SENIOR FACES THE FUTURE WITH WIDE WORLD WAITING

JACKSON -- World events blend with school activities and graduation preparations as high-school seniors like Heather Wiedefeld prepare to face the future.

Heather, a senior at Jackson High School, said the crisis in the Persian Gulf and after-graduation plans dominate her thoughts.

"My teachers have always talked about the Vietnam War," she said. "They have told us about how they worried about their friends and family going away. I always thought that must be horrible.

"But I never thought we would have any stories to tell our children of war. Now we might.

"My cousin's husband is in Saudi Arabia, and I know a lot of guys my friends and other people my age will be going to war.

"Just the other day we were at a basketball game. Before the game started the players were all lined up as `The National Anthem' played. My friend said, `Can't you just picture all of them in uniform saluting the flag?' It's a pretty scary thought.

"I don't know why we are over there in the first place. My teachers say the United States can't let anyone do anything. "Why don't we utilize the oil we have in our country and make people here rich instead of buying oil from other countries and sending them lots of money?"

Heather doesn't plan to go overseas; she plans to attend the University of Missouri-Columbia and major in accounting. "I plan on being an accountant, if college doesn't get too hard," she said.

Heather said she's lucky because she has a tentative plan. "A lot of my friends don't know what they want to do. Just the other day a friend was telling me she didn't know if she wants to go to college or to airline school. It's a hard decision to make."

Heather decided to become an accountant after taking a beginning accounting course at the high school.

"I thought it would be real hard, but as I went along I understood the concepts. I thought I would like to do this all day. I like to work with numbers, and this is real numbers, not Pi R-squared.

She said accountants generally make a good salary. "That's important. I don't have to be filthy rich, but I would like to make a decent salary."

To help prepare for college, Heather is enrolled in advanced classes: calculus, accounting II, college-prep writing. "I hope all these things pay off. Now, with these classes, I have to study to get good grades. Before, I used to just go to class and I could get good grades."

She has been accepted at Mizzou; now she has to figure out how to pay for her education. "I haven't filled out the scholarship applications yet," Heather said. "I'm hoping for a higher score on my ACT."

She is scheduled to take her ACT test, a college entrance exam, for the fourth time, hoping to improve her marks. "For most of the scholarships at Mizzou you have to make a 30. The highest I have scored is 25. I hope to do better.

"I've been thinking about college a lot. I think it's going to be very hard. I picture myself studying every night and studying weeks in advance for exams."

At Jackson High School she works on the yearbook staff and is a volunteer with Westlane Elementary School's Just Say No Club. Through the club, Heather spends time talking with sixth-graders about drug prevention.

"I have two younger sisters and a cousin," she said. "I think they and other kids need to know about drugs; they need to know that drugs are bad and can hurt you."

Heather said: "There are a few people I know who use drugs, but I would say the majority do not. After a weekend people will talk about seeing so-and-so stoned, and we can't believe it. It's not like it happens every day. but it does happen."

She works with the student council planning for the winter homecoming and, as senior class president, she is helping plan graduation activities. "It seems like it's time to graduate," Heather said. "But I'm sure in May it won't seem that way.

"In 10 years hopefully I will have a good, stable job, be married and maybe even have a kid," she said.

She said she does not plan to live in Jackson after college. "Jackson is a nice town, but I'd like to live in a bigger city like Columbia or maybe Kansas City," she said. "I think things around here will be pretty much the same. That's nice in some ways. No matter what, Jackson pretty much stays the same."

Heather is the daughter of Ray and Bev Wiedefeld.