Senior Tribute Magazine | Issue 2 - Part 2 | May 2022 - Tonitrus & Flash Joint Production

EDITOR NOTESEDITOR NOTES

The Senior Tribute magazine highlights Rocklin High School (RHS) seniors undercovered in the school yearbook. This year’s Senior Tribute theme is focused on the “defining moments” of high school for RHS students. While RHS seniors haven’t had a “traditional” high school experience with the COVID-19 pandemic, the end of the 2021-2022 school year has finally brought back a sense of normalcy. With this, we encourage you to read their stories.

Jillian Andrew (pictured on cover)

Rocklin High School senior Jillian Andrew discussed the biggest challenge she faced throughout her time in high school. “Since middle school, everyone assumed I had an eating disorder because I’m skinny. People bullied me a lot. I wanted to gain weight, but it was hard and I was lazy. I felt like if I ate too much, my body wouldn’t be able to handle being over 100105 pounds,” said Andrew.

“I wouldn’t eat food that was sitting out or looked weird, and I would only eat food that I or my family got in the past 3 days. I went into a program at Kaiser, and I talked to a dietician and a therapist weekly. Over quarantine, I was eating more and gaining weight, and finally happy,” Andrew said. I remember this particular day, I was really happy with the amount of food I ate. I was like, “heck yeah, I ate all of this!”

CONTENTS

Acke, Austin 34

Adao, Marisa 52 Alfaro, Grace 52 Allin, Aidan 61 Andrew, Jillian Cover Andrews, Victoria 52 Azavedo, Alyssa 57 Baddley, Mariah 22 Bal, Jasleen 50 Baptista, Brooke 30 Barbieri, Ryan 50 Basle, Vincent 51 Blair, Logan 09 Blanco, Sidney 19 Botrous, Sandra 42 Boyd, Genevieve 47 Calia, Jacob 55 Carrillo, Emiah 29 Charles-Rambally, Meshack 36 Cissna, Tommy 06 Cissna, Tony 37 Clough, Kennedy 33 Cooke, Gavin 08 Cunningham, Sheyenne 33 Daley, Liam 10 Daniels, DJ 03 DeLaby, Julia 05 Domino, Alexander 17 Doran, Maddy 20 Dugarr, Brandon 13 Dunievitz, Mason 60 Dutt, Ronnit 21 Eaton, Madi 23 Eiras, Jordan 16 Ellis, Reece 38 Estonactoc, Niccolo 55 Fagan, Tristan 44 Fajardo, Audrey Joan 07 Finley, Hannah 40 Francis, Katie 41 Gad, Mary 47 Gamba, Connor 36 Garcia, Andrea 38 Garcia, Bella 11 Garcia, Bernardo 63 Ghazizadeh, Parastoo 51 Gilsdorf, Joshua 35 Gober, Gannon 43 Gonzalez, Camila 10 Goodman, Owen 61 Gould, Dylan 13 Green, John 35 Grenfell, Emma 28 Guter, Emily 35 Hawthorne, Maci 25 Hernandez, Aby 15 Higginbotham, Ethan 46 Hill, Nash 19 Hopkins, Hope 29 Huerta, Brycen 14 Ja, Isaac 37 Jain, Advik 14 Jeffra, Olivia 59 Johnsen, Rylee 59 Kapanen, Nina 26 Kinser, Everett 43 Laflaur, Ellie 20 Lamb, Jacob 17 Lanto, Lily Ann 47 Larson, Brandon 22 Le, Ryin 31

Lebedev, Vlad 45 Lee, Justin 09 Lee, Megan 38 Leiper, Sarah 48 Lennig, Parker 12 Lew, Mason 37 Lomeli, Sierra 43 Martinez, Priscila 49 Mason, Ryan 11 Mcdonald, Lauren 48 McKevitt, Reilly 24 Meyers, Kevin 62 Miller, Zachary 16 Moniz, Owen 54 Morales, Carlos 44 Najafi, Yasi 30 Paulson, Sydney 02 Pelly, Aloysius 23 Piacentini, Katie 56 Picart, Audrey 33 Pineda, Nyah 39 Pojda, Quinn 35 Pompa, Eva 05 Price, Riley 28 Purkiss, Hanna 46 Rakkar, Maneet 63 Ramirez-Flores, Malena 63 Rekers, Karson 31 Robertson, Marissa 32 Robinson, Dawson 17 Rodier, Lexie 41 Russo, Aidan 62 Ryu, Eric 27 Sadiq, Alisha 41 Salvotti, Seth 60 Samba, Tejan 15 Sanayev, Markel 55 Schaack, Jake 03 Schmidt, Margaret 21 Scott, Keke 56 Sieber, Ben 59 Singh, Arun 12 Smith, Adrineh 05 Smurthwaite, Carla 04 Staebler, Helaena 06 Stice, AJ 39 Swaleh, Zaynah 07 Szeremi, Taryn 02 Tew, Claire 57 Thomas, Jack 58 Tolentino, Zehavi 24 Torres, David 42 Tyukayeva, Leila 40 Vaishnav, Zankar 31 Vandre, Hunter 06 Varner, Elizabeth 49 Vasques, Hailey 26 Verma, Shayla 52 Vo, Jayden 36 Voelker, Paige 03 Watkins, Lorelei 49 Watts, Brian 19 Watts, Cheyanne 18 Weber, Kylee 10 Wells, Kayla 22 Wetteland, Becky 32 Wiebe, Austin 41 Witte, Zach 27 Wuelfing, Mary Kate 46 Ybarra, Nathaniel 08 Ziminske, Rohan 09

Taylor Aubry and Teagan Van Biber

WHAT IS A PART OF HIGH SCHOOL THAT NO ONE EVER TALKS ABOUT?

“I think people shrug off high school as not being very hard. And you’ll do fine, you just need to pass all your classes. I mean a lot more want to do college nowadays, so it’s a lot more difficult to get into a good college that you want, a major that you want, and a job that you want, and high school is like the base of that and people are ‘...just have fun in high school.’ That’s not always how it works.”

HUERTA

“I feel Rocklin is pretty hard on itself. Not that the school is inherently difficult, but I feel like everyone here puts a lot of pressure on themselves to be the best they can. And not that that’s a bad thing, but I think people can get carried away with it.”

ABOUT?

TEJAN SAMBA

“Just the loneliness, I’d say. People say it’s the best years of your life, but most of the time it feels like you just kind of do the same thing everyday again and again and it’s like a cycle.

And at least for me, I didn’t really have a lot of opportunities to talk to my friends and whatnot. So, at some point, you feel like you just want to be done. I just kind of got used to it at one point and I’m still very thankful for my friends and still talk to them a lot, at least online.

And even though I can’t see them in person a lot, this year, I started trying to be more outgoing and talk about other things more to other people.”

“I’ll remember how hard the school can be. Some classes, for example government. It’s hard. The language barrier and people made it more difficult ... and it’s hard, you know.”

Moving from school to school three different times was definitely something that Jordan personally had to grow from because of all the constant change, “Meeting new people can be hard when you’re always changing schools with different environments. Having to change your own personality to the new people you hang out is something challenging that many people deal with in high school.” Throughout high school Jordan was able to grow a strong relationship with the friend group she has now and feels very welcomed, “RHS football games are such a fun experience, especially when you are new to our school. Everyone is very involved and hyped up at these games. When you finally reach senior year, you have a crazy realization that you’re actually a senior now and all your hard work has paid off.” Jordan wishes she would’ve put herself out there more and gotten past her introverted personality. Moving forward into college, taking the AP tests would’ve helped Jordan become more successful in college, “Having a strong hardworking mindset is ideal to get through high school.”

ZACHARY MILLER

Zachary has many exciting memories but one of his favorites would be from one of the rallies his senior year where he got to participate in tug a war and got a great picture. Miller shares, “Many people do not talk about how hard it is to manage your time in high school with homework, studying, jobs, and still staying connected with your friends. Being enrolled in AP classes definitely changes your mindset about how hard you’re going to have to work in college.”

Throughout high school most students tend to put off studying, Zachary regrets doing so because that has affected his junior year overall. Going out of your way to hang out with friends was something Zachary wishes he had done more, “Four years go by in a flash, so why not make it worth living and having fun! Every student in high school struggles with feeling stressed and overwhelmed, it is something that everyone will learn to cope with and find strategies that help them feel at ease for these 4 years.”

DOMINO

“High school involves fun times, sad times, and stressful times, but besides that, you get to have freedom by getting your license. Having that title of being able to drive grants, everyone more freedom and definitely changes how you handle things while being responsible,” says senior Alex Domino. Quarantine was a hard challenge for everyone including Alex because it took a lot of adjustment, “No one knew what was going on or how to handle such a big change. It took about two months for people to get more into the feel of things.”

JACOB LAMB DAWSON ROBINSON

“Something that no one talks about high school is how many people suffer from mental health issues. Almost everyone is dealing with something so it’s important to always be kind and understanding,” said Senior Jacob Lamb. Lamb’s toughest challenge through high school was definitely all the assignments, and one of his favorite memories is, “Seeing a RHS student walking around with a flag!”

“The first dance of your high school years is always so eventful and something new. Getting together with your friends, getting dressed up and taking pictures,” all of these were good memories for Dawson. High school has made Dawson more observant of the people around him and he has started paying attention to how the world works more. If Dawson could go back he would, “Definitely love to have a junior prom to create memories with his friends like in freshman year.”

MY ADVICE TO FRESHMAN ME...

CHEYANNE WATTS

With the 2021-2022 school year coming to an end, Rocklin High senior, Cheyanne Watts, is making the most out of her last moments in high school. She looks back on her favorite memories from the last four years, “My favorite memory from high school was my sophomore quarry bowl. That year we won, had an amazing student section and I have never experienced so much school pride. It just felt like everyone belonged and was so proud and happy to be there.” Having experienced the ups and downs of high school, Cheyanne has learned a lot about how to make the most of her high school years. The best advice Cheyanne would give an incoming freshman would be, “don’t be afraid, and don’t stress about the little things. Nothing is ever as scary as you think it’s going to be. Join the clubs and sports you want even if you think it might look stupid. Nobody really cares as much as you think they do.”

Rocklin high senior Sidney Blanco said how in her free time she likes, “...making bracelets and planting her favorite plant: marble pothos.” Blanco’s shirt was emblazoned with “Life is Good,” and that is a motto that Blanco lives by. She enjoys working at a Bed and Breakfast in Loomis and she enjoys taking her puppy Ozy with her. Her advice to others? “When things change inside you, things change around you.”

BRIAN WATTS

Rocklin High School student Brian Watt’s senior year is coming to an end after four exciting but unpredictable years. Attending Sierra College in the fall of 2022 with big hopes for his future, Brian reminisces on his favorite moments from high school, “My favorite memory of high school has been team sports because I’ve always had a lot of my good friends in that class [and] having Mr. Depue for multiple years because I got to see how our relationship grew and changed over the years.” During his four years at Rocklin, Brian has found ways to make his high school classes easier and keep the stress at a min imum. His best advice to incoming freshman would be: “Talk to your teachers like normal people. If I ever needed help on something during or after class, it made it so much easier and natural to go ask for help or advice on anything.”

“It was hard to communicate with the teachers during COVID but the highlight of my senior year was transferring to RHS and meeting some of my greatest friends,” said senior Nash Hill. “In my free time I like to go to the gym and do a leg and arm workout and then after go for a walk.”

Even as a freshman, Maddy Doran was extremely passionate about music. Maddy expressed how being a part of the Rocklin High music program for four years has given her some of her most cherished memories. “My favorite memory was my freshman year when I performed at the 2018 Quarry Bowl. It was a super surreal feeling to perform in front of a huge audience and hear everyone cheering, and then we were all super proud of the performance afterwards.” She adds how making music has affected her mentality and how it can affect others, “My favorite memory was my freshman year when I performed at the 2018 Quarry Bowl. It was a super surreal feeling to perform in front of a huge audience and hear everyone cheering, and then we were all super proud of the performance afterwards.”

Later in the interview, Maddy also revealed what she wishes she did differently and what she’ll miss most when she leaves for college: going to football games, dances, and dinners. Maddy says if she could do go back in time and do something differently it would be at these school events, “I would have stayed longer at the events and made the most out of them. That is definitely my biggest regret leaving high school.” She also adds that once she goes off to college she will miss her friends most, “I’m going to miss the people I’ve met and seeing them everyday.”

Ellie LaFlaur recalls overcoming her most difficult year as a junior in RVC (Rocklin Virtual Campus). Ellie reflected on how having to navigate school without her friends forced her to make decisions solely for herself and the self discovery that followed. Defining her independence, she recognizes her emotional transformation, “By the end of the year I had more self confidence than I’ve ever had before, and I was the happiest I’ve ever seen myself.” She also expanded on how this change affected her relationships, “[it] definitely helped me be more aware of the type of relationships and friendships I do and do not deserve. As well as how I react in situations I’m unhappy in.” She added, “I’m still in a good place with the people I’ve drifted from, and making new relationships then came easier because of that past experience.” Thinking back to her favorite high school moments, Ellie remembers the lively school dances and what she’ll miss most about Rocklin High: her friends. “The energy after a dance is so fun to be in, everyone’s hungry and tired but still laughing and having fun. Some of my favorite memories are just from being at the In-n-Out line at 12 a.m. after a dance.” said LaFlaur, “I’ll definitely miss how easy it is to be around friends, some of my friends are moving out of state for college so seeing them in person will be much, much more difficult.”

Margaret Schmidt is a senior defined by her actions. During our brief chat on May, 10, 2022, She reveals that she loves snowboarding and hanging out with friends, but she also loves painting, taking in the sights, and videography, “I spent a lot of time outside and expanding my talents in snowboarding, painting, and videography.” During Margaret’s senior year she went on a trip with her friends to Tahoe.

Margaret also revealed that despite the good times she had, COVID was still the most memorable thing to happen to her during high school, “A memorable experience in high school was spending the second half of my sophomore year and all of my junior year in online school.”

Ronnit Dutt loves basketball, track, and hanging out with friends. He thinks that basketball is the best sport for friends to play together, but he thinks friends should just spend time together in general as well, “We play basketball a lot, everyone’s just in the gym 24/7, but it’s really just spending time with each other - and then going out to eat.” Ronnit Dutt says he wish he knew that high school wasn’t the most important thing in the world when he started school, “High school isn’t that deep.” He believes that everyone should spend time figuring themselves out rather than stressing about grades. Ronnit says the best thing that happened to him this year was joining the track team, and fully believes that it was the most fun he’s ever had, “Track was pretty cool. I made a lot of friends up there and it was a great body workout, I feel like I made a mistake by not signing up sooner.”

I FEEL LIKE I MADE A MISTAKE BY NOT SIGNING UP SOONER

Kayla Wells, a senior at Rocklin High School, will remember Breaking Down the Walls. She said how she thought it had a huge impact on not only her high school experience, but her peers too. “A moment that changed me was Breaking Down the Walls. It really gave everyone an opportunity to let their guard down and allow themselves to share their stories.” One of Kayla’s main struggles from her years in high school was the change from in person to on-line. She found it worked best for her to give it her all despite how hard her school work got, “The toughest challenge I faced in high school was having to deal with the pandemic and going on-line.”

Brandon Larson said that he will miss his friends the most when leaving Rocklin to go play baseball at the next level, “One of my favorite memories from high school definitely has to be playing baseball. It was a great opportunity for me to earn a scholarship and become friends with a ton of great people.” Brandon explained how difficult virtual learning was to him, “The toughest challenge that I faced in high school was going through distance learning. Distance learning was very difficult compared to regular school. On top of that, I was recovering from knee surgery so I had to balance rehab on top of distance learning. Prioritizing time management and discipline helped me deal with the workload.”

Mariah Baddley, a senior at Rocklin High School, will miss many things from her senior year. In an interview on April 22nd, she explains that although her year felt incomplete, she is excited for her future ahead of her, “I never thought I would have a high school experience that felt incomplete. With COVID it feels like so much was missed out on so many interactions with people I never got to meet or missed.” Mariah will miss being able to interact with her peers and truly bonding with them over such things as homework answers, school events, and sports. “The main thing I’ll miss from high school is the simple little things. Like asking for homework answers, football games, tryouts for soccer teams, all the things where you know the people around you and always have someone there.”

RHS senior, Madi Eaton, along with others, believes that one of the main things she will miss from high school is getting ready for dances with her friends. In an interview on May 4, 2022, she talks about how the dance isn’t necessarily the thing people look forward to most, “The dance isn’t always the best part of the night, it is getting ready, hanging out, and going to dinner that has been the most memorable.“ Another thing Madi talks about in the interview is balance and how we can bring the biggest challenges upon ourselves. There can also be positives to this as we learn who we are and out of struggles come stronger people, “One of the toughest things about high school has to be balance. Whether someone is a multi-sport athlete, stays up to study or game, says something they wish they hadn’t, it’s the choices we make that bring the largest challenges. Mistakes are bound to happen, but it’s how we overcome them that shape us and help us grow.“

Some of the best things about high school are the traditions and community built around them. Many memories come out of these too. Al Pelly talks about some of his favorite memories at Rocklin High, “One of my favorite memories is just hanging out with friends after school around CVS and the Dollar Store and just doing fun stuff like going to Tops.” Another thing Al talked about is something that can easily be taken for granted, “The main thing I will miss from high school is not being able to have all your friends in one place like there is now in high school so it’s good to appreciate it when you still have this time. Spending time with your friends is gonna be something you can do forever but it won’t be the same as it is now. Little things like messing around in class and football games can form bonds that could last a lifetime.”

REILLY

Reilly

McKevitt Rocklin High Senior, had a challenge to face during high school which was learning to accept things that are not perfect and not being able to reach the expectations she set for herself. “ I honestly feel like I had a lot of expectations for myself, like getting straight A’s or getting into a particular college,” Reilly said, “ I think it’s important to be mindful of these changes because sometimes they could be pretty beneficial.”

A fun memory that Reilly has from being at Rocklin High School was bringing Uno cards or cards against humanity to school while the week was slow. She enjoyed playing with her peers even if she did not know someone too well she would still enjoy playing with them. Reilly said, “It was always a really funny experience because everyone got so excited to play such a small card game.” She also stated, “For me it was just a good reminder that it takes so little to be inclusive to your peers.”

Zehavi

, Tolentino had

some difficulty trying to connect with other students during his time at Rocklin. He would have liked to talk to a lot more people and make friends but people tend to stick with their own familiar friends and stick with that. “It’s hard to connect with people in the school,” Zehavi said, “It’s very cliquey in the school.”

Zahvi does have some exciting things he’d like to do after high school. He plans on going to Sierra for college then becoming a firefighter. Becoming a firefighter would make Zahavi feel good about himself knowing that he is doing something he loves and also doing good for the world. “Firefighters help people and people unconditionally love firefighters,” Zahavi stated, “They aren’t hated and they do a lot of good things too.”

ZEHAVI

I think high school is just kind of one of those situations where it’s impossible to go through it alone.

My friends definitely helped me so much, if I didn’t have them I don’t know where I’ll be.

MACI

Maci

Hawthorne has overcome her issues on finding where she fits in at Rocklin High School. In an exclusive interview on April 23, 2022, Maci revealed that coming into Rocklin High as a freshman she had identity issues because there were not many people that looked like her so she had to find where she fits in. Eventually she found a small group of friends that helped her figure out who she was as well as staying true to herself. “Going into this school specifically, it’s not easy to find people that looked like me,” Maci said, “So when I first started high school I had to figure out where I belonged I was able to overcome these issues eventually.”

Maci also has a very big journey after she is done with high school. Maci will be traveling all the way to Paris for college. She will be attending the American University of Paris, she’ll be majoring in international law and minor in the French language and history. She claims that making way more friends in college is a must. Big things await her in the near future and she can’t wait, “I think I was inspired by my stepmom. She’s a criminal justice lawyer. But I would love to learn about law, crime, fraud, etc but just on a global scale. It’s more interesting to me.”

describes my experience would Bohemian , it gets smooth and it gets chaotic.