Category: Opinion

  • Why I’m glad schools are closed

    I was sitting in my TA period when it was first announced that schools would be closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Needless to say, there was a range of mixed feelings with my classmates; some excited, some upset, some afraid how it would affect the school year. Although I was a little anxious about the virus itself, most of that fear was for the effect on the economy. Schools closing, however, was a huge sigh of relief for me.

    I’ve learned a lot from Poly. The yearbook and newspaper teams are more responsible than my last school. The English teachers actually teach you how to compose essays without killing any existing passion you had coming into the class. The music students are held accountable, and the staff and administration encourage students to push themselves and be eligible to attend four-year universities.

    But I’m not upset about the cancelled events. I’m upset that I can’t edit or distribute a physical newspaper, but there were no events I was planning to attend aside from choir concerts and my graduation ceremony.

    I can’t say I hate Poly. But as a transfer student from another district, I can’t lie that I miss my previous high school. Four years ago, I had a completely different plan for my senior year. I never expected to be in a school with open enrollment or block schedules. At my last school, I was the de facto section leader in marching band. At Poly, I never even marched. I would never have thought I’d be writing (and especially drawing comics) on a newspaper team, either, yet here I am as a staff writer for The High Life. There were so many promises made to me in San Bernardino that I expected to be there for. So in a way, my senior year was disrupted a long time ago.

    Just as any stereotypical high school senior, I had a terrible case of senioritis coming into my final year. My two older siblings, who had similar feelings as me coming out of high school, became different people upon attending college. They used to leave me out of everything, tease me like most siblings, and always want to be alone. Since attending college, they are constantly calling me to chat or play video games, and they are almost always around friends whenever I call them. Heck, my brother has even asked me for help with writing and editing a screenplay.

    Seeing my siblings’ demeanors change after leaving high school has only made me more anxious to graduate. I’m sick of being told what I have to learn and when, and I want to have more freedom in my education. I find myself more productive in career building when I have a break from school, and whenever I have to go back, I feel drained, cranky, and sometimes a little depressed. After school, I don’t want to work on homework or personal projects, I don’t want to play my instruments, and I don’t even want to hang out with friends. While I love my teachers this year and enjoy my electives, the idea and pressure of having to survive another three months on little sleep and low motivation was killing my energy and creativity.

    Now that I am at home, I am able to work where I want to work. I can get up and walk around when I need to, and I have no more homework because now it is combined with my schoolwork. I no longer have to break my back lugging a full bag of books on my back, and I can keep my hands busy during lessons with whatever I feel like at the time. I’m wearing headphones less, playing my instruments more, and I feel more creative and less pressured by deadlines because I choose where I work. I’m at the point where I’m considering homeschooling my own children in the future.

    I don’t know if I regret coming to Poly. I probably wouldn’t be on the path I am now if I had chosen Wilson like I considered. But after four years of disappointment after freshman year trials, band drama, one of the hardest moves of my life, and newly developed social anxiety, I’m not sure I could have a better end to my senior year than this. I want this virus to end just as much as the next person, but I couldn’t be more grateful for the break from high school.

  • Hair Discrimination

    For some, hair is definitely a sensitive topic because essentially, it is a representation of who we are. What’s the first thing you notice about somebody besides their face? Most likely their hair. We all choose to wear our hair how we want but why is it that many black girls are ridiculed for their hair?

    There are things you should and should not say when talking about a black girl’s hair. Things you should say: “I love your hair!”  “How did you get it like that?”  “What products do you put in your hair?” Things you should NOT say: “You should do something with that hair.”  “That looks a mess!” And you absolutely do NOT call a black girl’s hair “nappy”!

    These are the few things that are and aren’t acceptable to say to a girl of any ethnic background. It is derogatory and undermining to the person receiving it and to the race as a whole. African-Americans have fought a long and hard battle and even to this day still continue to fight for our freedom to be who we are. We shouldn’t be told that the way we wear our hair is “out of uniform” or “needs to be more kept”.

    You should KEEP your salty opinions to yourself. For years, black women have been fired from their jobs for wearing their natural hair instead of choosing to change how they look just to appeal to others. Black girls have gotten their hair cut at school, they’ve been suspended, they’ve been bullied and embarrassed. Why can’t black girls be accepted for who they are and how they look? We can’t confidently wear the hair that we were given? Just because our hair isn’t straight, stringy, and boring does not mean that it is not beautiful! And who is to say it isn’t beautiful? I’ll wait.

    All textures of hair are beautiful and should be appreciated. If you do not have anything nice to say, it’s best to just shut up, sit back, and mind your business.

  • Is It Time to Bring Down the Patriarchy?

    Since the beginning of civilization in Mesopotamia, lives of women have been controlled by men. Women were denied many of the rights that men had, such as an education, but were expected to serve husbands and fathers.  The voice of oppressed women was not loud enough for men in power to hear until Mary Wollstonecraft started a “revolution in female manners” during the French Revolution, according to the political theorist Eileen Hunt Botting on Bringing Down the Patriarchy.  Although this did not create equality overnight, this was just the start of women coming together to bring down the patriarchy.

    Today, inequality still lives between men and women, which is a big problem. According to Marie Claire, women make 16% less money than a male employee of the same job, and it is worse for women of color.

    Even though we have made progress with reducing the wage gap, there is still a long road ahead of us, including aiming for more representation in government and senior positions for companies or firms, for example.

    The feminist movement is making strides in fighting for rights not just for women, but for fellow minorities in ways like speaking up about gender discrimination. Unity is the medicine for this patriarchal disease.

    I know people who think that there might not be a point in fighting for equality, some of them my friends. They think that equal rights for everyone or the end of discrimination is never going to be possible. But this is where they are wrong.

    By teaching young boys that catcalling women on the side of the street is unacceptable, by teaching young boys about toxic masculinity, by teaching them about how they can contribute their privilege and power to the feminist movement, by teaching women all around that other women will have their back in a sisterhood.

    By coming together, educating people, and having the will to fight for rights is how the patriarchy will one day be broken.

  • Futurama Appreciation

    For weeks, I’ve been binge-watching Futurama and as I come closer and closer to the end of the show, I have made my final decision: Futurama is indeed the best cartoon ever. With it’s first episode airing on March 28th, 1999 (my birthday, another reason why it’s the best), Futurama has released a numerous amount of gems, uncovering the many secrets of existence, spirituality, and the FUTURE. While many do regard this cartoon as “stupid” or “childish”, there is no doubt that it is very intellectual! The cartoon was created and produced by Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons (1989) so of course the show is great.

    Now why do I say that this show is the best cartoon ever? Well for starters, the show is pretty crazy. The most outrageous things can happen, ranging from adventures to Robot Hell to saving the world from a tiny ball of fire from the Sun who wants to turn the Earth into a big ball of fire in which it could rule. Things we’ve all experienced. The jokes are also hilarious, you can tell that the producers do put some thought into the things they say… Or maybe they’re on drugs, it’s pretty hard to tell. I especially like all the characters, my favorite being Bender Bending Rodriguez, the vulgar, self-absorbed, alcoholic robot. In one episode, Bender gets lost in space where he is left to drift through the universe for eternity. During his journey through space, Bender becomes God, then he meets God. God, who is literally the entire universe in which they live, reveals to him the secret of being God. He tells Bender that you can’t help everyone but you can’t not help anyone either concluding that, “when you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.” Deep, right? Probably not.

    Additionally, I believe the show opens our minds up to many possibilities of the future. Is it possible that we will coexist with robots? Will we ever be able to travel from planet to planet through the universe? Will we drive cars that hover off the ground? Will suicide booths exist? We’ll never know. But it’s nice to wonder. A show like this really makes you wonder if the creators are geniuses or if they’re smoking crack and quite frankly, if the show doesn’t make me wonder those things, is it truly good? Again, probably not. Now if you have watched this show and you’ve read this article and you completely disagree with me and you think I’m a big dumb baby, in the words of Bender Rodriguez, bite my shiny metal– nevermind.

  • High-Five Fridays Frighten Introverts

      As an introvert, there is nothing more terrifying than to see a group of bubbly people standing in line on a Friday morning with their hands ready to give you a high five.

       Yet this is exactly the view each Friday morning at Poly’s main gate. Teachers and staff from around campus partake in “High Five Fridays,” a school campaign meant to create an encouraging and positive atmosphere for students.

       This however is not the case. The only thing I am encouraged to do is go through the gate on 15th Street to avoid the awkwardness. Their positivity is not contagious. Physical contact with overzealous strangers as I keep a forced smile plastered on my face is the last thing I need on a Friday morning.

       As I’ve mentioned before, I am an introvert. Social settings have never been my forte, and dealing with too many people can really overwhelm me. Especially, too many enthusiastic people, this being one of the main reasons High Five Fridays and I have never really clicked.

      “High Five Fridays” is not for students to enjoy but rather forces us to be polite. The majority of people I know don’t smile back because they’re truly feeling encouraged but rather to not hurt the feelings of teachers who have taken the time to do this.

       And I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings either, but a campaign which was supposedly centered around students has really just become something students have to go through. Not for their own sake but for the sake of teachers and staff.

       My opinion however, does not reflect the opinion of the other 3700+ students on Poly’s main campus. So if someone somewhere has a better school experience due to this enthusiastic socialization, then I guess it’s a win for the campaign. I however, will continue to avoid that gate whenever I can and encourage whoever else can’t handle extroverts too early in the morning to do the same.

  • The Life of An Office Aide

    Everyday in school you see an office aide walk into your class and I’m pretty sure you think it’s probably one of the most fun classes you can take on campus, but that may not be the case.

    Don’t get me wrong being an office aide does have its perks, walking around school to kill time, just chill there for a bit, walking around and delivering stuff, but most of the time you may not have something to do.

    In my experience, being an office aide in the counselor’s office, you get to take call slips, sort out the mail, and deliver things for counselors and occasionally take other things, but what do yo undo when they don’t have mail or what if the they don’t anyone to call out of class? You just sit there in the office… right in the middle of one of the busiest offices in school. Everyone, including teachers, students and staff memebers are walking in and out of a very small office.

    So yeah, it’s an easy ‘A’ and does get fun, but a lot of the times you are just sitting there. But for me I have a friend that I’ve known for a while in that class so it’s kinda just like another lunch period, and we just walk around when we don’t have any passes to hand out, but we can’t be out for too long in case they do need an aide to do something, even though there are three aides during my period.

    Personally, I would recommend being an office aide, it’s an easy ‘A’ and it’s even more fun if you take the class with a friend, because you get to pick what office you want to be in, you get to take some walks, when you don’t have anything to do you can just sit there on your phone. The cons is it can get boring waiting on stuff to do, sometimes the mail can really pile up, there’s many people walking in and out of the office, sometimes teacher don’t even wanna open their doors… and teachers can sometimes be a little bit rude, but most of them are pretty cool.

    One time a teacher asked me what the pass is for and SIS, I really don’t know, and she kept asking me, like the students name is on there and tells them where to go… I’m just the aide, the little delivery man, sister, so I don’t know why you would keep asking me, that’s between the counselor and the student.

    Sometimes I feel like the teachers don’t remember that we don’t know what they’re going there for, we’re just the delivery man (or woman).

    But at the end of the day, I do enjoy the class, I feel like it’s very easy, and a majority of the time pretty fun, especially if you have conversations with the workers in your office. So if your thinking about being an office aide, I most definitely recommend it, it’s like a free class period.

  • Australian Fires a Call to Action

    Australian Fires a Call to Action

    We can not continue this way. This is not normal. The catastrophic fires raging within Australia’s forests are not normal. The one billion animals dead and eight thousand dead koalas is not normal. As a result of us being Americans, the situation seems far away to us. Justifiably, we are not confronted with the pain of being there: smelling, seeing, and feeling the fires. However, we must stand as a collective whole and fight against climate change.

    The longer the climate worsens, the more it seems like people are disregarding the situation. It is in our human nature to get tired of one thing after it continues for a while (just like a monotonous sitcom at your grandparents’ house), but this climate crisis is not something we can turn off. We know that, but we should act as if that is true. We can not expect for things to get better unless we instill the urgency of the situation now. Climate change is happening, and it’s happening quickly. To match the speed of this crisis, we need to return to the foundations of humanity.

    Within humanity, there is in it the “human,” that makes society better, and at times as critical as this, we need to be reminded of the change we can make. Humanity is not something to be learned, it’s a basic kindergarten principle. We all can practice it and implement it into our lives. The only requirement for making change is knowing that you can. Making small changes like maybe not getting that five-dollar Starbucks drink on Monday and instead using that money to donate to fire relief and recovery programs, decreasing your carbon footprint by turning off the light when you leave a room, or minimizing shower time. These little things when practiced as a collective whole create progress and change. They matter.

    You can help the world continue more positively because we can not continue this way. These fires are not normal. This is not normal.

  • Iran vs. America

    The two countries have been feuding since the 1980’s after there were disagreements from the 1979 Iranian Revolution. But when the U.S had an embargo on trade with Iran in 1995, things got very serious and possibly close to an outbreak of wars.

    In 2015, the United States led successful negotiations for a nuclear deal intended to dismantle Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities, and when Iran complied in 2016, sanctions on the country were lifted. The Trump administration withdrew from the nuclear deal and re-imposed the sanctions in 2018.

    Since this time, relations between the United States and Iran have worsened, and the two countries came close to conflict when their major general Qasem Soleimani was killed in a U.S drone strike approved by President Trump.

    Why we would do this? I’m not quite sure. Government officials state that Trump had initially decided to strike at the Shia militia, but instead chose the most extreme option of killing Soleimani after seeing television footage of the attack on the embassy. 

    But then there’s a contradicting statement by the Trump Administration claiming that Soleimani was targeted in order to stop the “imminent” attacks on Americans that he was plotting. There is no actual answer from the president himself other than these statements following Soleimani’s death.

    What I think should’ve happened in this situation was to leave him and the country alone. They haven’t attacked our country in a while, so why attack theirs and break up the somewhat peace we have. Until they physically show they’re going to attack us, we shouldn’t strike first to reveal how “powerful” we are against them.

    All this is going to do is invoke violence upon us like what has happened already. They shot missiles at us and shot down a Ukranian plane to display what they are capable of doing. At least we have defensive missiles to take out incoming enemy fire – oh wait, nevermind! They don’t work.

    As long as we stay away from using violence against Iran, we will be safe from any “World War III” possibilities as the media says will happen.

  • World War 3 LOLs

    “2020 is going to be my year!” World in 2020: Brink of WW3, Australian wildfires, no girlfriend, living in Grandfather’s old shack.

    *****

    The government is drafting kids because they know all the games of Call of Duty paid off their training.

    *****

    Iran thinking it’s all fun and games until kids that got drafted in the United States start building, doing 90s and quickscoping.

    *****

    Iran might have the Iranian Hulk, but the US have Lizzo.

    *****

    Donald Trump is starting the New Year off with a BANG.

    *****

    The best part of the New Year is not going to have to worry about the next year because we’re already dead.

    *****

    Mexico is now starting to build their own wall to escape the WW3.

    *****

    El Chappo now chilling in the White House while the US is too focused fighting Iran.

    *****

    When NCAA athletes are happy to hear they’re getting drafted until they get sent to Iran.

    *****

    When you’re chilling out on the porch and some FBI agent walks up to your porch and says “Hello sir may I…” “Its Ma’am!”

    *****

    Kid: “I need to get out of the house more.” Army recruiter: “Here’s a free ticket to Iran! Just for you!”

    *****

    President Trump message to Iran, “Let’s make a deal we get 1⁄4 of your nation’s oil supply and  we don’t missile strike you anymore. And as a show of gratitude we give you Justin Bieber. Beiber fever right? Deal?”

  • The Death of Mainstream Rock

    While the rock music genre may be alive and well today, its existence on the charts has all but become extinct. With bands like the Jonas Brothers and Ariana Grande topping the charts as of 2019, it is evident that rock has been occupying less and less spots on the charts. Not only that, but most of the artists who gained traction in their careers through rock have as of recent years evolved into a sound more pop or electronic than anything else. There is no better example of this than Brendie Urie and Panic! at the Disco. The band made a mass hit in popularity back in 2005 with their first album, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, but come the new decade, half the band left the project, and the rest of them left in 2015. At this point, Panic! has been left to a solo project instead of a band. Death of a Bachelor (2016) wasn’t a bad album, though it did depart from the band’s roots, but the following, Pray for the Wicked (2018) wasn’t worth more than a trashed vinyl you found on the side of the muddy road. It felt so mechanical and fake, as if it were written by a computer instead of a human.
    Hailing from England, Kaiser Chiefs had their brief period of popularity hit the US during the previous decade, probably due to the second British invasion that occurred in the 90s with bands like Oasis, Kasabian, and Blur. Their second and third albums hit the US top 200 charts at 45 and 55, respectively, but with their third album in 2011, it was nowhere to be seen. Two records later, frontman Ricky Wilson decided he wanted to switch from writing Brit-rock or Brit-pop to writing dance music. Stay Together (2016) is the worst album they’ve ever released by a long shot. With every song framed by electronic synthesizers and bombastic choruses, the band even flat-out admitted at the start of the seventh track, “Press Rewind,” “This is pop music/We’re writing and recording pop music.” The easiest song to stomach would be “Indoor Firework” because the lyrics were at least somewhat meatier, but not by much.
    But then come their latest, Duck (2019). An album for which was widely criticised for its failed attempt to please both critics and fans alike. The record had a few tracks that were enjoyable, including the catchy “Don’t Just Stand There, Do Something,” but the majority of the album seemed as if it were written to sing in stadiums, especially the irritating opener, “People Know How to Love One Another.” Duck was a sigh of relief compared to their previous record, but after two consecutive albums of mostly junk, there is almost no hope left for Kaiser Chiefs.
    Sure, we still have Jack White and The Raconteurs with Help Us Stranger (2019) being arguably their greatest record yet. But as for White’s solo projects, not only do they live in the shadow of the greatness that was The White Stripes, but Boarding House Reach (2018) strayed far from the mark of anything we have come to love about White, incorporating more elements of funk, experimental, and gospel music rather than rock. Maybe there is some hope for rock in the future, but as of 2019, it is unlikely that we are to see a big rock band stand out in the mainstream industry in the near future.

  • Goodbye 2019

    I know at the end of the year we say, “this was the worst year ever,” but… 2019 was literally the worst year ever. I don’t know if it’s because I got older and I have more responsibilities and I am much more aware of how much the world hates me… but my goodness. I won’t do an entire recap of how much the world showed me that it didn’t like me this year but I will say this one was definitely one for the books. Now it wasn’t completely bad. Some good things did happen. I got a new job, moved to a new house, started saving money. But the emotional strain that this year had on me was hard. I lost friendships that I truly thought would last forever. I cried more this year than I have since I was a fetus. I felt so much stress and pressure this year from so many different things but this year taught me that I am truly resilient. Every time I fell, I got right back up and continued moving forward. All the friends I lost, good riddance! Every bad thing that happened was to prepare me for something later on. A reminder for anyone who reads this, you are resilient! This year has tested everybody but we’re still here, growing!! So be proud. This decade was something else but here’s to the 20’s! Good luck!

  • TikTok at All Hours of the Clock

    With over 33 million downloads, TikTok has become a very popular media platform that has risen to the top. Although many people may say that it’s a cringey app, I think otherwise. Well at first I didn’t actually. I once found myself among the several people who would claim themselves to be against TikTok. I’ll admit, I would even judge the people around me, such as my friends whenever I would see them making or posting their videos.

    My obsession with TikTok began just like any other person who is now making videos on the platform. I only downloaded the app as a joke, not thinking I’ll find any pleasure in the content it provided. At first I wouldn’t go on the app very often and even almost uninstalled it at some point. However, after more and more of the people I look up to on YouTube began using it, I found myself following them and before I knew it, I couldn’t even bring myself to close the app.

    I may have published a couple videos at some point,but I don’t really enjoy making them as much as others. Moreover, I definitely don’t enjoy showing my face to a bunch of strangers. People such as y cousin and best friend may do it, but I think just having downloaded the app is plenty outside my comfort zone for me. All in all, while I may enjoy the people who make content on the app, but I can guarantee that I will never make any videos of myself dancing or following along with the weird trends that go around just at an attempt to go vial and become “TikTok famous” as they say.

    Sadly enough TikTok has consumed much of my life.There have been situations where I have been in the middle of conversations through text with people, and end up forgetting to reply to them because I get distracted with TikTok. There has even been a certain weekend where I accidentally found myself staying up till the sun rose all because I stayed up all night on TikTok. This is something I definitely did not do before TikTok.

    The impacts TikTok has left in my life have not been very good, and that is exactly why I have decided to give myself a break from it. I don’t go on it as much as I used to (although I do still use it more than other apps) but I feel better about it as well. I would definitely not recommend people to download it unless you want to get hooked. By the way this is a joke, I do still have a life.