Category: Opinion

Are you stressed? Do you have anxiety? Are you in fear of something? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this article might be helpful to you. Anxiety is one of the most common mental illnesses in the United States, and nearly all of us experience it at some point, with or without a diagnosis. Why is it that we have to experience anxiety, stress, and fear?

Our bodies react chemically towards our situations and atmospheres. For example, we run from bears because we know they can kill us. Without this instinct, there would be no motivation to act, and we would be dead. It is our innate survival mechanism.

Too much stress, though, could lead to a chemical imbalance, which is never beneficial. High school is full of demanding classes and extracurriculars, which create stress for many students. Every day, I deal with these emotions, but what keeps me “sane” is my foundation in Jesus Christ. Sometimes, I have to realize how fragile my mind and body both are, and that I have to give all my worries up to the Lord.

Jesus is my savior, who I place my trust and faith in for my life. He will take care of my needs and desires, but I first have to believe He will. There is no curveball that life throws at me that Jesus cannot handle. Despite my sins and shortcomings, Jesus remains as my guide and protector.

There is a variety of ways to cope with difficult times, but are they consistent and helpful? Trusting in Jesus is the best method to have peace. His peace—majestic and beautiful—is almost unexplainable and only comes from Him. Here are a few Bible verses to emphasize Jesus’ promise:

“You [Jesus] will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you (Isaiah 26:3).”

“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the LORD, who has compassion on you (Isaiah 54:10).”

Does leaning on Jesus mean you will never stress? No, I mean if that were the case, I would live a stress-free life but I am not. We are still human and will continue to feel these emotions.This promises that Jesus will be by your side through the thick and thin. It would be in your best interest to remember this verse:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).”

There have been some changes added to Poly this past month. Three of the girl’s restrooms now have sanitary napkin/tampon dispensaries. Yes, something we’ve actually needed for a long time; no more bringing an entire box from home, which is great for me. Living in a single dad household is great until it’s 10:00 at night and you’ve just realized you are completely out of tampons. I once asked my dad to buy me some pads and he came back with adult diapers. Needless to say, the idea of being able to get them at school when necessary was a blessing for me. That’s not even the best part. They. Are. FREE.

After years of criticizing the third-wave feminists, I was actually appreciative of the first world problem protests, until the time came when I actually needed a pad on campus. It was exactly two days after the dispensaries were up and all of them were completely out. I should have seen it coming, mostly because I actually saw it happening. I saw a girl press the button 8 times and took 8 pads with her, while her friend encouraged her and giggled. Did I also laugh? Yes, because I was under the impression that girl was robbing the school, not me. It’s you greedy females, and you know who you are, that are the reason we can’t have nice things like tampons and real toilet paper.

I don’t know why I thought the school would refill the dispensaries once they ran out, why on earth would they do that? Some things are just too good to be true. I am thankful for the girl code, section 8, paragraph 3 that states that, if another woman asks you for a pad and you have one and don’t need it, by law you have to give it to her. The consequences for breaking such law is being labeled as a fake for life.

Ladies, I understand, I do. We need these items in order to survive, and there just isn’t enough for all of us, but don’t be a pad-hog! We are not to be fighting over things like animals, that’s the men’s job. We need to continue looking out for each other during those trifling 4-8 days. I guess what I’m trying to say is, whoever took all the tampons and didn’t need them can square up because I ain’t putting up with this BS. I’m crampin’, I’m hangry, and I’m breaking out, and the one time something good happens to me, you just had to take it away, I cannot even with y’all messy, greedy, inconsiderate little girls. I’m tired of asking randoms for pads and getting those XXL triple flow, heavy duty, see-it-thru-my-leggings, pads. If they were 25 cents, none of y’all broke peeps would’ve been stacking up, blessings become curses, it be ya own gender!

Senioritis: I think it’s safe to say that most of us seniors suffer from this condition; making us sleep through first period and wait until the due date to even start an assignment. I know I’ve been slacking a lot this semester; I’ve shown up to school late everyday and I even turned in this article to my editor late. Senioritis definitely takes a toll on us and though many people say that senioritis is not real, trust me, it is. When you begin to slack off, your grades suffer. Even though it might be your last year in highschool, it is still very important to keep your grades up. If you don’t pass all of your classes you may miss out on the experience of walking the stage on graduation. And if you’ve been accepted into any universities, your acceptance can be revoked if your grades fall. We don’t want that to happen.

Senioritis is a struggle, yes, but it isn’t terribly difficult to overcome. You just need to be motivated enough to actually do your work when it is assigned. Prioritize school work over social media and utilize all of the resources available to students. Your GPA will survive.

The truth is though, senioritis isn’t exclusive to seniors. We all know that one kid who’s had senioritis since freshman year. Some of us started freshman year thinking it’s cool to not care about high school and kept that mindset. We are only three months away from graduating. If you could just stick it through for two more months it’ll be worth it. Good luck with your senioritis!

Thanks to Instagram’s explore page, users are able to view content that they would not normally come across on their own feed. This content may spark emotions that range from happy and uplifting to weird and controversial. So when I came across a photo of a person getting a tattoo of the iconic image of Lolita sucking on a lollipop, I was confused to say the least. Was this an act of praise towards Nabokov’s novel? Or, were they on the romanticized bandwagon of the age-gap relationship that this book has infamously portrayed?

Since Lolita’s U.S. release in 1958, Vladimir Nobokov’s novel has created a blatant erotic fascination for young girls which can be found in movies, music, and books today. If you haven’t already guessed, Lolita is basically about paedophilia. The story is centered around Humbert Humbert, a man in his late thirties who spirals into a heated obsession for Dolores Haze, his 12 year old step-daughter.

Since the book’s publication, two films (one by legendary director Stanley Kubrick), musical adaptations, ballets, and stage productions have been released to pay tribute to the novel. But Lolita has also had its influence elsewhere. One example being Luc Besson’s film, “Leon: The Professional.” It more or less follows the same premise in which 12 year old Mathilda joins forces with hitman Leon after her family is murdered. Again, the young girl is made to be more precious than what is typically observed among children in society. Why does any of this matter, you may ask? Well, because movies and other forms of entertainment have a great deal of influence over society. This Lolita-esque iconography is even more prevalent in mainstream music. In an article for The New Republic, Ira Wells stated that “today, popular culture rewards adult women who act like children for the collective erotic enjoyment.” A few of the recognizable artists include: Melanie Martinez, Lana del Rey, Britney Spears (from the early 2000s), and Katy Perry.

In regards to the novel, John Updike, the late novelist and literary critic, stated  “Nabokov writes prose the only way it should be written, that is, ecstatically.” And I have to say that I agree. The novel is beautifully written. It has a way of provoking feelings of shock, anger, and sadness all within a few sentences. Even though it feels kind of gross reading a book about something so terrible, Nobokov has a way of reeling the reader in with his use of “punning comedy” and “dark poetics.” Another review by Vanity Fair stated that Lolita is “the only convincing love story of our century.” That is my issue with the book. It isn’t so much the novel itself as it is the admiration that has surrounded the main characters’ relationship. Humbert feeds off of Dolores’ innocence during her early teenage years and then victimizes her to the point of complete mental disillusionment by the time she is barely becoming a woman. Maybe it’s just me, but I do not find anything romantic about that, Vanity Fair.

So even though the book was written 63 years ago, I feel like there isn’t enough conversation about its influence on American culture and how it may affect the young girls of today’s generation whose innocence is used as a ploy to mask people’s darkest desires.

I’m not the type of person to ever watch a fashion show, but when I heard about the Milan Fashion Week, I had to see it myself; via my phone screen, of course, because the show took place in Italy. The world’s top designers and brands showcased their Fall/Winter collections from February 21 through the 27th.

The Dolce and Gabbana runway stole the show. Models were replaced by Drones, this vision of the future of fashion took a forty-five minute delay because guests were asked to turn off their phones’ wifi and bluetooth. Drones modeled a parade of the label’s new devotion handbags while Kendrick Lamar’s “All The Stars” was played.

The most interesting moment of the week was when Gucci’s runway was turned into an operation room with bright surgical neon lights. Alessandro Michele’s collection was inexplicably interesting. The show itself suddenly became creepy when models carried out a replica of their heads, snakes, and a baby dragon.

To complete the collection, accessories were a must. Dolce and Gabbana had a model showcase a headband, a pair of sunglasses, and earrings that were in the design of big red purses, all in the same outfit. Roberto Cavalli’s models wore loop around serpents, real or not they looked great on the model.

The Milan Fashion week was worth watching. I hope to soon see the fashion trends that I saw on the runway around school. I enjoyed the outfits I saw and I hope my peers at school will soon adopt the trends brought by the fashion week.

In 2016, the iconic Canadian rapper Drake released his fourth studio album, titled Views, with the top charting song “Hotline Bling” serving as the lead single. When the music video and the single were released in 2015, Drake witnessed some intense meme-age and publicity. The psychedelic neon lights in the living room sized cube was something brand new and exciting many had not seen before–only, they had seen it before. And so have many others. As any art fanatic like myself may know, the famous modern artist, James Turrell, featured his groundbreaking studies of light, color, and space at LACMA in 2010. En lieu of Turrell being known for his vivacious presence in the art world, he is now known as the sole influence behind Drake’s music video.

When accusations of copyright arose, the director of the music video said that any connection between the video and the artwork was “merely accidental” and there was no intention of content theft. But, in an interview, Turrell said that Drake “honored [his] work and [Turrell] was flattered by that,” and continued to say that he has in fact “enjoyed a lot more attention since [he] got involved.”

Previous to the release of the album, Drake visited LACMA in 2014 and was accompanied by Rolling Stone. In their trip to the museum, Drake told the magazine that Turrell “was a big influence on the visuals for [his] last tour.” Turrell and the rapper even took time out of their adventure to meet, and Drake was photographed inside one of the artist’s famous light boxes. In the end, both artists came to a mutual conclusion. Turrell stated “While I am truly flattered to learn that Drake F’s with me, I nevertheless wish to make clear that neither I nor any of my woes was involved in any way in the making of the Hotline Bling video.”

However, I personally think that Turrell was robbed of full credit and did not get his rightful piece in the collaboration. In the matter of artistry, there is and always will be a fine line between what is plagiarized and what is inspiration.

Many of us Poly students have not been aware of one of the most important resources that we have here at Poly. The Care Center has helped many students through high school with any of the issues that they might have. Such as problems at school or at home And having someone who will listen if you just need someone to talk to. If you may not know, the Care Center will be shut down by next school year and Mr. Gray, counselor, will no longer be here; the students will no longer have a safe place to go to. I personally think the Care Center is necessary for those of us who may not have someone to talk to at home. Bottling things up can lead to severe mental health problems, which the school is ignoring by shutting down the center. It seems as if the school could care less about the mental and emotional health of its students. The school invests so much in athletes and the PACE program but cut something that everyone in the school can benefit from. In my opinion, the school should keep this program because many students need it. They might not admit to it because they might be embarrassed, but everyone needs someone to talk to sometimes. Many students have made very good friends in there and they find comfort in knowing they have safe space on campus. I wish people would think about the well-being of others more often. Mental health should be prioritized and spoken about freely and shamelessly. It’s normal to feel these things and if you are in this position you should be able to get a hold of help no matter the time or place. By taking the Care Center away, students are being stripped of things they might need, so we should do everything we can to help them and to keep the Care Center open.

“Wait, you’re vegan? Why?” Simple. Because I don’t want to be a part of the hurt and distress that animals have to endure for the human population’s selfish wants. “Don’t you miss bacon?” No I do not. I haven’t had meat of any kind in four years and I’ve survived so… “I bet you cheat sometimes.” Are you undermining my willpower because you’re incapable of standing against something so strongly? “Lions eat meat!” True, this has been observed first-hand on the plains of Africa. Lions and other wild animals are natural carnivores whereas humans are not and therefore the wild animals have no option but to eat meat since they would die without it. Humans, however, can survive without it and we would actually be healthier. Arranging the claim that lions and other non-human animals eat meat as a defense of meat-eating among human beings is a classic example of the assumption that anything that occurs in nature is therefore morally justifiable.

“How come you don’t feel bad about killing plants. They have feelings too.” I have heard about a scientific study of researching whether plants actually have feeling, but somehow no particular scientist, university, or institution is ever mentioned in association with it. Were the results of this study peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal? When you can tell me this, please get back to me. Oh, and did you know that 70 percent of all agriculture is used for the production of the meat you eat? So actually you’re killing more plants than me. “The Bible says we should eat meat.” If you’re going to use holy writ to justify killing and eating animals, then you place yourself in the highly unenviable position of having to accept such justification from others who use the same text to excuse and rationalize slavery, murder, rape, genocide, animal and human sacrifice, and a host of other divinely sanctioned obscenities.

Now let us overlook the common responses to otherwise foolish comments and let’s talk about the facts. Vegan living often reduces the intake of saturated fat, animal hormones, and cholesterol while increasing the intake of fresh fruits and veggies. That has the potential to reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. A study done by Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn found that a vegan diet caused more than 500 genes to change in three months, turning on genes that prevent disease and turning off genes that cause cancer, heart disease, and other illnesses. Going back to the fact that majority of agriculture is used for the meat industry, the amount of grain fed to livestock in the U.S. alone could feed about 840 million people, roughly eleven times the number of people who die of starvation every year according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Producing a single pound of beef, for instance, requires sixteen pounds of grain. One pound of pork requires six pounds of grain and for every sixteen ounces of edible chicken flesh that is produced, at least five pounds of innocent plants must lose their lives. We’ll leave aside for the moment that these figures represent an egregious, immoral, and unsustainable misappropriation of the world’s dwindling natural resources and we’ll concentrate instead on the issue of suffering, which is of such great concern to the many meat-eaters who are convinced that vegans bear the responsibility for inflicting pain and misery upon innocent fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and tubers.

The misery and suffering of the tens of billions of animals raised and slaughtered for food every year are multiplied by hundreds of orders of magnitude if one accepts the claim that plants, as well as animals, possess consciousness and therefore suffer when they are harvested.

Eating plants causing them to suffer is a proposition that has never been demonstrated in a controlled scientific experiment, despite the numerous efforts of scientists to determine the legitimacy of so-called “primary perception”. It’s time we recognize that the “Plants have feelings, too!” argument is a feckless attempt to undermine the ethical basis of veganism with pseudo-science and bad logic. That being said, while a lot of people have so much to say about a topic they know nothing about, we vegans are not only watching out for animals but we’re also looking out for ourselves and most importantly the world we live in.

Your argument is invalid but by all means go ahead and say something else.

The world we live in currently is riddled with stereotypes.

Gender reveals are waiting around to see the color blue for boy or pink for girls and full of excitement. But why can’t it just be the other way around? Blue for girls and pink for guys. Sounds weird doesn’t it? For Pete’s sake we are in 2018 people! You see guys doing things that are traditionally feminine and wearing clothes that a girl would; you see women wearing clothes that were traditionally for men and doing things guys would do. We all grow up with this stereotype of the whole pink and blue since as long as we can remember, learning from parents, teachers and any other “mature” figure.

There isn’t anything wrong with a guy wearing a pink shirt, and there is not anything wrong with a girl that likes to skate. It seems that mostly men are targeted by the stereotype. It’s completely normal for a girl to wear jeans; but any male would be shamed for wearing a dress, even though skirts were originally considered masculine.

A man wearing a dress doesn’t always necessarily mean he is gay, and that goes for females who dress in  masculine manner. That is often the first assumption that one usually goes to when they see a male or female wearing or doing something that corresponds to their opposite gender.

Fox’s new competitive singing show, The Four: Battle for Stardom, aired its first episode on January 4, 2018. Potential candidates apply online and are chosen to perform for the show. Once chosen, the singers, also known as the “challengers” are presented in front of the panel of judges. The panel consists of DJ Khaled, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Meghan Trainor, and Charlie Walk, alongside the host Fergie. However, Walk will not be judging the season finale episode due to allegations of sexual misconduct. Before it aired on television, the judges searched the earth for the best four contestants to start the show. The original members were Lex Lu (32), Ash Minor (23), Elanese Lansen (22), and Blair Perkins (25).

The challenger performs a song for the judges and the crowd. A challenge occurs when the challenger receives four blue rings on the stage. The contestant cannot advance with a single red ring. The judges give the artist feedback on their performance. Then the artist can choose who to challenge.

The chosen member of the four performs their song, then the challenger performs their second song. The crowd votes on the best performance and the winner takes their seat on the four. The goal for each contestant is to land a seat on the four hoping to be signed with Republic Records.

Personally, I like the concept of this show. Overall, I think the show is decent. My problem though is that the judges are very biased and sometimes they let quality talent slip away.

One contestant on the first episode, Zhavia (16), was the favorite of the judges from the beginning. Her voice is different, a bit deep and weird for my liking, but I still believe she has talent. She challenged Elanese and took her place as one of the four. I thought Elanese, with her latina vibe and angelic voice, should have won.

The judges put too much emphasis and importance on style, stage presence, and uniqueness than the actual talent itself. For example, Anthony Hall, Valentina Cytrynowicz, Kayla Ember, Stevie Brock, Cocoa Sarai, Sean Cavaliere, Edi Callier, and Josh Wyper are all amazing singers but were denied the chance to challenge one of the four.

All the judges are notorious for saying, “I don’t know if you are better than the four,” which means they will not let a challenge happen. How would the judges know if they do not allow them a challenge?

They do not want to lose their favorite artists like Zhavia in a challenge. The other singers have talent but they deny it because of their biases. If the judges want Zhavia to be the winner then they should cancel the rest of the season.

The judges’ commentary on the performances is mediocre at best. None of them can compare to Simon Cowell’s feedback. I do not think all four judges should have to agree in order for a singer to advance. The panel is not going to always agree. If a challenger receives three votes, it would be logical to allow them a challenge. Aren’t the people, the audience, supposed to be choosing a singer anyway? The judges need to stop manipulating who stays on the four.

When Zhavia lost her seat on the fourth episode to Kendyle Paige (20), Meghan Trainor cried. Trainor seemed to indicate hesitance about letting Kendyle challenge because she knew that Zhavia might lose. Kendyle sang better than Zhavia and the crowd took notice. Zhavia had been dealing with problems with her voice, but with Kendyle’s sweet demeanor and growl, there was a clear winner.

In episode five, the judges had four comeback artists perform to reclaim their seat. Ash Minor’s rendition of Bruno Mars’, “When I was your man,” was better than Zhavia’s cover of “Bodak Yellow.” But the judges picked Zhavia and she dethroned Tim Johnson Jr (18). I loved Tim’s voice, stage presence, and personality. He was #robbed.

Walk mentioned once that he is not necessarily looking for the most talented artist, but the “whole package.” This is the reason why we end up with mediocre talent in the music industry.

Restrooms seem to be the hot spot for vandalism, but the graffiti in some bathrooms are positive. What was known as the Sad Girls Club came to an end when the P buildings were disoccupied. The bathroom located near the bungalows had walls and doors that contained questions, conversations, thoughts, and support for young ladies in all the colors and handwritings. Love, hate, sad, emotional, and happy poems were written in the walls. Rude comments were often written but others were quick to write the bright side of such words. “You are strong, worth it, beautiful, pretty,” were in bold letters, standing out from all the other comments. The Sad Girls Club was a supportive place in the ladies’ restroom where girls share their deep experiences and real stories, it was a way of expression and communication.

But like any other restroom, their walls are more than just a notepad or a juicy confesion board for highschool students, these conversations don’t belong in a classroom environment therefore sharing a comment privately and completely anonymous lifts the weight of pain off someone’s chest and it truly shows that girls can be very supportive of each other. Plus, reading the bathroom walls is a great way to waste time on days that you feel like being a rebel by taking a little longer to go to class, which only happens like once a year, right?

Already on a few occasions this year many of the women’s restrooms were surprised by many bright and positive post it notes on the bathroom mirrors. Whoever takes the time to write and display ecstatic quotes deserves a thank you because somedays a girl just needs to be reminded that she is unique.

The graffiti may not be the schools priority, but keeping the bathrooms cleaned and walls erased is for safety reasons. And even though the apparent graffiti goal is to be as harmless as possible, the California Education Code for Student Discipline: Education code, section 48900 states that a student may be suspended or expelled by causing or attempting to cause damage to school or private property. So I don’t in anyway encourage anyone to damage the restrooms, yet I still love the idea that the girls bathroom graffiti is positive.