High Life / A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : Cars, Money Might Salvage a Vacationless Summer

Time is money, or so it’s said.

So how valuable is your time? If time in the classroom is considered an investment in your future, what’s your summer vacation worth? Hot Topics asks, “What would your parents have to give you for you to give up your summer vacation?”

“They’d have to give me a car and insurance for the car . . . and maybe even more.”

Adrianne Bevans, 16,

sophomore, Esperanza

“They would have to throw a large sum of money in my pocket.”

Brad Laule, 17,

junior, Santa Margarita

“My parents would have to give me a long, quiet vacation some other time during the year.”

Mike Bogle, 17,

junior, Los Alamitos

“An exemption to the U.S. Open golf tournament at Pebble Beach.”

Joe Powell, 15,

sophomore, St. Margaret’s

“A new car--a 300 ZX.”

Simona Ungareanu, 16,

sophomore, Woodbridge

“I wouldn’t take anything, or it’d have to be a million bucks.”

Michelyn Patterson, 17,

senior, Esperanza

“My parents would have to give me their unconditional love and the amount of money I would have earned by working the summer.”

Erik Blackmore, 17,

junior, Los Alamitos

“Senate seats at the Forum.”

Alec Bethurum, 15,

sophomore, St. Margaret’s

“Enough money to get anything I want.”

Matt Vanderpol, 15,

freshman, Woodbridge

“A new car, a lot of money and a nice chick.”

Mike Lawson, 16,

junior, Esperanza

“They’d have to give me a three-month vacation during the school year.”

Megan Kelley, 14,

freshman, Santa Margarita

“Nothing. My parents have given me everything I have ever wanted. What is a summer in comparison?”

Kimberly M. Kishaba, 17,

senior, Los Alamitos

“A plane ticket to Australia.”

Ryan Brown, 17,

junior, St. Margaret’s

“They’d have to pay me an awful lot of money.”

Nikki Okimoto, 17,

junior, Woodbridge

“The year off from school the following year.”

Becky Gibson, 18,

senior, Esperanza

“They’d have to pay me.”

Melissa Cunningham, 15,

freshman, Santa Margarita

“Probably nothing, but I would have the edge in any argument, “Gee, Mom, remember last summer. . .”

Jennifer Souders, 17,

junior, Los Alamitos

“I would never give up my summer vacation.”

Katie Karelius, 16,

sophomore, St. Margaret’s

“Freedom.”

Almaas Shaikh, 16,

junior, Woodbridge

“I don’t know. Maybe a certain amount of cash might do it.”

Carolyn Wilson, 16,

sophomore, Los Alamitos

“A car.”

Andrew Beckman, 16,

sophomore, Santa Margarita

“A trip to Hawaii or a lot of money.”

Brendan Beirne, 15,

freshman, Woodbridge

Next Week’s Hot Topic:

If you could create the ideal summer vacation, where money and time were irrelevant, what would it be?

Responses gathered by Jennifer Leuer (Esperanza), Trisha Ginsburg (Los Alamitos), Brooke Lyons (St. Margaret’s), Katie Elftmann (Santa Margarita) and Cheherazad Elavia (Woodbridge).