Well, hello Dakota Staff and Students! This is Zachary Veal, both your beloved meteorologist/weatherman and joke of the day teller. In this article, I will break down my last three years here at Dakota High School while doing the morning announcements. So, please sit back and relax, and enjoy the show!

It all started back in both the late Fall of 2019 and the early Winter of 2020, as a freshman, when I was sitting down in my 1st hour Keyboarding class with Ms. Morris in front of my computer, typing away while listening to a young man delivering the weather forecast for that particular day. It did not dawn on me that one school year later, I would be delivering the weather forecast too to my hometown high school myself. But we will get to that in just a moment. And as I was listening to the guy deliver the weather forecast, I suddenly thought that “hey, maybe I could deliver the weather forecast too.”

Then, in the Fall of 2020, I personally emailed both Mr. Koskos, whose is our school’s principal, and Mr. Downham, who is one of the school’s assistant principals, if I could maybe deliver the weather forecasts to the school. And they said “YES, we’d love having you do that.” Whew, so now, I had a big task ahead of me!

But unfortunately, I could not enjoy delivering the weather forecasts to the school for too long that year because in the Spring of 2020, COVID-19 began, and school learning switched over to virtual or online. Teams was all I knew, and I truly missed doing the morning announcements. But my dream of continuing to deliver the weather forecasts to my beloved high school was cut short. But things were going to change for the better pretty soon, and again, I did not know that at the time.

After that, one year later in the early Spring of 2021, school finally went back to being in-person, but not all the way in-person. Instead, we at Dakota did what was called hybrid learning meaning that it was a mix of both being online and going to school in-person too. But the problem was that along with me doing the morning announcements, was both seniors Claire Stevens and Dom Bednar. So, Mr. Koskos told the three of us that we would have to rotate each day meaning that I would come in different days of the week while both Claire and Dom would be the stationary people running the morning announcements. Well, that made me a little bit upset because I wanted to also do the morning announcements with them too everyday like they did. But little did I know that in both my junior year and in my senior year of high school, I would be one of main guys doing the morning announcements, especially in my senior year being that I would be the only veteran doing the morning announcements here at Dakota, which would move me up in the rankings to the very top of the list.

But here is a picture of me, Claire Stevens, and Dom Bednar posing together on their last day of their senior year here at Dakota High School. It was taken after the three of us got finished during the morning announcements.

Next, now onto my junior year doing the morning announcements right here at Dakota High School. As a 11th Grader, I worked my way into the lineup becoming both one of the anchors and the main joke of the day teller as I worked alongside with both Rosie Miller and Elena Ristoski. During that year, school was finally back to be in-person fully, and that gave me the whole year to do my thing: read the main headlines along with my primary tasks; delivering the weather forecasts and delivering the jokes of the day. I had to remember that I still was not considered a veteran, yet, even though I was in my 2nd year of doing the morning announcements here at Dakota. But honestly, my junior year flew back, and soon, both Rosie and Elena were leaving as they were seniors graduating back in 2022. So honestly, I did cry a little bit in later hours/classes because I had such a good relationship with the two girls, and that bond we shared was hard for me to break up, even as they both graduated from Dakota, and moved on to Michigan State University for college. But at that particular moment, I realized that now, I would soon become the very first person to lead the Dakota High School morning announcements team in just about three months from then. But little did I know that fact before then, which is crazy!

But here is a picture of me, Rosie Miller, and Elena Ristoski posing together on their last day of their senior year here at Dakota High School. It was taken after the three of us got finished during the morning announcements.

And last but not least, my senior year at Dakota High School. As a 12th Grader, I officially became the very first person to lead the entire Dakota High School morning announcements team as a veteran because I was the only person that has more than a year of experience doing the morning announcements, as an anchor, a meteorologist, and a joke of the day teller. Whew, what a trifecta!! But I had the pleasure of working with the following persons throughout my senior year every two months via. switching:

1. Ellie Snodgrass and El Auria Atienza (September and October 2022).
2. Nya Jones and Monday Skrocki (November and December 2022).
3. Jeff Garrant and Brady Miller (January and February 2023).
4. Sarah Bazzi and Hanna Jankowski (March and April 2023).
5. Eemi Toma and Akyra Bell (May and June 2023).

And now, as I graduate from high school in a few weeks, it is definitely bittersweet for me because I was very happy that I got a chance to bring a smile to everyone’s faces every morning, and sad because I do not want to leave now since I have found peace, love, and absolute joy while doing the morning announcements. But Dakota has been there for me, and doing the morning announcements was a wonderful way of giving back to them, and I will not ever, ever forget the moments when kids and teachers would always ask me like “What’s the weather looking like today?”, and “I loved your joke of the day today,” and things like that. But I cannot end this article without taking the time to thank my teachers, my friends, my parents, and most importantly, God/Jesus for giving me the opportunity to make Dakota smile. And here are some comments from my peers below on their review of my last three years of doing the morning announcements:

• “I found it very enjoyable that you ended the announcement with a joke because it is nice to laugh so early in the morning.” — Maddie Short
• “I love how you did jokes everyday making a smile on everyone’s faces.” — Ava Messing
• “Your jokes made everyone laugh and the weather for the day was very helpful.” — Payton Rettich
• “I look forward to hearing your voice every morning, it makes my day. Your jokes help wake me up in the morning and put a smile on my face.” — Meredith Benedict
• “Your jokes always brightened up the mornings and I can’t wait to see you on T.V. one day!” — Arabella Brong
• “ZACH! YOU MAKE MY DAY EVERYDAY. THE JOKE OF THE DAY AND WEATHER WILL NEVER BE THE SAME WITHOUT YOU. I HOPE YOU CONTINUE TO BE YOU!” — Krystyna Kijewski
• “I appreciate how you are always so positive, nice, and fun! Thank you for always making my day better.” Caroline Genna❤️
• “I appreciate how you’re always in a good mood and uplifting other people.” — Niko Athanas
• “He made my day better with his voice.” — Logan Amore
• “I like the enthusiasm he has during announcements.” — Anonymous person
• “You always give me a great start to my day with your morning announcements!” — Anonymous person
• “The joke of the day always brought a smile to my face!” — Chloe Hilgendorf
• “The weather information is always informative and well-researched.” — Caitlin Jenkins
• “During the announcements, you can tell he is always passionate about what he does.” — Cherese Grier
• “Your jokes were very, very funny! You are also a very great friend! You da best! — Lilly Hayes
• “ZACH IS THE BEST TALKER ON THE BIG MICROPHONE THAT AIRS OVER THE SCHOOL LOUD THING. MY HOMIE-HOMECOMING KING!😮 — Ava Kresbaugh
• “Your joke of the day was always the best part of the announcements. The weather came in a close second! — Kathryn Old
• “The tone Zach had throughout his announcements made it entertaining and made him a great announcer.” — Ryenne Ashworth
• “I had a great time doing the announcements with you, it always brightened my day.” — Ellie Snodgrass
• “Original, funny jokes every morning.” — Jaidon Thomason

Dakota, this one is for you!!!!!!!