The Communicator_Ed.2_v.50_2022_2023

THE COMMUNICATOR MAGAZINE

As our world shifts toward the digital, our lives have been undeniably changed. In this edition we unpack these changes, large and small.

About the Cover

This edition focuses on technology — how it has changed, how we use it and how it impacts our lives. Rosie Mellor created a motherboard for our covers. The motherboard is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in a computer. Think of it like a communication backbone for every computer — the connectivity point that information flows through. In many ways, we are living in and around a metaphorical motherboard, constantly using it to learn more about the world and connect with people through it.

Dear Readers,

How are you reading this letter? Are you holding the Communicator magazine in your hand, flipping through the pages while sipping your morning coffee? Have you waited until the edition was uploaded to our website so you can “command + f” to find your child’s name? Or, faced with the prospect of news not available by simply clicking a headline, have you missed this letter completely?

As students, our lives are surrounded by technology. We spend hours every night working to meet that 11:59 deadline. Our classes are overwhelmingly virtual, with online math simulators, graphic designing programs and digital photography. The internet has changed the way school works, with more opportunities for students to cheat and an entire world of information accessible whenever it is desirable.

This has only increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, when we spent a year of our lives ensconced in virtual school, learning via Zoom screens and getting used to a new virtual education platform, Schoology. Now, we have returned to school but we have not left this wave of technological learning behind.

It seems only natural for us to dedicate an edition of the Communicator to technology; what it means, to us as students and to the people around us, how it is affecting us, what comes next. Our articles span from seasonal depression and how screens add to it to the damage that technology can inflict on our eyes. We cover online news outlets and how current events are spread throughout the world so quickly. There is so much going on in our world, and the majority of it centers around technology.

We recognize how prevalent technology is, especially in students’ lives and we hope that this edition will inform how technology is talked about, both in connection with school and just in personal lives.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

Your editors,

LUCIA

IZZY

BELLA

Color Stories

In this edition, we focus on pigmentation, saturation and blue light. In our cover story, we emphasize the importance of color in technology and throughout the world by sharing memories and emotions prompted by Pantone postcards.

CHS celebrates the 100th anniversary of Jones School, the predominantly Black school that used to exist in CHS’s building, by listening to speakers and learning about Black Ann Arbor.

Government leaders from around the world gather in Egypt to discuss climate change and how we can address it.

Gummy and Big Planet, two CHS performers, put on their first joint concert after meeting through school.

Arts & Entertainment Opinion 122

A Balancing Act

When is technology beneficial for children? When should we first get phones? Journalists share their opinions and experiences.

Four students and staff discuss their experiences reading banned books.

Kicking off the narratives section is a new constant: Reader’s write, including short narratives written by our staff.

THE COMMUNICATOR

BY IVY PROCHASKA

Making an Impact: Food Gatherers 2022

CHS celebrates Food Gatherers in St. Andrew’s church.

CHS united in the fight against hunger. From Nov. 1 to Nov. 22 forums organized events, goals and incentives to donate as much as possible to Food Gatherers.

Posters were put outside of classrooms marking incentives for goals met, keeping students motivated to raise money.

Mick Hanson — a senior in the Kiley forum — volunteered to provide incentive by letting forum leader Courtney Kiley cut his hair into a mullet.

“Food Gatherers is a super important cause to donate to and it’s super helpful. It’s cool to actually see the effects of the stuff you’re donating to,” Hanson said. “Also I thought [the mullet] would be funny.”

This year, forums got creative with fundraising events: The Johnson forum hosted a thrift shop, The Hechler

forum set up carnival events for their “fun fair,” teacher Mike Vial volunteered to be tapped to a wall and the Root forum held a Mac and Cheese bake off. Many forums also held bake sales and sent forumettes classroom to classroom to sell baked goods.

The Root forum raised the most with a grand total of $7,270.37, earned through multiple fundraising efforts, including a silent auction.

The Food Gatherers celebration was held on Nov. 22. A proud atmosphere enveloped forums as they sat down in St. Andrew’s Church, eager to celebrate their efforts and accomplishments.

Freshman, sophomores and juniors experienced the celebration for the first time — the last in-person celebration was held in 2020. They were finally

able to be a part of the roars of applause when totals are announced at St. Andrew’s.

“The passion of the students and staff is really inspiring,” said Jen Whaley, who represented Food Gatherers at the celebration. “I feel like every time I’ve gone to one of the events I get teared up because it gives me a lot of hope to see young people being so active and caring so much.”

Whaley has been with Food Gatherers for four years, and each year she is blown away by how big of an impact a smaller school like Community can create.

A grand total of $122,491.97 was raised. With this year’s donations, Food Gatherers will be able to distribute 367,464 meals to food insecure individuals and families in the community.

Hidden Histories: Through the Decades

This year, Community High School organized a unique school-wide event to celebrate the rich Black history surrounding CHS both in Ann Arbor and the U.S.

In past years, around November, forums typically get ready to prepare for Multi-Culti. However, this year it has been replaced to make way for Hidden Histories Through the Decades.

The event tied into the Jones centennial — the cel ebration of the historically Black elementary school upon which CHS was established.

On Nov. 3, forums had the opportunity to research a specific time period of Black history in the U.S. Forums looked into what life was like in Ann Arbor during that decade: members focused on presenting categories such as art, fashion, culture, history and music, while also decorating their room and preparing food.

On the morning of Nov. 22, the day of Hidden His tories Through the Decades, students participated in the Food Gatherers ceremony in St. Andrews.

Afterward, forums regrouped for a walking tour, vis iting the sites or former sites of Delong’s Bar-B-Que, the Dunbar Center, Wheeler Park and many other businesses and areas that made up Black Ann Arbor.

The Dunbar Center was a local Black community gathering place, where children could go for homework help or enrichment activities, including boy scouts.

Wheeler Park, initially called Summit Street play ground and renamed for Ann Arbor’s first Black may or, Albert Wheeler, took the place of a junkyard and slaughterhouse.

When the forums were finished with the walking tour, they shared their research with other forums. They listened to stories about growing up in Black Ann Arbor from Jones Elementary alumni (Rog er Brown, Jennifer Brown, and Shirley Beckley).

Jones school was not segregated by law but was primar ily Black due to many of the surrounding neighbor hoods. This made the school a target for closure by a twelve member Citizens Committee, which was con trived to study the racial imbalance in public schools.

The school was ultimately closed in 1965. 175 students were split apart to several different elementary schools.

CHS celebrates the local Black community and 100 years of Jones School in a school-wide gathering spanning decades of history.

Counselor’s Corner

Kelly Maveal and Brian Williams

share their perspectives on technology and the effects of social media.

CHS counselors Kelly Maveal and Brian Williams both express concern about the effects of social media overtime and how they will impact students and our community in the long term.

“I feel our world is so much bigger and more fast paced as a result of social media,” Williams said. “It’s helpful, but it can also be dangerous in terms of how it overwhelms us.”

Williams believes that students can be easily sucked into the addictive cycle of constantly scrolling on their devices for hours on end — which can negatively impact their mental and physical health.

“I feel like social media, phones and screens in general can be like the [antithesis] to mindfulness and being present,” CHS counselor Kelly Maveal said.

Social media can normalize unhealthy habits. Williams points out that just having your phone next to you can produce anxiety.

“Social media [can] feed into addictive habits like waiting to hear that notification sound so you can check it and respond right away,” Williams said.

As the students of CHS re-acclimate to in-person school, it can be hard to form connections as they used to. Maveal encourages students to try out a new club or sport that they haven’t done before. Though students may not connect with these new groups of people, Maveal believes that students can balance the effects of their social media use by filling their time with hobbies that don’t

Fo-Co Column

As the year has settled into a consistent rhythm, my co-president Matthew Castilho and I have begun working on more long-term projects. One of our objectives going into this year was to increase the outreach efforts Community High School is putting into the Ann Arbor middle schools. So far this has included updating our middle school outreach school slide show and script with current information and graphics, creating an application that will go out for students interested in participating in our outreach efforts and lastly creating a new video to show during our presentations at the middle schools.

This video, filmed by Parker Haymart and Isabella Jacob, features Community’s student life, amazing staff and the many opportunities that Community High school has to offer to prospective students.

After a successful day of Halloween festivities, forum councils’ event planning committee has been hard at work brainstorming fun events for CHS students. So far this includes a proposed winter formal and our beloved CHS Comstock.

New this year, forum council will be holding elections for president elects this winter. The idea behind this is to allow the following year’s president/s to gain some experience without the immediate responsibilities of presidency. This will create a student government body that can build on previous years instead of starting from scratch each year. As we move into second semester, our entire council is excited to continue to work on these exciting plans and events.

involve constant technology

use.

A big part of healthy social media use is being aware of when you turn to social media, according to Maveal. If you’re going to it because you’re bored, try another activity you enjoy that doesn’t involve screens instead.

Maveal draws benefit from

exposure to diverse voices and different perspectives than her own that she finds on social media, but she knows that intentionality is key: unfollowing the people that don’t deserve your time is a way to curate your social media to ensure that there is value in each scroll.

If you’re deliberate about

when and how you use social media, it can be beneficial in learnng and socialization.

“I don’t think we know about it [the effects of social media] just yet,” Maveal said. “We’re too early on to know how this is going to impact us long term and I think we’re both expressing that we are concerned about it.”

The Wonders of Room

318

Ecology Club connects students who appreciate nature,

Plastered on the walls of the second and third floor of CHS, posters read: “Join Ecology Club in Room 318!” Ecology club has existed within — or rather outside — the walls of CHS for 13 years and is hosted on Mondays during lunch by Courtney Kiley. The goal of Ecology club is simple: to form a community of people who enjoy nature. While many of the club’s activities are outdoors, like a four-day snowshoeing excursion up north or weekly nature walks, inside is a fish tank where Kiley takes the unique opportunity to raise salmon, teaching students how salmon control invasive alewives, a species of herring.

“[I do it] because it’s fun and I use [the club] as an opportunity to teach people about how we use salmon in the Great Lakes as a form of biological control to

control another non-native species,” Kiley said. “We introduce salmon to eat alewives, which are non-native, [and] it’s one of the most successful biological control experiments in the world.”

While raising salmon is a highlight, Ecology Club also runs a compost program in partnership with Zingerman’s. Kiley is proud that the compost collected helps local farms grow their crops. And while the compost program is a major responsibility, some of the club meetings are relaxed. Allison Mayer, CHS junior, values

meetings like these.

“I like learning about all the different things whether it’s octopi or types of grass,” Mayer said.

In addition to light-hearted meetings, discussions surrounding climate change also take place. Contrary to news headlines, Kiley combats climate anxiety with positivity.

“There’s so much bad news and a lot of negativity,” Kiley said. “It can be depressing at times, but I try to focus on the positive things.”

Alegría in the Classroom

After being pulled from retirement, Olivia Wylie aims to create a collaborative learning classroom.

The sounds coming from room 105 carry strong through the halls: music ringing, kids yelling in Spanish and laughter bouncing off the walls.

Profe Olivia Wylie has been speaking Spanish her whole life. Growing up, she spent much of her childhood at her grandmother’s house while her mother was working.

“In my grandma’s house, it was Spanish, Spanish, Spanish, because she and my grandpa didn’t speak English,” Wylie said. “I grew up around it.”

Wylie traveled to Spain often and attended several years of elementary school there. Growing up in Spanish culture affected the way she views customs, language and teaching.

“[Profe’s class] is definitely the most engaging Spanish class I’ve ever had,” Tommy Simon, CHS senior and Spanish V student, said. “Profe really uses [her] background to enrich what she teaches.”

Before she began teaching at CHS in 2017, Wylie had retired. She had taught classes from sixth grade through college on

three different continents: North America, Europe and Africa. She was pulled from retirement slowly, by first subbing to help out, then two years later was back to teaching full time.

While many traditional Spanish classes focus on conjugation and grammar worksheets, Wylie’s classroom spends time on Hispanic and Latinx culture, casual conversation and familiarity with the Spanish language. She bases her teaching on the Finland 33 method, a teaching style used to create a more joyful and well-rounded learning experience for students.

“I want my students to embrace learning,” Wylie said. “[Teachers can] take away the joy of learning. By using the Finland 33 system, it puts joy back into learning.”

Most of Wylie’s lessons are graded on participation; getting students to interact with each other and feel more comfortable with the language is her first priority.

“The best part of [teaching is] the kids,” Wylie said. “They make me laugh and enjoy what I do. They bring joy to my life.”

want to help their community and have some fun.

The Beautiful Game Continues to Connect Audiences

Time to Deliver

Leaders from across the globe gather for the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference.

With the clock ticking down on irreversible climate change, world leaders, scientists and delegates from 200 different countries kick off COP27 in Egypt. With tensions high and stakes even higher, all eyes have fallen on COP27.

“Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing. Global temperatures keep rising. And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible,” United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.

With leading climate scientists urging action over debate and the COP27 kicking off with an agreement to discuss compensation for developing nations affected by climate change has set a positive tone in the resort port town of Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

With a major focus on water, COP27 is set to institute action on water adaptation and resiliency programs. Among other targets, COP27 hopes to address vital issues from reducing greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonizing high-emitting industries to financing climate action in developing countries.

Universal challenges including record high fuel prices, increased greenhouse gas concentrations and an increasing energy crisis, the conference hopes to secure solidarity between nations to fulfill the promises made in the Paris Agreement.

Johan Rockström, the director of Potsdam institute of climate impact research, has been a vocal advocate and researcher for climate research for years. He is pushing for climate stakeholders to reposition their stance from promises and agreements to real action.

“Many pledges were made in Glasgow [at COP26],” Rockström said. “Don’t debate those pledges anymore. Deliver. Now is the time to be accountable — it’s time to report back.”

Meghan Pillote could hear the screams of excitement from the kitchen.

Working her bussing job at Conor O’Neill’s, an Irish pub on Main Street during the U.S. versus England World Cup group stage game, she could barely maneuver through the crowd to deliver food. The dining room was packed to the gills, and every wall was lined with auxiliary chairs in order to seat as many patrons as possible.

This past holiday season, the 22nd edition of the FIFA Men’s World Cup brought 32 teams together and took the both world and CHS by storm. Students could be found streaming matches in both in between and during classes.

“We had to lock the door because we reached the capacity of people that can be allowed in the pub,” Pillote said. “The energy was really good. It was just insane. We were watching the game on my phone in the kitchen and could hear everyone erupt whenever someone got close to scoring.”

Though Sebastian Berenfeld wasn’t among the horde at Conor O’Neill’s, he did closely follow the World Cup. Coming from a soccer family, the sport has been an integral part of his life for as long as Berenfeld can recall. He rooted for Argentina because of their star, Lionel Messi who Berenfeld describes as his idol.

“I saw him play once in the Copa America versus Peru. He went on after halftime and immediately scored a hat trick. It was the coolest,” Berenfeld said. “If I met Messi, I would thank him for the mindset he’s given me of always working and improving on the things you care about.”

The Curtain Closes on “The Visit”

Community Ensemble Theatre (CET) wraps up their fall production of “The Visit.”

Emily Wilson-Tobin, CET Director, has admired “The Visit” for a long time.

“It’s not necessarily an easy show,” Wilson-Tobin said. “It’s darker. It’s a satire. It’s got some more challenging pieces.”

“The Visit” deals with morality, and with a woman being forced into a position that she would not have chosen for herself had she had a choice. It deals with her feelings of anger around that.

“I decided that it was time for CET to take on a piece that would really challenge us,”

Wilson-Tobin said. “Last year, we were just getting started together, and it didn’t feel like the time to take on a play that could feel really heavy in a lot of ways.”

Last fall, CET performed “She Kills Monsters.” It was substantive, but in terms of length and tone, it didn’t require as much from the production team or performers, and it also had a fully virtual version that Wilson-Tobin knew they could default to if needed.

“I felt more confident about our ability to stay in person this fall, and I also felt like it was time to do ‘The Visit’.”

Wilson-Tobin said.

The crews and actors began to create and act in mid-September.

Two months later, tech week was around the corner. Actors were able to rehearse the show with technical elements for the first time. Tech week entailed five hours of rehearsal each day for a week.

Twenty-five hours in total.

Evers Baskey, was one of two Student Tech Directors for “The Visit.”

“I was very worried about how the show would come together, especially [incorporating] running crew [into the show],” Baskey said. “A lot of people [who were on the running crew] were new to CET. It was also confusing where things go and when you come on, but during the second dress rehearsal, running crew had things down to a rhythm and were doing good.”

Nadya Matish, who played Claire Zachanassian, was excited for the show to open.

“I think people are overall pretty prepared, although they are nervous. People are worried about tech, but I know that it will come together.” Matish said, before opening night.

“The Visit” opened its curtains to a sold out audience on Friday, Nov. 18.

“I am always exhilarated after a performance, even when it is 10 p.m., I’m not tired,” Matish said. “I think this particular

opening night went really well, and I felt proud of my performance. At the end of the show, I began to think about what it would be like when we were done with the performances, and I got a little bit of premature nostalgia.”

The show closed on Nov. 20.

“It was a really challenging script to begin with, and the cast and the crew really rose to the challenge. I think they deeply understood what the play might be about and how to convey that to the audience,” Wilson-Tobin said. “I think the show went really well. I feel proud.”

Though the final curtain call for Wilson-Tobin was bittersweet, she along with the rest of CET bid ‘The Visit’ farewell as they look forward to the spring musical: “Cabaret.”

CET took a short hiatus and returned Dec. 7 for the Mass Meeting for “Cabaret.” Auditions were on Jan. 10 and 11 in the Craft Theater.

Viewing “The Visit”

CHS celebrates its theater group’s fall performance, “The Visit.” This play, written post-WWII, centers around the effects of capitalism in Europe.

Nadya Matish, playing Claire Zachanassian, raises her hand to make everyone to stop clapping. At this point in the play, the town did not like what Claire Zachanassian’s exception was when she offered one million marks. “I really loved getting the chance to dive into the subtext of Claire’s character, and closely reading the text to work out the hidden meanings,” Matish said.

Ronan Laporte, playing Anton Schill, looks at the commotion on stage. In this part of the play, Claire Zachanssian had just arrived in Güllen when she was met by the Conductor because she stopped the train. “My favorite part of acting was being able to express my emotions in a healthy way,” Laporte said.

Gabriel Semrau (playing the Burgomaster) and Ronan Laporte (playing Anton Schill) are having a conversation in the Burgomaster’s office. At this part in the play, Claire Zachanassian is watching over Schill and the Burgomaster having a conversation. “My favorite part of acting in ‘The Visit’ was being able to spend a lot of time thinking about the text, as well as being able to play a type of character I don’t usually play,” Semrau said.

Bee Whalen (playing First Man) is confused about what is going on. At this point in the play, Claire Zachanassian’s train came to a hault in Güllen. “I would say my favorite part of acting in ‘The Visit’ was the amount of creativity we were given and how I started to grow into my character due to that,” Whalen said.

Athletes of Community

“I started playing when I was in third grade. It was the first year I was allowed to play football. I remember I spent the year before watching all my brother’s practices and games, and just standing on the sidelines and always wanting to play. My dad played football and I had always grown up watching it in Ann Arbor, so I really wanted to be a part of that. So when I got the chance to play, when I was in third grade, I loved it. And I kept playing all six years I could, of junior football, and then I went on and played in high school for all four years and I finished the two year varsity captain of our high school team. And so altogether I played 10 years of football and I loved all of it. I’ll remember wins and losses and moments in games but I think the memories that will really stick with me after I’m done with sports will be all like the bonds that I’ve made with teammates, and the friends I’ve made, and all the moments shared.”

“[I grew up] just tossing the ball around with my brother and my father, and I just wanted to play football and be on the team [too.] I started playing [on a team] in seventh grade. I just feel free, and I get to just be myself and not have to worry about anyone else when I’m playing football. My first touchdown this year against Pioneer was memorable — I got really excited. I felt really good.”

“I do equestrian, so horseback riding. I mostly focus on jumping and speed, which is barrel racing and flags and stuff. And I do it for Skyline. I started when I was eight, and then I took a break, and I started up again when I was 12. I’ve been riding like 24/7 for three years. I had really bad anxiety. One time I think my therapist [suggested equestrian]. Why? I don’t even know. So I went to the barn one time and I really loved it and when I was at the barn I never really had anxiety, and it just kind of grew from there and my love of horses.”

“I play field hockey. I like it because I actually really liked to run, but I would never want to run track and so field hockey is a good alternative. And it’s a good way to get your anger out because you’re hitting the ball. I play for Skyline during the high school season [and] I would say [my favorite part is] probably meeting people. I definitely have met some close friends through field hockey.”

“I started tennis when I was around five-ish, and the reason I got into it is honestly the community built around tennis. I’ve just always loved playing tennis and playing with people or interacting with them. I’ve built a community of long lasting friends from my experiences through tennis so that’s why I stuck with it for a while, it’s a really fun, exciting thing to do.”

“I’m a coxswain [on rowing crew]. So I’m basically the person who yells at the rowers turning, it’s a lot of responsibility because I also steer so I have to make sure not to hit any obstacles or logs in the water and I also have to cheer my team on. While I’m in the boat, I say like, “push off on that footplate,” or “drive with those legs.” And I basically encourage the rowers, but it’s a lot of responsibility also, because if something goes wrong, it’s pretty much my fault. I really love the community. I discovered it last year when I went to a regatta. [I remember] a lot of cheering and a lot of my friends were on the team last year and it was just a lot of fun.”

“I play basketball and I tore my ACL last year and I had everything kinda taken away from me. I think everyone talks about the physical side of [sports], [but] having surgery like that mentally kind of [messed] me up a little bit. And all I just want to do is get back to where I was and just be better and not take it for granted anymore, I really like just being on a team with the collective goal of winning and just improving and getting better.”

“I always went to Michigan games as a kid and tailgating and stuff like that. So [there’s] the tradition and the nostalgia of it. I’ve always loved [football], it just kind of comes to me. I’m a quarterback and I love knowing that the play starts with us. So whatever happens next came from what you and your coaches drew up before the play, and [you’re] able to call the shots and then see it all come together.”

“I play for big V AAA out of Lansing. I just like the fast paced play. I like the feeling of the ice and being able to glide just feels really nice and, I don’t know, get some anger out. It’s a time to take your mind off the rest of the things like school. It’s physically helped me so I’m in shape but then also mentally. It’s just a space where I can just be myself and just have fun with friends that also love doing that.”

Focus on Letting it Fly

CHS Junior Ali O’Brien finds her serenity in golf. The sport allows her to let go of all distractions and focus on the task at hand.

The nerves pulsed through her body as she stood at the tee in the state finals match.

Countless pairs of eyes fixed on her, waiting for her stroke. This was the moment Ali O’Brien had prepared for. She glanced out at the pin, adjusted the grip on her club, took a deep breath and swung — she striped her ball down the fairway. This was routine for O’Brien. Her father bought her her first pair of clubs for Christmas when she was a child, and over the years, O’Brien fell in love with the game.

“My whole family could golf,” O’Brien said. “I wanted to be able to go on some of those golf trips with them and I was really excited to learn the sport.”

O’Brien began taking lessons in the summertime at a course near her neighborhood, she quickly became more invested in the sport and began playing competitively in junior tournaments when she was in middle school.

“Golf was really fun right away,” O’Brien said. “I played with my family but then as I got older I started moving into the competitive scene pretty quickly.”

O’Brien joined the Skyline Girls Varsity Golf Team during her first year of high

school. Although the transition to a team was difficult, O’Brien leaned on the support of her teammates to find her place.

“I had friends who I grew up with playing golf there to calm my nerves and teach me what I needed to know,” O’Brien said. “As much as golf is an individual sport, the team aspect really helps to improve everyone’s game. If you’re in a competitive environment that is also supportive, everyone becomes better players.”

O’Brien found the transition to a team game extremely beneficial. Along with forming bonds with teammates, she found playing together with other players helped her to improve her game.

“It’s fun playing with others, because you build good friendships during that time,” O’Brien said. “But it’s important to realize that you’re also being competitive, so you can learn from the people you play with. It’s a fun sport, but you’re also learning from each other as well.”

During her most recent season, O’Brien shot her personal best at the regional match, helping to lead the Skyline Girls Team to the state finals — a first in the program’s history.

“It wasn’t really expected,” O’Brien said. “It was a little stressful first getting there. But, an advantage is that we played on the state course before and no one else had.”

Throughout her time playing golf, O’Brien has developed a sense of composure that she carries with her through every aspect of her life.

“When playing golf, you play with an audience,” O’Brien said. “It’s quiet, and that gets stressful. I was taught to just breathe. That’s also helped with school because I get nervous when testing or having to stand up in front of an audience. Learning how to breathe and be confident in what I know has become an ability of mine.”

O’Brien aims to lead Skyline to another state appearance next year in her senior season and has hopes to continue playing golf competitively in college; but no matter what her future has in store, she vows to continue to keep golf a part of her life.

“I’m hoping to at least keep [golf] as a recreational thing,” O’Brien said. “Even if I don’t play in college, I want to continue to keep playing for fun. It’s a special memory to have and I want to keep that going.”

Finally a Sense of Relief

After a tedious recruitment process, Bella Stevens is finally able to take a break and enjoy her sport again.

It was just over an hour before her zoom call with Vassar College’s soccer recruitment team, when Bella Stevens, a CHS senior, started to panic. Stevens scrolled through the list of interview questions she had seen so many times over the past two years.

Stevens and her mother were expecting a standard interview, however, to their surprise, Stevens was offered a spot on her dream soccer team during the call.

“I muted my mic,” Stevens said. “I was

really excited; I couldn’t catch my breath and [my mom] was jumping with joy.”

Once she had collected herself, Stevens immediately accepted the spot. The recruiters even expressed their relief to hear her enthusiasm — as verbal commitments are technically not binding; the player can still choose to commit elsewhere.

Stevens had spent most of her life preparing for college recruitment, so this verbal commitment allowed her to take a much needed break.

Vassar’s academic advisors had prescreened Steven’s transcript and explained that she had fulfilled all requirements for acceptance. Despite this, Stevens began to stress over her application. She had experienced multiple sports-related concussions throughout her junior year, causing her to fall behind in school. She worked hard to catch up and stay on top of her work leading up to senior year.

“Everybody had to apply to so many schools,” Stevens said. “And I only had to apply to one, but it was killing me. It was

think I actually had good enough grades to get into [Vassar].”

Stevens clung to this mindset until two days before the application deadline. After a reassuring conversation with her mom, Stevens decided to press the submit button. It was at this point that Stevens was able to rediscover a passion for soccer that she hadn’t felt in a while — a passion that had been masked by the pressure of committing to college.

During the recruitment process however, Stevens would often stress the night before games — unable to sleep. Particularly during showcases where over one hundred coaches may be observing.

“It’s a lot of people when you look around and you [think], there’s all these eyes on me,” Stevens said. So I would always stress, but after I was committed and submitted my application I could actually enjoy the camaraderie within the team before games. I could enjoy just playing soccer [in a way] I hadn’t been able to since before I was [on] a travel [team].”

A Glimpse into the Future

The goalie rolled the ball out to her deep in their own territory. After a shaky first touch, she lifted her head and saw three attackers charging towards her.

Recruiters scouted on the sideline, holding their clipboards and pens. She allowed her instincts to take over and performed a miracle; with one swift cut move, she weaved between all three players before making a through ball to her sprinting midfielder.

Ellie Fife, a CHS junior, has been playing soccer since she was five years old. On Sept. 13, 2022, she made an official commitment to continue her soccer career at Vanderbilt University. Fife is a defender for the Michigan Hawks Soccer Club and is thrilled to play at the Division I level.

“[Committing to a school] is such a weight taken off my shoulders,’’ Fife said. “Especially because I’ve known I wanted to play in college since I was so little.”

Even though Fife’s vision of playing Division I soccer was set in stone since childhood, the recruiting process was far from easy. When Fife wasn’t at her daily practice with the Hawks, she had to find time to make a name for herself off the field.

“I reached out [by email] to a lot of recruiters and coaches my sophomore year,” Fife said. “That definitely helped me get recognition and opportunities.”

In the summer, Fife traveled to several showcases across the country along with her team to demonstrate her talents for recruiters. The showcases were filled with elite prospects and determined athletes looking to play at the next level. The games were of high intensity as everyone was playing to impress.

“I enjoy [the pressure],” Fife said. “I don’t know why, but I like being watched and I think it drives me to be a better player.”

After multiple college visits, Fife faced a tough decision: which university to choose. As she navigated a pool of offers, she realized she had to consider what made her fall in love with the sport in the first

place — being part of a team.

“When I have a problem, I play soccer and it helps me forget about it,” Fife said. “The bond I have with my team is something I don’t have with anyone else.”

During the recruiting visits that Fife attended, she only had a day to see the school and facilities, which blurred each visit together. However, the Vanderbilt visit stuck out. As she spent time with the players, she saw how connected the team was.

She knew it was the place for her.

“There was a whole different vibe in Nashville,” Fife said. “I liked the smaller school vibe and I love country music.”

Fife’s family has a long legacy of athletics at the University of Michigan. Still, despite her legacy, she decided to commit to Vanderbilt. She is looking forward to carving her own path.

“It was a big shift,” Fife said, “Everyone [in my extended family] got Vanderbilt merch and showed their support for me.”

As Fife charts her own course, it’s “all gas no brakes” while she continues to play soccer and spend time with her team.

“I am looking forward to my future and know soccer will be a huge part of it,” Fife said. “I just love the feeling of being a part of something bigger than me.”

Feature THE DIGITAL AGE

The Z3 machine was built in 1941 and is the world’s earliest digital computer. Since then, computers have continued to get more powerful and much smaller. As you go through this edition and view the section dividers, the computers evolve and get smaller and smaller. Walking through life with computers in backpacks, we can forget that computers used to be the size of rooms, and access to computers was limited. Now, computers surround us and they impact our lives in ways that we are not always consciously aware of — for better or worse. Technology impacts our lives in so many ways: what we know, what we think and even how we feel.

A Music Made Match

Two years ago when BigPlanet (Elias Kirsh) was entering CHS as a freshman and Gummy (Evan Ochoa) was going into his sophomore year, the stars aligned for the two ambitious artists to collaborate as writers, producers and performers.

The artists knew of each other’s music before they met at CHS and had been told by mutual friends they had to meet. In their first interaction, they instantly bonded; Gummy sent BigPlanet a beat that same day, and they then both recorded verses and discussed collaboration. Soon, they started recording together — Gummy released the single “acidSpit” to Spotify and Soundcloud featuring BigPlanet on July 3, 2022.

Gummy and BigPlanet are both in the Landrum Forum and spend a lot of time with each other inside and outside the classroom: making music, planning the next concert, working as classmates and hanging out as friends.

The artists first performed together on April 28, 2021 at the CHS Comstock Open House. They performed again during the annual Ann Arbor Summer Festival: Top of the Park. Their most recent performance on Oct. 28, 2022 at the Neutral Zone was their first performance as the only artists in the venue.

At the Neutral Zone, Gummy performed first.

“[My performance] went really well,” Gummy said. “I did all the songs I wanted to do and the energy from the crowd was crazy.”

Then, they performed together, featuring the single “acidSpit,” as a mob of students jumped and sang along while the blaring speakers shook the dancefloor.

“Everyone got hype for our song together,” Gummy said. “It was probably the best part of the concert.”

After acidSpit, BigPlanet performed for the rest of the concert. He enjoyed rapping his unreleased music and was taken aback by the crowd energy reciprocated.

When the concert was over, both artists were met with an excited crowd ready for autographs.

As the two artists think about their future making music, they have different goals.

“My end goal is to find my crowd and lift those people up,” Gummy said. “[In] a lot of my music I talk about either internal problems or social problems that I grew up with, and I know there’s an audience that might relate to that. I want those people to feel heard and feel like ‘Oh, yeah, I mess with that.’”

BigPlanet hopes to develop his home studio by investing in more equipment and building a setup that allows him to record and produce music more efficiently.

Gummy and BigPlanet plan to perform again at the 2023 Comstock Open House and have booked the Neutral Zone for future concerts. They look forward to their future projects together and can’t wait for their next performance.

Photography by Ella Rosewarne Gummy (left) and Big Planet (right) join on stage after their performance at the Neutral Zone. Both artists left the concert proud of their performance and thankful for their audience.

Photography by Ella Rosewarne Big Planet finished the concert with a solo performance that included moshing, selfies with the fans and crowd surfing. One of Big Planet’s favorite parts of the concert was the audience knowing the words to his songs.

Artists Gummy and Big Planet met through school and bonded by creating music and performing together.

Photography by Ella Rosewarne

As Big Planet wrapped up his solo, he separated the crowd to create an alley in the middle. The audience, along with Big Planet, jumped into the middle and exploded with energy.

What The Wifi Knows

Annie Smith* knows she’s the reason Discord is banned on school computers.

During the pandemic, falling into depression and spending all day online in her room, she met a boy in a group on the messaging app, who she talked to more and more as the months went on. She was isolated and lonely, but he paid attention. He made her feel special.

He told her that she was more mature and intelligent than other girls

her age. He asked her to turn her location on so he could come to visit. He tried to convince her to participate in erotic roleplays over text. By the time he started pressuring her to send naked pictures of herself, she was already in too deep.

“My parents had taught me about the Internet, but I was always like ‘they’re just joking,’” Smith said. “I thought, ‘that’s never going to happen to me.’ And then it did.”

And then Ann Arbor Public

Schools (AAPS) got involved.

The Ann Arbor Public Schools Wifi website blocker, “Securly,” is a straightforward system with a straightforward goal. When you connect to the public network AAPS-WiFi to visit a webpage or open an app, your request goes through something called a domain name server — DNS for short — that matches the name of the site you’re requesting with its IP address. “Securly,” a DNS blocker, filters those

Students use district WiFi networks on their phones every day. Nothing they view is private — and the consequences are dire.

requests, acting like a ‘blacklist’ for websites that the school prohibits.

That’s not all it does. While you’re retrieving something from the website, the website is retrieving something back.

Let’s revise the above story. On that webpage visit or quick check of an app, your phone is constantly pinging the server with requests for content. The server complies — or doesn’t, if you’re asking for something on the banned list — but in checking your site against its list of addresses, it quietly collects data about you and what you’re doing. The type of device you’re using; your IP address; the webpage you’re asking for and exactly what you click on while you’re there: all the essentials of your web visit are captured and filed away into a megalith of logs from every connected device in the district. Whether you know it or not, whatever was on your phone is now out of your hands. Once it’s logged, it’s the property of the school district, and there’s no taking it back.

That’s not to say that your phone is being constantly watched. Dr. Heather Kellstrom, the Executive Director of AAPS Instructional Technology & Information Services, assures that the AAPS IT department is hardly scrutinizing each visit to Schoology or your student email. The majority of logs, according to Dr. Kellstrom, are unremarkable and unreviewed, disappearing into the vast sea of data that the WiFi collects each day.

“The only time that logs are consulted is if the network is experiencing an issue, i.e., slow internet connection throughout the district or if there is a request by an Administrator to solve a student or staff issue,” she wrote in an email addressing the topic. But though those “student or

staff issues” are an exception, they are hardly infeasible. All the data is available for review, and the reviews have consequences.

Smith, whose correspondence with the boy was now coming up in meetings between her and the school, had used her school computer to contact him. The filtering and logging measures in place on the laptop had picked up every word she’d sent him and every word he’d sent her back. This was exactly what they had been designed to do. Her messages were recorded by software on a school-provided computer, as opposed to on the school WiFi, but both kinds of logging are a result of the same policy — one that the district is legally mandated to uphold.

All public schools and libraries must follow the guidelines of the 2000 Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), blocking “obscene or harmful” content and protecting student information from unauthorized disclosure. Notably, CIPA “does not require the tracking of Internet use by minors or adults.” Although tracking is not required, it’s unavoidable that logging content is the path of least resistance to tracking it. This is why web filtering services like “Securly” exist in the first place; it’s why schools use those services so extensively. This, in the end, is why the WiFi knows so much.

For Smith, the logs were a good thing. They showed the slow process of grooming over months, how she’d never fully given in to the boy’s demands. The district’s intervention was much-needed and the records in the messages showed that she had never done something explicitly il-

legal. In the end, Smith had never sent those pictures, so legal action didn’t need to be put in motion. Police intervention, which was initially threatened, didn’t happen. Annie, the school administrators said, was a good student who had made a terrible mistake: she would be able to move on. All would be well.

But though she was grateful for the intervention, the way it happened made Smith uneasy. She hadn’t even known this information could be accessed before the unthinkable had happened. Now, she’s warier around not only school computers, but around what she watches and reads while connected to school WiFi as well. She feels uncomfortable using her phone in school; she watches her friends browse through websites and wonders who’s seeing what they click.

“I think everybody takes for granted that what they do isn’t necessarily trackable,” Smith said. “Maybe they vaguely think ‘Oh, the teachers are saying this, it’s probably true’— but they don’t really believe it.”

Maybe logging on computers and WiFi wasn’t unnecessary — but to her, it was blindsiding. If only she had known beforehand what could be tracked, she thinks, things might have been different. Maybe the paranoia of turning on her phone at school would have had time to settle in in a healthy way instead of all at once.

Maybe she never would have sent those messages at all.

changed to protect anonymity.

*Names

“I think everybody takes for granted that whatever they do isn’t necessarily trackable.”

Digital Delays

How technology has negatively affected procrastination habits in the digital age.

Since the dawn of the digital age, technology and procrastination have gone hand-inhand. From smartphones to computers to everything in between, there always seems to be electronics nearby. As humans encounter their daily tasks, some sort of delay in their completion feels inevitable. These delays, typically spent indulging another— often less important—activity, are referred to as procrastination.

According to an online study written by Tech.co, one of the main reasons technology contributes to procrastination is because it allows for activities to require less effort. At first, this may seem like a boost to productivity, but that is anything but the case. Since many tasks are now automated, humans tend to set them aside because of how little time they take. The constant dismissal of tasks to be finished at a later time is one example of how technology can exacerbate procrastination.

Processing softwares employ a vast number of tactics to capture the attention of mobile device users. These can include push notifications, vibrations, app suggestions, etc. Pausing an activity to check a device or disengaging from conversations in order to check a screen are only some of the consequences these tactics have on humans. The overarching outcome is how these strategies remove the user’s focus from the present. In doing so, their attention is drawn away from the task at hand—stalling progression.

“It’s a mixture of not wanting to do [home]work and wanting to feel comfortable,” said Joey Lopez, CHS senior, when asked what contributes to his procrastination.

Scott Campbell, a Media and Communications professor at the University of Michigan has studied technology’s effect on procrastination levels. Further, Campbell has witnessed a full-scale technological revolution as the world moved into the digital age during his lifetime.

Regarding the negative perception of how prevalent technology has become in human life, Campbell takes a more circumstantial yet optimistic approach. According to Campbell, technology’s implementation within human life has evolved quicker than human psychology has throughout the timespan of the digital age.

“I think that there’s a gap between our consciousness and the way that the social fabric is now mediated,” Campbell said. “I don’t think we’re reminded about all of the implications in the layers of the digital flows and configurations that shaped what life is like today.”

When looking at this issue through a wider lens, it can begin to feel concerning how much technology is involved in our world.

Whether it be small tasks on a phone or constantly checking emails, technology seems like a vital component of day-to-day life. In addition to this, the degree to which technology grasps human attention has only worsened procrastination levels in recent years. Through his research, Campbell has hypothesized a progressive approach to solutions regarding this issue.

“I think [the term] habit is a more useful way of thinking about how to address issues of procrastination,” Campbell said. “Recognize our habits, and work on curbing them.”

Clearly, humans can’t fully eliminate technology from their daily lives to reduce procrastination due to how many tasks now require the use of technology. But working on how to adapt within the digital age and overcome this issue could be a highly beneficial solution.

“How do we suggest that we have an entire generation addicted to something that has become fundamental in how people live?” Campbell said. To take action, Campbell, along with others, have worked to find solutions to reduce procrastination caused by technology. One of the most promising options is to set up a daily agenda. Countless studies have shown that when people plan out their day and take it step-by-step, they stay much more organized and productive. In doing so, they grade themselves more heavily on task completion which reduces procrastination throughout the day because of the need to complete their agenda. Other examples of solutions could include locking up the device when work needs to be done or even something as simple as setting time limits on how long to use certain apps.

“[One way] I’ve reduced how long I use my phone is to put it downstairs, that way I don’t have access to it, and that has helped,” Lopez said.

As the prevalence of technology continues to grow, it is important to fabricate controlled plans to limit its negative effects. Human minds need breaks, but the creation of a habit due to constant procrastination can be extremely harmful. Forming healthy study habits and planning out days not only eases the mental torture of high amounts of work, but also speeds up completion in the process.

“We have to try to recognize [habits] on both sides and roll with it. Try to mitigate the bad habits and foster the good habits,” Campbell said. “We’re not just using [technology] as a tool, we’re actually creating the world with it.”

Staring at the computer screen, they couldn’t focus. Searching their brain for an answer, they came up empty-handed. Following the COVID-19 lock-downs, Amy Boeving, CHS junior, noticed a change in their attention span.

“I’ve been struggling to stay focused [for] longer [pe riods of time],” Boeving said. “It’s hard to even stay en gaged with classes or calls for long [periods of time].”

During the pandemic, Boeving noticed apps like Ins tagram and YouTube were pushing shorter and shorter videos to their feed, slowly sucking them into consum ing more media. Beginning to move away from watching longer videos to shorter, more intense videos, they felt as if their brain was being altered to expect higher levels of engagement. If a video didn’t catch their attention quickly, they found it hard to stay focused. This habit quickly seeped into virtual school. Boeving often found themselves switching their attention from long virtual classes to shorter forms of enjoyment—a switch they’ve come to regret. Now in their second year of in-person learning, Boeving is still struggling to pay attention in class.

“I’ll find myself struggling to keep my eyes open or really listen to what the teacher is saying,” Boeving said. “I think what helps me is when the teacher engages with the class and have group discussions or [are] thinking about something in a way that’s not just throwing infor mation at us. I just wish my attention span was longer.”

Over the past few months, Boeving has been work ing on extending their attention span. By being mindful of their phone use and creating a daily routine, they’ve been able to minimize distractions around them. However, it’s been a struggle.

“I feel as if my attention span is gonna stay pretty permanent, which frustrates me,” Boeving said. “I used to read all the time when I was little, and now I have to get myself into [a book] quickly, otherwise I will [just] be staring at the page. It makes me really sad. I want to work on getting back my prior attention span, but I don’t know if I can.”

SEAN & CHLOE

Returning back to an in-person classroom was an adjustment for Chloe Root, a social studies teacher. Root was super excited to be back, however, she had noted a dramatic change in the student body. Following COVID-19 and the return to “regular” school work, Root noticed that the number of students who were unable to keep

up with the class reading and who were simply overwhelmed had ‘skyrocketed.’ Furthermore, Root noticed a lower tolerance for discomfort and stamina when it came to doing challenging work that required sustained attention, something noticed by fellow teacher Sean Eldon as well.

Digging deeper, Root and Eldon independently identified virtual learning as the catalyst that accelerated the deterioration of students’ attention spans. During virtual learning, Eldon noticed that home environments created an alternative space in which it was difficult for students to create a classroom environment. This alternative space led many students to play video games, watch movies and otherwise not pay attention during class, creating the opportunity for students to choose what to pay attention to. And as Eldon puts it, it’s not so much that school has lost their attention — something else grabbed a lot more of it. And there’s only so much real estate in a person’s mind.

ANYA & LILA

Coming back for their second year of in-person learning, Anya Knoepp & Lila Fetter, both juniors at CHS, are struggling to keep up with the classroom. Since returning from virtual learning, Knoepp and Fetter have noticed the difficulty they’ve had focusing during class. Having always been on top of their work, this new norm has taken them aback.

“I’ve noticed I can’t focus like I used to, especially when it’s a really important [lesson],” Knoepp said. “When we’re doing something hard, say in math class, I’ll just tap out and miss the whole thing and have to ask someone around me what we are doing.”

Tracing the cause back to the pandemic, both indicated that virtual school allowed them to focus on whatever they wanted without any consequences. This newfound freedom resulted in an increase in social media consumption because, as Knoepp put it, “there was

CHS students and staff saw their attention spans change post-COVID-19. How they’re now grappling with the consequences.

of Focus

really just nothing else to do,” Fetter also attributed their increased use of social media to getting older.

“Since the start of the pandemic, I’ve gone from watching full-length movies, YouTube videos and 60-minute ted talks to watching Tik-Toks, Instagram reels and YouTube shorts,” Fetter said. “I think a lot of that has come from getting older; I’ve gotten a lot busier so I don’t have time to commit to longer pieces of media.”

Turning to shorter forms of social media, Fetter and Knoepp could enjoy media with their limited time. And with the discovery of Tik-Tok, they quickly got pulled into the world of fast media. Finding so much to do, they quickly became fond of the platform.

“There’s so much there, like, so much. Tik-Tok quickly became how I got my news and where I learned about the world, my interests and so much more.” Knoepp said. “Seeing so many people doing so many different things is like a distraction from schoolwork and things that are going on in my life.”

However, as they continued to use social media, they began to feel as if they couldn’t stop scrolling. One TikTok turned into two; two turned to four; four turned into 16 and so on. With each video lasting around one minute, Knoepp and Fetter often lost track of the time they spent scrolling — something that frightened Fetter.

“I think it’s scary how readily available and stimulating it is for our brains,” Fetter said. “Having the ability to keep scrolling and still having an endless amount of content for us to consume is frightening.”

Losing track of time quickly became a problem for Knoepp. Unable to tell how much time had passed, they started to lose sleep; five minutes on Tik-Tok turned into 20 minutes; 20 minutes turned into an hour and slowly they found it hard to get a full eight hours of sleep.

their previously lost attention span by taking intentional breaks, not on social media, when doing school work to not overwhelm themselves. They also try to limit their social media use, get more sleep and read more, in an attempt to lengthen their attention spans. And from the progress they’ve made over the past month, their attempt might be working.

PAMELA & MARITA

The negatives outweigh the positives. Pamela Harnick, a University of Michigan psychologist, has been encountering the effects of social media and a lack of sleep on students for years now. Harnick explains that social media platforms are designed like video games, instant gratification and a lot of action. Stimulating dopamine, users are constantly having their reward center activated much like with drugs.

“We have less tolerance to engage in tasks where we’re not being rewarded,” Harnick said. “We get used to this constant stimulation and it makes it harder for us to sustain attention.”

Harnick also attributed social media use to the increase of multitasking and anxiety. With multiple things happening at once, our brains are unable to focus on all of it, leading to a decrease in attention span. Furthermore, Harnick has observed an increase in anxiety with the use of social media.

“There’s an artificial world that people tend to feel very anxious about missing or very depressed about not measuring up to, but it’s not real,” Harnick said. “So I think it contributes to [people’s] anxiety and depression. There are positives [to social media], but I think the negatives outweigh them.”

Other than social media, Harnick identified sleep as crucial to good mental health and prolonged attention span, as well as all sorts of bodily functions that are impacted by a lack of sleep. “We really do see increases in depression,” Harnick said. “In any event, if someone isn’t depressed to begin with, if sleep deprived, they have a higher chance of becoming depressed.”

Marita Rohr Inglehart, a professor of Dentistry and Psychology at the University of Michigan, wrote a book about stress and coping and found a clear correlation between getting enough sleep and successfully coping with stress. Inglehart explains that sleep plays a key role in reducing stress and facilitating mental faculties. As stress levels go up, people have a harder time concentrating. Furthermore, Inglehart explained the effects of stress on memory.

“Have you ever [slept] less than four hours?” Inglehart asked. “There is one very common outcome, and that is short term memory loss. It is typical [symptom] if you get less than four hours of sleep. You can imagine that your memory and your attention go hand in hand.”

There’s no doubt in our minds that social media plays an important role in how we interact and communicate in the modern world; however, we must be mindful and use it in moderation.

Knoepp began to feel tired and couldn’t remember or pay attention to what was said in class — a trend that carried over to in-person learning.

Fetter and Knoepp are trying to find ways to regain

“All of us had an erosion of our norms, but now it’s time for us to get back on track and rise to the occasion,” Root said.

From Bedrooms To Classrooms

The online classroom has transformed traditional education in measures that have drastically impacted the learning environment at CHS.

Turning in a paper at 11:59 p.m. is something that would have never occurred before online learning platforms. Adorned with deadlines and a bird eye’s view of the coming week’s assignments, Schoology is the program that Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) adopted during the pandemic.

Schoology is an online learning platform that the district implemented for the 2020-2021 school year. Each individual course has a section with all of the materials that students need for daily instruction. Slide shows, homework and lectures can all be found on the pages.

CHS FOS teacher Courtney Kiley doesn’t agree with the district’s decision to continue to use Schoology when students are in the building. She believes that students fall into two different categories: they don’t understand how to use the platform and it is not intuitive to them or they are continuously checking it.

“I think that it makes kids obsessed with tracking their grades and every single assignment that they miss,” Kiley said.

Although Kiley believes in the benefits of an organized way of learning, she doesn’t think that Schoology is the answer to disorganization. There is something about completing assignments on paper and having to write things down that she feels can never be replicated on Schoology. Typing things out doesn’t help kids remember the material that they are learning as much as it would if they were writing, according to Kiley.

Kiley believes students that didn’t come from AAPS’s middle schools are at a disadvantage.

“We just expect them to come into

ninth grade knowing how to use this platform,” Kiley said. “And every teacher kind of organizes it differently or some teachers not at all and I think it’s just too confusing.”

In contrast, CHS sophomore, Elle McCreadie believes Schoology works well once you overcome the learning curve. Considering that she was facing Schoology for the first time with all of her peers, the learning curve wasn’t as steep. After months on end of using the platform, she has started to develop an understanding of how it works. With the countless hours spent on computers, the freedom to open new tabs on their laptops has had a clear impact on McCreadie’s classmates. She has noticed that the level of distraction among her peers has skyrocketed since the introduction of an online curriculum.

“Because you have your computer out [all the time], it’s really easy to play online games or do work from other classes, or whatever else I need to do,” McCreadie said According to CHS Dean Marci Tuzinsky the decision to use Schoology was made before the virtual school year began. The district had been planning on implementing the platform pre-Covid, but the plan was accelerated after the pandemic brought the district online. The district plans to continue to use Schoology for years to come as they have signed a contract with the company.

According to Dean Tuzinsky, the AAPS administration hoped that Schoology would be an easy way for students and parents to be able to access work easily, especially when kids were sick and missing school. The ‘colored folder system’ was im-

plemented for each teacher to utilize in their online classroom to help students stay on pace and follow along.

When the platform was first implemented it became clear that the district ITD department needed someone who understood both the technology and what it was like as a teacher using the technology. Thus, a “high school huddle” group was formed during the beginning of the pandemic consisting of some teachers in the teacher’s union, some principals from the district including Dean Tuzinsky, and some people at the district level.

“We would meet every week to see what problems were bubbling up,” Dean Tuzinsky said. “It was like starting a whole new school — we didn’t know what problems to anticipate.”

Tuzinsky’s background as a high school math teacher who had used Powerschool for grading in the past and a computer science major helped her and the group figure out how to make the platform work for everyone in the district.

To this day, one of the biggest issues teachers are continuing to have is the syncing of grades between Schoology and Powerschool. Dean Tuzinsky is continuing to advocate for a solution to this problem and just recently met with an administrator — whose job is solely to be in charge of Schoology — to discuss the frustrations teachers are still having.

“We have this contract with Schoology and we have a contract with PowerSchool,” Tuzinsky said. “We need to use our leverage as a big school district to ask those systems to write some programs that will make this easier for teachers.”

Are Our Eyes Safe?

How increased screen time affects our eye health daily.

Technology has become an integral part of learning in classrooms. After the pandemic, our dependence on technology increased as schools shifted to online platforms. Old ways of learning morphed into an online format, utilizing web-based resources such as Zoom, Google extensions, Canvas and Schoology. Now that we are back to in-person learning, some of these platforms are staying and students continue to use screens on a daily basis.

According to a study that American Journal of Diseases of Children (JAMA Pediatric) released in 2021, personal screen time use for teens in the U.S. nearly doubled in May of 2020, increasing from four hours per day to nearly eight. This study includes screen time spent recreationally, playing video games, scrolling through social media and watching TV; it does not account for time spent online for virtual school.

It seems that we can’t escape screens along with the high-energy blue light they emit. Many people have found blue light glasses to help with the eyestrain that comes with staring at a screen for prolonged periods. In fact, the global market for blue light eyewear is predicted to increase to $28 million by 2024, up from $19 million in 2020, according to 360ResearchReports, a market research company.

Dr. Stephanie Krieg, an Associate Doctor at Dr. Steven Lutz & Associates in Ann Arbor, explains that regular reading glasses instead of blue light glasses may be a solution to eyestrain. Some patients don’t realize that they need a prescription to focus on screens. Blue light isn’t harder to focus than other types of light, one reason that screens are harmful is because they are held so close to our eyes, and it’s naturally harder for the eye to focus on a close object rather than one further away.

Dr. Krieg emphasized that the effects of blue light may not be as harmful as we think. She explained that there are currently no studies that show there is any permanent vision or eye tissue damage from staring at de-

vices too much. The eye also doesn’t react differently to blue light compared to other types of light: it isn’t any harder for our eyes to process.

“Time will tell if there is true long term damage.” Dr Krieg said. “Most of the problems with devices is the effect of blue light with circadian cycles and irritation and dryness of the eyes due to decreased blinking when looking at devices.”

Dr. Kreig encourages talking to an eye doctor and making sure you’re aware of any visual issues you have. She also recommends the 20/20/20 rule: every 20 minutes look at something 20ft away for 20 seconds.

Similarly, according to Dr. Meagan Tucker, Optometrist at Kellogg Eye Center, the light from our devices isn’t strong enough to cause damage, even though blue light is high-energy and has shorter wavelengths. However, extremely high intensities of blue light, like nail lamps or teeth bleaching, can damage eye tissue. The only threat that blue light from our screens poses is to our sleep, as blue light helps regulate circadian rhythms. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) circadian rhythms are internally driven cycles that rise and fall during the 24-hour day. They help you fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning.

“The best practices for preventing eye strain are using artificial tears throughout the day, anti-reflective coating on your glasses and the 20-20-20 rule,” Dr. Tucker said.

There isn’t enough research to suggest that devices are emitting light that is harmful to the ocular (eye) tissues or impacting our ocular (eye) health, so it may not be a huge area of concern. Digital eye strain is common and it’s normal to experience various side effects because our eyes are being kept open for increased amounts of time. The best solutions are taking short breaks during extended periods of use and limiting screens to several hours before bedtime to prevent harm to your circadian rhythm.

Expanding the Once Limited Realm of Coding

At a party years ago, George Lancaster, current engineering and computer science teacher, the previous assistant dean of CHS came up to Lancaster, suggesting he apply for the position. Given the size of CHS, the curriculum lacked diversity; only consisting of Computer Science A, a more challenging course for those who are brand new to coding. But with a background in Mechanical Engineering and 13 years of teaching under his belt, Lancaster applied and shortly after, got the job.

It is now Lancaster’s seventh year of teaching at CHS and the curriculum has changed from its small, more restricted predecessor to a rich set of courses: Computer Science Principles; Computer Science A; Cybersecurity;

Advanced Topics in Programming; Engineering Design; and Principles of Engineering, all of which vary in level and interest. Lancaster teaches the same classes all year long, but students can take either the first half or second half of the computer science courses either semester, making it feasible for new students to join second semester.

“People can find out if it’s something they like and then, [there are] more and more involved classes if that’s something they really are interested [in] and enjoy,” Lancaster said.

The first significant change that has been made is that Lancaster initially had to check everybody’s code

How coding and PLTW programs have evolved at CHS while incorporating freedom and CHS’s uniqueness.

himself, verifying that there were no mistakes and that the code would run smoothly. Today, when Lancaster assigns problems, there are auto graders like Visual Studio Code and CodeHS built into the object-oriented programs. Students know what they got right and wrong immediately and if needed, they can ask for help with the problem if they don’t understand where they’ve made a mistake. This leads to the second change: there are video lessons for everything. Instead of Lancaster using class-time to lecture, he assigns videos to

the time for students to find out their preferences before figuring out what they want to do after high school. Lancaster thinks that teachers can be more approachable in high school compared to college. Another special aspect of the curriculum is that there are video lessons. This has shifted the classes to be more asynchronous compared to other high schools. And since the class is heavily technology based, this makes it easier for students whether they get sick or miss school.

“Because of the way I’ve structured the class, I think that some of the other schools might be a little more traditional in the way they do things,” Lancaster said.

With the creative freedom and small-classroom setting, Lancaster strongly recommends that students venture outside of their comfort zone and into the realm of computer science and engineering. His beginner class, Introduction to Engineering and Design, is the perfect opportunity.

“If you take one semester and you don’t like it, I think you’ll still enjoy [it] a little bit,” Lancaster said. “And same thing with the [coding, just] give it a try.”

For CHS senior Oliver Hiltz-Perron, engineering has been one of his favorite subjects in high school. Along

watch so he can assist people that don’t understand the video. But perhaps the biggest change since Lancaster revamped the computer science and engineering program is more freedom. As students reach the level of Advanced Topics, students may study whatever sparks their interest. Doing game design in Unity, a cross-platform game engine used by name brand businesses like PlayStation and Xbox, is a popular option in the class. Lancaster is a firm believer that computer science can cater to anyone’s wants and needs. Some students will go off to pursue computer science as multiple companies require computer science engineers to create apps and run their programs. On the other side of the spectrum, students may want to take measures to protect their computer by taking a cybersecurity course. The possibilities are endless.

“[Computer science allows us] to develop better systems for how to do things in such a digital age,” Lancaster said. “And computers don’t program themselves. And computers aren’t smart, they just think fast, so people have to tell them what to do.”

In addition to the computer science program, the engineering program at CHS offers fun, hands-on projects such as designing creations on a computer and then 3D printing it. The program is supported by Project Lead The Way (PLTW), a non-profit organization that was started to help companies get future employees who are equipped with the skills needed to understand technology as well as problem solve, collaborate and build strong communication skills.

“[PLTW] has engineering, it’s got a biomedical part [and] computer science so it tries to evolve all three of those things,” Lancaster said.

CHS’s program was initiated by a grant from General Motors with the intent of recruiting future engineers, emphasizing the importance of diversity in STEM. They want minorities — women, LGBTQ+ and minorities — to become involved in STEM and Lancaster believes now is

with taking several of Lanacaster’s classes, he is also a team leader on CHS’s robotics team, Zebrotics. As an aspiring engineer, Hiltz-Perron has gone from last year walking into Lancaster’s classroom anxious to, “this year, I walked in with a lot more experience and a lot more motivation to learn.”

“No one’s perfect, no one has the best ideas on their own. If you work with other people, you just get better projects done faster with a lot higher quality,” Hiltz-Perron said. He has found that the key to success in engineering is working with others.

A senior at CHS, Anna Tapley-Coll came into her first engineering class with stress and hesitance as she had never had luck with the STEM subjects at school but she has ended up finding enjoyment and fulfillment in Lancaster’s class. “I wouldn’t say [it’s] easy, because every class is difficult, but it’s not as scary as I thought it was gonna be,” Tapley-Coll said.

She has found elements that she has learned in Lancaster’s class integrating themselves in every part of her day to day life.

“I work at a restaurant but things break a lot. So [being able to] help fix machinery and stuff like that is really, really useful.”

Moving forward, CHS is working towards a more accessible and diverse coding program.

“This year, I walked in with a lot more experience and a lot more motivation to learn,” Oliver Hiltz-Perron said.

“[Computer science allows us] to develop better systems for how to do things in such a digital age,” George Lancaster.

Dancing Through The Damage

In a bath towel, sopping wet, Jamie John would climb into bed with their grandfather to watch an episode of Looney Tunes and devour a family sized bag of Lays potato chips. Their grandfather would eat any concoction young Jamie John would create. Whether it was chips sandwiched between buttered white bread or a fruit snack salad, he always accepted without a word of complaint.

John’s grandfather passed away when they were still a child leading their mother to enroll them in an art therapy class.

“It introduced art as a way of expressing what I don’t necessarily have the words to say or can’t articulate,” John said. “Art can express other intangible concepts like grief and loss and going concern and all of those things that come with Native life.”

Expressing grief through art was John’s first step towards taking up the identity as a Native artist.

John is a working artist, they are a painter and printmaker. They are an enrolled Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa Chippewa Indians member. They continue to work on building their traditional crafts like basket making, beadwork, regalia making and cool works. Another art they have taken a part of for most of their life is being a powwow dancer.

“I come from a culture where art wasn’t necessarily separate from other aspects of our lives,” John said.

John sees art in every aspect of Annishanabe culture.

They have been a hoop and jingle dress dancer for around a decade and started at the age of six. They stopped dancing when attending Interlochen center for the arts boarding school.

But John stopped when they started to socially transition from who they were born as to who they are now.

“While I was socially transitioning within my indigenous community and to the world at large, I had stopped dancing for about four or five years,” John said.

John identifies as a two spirit person as well as transgender person. At 14-years old, they had come out to their mom and family. This came with a new sense of confidence and a greater sense of self.

How Jamie John, a member of the Ottawa tribe, has grown into their identity using dance and art.

“I was able to feel more like myself and really changed how I interacted with the world,” John said.

The decision was made to go to Interlochen Center for the Arts. Interlochen is a boarding school near the Traverse City area.

“Interlochen was a place where I could build something new or search to figure out who I was away from, a community away from who I was from just being Native or just being just being part of a native community,” John said. “It was much easier to go by this new set of pronouns without having to explain why, or justify how I came to it.”

Though John is still unpacking the experiences of being in an environment far from his family and surrounded by little to no Native population, they agree

that transitioning there was easier rather than in a regular school. Their separation from their community, culture and traditions is still something they are unpacking to this day.

Looking back, John realized they stopped dancing when they needed it the most.

“I think of all of the folks, the generations who went to [forced boarding] schools or weren’t allowed to dance or wanted to but would have been and persecuted for it and it makes me all the more proud to be able to dance now.”

Art has been able to speak through John when words couldn’t.

art is a manifestation of a connection I feel with my culture,” John said.

“My

“I think of all of the folks, the generations who went to [forced boarding] schools or weren’t allowed to dance or wanted to but would have been persecuted for it and it makes me all the more proud to be able to dance now.”

Community Votes

According to Ruth Wasserman, turning eighteen is riddled momentous milestones. Among them is the long-awaited opportunity to vote, which many CHS students partook in this past November. Wasserman voted absentee and struggled to decide which candidates best aligned with her beliefs. To finalize her choices, she turned to resources like Vote 411, a bank of electoral in formation compiled by The League of Women Voters that informs citizens through info graphics and articles. Wasserman chose the absentee route to relieve some of the pressure of voting in person — especially for her first time.

“Voting is a really important way to have your voice heard and make sure you have an influence on what’s going to happen with the issues that affect you,” Wasserman said. “I definitely want to go in-person at some point... It’s a monumental experience. Voting shows that you’re a part of the real world.”

Margaret Alpern, another CHS senior, has accompanied her parents on numerous voting occasions but wasn’t eligible to vote in November. However, this

didn’t diminish her passion surrounding Proposal 3, which was ultimately passed and will amend Michigan’s constitution to guarantee the right to contraceptives, abortions and other forms of reproductive healthcare.

“I’ve heard a lot of people’s different opinions about [Proposal 3],” Alpern said. “It makes me angry because many people aren’t thinking about the fact that there are so many women that aren’t able to safely birth a child or financially support it, and taking away abortion would ruin so many women’s lives.”

Alpern wishes people wouldn’t let religion cloud their logical judgment and justify taking away a basic healthcare service. She is anticipatory to make her opinion heard by casting her ballot in November of 2023.

“Voting determines everyone’s future,” Alpern said. “Since we’re young though, it’s the biggest for us because even though election results and politics affect everyone, the younger generations have to live with the outcomes for far longer.”

And young voters did show up to make an impact; the 2022 midterms saw the second-highest turnout of voters

As November polls came around, CHS seniors passed another checkpoint on the path to adulthood.

A Timeless Occasion

CHS staff members speak on their first times hitting the polls

27%

Of young people ages 18 - 29 voted in the past midterm compared to just 20% in 2002.

between the ages 18 and 29 according to The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University. The youngest demographic’s midterm election participation has been steadily increasing for decades now, and CHS science teacher Courtney Kiley has taken note of the shift in political attitude among high school and college students.

“I think kids are way more politically aware than I was in high school. I didn’t read or listen to the news,” Kiley said. “I was more focused on sports and friends and where I was going go to college. Traditional teenage sorts of things.”

Kiley is comforted by young peoples’ passion for change and hopes it translates into lasting progress.

Bush vs. Gore

“When I was 18 I missed the midterm. I had no idea that it was even happening, so my first time voting [was when]

I was a sophomore in college during the Bush and Gore election. Ralph Nader was also running for the Green Party with Winona LaDuke as his VP. I lived in a co-op with all these granola hippie environmentalists, and they all voted for Nader and I voted for Gore, who lost. I was super mad at everyone that I lived with and I was like, “you're the reason Bush is our president” because so many people that were Democrats voted for Nader and the Green Party.”

2000 2012

“The first time I voted, I was studying abroad in Spain, [so] I voted online absentee, which is the system [the U.S.] has [in place] for people living abroad. I had a lot of friends who voted and were politically informed, but not everyone [else who was studying abroad] voted absentee because of the hassle of it.”

2016

Obama vs. Romney

Trump vs. Clinton

“When you’re young you feel like you're kind of an apathetic voter, you don't feel like you can influence change by yourself, and that was a big challenge for me, especially in my first [election]. Now and over the last couple of years we've seen the importance of midterms in deciding policy for a presidency. I’ve voted in every possible election since because it's everyone’s right and responsibility.”

Shining Light on the Dark

As he sat on his bathroom floor, salt pierced his cheeks and drums throbbed in his head. He realized he needed to reach out to someone. Anyone. He was hopeless.

Ben Stevens* went to his phone and dialed his last resort: his cousin.

He never wanted to admit that he was weak and vulnerable, especially not to his cool, older cousin.

“I sat there barely able to catch my breath,” Stevens said. “I couldn’t even get the words out to describe what I was feeling. I was terrified.”

After being diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder [SAD] at a young age, this was all Stevens knew.

As sunlight becomes less prominent as the Gregorian calendar progresses, over two million people prepare to face hopelessness, social isolation, fatigue and other symptoms due to an annual, life-threatening condition: SAD.

SAD is a seasonal-related type of depression. Its symptoms begin and end at around the same time every year — typically beginning in late fall or early winter and lasting until the sunnier days of spring and summer. It is noticeably less common for people to have the opposite pattern, but still possible. In both cases, symptoms may become more severe as the season progresses: feeling sad or down most of the day; losing interest in once enjoyable activities; having low energy; sleeping too much; having difficulty concentrating; feeling hopeless; or having thoughts of not wanting to live.

Kick-started by her passion for helping others, neurotherapist Dr. Gajar has been treating patients in therapy for two years. She believes the link between the time of year and depression is due to the colder weather and darkness of winter, which she finds correlate with the timing of her patients’ more depressive stages. She has found the same pattern with the ending of the depressive period, with more sunlight and warmth reversing the symptoms.

“Helping others come to the realization that there’s an actual reason for their feelings is what got me into wanting to be a therapist,” Dr. Gajar said. “Just validating [my patients’] feelings along with helping people deal with their trauma is why I love what I do — help others and be that solid support for people who are going

at the timing of the feelings,” Dr. Gajar said. “When I have patients log their feelings, things line up and you can see this pattern and make that connection when dealing with Seasonal Affective Disorder.” SAD is not a separate condition, but a type of depression. T he term “seasonal depression” is often thrown around as an adjective versus the true diagnosis it is. Dr. Gajar believes this is not shared often enough and leads to misconceptions about the condition. In more recent years, Dr. Gajar finds her patients often self-diagnosing themselves with SAD. She thinks it is

“I couldn’t even get the words out to describe what I was feeling.”

valid and understandable because of the lack of resources available to all. Although you may need a diagnosis to help get the proper medication, if what you’re doing feels helpful, Dr. Gajar doesn’t see an issue with self-diagnosis. She thinks that without the self-diagnosis, her patients often invalidate their feelings.

The uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic caused more cases of SAD. According to Mental Health America, the number of U.S. adults experiencing depressive symptoms has tripled.

Dr. Gajar’s patients were lacking the assurance of contentment from the spring. Not knowing whether they would still be locked at home in quarantine increased the severity of some SAD cases. The cold, lonely feeling from winter, playing an important role in SAD, didn’t end when people continued to be quarantined.

“I could see my patients finding themselves in what seemed like a never ending tunnel,” Dr. Gajar said.

“They weren’t sure if they were going to be able to even leave their houses as the warmer days approached, which made it harder for them to get out of their more depressive stages. They lacked normality and mental security.”

The most common coping mechanism in Dr. Gajar’s office is light therapy. A light therapy box mimics sunlight, causing a chemical change in the brain to ease symptoms of SAD; it can lift your mood, and even help with poor sleeping patterns.

Dr. Gajar also suggests going to therapy to help with coping.

“I may be a little biased, but I think therapy is so important for everyone,” Dr. Gajar said. “Opening up and talking to people has proven to help with SAD, and mental health in general.”

*name has been changed to protect anonymity.

“I could see my patients finding themselves in what seemed like a never ending tunnel.”

A New Generation of Learners

Online college applications that can be submitted with a click of a button. Computer programs that facilitate learning fractions and decimals. Writing and editing in Google Docs. From kindergarten to senior year, students use technology in the classroom every single day. How is this different from past generations of learners?

According to Gallup Inc. on behalf of New Schools, 57% of students reported that they used digital tools in class everyday in 2020. Furthermore, 65% of teachers use digital learning tools to teach everyday. The lives of teachers and students are per-

meated by technology, both in their private lives and in their working and learning environments.

The use of technology in classrooms has changed drastically over the years. According to Rebecca Lee, a sixth grade English Language Arts teacher at Tappan Middle School, the technology has evolved drastically since she began teaching 19 years ago. It started with the overhead projector.

“If we had our own [projector], it was just amazing,” Lee said. “My first classroom had a chalkboard and I remember getting chalk everywhere.”

The next big deal was a projector on a cart, which allowed teachers to connect their computers and use Microsoft PowerPoint to present information. This evolved into document cameras, known as Ladybugs in Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS), which revolutionized the way that teachers gave examples. However, they were few and far between.

“We only had one per floor so we would all fight for it, and who was going to win that battle?” Lee said. “Sometimes you just kind of give up and go back to your overhead projector.”

After the Covid-19 pandemic, learning has been turned on its head. Technology usage has increased exponentially in classroooms — how is this affecting children’s education?

Students work on computers in Engineering, a technology-centric class at CHS. The use of technology has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic and the year of online learning. “The pandemic just made [school] internet factorial,” Kreger said.

In the present day, teachers have access to WiFi, Smartboards and online learning platforms like Schoology. According to Lee, this has created both positive and negative outcomes. Having access to technology, both at home and in the classroom, allows students to communicate with their teachers and their peers, as well as view their assignments and autogrades almost immediately.

“Nineteen years ago, we were lucky if a student had a computer at home to email us,” Lee said. “Today, kids can email us in the middle of class. They can email from their phone, they can have their parents email and so it becomes this instant connection if they need it.”

However, the absence of physical assignments has decreased the engagement of students, in Lee’s opinion.

“[Technology] takes away some of the magic that comes with getting the pen marks on your hand and that proud ache in your wrist of writing for 30 minutes and having a complete story in front of you,” Lee said. “It has its own trials and tribulations.”

Sandy Kreger, a fifth grade teacher at Burns Park Elementary School, has noticed this phenomenon in her own students. She describes it as a lack of “struggle” — since students have what seems like unlimited information at their fingertips, they don’t experience as much frustration as past generations. Kreger attributes this in part to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic just made [school] internet factorial,” Kreger said. “Everything was done on the computer.”

During AAPS’s year of online schooling, Kreger experienced a decrease in work completed by her students. She worked overtime, staying on Zoom for hours after the school day ended in order to help stu-

dents that were struggling. In some ways, the pandemic helped Kreger connect more with her students because she was able to see everything her students were doing while they were doing it. Lee echoes this sentiment, describing her appreciation for how Schoology allows her to follow along with her students’ work.

A main fear of an effect of the pandemic is that it will put students behind academically. Kreger doesn’t believe that this is the biggest thing to be worried about.

“Everybody was saying, “Are they still behind?’ Kreger said. “I’d say, ‘Behind whom?’The whole world is experiencing this pandemic. Kids are pretty resilient. They can learn these things, they can catch up.”

Instead, Kreger is worried about instant gratification. She reports that during virtual learning, she would hear kids have Youtube or Netflix on in the background. They wouldn’t have to wait for a snack and they wouldn’t have to share with anyone. As the district and the country transition more fully into regular learning, Kreger is concerned about teaching children how to connect and cooperate with one another.

However, Kreger and Lee both have hope for the future of learning. Kreger gives an example of students in her current class, who helped her figure out how to make a flowchart online. They worked together to figure out the different online tools and when Kreger saw that the kids were struggling, she offered to show them how to create it on paper.

“They said, ‘Please, let’s figure it out,’” Kreger said. “It’s exciting to see that they’re wanting to work. It’s much more engaging and colorful and maybe important eventually for their careers in their life [to be able to work online].”

“[Technology] takes away some of the magic that comes with getting the pen marks on your hand and that proud ache in your wrist of writing for 30 minutes and having a complete story in front of you. It has its own trials and tribulations.”

A New Unicorn

Ryan Thomas-Palmer dives into her art, focusing on her newest series and how it has influenced her high school experience.

Ryan Thomas-Palmer’s room is an art gallery. Framed pieces, created by her and those close to her, adorn her wall and art supplies are scattered around her room. This is nothing; right next door is her art studio, which was created with love and care — Thomas-Palmer made it with her own hands, along with the help of her father. Thomas-Palmer spends hours drawing in this space, painstakingly working with charcoal and graphite to create a perfect contrast between her white canvas and the darkness of her tools.

Until she was five years old, Thomas-Palmer refused to draw, sitting out as her sister colored in picture after picture. She couldn’t figure out how to draw within the lines, so what was the point? When her mom handed her an outline of a unicorn and she was able to color it in “relatively good,” T homas-Palmer was ecstatic. She made her mom go out and buy her a pink Crayola marker so she could color in the unicorn over and over again. Now, Thomas-Palmer is almost 18 years old and has finished her first major art series, “Doll Face.” The last drawing in the series is titled, “My Unicorn.”

Thomas-Palmer, a senior at CHS, started “Doll Face” in the summer of 2020, right in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. It started out as her desire to draw “something creepy” — she borrowed weathered dolls from her neighbor and spent hours taking photographs of them in her garage. It took her a couple months to feel motivated, but soon she started her first drawing of a doll, named “Doll Face 1.” Thomas-Palmer feels connected to the dolls that she draws, describing them almost as her friends.

Thomas-Palmer still wasn’t sure where she was going with the project when she started “Doll Face 2.” While drawing, she wasn’t sure how the piece would turn out — “2” required a dark background and she was nervous to approach that. But she pushed through her fear and completed the drawing. After “2,” her confidence increased.

When she started “Doll Face 3,” Thomas-Palmer loved the reference photograph she was using. But as she went on, she realized that “3” had a deeper meaning — connecting both to living through the COVID-19 pandemic as a teenager and to what she refers to as “our generation’s trauma,” including the prevalence of technology

and the aftereffects of 9/11. Thomas-Palmer drew on her own experience as a teenager forging her own path while dealing with what felt like the world imploding.

Drawing from art like “The Scream” by Edvard Munch, which is about a midlife crisis, Thomas-Palmer hid seven creatures within “3” that represented what she and others around her were going through.

“Doll Face 3” was a catalyst; the rest of the Doll Face series is rooted in topics that Thomas-Palmer thinks about daily. She dove in to queer racism in “Doll Face 4,” which she titled “William’s Doll,” which depicts a young Black boy playing with a doll, a shadow made of slurs looming over him. She spoke of her own experiences as a woman by creating a collage of dolls interspersed with things she and her friends, who identify as women, have been called by men.

“I wanted [the drawing] to show how women are treated as objects and that’s exactly what a doll is,” Thomas-Palmer said. “[It is] an object used as entertainment.

Ryan ThomasPalmer paints in her art studio, a framed piece behind her. Thomas-Palmer spends hours sequestered in this room. “It helps me ground myself,” Thomas-Palmer said. “It’s like meditation for me.”

Art was not always Thomas-Palmer’s whole world. From ages 5-12, Thomas-Palmer’s life was defined by one thing: gymnastics. She lived at the gym, spending her entire week learning new tumbles and flips. But in the summer before seventh grade, she got life changing news — for much of her gymnastics career, she had been putting too much impact on her elbow joint, causing the bone to slowly shatter. Thomas-Palmer spent the majority of her seventh grade year with half of her body in a cast, after two surgeries to address her elbow joint. She was lost.

“My entire personality and identity was gymnastics,” Thomas-Palmer said. “And then that just stopped.”

Without gymnastics, Thomas-Palmer found herself inundated with time, which she used to return to one of her favorite pastimes as a child: art. She had spent seventh grade trying to figure out what else she liked and was good at besides gymnastics, and when she began

It’s just a toy.”

“I’ve found the one thing that I’m really good at and I found it [because] I didn’t have anything anymore. I just stuck with art.”

drawing, she knew she’d found it. At the end of the year, Thomas-Palmer started using the grid system, which allows artists to draw faces more accurately, and she attended art classes at Rudolf Steiner school.

“I’ve found the one thing that I’m really good at and I found it [because] I didn’t have anything anymore,” Thomas-Palmer said. “I just stuck with art. It helps me ground myself. It’s like meditation for me.”

Art is not just something that Thomas-Palmer does; in many ways, it informs her life and relationships, and how she views the world around her. Her relationship with her best friend, Rosie Mellor, is built on their mutual love and appreciation for art. Although Thomas-Palmer believes that she would still be friends with Mellor without art, she has noticed that drawing and painting has been prevalent in their lives since they became friends in elementary school. Throughout middle school and high school, Thomas-Palmer and Mellor have taken art classes together, and when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, they continued to draw together by going to the woods and doing observational drawings. When Thomas-Palmer finishes a piece, she always asks her

friend for feedback.

“I’ll always go to her,” Thomas-Palmer said. “She was the first person to see ‘Doll Face 6’ all done.”

“Doll Face 6” is the last piece in the Doll Face series. Thomas-Palmer spent 163 hours on it — the longest she has ever spent on a drawing. It is full of references to her life, with a drawing of her as a toddler, and all five former dolls are featured in some way, shape or form. For example, the drawing contains lots of lace, which connects to the doll featured in “Doll Face 1.” Hidden in a cuckoo clock, near the back of the painting, is a unicorn. “Doll Face 6,” the most detailed piece that Thomas-Palmer has ever drawn, and the rest of her series can all be drawn back to when she was five years old and obsessively coloring in a unicorn outline.

As she goes forward in life, the thought of giving up art has never crossed Thomas-Palmer’s mind. In her ideal world, she can support herself with her art, without having to take commissions or create things that she is not passionate about. But even if the ideal world doesn’t come about, Thomas-Palmer will always be an artist at heart.

Therapy Through The Screen

Technology’s impacts on therapy: both the good and the bad.

Malevolent monsters, sinister plotlines and apocalyptic events are all what help create modern horror films: These chilling elements are meant to incite fear and trigger one’s ‘fight or flight’ response. Eve Kaplan, CHS senior, faced countless sleepless nights after watching a scary movie. This reaction was later recognized as her first panic attack. To combat this fear and control her anxiety, Kaplan started seeing a cognitive behavioral therapist whom she has been seeing since seventh grade — before the pandemic. In the very beginning, Kaplan and her therapist played games, colored and discussed more surface-level topics in effort to change her mindset. A common topic in their early sessions regarded the different aspects of life, like physical, social and emotional wellbeing, and how they coincide with one another.

“I’m just working on my mindset and accepting things for how they are,” Kaplan said. “[And] figuring out what I want to be putting the most [of my] energy into and it helps me a lot with being intentional with how I was using my time and energy.”

As people went into isolation during the pandemic, Kaplan continued on her path of self-care and self-awareness. Although it was beneficial to already have such a close connection with her therapist, the road was also not entirely smooth. Adjusting to the new circumstances was unsettling at first. As someone diagnosed with ADHD, it was much easier to get distracted and feel

disconnected because of the loss of face-to-face contact.

“It took a little bit to figure out how comfortable we both were,” Kaplan said. “Like, ‘can I be doing this?’ [or] ‘do you care if I’m literally laying down in bed?’” However, as time went on, the typical therapy session for Kaplan became more casual: sitting comfortably in her bed in sweatpants and with a snack as she talked about her week.

“It can feel more comfortable and kind of freeing if you are in your own safe space [that you] created for yourself at home,” Kaplan said. For Kaplan, online therapy has transformed her mental health and the pandemic acted as a time of self-discovery. As an introvert, the isolation that the pandemic brought didn’t disrupt Kaplan’s world as much and seeing her therapist every week brought a sense of comfort and consistency.

“It’s obviously really nice to have somebody that every week, [there’s] a safe person to talk to you about whatever happens to be going on,” Kaplan said.

NAOMI ZIKMUND-FISHER

With a particular expertise in understanding how trauma affects and can override the brain, Naomi Zikmund-Fisher, who has been a therapist for nine and a half years, follows a philosophy rooted in the belief that everyone is capable of healing. People often don’t realize that the brain is interconnected: all parts of the brain are communicating with one another constantly.

“What we’re trying to do in therapy is basically unlock [the] innate capacity and get all that good-feeling stuff that’s inside all of us to connect with the trauma that we have,” Zikmund-Fisher said.

Certified in eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), Zikmund-Fisher uses a form of psychotherapy designed to alleviate fear coming from traumatic experiences, fixed on the understanding that everyone has adaptive information: memories that are processed and stored in the brain. But to first understand this model’s effectiveness, there are two vital pieces of information to know: what is trauma and why are thinking patterns, resulting from trauma, difficult to stop?

“We can think about trauma as [having] experiences that [have] been incompletely processed and improperly stored in our brain,” Zikmund-Fisher said. “[Our brains] are very defended against really examining them, like we can’t really face it.”

The second piece of information is understanding that the more a person does something, over and over again in the same way, our brains become extremely efficient at it. An example Zikmund-Fisher uses is someone who is afraid to drive a car after a car accident and how their brain processes that experience, evolving into a toxic thought pattern.

“I see a car, I feel fear, I see a car, I feel fear, I see a car, I feel fear,” Zikmund-Fisher said. “Eventually, my brain goes ‘Oh, those things go together,’ and now it’s incredibly efficient. It’s incredibly difficult to interrupt.”

A traditional EMDR session begins with the therapist knee-to-knee with the patient, moving their fingers back and forth while asking questions which initiates the person to think about the trauma as the brain is distracted slightly. Slowly, the person begins to question whether their fear is rooted in reality, making progress to rewiring that brain connection. Highly effective among Zikmund-Fisher’s patients, she believed that in order for EMDR to continue its efficiency, it could only be in-person. However, as people went into isolation as the pandemic progressed, other EMDR therapists began to brainstorm alternatives. For Zikmund-Fisher, a tool called “Bilateralsimulation.io,” a website designed for therapists to use online.

“We’d have you tile your screen so you can see me and the ball but the window that has the ball goes all the way across your screen,” Zikmund-Fisher said. “From my end, I control it [and the speed].” Very similar to how EMDR is traditionally, Zikmund-Fisher asks the patient to envision the worst part of the trauma, following with questions like ‘And when you see that picture and you remember what happened, what does that make you believe about yourself?’ and ‘What’s the negative, irrational belief that it makes you have about yourself?’ As the patient repeats this process, Zikmund-Fisher finishes with ‘Where has your mind gone now?’ and feelings of remoteness and distance are prevalent among patients: results of adaptive information.

“[What] we’re doing is trying to move it from something that feels really current and present, and has all the emotions that go with them ,to something that feels like it’s in the past,” Zikmund-Fisher said. While Zikmund-Fisher has become adapted to EMDR online, she believes that therapy requires trust and good communication, something difficult to build online. But on the other hand, Zikmund-Fisher has started to see more patients online — ⅔ of her patients — due to convenience for herself and patients.

“It is really nice to be able to sort of roll out of bed and [get] my coffee and go see somebody, I don’t have to commute,” Zikmund-Fisher said. ”[It makes] life easier just to be able to work from home.”

And while comfort is important for both the therapist

and patient, online therapy does not come without its liabilities. In such a technological age, some are not tech savvy or don’t have a device to do therapy, making it infeasible. And issues of commitment and boundaries are not to go ignored.

“[There] are people who want to cook dinner while they’re having therapy, where they want to drive their car or they get up and they walk around, and they do things that you would never do at your therapist’s office,” Zikmund-Fisher said. “I try and educate people like ‘look, when you sit in my office, we have a space, right?’. There’s a physical space, but there’s also a metaphorical space. It’s like this relationship between us. When we’re online, we don’t have the physical space but we still have to have the metaphorical space.”

While there is no physical space for Zikmund-Fisher and her patient, she believes that privacy is another aspect of online therapy that can be easily violated and something people may not realize how important it is.

“I’ve had people say, ‘Oh, it’s fine, it’s fine, he’s just

gonna sit here, he’s not really listening,’ and I’m like, ‘No, it’s not fine,’” Zikmund-Fisher said.

For those Zikmund-Fisher had been seeing before the pandemic, their relationship became stronger as they made the transition to online together.

Through thick and thin, humans are capable of adapting and healing, including using technology to continue one’s self-care journey during an unknown process during an uncertain time, as they made the transition to online together. However, this only strengthened Zikmund-Fisher’s relationship with her patients.

“There was a sense of ‘Okay, you know what, I’m in a pandemic, you’re in a pandemic, we’re doing this together,’” Zikmund-Fisher said. “‘You know, we’re going to figure this out together.’”

It goes without saying that for Zikmund-Fisher, in-person therapy for beginners is the best for the patient and

“There was a sense of ‘Okay, you know what, I’m in a pandemic, you’re in a pandemic, we’re doing this together,’” Zikmund-Fisher said.

“‘You know, we’re going to figure this out together.’”

therapist, making it difficult to diminish the importance of a metaphorical and physical space that in-person therapy has.

“Like ‘here’s our sacred time that we’re going to spend together and we’re only going to focus on each other,’” said Zikmund-Fisher. “[I] think it’s easy to take that for granted or to think that it doesn’t matter all that much.” Zikmund-Fisher believes that whatever a person can do to fit therapy into their personal life are the first steps to creating a better life.

“Therapy is better than no therapy,” Zikmund-Fisher said

CARISSA WILDER

Carissa Wilder, a therapist in Ann Arbor has been in the field of therapy for 21 years. She has found that since COVID-19 and the ‘big boom’ of online therapy clients have had an easier and more accessible experience with finding therapy and being able to have sessions, given that she has chosen to stay online despite being able to be in-person once more.

Not only has the commute issue of therapy been resolved for Wiler’s clients, but now people seeking therapy are able to open up in the comfort of their own home. This has not only improved the impact on the Earth that traveling has, it has improved the quality of communication in therapy.

“I feel like they feel more relaxed,” Wilder said. “Many times, which is a really important component for communication, inhaling like not feeling tense, judged or overwhelmed by surroundings.”

The safe harbor of home for many has now been turned into a place of mindfulness and healing.

One of the major and most surprising perks for Wilder has been being able to see her clients’ pets.

“I really love that their animals are often with them. Many people do have pets and I have a pet too. So it just feels like for a lot of us our pets are very comforting,” Wilder said. “And whether they’re officially emotional support animals or not. They often have the same effect. Of being very regulating for our nervous systems.”

Wilder has loved seeing the new and innovative ways that COVID-19 has forced therapy to become. COVID-19 has changed a lot in the therapy community, one of the most noticeable changes for Wilder is its move towards creativity in art and nature.

“[Covid] just opened up this idea that there just doesn’t have to be the strict adherence to like being in an office and like having the session be a certain time like that just seems to be a lot more creativity taking place… but I think the pandemics made that even more pressing and obvious that the field needs to adapt and be more creative,” Wilder said.

Moving forward in therapy Wilder hopes to see the field continue to grow from COVID-19 and use it as an opportunity to change into being a more accessible and better place to be.

Growing up surrounded by her own reflection, the countless hours spent examining herself in the mirror at her dance studio have left Lila Ryan, CHS senior, hyper-aware of her own body.

As she entered her freshman year of high school, her time spent in the studio increased. At the same time, her physical appearance was changing. She witnessed her growth frame by frame in the mirrored walls.

“I was 14 years old,” Ryan said. “It was natural, but it felt unnatural.”

She struggled to reconcile with her mature body while she still saw herself in the smaller body from her childhood. As she grappled with the disconnect between her old body and the new, she was also spending more time exposed to social media and the beauty standards that came with it.

Ryan has been involved with social media since she was in fourth grade, beginning with Musical.ly in 2014, which she used mainly to make funny videos with her friends. As she aged, her use of social media changed.

In seventh grade, she downloaded Instagram.

She was suddenly surrounded by

NOT JUST NOT JUST

NOT JUST

NOT JUST NOT JUST NOT JUST

Social media has provided an arena for competing beauty standards, exaggerating the value we place in our own bodies and creating highly comparative situations that can cause the development of bodily insecurities.

more bodies than just her own. As she continued to use the app, her social network expanded and more and more bodies filled her feed.

“It’s always a comparison,” Ryan said. For her, it was always a ‘not’: not as pretty, not as thin, not as popular.

People have a natural tendency to attempt to portray themselves as positively as possible. This self-presentation varies depending upon the target audience. In a work setting, one might want to be perceived as organized and competent, but in a social setting one might rather be seen as easygoing and personable. Attractiveness is a key aspect of presentation: Do other people like the way you look?

“The desire to present yourself in a positive light is very natural,” said Nicole Ellison, a professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. Her work focuses on how new information and technologies affect existing social processes.

Social comparison dynamics (conscious or not) are present in every aspect of our lives: who makes more money, who scored higher on the math test, who had a more exciting weekend. In computer-mediated communication (i.e. social media), these dynamics can become more exaggerated. Individuals have far more control over their self-presentation in these settings, in which others can only see what they elect to share about themselves.

“When we’re looking at social media, we tend to see more of this curated self that others are sharing of themselves,” Ellison said. “Everyone is sharing the highlight reel.”

In reality, individuals can, for

the most part, be seen in all their forms — from just-rolled-out-of-bed to done up in formal attire. Alternatively, social media content can be edited, revised and even deleted. Individuals can only be seen in the states that they choose to publicize.

“You can take 100 pictures and pick the best one,” Ellison said. “You can really selectively decide what you want to share about yourself.”

The result is a plethora of popular social media platforms that grant individuals full control over their appearance to the viewer and therefore platforms that are full of people looking their best — adhering to whatever beauty standards apply to their demographic.

“What I see as attractive is probably what my peer group sees as attractive,” Ellison said. Although there are a wide range of appearance-based standards, there are also certain blanket beauty standards that are associated with given cultures.

In addition to the onslaught of content demonstrating every individual in your network’s best foot forward are highly quantifiable forms of feedback: likes, reposts, comments. In face-to-face interactions, feedback is much more qualitative and thus harder to directly compare. A number of likes to a number of likes makes for a very clear cut means of direct comparison.

Seeing the best versions of other people constantly was overwhelming and added to the insecurity that Ryan already experienced from feeling as though she didn’t have the classic “dancer’s body.”

She also began to notice patterns

in which personalities were pandered to social media users: the body types that were always showing up on her TikTok For You page and Instagram Discover page.

“You look at the people who are popular on TikTok and they all look the same,” Ryan said. “They’re all pretty and skinny.”

The torrent of algorithmic beauty led Ryan to have unrealistic standards for herself. She lost herself in a pit of weight loss apps and skipped meals.

“I was so hungry, all the time,” Ryan said. The constant comparisons brought her to a place she didn’t want to be. With time — and concerted effort — she has come to realize that constantly comparing yourself to others is unhealthy and unsustainable.

Different people are affected by their exposure to social media in different ways. Not every social comparison has a negative consequence and not every comparison is of any consequence at all.

“Social comparison is not just that you’re comparing yourself to people who are better than you,” Ellison said. “It also could be that you’re comparing yourself to others and end up feeling pretty good about yourself.”

However, many young women have shared Ryan’s experience. Many studies demonstrate that — particularly for adolescent girls — the social comparison dynamics created by social media can be highly problematic.

“You can’t automatically compare yourself to everyone you see,” Ryan said.

Now, she can look in the mirror and accept her body for what it is: a body.

Title IX: History of Fighting and Hopes for the Future

“I thought I had the right to be there like anybody else.”

That was the message Tricia Saunders told herself. She saw herself as nothing more than an 8 eight- year-old, 45 pound little girl from Ann Arbor who loved wrestling. Unbeknownst to her at the time, she was a figure on the forefront of the battle for the advancement of women in athletics.

Between the moments of hiding from the blaring critics behind the limbs of her coaches or sitting in courtrooms between her parents, among the crossfire of battling attorneys, Saunders found little time for focusing on much other than wrestling– it was in her blood.

Saunders grew up among a family of grapplers. Her father, Jim McNaughton, and brothers, Jamie and Andy McNaughton, were wrestlers, and her grandfather was an All-American wrestler at the University of Michigan.

In 1971, at the age of seven, Saunders began wrestling at the same club as her brothers.

“I was told since I was little, ‘if you’re good, you can kind of do as you want’ — and I guess I was.” Saunders said. “I liked my peers and they liked me. We fought and we got along just like any other pack of kids on a team. Even though I was the only girl [at the wrestling gym], if I worked as hard and I was winning, I didn’t ever think there was anything wrong with me being around.”

Inside her gym, Saunders was surrounded by support from her teammates and coaches, but as she began to go out and compete in, as well as dominate, meets, she was often met with denigrators.

“People always told me things weren’t possible, but I just did them anyway,” Saunders said. “[There were] cameras and people yelling at me; I just had to block it out. I assumed it was okay for me to be here and that they just didn’t understand that girls can be good at [wrestling]. I didn’t know those people and what they thought was not something that I let enter my space.”

Saunders leaned on the support of her team and the adults around her in order to stay focused on her goal: to win.

In 1975, when Saunders was eight years old, she had qualified for the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) youth national championships. She was prepared to travel and compete for the title, but she was informed that she would not be allowed to compete because she was a girl.

“I went to court and my parents fought with a team of attorneys,” Saunders said. “I would have had everything ended for me if Title IX hadn’t been there. I don’t think a lot of people understood exactly what [Title IX] was at that time, so when I won it was a huge statement. I was

so young, how much I understood of the world was so limited and I didn’t realize what [this case] meant. All I knew was that I got to go [to the tournament].”

Saunders would go on to have an illustrious youth career. Wrestling against all boys, she obtained a record of 181 wins to a mere 23 losses. In 1976, she became the first woman to win a Michigan state title and the first woman regional national champion as well.

Unfortunately for Saunders, her wrestling career came to a quick halt. As she entered her middle school years at Scarlett Junior High, Saunders was shut out by the coach of the wrestling team and informed that she would not be allowed to be a part of the wrestling program.

“I never got the feeling that he wanted me there.” Saunders said. “He coached my brothers and coached my teammates, but he just never spoke to me or looked at me. He never said anything like he wished I could have wrestled and been on that team. I don’t know if he was part of that decision making or not, but it seemed like he was kind of happy with me [Saunders] not being allowed to compete].”

With little that she could do, Saunders moved on to other sports, but the absence of wrestling did not come without disappointment.

“I felt alone,” Saunders said. “I didn’t know anybody else who had had that experience, so there was nobody to have that conversation with, nobody to talk to about it. I was told ‘you just have to suck it up and move on’; that this is the way it’s going to be and I had to deal with it on my own.”

Saunders went on to participate in many other sports during her youth. She was an avid gymnast and also participated in softball, cheerleading and track during her time at Ann Arbor Huron High School. And yet still, there was the lingering feeling of something missing for Saunders.

“I didn’t ever really see those kids, my teammates, again,” Saunders said. “I didn’t ever feel welcome in the wrestling room. Even though I would see my brothers in the wrestling room every once in a while when I was in high school, I remember not being comfortable and wanting to get out of there. I remember thinking ‘this is not your space’”.

It wasn’t until later in her life, after Saunders had graduated from her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin –Madison, that the then 22 yearold found her way back to a wrestling mat. She got a call from one of her old club wrestling teammates from her youth, Zeke Jones, who told her about women’s wrestling in the world championships.

“I remember feeling so excited,” Saunders said. “He told me that and I went into the wrestling room the next day because there was something for me. I went to practice every day after that, that’s how it started.”

Saunders walked-on to the wrestling program at Arizona State University (ASU), where she was accompanied by Jones, as well as her brother, Andy. She instantly found a connection, similar to the one she had with her youth club, although she was now in a space with individuals who all shared the same competitive attitude as her.

“It just happened to be the number one men’s wres-

Two prominent figures in Ann Arbor sports share their stories of battles to uphold Title IX values

tling team in the nation,” Saunders said. “All of these wrestlers in that room were international caliber and NCAA All-Americans, they weren’t threatened by me. They were already hugely confident in themselves by their own right of everything they earned. They were nice guys that were friends of my brother and they were all really helpful to me and it was a great place to fall into, I felt extremely fortunate.”

However, it seemed like history was bound to repeat itself. While her team atmosphere provided the encouraging and challenging environment that Saunders was looking for, she was followed by the same noise and crit-

Saunders reflected back on her experience as an advocate, highlighting the similarities of the various struggles that women have had to establish their place in the world of athletics.

“It’s nearly the exact same story over and over again,” Saunders said. “It makes it almost even more sad, because it’s like you don’t learn from each individual triumph that girls make and they end up having to fight the same battle again.”

The similarities of Saunders’ youth career to her professional one continued to present themselves. While training at ASU, Saunders was working to get a tournament set up so that she and others could qualify to compete in the world championships. She was contacted by the United States (U.S.) government and was told that they were not going to have a national championship and were not planning on sending a women’s team.

Saunders grapples with an opponent. Saunders grew up learning to wrestle alongside her brothers. “We fought and we got along just like any other pack of kids on a team,” Saunders said.

icism that she faced in her youth. There was an abundance of coach, referee and even national governing body resistance, trying to cancel Saunders’ program.

“Nothing had changed from the 70s to the early 90s,” Saunders said. “When I stepped outside that room, it was a lot of the same story as when I was a little kid, but I had already learned to keep my chin up and not really pay attention to what anyone says. I had to keep stepping in and never stop showing up even if I wasn’t invited.”

At just 22 years-old, Saunders felt it was her obligation to be a voice for the new generation of women wrestlers in America. She spoke out against criticisms and fought for the rights of women’s wrestlers.

“I had to take the helm, take what my parents did for me and try to do that for my other teammates,” Saunders said. “I fought hard to establish a national team program to make sure that women’s wrestling had a place.”

“That was the answer from the United States,” Saunders said. “Telling me: ‘you’re not going to be part of this sport, representing our country, nobody is, there’s no girls allowed.’That was devastating.”

Saunders worked quickly with her companions at ASU and in the professional wrestling community to create a makeshift tournament, allowing her and multiple other women the opportunity to compete for a spot in the world championships, representing the U.S.

“There’s these great organizational people in wrestling,” Saunders said. “Some of them, even though they were doing great things for wrestling, refused to do good things in wrestling for women for a long time. It’s hard to come after people who are these great volunteers, but at the same time, are being 100% sexist and saying ‘I’m going to be the best volunteer, but only for men and not for women’. I never could understand that.”

Saunders called to attention issues of increased inequity as a result of Title IX. Acknowledging the opportunities that may have been lost for male athletes to make

“People always told me things weren’t possible, but I just did them anyway.”

Photography courtesy of Tricia Saunders Saunders takes down an opponent. When Saunders began wrestling again as an adult she trained at Arizona State University. “It just happened to be the number one men’s wrestling team in the nation.

[My teammates] were all really helpful to me and it was a great place to fall into,” Saunders said.

way for opportunities for female athletes.

“Whenever I speak with someone who feels that way, I have to ask: ‘Well, how sad were you when women had no opportunities in sports?’,” Saunders said. “If you only cried for missed opportunities that have happened to men and you didn’t worry at all about any of the mass of missed opportunities that have happened for women in this country, then I don’t think that you’re ready to come to a table for a discussion.”

Throughout her competition days, Saunders amassed a large number of accolades such as four FILA Wrestling World Championships gold medals, her first of which crowned her as the first American woman to ever do so. She holds 11 national titles and in 2006, became the first woman to ever become inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Although she has certainly cemented herself as a top competitor, Saunders hopes she will be remembered as a representation of a standard of inclusion for all sports.

“I don’t want to see anything bad ever happen to men’s or women’s athletics,” Saunders said. “If somebody has less opportunities to participate in an activity, it’s a mutual tragedy. I don’t think any kid shouldn’t have an opportunity to do something that the next kid can.”

Saunders highlighted her admiration for Title IX and the importance it has played in sparking many athletic careers.

“When I see people who maybe did get a boost from Title IX and are going off and doing great things, like I was able to do, it makes me really happy,” Saunders said. “I love watching those boys and girls.”

Saunders has proven to be an example of dedication, action and results. She has inspired a generation of athletes to advance the standards of inclusion in athletics.

“The leaders that these young people are going to become because of their sports experiences, what they’ll

have to give back, is amazing,” Saunders said. “It’s a different generation that we’re producing now than before and I can’t wait to see the next steps.”

LORIN CARTWRIGHT

For former Pioneer High School (PHS) Athletic Director, Lorin Cartwright, Title IX has been the mark of a standard– one that she has fought to uphold her entire life.

Cartwright had just finished her sophomore year of high school when Title IX was put into effect in June of 1972.

“Title Nine was introduced as an educational legislation,” Cartwright said. “It was really all about education and making sure that young women got the education they needed, so that they could be contributors to society in a different way. It had nothing to do with sports, it was an entitlement to education. That was the paramount issue.”

Soon after legislation had passed and acts of enforcement had taken place, Cartwright began to see changes in not only the educational landscape of her school, but the athletic side as well.

“What people discovered was that there were no girls sports,” Cartwright said. “In the 1960s, there were no girls sports in middle school and no girls sports in high school. Then when Title Nine passed, that’s when there was starting to be an array of sports being offered.”

Cartwright jumped at the opportunity to participate in the athletics that were offered to girls at her high school: basketball, softball and swimming. She played on both the girls basketball and softball teams in her junior and senior years of high school.

Cartwright then moved on to college at Grand Valley State University. She continued her involvement in the

athletic programs offered to her, but still found similar issues as she encountered during high school.

“Early on [following the passing of Title IX], even though there were [athletic] opportunities for young women such as myself, there were nowhere near the same amount of opportunities as the men,” Cartwright said. “When I left high school, I had three sports. When I got to college, I think there were five.”

Cartwright continued on in her involvement in athletics even past her playing days. During her time at Grand Valley, she became an exceptional student athletic trainer, working alongside many of the men’s sports teams.

“I had enough skill set to be the head of the student trainers,” Cartwright said. “I worked with the men’s football program and the men’s basketball program. I was left alone with those teams on a fairly regular basis because [the head trainers] had a lot of faith in me.”

When Cartwright was first hired at PHS to become the head athletic trainer, she participated in internship work at the University of Michigan (U of M), where she was met with discrimination from coaches and staff.

“We were relegated to an area that was less than acceptable for women athletes, let alone athletic trainers,” Cartwright said. “We could not work with the football

program there because [former U of M football coach] Mr. Schembechler felt that it was too difficult for the young men on the sideline to focus. So women were seen as disruptive for the football players.”

Cartwright is glad to see that significant progress has been made since her days as a trainer, but she hopes that women will not stop fighting for better treatment.

“I’m not advantaged because I’m a female, so I want to be equal with a man,” Cartwright said. “The only way that’s going to happen is if women continue to be persistent. To not settle, to stick up for themselves, demand better treatment and that men who are in power become allies of those women and start that movement and give opportunity.”

Cartwright wants to see the presence of women coaches in male sports increased, specifically the more popular sports, such as football and basketball. She pointed to U of M female graduate assistant coach Milan Bolden-Morris as an example of progress she would like to see more of in the future.

“I would love to see women coaching men’s sports,” Cartwright said. “That sort of thing would really break the glass ceiling. [Current U of M Head Coach] Jim Harbaugh interviewed [Bolden-Morris] and said: she’s

all about football– she’s in.”

In 1995, Cartwright became the Athletic Director of Pioneer. She began tackling issues of inequality with Title IX from an administration standpoint. Much of her work was ensuring that Pioneer was abiding by the ‘three prongs’ of Title IX; standards that the school must uphold to ensure fair treatment.

“[The three prongs] are making sure that we have the parity,” Cartwright said. “The three prong rule in Title Nine means you have to meet one of the three rules to be federally in line with Title Nine. It doesn’t matter which one you meet, you just have to meet one.”

The three prongs are proportionality, program expansion and accommodation. Proportionality means that there has to be equal opportunities for participation in both men’s and women’s sports, with respect to enrollment. Continued expansion means that there has to be a history or proof of progress to increase programming for the underrepresented sex. Accommodation means you accommodate the underrepresented gender by offering sufficient funding and availability for a team as well as sufficient competition in their geographic area.

During Cartwright’s time at PHS, she made sure that the athletic department met the prong rule under test number two. Pioneer would hold an event where they would survey the students in order to find out what sports people wanted and let people create club sports to attempt to fulfill the needs of those that were underrepresented.

“We would collect all these forms that talked about the

worked as the head student athletic trainer during her time at Grand Valley State University. ““I worked with the men’s football program and the men’s basketball program. I was left alone with those teams on a fairly regular basis because [the head trainers] had a lot of faith in me.”

kinds of sports that people wanted to have and didn’t want to have,” Cartwright said. “[Using those] we could make an assessment using that to try to determine if we could meet the needs of the underrepresented sports.”

Cartwright was faced with challenges in her efforts to uphold Title IX values and she realized that there were many issues in high school athletics due to funding inequities, some of which she had no control over, but was held responsible for.

“If a woman is valuable because they run a program, then they should get proper funding accordingly,” Cartwright said. “It really should be an equal opportunity. One issue is that funding also includes the money that your booster club spends. I am not as an athletic director privy to a private [booster club] account that I don’t have any say over. The money that is spent on those teams wherever the boosters see fit, is in actuality going to be counted against me and I don’t have any control over that.”

Cartwright highlighted the importance of the voices of young athletes in the fight for equality in sports; how even though change has been made, the fight is far from over.

“We need to have young people advocating on behalf of women,” Cartwright said. “‘Why can’t they officiate? Why can’t they be my coach?’ They can. You give them that respect and that’s when the movement progresses. Young people are the answer to the question.”

“I want to be equal with a man. The only way that’s going to happen is if women continue to be persistent. To not settle, to stick up for themselves, demand better treatment.”

PANTONE 18-4530

IONIE STEUDLE

As the cold weather rolls around every winter, Ionie Steudle experiences sadness. For Steudle, the color has two meanings.

When she was looking through the box of colors, Pantone 18-4530, “Celestial Blue,” instantly clicked with Steudle; it was the color of her friend Julia’s hair. Julia is Steudle’s friend who is always there to support her.

The color has another side though — it’s the blue hue that she associates with the sadness that comes with winter for her.

Going into winter, Steudle faces the beginning stages of a seasonal depression. With the gray clouds and sunless days, Steudle begins to get melancholic and down; however when these feelings come around, Steudle’s friend, Julia, is by her side.

“My best friend Julia dyes their hair this color around the same time of year,” Steudle said. “Around this time we just talk about everything going on in our lives and it makes me happier.”

“Celestial Blue” brings a warm feel to the cold winter season and

a reminder to Steudle that she has support around her.

“I remember just lying on the ground with our heads back to each other,” Steudle said. “I would see Julia’s hair in my face when we were talking about stuff. It was like a sense of warmth.”

This year Julia dyed their hair the same blue color again, bringing Steudle a sense of nostalgia to the past year remembering the cold, hard times that became good memories because of her friends who supported her.

“I remember just lying on the ground with our heads back to each other. I would see Julia’s hair in my face when we were talking about stuff. It was like a sense of warmth.”

PANTONE 18-0119

ZANE SWERDLOW

Zane Swerdlow, sophomore at CHS, describes the color green not only as something you can see but as something you can feel.

“Feeling green is kind of like being an observer,” Swerdlow said.

For Swerdlow, green is his quiet place. The color green is first to come to mind when the question of emotion within color is brought up. And he is reminded of nature through the simplicity of the color.

During the summer of 2021, Swerdlow spent five weeks at Agree Outpost, a wilderness camp in Canada. Looking back on this time, he is filled with nostalgia and appreciation. He spent those weeks taking a break from life, spending his time taking in nature, stillness and green.

“I think a lot of times, life is really busy. And there’s lots of things that you have to think about and things to do. And if you’re outside and you’re surrounded by things

that are green, like plants and trees, then there’s probably not anything you have to be doing or anything you have to worry about,” Swerdlow explains.

Swerdlow planted his feet into the forest. He walked in nature, looking around and taking things in, he didn’t have to do any sort of specific action, no assignments or space to fill up with ongoing chatter. All he had to do was breathe.

“You can just kind of relax and walk around and look at all the things that are out there,” Swerdlow said.

The color green is neutral. The space in between blue and yellow. Not crazy bright pink or as virtuous as browns, grays or tans. It’s simply even-handed. When everyday life becomes too loud, Swerdlow is reminded of the peace he can find between the trees and the green.

“Feeling green is kind of like being an observer.”

PANTONE 1797

AMY BOEVING

Junior Amy Boeving sees themself in Pantone 1797 and they have a second opinion to back themself up. Every year, Boeving and their mom visit a Detroit based small-business owner to interact with her main project: a photo booth that reads your aura. The first time they stepped into the studio, Boeving was confronted by their character’s color.

“My mom and I both did it,” Boeving said. “We did it separately. And [we] get the photos back on film, they print with all this color over your face. The different colors mean different things. And my mom’s comes back and it’s all purple and green and blue and white and all these beautiful colors.” Theirs was red.

In the beginning, Boeving was confused. When the owner of the exhibit dissected the meaning of Boeving’s aura, they didn’t feel very fiery or fearless like she explained. They thought of themself as “more like an indigo, more of a subdued type.” But as they grow up and keep coming back to see their red-ness photographed, they see the red in everything they do. For them, red has become less connected to “blare[s] of emotion and confidence,” and more connected to the passion and depth with which they feel every emotion. It’s who they are.

It’s become a special tradition for the two. Boeving’s mom gets to see the ways that her aura changes every year and Boeving gets to see themself in a frame that’s consistently

ruled by a deep and powerful red, “like the really gross, red delicious apples that… aren’t sweet enough.”

According to the interpretation guide Boeving read after their first aura photo, red doesn’t only represent emotion. It can also represent the concrete world, in both feelings and objects.

“[Red is] a really tangible color,” Boeving said. “You… ‘see red’ when you get angry. Red, according to this guide, is like manifestation in the world. So red is known to be like… you’re really good at putting things that you want out into the world.” Boeving’s way of putting things into the world is to express their strong feelings and emotions, what makes them red. Communicating their red aura is what makes them, them.

“Red, according to this guide, is like manifestation in the world.”

PANTONE 3278

JACQUELINE BOYNTON

She looked down at the enormous, bright green, curly wig she was about to put on.

Jacqueline Boynton, CHS Sophomore, was originally cast as a school girl in Young People’s Theater’s production of Matilda in 2020.

The pandemic postponed it two years.

January 2022: Boynton received an email asking if she wanted to continue with the production. At first, she wasn’t sure if it was going to be the best for her mental health, but after consideration with her parents and therapist, she decided to go for it. She was called in for a small group audition where she read for Ms. Honey and Mr. Wormwood.

During her audition for Mr. Wormwood, she decided to take a risk. She was going to try a British accent.

A few days later, she got a call from the producer offering her the role. The directors loved her take on Mr. Wormwood.

After getting cast, Boynton was nervous about a speaking role and a solo.

“I didn’t say yes at first because I was scared shitless,” Boynton said. Throughout the many hours of rehearsals, this unease was broken down and friendship took its place across the cast and crew alike. “Everyday we gained more and more of a bond that will last us a lifetime,”

Boynton said, referring to the bond she created with the actress who played Miss Honey.

Lines, lyrics and cues later, tech week is upon the cast. Tech week is a big week for any production. It involves hours of rehearsal after school every day making sure everything goes exactly the way it’s supposed to. For Boynton, this stress manifested itself around getting this wig on correctly. It had two clips that attached to her slicked back hair, which had to be combed tightly in order for the wig to be attached correctly. It sat beneath two sinks in the bathroom.

Boynton looked down, “There’s my green wig, right below my feet.”

“Everyday we gained more and more of a bond that will last us a lifetime.”

PANTONE 152

NINA BEALS

The garish orange paint coating the walls of Nina Beals’ bedroom just wasn’t her. She preferred more neutral, cooler shades, like soothing purples and relaxing blues; she would have never picked the vivid, dark-toned orange that suffocated what was meant to be a relaxing space. Beals hated spending time surrounded by the off-putting color. She couldn’t focus on anything but the deep orange that seemed to permeate the air. For years she begged to repaint it, but, for years, her parents refused.

Pantone 152 immediately stuck out to Beals as the color — ugly, bright and traumatizing — that she’d spent her childhood trying to leave behind.

“[The color] reminds me of Halloween,” Beals said. “But the ugly side of Halloween.”

The shade of orange brings to mind less attractive images of the holiday: a glimpse of a soiled Tigger costume through gaps in the foliage, an overripe pumpkin sagging with rot on a front porch and streets lit-

tered with bright construction cones entrapping frustrated drivers.

The room, handed down from Beals’ older sister, already felt like it didn’t truly belong to her. She wanted it to fit with her own personality, but here was a room that had been decorated for her sister, in a color her parents had picked for their eldest daughter. Not only did the color come second-hand, but it was also bold, loud and tacky, which only redoubled Beals’ aversion to it.

“I just really wanted it to be my own room,” Beals said. “It was kind of a sign that [it was] not really mine if that makes any sense.”

When Beals and her family moved out of her childhood home, she finally got her wish, as their new and custom-built home came devoid of color — perfect for her to decorate with her own palette and fill with her own personality.

In her new bedroom, Beals spends her time enveloped by a soft, calming purple, a sharp contrast to the bright and distracting orange of the past.

“[The color] reminds me of Halloween, but the ugly side of Halloween.”

PANTONE 291

KARIM MOHAMED

Walking off the 13 hour flight, having watched “The Other Woman” a few too many times, the bright and calm blue caught his attention. There was only one thing on his mind: ice cream. As he walked off the runway, the clear, sunny day urged him awake with the one hope of a fresh waffle cone filled with cold, delicious cookies and cream home-made ice cream from Blank Slate.

Karim Mohamed, CHS senior, had just gotten off a plane from a two month visit to Egypt.

Mohamed, who hadn’t slept for days and later slept for what felt like days, had one mission for the day. But why was ice cream such a must? Because, in Mohamed’s opinion, the ice cream in Egypt didn’t stand

a chance against Ann Arbor’s ice cream. Luckily, Mohamed succeeded in his mission that summer day.

Mohamed has traveled to Egypt many times throughout his life, but after his most recent trip, he felt ready to come back to Ann Arbor. Prior to this trip, he was stuck in Egypt due to COVID-19 for a year when he returned in January, 2022. After returning then, he and his family had to quarantine for twoweeks. After returning this summer, because of new regulations and vaccines available, there was no mandatory quarantine.

Walking off that plane, Mohamed, excited for ice-cream and sleep, was ready to return to life in Ann Arbor. The blue sky welcomed him home.

“I looked up at the sky and it was

completely blue,” Mohamed said. “And since I associate that color with happiness, I was happy to be back in Ann Arbor. When the skies clear, I feel like it’s [going to be] a good day. It was nice, being happy [to] be back, and the sky reflected my mood.”

Because of Egypt’s weather, generally hot and sunny especially in the summer, the skies were also generally clear and painted blue. As Mohamed traveled across the world this summer, he felt his mood reflected in the sky, blue in Egypt and Ann Arbor.

Once back home — and after his ice cream, of course — Mohamed dedicated the day to, much needed, rest, for about 16 hours straight.

“When the skies clear, I feel like it’s [going to be] a good day. It was nice, being happy [to] be back, and the sky reflected my mood.”

PANTONE 16-1329

ALLAN AUTHIER

When Allan Authier sees the color Coral Haze, or any other iteration of salmon pink, he is flooded with nostalgia. Immediately, he closes his eyes and can smell his preschool lunchroom, where he spent many of his formative years eating clementines, sandwiches and pigs in a blanket.

Authier, a sophomore at CHS, went to the Discovery Center for preschool. At lunch time, he and his classmates were shepherded to a different room to eat, where they had assigned seats. Each desk was labeled with a name tag that had a name and a bird on it. Authier’s bird was colored salmon pink.

“I always saw [that bird] at lunchtime and it gets me every time,” Authier said. “When I see that color, it gives me some kind of nostalgia because I love that place so much.”

The Discovery Center allowed Authier to grow into himself by giving him lots of freedom. During the day, he was allowed to do whatever he

wanted, with teachers there simply to keep the children safe and help if needed. Often, Authier would sit in the corner, take a piece of paper and draw whatever he desired.

“I think [the Discovery Center] let me engage more with things that I liked and let me learn more about what I enjoyed doing rather than enforcing routines and not giving me as much freedom to do what I enjoyed,” Authier said.

Authier remembers loving the ability to make his own choices, which inspired him to enter the CHS lottery in eighth grade. Although he had little knowledge of what makes CHS unique, when he got in, he decided to go. Now that Authier has spent over a year at CHS, he recognizes that in some ways it is similar to his preschool experience. Whenever he sees Coral Haze, Authier will be reminded of how going to the Discovery Center allowed him to learn more about himself and what he loves.

“When I see that color, it gives me some kind of nostalgia because I love that place so much.”

PANTONE 345

EMMY WERNIMONT

Emmy Wernimont is surrounded by Pantone 345 as she sits in her room. It’s the complexion of her comforter, her favorite sweatshirt, her phone case, the pots her favorite plants sit in, the lamps next to her bed and the fabric of the clothes that fill her closet. The light teal color gives Wernimont “happy vibes” and reminds her of the independence she is gaining as she grows older.

Although the color is a constant presence in her life now, it didn’t start out that way. For the first 13 years of her life, Wernimont was forced to share a room with her younger sister. Having been too young to decorate their room, it

was full of “mismatched” colors and patterns their parents put together.

In March 2020, when Wernimont’s parents told her she was moving, she was unhappy. Wernimont wasn’t ready to leave her former house, but looking back, she believes it was the best decision her family could have made.

“At first, I wasn’t excited at all because I was going to miss our old house,” Wernimont said. “But, it ended up being great because it gave us the space we needed during Covid.”

Wernimont’s excitement only grew when she found out she’d have her own room. A self-described

messy person, Wernimont was glad to not have to worry about having her plants and decorations in her sister’s space.

The day before the Wernimonts moved was the last day of in-person school before the COVID-19 hiatus. Due to everything being shut down, Wernimont turned to online shopping to customize her new room. Scrolling through the site, a teal comforter caught Wernimont’s eye — the same one that covers her bed to this day.

“It was one of the first times I got to choose a major decoration,” Wernimont said. “We had had all the stuff from before we moved for forever and I was too young to pick those out. But, this was something I got to pick for myself — for my own space.”

The blue-green comforter kept Wernimont company through the pandemic and continues to bring her a sense of comfort.

“At first, I wasn’t excited at all because I was going to miss our old house. But, it ended up being great because it gave us the space we needed during Covid.”

PANTONE 350

NADYA MATISH

For Nadya Matish, dark green calls to mind a hazy, mysterious forest with tall, dark green pine trees. It makes her feel tranquility, but also a sense of mystery and adventure.

Matish plays Dungeons and Dragons, a fantasy game which involves players going on adventures involving secrets and magic. Matish has been playing Dungeons and Dragons for three years. She was introduced to the game when a friend of hers from middle school invited Matish to play with a group from a different school. She likes Dungeons and Dragons because of the endless possibilities the game offers.

“I like creating characters because it’s a time to step into another point

of view, and then make decisions as someone else,” Matish said. “It widens your view of the world.”

Matish’s favorite memory playing Dungeons and Dragons was in the first campaign that she did. Her whole party was evil and trying to take over the world. They made a plan that Matish’s character should assassinate the king, and then pretend to be the queen.

“I snuck into his chambers and pushed him out the window, and then I pretended to be the queen,” Matish said. “That was just really cool. It was the first time I got to do one thing by myself, because I was a new player.”

Matish wants to major in Classics

in college. She likes reading about mysteries of the ancient world. She is busy and can’t do much adventuring, but she makes up for it by solving the mysteries and studying the adventures of the past.

Matish lives near woods, which she likes to walk in with her dog. Dark green brings back memories of walking in the forest with her family. When she was younger, her parents would give her a sheet of things to find on their hikes, such as mushrooms, seeds and nuts that grow in the forest.

“It was their way of getting me to participate in the hike, but it was nice to have a purpose when going on a hike,” Matish said. “Looking for things [that are] around gets you to see more things.”

When Matish enters the woods, she feels grounded. Dark green reminds her of that. In the midst of this stressful semester, she tries to go back to the woods to de-stress as much as she can.

“I snuck into his chambers and pushed him out the window, and then I pretended to be the queen.”

Opinion

The traditional method of teaching, with paper assignments being physically turned into a teacher, was no longer viable.

Instead, Schoology became the norm...

In the past two years, learning in school was turned upside down.

Schoology is an online learning platform that allows students to do schoolwork from anywhere in the world. The advantages of this are clear, but online learning platforms raise concerns about higher screen time and an unhealthy overlapping of homework time and personal time. They also pose problems for students without home internet access.

The pressure on high school students has never been greater than it is now: college acceptance rates were at a record low for this past admissions cycle and they are projected to stay low; among top schools, admissions rates have dropped 37% since 2006. Students face a heavier course load, according to transcript studies from the National Center for Educational Statistics, and fill up their schedules with extracurricular activities to boost their admissions chances. Online learning platforms are incredibly useful for today’s high school students: If they are traveling, they can take just their laptop and work on assignments, giving them flexibility and reducing the stress of being absent from class. With Schoology, students don’t have to worry about keeping track of loose papers and don’t have to be in class to turn in an assignment. In addition, Schoology acts as an automatic homework planner, with upcoming and overdue assignments appearing on student’s home pages. Not having to remember when things are due is a huge benefit for students who already have so much on their minds.

However, online learning platforms come with some cons. Many students find the constant presence of Schoology to be stressful. When students are able to work from anywhere at any time, they may feel like they don’t have an excuse to relax. Many students find themselves easily distracted while working on their computers and off-task technology use in class can distract other students.

The increased time spent on computers is another glaring issue. Blue light emitted from computer screens disrupts circadian rhythms and suppresses melatonin production, which makes it more difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep. If the circadian rhythm is routinely misaligned, it can lead to metabolic disorders and depression. Eye strain and headaches are also a concern for students who spend a large portion of their day staring at a computer screen.

Poor posture at a computer can cause many issues, in-

cluding tendonitis, the most common injury, which causes pain in the elbow, forearm, wrist or hand. Hunched or sideways posture can cause fatigue and pain. Typing with the wrists held up in line with the forearms, instead of resting, is a good way to avoid tendonitis. To avoid back and neck pain, students should keep their monitor at slightly below eye level and an arm’s length away. They should use a chair that supports their back in an upright position and adjust their chair so that their feet are resting on the floor and their thighs are parallel to the floor. Building in screen-free breaks that leave students undisturbed by school can combat this issue. Breaks are extremely beneficial for increasing students’ productivity and memory as well as decreasing stress. A break can be anywhere from five to 60 minutes and should involve moving the body or deep breathing. Some examples are taking a walk, meditating or taking a ten to 20 minute nap. It may be helpful for students to set boundaries between their school life and personal life, such as deciding they won’t work after a certain time, or will take a break to eat dinner with their family.

According to a survey from Pew Research, 12% of American students at least sometimes are not able to complete homework assignments due to lack of home broadband internet access, which is defined as a download speed of 25 megabits per second or higher. Around one-in-five teens often or sometimes have to do their homework on a cellphone. These problems are highly prevalent for low-income students, causing more economic inequality within schools. Though online learning can be convenient, paper assignments work for everyone.

To make Schoology work better for students, they should understand how it may be negatively affecting them and make plans to combat those effects. Taking smart breaks, setting boundaries between work and personal time and practicing good posture will lessen the blow of higher screen time. School districts also need to find a path for students without home internet access to work on assignments, without compromising their learning or productivity. Online learning platforms are here to stay. It’s up to students to take full advantage of them, while also maintaining their mental and physical health.

A Balancing Act

Our generation has grown up with an endless digital world at their fingertips, from constant communication through texting and social media to online school. How does this affect our everyday activities and what does it mean for the future?

By middle school, phones were in all of my classmates’ hands. This marked an irreversible shift in how we interacted with each other. Instead of running around on the playground, playing board games or baking, we were huddled around devices, playing mobile games and flipping through filters. The world around us was less interesting — phones opened the door to an endless digital world.

These shiny, new objects that now occupied so many young minds sparked a wave of concern and research: What harm can these devices do?

With technology’s rapid development over recent years, children now have devices in their hands much earlier than middle school. According to a census by Common Sense Media, in 2020, 67% of five to eight year olds had their own mobile device — up 20% since 2017. Children under two years old were spending an average of 49 minutes per day on screens, two to fouryear-olds were spending an average of two and a half hours per day on screens, and five to eight-year-olds were spending an average of three hours per day on screens.

It’s beneficial for children to learn how to effectively navigate the digital world as we move further away from the analog past, but how much is too much screen exposure?

Being a teen now, it’s still hard for me to step away from a screen. It feels as though it is pulling me in; keeping me engaged and stuck in an endless cycle of clicking and scrolling. I wonder, had I been born alongside Gen Alpha, the current youngest generation, would I have my own device by elementary school? How much of my early

childhood would I spend staring, wide-eyed, at a screen?

Kristen Harrison and Sarah Do moff are two local experts on this topic. Harrison is a professor and researcher at the University of Mich igan, in the Department of Com munication and Media. She studies children and media and the result ing parent-child conflict over screen usage. Domoff is a licensed clinical child psychologist and associate pro fessor in the Department of Psychol ogy at Central Michigan University. She focuses on children and adoles cent technology use in her research and clinical work. From their re search, both Harrison and Domoff have found that major negative impacts of screen time for children are caused by excessive technology use cutting into the time needed for developmentally necessary activities.

According to Harrison, for many children, being in front of a screen provides sensory regulation: a place for them to be calm and engaged — to escape from reality. I can relate to this, as I too often turn to screens as a buffer from the world.

It’s not just the comfort that screens provide which keep children in front of them. A study led by German neuroscientist Sören Krach has shown that much of the content accessible for children to engage in falls into the category of “rewarding social stimuli,” defined as positive feelings prompted by other people. For example, seeing smiling or laughing faces and positive interactions. Rewarding social stimuli release dopamine, a chemical produced by the brain that heightens motivation and pleasure, which keeps children binging on screens for hours at a time, in turn interfering with a child’s desire to spend

staying on the screen or having to get ready for bed, or staying on the screen or having to sit down for dinner, kids are going to want to have a screen — that’s natural,” Domoff said.

Domoff recommends parents look at the 24 hours in a day and subtract the slices of time needed for naps, physical activity, time with family and friends, meals and a good night’s rest. These seemingly monotonous, routine activities are important for childhood development, and frequently favoring screen time over these activities can have serious consequences on children’s mental and physical health.

“The issue is more of what [children] are not doing because they’re using screens instead,” Harrison said. “So, the goal with [children’s] screen use is not necessarily to ban

all screens, but to make sure that we encourage alternate activities so they’re not missing out on important developmental milestones.”

According to Children’s Hospital Colorado, a lack of sleep can cause decreased brain development, learning difficulties and heightened negative emotions, as well as weight management problems, growth issues and increased frequency of illnesses.

“[In my field], we say you mess with sleep, you mess with everything,” Domoff said.

She has found that many kids are choosing their devices over sleep and is concerned with the consequences of that. Domoff recommends that children refrain from using screen media during the hour before bedtime to combat harmful emissions of blue light, which keep children awake. Keeping all screens out of the bedroom overnight is also extremely important — it takes the choice of

“device or sleep?” away from a child.

“In terms of the biggest physical health impacts [screen time has on kids], it’s sleep disruption,” Domoff said.

Similar choices present themselves during the day: screens or toys and screens or physical activity. Playing with toys and staying active benefit both the mind and the body. Even simply playing with blocks, according to Northern Clinics of Istanbul, can promote the development of spatial awareness and hand-eye coordination. Spending time playing with toys helps children develop important skills on their own and allows adults and peers to engage with the child, building necessary social skills such as body language reading and teamwork.

As I look around, I can see that the digital world is undoubtedly here to stay. But how often we engage with it, outside of work and

school necessity, is up to us. It’s okay to be attached to your phone — I am, too. But make the conscious decision to limit your screen time, even if “You’ve Reached Your Time Limit!” reminders are annoying.

Unfortunately, not only is removing oneself from a screen harder for young children, but the effects of excessive screen time from such an age are detrimental. Keeping screen usage to a minimum for the first several years of life is crucial and guardians should monitor their child’s time with technology through elementary school. It’s also important to have healthy discussions with children about limiting screen time and continuing to do so through middle and high school. Moving into the future, children and parents must learn to walk the line between reality and the digital world, and find a balance between the two.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Photography by During the pandemic, Hazel Derry spent countless hours scrolling through media sites and stumbling across popular and dangerous conspiracy theories. “If someone sees something, they might just take it to be the truth,” Derry said. “[We’re] so impressionable and it can change someone’s trajectory.”

How does the increased access to technology and social media affect our responses to the information we’re exposed to?

The glowing screen lit up Hazel Derry’s dark room, illuminating the ‘truth’ flickering on her computer screen. At the beginning of quarantine, as a freshman, Derry was not sleeping very much.

The pandemic saw an uptick in Internet usage, especially among young people. As popular platforms such as TikTok and Instagram continued to receive traffic, America’s youth had more and more contact with misinformation. Derry spent hours skimming through YouTube and TikTok, watching videos recommended to her. During the midst of quarantine, Derry stumbled upon a QAnon rabbit hole: PizzaGate.

PizzaGate is the most popular QAnon conspiracy theory. The conspiracy states that a group of evil politicians and celebrities run an underground pedophilic sex-trafficking network that secretly controls the country. A 2020 NPR study found that 17% of the American public believed that PizzaGate had factual merit.

Looking back, Derry realizes that “it was really, really, really crazy.”

Why have so many outlandish theories, such as the ones spread by QAnon, recently come to the forefront of our elections and our political discourse? The exponential growth of social media and easyto-use technology is one culprit, as it helps conspiracy theorists — and anyone with a particular point of view — gain easy access to large swaths of people, who spread ideas amongst themselves. Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook algorithms feed the flame: they tailor our pages to us, exposing viewers to posts and ideas they have shown interest in, hoping to creating stronger global communities. As high school students, we find ourselves at the mercy of the Internet; every day we are exposed to new information — Instagram infographics, news headlines, TikTok videos — telling us about a new global issue, natural phenomenon or unbelievable statistic. How do we decide whether what we read is true, or whether our chosen content creators are just telling us what they know we want to hear?

Into this vacuum come conspiracy theorists. Some of the most successful and well-known conspiracy theories are largely baseless, or prov-

ably false. For example, QAnon, an alt-right group where many conservative theories are born, is based on the belief that Donald Trump is secretly saving the US from a group of evil, elitist Democrats. These beliefs have led to a radicalization that is actualized by events such as the January 6th insurrection, the Pelosi home break-in and the kidnapping threat of Michigan Governor, Gretchen Whitmer.

The first video Derry watched was on TikTok; it was a short video describing a lesser-known conspiracy. Derry didn’t think much of it and continued scrolling. But after the initial video, more and more similar videos popped up. The more she watched, the more she believed what the videos were saying.

not only designed to match individuals to like-minded people but also to keep the viewer interacting with the media. The more outlandish the content, the more attention it attracts; in a ten-year-long study, data scientist and researcher Soroush Vosoughi found that posts on Twitter containing false information are 60% more likely to be retweeted than tweets providing truthful information. The algorithm learns that extreme views perform well and as users spend more time on the platform, they are fed increasingly radical content.

“There’s an addictive aspect of [the videos] because you can kind of come up with a conspiracy theory about anything,” Derry said. “[That’s] what’s harmful about it because [the theories] are not based in logic.”

Derry’s belief in these theories was rooted in her vulnerable age and mental state. Derry and other young people are particularly susceptible to these algorithms. A 2018 study done by HopeLab found that 93% of teens between the ages of 13-17 were active social media users. Every moment a user spends on social media increases the data collected by the algorithm.

“A lot of [the videos] were totally not credible at all,” Derry said. “But then some of the PizzaGate or QAnon videos would actually come up with fake statistics and documentation. It was really crazy how easily I got sucked into it.”

The successful spread of a conspiracy theory relies on finding a vulnerable audience—users who are relatively naive and/or don’t have the time to conduct their own research on an issue.

“[I watched the videos] during quarantine,” Derry said. “I was bored out of my mind and I wasn’t sleeping. I was not thinking critically or coherent[ly] at all. So I was like, ‘oh, [the theories] are totally real!’”

Due to the compounding algorithms of social media sites, supporters of extreme ideologies find themselves surrounded by like-minded thinkers, comfortable and unopposed, despite the fact that their beliefs have little basis in fact. These streamlined algorithms are

False information is everywhere — from exaggerated content to a call to arms over an extreme conspiracy. The Internet has provided the primary platform for these theories, allowing ideas to easily reach millions of people. As of 2019, the FBI characterized conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorist threat. With the increased accessibility to the Internet, false information will continue to grow and spread, affecting our politics, our worldview and our lives, unless we develop strategies for detecting misinformation.

“There need to be more ways to fact-check things on the Internet,” Derry said. “Make sure you know that your information is coming from a reputable source. Also, just simply think, ‘does this make sense?’ There [also] really have to be bigger restrictions on what people can say on social media. The community guidelines should be a lot stricter. Because anyone can stumble upon something like that. And they might not know what to do with the information.”

In 2019, the FBI characterized conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorist threat.

The Friday Phenomenon

The block schedule is a blessing and a curse. The freedom it allows is dragged down by the looming chaos of the Friday schedule.

Community High — the ‘alternative’ high school of Ann Arbor — prides itself on being different from other schools; one of its biggest differences being its unique block schedule. Longer, more spaced out classes have long appealed to incoming freshmen, as well as people looking for a break from their standard class-to-class schedule. For the most part, this is achieved. But for many students of CHS, there is still one major flaw with the block schedule: Fridays.

For years the CHS day-to-day block schedule has been the same: odd blocks on Mondays and

days and Thursdays, followed by Friday with all blocks in order. This means that on Fridays, classes are much shorter than they are most days, clocking in at 55 minutes per class. Compared to the usual 100 minutes of class, it is a lot harder to get as much done.

“It feels like you have less time to engage with the material with how short [the classes] are,” Parker Haymart said. “It feels like wasted time.”

This issue doesn’t only come up within the student body, but among teachers and staff as well.

“I don’t have any time to actually interact with my students,” said Chloe Root, a teacher and forum leader at CHS.

Root feels that with Fridays having such short classes, the day feels rushed and overwhelming. After school on Friday schedules, it can be hard to process all of the hectic happenings of the day especially for teachers who see up to 150+ students every day.

“At the end of the day, I feel like I’ve just been run over by a truck.” Root said.

One possible solution is going back to the asynchronous Wednes-

days of online school. Students would be able to complete assigned work from their teachers online and asynchronously, negating the need to come into school at all. This has already been discussed within staff, however the possibility of an alternate asynchronous day seems slim given state regulations regarding school hours. In the state of Michigan, 1,098 hours and 180 days of school are required for each year. The question of what counts as a full school day is where the issue lies with asynchronous days.

“It’s not a matter of our district being inflexible, it’s just that the state has mandatory requirements for when we actually are in school,” Root said.

The idea of a non-structured “asynchronous” schedule has been floating around recently, where there would be no specific times for classes to meet but students would still be required to come to school. The issue with this solution would be how attendance would be taken. Root had the idea of using forum to solve this problem.

“I think using forum as a way to do attendance would be a cool way to [take attendance],” Root said. “Because then we could start with forum – and even end with forum -and have [time] in the middle where people could be more flexible.”

Fridays have especially been problematic for students who split enroll — meaning that they attended multiple schools and need to travel between them during the school day. With the CHS schedule suddenly

lining up with the other schools schedules, there doesn’t leave much room in the short passing time for transportation. This means that missing some level of class is unavoidable. Depending on which hours they have class, split enrollers can miss anywhere from 5 to 40 minutes of instruction. On Fridays, this means that in some cases they are missing the majority of class.

“It’s annoying how I miss the last 10 minutes of class every [Friday]” said Pioneer sophomore Jake Williams, who spends his mornings at CHS before ending his day at Pioneer. Since he misses the last 10 minutes of class, he misses time where he could be getting help from his teachers or peers.

Another popular potential solution is an ABAB rotation for Fridays, which uses the current Monday and Tuesday schedules as A and B schedules that would alternate every week. This is a popular solution most likely because of its simplicity; it wouldn’t be introducing anything new, but rather reusing a schedule that everyone is familiar with. The main issue with this solution is that it might get confusing with students and staff not knowing if it were an A or B day. This seems to be a minor issue though, compared to the major inconvenience of Fridays now.

One thing that most CHS students and staff can agree on is the inconvenience and difficulty of the current Friday schedule. The question that’s left: How can we change it — and how soon?

“At the end of the day, I feel like I’ve just been run over by a truck.”

The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will will not be televised. The The rev- olution will not will not be televised. The The rev- olution will not will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be not be televised. The revolution revolution will not be televised. be televised. The revolution olution will not be televised. televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be

“You will not be able to stay home, brother. You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out. You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and Skip out for beer during commercials, Because the revolution will not be televised.”

Excerpted from “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”

The rise of social media has contributed to an increase in performative activism. A phenomenon addressed by, hip hop icon, Kendrick Lamar and told through the lens of the iconic song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” by Gil Scott-Heron.

Over the horns blaring Kendrick Lamar rapped “I’ve been duckin’ the overnight activists” in his single “Family Ties” featuring Baby Keem. Like a regal announcement made from a king preceded by his trumpets, his proclamation, though only a sentence, should be examined and proclaimed through all the land.

Lamar was scrutinized for not speaking out on social media during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer of 2020.

will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The

After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the Internet saw an influx of social media activism due to the pandemic and social distancing mandates.

“You will not be able to stay home, brother.”

Lamar was seen on the streets of Compton, California, his home town, during the Black Lives Matter protests that took place in 2020. He wore a ski mask and kept his profile low so as to not take away from what was trying to be said and accomplished.

According to the New York Times, “Black Lives Matter protests peaked on June 6, when half a million people turned out in nearly 550 places across the United States.”

Though the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests of 2020 hit historic numbers, many people were not able to attend due to COVID-19.

Many turned to social media as their only option to make a difference. The pandemic led much of the population to be absorbed into a virtual world. Reposting in-

fographics and spreading information made people feel like they were doing something. A way to absolve guilt, to feel like change was being made.

The difference between feeling like you’re creating change and actually creating it is monumental.

The access to convenient infographics in the depths of quarantine created a wave of performative activism. We’ve seen this wave rise and fall since 2020. It follows trends pertaining to the combating of institutional racism or different global issues. The impact of these infographics has led to education, but also misinformation at times. Ultimately it has led to false promises and continues to do so.

Though the intentions of infographic creators might have been benevolent, they’re not founded on genuine principles of change. These practices are a direct result of being in the era of the Internet. As our brains are overloaded with any and every issue going on in the world — all at the tips of our fingers — the only way to handle or care for everything is if it’s at a surface level.

This lessens the quality of said activism.

These issues deserve attention, but also action. Reposting infographics doesn’t give these movements that. Infographics and social media activism increases awareness which is a crucial first stepping stone in order to create change.

It’s led us to take the first crucial step of education and then we stop. Thinking we’ve done enough.

“You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.”

Lamar termed this facade “the overnight activists.”

After the murder of George Floyd there were two types of reactions. Those who feared it, and those who had never seen this cruelty before. The blatant murder was so jarringly brutal and outright that it gave no room for excuses or justifications rooted in white supremacy. It made non-Black Americans, such as myself, aware of an evil they did not have to fear.

Lamar has arguably always incorporated his identity and experiences in his art. He’s continuously spoken about the marginalization he faces as a Black man in America. Not because he chose to, because he had to.

He made this very clear in songs like “The Blacker the Berry” off of his third studio album “Pimp to Butterfly.” In this song he pours out his frustration and hate he’s faced. He says “You have my people, your plan is to terminate my culture.” He goes on to say “The plot is bigger than me, it’s generational hatred.” This song is one of his most confrontational and outright honest.

His discography is a clear indication that he’s always been plugged in and not afraid to broadcast it.

Over the rise of social media we’ve seen two types of performative activists. The first type is genuinely trying to change and the convenience of social media reposting makes it convenient enough to feel like something is being done. Though this might have good intentions it’s mostly done to appease one’s own conscience. The social pressure to not wanting to feel ostracized by fellow peers also contributes to this. Social media has established a binary of labeling people as good or bad depending on unauthentic virtual solidarity.

It’s almost as if we’re starting to value this virtual solidarity more than genuine allyship.

But the second type of performative activism has more malicious undertones that have emerged from corporations. One example of this act is referred to as rainbow-washing. One definition according to Champlin & Li from Georgia Southern University is, “‘Rainbow-washing’ is the act of companies implementing different campaigns and brand changes to appeal to the LGBTQ+ community with little to no investment in the community itself.”

Rainbow washing is common along with other types of performative activism issued by corporations. Green washing is another type where companies will market their products as environmentally friendly when really they have harmful effects.

These types of performances are extremely harmful and are done only to market the company as one of good morals when the only thing that it cares about is reputation and profitability.

“You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and Skip out for beer during commercials.”

On June 2nd, 2020 there was a trend going around on Instagram and other social media platforms called “#BlackoutTuesday.” This is when companies, celebrities and regular people would post a black square in order to show virtual solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and protesting the murder of George Floyd, Amhaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.

Kendrick Lamar did not participate in this trend.

The posts flooded the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter with photos of this black square instead of resources about the actual movement.

The point is: change cannot be solely produced via the internet, infographics or only awareness. Social media and the Internet have been helpful tools in organizing protests and educating people, but it cannot stop there. Because education without action is incomplete.

“Because the revolution will not be televised.”

“Since its release in 2015 on To Pimp a Butterfly, “Alright” has been widely accepted as one of this generation’s most important protest anthems,” said Jessica McKinney, a writer for “Complex.” “It’s a symbol of hope. It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact moment the song was first used in a protest setting, but many trace it back to July 2015, as news of Sandra Bland’s death while in police custody spread, and protests ensued.”

“Alright” was played at the Million Man March, BLM conference at Cleveland, Trump protest rallies and countless BLM protests during 2020. It’s deemed by some as one of the defining songs of protest of this generation.

The lyrics read off from the pre-chorus: (clean version) “Wouldn’t you know. We been hurt, been down before. When our pride was low lookin’ at the world like, “Where do we go?” And we hate po-po Wanna kill us dead in the street fo sho’ I’m at the preacher’s door My knees gettin’ weak, and my gun might blow. But we gon’ be alright”

After creating this song Lamar told NPR the following: “Four hundred years ago, as slaves, we prayed and sung joyful songs to keep our heads level-headed with what was going on,” Lamar said. “Four hundred years later, we still need that music to heal. And I think that ‘Alright’ is definitely one of those records that makes you feel good no matter what the times are.”

Lamar fueled the BLM protests nationwide. Even without his presence, his words rang throughout the country. Creating a change can be manifested into a multitude of different processes. Education is the first step to that process, but if stopped there is potential energy buzzing and waiting to do something real and good.

Though it can be intimidating and out of your comfort zone to attend a protest, donate to a cause, have a difficult conversation or volunteer your time to a grassroots organization, in the end, you’re pushing the needle closer to a better world. A world in which a revolution will be so transformative that it could not be contained to a screen, but only felt in the streets.

Nowhere Left to Turn

Roe v. Wade has been overturned. Misinformation about abortion runs rampant throughout the internet, which creates profit for corporations like Facebook. Crisis pregnancy centers pop out of nowhere, convincing pregnant people that abortion is dangerous. What do we do now?

When I entered high school, I didn’t expect to live through a historical moment, something that would grace the pages of textbooks in the years to come. All I wanted to do was pass my geometry class. When school shut down in March of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I was thrown for a loop. But it didn’t stop there.

I was lying in bed, recovering from a case of Covid-19, when I got the notification. The Supreme Court had overturned the landmark case Roe v. Wade, which grants the right to abortion in the United States. I stared, uncomprehendingly, at the New York Times app on my phone. I had seen this coming; we all had, with the leaked draft of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization in May and the consequential changing political climate and the leaked draft of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization in May. As headlines popped up and my phone pinged with texts and calls, I had to put it aside. I had no idea what to do with all of the information that the tiny screen in my hand contained.

America is defined by the media. We watch television shows that influence our ideas, we donate money to GoFundMes that we were sent via email, we listen to news programs with obvious bias. The way we think about abortion in the U.S. is no different. In fact, it is a prime example of how the media influences the political landscape in our country.

Throughout the fight for abortion rights in the past six months, we have experienced a massive campaign of “fake news” relating to abortion in the news. An article published by Fox News in June, entitled “Abortion ruling finally gives unborn chance for legal protection they deserve,” discusses how “little pre-born girls” are protected from mothers who would abort them for “being the ‘wrong’ sex.” However,

this argument has been shown to be false. In a study by Cornell Law, sex selective abortion is not common in the United States and laws preventing it have only discriminated against Asian American women seeking abortions.

Another example of misinformation in the media is the rise of “crisis pregnancy centers,” also known as fake abortion clinics, which are defined by Planned Parenthood as “clinics or mobile vans that look like real health centers, but they’re run by anti-abortion activists who have a shady, harmful agenda: to scare, shame, or pressure you out of getting an abortion, and to tell lies about abortion, birth control and sexual health.”

When a person googles abortion resources, the sponsored results are almost always crisis pregnancy centers — centers that offer free prenatal care but give clients false information, such as telling them that their pregnancy is farther along than previously thought, in order to talk them out of abortions. These “clinics” are often not legitimate medical centers, so they do not have to follow HIPAA and can give out private medical information.

J.A. Mertus, writing for Women & Health, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, states that crisis pregnancy centers pose “a dire threat to women’s choice-making ability.”

Social media also provides a platform for misinformation to spread. A POLITICO analysis found that content promoting “abortion reversal pills,” as well as engagement with said content, has skyrocketed since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. On June 24, the day that the Dobbs decision was handed down,

Facebook saw an increase from 20 interactions with “abortion reversal pill” content to 3500 interactions.

These posts are damaging to people who have had abortions and people who are seeking abortions now. The misinformation confuses and discourages people from making their own medical decisions while encouraging them to take dangerous medication. Abortion reversal pills, which are progesterone pills taken after the first dose of medication abortion, are scientifically proven not to work by studies and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and can cause severe internal bleeding.

The misinformation that is spread throughout the Internet is dangerous, both for policy and for individual people.

We cannot let the media continue to spread information that is known to be false in the name of “free speech.” It takes away the right of people to make informed choices about their own health, and it influences the politics of our country. This is not right.

I found out about the reversal of Roe v. Wade almost immediately, but I don’t think I processed it until two days later. My mother and I were driving to a shopping center 30 minutes away and took the opportunity to listen to a podcast explaining the decision. I spent the entire drive sobbing. The media is not all bad — it allows us to process, to reflect on what is going on in the world, to connect with those different from us. But that is only if we are dedicated to preserving our right to true information.

“We cannot let the media continue to spread information that is known to be false in the name of “free speech.” It takes away the right of people to make informed choices about their own health, and it influences the politics of our country. This is not right.”

How Did This Happen?

The overturning of Roe V. Wade was not the result of a singular decision, but instead that of a 50-year-long war against reproductive freedom in the U.S. A deeper dive into the anti-abortion movement since 1973 might explain how we got here.

Abortions were performed since long before the Roe vs. Wade went into effect. Because abortion was illegal except for special circumstances, people with unwanted pregnancies were often forced to resort to unsafe and illegal methods. Although these laws changed in 1973, the anti-abortion movement continued to chip away abortion rights with one restriction after the next — until Roe vs. Wade finally came crumbling down.

1973: Roe vs. Wade is established

This landmark Supreme Court decision declared abortion as a constitutional right for the first time in history. The case began with Norma McCorvey, a woman in her 20s during the 1960s, who was seeking an abortion. At the time, this procedure was banned in Texas (with the exception of life threatening circumstances). Unable to obtain an abortion, McCorvery was referred to abortion activist lawyers. In 1970, these lawyers filed a lawsuit on her behalf, under the name “Jane Roe.’’ The case was filed against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas Texas at the time. Eventually, the case made it to the Supreme Court and Texas’ abortion ban was struck down in a 7-2 ruling that protected abortion rights nation wide.

1976: Restriction Arise

Ultimately, protecting abortion on a federal level motivated Republicans to place restrictions on access — one of the first examples being the Hyde Amendment. It was originally created to eliminate government funding for abortions from Medicaid — a federal-state program assists low-income families in accessing medical benefits. The amendment disproportionately affects people of color as well as low-income, immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities — as they are more likely to depend on Medicaid to afford abortion services. The Hyde Amendment remains in effect today, and continues to reflect the inequities that exist in abortion access.

2013: Threats to Roe v. Wade

Liberals urged the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg to retire, suggesting that Obama would be able to fill her seat before the end of his term. Despite her declining health, Ginsberg did not step down — explaining that it was unlikely for anyone as liberal as herself to be approved during Obama’s presidency. Still, it is important to consider the implications of this decision. Ginsberg also warned of Roe’s vulnerability regardless of her position on the court. She would have preferred an incremental approach to lifting abortion restrictions, as opposed to a single court case. In an interview with the New York Times, Ginsberg explained that Roe v. Wade gave anti-abortion forces a single target to take down.

2016: Trump plans to end Roe

Former President, Donald Trump, crafted his administration to take down abortion rights. In a debate with Hillary Clinton in 2016, he promised to elect anti-abortion Justices; this promise was kept. Following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg in 2020, justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barett were appointed to the court. This was an integral piece in taking down Roe v. Wade, one that the Republican Party had been planning for years.

2021: Roe v. Wade falls

A draft opinion of the Supreme Court Roe vs. Wade’s decision was leaked about two months before the official decision was made. The leak sent many individuals into panic, as members of the pro choice movement attempted to rally forces and stop the decision. On June 24, Roe vs Wade was overturned in a 6-2 ruling by the Supreme Court.

In a fraction of a second, you can obtain 3,160,000,000 hits pertaining to the keyword “politics,” already sorted with the highest-value sources — designated by relevance, quality, specificity and context — at the top.

Never before has a generation had such unbound access to such boundless information. The scale of it is cosmic — inconceivably vast. The Internet has become a major political news source for countless Americans and within this vast domain are innumerable news media sources locked in constant competi-

freedom of the press, this struggle for online engagement exists unchallenged, unobstructed and uncensored. As a result, the information that individuals consume is, for the most part, within their own control.

This high choice media environment has given rise to highly partisan and ideological news sources in efforts to appeal to specific audiences. On either end of the political spectrum — miles from middle ground — you will find media that can be described only as propaganda; in between these two poles are countless websites, channels and blogs representing every political ideology imaginable — with the corresponding presentations of facts.

According to a 2016 study by Kelly Garrett, Brian Weeks and Rachel

Neo, it would be inaccurate to assume that consumers of any media sources are wholly insulated from those views that differ from their own. Although we do have incredible information-gathering power, there is unavoidable exposure to bias, to which all individuals are susceptible. And just as conspiracists cannot wholly avoid the facts presented by the media — take flatearthers, who are routinely subjected to evidence that the Earth is in fact spherical yet still convinced of its two-dimensional nature — the individual cannot entirely tailor what they are exposed to, nor can they wholly avoid misinformation presented by the media. It is an easy thing to be misinformed; all it takes is a change in the axis of a graph, a CNN reporter referring to the Democratic party as “we” instead

Misinformation’s promotion in the media has become widespread, posing a mounting risk to our people and our democracy.

of “they” or an argument so eloquently presented that the facts are obscured.

Take the case of the 2020 presidential election: a well-known and well-publicized example of political misperception being promoted (successfully) by the media. In all objectivity, this election was neither fraudulent nor corrupt. The validity of the results, indicating President Biden’s victory, was well-established and authenticated.

Despite the authenticity of the results being widely-publicized by a wide range of news sources across the political spectrum, many Americans clung stubbornly to the belief that the results were forged. They held onto these beliefs because this alternate reality (in which ballots were burned, voters were conjured out of thin air and the Democratic

Party conducted a nationwide rigging of polling machines) was also publicized. Americans were living in two different realities: one in which Joe Biden had adhered to the democratic process and rightfully held the presidential seat and another in which a usurper had taken the White House through subterfuge and deceit.

This distortion of facts had its intended consequence, driving the “us vs. them” mentality to dangerous heights and culminating in the Jan. 6 insurrection, in which Trump supporters stormed the capital—intending to reinstate former President Trump to office. In subsequent reporting of the attempted coup, some media outlets condemned the actions, while others praised the potential usurpers for their efforts to “uphold democratic ideals” (as they moved to upend the democratic process). How can a terrifying twothirds of the Republican party be convinced of the falsity of the “big lie” when their most trusted media sources refuse to refute election fraud allegations?

The state of being informed is, without contest, the most essential quality within the population of a democratic nation. If citizens are unable to agree upon the political realities meriting their consideration, how can they make a fair judgment? If you and I cannot agree on whether or not a weapon of mass destruction has been deployed in a foreign land, how can the two of us thoughtfully determine our best course of action? The personal context by which we approach a problem may differ, but our view of reality — I cannot exaggerate this enough — must be the same.

The evolution of online media is dangerous. Anyone can make any claim, and make that claim available to anyone and everyone. Three individuals in my personal social network repost an infographic containing false information to a combined audience of over a thousand people without any concerted effort — without even noticing. Now imagine the scale of misinformation when it is

coming from a highly coordinated, well-funded and intrinsically motivated media conglomerate.

At the surface of the problem are the misinformed: those whose perceptions of reality are most susceptible to manipulation, those whose political frustration can be whipped into frenzied rage, those who could be inspired to commit violence with no factual or rational justification (like beating an innocent man with a hammer in the comfort of his home for the supposed crime of being married to the speaker of the house). However, the blame lies not with the individual, as at the root of the problem are the purveyors of misinformation: the media outlets sacrificing credibility for a reliable, constant audience. The intentional dissemination of false information is despicable, and irrevocable. There is no taking it back. Already, the propagation of Donald Trump’s “big lie” in 2020 has had lasting consequences, corroding the faith of many voters in future election results and dividing our most powerful politicians into two camps: the sane and the election-deniers. Two camps which will become increasingly alienated as Trump runs for re-election on a platform based in untruth within a party that has made a habit of denying those facts that do not suit them and inside a media system that allows — even encourages — the dissemination of false information.

This is not a call for censorship. It would be no solution to give any government or organization the power to limit what information is available or how that information can be presented. Rather, it is a call for critical thinking. Anything that has been published has an intention behind it, and the vast majority of political coverage intends to convince you of something (with varying degrees of subtlety). This is not a world in which we have the luxury to blindly accept information as fact. It is up to us to forge our beliefs and opinions rationally — and of our own volition.

READERS

Staff members document short personal narratives centered around their experiences in technology. Submissions highlight our staff’s identity, ideas and background.

CLAIRE LEWIS

My sister’s car is broken to the point of no repair. The left door swung open when speeding down the highway, the mirrors were all broken, the air conditioning didn’t work and it made a funny sound when rolling through the neighborhood. But that car felt like the definition of luxury. The moments in the clunky 2011 Mazda 5 made every experience seem worth all the roughness. Laughter through the darkness and sweat in the heat.

My sister used to turn the volume all the way up to drown out all the noise produced by whatever problems that were most present that day; whether it was the broken windshield or our broken hearts, those speakers made everything so quiet compared to the volume of

the music. She used to always say how much she liked when I knew the lyrics to the songs she used to play, I only remembered because I liked singing along.

We used to drive down to campus and all around town just to be seen. I never actually said how much I loved to dance in the passenger seats like no one was watching, yet I always hoped someone would. When I think of that car, when I think about her music, I picture my sister singing the lyrics to a stranger at a red light. Although we never acknowledged how much we both liked to be watched, I knew that she felt the same way I did. The spark it gave me to, for just 30 seconds or less, be seen as nothing more than a simple, silly teenage girl.

There is something irreplaceable about seeing people laugh at you with joyful nostalgia. I looked at myself for the first time as a gift. Looking at who we were, me and my sister, a unit. Just two girls, being perceived as nothing more than what we sang, what we drove, how we danced and how we screamed. Maybe the drives were just to get from one point to the next or maybe we were just looking for an escape. Nevertheless, my sister’s car is broken to the point of no repair.

SERENA O’BRIEN

I feel like I have been waiting for the package in my hands my entire life (nine years). The matte, smooth box under my fingers leaves me considering a career in package design. I would have begged my mother to spend another three hundred dollars if only for the sleek stickers that came wedged into the box on top of the iPad.

All I wanted was to download Flappy Bird — the app — and beat the high score I had so painstakingly set over the course of many thirty-minute sessions of allotted screen time on the family computer. After my mom lectures me about trust, value and responsibility, my prize becomes my most treasured belonging. I vow to never smudge the screen with powdery fingers or drop it, let alone set it down carelessly (flashing forward two years, I smash it after tripping over a curb).

Cloistered inside my grandparents’ less than modernized house with a complete lack of Wi-Fi, my dreams of Angry Birds and online chess elude me. I spend the seven hour drive home pestering my parents with questions about my new gift.

We arrived home and set up the new iPad. If I could have known the future, I would’ve first bid good-bye to my coloring books, my puzzles and my board games, all of which would be replaced by the supercomputer in my hands. It greets me with Apple’s customary “Hello,” prompting me to choose a preferred language and my life is forever changed.

ABBI BACHMAN

Technology is something that I often forget the usefulness of, especially when I get caught up in the impacts of phone usage, privacy issues and the interpersonal divide it can cause. When there’s a new debate that TikTok is stealing our data (along with our service providers), or that Siri is listening to us or the hundreds of movies warning of Artificial Intelligence getting too smart, it can be hard to feel safe. It causes rifts due to what phone model we have, what social media we’re on, whether we know the newest drama online.

But without technology, I would be so far behind. I would be distant from other people and would not have the friends I have now. Without 21st century technology, I would not be able to hear.

I am very lucky to live in a time where hearing aid technology is so strong. A century ago, I would have to use a vacuum tube and a little battery box. Hearing aids weren’t even digital until the 1980s. Even then, they

might not have been strong enough to work for me.

I have even seen so much progress within my school time. A few years ago, I couldn’t listen to music easily. I would have to bring over-the-head–headphones around everywhere because I can’t use earbuds. Now those are a trend, when I used to be ashamed of my big clunky headphones as other people slipped AirPods under their hair. During work time I had to sit in class bored, while my classmates and friends were excitedly queuing up music to listen to. Now I can easily play songs anytime, anywhere. Without Bluetoothing music to my hearing aids, I don’t know how I’d get through the day.

Calculators and unit converters get me through my homework faster and the Chromebook I can bring with me is invaluable to me staying on top of my work.

Technology is a silent, bright giant that is in all our lives. Obviously there are downsides, but the necessity cannot be forgotten.

RIA LOWENSCHUSS

In eighth grade, I swiped up on a Snapchat story. This act wasn’t special or out of the ordinary. My friends and I often replied to things we had posted, sending an “OMG!” or 10 emojis in a row. Messaging was fun and a way to connect while at school or doing homework. When I slid up on this particular acquaintance’s story, I was simply thinking that I agreed with what she had said. When she responded and we started talking, I didn’t think it was anything important. When I asked for her number, I was excited by the prospect of a new friend. We have now been dating for almost four years. There are too many headlines to count about online dating and dating apps. To me, however, meeting someone online and falling in love doesn’t seem too bizarre or out of this world. To me, and to many of my peers, this is the norm. We communicate through text — it has less pressure and it allows us to talk to potential love interests immediately. We spend hours FaceTiming,

going on about our daily lives with our partner.

This has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, when teenagers were instantly and unexpectedly separated from their romantic partners, or any prospect of dating. Online dating surged, with many adults relying on apps to meet new people. Dating apps, which frequently require users to be 18 years old, weren’t available to teenagers. So we turned to what we knew: social media.

Technology has defined my own relationship, which is admittedly not a common example of a teenage relationship. My girlfriend is not allowed to see me because her parents are extremely homophobic. In the early stages of dating, when neither of us could drive and we were often not able to spend time together, FaceTime and texting allowed us to grow closer to each other.

Outwork the Videos

The dangers of unrealistic titles and pictures on thumbnails of workout videos.

With the closure of fitness centers and sports in 2020, I was forced to find alternative ways of working out. At first, I stuck to what I knew: the same soccer workout over and over again. That got boring quickly, so I tried something different. I looked up workout videos on YouTube. My eyes were quickly drawn to the skinny models on the thumbnail of the videos with titles like “Solid Abs in 5 minutes” or “Bikini body ready in 10 minutes.” I became obsessed with fitness influencers such as Chloe Ting and Daisy Keech and did almost every challenge and video they put out. This inevitably led to an unhealthy relationship with my body. When I didn’t see results after the first few videos, I started to do more and more to try to achieve this standard I made for myself.

Society is bombarded with advertisements and opportunities pushing the “ideal” body. Diets are almost encouraged at this point. The fitness and diet industry is a massive market; according to IBIS World, the weight loss service industry is valued at $3.8 billion.

In contrast, the industry has seen steady growth going back decades; during the early months of

COVID-19, gyms, fitness centers and stores that cater to the weight loss world closed down, threatening these lucrative businesses. While some stores and gyms struggled, an emerging fitness industry sector exploded. Free online workout videos had existed, but they became the craze in the spring of 2020. But are these YouTube workout videos and instructors all that they promise? These videos that use stereotypical body images, aren’t professionally developed by experienced fitness instructors and don’t live up to their promise.

During quarantine, the production of these videos increased — and so did the views. Videos with misleading titles such as “Quarantine Bubble Butt” and “My 8 minute GoTo Cinch Waist Workout” each with over 3o million views, gave many false hopes of attaining an unrealistic body in the span of 8-10 minutes.

One quick search of online workouts and you’ll find enough to last you years. Most of these videos feature attractive young men or women, usually with their shirts off with bulging muscles and perfect tans. And there’s usually a promise that if you follow these easy steps, you

could have this body.

The ultimate hook is happy clients’ before and after pictures and testimonials. Of course, clicking on a free video to get six-pack abs in only five minutes per day is something many people want to do. But is this feasible? There are testimonials, but is there any science behind the routine? Did a professional develop the program or is the instructor a model who may want to help people get fit? The primary goal is to draw clicks and advertisers to the website or channel.

While these videos are free, watchers should beware. You’ll be hit with advertisements from companies pushing dietary supplements, vitamins supplements and the latest in workout devices. Workout advertisements will appear everywhere, as your online habits are tracked and your Instagram and Snapchat will be consumed with them. Indeed, these videos benefit some people who follow these plans to the perfect body and the industry has created opportunities for entrepreneurs to form their businesses. Still, many more people are making money off the users compared to those getting the workout benefits.

Kicking My Phone Habit

Every week, a notification containing our average screentime pops up on our phone. Often, this time is hours per day. Why are we spending so much time on our phone and how does it affect us?

My weekly screen time report pops up. I swipe it away, embarrassed.

Sitting on the couch with my friend, a phone buzzes. Both of us immediately pick up our phone to check for the notification.

Laying in bed after an entire day of scrolling, defeated.

As a teenager in 2022, these are all familiar scenes. This tiny plastic rectangle is like a constant magnet, pulling me to envelop myself within its contents. My phone has a lot of practical uses, such as communication and navigation. It also has a lot of impractical uses.

I’ve had a cell phone for about a third of my life and I don’t think I could imagine my day to day life without it.

At the same time, I can’t imagine my life without the three weeks I spend unplugged, every summer. Without a doubt, my favorite part of the year is summer camp.

Camp is about reconnecting. I love the authentic nature and genuine love people have for each other. My camp friends are so special to me because I only see them once a year. I have found that people are more willing to be themselves because they don’t have to live up to the constant pressure of making it look like they’re having fun on social media.

Without the presence of our phones, we get to live in the moment, free from worrying about what other people are doing. We get to form friendships without followers, likes and views.

How can I be so dependent on my phone all year round, and yet be so excited to shut it off in the summer?

The issue, at its core, is wanting to feel included. Everyone is on social media. Group chats are always active, whether or not you’re a part of them. Social media and cell phones amplify the fear of being left out, and in my experience, create anxiety and uncertainty; holding young people to an unattainable standard.

Throughout the pandemic, social media and technology were the only way to keep in touch and feel a sense of community. Because of this, the time we spend on screens skyrocketed, especially when school was entirely virtual. Many students had upwards of six hours of screen time for school alone. Daily.

I would close my computer for lunch break and immediately pull up a video call with my friends.

As we exit the pandemic, kids and teens have formed a reliance on their phones. This manifests in classrooms, at home and in our mental health.

The quick scrolling format of many popular social media sites have made it so easy to get sucked in and lose track of time. Personally, I have wasted more time than I would like to admit.

Sometimes I have to put my phone in a different room or even on a different floor of my house in order to focus on a task or complete my homework. Because of this, phone-free time has become increasingly important for me.

I implore you to make an effort. Take your phone out of your pocket and live in the moment.

on a phone. Since the pandemic, cell phone usage has seen a massive increase.

“Sometimes I have to put my phone in a different room or even a different floor of my house in order to focus on a task or complete my homework.”

Taking the Game Out of Gaming

My hand anxiously grips the mouse; my other hand hovers over the keyboard; my ears hear every step, gunshot and voice coming from my headphones. Knowing I am the only woman playing in a group of four men, I’m terrified to respond to my teammates. The potential endless comments I could provoke by speaking run through my mind.

The frequency of these comments took away the initial shock; slowly I got used to hearing them. I soon asked myself, ‘Why aren’t these players getting punished for their comments?’

Through my experiences with the video game “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege,” I realized there was not enough accountability for player toxicity. The game only allows reports of player behavior to be made when comments are typed in chat; reporting comments made over voice chat is not an option. Game technology does not allow players to type out slurs, but since technology is not advanced enough, voice chat is a workaround that allows players to continue using problematic language. Banning slurs in chat was a step in the right direction, but comments said through voice chat still go without punishment. Having no ability to punish a player for problematic comments does not allow them to grow from damaging and toxic behavior.

While playing, I was able to experience the E-Sports side of this game. My experience was enjoyable but I felt that something was still lacking. As I realized there were

a limited number of only women tournaments, I felt frustrated. Many other games have extensive opportunities for women gamers, however, I soon realized ‘Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege,’ had few options for female players, especially surrounding tournaments. The female tournaments’ prize pool is around $250

‘Valorant,’ an animated shooter game that can be played through Riot Games on a PC, is a relatively new game. Released two years ago, it has been the pioneer in a recent shift in player standards. Through the policies implemented by the game’s developers, the game gives varying degrees of punishments depending on the level of harassment. Voice chat regulation and adequate punishment is one of the ways ‘Valorant’ has been able to differentiate itself from other games.

per competition; it’s comparatively low to any other major league tournaments. Though the women’s tournaments were few and far between, they still garnered hate.

The first female pro of the game, Lauren Williams, entered the main league and has been playing for two years. Throughout her short professional career, she has endured extreme sexism from fellow players. Misogynist comments persisted, despite her being one of the best players in the league. Many other female professionals received similar degrading remarks. Having female role models in the gaming community is inspiring, but what is the cost?

I started to turn away from this game due to the lack of gender diversity within the player base. If people were able to get away with such comments, it was not worthy of my time to continue playing.

But soon after, I was able to find a new game.

Along with the positive reputation Valorant has amassed, it has also become a community for women within the gaming industry. They have created many opportunities for women in their E-Sports scene and ensured possibilities for women players to play in a safe environment. The E-Sports leagues are big enough that the prize pools have reached totals of $25,000. Although the proleague prize pools are still higher, this is a move in the right direction.

Recently, one of the first all-female teams qualified for the professional leagues. This success prompted the celebration of their achievements by displaying the team on the opening screen of the game. We are finally heading in the right direction of video games by showing gender diversity and inspiring other women to participate in the competitive side of video game.

The endless sexism is finally nearing an end, with newer games holding players more accountable. When players are held accountable for their toxic comments, the more playable games become for women.

Video games do not make their players take accountability for their comments.

“Go back to the kitchen.”

“Why are you playing on your boyfriend’s account.”

”Why are you allowed to speak?”

“Take away the 19th amendment.”

“All women suck at video games

“Stop playing games for attention.”

“Who let you speak?”

“You can only speak when given permission.”

The Joy of Disconnect

In a world so defined by technology, I have found an escape in nature.

The smell of sunscreen mixed with pine and sand, while not inherently pleasant, will always hold comfort. Not in the same way as a perfume or a candle — but in a blanket of nostalgia and warmth whisking me into a better place.

Like thousands of American teenagers, I go to summer camp every year. For a week, my life consists of braids, starlight and fire pits. My biggest stress or is who will win the cleanest cabin competition or whether or not I need to change into my bathing suit.

Throughout my childhood, I was an unusually sensitive kid. I had meltdowns about ants, crayons and a plethora of trivial things. In middle school, I got diagnosed with anxiety. But at the time, it just felt like I was an excessive worrier, and there was no way to feel like a “normal girl”.

When I was nine years-old, my parents signed me up for my first ever session of camp. It was a “mini

week” designed for younger campers, and my mom assured me that if I really hated it, I would never have to go again. During that mini week, I found I had too much to do to even think about being worried. I was too busy riding on boats, performing skits or taking hikes. Although I was hit with the occasional surge of homesickness, the letters from my mom quickly cleared it away. I found myself wanting to spend life in the lakes and hills of camp. The only shreds of who you are at home are packed in your suitcase.

Packing for camp is a relatively simple process. All you really need are the essentials: pajamas, some clothes you can move in, lots and lots of hair ties, bedding, bug spray, sunscreen and cards. You are not allowed to bring laptops, phones or money. Whilst this may seem near impossible, it’s actually insanely therapeutic. You go through a whole week of your life with no contact from the outside world. No scandals

to focus on and no changing who you are just to fit a mold.

At camp, I am the most authentic version of myself. I say and act how I want, not caring about trivial things like reputation or gossip. I find myself prioritizing kindness and integrity rather than appearance and the words I use. You find yourself forming sisterhoods with girls you didn’t know a week ago, pouring the ins and outs of your life. I’ve learned so many valuable lessons from my cabin mates and counselors, ones that I wouldn’t learn in any other atmosphere. Often when I’m faced with issues and problems in my day to day life, I think, “How would Camp Lydia handle this?”

Camp gives me stability and comfort and it prepares me for the upcoming school year and allows me to see my full potential as a human being. I gain sight of vital truths when I let go of worldliness. And, to me, that’s pretty magical.

As They Tag Along and Take Credit

Classrooms are inherently gendered spaces, from the people who raise their hands to those sit quietly in the back.

One of the first times I consciously recognized sexism in my education was in my eighth grade math class: Geometry. It was an accelerated course that students would normally have to go to a high school to take, but there were enough people in our grade ahead in math that they offered the course at our middle school. The class was, not surprisingly, male dominated.

I have been lucky with my math teachers. Since sixth grade I have had all female math teachers who have encouraged me and made it known that my place in the classroom was just as valued as my male classmates. Once entering high school and being a freshman in a class with seniors, I did not know how to ask questions and advocate for myself. My voice was quiet while my classmates were loud.

Through the years I have learned how to tolerate being in a class with mediately after the numbers came out of my mouth, five hands went up: immediately and aggressively proving me wrong before I had a chance to redeem myself — to learn

from my mistakes.

Whether or not the students in this class did this on purpose or not, this moment is not a unique occurrence: it is a pattern.

I have never felt discouraged or unwelcomed by my math teachers to learn; It has always been quite the opposite. It is my peers who I have learned alongside for years that belittle me the most. There is no sense of cooperation when we are surrounded by. It is not competition with each other, instead it is proving one’s point and one’s place. You shouldn’t have to earn a place in the classroom to be right or to wrong; it is well-proven time and time again that when we are wrong, that is when we learn.

Our teachers encourage us to be wrong and to ask questions because someone else has the exact same one running through their head. But it is our turn to do the same as stu-

grade geometry class. Now, I am trying to learn how to credit myself.

In almost every class, I watch boys take credit for work that isn’t theirs. I’m not talking about copying one worksheet or notes; I’m talking about the time-consuming commitments we all make in different ways. And when it comes time, I watch someone else, time and time again, take credit for my work. I watch boys in my class get credited more than anyone else; the kicker is, it often isn’t even their work. But, gladly, they still take credit. I hear boys in my grade talking about how much they do more often than girls in my grade. Something I think everyone has to learn is, you don’t get a badge every time you do something. This is something I learned quickly: more often than not, you will not get any credit or props for your work. But many boys expect and feel they deserve what they do should be recognized. This is the divide.

Also, you have to think why are you doing this? If it just for the recognition, is it really worth it? Do you actually enjoy, or dare say love, what you are doing at all?

But, regardless of who is doing more or less, I see the boys in my class getting credit for work they did or did not do, more often than any girl.

That is another point: as a girl, and maybe just as a student, you have to be prepared for every and any aspect of your work to be torn apart and degraded. There will always be someone looking to push themselves up by pushing you down.

or the first test turned in means virtually nothing.

As a girl interested in STEM, I had to learn how to advocate for myself. I started learning this in my eighth

There will always be boys silencing your voice, but that is not what I find the most harming. It is taking someone else’s hard work and time and calling it your own. Because as they tag along and take credit, we become invisible all too easily.

Every year I write my future self a letter. When I read it the next year, it reminds me to reflect and to break out of what feels like an endless cycle.

Receiving that letter from myself was one of the most intimidating things I’ve ever experienced. Maybe it was because of the fear that I was happier a year ago or that I would disappoint my younger self. Maybe it was the guilt of not fulfilling the goals I had set for myself, or it could’ve been that this past year had been filled with the most change I had ever experienced.

On Sept. 28 2022, I received an email sent from none other than myself. It was dated from Sept. 28 2021. I had used a program called “FutureMe” — a free way to send a message into the future. The memory of writing it filled my mind, bringing me back to my bedroom at my dad’s house; I sat at my little desk pondering what the universe had planned for me in the next year. I remember writing every question that came to mind, knowing by the time I read it again, I would know all the answers.

By the tone of my letter, I was confident that 2021 Lydia knew there was change coming. She could feel the water retreating and creating the tidal wave. But she had no idea how different everything would look after the wave came crashing down this year.

My first read was hard; I couldn’t see through my tears. I felt overwhelmed with sadness and gratitude for her perseverance.

“I am doing all this for you,” she wrote to me.

Reading this letter from my younger self was a moment of reflection I didn’t know I needed. With so much going on in my world over the past year, my mind had gone into survival mode; I didn’t give myself time to process the change going on around me.

Since I sat down that day to write that letter to my future self, a lot has

happened: I got my driver’s license; I learned how to drive stick shift; I became captain of the cross country team; I started my senior year of high school; I went to Italy; I applied to college; my parents split up; I moved houses. I grew up.

My past self couldn’t have prepared me for what was to come even if she tried. And she did try. She wrote to me about everything she was doing for my benefit — she was living for me, her future. She did her best to predict what the next year would hold for my family and for myself.

Unable to see it then, I could see now how painful it was for her to be living a life not for herself, but for me. She was overflowing with desire: to escape the obsession of creating a good life instead of living it. She was blinded by her concern for my well-being rather than her own. She didn’t try to hide anything though; she told me all about her longings.

“I want to curl my eyelashes and pet a sheep and journal until when I look out into the ocean, I can still see the lines of the pages I was writing on,” she wrote.

Despite the oddness in the things she dreamt about, reading it now, I still understand. It’s not about those things in particular, but about her desire for uniqueness in a life that feels like an endless cycle. Even after a year, this line still resonates deep within me.

I discovered FutureMe pre-pandemic during my freshman year at CHS. Since then, I’ve received and sent a virtual letter to myself every year on Sept. 28. When I first came up with the idea to test “time travel” and went searching for a program to fulfill my wishes, I was pleasantly surprised by FutureMe; It can send letters decades into the future or just days for free. This year, I received

my third letter.

Personal change can’t be measured with a ruler or a scale — it’s almost impossible to measure at all. Reading my letters from the past few years has given me a new sense of power. It’s not a feeling of control, but a feeling of awareness about the hardships and happy moments I’ve experienced. I’m almost ashamed to say I don’t think I would’ve stopped to reflect if my past self hadn’t intervened, breaking me out of my tunnel vision.

The Lydia that sat down to write that letter reminded me not to forget about her. She reminded me of all the goals and predictions I had for the next year. She reminded me to answer all of her questions.

“Are you able to sit on the roof at Mom’s new house?”

“Yeah, it’s amazing.”

“Have you applied to colleges yet?”

“Yes and I’m still working on more!”

“Do you stay with Dad often?”

“Not that often.”

“Did the XC team make it to states again?”

“Of course.”

“Did you get a tattoo with Mom?”

“Yes, it’s beautiful.”

“I really want to go to Italy one day.”

“Your wish came true this summer! We got to go on the coolest Italy trip ever.”

While my year was far from the expected, I feel immense gratitude for the reminder from myself to step back and admire how far I’ve come. It’s beautiful how the writing sits so patiently for 365 days: waiting for answers; waiting for updates; waiting to be sent; waiting to be read; waiting to deliver the past to the present.

What Are The Pros and Cons of Technology?

Lauren Sprauer

“I’d probably be a year or two behind in school since we wouldn’t have been able to have online school during the pandemic, obviously. Technology just helps a little bit in everything. It seems like schoolwork is a little bit easier when you can just turn stuff in on Schoology. Making nice pretty notes is easier when you are on Google Slides. Also, more communication as well. A benefit is that it helps you get done what you want to get done. The distraction factor is the biggest con. It’s a massive factor. There are so many things that were designed to be attention grabbing and keep you engaged. Even on the smallest levels, like click bait through social media or advertisements. Everything wants a piece of your time.”

Ismael San Antonio

“It’d be a lot harder to do homework for one. I think my life would probably be a lot more like it was two years ago because I had a lot of hobbies like reading and I just went outside more. I still do them, but it’s not nearly as much as I’d like. It’s pretty obvious that now that I have a phone it’s the main reason I don’t read as much. Before I had a phone, I couldn’t really keep in contact with friends outside of school at all which really sucked and also it’s really nice to be able to write things down on the fly, or just find information right away. It’s really hard to get away from my phone and it takes up a lot of time in my day. Even knowing that fact though, it’s still an issue. It’s really difficult to fix.”

“I think technology is the way in which we can talk and communicate in today’s world. It’s how our societies wrapped around. If we didn’t have technology, we would still be probably waiting for months for a letter to get to us. I’m visually impaired so [technology] can help to make things bigger for me. I get voice-to-text and I can be more independent. The downside is when technology doesn’t want to be on your side, it doesn’t do those things. It makes your life more hectic. Sometimes more stressful, like when your device shuts down or gets a virus, or doesn’t let you go into Schoology.”

Arts & Entertainment

How to Get Away with Murder

“How To Get Away With Murder” brings together a group of law students as they face the challenges of working for one of Philadelphia’s highest powered attorneys.

Scandalous, peculiar and inspiring are three words that I would use to describe “How to Get Away with Murder.” This eloquent series, written by Peter Nowalk and directed by Michael Offer, is a legal drama that follows five law students and their professor Annalise Keating — a high powered attorney in Philadelphia representing a wide array of criminal and civil cases. The law students that she has chosen are expected to assist her with them.

With my interest in law, this show grabbed my attention right away. Wes Gibbons, one of the law students who was unexpectedly chosen to work alongside Keating, takes us through the challenges of having unsupportive classmates while using it as fuel for success. We see Wes and the other four law students go to extensive lengths to find evidence for each case, getting one step closer to becoming high powered attorneys themselves.

I am in Mock Trial, an after-school club where we work on mock court cases. Through participating, I have started to learn some of the basic parts of law. I have learned enough that I can understand some of the language and the structure of each court case. I am able to understand why the characters are doing something from a legal standpoint due to my basic knowledge.

However, this is not to say that someone who doesn’t

have experience with Mock Trial or isn’t an attorney can’t enjoy this show. It is written in a way that you could know absolutely nothing about the law and still enjoy the witty and clever characters.

The personality mixture and social dynamics of the young law students make the show hard to turn off. Each student brings a different perspective to each case, all while trying to get the attention of Annalise Keating to be hired as an attorney at her firm. The student who she believes has worked the hardest and given her the best advice over the period of their learning will be hired.

“How to get Away with Murder” takes you through different facets of the law, while twisting the plot in unexpected ways. Just when you think you have surmised the conclusion to a case, something completely different happens.

I would recommend this show to anyone who wants to be inspired by the intelligence and perseverance of this group of law students, but also wants to be taken through an unhinged story. This show grabbed my attention right away and I believe more people should experience it.

QUICK FACTS: How to Get Away with Murder

The creator and showrunner of the series, Peter Nowalk, had no experience running a show prior to “How To Get Away With Murder,” nor did he have any knowledge about law school.

Viola Davis took home the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Annalise Keating.

Every episode’s title is a quote from that episode.

Available on Netflix “How to Get Away with Murder” was produced by ABC Studios and ran from 2014 to 2020. In 2015, Viola Davis won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

Ain’t Burned All the Bright

new book from Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin explores the trials and tribulations of 2020, using just three long sentences to do so.

Oxygen is at the very core of our existence. It is what keeps us alive. It’s the fuel to the fire, which is explored in Jason Reynolds’ and Jason Griffin’s book, “Ain’t Burned All the Bright.”

The book consists of just three sentences in 388 pages. Each word rings with the passion of a story that will have you aching to your very core with sorrow, making you forget all the book’s ands and ors that come along with each new chapter being a run-on sentence. The striking colors presented on every page, each its own work of art that paints a picture of emotion, could easily be the most touching book to come from Covid-19.

The book is told from a young boy’s perspective of what the world became in 2020. Through Black Lives Matter protests to Covid-19, he doesn’t understand it

all. Like many others during the pandemic, his father has Covid-19 and can’t bring himself to understand how masks and not shaking hands will save lives.

Oxygen is the cement in this reliving of 2020. Oxygen is what brings the young boys’ family together, yet tears it apart all at once. His mother, father, sister and brother are all coping in different directions, and all in need of one thing in the trying times: oxygen.

“Ain’t Burned All the Bright” is a tragically beautiful story that is told not just through text, but through fervorous drawings, depicting the life of a Black family in America during the pandemic. Although it’s a quick and easy read of only 10 to 15 minutes, it will have the impact of reading it one million times.

QUICK FACTS: Ain’t Burned All the Bright

1 2 3

“Ain’t Burned All the Bright” won the 2022 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Picture Book.

The author of the book, Jason Reynolds, is the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King Awards.

Jason Griffin, who did the artwork for the book, first worked with Jason Reynolds in 2009 on “My Name Is Jason. Mine Too.: Our Story. Our Way.”

Come and See

A retrospective on the 1985 film “Come and See,” and its shocking display of violence and war. The film gives a unique take on the story of World War II.

Even among so-called anti-war films, you will be hard pressed to find one that does not glorify violence in some way. In this respect, Elem Klimov’s 1985 film “Come and See” is a rare find. There are no heroic acts or grand battles — only horrifying reality.

“Come and See” tells the experience of Florya, a boy who joins Soviet Partisans fighting the Nazi invasion of Byelorussia. The story never provides the opportunity for a hero to emerge. At no point in the film do the Partisans engage the Nazis in a tactical firefight. When Florya is being shot at, it is from far off machine gun fire. This removes a tangible opponent in battle, replacing it with an unknown enemy. When the danger is coming from off screen, it acts as a force of nature.

The film opens with Florya and his friend being spotted by a Nazi scout plane. It shows a foreboding shot of the plane circling above. The same shot is used multiple times later in the film, appearing right before something terrible happens. The plane acts as a visual marker of a turning point in the film. Florya’s life changed from being a playful child to being thrust into the middle of war after seeing the plane for the first time.

Another repeating motif is the stork. It appears during the still moments, when Florya is happy. It has an almost absurd quality. There are other instances of this feeling: music plays for just a second when Florya goes into shock, and when the Nazis are carrying an old woman around in her bed. They run counter to the rest of the film. But they break the viewer out of the rhythm of the violence and force them to see the strangeness of the events.

“Come and See” is a brutal portrait of war, painted in mud and blood. Yet within it are incredibly beautiful shots. In the forest around the partisan camp, Florya meets Glasha, a girl who works at the camp. Together, they frolic among the trees and build a shelter out of pine branches. The film sticks to a muted palette, but this scene is accented by the deep emerald green in the trees. Before the viewer has time to appreciate the tranquility, it is interrupted by an assault by Nazi artillery and paratroopers.

When bombs are exploding all around, sound becomes central. The soundtrack plays what Florya would be perceiving in that moment, instead of an objective account of each explosion. A high pitched ringing plays, and the world is tuned out leaving only the sound of Florya’s breathing. He goes into shock and the sound brings the viewer there with him.

Real violence, wars and atrocities are happening right now all over the world, but for many, they just fade into the background of everyday life. “Come and See” shocks the viewer into stepping back and reconsidering what is actually normal.

The

Banned

Students and staff reflect on what they’ve learned from banned or challenged books, as criticism of them doubles down.

Books

Gender Queer

“Most books that I choose to read stay with me. Being able to see somebody so openly sharing their [struggle] makes me more aware of how we’re all interconnected in our own struggles in different ways. That’s a perspective that I didn’t have beforehand. [It was] a refreshing take on being able to express yourself in a way that [feels] authentic to you and that [representation] matters.”

“My takeaway is to never make assumptions about a country’s people because it’s almost always the fact that there are such diverse and unique people inside a country. It’s always good to look more into a people’s culture than to rely on the news and Persepolis does a great job portraying the uniqueness of a people.”

“I think it’s banned because it challenges the political structure and social structure of a country that is very different from ours. A country where women don’t have the freedoms that they do [in the U.S.] I became grateful for the privileges that I have but also acknowledged that not everyone has what I have because of the color of my skin and where I live and who I am. It makes you look at people and yourself in a different way.”

The Hate U Give Evers Baskey

“I really like the message this book sent about being a part of a community, specifically being a part of the Black community, and how much police violence can affect that community. When I read it with my mom and brother, we talked about a lot of the events and when I would go to school sometimes I would think about the themes.”

“The Communist Manifesto” is a historically stigmatized book. Ronan Laporte, a CHS freshman, was not deterred by its controversy.

Ronan Laporte takes U.S. History, just like many of his freshman classmates. He has spent his first semester at CHS learning about the women’s rights movement and the Industrial Revolution. However, Laporte brings to his history class a context that has changed the way he looks at the world: “The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx.

When he was in seventh grade, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Laporte picked up “The Communist Manifesto” out of pure interest. He had spent the majority of his school years learning that systems like communism could never lead to positive ways of life.

“I have always looked at communism [and] socialism as bad things, done in bad places,” Laporte said.

Being a self-described “contrar-

ian,” however, Laporte decided to read “The Communist Manifesto” as a way to explore the nuance of different governmental systems. Laporte views the U.S. as the “hegemonic imperial core,” and believes that it revolves around capitalism. Therefore, he wanted exposure to other forms of living.

“The Communist Manifesto” prompted a social awakening for Laporte. Although he was politically active before reading it, the book helped him recognize the privilege that he has, both materially and fiscally, and motivated him to be a larger part of the leftist political movement. He recently volunteered for Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s reelection campaign, knocking on doors to encourage Michigan voters to go to the polls. Laporte believes

that Marxism is defined by a “constant moving forward.”

“When we’re not [moving forward], we’re regressing,” Laporte said. “Right now, the Democratic Party isn’t doing much [as] the Republicans are taking away rights, like access to abortion. I think progress is the most important thing.”

Laporte has experienced the ideas of “The Communist Manifesto” portrayed in his own life. Growing up, he has seen things that he considers “symptoms of a capitalist society,” such as high rates of homelessness and increasing mental health problems. According to Laporte, a large reason for this is the lack of social safety nets in the U.S., which leaves many people struggling to access resources when they need them.

“There’s just so many horrible things happening in our society,” Laporte said. “It is right in front of [our] eyes and people just walk right past it, walk past someone who literally can’t get food.”

Reading “The Communist Manifesto” has led Laporte to other Marxist materials, like “Das Kapital.” These readings have helped him recognize bias in his life, particularly within the education system. Although he loves his history class and believes that his teacher effectively identifies the prejudice in history, Laporte has realized that bias is impossible to erase.

“I can see the flaws in [history classes] in a more complex way than I would be able to if [I didn’t have this context],” Laporte said. “This is deeply anti-working class. This is deeply anti-revolutionary. [The way history is taught] is more [a proponent of] ‘this is how things were and everything is great now.’ So [looking at my history class] through a Marxist lens helps me look at my history classes in a more refined way.”

As he keeps learning, Laporte hopes to contribute to changing the capitalist system that we live in today. His goal is to work for the United Nations and travel around the world, helping those who are not as fortunate as him.

“I want to grow up and do everything in my power to make it so that life for people who aren’t as privileged as me is dignified and valuable,” Laporte said.

Out Loud.

Out Loud. Out Loud.

Gold by Unprocessed

“Gold,” the fifth studio album by German progressive metal band Unprocessed, comes with a significant shift in sound to a larger incorporation of alternative rock elements. With idiosyncratic guitar, Unprocessed evolves their sound in a unique and engaging way.

The biggest development for Unprocessed can be seen in the instrumentals from frontman Manuel Gardner Fernandes. With heavier incorporation of Fernandes’ recognizable style, the album is filled with muted notes and false harmonics. However, this doesn’t mean Fernandes shies away from trying new things. A new addition to Fernandes’ playing is the use of guitar slapping, which coincides well with bassist David John Levy’s bass slapping style.

A larger incorporation of alternative and rock elements is apparent throughout the album, particularly in drummer Leon Pfiefer’s playing. These elements can be seen in the songwriting in “Orange Grove,” and the vocals in “Velvet.” A larger range can be seen from Fernandes’ vocals. “Dinner” is another song where Fernandes’ unique style shines in the interludes.

The album is filled with sounds that are not traditional for the band. The use of a ticking clock sound in “Redwine” juxtaposed with Fernandes’ distinct guitar playing and subtle ambient synthesizers frame the emotion-filled “Portrait.” The band also plays into their German roots with the song “Berlin,” featuring German lyrics and the use of Berlin-based techno instrumentation.

While many songs on the album show Unprocessed’s potential to create unique sounds, some songs dive too far into alternative and rock elements and come off as generic and bland. Songs like “Snake” and “The Game” stick out when compared to others on the album where the band plays more into their style.

“Gold” could be a few tracks shorter, but the album is still Unprocessed at their best. With impressive guitar playing and an appealing blending of genres, “Gold” is a notable addition to the new age of progressive metal.

A Few Good Things by Saba

Chicago-based rapper Saba explores the contrast between an impoverished past and a financially-free future, while also diving into his overall growth as an artist, in his third studio album “A Few Good Things.”

The album has noticeable similarities to his critically acclaimed record “CARE FOR ME,” released in 2018. Featuring some of Saba’s most personal tracks, “CARE FOR ME” is presented as one long eulogy for his dead cousin. Saba used “CARE FOR ME” as a space to dive into his own constant struggles relating to his past and his relationship with his cousin. In “A Few Good Things,” Saba delivers personal lyrics while focusing more on his current state and how it relates to who he was.

Compared to his previous two records, “A Few Good Things” is easily the softest of the three. More melodically focused, Saba consistently uses a soothing and gentle voice, which can be seen in songs like “Circus” and “Still.” In the album opener “Free Samples,” Saba dives into his current status and how what he has become relates to who he was. “Make Believe” is an emotionally intense track that falls near the end of the album, in which Saba plays audio of his mother’s voice and describes what it is like for his dreams to become reality. Halfway through the track, the soft and cozy background shifts to a louder and more beat-oriented sound, while Saba’s lyrics shift to his personal struggle dealing with the pressure of his current fame. In the final track “Few Good Things,” the overall themes of the album get tied up and it functions perfectly as a conclusion to the project.

This album proves that Saba is undeniably beginning to cultivate his own sound. When looking back at his first studio album “Bucket List Project,” it’s clear to see how much he has grown past his influences and blossomed over the years. While “CARE FOR ME” will likely still stand as his best work to most listeners, there’s no doubt that this album is a step in the right direction for Saba.

23 by Central Cee

Before making the leap across the pond, U.K. Rapper Oakley Neil H T Caesar-Su, better known as Central Cee, released his project “23.” Coming off his last project “Wild West,” which had massive success in the U.K., Cee has been ascending to new levels of fame through the popularity of his music on TikTok, a Lyrical Lemonade music video and a Genius Verified interview. “23” has a wide variety of sounds from Cee — many songs stand out in their own way and can be an entry point for many who are new to U.K. rap.

“Obsessed With You,” is the biggest hit on the album. The song samples the PinkPanthers’ song “Just For Me,” which fits perfectly as a secondary vocal to Cee’s rapping. Cee’s rapping is slowed down in this song and there is more emotion in his lyrics. Combining a great sample with the emotion he is able to convey in his lyrics, “Obsessed With You,” is a stand-out song on the album.

The third song on the album, “Ungrateful,” tells the story of Cee’s career to this point. While he loves the spotlight, he also has some resentment towards it. Cee shouts out many rappers that helped him get to this place he’s at. “Ungrateful,” shows the duality of fame that not many artists talk about, which makes this song a unique take for listeners to hear.

One of the best songs on the album comes as the closer. “End of the Beginning,” produced by award winning artist Dave, concludes the album with a song reminiscent of Dave’s latest album “We’re All Alone in This Together.” It has a slow start, then a rapid change in tempo.

Overall, the album has a pattern of the slower songs being some of the best on the album. Songs like “Khabib” and “Bunda” are great in many ways, but Cee shines the best on his songs “Ungrateful” and “Obsessed With You,” with more meaning in his lyrics and a slower pace. With the rapid growth of Central Cee, expect this album to become a highlight of his career.

Creating art is like telling a story for Adri Friebel. Throughout his childhood, Friebel remembers creating pieces with his father, who is also an artist. Together, they would create projects like mazes that felt to him like going on adventures in faraway worlds.

Friebel continues this theme of storytelling in his art today. Recently, his work has consisted mostly of dark and eerie scenes, made using charcoal. He has always liked monochromatic art but was not sure where to start, until he found charcoal. He realized how well it lent itself to monochrome and created shadows, unlike painting.

“With painting you have to mix,” Friebel said. “You have your color, and then if you want to do a shadow for that, it’s a new color.”

Friebel enjoys the simplicity of charcoal. A piece of charcoal and an eraser is all he needs to create a piece.

Recently, Friebel has been creating remote nature scenes. He’s noticed that many of his new pieces seem to take the viewer back in time.

“I think subconsciously I’m doing that because I am a little tired of phones and I’m tired of social media,” Friebel said. “I just want to live on some property and tap trees for syrup, so I think that might be the message.”

Digital art has had an increased presence in the art world in recent years. Nowadays, there are A.I. generators that will create completely computer generated art pieces. Some have expressed their worries with this kind of art because it is making it harder for artists to make a living in today’s world. This is something Friebel isn’t concerned with. He’s confident in the idea that people connect to human made art in a way they never could with computer generated art.

“People like the idea that it’s made by a human and that it took actual skill,” Friebel said. “People care about the specialness of a piece or about the meaning behind a piece.”

What draws Friebel to art is how he can use it as a communication tool even though it’s nothing like writing. He likes how he doesn’t

have to say exactly what he means, it can be up for the viewer to interpret. Friebel has struggled with the concept of meaning in his art until recently, after he spoke with other artists. These conversations helped him realize what he wanted to be making and what he wanted to convey with it. He wanted to make people care.

“During class critiques, no one would really say the things they say now,” Friebel said. “Usually it was ‘You painted a robot, nice.’ Now it’s more, ‘This makes me feel a certain way.’”

Friebel doesn’t plan on going to school for art, but does want to continue the craft for his own enjoyment. He wants to continue creating worlds to get lost in.

“I don’t really want my job to be art because then it turns into a chore,” Friebel said.

He is currently planning on going into forestry to keep the connection to nature that is often present in his art. For now he’s enjoying the adventure of creating what he sees as the best art he has ever created.

Eva Beals

Art has always been a part of Eva Beals’ life. Growing up, Beals always had access to any art supplies she wanted, thanks to her parents both being artists. In middle school, Beals liked to make graphic novels and comics. She filled her old sketchbooks with character designs, which she was interested in.

When Beals started to take art classes at CHS last year, she decided she wanted to put more of her focus into building her skills and trying to put together a portfolio for art school. Originally, her portfolio consisted of a lot of pencil drawings. However, recently she has been exploring using lots of colors in paintings, collages, pastels and more. The addition of color makes things more difficult, but Beals has been enjoying the challenge.

“I’m in a very experimental phase right now and I’ve been trying to figure out what I like,” Beals said.

Beals has stayed mostly in the realm of traditional art, but she would like to be skilled in both traditional and digital art, in order to have a well-rounded art education. Even though she believes her traditional art is stronger, she’s interested in things like animation and game design. She would like to improve her digital artistry and has been trying to find the time to learn.

“I think that when you are more into the traditional field, it’s more focused towards gallery art and physical stuff,” Beals said. “Digital art is more practical because it’s more easily shared and seen by people, and it’s just

more useful to make money, honestly.”

Recently, Beals has been creating space-related art, such as planets, stars and moons.

“I like things that are pretty,” Beals said. “But I like to put my own spin on things. I want to put it through the filter of my mind and then put it on a canvas. That’s what I really love about art.”

She likes to draw natural things, but not exactly how they are presented to the eye. She loves that with art she can create things the way they exist in her mind. Beals believes that there is no way for art to be perfect, but is comforted by the fact that she can keep improving in her art. She hopes to keep working and growing.

“Part of being an artist is feeling disappointed in things because anything can go wrong,” Beals said. “It’s not like you’re guaranteed a good outcome, no matter how talented you are.”

Of course, there are still those pieces that Beals would rather not look back on, or maybe even feels embarrassed by. Despite those pieces, Beals continues to love creating art and putting something creative out into the world.

“You have to remember that one piece doesn’t dictate your entire world,” Beals said.

What Beals loves about art is that she is able to create something that adds more beauty to the world and know that it’s all hers.

One CHS artist considers the meaning of art, combats disappointment and defines beauty.

What’s My Aesthetic?

Y2k

It is no surprise that the early 2000s are making a comeback. Paris Hilton inspired tracksuits, low rise jeans, platform sandals, etc. If you dress Y2k, you were definitely a Disney Channel kid and watched Cheetah Girls any chance you got. Before putting on your Spice Girls playlist as the soundtrack of your day, you stand in front of your closet and think: What would Britney Spears do? The answer is always low rise jeans, a tube top, your coolest pair of mini glasses and a baguette bag to tie the whole outfit together.

ChicI know you and I both say “très chic” whenever we see or hear the word, and yes you can dress that way. If you dress chic, you probably love Anne Hathaway and “The Devil Wears Prada.” Your drink of choice is a London Fog and you are not ashamed to admit it. When getting ready in the morning, your eye goes towards a black jacket and a sleek pair of jeans. A classic white sneaker or black loafer are always the shoe choices to complete your chic look.

RetroUnfortunately, time travel has not been invented yet, so you cannot live in your favorite fashion time period. You can, however, express the sentiment of being born in the wrong decade through your fashion choices. The perfect vintage outfits need to coincide with the perfect vintage day. I’m sure you decided to start your day with coffee in an understated mug with a record on or by watching your choice of an Audrey Hepburn film. After your morning has come to an end, you head to your closet, where you’re met with an impressive collection of bell bottoms and shift dresses. Naturally, you and your outfits always carry the spirit of Marilyn Monroe.

Academia

Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor or Ravenclaw? Either way, the “Harry Potter” series embodies the academia aesthetic. Dressing in trench coats, walking the streets of London in the rain, playing chess and ending the day reading an 18th century novel from your local bookstore in your candle-lit living room, are all activities that academia lovers aspire to incorporate into every day. If any of the activities listed above apply to you, you’ll lean more towards plaids and sweaters when you’re dressing for the day. Anything that Beth Harmon would wear has a place in your closet.

Downtown Girl

The downtown girl aesthetic is for the Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill and Dawson’s Creek lovers of the world. Fall is when you thrive, although summer is a very close second, and there’s a good chance you are never caught without music blasting in your ears. To dress like this, you’ll need four key components: dark wash denim, a long sleeve henley, a lacey tank top to go underneath, and a pair of converse. Accessorize with your wired over the head headphones and a classic tote bag before you walk to your favorite coffee shop to indulge in your current read.

How Do You Find Clothes Online?

Lila Fetter, Ionie Steudle and Claire Theiss struggle to decide what store to buy from online. They find that quality and efficiency are often at odds with each other, making shopping a harder process.

Theiss works to balance sustainable shopping and her budget. She tries not to look at Shein or Amazon, and prefers to shop at smaller businesses. She tries to only buy pieces she really likes because she feels that scrolling through pages of clothes can lead to overconsumption.

Theiss thinks it is good for smaller businesses to have an online platform because it allows their business to reach more people. It can be hard to get to a local business in person, especially if they have only one location. Steudle agrees.

“Locally owned businesses are not going to be everywhere,” Steudle said. “So having the option of an online shop and being able to order it from wherever and ship it to your house is an amazing thing we got out of shopping online.”

Steudle prefers buying from small businesses. She finds that homemade products are usually better quality, plus she feels better supporting the people making those items. Another part of her reasoning is the societal and environmental impact of fast fashion.

“Urban Outfitters is always gonna have those pieces

and I don’t think it’s worth spending the same amount of money for clothing that’s not supporting a good cause,” Steudle said.

Fetter finds online small businesses can be unreliable. In spite of that, they also want to try to shop from those more. One way to do this is to buy online from businesses they found and liked in person. For example, Fetter and their mom found a booth at the art fair they liked, and bought a pair of earrings there.

“We thought, ‘These are really awesome. We need to go back,’ and it took us forever to find her. Then we found out she had a website and we could have just ordered online.” Fetter said.

That jewelry store has since become one of Fetter’s favorite stores.

Steudle finds clothes on Instagram ads. The algorithm has made the pop-ups specifically targeted to her preferences. While the products may be appealing, the quality is less so.

“Either it’s super good quality or it’s already falling apart,” Steudle said. “There’s no in between.”

Fetter prefers to avoid that issue by looking on their own, which also allows them to choose places they think are important to support. For example, they like to support a queer business owner who makes crochet pride

flags. That said, they still find themself buying from Amazon.

“Every time I’m like, ‘This is the last time,’” Fetter said. “Or if it doesn’t come in time, ‘This is karma for shopping on Amazon.’”

Fetter prefers to buy clothes in person because they like to physically feel the fabric and try on the clothing. They also like the experience of shopping: going with friends and trying stuff on. A lot of times it’s more ex pensive, so Fetter will find a particular style they like, and order it online where it’s generally cheaper. But they try to shop in person as much as they can because of shipping costs and carbon emissions.

Theiss also prefers to shop for clothes in person. She finds sizes online aren’t consistent enough for her to trust something will fit correctly. Looking for clothes online allows Steudle to find more options. She can search for the items she wants, and then more will appear on her feed if she buys them.

Though it’s fun either way, Steudle prefers to buy clothes and jewelry in person. She likes going thrifting and trying things on to see what works. Because she likes both silver and gold jewelry, she looks at the pieces against her skin tone to decide if she likes it.

That said, Fetter and Steudle have bought pieces online that have memories attached to them. Fetter’s favorite item they have from the internet isn’t something they got themself; it’s a floral dress they love to wear. Their sister got it and it didn’t fit her, so she gave it to Fetter.

For Steudle, it’s a gold moon bracelet. Her friend bought three bracelets—a star, a moon and a sun—for her three friends.

“It’s very symbolic of our essence and how we see each other,” Steudle said.

While shopping online can be inconsistent, leading to broken earrings or too-small dresses, Fetter, Steudle and Theiss will continue to search. Because in the end, they can connect with more businesses that they like to support.

“I think it’s best that I [practice sustainability] because there are many people that don’t have that privilege,” Theiss said. “I want to do my part by trying to thrift and support small businesses as much as I can.”

“I try to shop in person as much [as I can] just because of shipping costs and carbon emissions. It’s pretty hypocritical if I shop on Amazon.”

Indigo LUCAS

Marcel Proust’s questionnaire, created in 1890, featuring Indigo Lucas.

WWhat is your idea of perfect happiness? Freedom to do and live as you want. What is your greatest fear? My greatest fear would probably be drowning. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? My neglect. I won’t fix the traits and habits I find inadequate, incapable and futile, even though I can. I know how to fix them. I abstain from change because it’s easier, not because I should. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Inexorable, unwilling to change. What is your greatest extravagance? Probably Magic The Gathering cards and card sleeves for them. What is your current state of mind? I’d say my state of mind is pretty good, probably the best it’s been in a while. On what occasion do you lie? I will lie to spare people hurt or other negative feelings. What do you most dislike about your appearance? I stopped exercising as much over the pandemic so I have noodle arms. What is the quality you most like in a man? Someone who’ll try to not hurt those around them, even accidentally. What is the quality you most like in a woman? Someone who’ll try to not hurt those around them, even accidentally. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? “Dude, dude, wait, we should do…” When and where were you happiest? I was probably the happiest in the middle of summer in 2019. I was at the top of the lower peninsula (MI). If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I’d make myself more adaptable. I could mold myself into what I want to be! Where would you most like to live? I think I’d like to live in Iceland. What is your most treasured possession? I’ve moved around a lot and I’ve become less attached to physical objects. I’m not sure what it’d be, I think about most possessions as just objects. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? I think you’re most miserable when you don’t have freedom, when you can’t be you, when you can’t do what you want and need. What is your most marked characteristic? My terrible attention span. Who are your favorite writers? H.P. Lovecraft, Tomas Kalnoky and Pat the Bunny. Who are your heroes in real life? I try not to idolize people, I don’t think it’s healthy for me, or them. What is it that you most dislike? I dislike people the most. I’m pretty social but people are terrible. I don’t like people as a species. What is your motto? “Wait, what’s going on?” Say it much too often.

Beet Sauce Pasta

This vibrant, eye-catching sauce gets its color from beets, a sweet and earthy vegetable. Not only is this sauce flavorful and bright, but it proves that pasta does not need to be boring. Next time you decide to make pasta, substitute the marinara for an equally delicious sauce.

Ingredients:

2 small beets, peeled and chopped ¾ cup cashews, soaked overnight ¼ cup coconut milk ⅓ cup pasta water

2 cloves garlic, peeled ½ tsp salt 1 lemon, juiced 1 box rigatoni ½ cup feta, crumbled ¼ cup pistachios or walnuts

Instructions:

1. In a food processor or blender, combine the cashews, beets, coconut milk, garlic, lemon juice and salt until smooth. Scrape down sides between intervals. Add desired amount of beet until desired color and taste are attained.

2. Boil pasta according to package directions and reserve ⅓ cup of pasta water.

3. Drain pasta once boiled and transfer to a pot.

4. Add sauce to the pot with the cooked pasta and gradually add pasta water. Combine until fully coated. Serve with feta and crushed pistachios on top.

Humans of Community

“There are a lot of new ways to meet people [because of] social media. Some people find their best friends through social media, but at the same time, forming a really deep and impactful connection isn’t the same anymore because of how integrated social media and technology are into our lives nowadays. I feel like there are a lot of positives [to social media], but at the same time, it can be dangerous because nothing can be erased. Everything is forever, so if you slip up once, it’s on the internet forever. I like social media because I like seeing other people’s lives and I like being able to share things about me as well. There’s a lot to be shared and a lot to be found on social media despite all the [negative things].”

Mia Fletcher Payton Sly

“I love using social media. I mostly use it to talk to people and to entertain myself. It definitely affects my mental health a lot. There’s lots of studies that [show] social media can cause depression and anxiety among teenagers because platforms create an image of what you’re supposed to look like, and it can cause you to think ‘I should look like that.’ You can also be hearing things about what other people are doing, which can make you think that your life isn’t fun enough. I think that there’s both positive and negative effects of social media. I think the negative effects mostly affect school, your education and how much you’re learning. I think the positive effects are meeting and connecting with people who don’t necessarily live by you. I would say there are more negative effects [than positive effects] related to social media.”

How does social media affect your daily life?

Jessika Whiteside

“It feels [as though] there are more negative effects related to social media than positive ones, but I wonder in part if that’s because we tend to focus on negative things. I’m always grateful that I was a teenager in a time before social media, because it feels like that would be such a heavy layer to have above me as I was trying to figure out who I was. Without [social media] entirely, I would definitely lose a big resource. I do think that there’s some value in using social media to connect with people and to hear other people’s ideas. I think I would have a smaller network which is good and bad, but I envision that without it, I would be using all the fancy notebooks that I have a little bit more and not be as overwhelmed, so maybe [my life would be] a little bit more peaceful.”

Lily Carroll

“Social media can be both a good and bad thing. It depends on how you look at it and what you [gain] from it. Some people look at something on social media and compare themselves to other people and have a lot of insecurities because of it. But others look at, for example, someone who’s pretty on social media and think, ‘She’s really pretty,’ and not have it be an insecurity for them. I have a lot of online friends on social media and I also have a lot of friends who I have met through social media. Some of my friends live in other countries and I can communicate with them through various different platforms. I’ve also been in contact with people I met at Camp Al-Gon-Quian over the summer. I wouldn’t have stayed in contact with a lot of people if it weren’t for social media. [My life would be] very different and I would not be where I am today and I wouldn’t have some of the friends I have today without it.”

Donors

Thank you for supporting the production of our publication.

STUDENT & FRIEND SPONSORS

Paula Oliva

Melissa Bar Westhoven

Lesley Millwood

Andrea Cocciolone

Gapske/Meagher Family

Costello-Saile Family Ronny O’Brien Eric Jacobson Andrea Horvath

Linda Young McCreadie Family Stephen & Amy McKenna Gabrielle Gruber

Shay Bachman

The Thomas-Palmers

The McKenna Family Christopher Van Lent Gabrielle Gruber

The McDonald Family Susan Thomas

Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra

Melissa Bak McClease Langdon Alger

Susan Miller

Joan McGuire Pamela Daniels Ana Baylin Bank Family Carey-Benjamins Family Jennifer Saville Hannah Rubenstein

SILVER SPONSORS

Mini and Rocky The Smith Family Levin-Shavit Family Deidre Piper & Andy Hsia Anonymous Yun Huang

GOLD SPONSORS

Marion Palmer Ariella & Sergey Shikanov Candace and Eric Bramson Helen Levy & David Rosenfeld Angela & Phong Cao Holly Heaviland

Karla Blackwood

Cassell-Kelley Family

Max Sprauer Nadya Matish Anna Dutton

Sascha Matish & Bev Davidson

Min-Maranda Family Helen Kaplan Breck Family Nick & Kathleen Wang

The Monte-Sano Family

Judith and Ken DeWoskin Vara James Suzanne Admiraal & Patrick O’Brien Sara Bachman

Nancy Burns Ellen Stone & Roger Lauer Kristin McGuire

RAINBOW ZEBRA

Kate Albertini Anonymous Anonymous

Our Turn

Ivy Prochaska

“I think my life would be very different without technology. I use it every single day. I think that the people I talked to — my bubble — would be much smaller. I find inspiration for art online, so I feel like my artistic style would be different because so much of my art [is] influenced by what I see online. I find the most art that I like on Pinterest. There’s just so much on there and you can look up anything.”

Clara Freeth

“My life would be completely different without technology because I use it for all aspects of my everyday life. The way I communicate with people would be different because I text my friends [to ask] where we are meeting for lunch and that kind of stuff. I’m not the best at knowing where things are, so I use my map app a lot. Certain aspects of technology, I would definitely like to keep, but there are some aspects that I would be happy to get rid of. Social media is a big one that people only use because other people use it. I would be completely fine if nobody else had it and it was deleted, because I think it’s a new form of peer pressure and conforming to societal expectations. If you don’t have it, you’re left out, but I feel like I waste a lot of my time just scrolling endlessly.”

“Technology has really improved quality of life. I mean, think of all the different technological advances that have made everyday things easier over time. The dependency we have on technology can sometimes consume us and technology has advanced to a point where we have to be careful how we use it, because it’s a really powerful tool. Without technology, there would be a big void that we [would] need to fill, but I think it would provide a nice challenge to learn new skills and adapt to new things.”