10 - Charlene H: Uncertainty in a New Stage of Life

Prompt: Graduation is a major milestone. What does high school graduation mean to you?

I’m graduating in less than three months.

That’s crazy. I was 15 when the pandemic hit. Now, I’m almost 18.

I constantly hear juniors say “I’m 17? Whoa. It means I’ll turn 18 next year,” “It doesn’t feel like I’ll be a senior next year,” or even “I’m not ready to be a senior.” I understand why they say that. Even as I’m on the verge of turning 18, I still mentally do not feel like a senior. While I am not the same as my 15 year-old self, I feel like I should still be 15. It does not feel like high school is about to run out. It does not feel like I’m about to be an adult. In fact, I don’t want to be.

High school graduation, in a literal sense, means a person has earned all their credits in high school. It means receiving a diploma. But high school graduation isn’t just about that. It isn’t just about completing a K-12 education. High school graduation signifies both an ending and a new beginning. It means going into the next phase in life after a chapter in life has closed.

That’s what I’m afraid of. It causes some discomfort.

I only ever hang out with people at school. It saddens me knowing that I’m likely never going to see any of them again—the classmates I’ve grown up alongside since either elementary school or middle school as well as my friends. After high school ends, we’re all going our separate ways. We’re all growing up, maturing, and moving on. We’re all venturing off into unknown territories. 

New days come and they fade away. I don’t know what the rest of my life will bring, but the more I roam, the more I want to look behind and stay right where I am. Creating a new life after high school will be hard when I am accustomed to the lifestyle I have now. My class rank is 13 of 412 according to Aeries; I strive for the highest grades. I don’t find school enjoyable, but I am used to focusing on it. With me about to graduate, I need to figure out how to move forward to make sense of my life.

Graduation means the start of adulthood. It means having to pay bills, taxes, insurance. It means harsher consequences. It means working more than I ever had before. Graduation means I am no longer on the free trial of life. It means I have to start paying for the full version.

A future I scarcely know is about to arrive. I’m about to start a new chapter that hasn’t been written yet.

The ever-changing outside world in the rear-view mirrors is closer than it appears.

Word Count: 457

10. Kaiyue L. - Can't Help Myself

Last year, Sun Yuan and Peng Yu's art piece "Can't Help Myself" went viral on TikTok and Twitter. It first debuted in 2016 as a commission for the Guggenheim Museum in Venice, Italy. Now, it's the subject of widespread debate on social media platforms for the complex meaning behind this dystopian work of art.

"Can't Help Myself" was a robot arm with one specified duty and intention ---- to contain the thick, deep-red hydraulic liquid within a fixed area. When the sensors on the machine detected that the paint had strayed too far, the arms scooped it back into place, towards the middle of the area. At first, the robot would dance happily after every pulling back the spillage by swinging its arm around, many years later, it looks worn down and almost... hopeless. At this point, the spillage had become unmanageable as it grew over time, and the robot was slowly wearing itself down and becoming rusty due to the liquid. 

If you analyze it on an artistic level, you'll realize the sound of rusty metal screeching sounds a lot like screams of panic. It spent its days in a never-ending cycle between sustaining life and bleeding out (The hydraulic fluid almost looked like blood for its dark maroon color). It's a metaphoric representation of the average working-class today, drowning in more and more responsibilities in an attempt to stay alive and live miserably until our inevitable death. 

The arm finally stopped running just about 2 years ago, after working its entire life programmed to live out this fate. 

WC: 260

10 - Alejandro M: Challenging Yourself

 

Do you like challenges? Or do you like to work smarter and not harder? Do you like to be part of the pack? Or do you like to stand out? Are you more of a person who just gets on the escalator to not tire themselves for whatever they’re doing after? Or are you more of a person who challenges yourself and climbs up or down the stairs unlike most other people?

Most people would want to be like stairs so that they can feel special compared to others, but it can be hard to get outside of your comfort zone and challenge yourself in life when most other people are not doing the same thing. Being like escalators is not a bad thing at all. Those people just work more efficiently than others and do just enough to succeed in their lives. When deciding whether to use the escalators or stairs, these people decide to use the escalators as there really isn’t any reason to work harder, like tiring yourself by going up the stairs, for something that the escalators can provide. 

But being like stairs can show the desire of a person who wants to challenge themselves in any little way. These people do things many people just decline to do to either make themselves a stronger person, or just to feel that small satisfaction of doing things that most people decide not to do. Being like stairs is more of a mentality and effort thing. Going up the escalators can be very tempting, but why not challenge yourself and go up the stairs for once.

I personally consider myself as mostly an escalator. I like to do what many people are doing, I really don’t challenge myself to my full potential, and I like to work smarter and not harder. I at times can show signs that I’m more like stairs than escalators, like times where I decide to do extremely more than what a teacher is expecting for an assignment, but I think many people, including myself, see me as more of an escalator than stairs. 

Word Count: 350

10 - Lucas V: The Very Big Day

 

    As the day is coming nearer and nearer, graduation day is coming. As a junior in high school, it’s a big accomplishment as I have waited for this moment for 12 years since the first day of preschool. Every day during school I would work hard and get good grades so that I am able to graduate high school and also get into a good college. The fact that all that hard work I put into school is finally paying off makes me happy. I can finally relax for some time before I go into college and start all over again for another 4 years. The only thing about college is that I have to pay a lot of money so I will be getting student debt which would suck.

    Throughout the 12 years that I have been in school, I have met new people that I had great relations with and most of those people are my best friends at the moment. I made my way through without doing anything bad like drugs or alcohol use. As of right now, I am learning how to drive. I’ve had my permit for at least 6 months and am almost ready to take the driver's license test. Just need to work on parking and then that’s it. Hopefully, I am ready before spring break so I can take that test. Back when I was little, I didn’t know that I would have to drive to school or to drive in general. It’s pretty cool to see how I’ve come along with the people I know.

    The way that I am now is very different than when I was in elementary and middle school. I grew up. I matured from the kid that would always get into trouble a lot and also a talker to a young adult who keeps his mouth shut. I feel that this is a good thing because I am ready for what’s to come in a year. I am waiting for that moment where it all ends and the start of my adult career.

Word Count: 346

10- Khiem D: Oh Wow, The Album Came With A Fighting Game

Oh Wow My Album Came With a Fighting Game

    Hello, welcome to a long rant about how some random Japanese guy managed to be born with the talent capacity of a US oil tanker. Guilty Gear is a fighting game franchise cooked up by Daisuke Ishiwatari probably while he was making some deal with the devil to just learn literally everything. He is the creator, head developer, lead designer, and main composer of the game, he decided one job wasn’t enough and decided to do all of them apparently. Sadly though this blog isn’t talking about how incredibly talented Daisuke is, it’s about the music as his works just add an extra layer to why the game is so good. He puts so much effort into the music not only in this game but the previous games as well, adding in musical references, story bits, and generally a diverse soundtrack. I will be talking about two of my favorite character themes from the game to perfectly encapsulate their personality and backstory whilst pointing out various musical references.

First theme is Baiken, a one-armed, one-eyed, samurai whose theme, Mirror Of The World, reflects her character development throughout the series. To summarize an event that basically nuked all of Japan caused the Japanese to be refugees, Baiken included. At an unspecified time, the camp she was staying at was attacked by creatures named Gears, being led by who she believed was Asuka. During this raid, she lost her family, friends, her arm, and her eye. She thus became the samurai we see in the game, bent on revenge up until the current game where she has mellowed out which is reflected in her theme. In the song, we see lyrics of the Mantra of Light a popular scripture in Japanese Buddhism used to cleanse sin and ironically sung as Baiken believes could not be atoned for. Then the rest of the lyrics detail her journey to “cut off all vexations” and move on from her journey as a vengeful force, instead being said Mirror Of The World, to help people like her old self to move on as well.

Next theme is Drift, Happy Chaos’s(yes that is his name) theme, where Daisuke gave himself an epileptic seizure creating the time signatures for. The song is certainly interesting in its composition being segmented into multiple different styles, from a swing like piano to Prague rock-esque nonsense, and even eventually to a Disney musical. In the story, Chaos was the first magic user who discovered a god-like entity in another dimension which he would take half her power. This basically made him even more powerful whilst also “enlightening” him with more information than any human should have. He is summed up in the song's lyrics, “ It took me 10 years to find the answer to something------ I forgot about it in 2 seconds,” and,” nothing is important to me---- That’s why everything is beautiful.” Because of all the information he essentially lives in a state where his attachment to the world is solely just to live in an enjoyable way which he views as a never-ending narrative, as reflected by the song just being composed of confusing time signatures and lyrics that make no sense, at least to me.

If you want to listen to the songs here are the links:

Drift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlhzs171vwA

Mirror of The World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE9NxbSNejQ

 Word Count: 541

10- Antonio L: The Loyalty Of A Mammal

 The Loyalty of A Mammal 

When comparing dogs and cats in the absence of human attention, they behave very differently. Dogs will usually run around, looking for someone to seek attention from, while cats straight up just leave your house entirely.

I know this because I used to live in places where I’d see cats just strutting down the neighborhood. Eventually, they’d go back to their homes, or people will assume they’re strays and pluck them away from their owners even if they have a collar with a name and address on it. This’ll create a double life for a 9 lived animal.

Dogs and cats just have those kinds of effects on people, especially those seen without a home, which is why you get that feeling of guilt when watching those commercials of homeless animals. You can enjoy watching your Family Feud AFTER you get to feel sad.

On the topic of homeless animals, how they choose to live without one can be a determining factor towards how they act. Cats without homes just go everywhere, and they usually have their kids following them around, under houses or in the most random places ever really. I don’t know much about dogs that don’t have a home, but I’m pretty sure they don’t do the same, no matter their size.

Alright, enough sad stuff, time to discuss dogs and cats as pets. Dogs are usually very energetic, especially in their youth. I know this because I have a 2 year old Patterdale Terrier, and he loves running around the house as much as he loves barking at every person, car sound, and other dogs he hears, sometimes he’ll even bark at nothing. 

Cats are more sheltered and lazy. Cats can be agile and get away from your clutches, but they prefer the carnage of destroying all that can be scratched. Plus, they like to use the bathroom EVERYWHERE (never owned a cat btw). Also, I’ve heard that it’s better to get one when they’re kittens so they can trust you more as they grow up, because just like every high schooler, they have trust issues as well. 

So dogs are more like your fun and active uncle, while cats are more like your little sibling that says stuff like “I’m not in your room.” when they’re in the door frame of the door to your room. That’s not to say that both are bad per se. They just take a lot of preparation when it comes to owning one. The duality of dog and cat can be shortly summarized, but I need 300+ words so here we are still. 

If you’re more of an active person or person looking to be active, dogs are the pet for you as they enjoy the outdoors a lot, and may try to run off once you take them outside or accidentally leave the front door open.

If you’re just a laid back person who prefers to deal with responsibilities at home, or just doesn’t like the Vitamin C the sun gives, then cats are for you. You can walk cats, but that doesn’t really make much sense compared to dogs.

But to answer the question of this prompt, dogs are better than cats in my opinion because they won’t try to scratch you in the face, tear up your furniture in your free time, and won’t get stuck in really unorthodox places.

Word count: 564

10-Krishna C- Settling

  “Do we settle for the world as it is, or do we work for the world as it should be?”

Why would we ever settle? We have all heard the saying that no one is perfect, but that does not mean that we should stop striving to be. If there are things in this world that you believe are wrong why would you just stand by and let it happen, it makes no sense. 

Saying that you are “settling”  is a neutral way of saying that you are giving up. No one wants to say that they are giving up on something but that's all settling is. Giving up is the worst thing you could ever do when it comes to changing something you don’t like. There are hundreds of ways to reach a goal, just because you tried a few routes and they didn’t work doesn’t mean that no route will work. 

My mom always told me that doing something over and over again while expecting a different result each time is the definition of insanity.  Although she is not wrong there is a thin line that is not clearly seen from an outside perspective. It’s making the most minute changes each time you experience failure, you are not changing your goal but changing the path you take while staying persistent. 

For example let's say you are a person who is trying to land a trick on a skateboard but you keep failing. From the perspective of people watching you it doesn’t look like you are changing much with each attempt, but in your head you are making the smallest differences. 

This idea of keeping the same goal while making small changes while staying consistent will eventually take you to where you want to be. It could take years, decades, or even generations, but settling will never be an option if change is wanted. 

WC-295