”

Being married to her own once High School art teacher, Mike Simpson,

Re-Gifting

Christmas morning is all about the joys of giving and receiving, little children running down their stairs to see what Santa Claus has brought them, and a time of the year that is known for the connecting and re-connecting of family. But how would you feel if ‘Santa Claus’ did not have his ‘elf’s’ make the presents; but instead went up into his attic every year and simple re-wrapped a once used product?

No matter how old my brother and I get, it is tradition that every year my family gathers around our Christmas tree, opens the presents from our parents –and then go to our grandparents.

Grandparents… aren’t they supposed to be the ones who give the best gifts? Well, not in my household –unless reindeer bottle shaped perfume that smells more like a rotting nursing home than the typical floral or fruity smell strikes your fancy.

However, sometimes re-gifting is not so bad in some people’s opinion. Jordan Taylor, a sophomore at Wittenberg University, happily said “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure!” While Brynne Mayne, a freshman at Witt, said, “I think that with our economy right now it's probably pretty common. I don't necessarily agree with it but I'm sure it's happening more than we're aware.”

To some, re-gifting is a way to save some cash or to get rid of their junk. However, to others –re-gifting is just an odd tradition. Ashley Jeter said, “When my best friend and I first bought each other presents we did not know what to get each other, so we got something we would originally buy for ourselves. And when her birthday came around I gave it back to her, and when mine came around she gave mine back to me. And ever since then we have always done holidays like that.”

Whether re-gifting is a way to avoid money spending, getting rid of trash, traditions, or “A way to re-gift to people you do not like that much (including relatives), and you do not want to spend time finding them something personal when I can just give them one thing that is mostly un-used laying around my house” as Kristi Bacca, a sophomore at University of Cincinnati, states. It is something that happens more than it should –although sometimes it is unavoidable when you are a poor college student!

Every year my Great Great...Great Grandma stumbles her way up to the attic to collect everyone a new bottle of perfume/cologne. Although the scent of the horrid odor lurks my Aunt Jill’s house for hours after twisting the cap off, it is still a good laugh throughout the family.

Trees, trains, reindeers, doves, not matter what the shape of your bottle is or how pretty the bottle looks –always know that with one twist of the cap, dangerous fumes release into the air, not quite deadly –but definitely unpleasant.

Although in my family re-gifting is the joke of Christmas Day, it is something people have done more than known. But the thing people tend to forget about is it is the thought that counts, not technically where it came from –or how many presents are under the tree. But I do agree with Jordan, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure!”

I am sure you have all heard about the global apocalypse that is predicted to happen on December 21, 2012. All because of a Long Count calendar created by the Mayan Culture and Nibiru, the United States is fretting over the doomsday.

Many compare it to the odometer being all 0’s on a car or to a clock striking midnight, the world will reset to a “zero date” –which will result in the world drastically ending. But the end of the world is also being blamed on Plant X or Nibiru, as well.

Supposedly, Plant X will enter our solar system at the edge and cross orbits with Jupiter. Here’s the catch, Jupiter could ignite and become a baby sun, and by 2011 people will be able to have a bird’s eye view of two suns. However, at the 11 ½ year cycle the solar flare might peak –knocking out power grids around the world; causing mass devastation to all.

What is up with the "could" and "might"? If someone wants to persuade me to believe something, you better be showing me proof, and stand confident of the things you say. And not use could and might in your facts.

What a load of shit. Not only can any human Google ‘2012’ and get 368,000,000 articles about the horrid date, but there are so many stories that it has become more than a bit ridiculous when spoke about.

The first story about this date was the Mayan calendar. Seems a bit believable, right? Wrong. The Mayan’s could not predict their own “end of the world” date, why would anyone believe that they would purposely predict ours? Do not get me wrong, the Mayan calendar could in fact mean bad news because yes, the Long Count calendar is set to reset to 0 after 1,872,000 days; and that date it lands on just happens to be December 21, 2012.

However, what people seem to be missing is that according to Skeptics Dictionary, “this date is of enormous interest to certain doomsday prophets and New Age astrologers, such as John Calleman, who are spreading the good news either that the Mayan knew the date when the world would end or they knew the date when a New Age of Transformation would begin.” You people seem to only be looking for a reason to make your credit scores sky rocket, and buy all of the fanciest cars and biggest homes, which is why you believe the worst, the world will end.

Nostradamus predicted the world would end, as well. He technically predicted that a huge space collision will happen in 2000 with Nibiru, which will lead me to my next point, later. But he also said that a catastrophe would happen in 2012. Hello people, a catastrophe could mean anything, why think the worst?

To be exact, there are thirty-six different predictions of what will happen on December 21, 2012; ranging from sort of believable stories, to off the wall things –it all depends on how you take it. But thirty-six? That is a bit out of hand.

I bet you did not know that the world was supposed to end on May 5, 2000, either. All the planets would align and the result would be the end of civilization through the melting and shifting of the polar icecaps. And did that happen? No.

When the world did not end on that day, the doomsday was pushed back to 2012. Now, because the economy is slipping, polar icecaps are melting, and we are only a few years away from December 21, 2012, everyone is flipping out. Although the hoax has been going strong for many years, there is much evidence proving that the world will not end in 2012. Just open your eyes a bit, people.

Hoax –that is all it could be; a way for film makers and journalist to make a living. Whether the world does end or not, the way I look at it –one day it will. But for now people should be enjoying their time they have with people, and stop trying to predict when, where, and how they will die.