Believe it or not, what you are reading now was put together entirely by students. The articles, the ads, the pagination, everything in this newspaper was put together by a group of high school students. And that’s how Generation W has been running for the past ten years. Starting out in 2002 with a staff of fewer than ten and putting out five eight-page papers a year, Gen W has grown to a staff of more than thirty and putting out six twenty-page papers a year. Originally meant to be a school newspaper, we have grown to a business that is bigger than what any of the original staff members could have thought.

It took work to grow to what we are, though. In 2002, a group of students from the Quad Cities area wanted to start a school newspaper. However, the schools rejected the proposal due to shortages in funding. That group then took the initiative into their own hands. They wanted to make a self-published, student-run newspaper. That would not be possible without some help, though. They turned to the head of Iron Range Youth in Action, Chris Ismil, and Scott Asbach from the Mesabi Daily News. After months of brainstorming and trial papers, Generation W was finally on its feet.

With one computer at Mesabi Daily News for pagination and with a pile of handwritten and emailed articles, the first issue of Gen W was published and printed in December of 2002. That group of students finally accomplished what they set out for with naming the newspaper what they did. Generation W: the generation of students today who want to find out the Whos, Whats, Whens, Wheres, and Whys of today’s world to become tomorrow’s successful leaders. Now, ten years later, there is a new group of students who are still set on keeping that goal alive.

In November, Washington and Colorado voters passed initiatives to legalize the recreational use of marijuana; though it is still illegal to grow or sell the drug. By fully legalizing marijuana through direct democracy, these states have fundamentally changed the national conversation about cannabis. Fifty-eight percent of the population support legalizing marijuana, as for the other forty-two percent, they are convinced the other forty-eight states will not follow their lead for continuing this democratic rule.

The future for further legalization does not look promising; the Obama Administration is already looking for ways to overturn the legalization in these states.

There are so many things we all could be doing to help each other out in our daily lives. I think we all realize that, but how many of us actually do something to make our world a better place? Let’s take a look at people in our country of all ages that we can respect, admire and hopefully all learn something from. CNN has a special broadcast called “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute”.Here is a look at three heroes from the past few years.

Jessica Rees was eleven years old when she decided to make a difference in this world. She was honored as one of the three ‘Young Wonders’ at the “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute” this year. At the very hard time in her life of struggling with a brain tumor and going back and forth between home and the hospital for treatment, she still focused on others. She asked her parents when the other kids at the hospital would be able to go home. When finding out that some of them may never get to go home, Jessica not only felt sympathy for them, she cared enough to do something to help. Jessica started making JoyJars full of anything children would like- toys, stickers, or crayons to give to other children in hospitals. In her life, Jessica gave out around 3,000 JoyJars. Unfortunately, Jessica lost her struggle with the brain tumor she was fighting, but the lessons we can learn from her will live on. She was in such a horrible predicament, one none of us would ever want to be in. But did she focus on herself, and her pain? No. She spent the rest of her days trying to brighten up others’ spirits, and that is something we can all admire. The Jessica Rees Foundation created by her parents has been carrying on Jessica’s legacy. By the end of 2012 around 60,000 JoyJars will have been distributed. If one child can make that much of a difference, think what we all could do.

When you change someone’s life, you create a new human being. Your clothes, hair, and looks can be modified, but you are never truly changed until there’s a new you on the inside.

Dress for Success is a global non-profit organization working diligently to better the lives of women in more than 120 cities. Each day, they provide women with professional clothing, programs on how to find and keep a job, and plenty of support. The staff and numerous volunteers work together to hold fundraisers and events, and accomplish the Dress for Success mission statement.

Dress for Success’s mission is to "promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.” The women are each given one suit to use for a job interview that had to be previously scheduled. If they get the job, they can go back and receive another suit or separates.

Although Dress for Success also has programs for men, they reach over 65,000 women in over 13 countries. To be able to receive these benefits, though, you must have a referral from a non-profit or government agency, such as, homeless shelters, immigration services, job training programs, educational institutions, and domestic violence shelters. According to dressforsuccess.org, “Almost 4,500 organizations throughout the world send women to Dress for Success for professional apparel and career development services.”

In the world we live in, outer beauty is everything. Pictures are continuously thrown in our faces of celebrities and models with these perfect bodies and flawless faces. The sad truth, though, is that we aren’t all born with what society deems pretty. This causes people, particularly females, to go to extreme measures to become beautiful, namely cosmetic surgery. These changes are permanent, and with all the mental and physical risks, it seems that girls would think twice before going under the knife, but they don’t.

Once someone gets plastic surgery, it’s almost impossible to reverse the changes. This means that people should be really sure that they want the surgery before receiving it, right? And maybe they think that they are, but in numerous cases, after the operation is completed, that self-assurance isn’t so present. Many stars, including Kourtney Kardashian and Heidi Montag, have admitted that they regret their surgeries. Many people who have the operations can’t get over the fact that they don’t look like themselves anymore, but they have to live with the results for the rest of their lives anyway.

On the completely opposite side of the spectrum, plastic surgery can actually become a sort of addiction. When this idea of a perfect body is within reach, some may become obsessed with the pursuit to acquire it, going under the knife time after time until it’s almost impossible to stop. Two thirds of plastic surgery patients return for at least one more procedure. In several cases, those repeat patients suffer from a psychological syndrome known as Body Dysmorphic Disorder, in which they can only view themselves as ugly, no matter how beautiful they might actually be.