Picture Story

Jessica Harmon is a 20 year old Flagler College student from Palm Bay. 

She is half Jewish and this is her first Hanukkah away from her family and the
first one she is celebrating on her own in her own apartment. 

For her, Hanukkah is an important family tradition to light the candles, even when they are not with one another. It is tradition to light the candles at sun down. Jessica had to start Hanukkah a day early because of school obligations on the actual first day Hanukkah (Dec 1).

When lighting the candles, I was told by Jessica that all other lights need to be off. "As a little kid Hanukkah was a holiday that we spent with my grandparents, and now it’s one of the only things that keeps us connected as a Jewish family in different parts of the country." Jessica said.

It is tradition that you light the Shamash (the middle candle) first. The Shamash is supposed to be higher then the other candles. This is because the light from the Shamas can be used read by. This is because it goes against Jewish law if you read with the light from the Hanukkah candles because you are using something that is used for rituals as a benefit.

Shamash translates to "the attendant," and that is the candle that is used to light the Hanukkah candles because it is forbidden to light the other Hanukkah candles with a Hanukkah candle because that would be disrespectful to the Mitzvah (a commandment from God).

After the candles are lit, she says a prayer. A prayer that gives thanks for the miracle of light and praising God for providing them with the gift of light. It’s said in Hebrew. There is a different prayer for the first night then the other seven nights.

 You must leave the candles burning and cannot blow them out after the
prayer because that is disrespectful of the miracle of light.  It comes from the
Jewish story of when there was only enough oil to light for one night, but the
oil lasted for eight nights. Hanukkah celebrates exactly that, the miracle of light. 

Issue Photo

The issue of whether marijuana should be legalized has added another level 

to the debate, "Legal Weed." Legal weed is a herbal incense that is clearly
marked"not for human consumption," but that isn't stopping people from
smoking it. There are a couple of different brands, Mr. Nice Guy, K2,
Kush and Spice and they range 

from $15-$40 and you only need to be 18 to buy it. 

Steven F., 26, is a Sous-Chef in Orlando. You can see here, where

he has poured the Mr. Nice Guy in the black box, that it does 

in fact look like marijuana. 

You can sort of see here, that is does say "not for human consumption."

Here, Steven is smoking Mr. Nice Guy. 

Fashion Photography

This is Matt Koeppen, he is a 21 year old, from Orlando. He is currently enrolled in UCF as a Marketing major and Hospitality minor. 

After a while we started getting an audience from the fort. I'm not sure

what people thought we were doing, but they were interested. 

He was a good trooper it was FREEZING on the beach, and windy, very windy. 

Out of all of the photos that I took, there were only a few where he actually looked cold. 

I had to find times when the wind wasn't blowing as hard so I could take

pictures and not have to worry about sand getting in my camera. 

That's also part of the reason as to why some of the pictures are darker 

then others. 

At this point in time, Matt was very cold and was getting over me taking 

pictures but he thought it was funny I was getting so into it, 

this is him laughing at me. 

Matt was trying to give me "sexy eyes" but didn't know how, so he was 

laughing while also attempting to flirt with the camera.