TheCommunicator_v.52_Ed3

THE COMMUNICATOR MAGAZINE VOL. 52, EDITION 3, MARCH 2025

There is unwavering solace

in the inevitablility of spring, too-short forum lunches and the pursuits we dedicate ourselves to.

About the Cover

On our front, back and inside covers, Vara James surveys Planet Rock climbing gym, a place where she found comfort and founded her

very own nonprofit.

A two-time cancer survivor, James learned firsthand that rock climbing can be a fountain of determination, pride and camaraderie; scaling a wall was something she could do, and perhaps other kids who'd also come face to face with cancer could find joy in it too.

Today, James’ organization "Rock Cancer" hosts monthly sessions where participants can focus simply on scaling walls and being kids. It’s a space — like so many others — where comfort is cultivated.

Those sorts of spaces are essential in our lives. Where are yours? Who and what makes you comfortable?

The Communicator Social Media Highlights @communicatorchs

Breaking News - Events - Culture

Over 55,000 Views Last Month!

Dear Readers, As we’ve grown, freeze tag and carpet squares and times tables have morphed into 5-minute break debriefs and rolling desks and optimization problems. Deep into our careers as upperclassmen, freshman year and the seasons that preceded it feel eons away. Simultaneously, the sensation of traversing our elementary school’s monkey bars and the scents of our second grade classrooms remain branded in our brains.

We grasp at and hold on to all the familiarity we can in our ever-evolving lives; it’s the things that bring us comfort — minute and monumental — that carry us through the chaos. You’ll read dozens of stories regarding these very things throughout this edition, and no matter which stage of life you’re experiencing right now, we think that you’ll relate more often than you won’t.

Our seniors are in the midst of their final semester at CHS, our juniors are staring the SAT down, our sophomores are nearing the halfway point and our first years are just beginning to settle into high school’s flow. A couple of us recently found ourselves splayed on a friend’s living room rug, shuddering with tears as we came to terms with the fact that each of these “right nows” will change before we’re ready. But change won’t ever stop catching us flat-footed; a side of valuable urgency only comes with a main dish of impermanence.

Yet, quantifying these milestones makes it all feel even more fleeting: we’re in the thick our first, last and only high school careers. Firmly in the second semester of our 202425 school year, what you’re reading right now is already the third of five Communicator editions.

It’s all downhill from here, and as always, it’s on us to continue steady ourselves and find our footing with the help of life’s common comforts. So many other checkpoints loom, but there is unwavering solace in the inevitability of spring, Ryan’s puns, too-short forum lunches and the extracurriculars we dedicate ourselves to.

Let’s get comfortable.

WEB EICS LUCA HINESMAN VEDHA KAKARLA PAIGE PLAVNICK ANTHONY WANG SOCIAL MEDIA EICS JONATHAN CARTER LEILA DURRIE KATE GROVES COPY EDITORS CLAIRE LEWIS IVY MILLER MANAGING EDITOR LYDIA DEBORD ART & DESIGN DIRECTOR BEE WHALEN ADVISER TRACY ANDERSON SECTION EDITORS LEO CASTILHO KAYLEE GADEPALLI KYRIE GARWOOD FINA KUTCHER

MALCOLM LONDON ISABELLA MALDONADO NINA TINNEY JAKE WILLIAMS WILSON ZHENG PHOTO EDITORS DANIEL JACOB ESH SCHADEN IONIE STEUDLE STAFF SOPHIA ALCUMBRACK MCDANIEL NOAH ANDERSON SARIE ANDES SOPHIE BANTA NINA BEALS JACQUELINE BOYNTON ARLO CAINES LILLY CLACHAR ELIZABETH CLARK TIA COCCIOLONE SOFI DAS LUKAS DINKELMANN JACK DONOVAN ELEANOR FARRELL IZZY FOSLER ELLIE FOX ALTHEA FREIWALD MARY GIBSON EMMA GOBLIRSCH AMERICA GOMEZDOMINGUEZ JANE GROCOFF QUINN HANNER-ZAWACKI ANABELLE HOARD

MARK IONIDES AUGUSTUS KASCHUBE ELLORA KIRBAT DAN KOMOREK VIOLET KNYAL MAGGIE LAMB MIGUEL LARIOS WALKER LEDBETTER JACK LEWIS LUCY LOWENSCHUSS Y. MARIE ELIJAH MAKMANLEVINSON ADDIE MCCREADIE ELLE MCCREADIE KENNEDY MCDONALD EVA MILLWOOD EDDIE MOBILIO BRECK KIRRA MOLEK AVERY NELSON SAMUEL OLIVER JESSICA ROTHSTEIN WILLOW ROSENFELD MIA RUBENSTEIN ZOLA SAIGAL AMELIA SANDSTROM IZZY SANTIAGO ALEX SCHWARTZ NEILA SHEE PAYTON SLY ZANE SWERDLOW ISLA THARP MALLORY TOWERS EMILY WALKER MARIAH ZEIGLER WILSON ZHENG

AWARDS National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker Finalist in 2024, 2023, 2022. 2021, 2020, 2019, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 Pacemaker Winner in 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2014 NSPA Best in Show 2024 Columbia Scholastic Press Association Crown Finalist in 2023-2024, 2022-2023, 20212022, 2020-2021 Silver Crown Winner in 2023-2024, 2022-2023 Gold Crown Winner in 2021-2022, 2020-2021

Your Editors,

Clara Freeth

Piper Cooke

PRINT EICS PIPER COOKE GABE DEEDLER CLARA FREETH JANAKI NALLAMOTHU LUCIA PAGE SANDER

Lucia Page Sander

Gabe Deedler

Janaki Nallamothu

Michigan Interscholastic Press Association Spartan Award in 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2006 POLICY The Communicator is a open forum for student expression created by Community High School students. The Communicator does not represent the views of Ann Arbor Public Schools. The Communicator staff seeks to recognize the individuals, events and ideas relevant to readers.

The Communicator is committed to fair reporting, providing a platform for student voices and equitable coverage. For our complete Guidelines & Policy, please go to www.chscommunicator.com

5

Table of Contents VOLUME 52, EDITION 3 | MARCH 2025

Cover Story

News

50

Climbing Through Life How Vara James founded a non-profit to help kids with cancer.

12

18

Ban, Appeal, Repeat: The TikTok Saga

UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting

The journey it has been to use TikTok in America in 2025.

What happened on Dec. 4, 2024 and the days that followed.

BY ELLIE FOX AND KAYLEE GADEPALLI

BY LEO CASTILHO

BY CLARA FREETH

Photography by Daniel Jacob

6

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Features

Opinion

Arts & Entertainment

20

58

80

A Sense of Comfort

Nayanamma’s Kitchen

Artist Profile

An exploration into the sensory experiences of comfort and the different ways it is present in our lives through our five senses.

How traditional recipes from South Asia bring comfort and stability.

Tiffinny Moutardier showcases her unique art style.

BY STAFF

BY JANAKI NALLAMOTHU

BY KAYLEE GADEPALLI AND VIOLET KNYAL

34

60

86

From Stage to Screen The evolution of a classic musical: How "Wicked" journeyed from Broadway to the big screen.

BY KATE GROVES AND LYDIA DEBORD

39 Intersectionality Dissecting and understanding social justice through the lens of intersecting and interacting identities.

BY PIPER COOKE

Don’t Say Sorry for Everything Why you shouldn’t apologize for every little thing you do.

BY LUCA HINESMAN

66 Bullet by Bullet Why you should care about gun violence in our country.

BY CLARA FREETH

Movie Review A comprehensive review of the Moana sequel featuring dissection of the plot and animation.

BY ADDIE MCCREADIE, SOFI DAS AND ISLA THARP

99 Crave A personal twist on a popular comfort food dish.

BY MAGGIE LAMB, AVA GRIFFITH AND ADDIE MCCREADIE

7

Counselor’s Corner Missy Herskowitz shares her advice on what students can do for themselves when school feels challenging.

BY ELIJAH MAKMAN-LEVINSON

transition from first ► The to second semester is one

of the most challenging academic periods of the year, according to CHS counselor Missy Herskowitz, who points to midterms as major stressors for student.

At the end of semester one, students have to take midterms for each one of their classes.

Even though midterms can be very stressful, there have been and will continue to be many resources for students to receive help while preparing for exams. One way Herskowitz recommends preparing for midterms is by attending Cocoa and Crams, which are events held in the Craft Theater where students can receive help from teachers and NHS members and enjoy hot chocolate.

“It’s good to take advantage of those times when you can study in a community or with the help of teachers,” Herskowitz said. “Midterms can feel like a big culminating thing, but you’ve been learning all semester, and midterm grades aren’t the ‘end-all be-all.’ I like to think of midterms as a time for students to shine and really show all that they have mastered thus far.”

Whether it’s midterms week or just a busy time at school, it can be very easy for students to struggle with procrastination or get anxious over the amount of work they have in front of them. But Herskowitz knows that staying organized can always alleviate stress and drive productivity.

Herskowitz also believes it’s essential to give yourself breaks while working on schoolwork.

A big misconception Herskowitz notices among high schoolers is that taking time for yourself is an unproductive waste 8

FoC o Column

Photography by Daniel Jacob Missy Herskowitz spends lots of time walking around the hallways. Herskowitz tries to spend time at lunch in the hallways. "I like the third floor outside the journalism room," Herskowitz said. "Every time I walk by, kids tell me good news.

I can't get through that hallway without having some good convos."

of time. On the contrary, Herskowitz believes that taking a break is one of the most productive things you can do for yourself.

“If you don’t take care of yourself, you’re going to burn out,” Herskowitz said. “You can’t run yourself into the ground, it’s not sustainable.

Finding activities that revive you, whether it’s journaling, drawing, going for a walk or spending time with friends and family, is vital to incorporate into your schedule because they help balance your life.”

Even though there’s pressure, both internal and external, to do well in school, Herskowitz wants every student to know that what’s even more important than getting good grades is caring for your mental health.

Herskowitz knows that students must do things that make them happy to properly take care of their mind and body.

“Before being a student, you’re a person,” Herskowitz said. “It’s important to not for-

get that. Instead of just producing scholars, we want to produce people who are good and happy, and I think that wellness is what helps us find that balance.”

Whether students need help academically, planning for their futures or just want to talk, Herskowitz wants students to know that the counselor’s office is always open.

“I want the counselor’s office to seem like a comfortable space where anyone can come in, and I want them to feel like they’re heard and that we can help them solve problems here,” Herskowitz said. “I don’t have the answers to everything, but between the two of us, I’m sure we can think of some things that might work.”

Even though the transition into second semester can bring lots of academic and personal stress, Herskowitz wants students to know that there are many resources available to help them with their academics and care for themselves.

With the year halfway through, FoCo has already checked off many of its major boxes. After FoCo’s Halloween Dance, we moved on to one of our most ambitious projects of the year: Middle School Outreach.

Outreach is a FoCo-run project that sends students from all grades and corners of the school to main Ann Arbor middle schools. Eighth graders in their advisories hear our students discuss CHS’s hidden gems like the CR department, jazz program and more. The message is most effectively conveyed when it comes from students who can attach personal stories.

Before sending students to the middle schools, FoCo split into subcommittees to create slide shows, design pamphlets and learn the general flow of a typical presentation. After the physical components were created, leaders ran training sessions to prepare all student volunteers for the challenges of in-person presenting.

Over the span of a week, once again FoCo successfully advocated for our amazing programs and alternative approach to education. Those who participated this year will be all the more prepared to tackle the project next year, and if you missed out this year, consider joining in next year!

We have since switched gears and are planning a great forum competition week featuring a lip sync battle, musical chairs, euchre, the infamous ducks and much more.

NEWS

THE LINE UP 6 PM JAZZ II

Scrapple from the Apple.

Autumn Leaves Sack O’Woe

EARTHLY P O S S E S SIONS There is No Greater Love Sidewinder If I Were a Bell

A Community of Music

T H AT ’ S F I R E Bye Bye Blackbird Adam’s Apple Four

The support within the CHS Jazz program was as strong as ever at the annual Arctic Blast.

ZEITGEIST

BY AMELIA SANDSTROM

“No matter what, if we all try

around, they both greatly value

good concert.”

The students perform at many different types of events.

Smaller bands play gigs, anything from a simple background set at a fundraiser to central performance at a big venue. The concert is one of only two where the whole program comes together. This element of the concert is CHS junior, Nic Villamor’s, favorite part. It’s one of only two opportunities to see each and every band.

“It’s just so fun to see the program as a whole, how amazing we are and how cool our program is,” Villamor said. “I think that the two concerts are the only two times of the year where you really get that feeling of community with the jazz program.”

Both Villamor and Greenberg find that sense of community and comfort in the students of CHS Jazz. For them, that community is present all

in jazz.

Greenberg and Villamor both view their jazz communities as familial. For Villamor, in his smaller combo, this idea of family is especially present. They bond at gigs and in all their rehearsals and he can feel the impact those positive relationships have on the music they play together.

“It’s not like you show up to class every day to do the same class you have together. It’s a lot more than that,” Villamor said. “So many things that we do outside of the actual class is stuff that you would do with your best friends.”

He sees jazz as a great way to connect with people and a community that he wants to invest in. In class, Villamor not only learns ways to make music but also ways to make friends.

“I feel like making music and making friendship, they’re byproducts of one another,” Villamor said.

most people, perform► For ing for a live audience is our best, then it’s gonna be a the relationships they’ve made very scary, but CHS Jazz students feel a little more brave because in their community, they know they are supported.

Jack Wagner, the director of the CHS Jazz program, teaches students of all different levels.

For some, getting on the stage of The Ark the night of Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2025, was their first time ever improvising for an audience. For others, this stage held many memories of performing. But, for all — over 80 performers in total — the night was exciting.

Before the performances, the musicians gathered in the audience to set their stuff down and get ready. For Lee Greenberg, sophomore, and many others, this brief time with fellow students helped ease nerves and fostered a sense of community and support across the program.

“Everybody’s there for each other, you’re not the only one who’s scared,” Greenberg said.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ESH SCHADEN

Four on Six Firm Roots Like the Rose

8 PM FUNKY BILL AND THE BLUE NOTES On Green Dolphin Street The Chicken A Night in Tunisia

HALF-OJAZZ III Just Friends Sandu St. Thomas

JAZZ I Buzzy.

So What Chameleon

HALF-OJAZZ III All Blues The Preacher

9

The Weight Room Weight Training gets its own class at CHS with Kevin Starkey.

BY IVY MILLER

Photography by Gabe Deedler A student deadlifts in the CHS weight room. With the class, Kevin Starkey hopes to share his passion for weight training with students using the running community as an example. “The running community is super welcoming,” Starkey said. “As long as you're putting yourself out there, you'll find a safe space.”

ing has been combined with

the entirety of the time. But it

For Weight Training to be a

class activities would be beginner-friendly, catering to the Personal Fitness side. Separating Weight Training will allow students who have experience lifting to expand their skill sets.

Starkey hopes to foster a supportive environment for students to push themselves in the gym. Having completed three full marathons, Starkey draws inspiration from the running community. He is hoping to translate this sense of unity to build a strong Weight Training community.

“My ultimate goal here is to give you the freedom to use the time how you want to use it,” Starkey said. “It’ll be physical activity the whole time. It’ll be lifting. It’ll be working out for

kind of mold your own class.”

Starkey hopes that giving students a choice in how they strength train will encourage them to explore lifting further.

In addition to his experience as a part of the running community, Starkey is looking back on his time as a CrossFit instructor to develop plans for the Weight Training course.

“There’s communities within the gym as well,” Starkey said.

“Wolverine Strength and Conditioning is one that I learned a lot from. Dianne Dudley, a former teacher here, introduced me to that community,. It was a really tight-knit CrossFit community where they’d work out and hold each other accountable.”

that the class is a community.

He is tying together a safety net of peers to support students as they venture out of their comfort zones.

Looking forward, Starkey hopes to continue expanding the fitness class offerings at CHS. Weight Training is a crucial part of this plan: It gives students an opportunity to grow after Personal Fitness.

“It allows you to create workouts that are specific to your sport or interests,” Starkey said.

“It’s a really great way for you to kind of take charge of your own exercise life in a more controlled setting.”

He is ready to spot students in the gym as they experiment with Weight Training.

free weights to the ► From barbell, semester two is Personal Fitness classes. All gives you the opportunity to success, Starkey wants to ensure jacked with potential. CHS fitness teacher Kevin Starkey has introduced a new class: Weight Training.

Though the course appears on the transcripts of students who have taken multiple in-person fitness classes, it has not had a devoted block during Starkey’s time at CHS. He hopes that the opportunity to focus on building comfort with advanced skills in the gym will encourage students to take additional fitness classes.

“Personal Fitness is the start of it,” Starkey said. “It’s where you get used to picking up bigger weights, and it’s the introduction to getting comfortable with bigger weights.”

In prior years, Weight Train10

NEWS

Back to Robotics Team 5708 takes on AADL’s yearly robotics event: WAPUR.

BY WILSON ZHENG

was in the air. ► Competition On Dec. 15, the Ann Arbor District

Library hosted its annual one-day robotics event for teams in the Washtenaw County area. With nine teams competing, the stakes were high for the coveted Can of Beans, the winning prize.

Named Washtenaw Area Pick-Up Robotics (WAPUR) and started by the robotics team at Pioneer High School, the event resembles a compacted version of what is to happen during the main season, with less time to prepare and a simpler game.

“It’s become a small but fun yearly tradition that we picked up to help teams prepare for the main season,” Ann Arbor District Library staff said.

This year’s game was an improved version of last years: Scattered around the playfield are crates with books in them, and robots score points by stacking them onto a bookshelf placed right in the middle of the field, and there are bonus points for each filled out row or column.

In addition to the crates, there were also pickleballs strewn throughout the field, to send them to the opponent’s side. [With the goal of] each pickleball on the other team’s side of the field would be one point for your alliance.

Zebrotics, CHS’s team, used this opportunity to teach all the new members about the ins and outs of robotics, such as how the different woodcutting machines work, the various subsystems and different components. In addition to this, they focused on generating ideas once the game was released.

“We really pushed the freshmen to start designing and brainstorming ideas right from the start,” said Dominic Nazario, the robotics team co-captain. “We told them what we thought was good and what’s not so good based on experimenting with the designs.”

With each match being only a little more than two minutes, one of the main challenges the team faced was a design with a good balance between speed and efficiency.

In the last few years, team members have messed with various types of simple claw systems, which they’ve learned to be finicky and sometimes difficult to control.

“You’re very limited in terms of intake

Photography by Wilson Zheng Members of the CHS robotics team, Zebrotics, watch in anticipation as Lena Bible pilots and moves Ellie the robot across the play field.

designs,” Nazario said. “If it’s too slow, it becomes a problem. Taking 15 seconds to pick something up and another 15 seconds to place it isn’t ideal. We wanted something faster.”

The team decided on an elevator intake system: The crates would be sucked into a metal frame and be held securely with small wheels made out of rubber-like materials, with the elevator being able to move up and down the different levels of the bookshelf easily. This didn’t come without trial and error, but for some members, this was a good thing.

“I really like being able to get a problem and try to figure out how to as fast as possible and as creatively as possible solve the problem,” said Lincoln Fox, team co-captain. “For example, swerve party mode was a very fun problem in hindsight.”

Swerve party mode was an issue that the team faced when coding the robot, with swerve being a type of wheel that can move in all directions. The motors, no matter how correct the code was, each acted independently from each other, therefore, in party mode. Thankfully, with a little tweaking, everything was fixed.

Thanks to months of hard work from all THE COMMUNICATOR

of the subteams, including programming, engineering, fabrication, wiring and more, Ellie, named after the elevator system the robot had, was ready to win. Each team played multiple qualifying matches, and Ellie placed fifth out of the nine teams. With the top four robots being alliance captains and each alliance having two robots, Ellie was selected to work with the PiHi Samurai’s Sam, the first seed.

To win, the alliance would have to win two consequent matches in a row: The first match, against Iron Mike and Jake, ended with a sweeping victory of 72-38 points, and the second, against Grim and John Pork, ended similarly, with a 20-point lead from Zebrotic’s alliance, winning Team 5708 their the well-deserved 112-ounce Can of Beans.

Team 5708 is now working on their next big project: building a robot for the main competition in the spring. With teamwork and problem-solving, they hope to reach worlds, something the program has never done before.

“I think we have a good chance at it.”

Nazario said. “We have a really strong team this year. All that’s left is to get funding, log more hours and build a solid robot.”

11

Vocal Harmony: Pioneer Choir’s Dedication Pioneer Choir visits Kerrytown to carol in December. Two students share their experiences on traveling with the group.

BY LEO CASTILHO

December, Pioneer is a little different. Initially, he viduals are very compassionate ► Every High School Choir fills joined his middle school choir towards choir, their teacher, Mr. the streets of Ann Arbor with the sound of holiday spirit. From the Christmas treelit courtyard in Kerrytown to the large crowds at KindleFest and Midnight Madness, their performances spread holiday cheer and showcase the group’s strong talent. However, beyond the skills and concerts lie passion and teamwork, telling a story of dedication.

Kate Groves, a CHS senior, has been fond of choir since she was a child. Growing up, she regularly participated in musical theater. She then began singing in high school, where she quickly developed a respect for the art. Later, she would find herself with four years of Pioneer Choir under her belt.

However, for Groves, choir is more than just hitting the right notes. She explains that singing with a group of people isn’t just about producing vocal harmony; it’s about the community you’re with. Pioneer Choir is a tightly knit community, and she believes this is due to the many shared experiences they have, whether through camps, field trips or competitions.

“Being in choir for so long is one of the most rewarding things because most people who have gotten this far have been in it since freshman or sophomore year, and we’ve all gotten really close,” Groves said. “We are all kind to each other and hang out with one another, which is something I really value.”

As a senior at Pioneer, Jake Williams’ experience in choir 12

program because he was required to participate in music; however, he continued through his senior year of high school thanks to the passion he has developed for the discipline.

Despite that, Williams says that the choir experience has lots of variability depending on the setting. Some of the songs that Pioneer students sing during the caroling season are very light-hearted, cheery and goofy, sometimes prying a smile from the singers. While that tone truly captivates the holiday spirit, it’s difficult for Williams to feel passionate while singing those songs. Even during concerts, he doesn’t feel as zealous as he could be simply because the audience is often family members who only come to see their own children.

“I don’t feel like I’m doing anything particularly artful,” Williams said. “The entirety of the audience is family and friends of everyone who sings, and they come because their kid is a part of it.”

However, both Williams and Groves agree that when they perform at Hill Auditorium, it’s artful, beautiful and passionate. The reason why lies behind the audience.

“When we do Hill, that one’s awesome because people are there to watch people sing, not because, ‘Oh, I know them, I’ll go check them out,’” Williams said. “I think it’s better when the crowd doesn’t know you. I feel a lot more passion during those venues.”

Even though these two indi-

Lorenz, is often given credit for Pioneer’s success. Williams and Groves both attest to his strong teaching style and impressive memory — driven by passion.

“Right out of COVID, I went to Interlochen,” Groves said. “I got off the bus, and he greeted everybody. He was like ‘It’s new people, what are your names?’

I told him my name, and he said, ‘If I don’t remember it by dinner, I owe you ice cream.’

That was during breakfast, and by dinner time, he came up to me and said, ‘Hey Kate, how are you doing?’ And I was like, wow, that’s crazy.”

Groves says that sometimes Mr. Lorenz will play a game where around 200 students, sit down and as he starts saying everyone’s first and last name, whether new or returning.

“I think that really speaks to his dedication to the job because he cares so passionately about it, and he’s just an incredible teacher,” Groves said. “One of the best that I’ve ever had.”

Williams attests to the passion, adding that he’s relentless, yet threads the line of balance between working hard and having fun simultaneously.

“We’re still able to be successful and work hard but also have a lot of fun while we do it,” Williams said. “I think that’s directly from his influence.

He’s just a really great teacher, and he’s also the one who has given us all these opportunities like Hill Auditorium and all the competitions, which is not something that a lot of other choirs in Michigan can say.”

THE COMMUNICATOR

NEWS

THE COMMUNICATOR

13

Ban, Appeal, Repeat: The TikTok Saga After years in limbo, Gen Z’s favorite app is here to stay.

BY ELLIE FOX AND KAYLEE GADEPALLI

Representatives and the Sen-

is used by over 150 aligned with the views of the ► TikTok million Americans, nearly Chinese Communist Party. At ate, Biden signed the Protecthalf the country’s population.

There are almost 7,000 TikTok employees in the United States alone, without counting the ever-growing number of influencers who create content to make a living. Yet despite billions of Americans relying on the app for employment, entertainment and countless other uses, concerns surrounding multiple factors of the app raised enough flags for a call to ban the platform in the U.S. The previous 2020 ban was seemingly dropped as soon as it arose, but after five years, it returned with a promise to get rid of the app once and for all.

TikTok rose to popularity through its use of an algorithm to figure out users’ interests, and its hyper-relevance has boosted artists’ careers, the reach of small businesses, teen engagement and connection between like-minded viewers The all-encompassing nature of TikTok is far from its humble origins as Musical.ly, an app that was created in Shanghai in 2014 as a space where users could make quick lip-sync videos. In 2016, Chinese company ByteDance launched Douyin, an app similar to TikTok, and then TikTok itself in 2017. The company ended up buying Musical.ly, which was then merged with TikTok to become the app we know and use today.

In Oct. 2019, U.S. politicians raised concerns surrounding TikTok’s moderation rules.

They called for investigations into how content is regulated because they feared it was

14

the time, recent protests and police crackdowns in Hong Kong were absent from the app, yet they were prominent in news sources such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.

After investigations into the app throughout the fall of 2019, President Donald Trump issued a vague ban on it, giving ByteDance 90 days to rid itself of any U.S. assets. Although many prominent corporations, such as Microsoft and Walmart, had possible deals to buy the platform, no agreements ever materialized.

The results of the 2020 presidential election left many questioning whether the ban would go through. Former President Joe Biden did not comment on the ban’s state, and the Trump Administration eventually let the deadline drop.

Only a month after being inaugurated into office, Biden delayed the cases involving the ban even further. However, all throughout Biden’s presidency, issues popped up concerning content being pushed toward younger users and data privacy. The feeds of some teenagers were filled with videos that encouraged behaviors that often led to eating disorders.

Some reports even showed Chinese-based ByteDance employees accessing users’ private data.

Following the ban of TikTok on all U.S. government-issued devices, a new bill to ban the app — or sell it to a U.S. company — arose in March of 2024.

After passing in the House of

ing Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which gave TikTok and ByteDance nine months to sell the app with an extension of three months if a deal is in progress. As a response, TikTok sued the U.S. government on the basis that the bill was unconstitutional and violated the First Amendment.

The trial for the case — officially named TikTok v. Garland — began on Sept. 16, 2024. After being denied in the lower courts, TikTok and ByteDance appealed to the Federal Court of Appeals, with a trial set for early December. Like in the lower courts, this appeal was denied, and the claim was taken to the Supreme Court with a court date set for January 2025.

On Jan. 17, the Supreme Court upheld the ban and dropped TikTok v. Garland.

The next night, messages began appearing on the app, announcing the result of the case. By the morning of Jan. 19, the app was unavailable. Along with other ByteDance apps such as CapCut, TikTok was banned on all American devices.

Shockingly, the app returned after only 12 hours. A new message replaced the former alert of the ban, proclaiming that it was back “as a result of President Trump’s efforts.” Trump had signed a bill giving TikTok another 75 days to find a U.S. buyer, therefore putting the app back into limbo. While the fate of the app is still undetermined, it is clear that change is on the horizon.

NEWS

Condo Concerns Ann Arbor’s plan to demolish Kerrytown buildings for condo development concerns many.

BY ELIZABETH CLARK

proposed condominium ► Adevelopment in Kerrytown

has sparked mixed reactions, especially from local students right across the street. Plans to tear down the Marketplace office and retail complex at 303 Detroit Street and replace it with 14 luxury condos are raising concerns over traffic, noise and the potential loss of Kerrytown’s small-town feel.

The project, led by local developer MAVD, aims to add more residential units to the area. The redevelopment would also include a fifth story to the building and two commercial spaces on the ground level.

While the $20 million project is expected to provide more housing in an increasingly crowded city, many are questioning how the changes will affect daily life for residents and students in the neighborhood.

CHS students are voicing concerns about how the construction will affect their school’s environment.

“We already have trouble with traffic and parking, and now there’s going to be even more construction,” said Liliana Amjadi Klass, a freshman.

“It’s going to make getting to school harder, and the noise will be distracting. It’s just going to add to the chaos.”

Kerrytown is known for its historic buildings and tightknit feel, but students worry that these changes could take away from the neighborhood’s unique charm.

“Kerrytown has always felt like a small town, but I’m afraid the more construction there is, the more it will start feeling like

a big city,” Amjadi Klass said.

Sophie Banta, sophomore, expressed similar concerns.

“It feels like Kerrytown is losing its identity with all this construction,” Banta said. “If new businesses come in that we can use, like a café or study spots, that would be cool. But if it’s just more condos for people who don’t live here, then it doesn’t really help us at all.”

Banta also pointed out that parking in the area is already limited, and it’s tough to find parking spots.

“Adding more condos means more people, more cars and less space for students,” Banta said.

“It’s going to make things even more crowded.”

Students aren’t the only ones who are concerned about the impact of the redevelopment.

Steve Coron, a former CHS teacher who now works as a substitute, understands the desire for growth but still sees potential drawbacks.

“It’s hard to argue against progress, but when you tear down historic buildings, you’re also tearing down part of the character of the neighborhood,” Coron said. “Kerrytown has changed a lot, and this development is just another step in that direction. I get that, but I do wonder how it will feel in the long run.”

Despite concerns about the impact on traffic, noise and parking, MAVD hopes the development will benefit the entire Kerrytown area by adding residential options and commercial space.

“This project is about revitalizing the area while respecting

Photography by Esh Schaden Condo construction workers wave to students below as they watch the creation of the new development.

its character,” said Vice President of MAVD Greg Copp in an interview with The Ann Arbor News. “We aim to bring more people into Kerrytown which will help support the businesses here.

For many CHS students, the worry isn’t just about the inconvenience of construction but the potential loss of Kerrytown’s distinctiveness and flair.

“The charm of Kerrytown comes from its mix of old buildings and nature,” Banta said. “If they just tear everything down, it won’t feel the same. Ann Arbor has a lot of character, but the more they replace these old buildings with new, generic ones, the less it feels like home.”

With the construction plans still being finalized, it is un-

THE COMMUNICATOR

clear how the neighborhood will change. While some see the new condos as a necessary addition to a growing city, others fear it could take away the community-oriented, historic vibe and uniqueness that Kerrytown is known for.

“It is not just about the construction,” Amjadi Klass said.

“It’s about how it changes the place we know. Kerrytown is a part of our daily lives, and I just hope that when all the dust settles, it still feels like home.”

If the project is approved, construction could begin as soon as next year. Whether the new condos will enhance or diminish the Kerrytown community’s sense of identity is a question that many residents and students will be watching closely as the decision is made.

15

Eleanor Farrell gives an electric performance of Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club.”

Elle McCreadie takes the stage to perform “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” by Billie Eilish.

2025’s Pioneer Theatre Guild’s “Future Stars” From “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” by Billie Eilish to “I Want You Back” by *NSYNC, underclassman in PTG compete to be the next future star.

BY LUCA HINESMAN AND LEO CASTILHO

stood huddled back stage ing. We just sat and listened to the acappella Once I was on stage, though, I forgot about ► Performers as a packed auditorium buzzed with tracks, and it really gave me an appreciation the audience and how everyone was watchexcitement. As part of their 2024-25 season, Pioneer High School Theatre Guild (PTG) plans to perform five productions. Their second show, “Future Stars,” was a spectacle for the audience on Saturday, Jan. 18.

For over 20 years, an ensemble of Ann Arbor Public School’s upperclassmen have worked to perform a singing competition of covers of popular songs. Five musicians lined the back of the stage while draped fabric and rich purple lighting set the scene.

Groups and soloists worked with various vocal coaches to help prepare for the onetime-only show.

“I loved working with our vocal coaches.

I think they really made everyone shine,” said Ellie Fox, a CHS junior and Future Star participant. “A good memory with one of my coaches, Adam, who coached ‘Please Please Please,’ was actually our first meet16

for how much goes into making one song sound good. Each of my coaches really gave me things to think about when I was performing that I never would have even come up with if they hadn’t mentioned it.”

Underclassmen are also a part of “Future Stars.” Freshmen and sophomores worked together as the “Rising Stars” to perform two medleys: a “Wicked” and Quincy Jones tribute. Jessica Rothstein, a CHS sophomore and Rising Star, shared her thoughts on the process.

“It was really cool to be able to perform with other underclassmen who were also passionate about the show and music,” Rothstein said. “Everyone was supportive of each other and worked really hard to put it together. The show itself was lots of fun, although it was kind of nerve-racking to be performing in front of so many people.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JEN GEER

ing us, and I had the best time up there with all the Rising Stars.”

In addition to performers, the cast included five students who contributed as the hosts for the evening. They performed a skit at the beginning and helped introduce each act. CHS senior Jake Williams, one of the hosts, began each opening with a unique, laughter-filled twist.

“When writing my intros, I mainly just wanted them to be funny,” Williams said.

“I felt that in past years, some intros leaned towards being too formal and that was the last thing I wanted for myself. From then on, it was just fine-tuning them with the other hosts and memorizing them.”

The judging panel featured a mix of local celebrities and University of Michigan athletes, including football players Jaydyn Davis and TJ Guy, Broadway performers

“Rising Stars” gather at center stage after their crowd-pleasing performance to a full auditorium.

Anna Zavelson and Chelsea Packard, Ann Arbor’s mayor Christopher Taylor, Pioneer High School principal Desmond Smith and Ann Arbor’s 107.1 radio host Matthew Altruda.

With an impressive panel of judges, the competition unfolded into two lengthy acts. The first act consisted of competing singers and the judges’ feedback after each song. “Rising Stars” also sang the “Wicked” medley during act one.

Next was the intermission, which was followed by act two, featuring the Quincy Jones medley and more singers, including CHS senior Eleanor Farrell, who sang “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan; PHS senior Lily Wright and CHS senior Jacqueline Boynton, who sang together “Die With A Smile” by Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga.

Lastly, the judges selected the top five acts, and the ultimate winner was decided by a cheering vote — the act that received the

loudest applause won.

From an audience perspective, Kyra Kahana, CHS senior, adored the beginning skit, which set the scene. She liked the vast majority of songs and singers; however, one clearly caught and held her attention.

“I thought the skit was a funny and cute way to introduce the hosts,” Kahana said.

“I was really impressed by how talented all of the performers were, and Jacqueline and Lily’s song together definitely stood out to me. I knew they would have a good chance of winning.”

After the performances were completed, it was time to answer to the three-and-ahalf-hour wait: Who would be the winner?

The “Future Stars” and “Rising Stars” took the stage in a wide semicircle to hear the judges vote on the five finalists. The final five being “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims, sung by Arslan Alavi and Nicole Harris; “Die With A Smile” by Bruno Mars

and Lady Gaga, sung by Jacqueline Boynton and Lily Wright; “More Than Words”

by Extreme, sung by Emmanuel Morgan and Chase Crownover; “No One” by Alicia Keys, sung by Jacqueline Boynton; and “Slow It Down” by Benson Boone, sung by Emmanuel Morgan. Each act stood facing the audience as the crowd cheered for their favorite.

As the applause erupted, the final vote was announced — Lily Wright and Jacqueline Boynton had won. Overwhelmed with emotion, Boynton described the moment as surreal, enveloped in joy and celebration.

“When they called my name, my mind went blank and I didn’t think it was real at first,” Boynton said. “Then everyone around me started swarming over, and I just started crying because of all the love. It was truly a lighthearted experience; I gained so many memories and friends from it and wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Entering a World of Trump What kinds of policies will Trump put in place and how will his presidency affect America?

BY ELIJAH MAKMAN-LEVINSON

government is ► Aoneunified in which the House,

Senate and Presidency are all controlled by the same political party. For the party in power, there are more opportunities for productivity and streamlined decision-making when it comes to policies. Allowing laws to be paused more efficiency without challenge from the opposing party. As of Jan. 20, 2025, the United States has been under a unified government, giving Republican Donald Trump, the 47th president of the United States, unchecked power to forward his political agenda.

This uncontrolled power was given to the Republican Party after Trump defeated Kamala Harris in the 2024 Presidential Election by over 80 electoral votes and over 1% of the popular vote. This begs the question, “What kinds of policies will Trump put in place now that he and the Republican Party are in power?”

Economic conservatives favor a system in which market forces drive economic activity with minimal government interference. Trump plans to put into place many conservative economic policies that prioritize free-market principles and limited government intervention in economic affairs. The most significant economic policies Trump plans on establishing include extending income and estate tax cuts, reducing the corporate tax rate, rolling back on government regulations of the economy and imposing and strengthening tariffs on imports to the U.S. These economic policies have generated much controversy.

Trump has claimed that tariffs will boost American manufacturing, create jobs for thou18

sands of Americans and bring billions of dollars into U.S. economy to help pay for initiatives. However, data from economists and the Federal Reserve has shown that the revenue that will be generated from these tariffs would only bring harm to the U.S. economy, as the tariffs will most likely significantly raise the prices of goods for American consumers. Additionally, many people claim that Trump’s tax cuts disproportionately favor the wealthy.

Chloe Root, CHS social studies teacher, feels anxious and believes many of the policies Trump says will benefit our country will actually be counterproductive. One of the biggest areas where Root feels this concern is the economy; Root

thinks that the economic policies Trump favors will increase the power of the upper classes while magnifying poverty for lower classes of Americans.

“I believe that Trump’s policies which exacerbate wealth inequality will continue to perpetuate the housing crisis all over the country, including places close to Ann Arbor in Southeast Michigan,” Root said. “I think that the economy and the country’s health as a whole are things you can’t be isolated from. I know that in Ann Arbor, people happen to be very lucky in terms of the way they have their own bubble or buffer from a lot of the rest of the country. But you can’t be totally isolated from those things.”

Racial conservatives advo-

ART BY BEE WHALEN

cate for policies that prioritize the preservation of certain racial and ethnic groups, arguing that the majority racial group in society should remain in its dominant role in order to create prosperity for the nation. Some of the conservative policies regarding race, immigration and cultural identity that Trump has talked about establishing include rolling back civil rights protections that protect minorities at risk, tightening border security and reducing immigration through deporting undocumented immigrants and placing severe limits on the number of immigrants that can enter the country.

Trump’s restrictive immigration policies have also created a lot of disputes. While racial

NEWS

conservatives argue that these policies protect the social fabric of America, many citizens are opposed to these types of policies. People with liberal immigration views believe that policies that limit immigration are discriminatory and that America should welcome people from all backgrounds, particularly those facing political or humanitarian crises in their home countries. Root is scared about Trump’s plan to deport the undocumented immigrants, which she views as a violation of human rights.

“There are undocumented people all over the country,” Root said. “Everybody who lives in the U.S. probably knows somebody who’s undocumented, so it’s really scary considering how Trump’s policies could deport these people and break up families.”

There have been many questions over whether Trump will implement Project 2025, an initiative established by Heritage

Foundation President Kevin Roberts to shape a conservative agenda for the 2025 term.

Some of the goals on this list include leaving abortion bans to individual states, funding a wall in the U.S.-Mexico border and eliminating federal money for investment in renewable energy. Although Trump has stated that he has no intentions of putting Project 2025 in place, Root believes Trump will most certainly instate it. Root thinks that even if Trump was indifferent to Project 2025, the people coming into his administration are emphatically not indifferent to it, which gives Trump an incentive to carry it out.

“Trump has a record of saying different things in terms of what he supports and then what he actually does,” Root said.

“The fact that he nominated a running mate who is one of the authors of the intro to Project 2025 doesn’t make me feel confident that he was telling the truth when he said he wouldn’t implement it. I think that there are a lot of things in Project 2025 that would need a lot more collaboration from Congress that would be easy to get, and they are not things that can be done only with the executive. So I don’t think Trump is going to come in and do all of Project 2025, but I think that everything that he can do, he will try to do.”

All the policies that Trump plans to instate could have lasting effects on our country that

The modern Republican party is a conglomerate of economic conservatives and racial conservatives.

The Republican Party now has complete, unchecked power in the federal government.

VINCENT HUTCHINGS

would impact us all. Senior Violet Knyal voted against Trump in the 2024 election because she worried that all the policies Trump has talked about would only bring about negative changes for herself and the country. She also wanted to ensure that the policies she believed in were represented in government.

“While I was voting, I wasn’t really picturing what the country would be like under anybody other than Trump, but I was really scared of the things that Trump would do and now will do as president,” Knyal said. “Under Trump, I think there will be a terrible, drastic change in the health of the climate, lots more fossil fuel usage, an increase in grocery prices because of all the tariffs he wants to enact, a lot of women’s healthcare will be taken away, a lot of LGBTQ+ rights will be removed and there will be a lot of book bans.”

However, the president isn’t just a political leader whose job is to put in place policies to benefit the country; the president is supposed to be a figure who exemplifies leadership, decency and qualities that the public can revere. According to Vincent Hutchings, a political science professor at the University of Michigan, Trump’s behavior, rhetoric and public persona have often contradicted this expectation, challenging the conventional notion of the president as a role model.

“All the things that we have been told since we were young about the symbolic importance of the presidency, such as the presidency being a role model for young kids, are hard to sustain in light of the fact that whatever one thinks about Trump, he is hardly a role mod-

THE COMMUNICATOR

el,” Hutchings said. “Among many unethical things he’s done, he’s a twice-divorced admitted philanderer and he is a convicted felon of paying hush money to a porn star to keep the information for his illicit affair from coming to light during the 2016 election.

When I say he’s a philanderer, that’s because 12 jurors reviewed the evidence and concluded that he was guilty.

Therefore, the outcome of the election suggests that all the high-minded rhetoric about what the presidency is and what it stands for is not credible because of Trump’s victory. Even if you think he should have won, it’s clear that he is morally compromised.”

The unchecked power that the Republican president now holds has sparked debate and speculation over the future of the nation and the policies he will enact. However, there remains an element of mystery surrounding what Trump will do during his second term.

“We don’t really know what is going to happen,” Root said.

“Last time Trump was so unpredictable and what he did as president was not the picture he painted before he got elected. I’m really wondering if there are going to be any limits on his whims and if the ideas about what he’s going to do are actually going to come through or not.”

Even though there are countless policies that Americans all over the country are sure Trump will put in place as the 47th leader of America, nobody can predict what he will do next. Anything can happen, and it’s anybody’s guess for what America will look like in four years from now.

19

NEWS

United Healthcare CEO Shooting On Dec. 4, CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot.

This is what this means, and what needs to be done.

BY LEO CASTILHO

UnitedHealthcare cans used the situation to ex- of complexity to an already con- a system like the one in place ► Former CEO Brian Thompson press their frustrations with voluted system. Similarly, the today. Even though Witty exhad been dedicated to improving healthcare for individuals since 2021, according to UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty.

At approximately 6:44 a.m. on Dec. 4, 2024, his efforts came to an end when he was fatally shot on the sidewalk outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel.

An op-ed in The New York Times, which interviewed Witty, painted a picture of Thompson as a compassionate, likable and centered leader. Raised on a rural Iowa farm, Thompson’s background gave him a deep understanding of the struggles faced by ordinary Americans. Witty highlighted how Thompson’s decisions as CEO were guided by a simple question: “Would you want this for your own family?’ If not, end of discussion.” According to Witty, this mindset drove Thompson’s efforts to make healthcare “more affordable, transparent and compassionate.” Witty emphasized Thompson’s legacy as one of humanizing healthcare, striving to make the system work for the people.

However, the public’s reaction to Thompson’s death revealed a stark difference in portrayal. While Witty’s tribute aimed to honor Thompson’s contributions, many Ameri-

the healthcare industry. Social media soon became a platform for individuals to share their stories of denied claims, unexpected medical bills and the challenges of dealing with a profit-driven healthcare system.

Some even went as far as sympathizing with or celebrating the actions of Luigi Mangione, the man accused of Thompson’s murder, who reportedly held resentment toward the industry.

Some believed that what Mangione did wasn’t exactly wrong, while others thought that Mangione had done the right thing.

The U.S. healthcare system is the product of decades of incremental changes rather than a cohesive design. These inconsistent changes reflect a complex history shaped by competing interests, including government policies, private insurers and the pharmaceutical industry.

Unlike countries prioritizing universal healthcare models, the U.S. has long relied on privatized, employer-based insurance and market-driven solutions. This strategy has led to soaring costs, inconsistencies in coverage and widespread dissatisfaction among patients. Key moments in this history, such as the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, were intended to address gaps in coverage but had ultimately added layers

Affordable Care Act (ACA) — established in March 2010 — expanded access to insurance but also highlighted the tension between expanding coverage and controlling costs. These changes, which result in a different version of the same broken system, help explain why frustrations are deeply entrenched in public consciousness.

According to a 2024 poll conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, the frustration is not unfounded. Nearly 70% of respondents believed that the practices of the health insurance industry, such as coverage denials and prioritization of profits, bore a great or moderate deal of responsibility for Thompson’s killing.

Real experiences prove these frustrations: 15% of respondents reported having claims denied, 13% had a difficult time with prior authorizations, and 16% faced difficulties finding providers within their networks. For many, these challenges have created a mistrust in the healthcare system.

Witty himself acknowledged the systemic issues, stating that the U.S. healthcare system “does not work as well as it should.”

He described it as a “patchwork built over decades” and admitted that no one would design

THE COMMUNICATOR

pressed a willingness to potentially improve the system with the help of others, his acknowledgment of its flaws seemed to do little to pacify the outrage of the population, many of whom continue to face substantial barriers to healthcare.

Thompson’s death raised broader questions about the safety of corporate executives in industries that are often seen as exploitative. While 78% of poll respondents agreed that the individual who committed the killing bore a great deal of responsibility, nearly 70% also pointed to systemic issues within the healthcare industry. These two statements alone raise questions about how to address systemic failures without resorting to threats or violence.

This tragedy has highlighted the urgent need for systemic reform in U.S. healthcare policies. While leaders like Thompson may honestly strive to make meaningful changes, the broader public — many of whom face overwhelming medical bills, denied claims and limited access to care — remains skeptical of the industry’s intentions.

Public opinion following Thompson’s death shows that the gap between healthcare corporations and the individuals they serve must be bridged if genuine progress is to be made.

21

e s n e S A

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t r o f m o C How our senses dictate our experience through high school.

BY STAFF

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Touch

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Hearing Taste

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BY LUCIA PAGE SANDER

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Marci Tuzinsky can be comfortable “absolutely anywhere.” This is in large part a result of her four years as a student at South Lyon High School, where CHS’s dean participated in just about every activity you can think of. It wasn’t initially by choice though; chronic back pain ruled her out of year-round sports, so Tuzinsky turned to other after-school activities. Between her involvements in student council, National Honor Society, tutoring and theater, she gained early experience navigating and leading in a variety of environments.

As her theater responsibilities bled into class time, Tuzinsky began to miss Geometry and her Geometry teacher began to miss her. She was leaving class to paint sets more often than not, but was holding her own well enough to learn the math she needed to. Thus, the two struck a deal: on some of the days she was able to make it to class, Tuzinsky would put her tutoring expertise to work and help teach the curriculum to her classmates. That was the first step on her path to becoming an educator.

While Tuzinsky’s high school experience was worlds apart from the one that CHS provides, her values as a teenager aligned closely with those of the school she would go on to lead.

“I was always reaching out to people who maybe didn't connect with others,” Tuzinsky said. “It was just important to me. It always has been.”

Tuzinsky took that mindset to West-

HEART HEART HEART HEART HEART HE ern Michigan University (WMU) where she majored in mathematics and minored in computer science. Through a WMU program, Tuzinsky was able to complete a portion of her classes and the entirety of her student teaching hours at an alternative school within Loy Norrix high school in Kalamazoo, MI. At Loy Norrix, Tuzinsky fell in love with the creativity and camaraderie that non-traditional schooling affords. So much so, that her post-graduation job search became laser-focused on alternative institutions.

The moment Tuzinsky arrived at CHS in 1996 was not long before from the moment she jokes she got “tricked into” becoming dean. On impact, she was flung into the hubbub of simultaneous enrollment lottery and block scheduling revo-

lutions. Putting the logic and reasoning skills she honed during her collegiate STEM studies to good use, Tuzinsky rolled out a wide, wheeled whiteboard and arranged and rearranged schedule possibilities until she landed on a satisfactory solution for traditionalists and block scheduling proponents alike. Her system included a mid-morning period where students and teachers could choose between having two daily classes or opting fully in to the alternating block schedule.

“I kept thinking that I wanted everyone to feel comfortable and that there had to be a way to make it so we could do a little bit of both and make people happy,” Tuzinsky said. “I was always like, ‘Oh, here's an idea,’ or ‘What if we did this?’ And it just kept happening and

HEART HEART HEART then my very first year here, Dean Judy said, ‘You know, you're really good at problem solving, you should really consider going into education leadership.’”

Then, over the course of an 18-yearlong saga of math teaching, forum leading, administrative work and raising three of her own children, Tuzinsky became a part of CHS and the school, in turn, became a part of her.

“So many of my formative years and so much of who I am as an adult are because I was raised at Community High School

by Community High School teachers,” Tuzinsky said.

An integral part of the school by then, she bit the bullet and went all in on deanhood; Tuzinsky’s kids were young, and it felt like there would never be a right time, but when Dean Jen left, it became a now-

or-never situation.

Having been in education for over two decades now, Tuzinsky has found that basic physical comfort and security are the foundations that support learning, growth and success. This is a concept that was formalized by Abraham Harold Maslow in the mid-century 1900s.

Named Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the theory asserts that there are five basic levels of human needs and that lower-tier necessities must be fulfilled before higher-level needs can be realized.

“If you feel comfortable, you're more likely to take a risk and ask questions,” Tuzinsky said. “That's true for teachers, it's true for students, it's true for everybody, so having a comfortable place is important because you don't learn if you stay in your comfort zone academically.”

Tuzinsky appreciates that she and her colleagues can’t control their students’ home environments, so she instead focuses on how she can continue to make CHS a place where all kids can feel at ease. Through customs and pillars like transition day, forum, field day, no bells, having plenty of places to sit in the hallway and students and staff being on a first-name basis, Tuzinsky believes that CHS is able to cultivate an overall positive climate — one that allows most everyone involved to build beyond the first few layers of their pyramids.

But how do you tackle the difficult task of conveying CHS’s remarkable and sometimes strange-seeming culture to prospective students and their adults?

For Tuzinsky, it’s something she feels she can never quite do well enough at.

“I often tell parents it's more important what the kids say than what I say because I could spin anything up and make it sound like we're X, Y and Z, even if we’re not,” Tuzinsky said. “I mean, adults can say anything, so I think that's why it's most important to hear from student voices."

Therefore, Tuzinsky and CHS’s teachers and administrators strive to have current students speak at every information session and orientation event. That practice is yet another way the dean tries to continue passing the school’s welcoming and student-driven nature from class to class in hopes that each learner will have enough comfort and confidence to achieve self-actualization.

SENSE OF COMFORT P.

23

"

So many of my formative years and so much of who I am as an adult are because I was raised at Community High School

by Community High School teachers.

BY ISABELLA MALDONADO

A

At home, the words fall out of June Aquino’s mouth without hesitation. Spanish flows freely, unrestricted by doubt or second-guessing. She doesn’t worry about mispronouncing a word or struggling to recall a phrase. She simply speaks.

Despite growing up in the United States, English is not the language of her soul — it is merely a tool, something learned, something practiced. Spanish is the language of her parents, the language of her brain, the language of her dreams, and the language she is allowed to be herself in.

But outside of her home where her words and self expression can flow easily, things have always been different.

When Aquino first started elementary school, it was like being dropped into Antarctica with summer clothes on. She was surrounded by the foreign sounds of English, its rough edges cutting through the comfort and warmth of the Spanish she had always known. Conversations swirled around her, and though she could hear them, she couldn’t always grasp them, not in the way she could in her language.

It was isolating. It was confusing. And often, it was embarrassing.

“If I would say a word and not pronounce it right, kids were like, ‘Oh, you can’t say that, that’s not how you pronounce it,’” Aquino said. “They would then try to make me exactly pronounce the word the way they wanted.”

It made her hyper-aware of every syllable that left her lips. The fear of getting it wrong clung to her like a shadow, lingering even years later. Now, even in high school she has to stop and second guess

HEARING HEARING HEARING HEARING HEARING HEARING HEARING

herself when speaking, she would rather not say anything than say something wrong.

“It’s had an impact on me to this day.

I still kind of struggle with words,” Aquino said. “It made me not want to say words if I knew I wasn’t going to pronounce them right.”

For Aquino, hearing Spanish is more than just recognizing words—it is hearing home, safety, and belonging. When she walks through her front door at the end of a day of solely hearing the harsh English spoken by her peers and teachers, she is met with voices that don’t demand perfection, with words that come effortlessly.

The act of hearing is often taken for granted, but for Aquino, it is a defining aspect of her identity. Language is not just about communication; it is about connection.

“When I’m speaking Spanish at home with my parents and friends, it’s like a different side of me,” Aquino said. “I know how to pronounce the words easier

than in English.”

In English, she hesitates. She carefully selects each word, navigating an invisible minefield of potential mispronunciations. But in Spanish, she is confident. She is herself. Her true personality, not just the English version everyone at school knows her as, gets to shine through.

“In Spanish, I feel more extroverted, I can say what I want without thinking about it too much,” Aquino said.

She describes the language as more vibrant, more expressive. There are jokes in Spanish that simply don’t translate to English, or at least not in the way she wishes they would. There are emotions that can only be fully felt when spoken in her mother tongue.

“It's really funny to speak in Spanish, because we can say all these words that's not you can't really explain in English,” Aquino said. “It's a whole different language and a whole different personality.”

In the whitewashed halls of her elementary, Spanish was not the dominant lan-

SENSE OF COMFORT P.

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NG HEARING HEARING guage. English was the expectation, and struggling with it meant standing out.

Not being fluent in English meant she had to have different reading levels and had to take ESL classes, which was nothing like her peers experience of elementary.

“It’s different here because everyone starts with English, and it’s like, ‘Oh, everyone knows it,’” Aquino says. “But then, if you’re somewhere where there aren’t a lot of Hispanic people, it’s a surprise to find someone who speaks your language.”

When Aquino finds a person in Michigan, a state with only 3.3% of Michiganders speaking Spanish according to Michigan demographics, speaking Spanish she feels relived in a way, a relief of someone who can understand her no matter what.

She remembers feeling the contrast of the languages most vividly the summer before second grade when she visited Mexico for a month To see her family. During that time she felt like she was home. The anxiety and fear she had held

in her first two years of American elementary school had all faded away when the norm was Spanish. But when she returned to the U.S., she had the shocking realization that while she was anxiety free from the English language she had also forgotten most of her English. ”I came back and I forgot all my English, I had to redo and relearn It all again,” Aquino said.

The barrier was no longer just linguistic; it was social. She was physically present in the classroom, but she felt removed from the experience, trapped between two worlds.

Since then Aquino has learned to live in both languages. She moves between them like a tightrope walker, balancing the different parts of herself.

She thinks in both Spanish and English, sometimes lets the two languages bleed together in her speech allowing for a perfect mix of her personality. But no matter how fluent she becomes in English, Spanish remains her true home.

“If I had to choose, I would stick with

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When I’m speaking Spanish at home with my parents and friends, it’s like a different side of me.

Spanish,” Aquino said. “It’s my first language, and I know I’ll always have it.”

If Aquino had the choice she would chose Mexico time and time again. It is her parents home, her safety net and the place where she feels complete.

“When I go to Mexico, that’s when I feel the most comfortable,” Aquino explains. “Everyone speaks Spanish.

There’s no worrying about English, no worrying about writing or pronouncing things wrong. It’s just easier.”

Growing up in Michigan, a state with a predominantly white population, Aquino has often felt the contrast between her two worlds. She remembers visiting a neighborhood where many Hispanic and Latino kids lived, feeling the warmth of a community that understood her.

“I always wanted to live there,” Aquino said. “Whenever I visited my cousin who lived there, we would all hang out and speak in Spanish. It was different from my neighborhood.’”

Even in media, she notices the way her language is misrepresented, reduced to merely a stereotype.

“Like in Modern Family, how they made Sofia Vergara put on an exaggerated accent,” she says. “It’s not that we can’t speak English normally, but they want to portray us a certain way.”

Language is more than just words; it is the soundtrack of our lives. For Aquino, hearing Spanish is hearing comfort.

It is hearing laughter at family gatherings, hearing the warmth of her mother’s voice, hearing the unspoken understanding of shared experience.

And when she walks through the door at the end of the day, she knows that, finally, she can breathe. She can finally hear herself clearly.

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BY AMELIA SANDSTROM

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Top notes of light, airy florals, anchored with a warm, coziness: a mother's hands wrapped around the body of her child, keeping her safe.

A deep, rich hum of a smell with woodsy sweetness as it burns, releasing pockets of sugar, chocolate and marshmallows.

A family gathered around a glowing fire, laughing as they make s’mores and memories.

Smooth, spicy and sweet, wood holding an almost unripe quality, a rawness: sandal wood essential oils spilling out of a diffuser, smoke rising above candles filling each corner of a house until it is a home?

The smells of comfort, reminders of family, memories and home; these three key components of life are repeatedly a source of comfort for many. Different things can trigger reminders of these moments, these mothers and fathers, these couches, beds and kitchens. Candles and incense, perfume and the smell of a campfire can give way to a feeling of safety like that felt in the embrace of the people you love.

For Kai Camara, it's the hints of warmth in a wash of light florals — her mother’s perfume — a reminder of her mother’s hands bringing her close and protecting her.

“It calms me down a lot because it kind of just takes over everything,” Camara said. “I feel like everything just kind of drowns out, and being able to just, like, focus on that.”

Camara is 15 now, a sophomore at CHS, and though it has varied over the years, her mom’s perfume has always made her feel the same way: loved. That

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consistency is key to the comfort tied to the smell.

“That smell ties me down to like, ‘oh, I still have this constant thing that's stayed throughout time’,” Camara said. “So it's comforting to know that it stays the same.”

It not only reminds her of her mother but also the comfort of her childhood home. Similarly, Camara’s own perfume, a smooth vanilla scent, is akin to the smell of baking in her kitchen when she was younger. She would make cookies, always using vanilla extract, and often, the vanilla would spill from the container, getting everywhere.

“Everything would just be stained with that smell,” Camara said.

When she puts her signature scent on in the morning and wears it throughout her day, Camara feels present, that despite any chaos happening around her, she is still herself. Her mother's perfume does the same, it reminds her that whatever is happening, she has that thing that stays the same. Whenever Camara feels upset or needs to relax, she often hugs her mother. And then the familiarity of that smell calms her down.

Like Camara, CHS Sophomore Esh Schaden has a smell that makes him feel comfortable and safe. Schaden finds that when he smells the natural musk of a campfire, he can't help but feel the coziness of making s'mores with his family.

These moments were scattered throughout his early childhood, but even now, Schaden looks forward to summers still filled with s’mores.

“If I smell smoke, it'll bring me back to that place,” Schaden said. “On Halloween, when we were at a friend's house, he

had a fire in the backyard. And when I smelled the smoke from that, it reminded me of being with my family and roasting marshmallows.”

For him, it isn’t just about sitting around the fire, it’s the togetherness of his family to get to that point. The smell of smoke transports Schaden back to a day of collecting the best sticks he could find and chopping wood for the fire with his dad. In Schaden's backyard, a green natural plot, surrounded by trees, finding great s’mores sticks and firewood wasn’t too difficult a task. Chopping the wood was the hard part. Schaden's dad would walk him through it, keeping him safe and teaching him a useful skill, while also nourishing their bond.

After the wood was chopped, Schaden’s mother and sister would come out and they would circle the glowing embers, hands sticky with white milky marshmallow goop. Schaden almost always found sticky strands in his hair, but the mess didn’t matter to him, because that was all part of the fun.

“I remember throwing burnt [marshmallows] into the tall grass, and just trying to make the best s’more,” Schaden said. “Trying to get the most chocolate that I could on my s'more, and then my sister yelling at me for taking all of the chocolate.”

Now that Schaden’s sister is off in New York City at college, his memories mean something new. It’s not just about good times, but also that feeling of wholeness, being with his entire family.

“You sort of realize what it means to be a family,” Schaden said. “It's almost like she's the missing fourth wheel on our car. And when she's gone, we sort of veer

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off the road a little bit.”

Schaden’s sister has been a critical part of his life for forever. She’s helped guide him through so many facets of life, like his style and personality. When he thinks about memories like campfires with his family, he thinks about his sister and all the other good times they have shared.

When she came back for the holidays, Schaden felt like his family was complete once again, he felt that same comfort of love that he feels when he smells the smoke of a campfire.

A woody smell, a reminder of home, is a source of comfort for both Schaden and CHS junior, Olivia Kreger. For as long as Kreger can remember, she has stepped into her house and breathed in the sour, lighter wood, of candles and

essential oils that her mother filled the house with.

“It makes like a very peaceful environment at my house,” Kreger said. “I reminds me of being cozy and in my house, and like stress-free.”

Similar to Camara, the scent is a constant in her life. Kreger knows that her house will always have that calming smell, the smell of comfort. Her mother, a therapist, uses candles and essential oils in her practice to create a calm environment, and she does the same at home.

Once, Kreger bought a sandalwood-scented candle, not knowing that that was what she had been smelling her whole life. When she lit and smelled it for the first time, she put together the comfort she felt in her house and the memo-

SMELL SMELL SMELL SMELL SME THE COMMUNICATOR

ries that came with that were tied to that smell. The safety of her home was encapsulated in wax and oils, just as her home holds the aromas from those things and comforts her from the moment she walks in the door.

“I realized this smell isn't just a perfume that I would wear every day,” Kreger said. “This is more like something that reminds me of my home, the holidays, my family and feeling good and calm.”

While the smell primarily reminds Kreger of her home, part of that comfort is particularly attached to wintertime and the holidays. The warm, cozy feeling of not having anything to do, and just being able to relax is one of Kreger's favorite parts of winter.

“When we start doing that again, like lighting candles and having fires, that's when I know that it's really winter,” Kreger said. “It's really the holidays and I'm gonna have breaks from school and spend time with my whole family, and it's gonna be really relaxing for me.”

Kreger feels both a sense of comfort when she smells sandalwood but also a readiness to be comfortable. An invitation to put on her fuzzy socks, sit by the fire and not worry about school or any other stressors. It gets her into the holiday spirit and the calm of the winter. The holidays mean more to Kreger than relaxation, they also remind her of good times with family and friends in the past, and the good times to come.

It's not just that they find comfort in memories and people they love, it's that for all of these things, the smells that remind them of those things take them back. The smells are a constant, for Schaden, even when his sister is gone, he can smell the smoke of a campfire and feel like she’s right there, sitting with him by the fire. For Camara, yes, her mother is a constant as well, but her perfume specifically is something that ties her down.

Even when Camara is in her arms and can’t see her mother's face, she is flooded with familiarity and safety from the floral scent of her mother's perfume, a constant. And, for Kreger, that sandalwood scent is a consistent wash of calm and safety, that smell will always be home.

Kreger, Schaden and Camara may all have different smells that bring them comfort, but their reasoning is all similar, in that those smells, perfume, smoke and sandalwood, serve as reminders of the people and places that make them feel safe, that make them feel loved.

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BY ELLIE FOX

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Sitting on the wall at his first climbing competition, Alex Smith felt the intense pressure in his chest. It felt like life or death for him, jumping to the final hold.

The moment he decided to leave the wall he felt like he was flying — even if it was only for a second — to the hold that would bring him to Regionals.

Smith knows discomfort.

Smith is a rock climber, competing in a sport he started on a whim five years earlier that has now become his life.

Early on, he had to learn that climbing would hurt. Physical discomfort will be an ever-present issue that he continues to overcome and Smith often finds himself pushing through the pain. He has conquered constant callouses, bleeding and a snapped tendon: ragged hands are his norm.

“You always have to push through, but it never really goes away,” Smith said.

“You're always going to be a little bit uncomfortable.”

But this hasn’t stopped Smith from loving climbing with his whole heart. He would climb anything he could as a kid, and always felt a sense of mental comfort when he was on the wall. Being able to solve the puzzles in the routes, and slowly figuring out how to get to the top is only one part of Smith’s passion for the sport. The stiffness of the chalk on his hands and the bumps of the wall under his feet is his comfort zone. Smith has found that he enjoys climbing the most and performs at his best when he’s in a good mood.

“It’s kind of blissful when you’re climbing really well,” Smith said. “You’re just soaring up these routes, having fun.”

Starting out, Smith really struggled 30

TOUCH TOUCH TOUCH TOUCH TOUCH TO with the texture of climbing chalk. Chalk is a tool climbers use to strengthen their grip and mitigate sweat when climbing.

Smith describes it as something that helps climbers have constant friction on holds. To him, it first felt like nails on a chalkboard. The texture and stiffness made it almost impossible for him to close his hands comfortably. In the beginning of his career, Smith would climb without it in competitions, but would fall due to the sweat (and even blood) that his hands left on the holds. Over time, he learned to ignore the strange texture and now climbs with chalk during every session, often coating his perspiration-prone hands until they are fully white.

“I probably couldn't even climb half as well without chalk,” Smith said. “It's

a huge point of climbing.”

The chalk does help aid with grip but doesn’t stop the roughness of the holds from shredding his hands and fingers.

Often, holds are made of fiberglass, and Smith finds that they tend to just flake skin off. Although chalk stops most callouses from breaking, climbers often have to pull off “flappers” or broken calluses, while they’re on the wall. Calluses formed on Smith’s hands when he started climbing, and have remained there ever since.

“I don't know what it's like to not have calluses,” Smith said. “It just feels normal now.”

Chalk is even more important to have when outdoor climbing, something that Smith enjoys and travels for continuous-

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I don't know what it's like to not have calluses.

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It just feels normal now.

ly. Smith prefers to climb granite the most, because of its unique texture.

“Granite has a certain grip to your skin that I really like,” Smith said. “It kind of feels like you're gonna slip, but you never do. And you don't trust it, but it always works.”

For Smith, being able to keep reaching for that next hold, no matter the pain, is his comfort zone.

“Being okay with being in pain and understanding that it's not your body telling you absolutely cannot do this, is necessary” Smith said. “[Your body] is saying ‘I don't really like doing this, can you stop?’ And it's understanding that you can just keep going, and that's how you get better.”

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BY JONATHAN CARTER

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Memory has a way of lingering in unexpected places, rising with the steam of a well-loved dish or in the caramel-sweet scent of onions turning golden in a pan.

Emily Walker, a German native now living in the United States, sees food as more than sustenance — it is a tangible connection to her heritage, family and the memories they share.

Her culinary journey began in her grandmother’s kitchen in Germany, where flavors shaped her understanding of food into a deeply emotional experience. One dish, her family’s creamy German mac and cheese, has remained a constant throughout her life.

“We always made it when I’d go over to my grandma’s house,” Walker said.

Made with egg noodles, cheese and heavy cream, the dish is simple yet comforting.

In the bustling kitchen of her childhood, Walker learned the importance of cooking with intention.

“Probably my first cooking experience was with my mom or grandma,” Walker said. “They taught me to feel my way through recipes — to knead the dough until it felt right, to taste until the flavors were balanced.”

Those early lessons formed the foundation of her passion for food and her belief that cooking brings people closer together.

Even as life took her far from home, the cherished dish became a way to hold onto her roots. Now living thousands of miles from Germany, she often recreates the recipe when she feels the pangs of homesickness.

“When I miss being in Germany or my family, I make it, if I have time,” Walker

said.

The act of preparing the dish transports her back to her grandmother’s kitchen, where laughter and stories were as abundant as the food on the table.

In America, Walker discovered a new side to her love for cooking: the ability of food to bridge cultures. While living with an Indian host family, she was introduced to vibrant spices and bold flavors that expanded her palate and deepened her appreciation for global cuisines.

One memorable experience involved sharing her family’s German mac and cheese with her host family.

“They wanted to try something traditionally German, so I made it for them,” Walker said.

Watching their joy at the first bite was a reminder of how food can connect people from vastly different backgrounds.

“It made me realize that no matter where you’re from, cooking together and sharing a meal creates the same feeling of connection,” Walker said.

Her time in the U.S. also inspired her to experiment with cooking. She began incorporating Indian spices from her host family’s heritage into her own family’s traditional dishes, blending flavors in ways that felt like a celebration of both her culture and her newfound culinary curiosity.

Though she doesn’t feel that she’s mastered this amalgamation yet, she still enjoys trying.

Food has always been central to Walker’s family traditions and celebrations.

She fondly remembers the May festival, a time when families gather to give thanks for their harvests and blessings.

“In Germany, there’s no Thanksgiving,

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No matter where you’re from, cooking together and sharing a meal creates the same feeling of connection.

but in May, we give thanks for food,” Walker said.

Her family’s mac and cheese was always part of the celebration, symbolizing togetherness and gratitude.

Cooking remains her way of staying connected to loved ones, even across long distances. “It’s not just about the food, but about the time spent with family,” Walker said. Whether kneading dough with her grandmother as a child or exploring new recipes with friends today, she sees cooking as a way to bond and create lasting memories.

Walker hopes to pass these traditions on to others, sharing the stories behind her family’s recipes and the joy they bring.

“When my friends try it and like it, it makes me happy too,” Walker said.

For her, food is a bridge between her past and present, a way to honor her heritage while embracing new experiences.

“Taste is a universal language,” Walker said. “It brings people together, no matter where you’re from.”

Since moving to the United States, her curiosity about different cuisines has

TAST

STE TASTE TASTE TASTE TASTE TASTE TASTE TASTE TA TAS flourished. She has explored dishes from Italy to India, each one teaching her something new.

Her most exciting discovery has been the complexity of Indian cuisine. “It made me realize how much thought goes into creating something so simple yet so complex,” Walker said. From rich curries to delicate naan bread, these dishes have inspired her to think more deeply about the art of cooking.

Through these experiences, Walker has learned that food is far more than nourishment — it’s a way to create moments that matter. “After a long day, making a home-cooked meal with your family is something special,” Walker said. The simple act of cooking together becomes an opportunity to bond, share stories, and

create memories that last a lifetime.

Her family’s German mac and cheese remains the heart of her culinary world.

Its creamy, comforting flavors are a reminder of home, of kitchens filled with laughter and of the generations who prepared the dish before her. “When you cook for someone, you’re giving them a piece of yourself,” Walker said.

Even as she explores new flavors and techniques, Walker stays rooted in the traditions that shaped her. Whether preparing her family’s cherished recipes or experimenting with bold new spices, she sees food as a way to connect with others and share the joy of cooking.

“Taste is a universal language,” Walker said. “It brings people together, no matter where you’re from.”

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BY CLAIRE LEWIS

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Meghan Pillote spends hours placing little dots on a page. The act of stippling is a long and tedious process. Each piece takes Pillote anywhere from six to 20 hours to complete. Yet, she loves it. She loves paying attention to each detail and looking closely at the things that bring her comfort. For Pillote, understanding shadows and contours of the world has always been a passion.

As an artist, Pillote’s perspective is constantly changing and adapting. Her ability to look at the world from both macro and micro levels helps her move through life with a unique attitude. Although Pillote uses many different mediums and techniques in her art, she’s been spending the majority of her time on stippling these past months. It’s a process that takes patience, attentiveness and most importantly, the ability to zoom in and out.

“If you look close enough into anything, I feel like you're able to find beauty in it,” Pillote said.

Choosing her subject area is the first step in Pillote’s process: stippling takes a long time, so she has to find an image that captivates her. She picks images that speak to her on an emotional level, something that she tells a narrative through.

She expresses her life through these pieces of art, and so Pillote is often impelled to draw women.

When she depicts women in her pieces, it’s directly talking about a feeling that she has or has had. Pillote focuses on the

SIGHT SIGHT SIGHT SIGHT SIGHT narrative that she’s trying to tell and how she can represent her emotions in her pieces. The figures she creates depict her identity in a variety of ways.

Pillote acknowledges that women are heavily sexualized in the media — she looks to art as a way to reclaim that part of her identity.

“Women’s bodies are beautiful, and I think that they should be more celebrated for their beauty and their organicness instead of being made into this thing for people to want or have,” Pillote said.

Drawing women where they are the only focal point — solely independent — is important to Pillote. Depicting empowered figures makes her feel as if she, too, could embody that strength. For Pillote, being surrounded by women has al-

ways been a source of comfort, and her relationships with them have always been central to her identity.

She talks about women in many different ways through her art, and for each work, she uses unique colors and images to represent the kind of emotions she hopes to convey. In one of her drawings, she makes a woman standing with blue mist coming down to cover her. For Pillote, this blue mist is a representation of pleasure that the woman is trying to hold onto. In a separate piece, she drew an arm with a fisted hand with a red bleeding heart on her sleeve; the red blood showing the audience a feeling of loss.

“When I depict women who are confident in themselves, it makes me feel prettier in my own skin,” Pillote said.

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When I depict women who are confident in themselves, it makes me feel prettier in my own skin.

During the stippling process, Pillote works one section at a time. Because it’s so repetitive, it can be hard to keep track of what she’s making, but she loves the challenge. Whenever she’s stuck, Pillote tries to look at her piece from a different angle. Sometimes Pillote will place her illustrations down and take a couple of steps back to look at it farther away.

It helps her understand where the deep shadows and other important elements should be and where they are missing.

Pillote finds comfort through art in many ways. Through her drawings, she creates a sense of strength, not only in the images she brings to life but also in the messages that she conveys. Her work allows her to express emotions and find peace in the creative process.

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SIGHT SIGHT SIGHT SIGHT SIGHT SIGHT SIGHT SIGHT SIG

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FROM To

"Wicked" from the 1995 novel to modern-day CHS.

BY LYDIA DEBORD AND KATE GROVES

Sean McCourt and his wife had a deal: if his role in a new “Wizard of Oz” spinoff made money, they would buy a house. Now, 21 years later, McCourt is a homeowner.

McCourt is a proud member of the original Broadway cast of “Wicked.” On the cast recording, his voice can be heard as the Wicked Witch’s father.

“You never know something's gonna be as big as ‘Wicked.’” McCourt said.

But from the very first read-through, he and the cast knew it was special. 21 years later, the world knows that spark too.

Apart from the stage, the story has risen to Hollywood stature, breaking box office records with a new movie adaptation. Marketing for the movie has become a phenomenon supported by dolls, Stanley cups and collaborations with Google and Target.

The origins of “Wicked” stray from just the original “Wizard of Oz" books and movie, but a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire, depicting political terrorism in the land of Oz. Maguire’s novel is a stark contrast from what many associate “Wicked” to be. There are vivid scenes of trauma, bestiality and questionable consent. Rather than a story of girlhood and friendship, the original “Wicked” was centered around political disturbance and terrorism.

When Stephen Schwartz first picked up the book on vacation, he saw beyond that darkness and was inspired to write and compose a two-act musical based on the book.

Allegedly, the right to do this didn’t come easy.

“Gregory Maguire was not wild about the idea,” McCourt said.

McCourt was concerned about respect and understanding of the original source material. So Schwartz did what he could: he wrote the opening number, “No OneMourns the Wicked.” From there, Maguire was in. Maguire understood that even if the principles changed, the general story and the message would be conveyed. And ART BY BEE WHALEN

so, “Wicked” the musical was born.

“Wicked” first graced the stage in 2003, running for three months in San Francisco. Every show brought its own changes, whether it be choreography or blocks of lyricism–not one performance was the same.

“The book evolved,” McCourt said. The trajectory came together when a song called “Which Way is the Party” was cut, replaced with “Dancing Through Life.” “‘Which Way is the Party’ was a little sillier, ‘Dancing Through Life’ is a little sexier,” McCourt said.

McCourt first heard of “Wicked” through Scott Schwartz, Stephen Schwartz’s son. After hearing an off comment about his dad’s newest project, he was intrigued.

I thought, boy, Steven Schwartz is right at the beginning of something–I would love to get in on that,” McCourt said.

So, he gave Stephen Schwartz a call.

“He called me back,” McCourt said, “He said, ‘You're too young to play the wizard, but I need somebody to understudy the wizard and play Elphaba’s father. Do you want to do that?’”

He did.

“Wicked” was growing; that was no secret to McCourt.

Seeing how excited the show made fans, he wanted to help them experience it more deeply. Thus, the emerald curtain was born.

“In pre-COVID days, people used to be able to bring friends backstage after the show,” McCourt said.

This inspired McCourt to extend this opportunity outside the immediate circles of friends and family with this ticket backstage. With the producer on board, every Saturday, tourists would follow McCourt behind the scenes to get a look at the internal operations of the show. In leading these tours, McCourt found the general public had a curiosity about not only “Wicked,” but Broadway writ large. And, as he found, along with the rest of the show, this experience had an impact on younger generations.

His favorite role of all spanned 12 weeks: It was the wizard. After Joel Gray’s departure from the production, McCourt found himself right where he started: with a phone call. Only this time, it was director Joe Martello on the other line, asking McCourt to take over the role of the Wizard. McCourt’s response was intuitive.

“Come on, Joe, there's nothing I would like more,” McCourt said.

One of the reasons McCourt liked this role so much was who he was working alongside: Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth.

On the first day of rehearsal, Chenoweth knew the direction she was taking with Glinda and how she was going to do it; every delivery, every joke, every movement was practiced and ready.

“That's just how she worked, very performative,” McCourt said. On the contrary, Menzel’s journey to Elphaba was a slow descent into the role, not all at once.

“She really started from scratch, and so to watch her in that first year grow into the role was remarkable and really fun to watch,” McCourt said.

Last November, McCourt and his daughter, Clara, attended the 20-year reunion of the show. Also in attendance was Ariana Grande, and serving his “girl-dad” duties, McCourt decided he was going to try to see if Grande would say hi to Clara. He wasn’t expecting for Grande to see him, get excited and tell him she loved his voice.

“I realized she was like everybody else,” McCourt said.

“She was a kid when the show came out, and she listened to the album.”

It’s no secret to McCourt how “Wicked” has impacted generations of girls like Grande. Or, more locally, Lina Bailey, CHS senior. As a child, Bailey fell in love with the story, and after three years of obsession, Bailey finally got to see “Wicked” in Detroit in 2018. She remembers dying her hair green to see the show, as she preferred Elphaba to Glinda.

When she walked into the theater, she was thrilled to find the other fans following suit, dawning either pink or green. As Bailey sees it, especially amongst younger fans, there tends to be a favor towards Glinda or Elphaba, the two main characters.

Elphaba is easily recognized by her green skin and black witch hat. Although Elphaba is falsely scapegoated for her intellect, painting her bluntness as villainy, she has a heart of gold and just wants to belong and make good. On the other hand, Glinda is the popular archetype of pink and blonde. As the queen bee of artificiality, she hides her insecurities and anxieties behind a wall of popping confidence.

Bailey favored Elphaba due to circumstances. On the outskirts of middle school meanness, she felt herself more drawn to the ideals behind the green.

“I always felt like I didn’t want to aspire to be like the pretty popular girl,” Bailey said. “I wanted to be the smart girl.”

As Bailey has grown, she has been able to better understand the perspectives of both Elphaba and Glinda. After recently seeing the new movie, she found solace and comfort in both characters, especially keeping in mind current political tensions.

Although the marketing serves as a fun escape for everyone, the rooted undertone of the story, coined by Maguire and adapted by Schwartz and movie director Jon Chu, is facism. The story is political, about cheating politicians and their idolized rise to power, depicting dictators' practices of fear-mongering, belittling and scapegoating to compensate for the atrocities under their fists.

As the Wizard of Oz, portrayed by Jeff Goldblum in the movie, says, “The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy.”

From the roots of Wizard of Oz, history teacher Sarah Hechler has always seen the story as political– starting with the original author, and Elphaba’s namesake, L. Frank Baum.

“He was very much in favor of anti indigenous policies in the U.S. and growing westward,” Hechler said.

Looking at the work through this lens, Hechler can find subtle hints towards this mindset.

ART BY BEE WHALEN

“You see all these metal metaphors to another time when people in the United States were angry,” Hechler said. “And there were these forces kind of harnessing and speaking to that anger.”

“Wicked” recentering the narrative has always been a story of reclaiming history. To Hechler, this is a timely message.

“They talk about Oz in a dark place and then, out of the sky, comes The Wizard, and then he shows up to solve everybody's problems,” Hechler said.

She sees the people of Oz as looking for an answer to a prophecy, which he falsely fulfilled.

“There are a lot of moments in history when people were scared and people were especially economically uncertain and worried and hurting and looking for answers and looking for someone who could seem to solve their problems for them,” Hechler said.

She sees this as a partial explanation for the prominent rise of dictators, specifically within the 20th century. The pattern was strongmen taking advantage of already struggling and divided nations and posing themselves as a solution to the hurt and anger. In “Wicked,” that is what The Wizard did. To Hechler, she sees this story more modernly in the rise of Trump.

Hechler sees both The Wizard and Trump’s administrations centered around scapegoating.

“Targeting a particular group to turn into a common enemy is incredibly relevant. I see that at work with Trump, especially in regards to immigrants,” Hechler said, “This story is explicitly calling that out, and saying this is wrong.”

Though these political messages are clear, Hechler also sees hope exuding from the movie and its message.

“There's something so unique and important about what art is able to do to give voice to the things that we are feeling,” Hechler said.

Despite “Wicked” being a story of unrest, Hechler finds the vibrance and love within the movie comforting and telling, inspiring her to build a better future like Elphaba did.

Whether you went to the movie theater to see a beautiful story of friendship and sisterhood or the dark and disturbing fascist atrocities, “Wicked” has something to offer for everyone.

McCourt and Hechler are both hit with nostalgia, seeing “Wicked” re-emerge in the mainstream,so long after its debut. And when McCourt is asked about his thoughts on the movie, he feels no anger or resentment, but pride. He has already seen it twice. At the very end of the credits, there is a screen illustrating a parting gift to him and his colleagues, with a note thanking the original cast.

“I had nothing to do with it, but I'm super proud of the movie,” McCourt said.

The Unlikely Rise of Birkenstock in Ann Arbor Paul Tinkerhess looks back on decades of building community in the Fourth Avenue Birkenstock store.

BY LEILA DURRIE

It all started with one pair of sandals shared between two college students. For Paul and Claire Tinkerhess, those Birkenstocks became an inspiration to build a legacy. In the heart of Kerrytown, Ann Arbor, the Tinkerhesses opened Birkenstock in 1989. 35 years later, their store has not only served thousands of locals but also woven itself into the community’s fabric.

“We were hungry, and I needed to make a living,” Paul said, reflecting on the store's beginning.

Paul was a young father looking for a way to support his growing household. His wife had been a longtime fan of Birkenstocks, wearing the same pair since college that Paul would share with her.

Claire’s college-era Birkenstocks, worn spring after spring, inspired Paul’s lightbulb moment: Ann Arbor deserved a store that specialized in shoes that were not just functional but lasted.

“I also came to learn that Birkenstocks are really designed to be repaired when they wear out,” Paul explained. "Maintaining things can be an exercise in maintaining relationships. Don’t throw things away, and don’t throw people away.”

The shop opened its doors at a time when Kerrytown was alternative and eclectic, a fitting area for their unique shop. The farmers market bustled, but Paul’s storefront wasn’t doing as well.

“The building we moved into had been a pornography store,” Paul said.

“There was graffiti on the front that read, ‘Anything better than porn.’ Well, we were that anything better.”

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Opening a sandal store in snowy Michigan wasn’t without challenges. Back in the ‘90s, Birkenstocks weren’t the household name they are today. Most people thought of them as summer shoes — functional but not exactly stylish. Winters were hard for the store.

“I remember looking out the window at snow blowing sideways and thinking, maybe it wasn’t so smart to open a sandal store this far north,” Paul said.

However, he adapted and found creative ways to survive the cold months. They expanded into different brands with closed-toe shoes, put on holiday sales and even experimented with expanding the store to the next store over and selling Tempur-Pedic mattresses.

“It was like a Birkenstock for your whole body,” Paul joked. “Selling those mattresses helped us make it through quite a few winters.”

The most challenging moment in the store’s history, however, came decades later, with COVID-19 almost putting the store out of business.

With the store closed, Paul spent long days digitizing inventory and setting up a website to sell shoes online. Customers couldn’t come inside, so Paul set up tables outside and fitted them at the door.

“It was a much different process than when people could come in and try different things,” Paul said.

Yet the shop survived, thanks to ingenuity and loyal customers.

That consistency has given Paul and Claire the freedom to step back a bit, letting their employees carry the torch. One of the store’s defining features has always been its repair service. For years, Paul personally handled all the repairs, working long hours during the prime of his life in the backroom with cork, soles and straps. Then Paul met Gene Johnson, the store’s current repair guru. Johnson took over the repair operation, allowing Paul to semi-retire.

The store represents something larger than shoes. It represents sustainability, craftsmanship and community. Birkenstocks have become a part of Paul’s identity.

“I guess [the store] taught me patience,” Paul said. “In the same way we repair shoes, we repair relationships. We take care of what we have.”

Over the years, the store has become a fixture of Kerrytown with loyal customers and employees who feel like family — a space people rely on. Paul likes to think of it as an “anchor store,” a constant presence in a changing landscape.

“We’ve been in business longer than some of our customers have been alive,” Paul said, sharing a story of a 28-year-old customer who exclaimed, “Where have you been all my life?”

His answer? “Right here.”

Photography by Lukas Dinkelmann Paul Tinkerhess smiles warmly, surrounded by shelves of sandals in the Kerrytown shoe store he's built into a local staple.

FEATURE

Interacting Identities How Sydney Richardson approaches topics of social justice and the concept of intersecting and interacting identities.

BY PIPER COOKE

Sydney Richardson doesn’t just study science, she studies people. As a third-year student at the University of Michigan (U of M) majoring in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, she’s preparing for a future in medicine. But in the classroom, she takes on another role: leading discussions on privilege, classism and systemic inequality as a student educator for U of M’s Intergroup Relations Program.

One of the most critical concepts that consistently emerges in Richardson’s dialogue sessions is intersectionality. First introduced by activist and legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, intersectionality describes how different marginalized identities such as race, gender, ability and socioeconomic status overlap to create distinct experiences of oppression.

“I’m a woman of color, half-Black and half-white, and that’s an intersection right there,” Richardson said. “The way that Black people experience oppression is different from the way that women experience

oppression, and the intersection of those identities creates a unique experience.”

Richardson pushes students to recognize how privilege also operates.

She introduces the idea of interacting identities, a term that describes the coexistence of two privileged identities that do not face systemic oppression. While intersectionality highlights how multiple marginalized identities compound oppression, interacting identities show how privilege can reinforce societal advantages.

"For example, as an able-bodied person with a high socioeconomic status, these are interacting identities," Richardson explained. "Both of these are privileged identities that do not experience systemic marginalization or oppression."

Richardson believes that true progress happens when people step outside of their own experiences and listen. She encourages students to engage in active dialogue, challenge their predispositions and biases and take these lessons beyond the classTHE COMMUNICATOR

room. By facilitating these discussions, she hopes to inspire individuals to take what they’ve learned and apply it in their communities, workplaces and personal relationships.

Intersectionality is not just a framework for understanding oppression, it’s a call to action. Recognizing the way identities interact with societal structures means acknowledging where changes need to be made. It means advocating for policies that address systemic inequality, amplifying marginalized voices, and fostering inclusive spaces.

In a world that often defaults to division, the real challenge isn’t just recognizing these complexities, it’s acting on them. As Richardson encourages her students to ask themselves, we must also ask ourselves: What specific steps can we take today to challenge inequality? The conversations may start in the classroom, but their impact should extend far beyond it. Through education, advocacy and everyday actions, we all have a role to play in building a more equitable society.

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Finding Familiarity in the Foreign Three students share their experiences with learning how to live abroad.

BY AVA GRIFFITH, MIA RUBENSTEIN AND WILLOW ROSENFELD

MEREDITH BELL “Last year we traveled abroad, partially because my family, especially my parents, just wanted a change and to do something different,” Meredith Bell said.

The decision to move to Spain was not immediate. New Zealand and Chile were close competitors, but overall Spain was the best fit for them. Beyond all of the logistics, there was a personal connection that Bell and her family felt when they first visited.

“It’s an entirely new experience with a thriving culture,” Bell said.

Bell and her family split their time in Spain between different cities.

They mostly lived in different apartments within Barcelona and Sitges.

During the holiday season, they traveled to Italy, Morocco, Malaga and Sicily.

Bell recalls one of her favorite memories being when her family went to Sicily. They stayed in an Airbnb on a hill overlooking the sea with the mountains in the distance.

Her favorite part of the whole trip was meeting a stray cat, whom she named Lemon. “[Lemon] came back every day and she would just cuddle with me,” Bell said. “One time I fell asleep outside and she laid down on me. It was so cute.”

During her seven months there, Bell took a unique approach to education. She enrolled in online classes through Community for most subjects but took Spanish in person at a school. Most days, she would wake up, get a jump-start on homework in the morning and then have most afternoons free. Bell also played volleyball frequently in a town called Villanova.

While living in Spain, Bell had the privilege of trying many differ42

ent foods. Some of her favorites are “pan con tomate” — Spanish Tomato Bread — which consists of herbs, garlic and olive oil mixed with fresh tomatoes on top of sourdough bread, and “tortilla de patata,” a mixture of potatoes, onions and eggs to a thick tortilla/omelet-like dish, usually eaten for breakfast.

Though she returned to Michigan months ago, she misses certain aspects of Spanish culture that she doesn’t find here in the United States.

“There’s this thing called sobremesa, which is your time sitting at the table with your family after dinner,” Bell said. She expresses how special family time is and the slowness of how everything is taken in Spain.

She feels like it’s always “go, go, go” with not enough time to relax in the United States.

Bell suggests that people who are studying abroad should try new things and not be afraid to step outside of their comfort zone.

“Don’t be scared to learn the language and walk down random roads,” Bell said. “Just see where it takes you.”

ART BY KAYLEE GADEPALLI

EMILY WALKER

AUGUSTUS KASCHUBE

At the age of six, Emily Walker left her home and the only place she knew, Tübingen, Germany, to move to the United States. However, Walker didn’t expect an unknown, foreign place to become her new home.

This transition was challenging for Walker, but having her family by her side eased her transition. Her father had arrived in the United States for his job a few months before Walker, her sister and her mom came.

When arriving in the airport in the U.S., Walker was mostly surprised by the size of everything here.

“I remember stepping out of the airport, and my dad had picked us up in a humongous F-150,” Walker said. “Me, my mom and my sister were all pretty shocked. But now I love it. Whenever I go back to Germany, everything’s so tiny.”

During her years in the United States, Walker attended a Rudolf Steiner school, the same kind she studied in while in Germany. Rudolf Steiner schools focus on children as a whole in an environment that protects them from negative influences.

The schools provide large blocks of time for play featuring connections in nature, sensory learning, and imagination. However, Walker soon noticed that German schools were much more rigorous, even at the same kind of school. She feels that the teachers in Germany put more pressure on her. Walker has found a place in the U.S. where she enjoys attending school and learning.

After five years in Michigan, Walker and her family returned to Germany. But Walker soon realized that she missed the U.S. lifestyle and culture. At the age of 16, Walker moved back to the United States, but this time, alone.

Walker has had to deal with homesickness since she moved here. It’s tough to be in a new place no matter what, but without her parents and sister, it has made it especially hard.

“It would be nice if I came home to them,” Walker said. “Or, if I’m stressed with school, it would be nice to get a hug from my mom and her support.”

Something that she misses are her family gatherings in Germany and quality time with her family. Ev-

The summer before freshman year of high school is a mix of excitement and anxiety for most people, but for Augustus Kaschube, the feelings were amplified by a move to a different country.

For the first few months after Kaschube moved from Germany to the U.S., he struggled to find comfort in his new environment. Calls with friends back home offered some comfort, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of losing control of his surroundings. To get through, Kaschube focused on being open-minded.

“I was open-minded, but not accepting,” Kaschube said. “I was definitely curious to what my new experience is going to be like, because I left everything behind that I had.”

For a few months, Kaschube struggled to find comfort at all.

“Finding friends was kind of difficult,” Kaschube said. “It did happen, but it took a lot of time.”

Once he made friends, everything changed. A landscape that was once unfamiliar became easier to navigate with the help of others. His first friends came from jazz class, where he was able to bond with people over music. But soon, he was making friends in all his classes.

“I think my very first friend that I had was Helio, and he still is my best friend,” Kaschube said. “That’s probably the first time I felt like I belonged here because he made me realize that I actually have something here that is valuable.”

He found some comfort through friends, and now, three years later, he feels at home here. He also feels he has learned a lot.

“I think my perspective on the world has widened because I have multiple perspectives on different worlds, different realities,” Kaschube said. “I have the opportunity to compare and contrast them.”

Though Kaschube is unsure of whether he will remain in America after high school, he knows that he will be ready for whatever comes because of the skills he gained living in another country. He has advice for others in the same position.

“Try to still be yourself and keep your character alive,” Kaschube said.

“And be friendly.”

ery Wednesday, she would go to her grandma’s house and make a meal with her. One of her favorite things that she made with her family growing up was Käsespätzle, a creamy mac and cheese dish topped with caramelized onions.

It has now become a new routine for Walker to call her family every Sunday. She finds that keeping in touch with her family back in Germany is important. Even just sending them a picture of the snow can make her feel connected.

Walker also appreciates her host family, who are her close family friends, as they are always there to support her.

Overall, Walker feels that she’s learned a lot from this experience of moving to the United States by herself, believing she’s become more independent. She feels that at some point, everyone is going to have to learn to be independent, whether it’s going to college or applying for a job. However, she learned independence when she made the decision to move to Michigan by herself at the age of 16.

Not only is Walker’s family helping her through her journey, but her friends are all by her side. One of her friends gave her a piece of advice that she always carries with her.

“If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a hello.”

She thinks about this quote whenever she needs a little reminder that she’s in the right place.

THE COMMUNICATOR

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BY MAGGIE LAMB, AVA GRIFFITH AND ADDIE MCCREADIE

OPINION

CHS students unpack the comfort and security that their childhood stuffed animals have given them throughout the years.

At a young age, we are all vulnerable to life’s constant changes. From learning to walk, talk and feed ourselves, to making friends and going to school, children are thrown into countless new experiences and must find their way in the world. In the early parts of life, having a personal and dependable object can provide a truly unique level of support.

Even in their teenage years, CHS students find comfort in the stuffed animals they cherished as children and hold onto the memories they've made together.

Tessa Aprea was given her stuffed sheep the day she was born and the two have been joined at the hip ever since. When Aprea was especially young, she could wrap Baa across her body with her little velcro hands. Baa has seen a lot of love over the years, so her color has faded from a bright white to a softer beige, with one of her eyes missing.

“I have this memory where we went to a farm and I immediately fell in love with the sheep because of Baa,” Aprea said.

Similarly, Payton Sly has been with her white bunny Jellycat ever since birth.

“My dad's best friend and his wife got it for me the day I was born, so I've had it for 16 years, and she's just so special to me,” Sly said.

As a child, Sly would always turn to Bunny when seeking support or solace.

“My parents used to travel to China once or twice a year for business,” Sly said. “When I was younger, it was really, really sad, because I didn't know how to process them

leaving. I remember always having Bunny on me and relying on her for comfort whenever I was lonely or scared.”

That deep attachment to a stuffed animal companion is something Elle McCreadie knows as well. Her love for Fuzzy, a little pink bear, began even before he was rightfully hers. As a middle child, she couldn’t resist the temptation to claim him the moment her older sister brought him home.

“I stole it all the time because I liked it so much, so my parents gave me one of my own,” McCreadie said.

As McCreadie grows older, her favorite stuffed animal serves as a warm reminder that her childhood still shines bright in her life today.

“I think sometimes you forget what it felt like to be super young,” McCreadie said. “And while childhood can feel so far away, having constants that have stayed with me throughout growing up are just a nice reminder that in many ways I am still the same person as I was when I was five.”

These childhood treasures provide stability in our ever-changing world.

Whether they are gifts from loved ones or items we found ourselves, they serve as a symbol of love. As students have shared, stuffed animals are far more than just simple toys.

Baa’s reassuring velcro grip, Bunny’s dependable presence and Fuzzy’s familiar warmth remind us to cherish the joy that comes with childhood.

Each bond is more than just sentimental; it guides kids through their emotions, nurturing their growth as they mature.

THE COMMUNICATOR

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Feeling Comfortable in Your Shoes Two students talk about the shoes they are most comfortable in.

BY JESSICA ROTHSTEIN AND LUCY LOWENSCHUSS

EMMA GOBLIRSCH POINTE SHOES Wearing black sweatpants with a matching sweatshirt to cover her tights and leotard, Emma Goblirsch steps into her dance studio greeting her friends and preparing her body and mind for what’s to come. The next time she steps outside the light will have gone to rest.

Goblirsch has been dancing for five years, four of them on pointe.

Her journey through dance is credited to her eight year gymnastics career.

“At some point, I realized that if I were to continue [gymnastics] I would hurt myself more than I would do any good,” Goblirsch said.

Goblirsch decided to pursue her passion in a different way, she had an interest in dance and found a dance studio soon after leaving gymnastics. After this switch, she has had a consistent fondness for dance, but recently she has realized that dance is truly the right path for her.

It brings her joy and energy.

“Even if I don’t want to go to dance one day, I go to dance, and then I come home and I’m happy,” Goblirsch said.

Although dance is her passion, Goblirsch admits that she has bad stage fright. Throughout her com-

I think dance can bring out the best in people.

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bined thirteen years of gymnastics and dance, she still has a feeling of nauseousness before stepping on stage. Even though she has stage fright she trusts herself and believes that her body understands what it needs to do. The adrenaline and the focus take over and all she feels is a love for the art.

This year Goblirsch switched studios from competition dance to dance more focused on ballet. This change helped her realize the comfort ballet brings to her.

“I had been doing competition dance before that, and I never quite got my way into it,” Goblirsch said.

“But ballet just feels so much more natural and comforting to me.”

With this new transition of studios, Goblirsch also went through the process of joining a new group of dancers. Even though she has only known them for a few months, dance creates a strong bond between teammates.

“I think dance can bring out the best in people. It can bring out the worst in people too,” Goblirsch said. “But if you get to see people at their best and their worst you’re really close to them.”

Throughout her dance journey, Goblirsch has realized that everyone has different strengths which is important in dance because everyone is able to take the lead at different moments. This makes it easier for there to be no conflict with teammates and it helps keep the unhealthy competition between dancers to a minimum.

Goblirsch spends a lot of her time

at the studio in her pointe shoes.

During these long days, comfort is a mindset. Goblirsch explains how dancing on pointe shoes is actually quite painful.

“After three or four hours on pointe your feet start to go numb, and you want to take off your pointe shoes and throw them in the trash,” Goblirsch said.

The comfort and confidence don’t grow because of the feeling of standing in them but because of the interior feeling it brings.

“It’s a feeling of power that I can control my body and my pointe shoes in a way so that I can do a bunch of really crazy things,” Goblirsch said. “And it’s about the grace that it gives me.”

The act of dancing transports her into a space where she feels free.

“I wouldn’t want to do anything else. It’s nice to just be able to float around,” Goblirsch said.

Her mindset is important during ballet; it keeps her stable and allows her to have a break from everything else in the world outside of her dance studio.

“It’s just really nice to have a solid rock to hold on to when the world is changing,” Goblirsch said.

FEATURE

WILLOW ROSENFELD H O C K E Y S K AT E S

As Willow Rosenfeld sits in her car on the way to the rink, she thinks about the game ahead, mentally preparing for what being on the ice entails. Once she’s there, though, she takes time to bond with her teammates and friends before the game.

The process of getting ready gives her plenty of time to do so, with layers of knee pads, socks and pants to put on even before the tedious process of pulling on the hockey skates makes the competition feel real. “[Putting on the skates] takes me a million hours and so it’s a commitment,” Rosenfeld said. “I’m like, ‘I’m really doing this.’”

Once they’re on, there’s no going back for Rosenfeld. As she steps out of the locker room and jumps onto the ice with her team to warm up, she feels the most comfortable.

“When I am on the ice and wearing my skates, sometimes it feels like flying,” Rosenfeld said. “And I feel so powerful and strong.”

That power starts as soon as she jumps over the boards onto the ice.

And once in the game, her mind goes blank, focused only on the puck reverberating through the rink.

“I’ve done it for so long, it really feels very effortless,” Rosenfeld said.

“Skating doesn’t feel like running, it feels like gliding. You can feel the cold air, almost like wind on your face, and it feels awesome."

Occasionally, a song plays in her head, usually “Die Young” by Kesha, the beats landing on the sounds throughout the rink from her teammates and opponents, the slaps of sticks and the slams of bodies.

Off the ice to take a break, however, Rosenfeld lets the thoughts that were blocked on the ice start to sink in. She talks to her teammates on the bench about the game and remembers the way it felt to play. She thinks about how much she loves the fact that there are only six players on the rink at a time, forcing them to work as a unit. The game isn’t won with one player’s strength, it has to be a team effort, a team that works well together. She thinks about how she loves skating fast, how she loves the feeling of the puck landing perfectly on her stick, deflecting right into the net.

Wearing her skates isn’t always all love and good memories. There are plenty of other times when she doesn’t want to be there. She gets to the rink and she’s tired or just not in the mood to pull on all her gear and go practice on the ice.

“Sometimes I get on the ice and I jump over the boards,” Rosenfeld said. “And I’m like, ‘Why did I do that with so much enthusiasm?’ Because I’m just not feeling it.”

When that happens, she relies on her teammates to pick her back up. Rosenfeld has been on a couple hockey teams but currently plays on Pioneer’s varsity team. She finds that her teammates at Pioneer are some of the best at picking her back up.

“I love it when [my] teammates are encouraging me to be my best self and my best player. One of my teammates will say to me ‘I know you.

You can be more aggressive, you can skate harder, come on,’” Rosenfeld said. “And I just sometimes need that reminder or encouragement.

And then I find that I can do those things."

The team has felt incredibly welcoming to her and she loves the culture. Her teammates back each other up, and Rosenfeld has learned important lessons of leadership from the team. Not only has she learned what it feels like to have teammates who fully support her, but she has THE COMMUNICATOR

also learned how to support them back. Being able to be a part of a team is an opportunity that Rosenfeld feels lucky to have.

“I think those lessons that I learned from being on a team are important lessons that I think everyone should learn,” Rosenfeld said. “Like how to get along with so many different types of people and also get over obstacles and solve conflicts and just be a good friend.”

Between the comfort of her teammates and the comforts of being on the ice itself, every time Rosenfeld laces up her skates she feels very grateful to be able to call herself a hockey player. Although she admits that her skates aren’t very physically comfortable and can make her feet hurt, there are no other shoes she would rather be in.

“I never would have expected myself to become a hockey player,” Rosenfeld said. “I didn’t really foresee that, but somehow, without my realizing, it has become a really big part of who I am. I spend so much time there and I’m really grateful for all the things that it’s taught me. I wouldn’t give it up for anything. ”

When I'm on the ice and wearing my skates, sometimes it feels like flying and I feel so powerful and strong.

Defining Failure Community and Skyline High School students and staff share their experiences with failure, what it means to them and how they've learned from their mistakes.

BY TIA COCCIOLONE AND NINA BEALS

Lily Eggleston has always known what she wanted her future to look like: a strong career that she genuinely loves, and a simple life she is proud of. Although Eggleston puts a lot of pressure on herself to become successful, she never felt the weight of grades and school hanging around her neck like a lot of her peers.

This mindset has helped Eggleston focus more on bigger checkpoints and less on the small achievements.

Failing one test, bombing a job interview or not speaking enough in a Model United Nations (Model UN) conference doesn't look like a failure through Eggleston's eyes, but rather a place to start.

“When you apply for a job, and you don't get a call back, it's still putting yourself out there,” Eggleston said. “I would not consider that a failure whatsoever.”

Eggleston made the decision to join Model UN her freshman year.

After copious contemplation, she finally made the jump. Eggleston had wanted to do Model UN for years but when the time came to join she was scared she would fall short of the 48

expectations she had built for herself. Eggleston has always had a passion for political science and her fear of failure almost prevented her from joining something she had dreamed of for years.

Sophomore Jules Pashturro sees failure as “getting to your lowest point after something and trying again.” Pashturro believes that hitting a rock bottom point in your life and learning from it is a primary way to use failure as an advantage, “Focusing on what I did wrong, and then being like, ‘Wow, I shouldn't have done that’ can be beneficial,” Pashturro said. “Then, I can learn that there are other ways to approach things.”

Pashturro has played sports for years and feels that one of the main pressures on him and his success

are his coaches. Pashturro has faced times in his life where coaches have not supported him or been there for him and it took a toll on his performance and confidence.

Pashturro thinks that having people in your life that can support you through highs and lows are a necessary ingredient required for resilience and success all together.

Skyline English teacher and Cross Country coach Serena Kessler defines failure as not trying.

“If you don't try, if you don't put yourself out there, you fail,” Kessler said. “I think if you do try, and you do put yourself out there, and you don't achieve the goal you wanted to achieve, that's not failure.”

Kessler sees students’ and athletes' fears of failure lead to a negative self image and a decrease in self belief.

Friends who are going to be disappointed in you when you fail aren't really good friends.

C HARLI E F OX

She sees it especially when athletes have rough workouts or bad races.

She often finds that both students and athletes lose motivation and want to give up because their inner critics are telling them they aren’t good enough. As a teacher, Kessler does her best to combat this by helping her students workshop their writing in a way that doesn’t make them feel like they failed, but rather that they can use their mistakes to improve. From a coach’s perspective, she’s also noticed that teammates supporting each other can completely change the way athletes view themselves. Due to this observation, having a strongly bonded team is important to Kessler.

Another ideology Kessler brings into her coaching methods is thinking about growth in a nonlinear way.

Kessler sees students and athletes getting frustrated when they don’t consistently improve.

“It's like we tend to think really

linear,” Kessler said. “Everything is forward progress, but any kind of growth is going to happen in a circular kind of way. Growth isn't linear.”

Kessler tries to encourage students to strive for consistency along with compassion for themselves because no one can be great all the time.

Charlie Fox, senior, defines failure as, “not succeeding in the goal that you set for yourself.” Fox plays Varsity Lacrosse for Huron High School and has watched the expectations for sports performance skyrocket.

“When it comes to yourself, it's a lot easier not to be fearful of failure,” Fox said. “But when it comes to letting others down, you have less control. You're not only thinking about your own success, but you're thinking about others and how their success is also now relying on you.”

Fox sees sports as a great way to bond and create connections, but the pressure to not let his team down weighs heavily. He feels that if he THE COMMUNICATOR

plays badly and his team loses, that the loss falls on him.

Through years of being on some kind of sports team, Fox grew to understand that this worry of what others will think of him if he makes a mistake isn’t productive or real. He finds it better to focus on himself instead of fearing what teammates will think of his potential failure. Fox tries to hold himself accountable for his own mistakes and create goals for himself instead of letting other people decide for him.

“In the end, friends who are going to be disappointed in you when you fail aren't really good friends,” Fox said.

These students have realized that fear is just a wall we build in our heads to protect us from potential embarrassment or failure. They believe that getting comfortable with the feeling of fear and making the jump is what inevitably leads us to success.

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Ann Arbor's ever-changing canvas of expression and controversy.

BY DANIEL JACOB

Graffiti Alley — a vibrant and ever-changing canvas in downtown Ann Arbor — stands as a testament to the city’s complex relationship with this alternative art form. You can find this open canvas, which was the first established in its current form around 1999 through a tuckedaway alley on East Liberty Street.

Prior to 1999, the alley was home to many graffiti artists, but some wanted the “undesirable” alley to become more appealing, so the city of Ann Arbor commissioned a local artist, Katherine Tombeau Cost, to paint a mural. She created a piece titled “Infinite Possibilities,” featuring an archway with columns and vibrant flowers. It took her five months to complete and covered around 5,000 square feet of the alley. Despite this 50

effort, graffiti artists soon returned to the alley and defaced the mural with their own work, sparking what we now know as Graffiti Alley: a downtown alleyway completely covered with striking street art.

Though the popular alley houses all types of art, members of the graffiti community do not hold it in as much esteem, as Ann Arbor-area sophomore James Lucas* explains.

“I look at it more as a practice page,” Lucas said. “It’s a space where anyone can go and try this type of art."

Since it is so welcoming and free to the public, people often don’t follow the social norms and “rules.”

“Lots of new people get excited by having spray paint in their hands and put it everywhere,” Lucas said.

As Mateo Webber*, an Ann Arbor-area senior, explains, this means that pieces that have taken a long time and effort to create can be quickly and improperly erased.

“You will often have people that think no one cares because it is the ‘alley,’" Webber said.

However, it can be a major sign of disrespect covering someone’s piece improperly.

“If you intentionally cover someone’s piece and don’t cover it completely so that you know that something was there before, that is a big form of diss,” Lucas said Covering up another person’s work because you believe yours is better is also considered highly disrespectful. Yet, intentionally or not, these rules are often disregarded in

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANIEL JACOB, ART BY JAMES LUCAS*

Graffiti Alley, and for that reason, many practiced street artists avoid it.

Modern graffiti emerged in New York and Philadelphia during the 1960s and ‘70s, as a platform of creative expression. It was a pivotal part of street art and culture, often reflecting societal issues and questioning conventional norms. This platform allowed individuals and groups to express their identities and spread their messages in a public space. For many, this is still the primary role of this art.

Others feel graffiti is more about representing yourself. John Dash, more popularly known as “Skeme,” emerged as a master of this art form in the 1990s. Skeme was featured in a documentary, “STYLE WARS,” as a 17-year-old up-and-coming graffiti writer. In the documentary, he talks about why he does graffiti and why “bombing” or placing your art

quickly in as many locations as possible is important.

“It’s a matter of knowing that I can do it,” Skeme said. “Every time I get on the train, almost every day I see my name, I say ‘Yeah, you know what? I was there. I bombed it.’ It’s for me, not for nobody else.”

Living in New York City, Skeme primarily wrote in and around the subway and train stations. His goal was “Going all city,” aiming to paint on enough surfaces around the city that his art would be seen anywhere.

Lucas feels the same way.

“I think [graffiti] is a lot about representing yourself and getting your name known,” Lucas said.

Finding the right canvas for your work — walking around and discovering new places — is also a special aspect.

“Art can be a massive comfort, you can go out and paint anytime THE COMMUNICATOR

you want, you really can go and be off in your own little world for however long you want,” Lucas said.

Graffiti Alley offers a glimpse into Ann Arbor’s unique relationship with urban art, showcasing an ever-changing art form. While some people feel graffiti is a way to establish themselves, a way to make their mark and feel known, others find comfort in sharing who they are and the work they do. People find power and significance in the cultural and social connections that graffiti creates. Graffiti holds a pivotal place in the art community, regardless of how it is viewed or what people get from creating it. *The sources have been attributed to a pseudonym to protect their identities.

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By Clara Freeth /

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Photography by Daniel Jacob

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As the tear-stained washcloth hit the bathroom floor, Emily Gordon knew her nine-year-old daughter wasn’t going to give up.

Just a few hours earlier, they had been driving home from a post-doctor’s appointment ice cream run when her phone rang. The pediatrician’s voice echoed through the car: Vara James had cancer.

Gordon immediately disconnected the phone. The test results had returned and identified the mass enveloping her right kidney as Wilms tumor — a growth usually found in younger boys — that needed to be removed as soon as possible.

“There was no way to be a parent and protect her from the diagnosis,” Gordon said. “There was no way to stop that. It just felt like a car crash. Immediately our whole world changed.”

The next morning — a Wednesday — at 7 a.m. would be the first of many trips back and forth between home and the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. As a third grader who was suddenly plucked out of the classroom and plopped into a hospital bed, James knew something was out of the ordinary, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“I remember being like, ‘Well, I don't know what's happening. I'm old enough to know something weird is happening, but I'm not old enough to understand it,’” James said.

By Friday, she only had one kidney.

While her classmates were at recess, James was sedated in a hospital bed. During the

surgery, the tumor ruptured, causing cancer particles to spread throughout her body. Following that surgery, James had 45 doses of chemo and six days of radiation that left her feeling depleted, battling chronic leg pain and persistent fatigue.

Through it all, Gordon continued working her full-time job, shifting from constant travel to a remote position.

Dealing with the stress of managing both her daughter’s illness and her team of 350 employees, Gordon created a Facebook group to keep friends and family updated on the goings-on of the seventh floor of the hospital. Always ending with the phrase “Better vs. worse,” those updates would later be printed out to fill seven binders documenting their journey.

One day, after treatment, James’ neuro-oncologist, Dr. Carl Koschmann, offered to take her climbing once her treatment was done. James had never been rock climbing before, and post-chemotherapy, her body was smaller and weaker. Luckily, she had the literal and metaphorical support system she needed to get her up the wall. Working as her belayer (the person who manages a climber’s safety rope), Dr. Koschmann guided her up the wall, recommending which holds to grab with which limbs and providing an additional push when needed.

On her first attempt, she made it halfway up the wall, on her second, three-quarters. As she was lowered back down and her feet hit the mat, numb

"

hands and heaving lungs were disregarded as a smile crept its way onto her face.

This was something that she could do; this was something she could get better at.

She quickly realized that this was something that other kids with cancer could do, too. It started out small: bringing a friend or two to come climb on the weekends. Suddenly, more people wanted in, and James found herself at the helm of a ship with wind in its sails.

Partnering with local climbing gym Planet Rock, James, Gordon and Dr. Koschmann established Rock Cancer, a nonprofit that hosts monthly climbing sessions for kids with cancer or a history of cancer. In this space, these kids aren’t defined by the size of their tumor or the length of hospital stay — they’re just kids spending time with other kids who understand them.

Every third Friday of the month, the Ann Arbor session begins with introductions and an icebreaker question. Starting in the fall of 2024, they introduced a yoga flow before the climbing begins.

Led by Aria Hutchinson, a medical student at Wayne State University, kids and parents alike move through roughly 10 minutes of breath work and movement.

“We get to slow down, clear our minds and then do a little bit of internal work while we do that external work,” Hutchinson said.

Following that, participants can choose to continue with a longer yoga session or

i'm old enough to know something weird is happening, but i'm not old enough to understand it.

head to the walls for climbing. If they choose to climb, they can pick between bouldering (climbing shorter, technically challenging walls) or traditional climbing with a rope — either with an auto-belay system or with an experienced belayer to guide them.

What started in Ann Arbor quickly caught national attention. Within months of an interview on NBC Nightly News, people from across the country started reaching out, wanting to establish their own branches of Rock Cancer. Currently there are locations in Philadelphia, New York City and Louisville, creating a network of support that spans across state lines, with some families driving up to three hours to participate.

But James’ personal journey with cancer wasn’t over. During a follow-up appointment nine months into remission, doctors discovered a seven-millimeter

mass of mutated Wilms cells on her left lung. James felt her stomach drop.

“I feel like shit,” James said. “I’ve already done this. Why do I have to do it again?”

This type of relapse was unprecedented, with no pre-set treatment to follow.

Gordon reached out to specialists across the country, consulting with doctors in Washington D.C. and leaning on support from other families affected by cancer, all while trying to ignore the fact that she was spending time at stoplights writing her daughter’s eulogy in her head.

But James knew what this experience felt like, and she wasn’t going down easy.

“I really admire that about my younger self, that attitude of being like one of the worst things that could possibly happen to anybody in their lifetime happened to you,” James said. “And you were really just like ‘all right, I’m gonna do it.’”

After multiple rounds of specialized treatment and 10 months of active treatment, James returned to both school and climbing, starting part time and building her way up to full time.

Rock Cancer continues to impact the lives of those like eight-year-old twins Zachary and Christian Hodge. While their third grade classmates are learning games like groundies or four square, the Hodge twins can be found scaling walls with bat-shaped chalk bags attached at the hip, confidently calling for their belayer to lower them down.

For Zachary — who is fighting a stage four neuroblastoma relapse — Rock Cancer provides more than a place to build strength and endurance. Even on days where school is out of the question, he can be found on the climbing wall later that night. “[Rock Cancer] gives him something

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it makes me so grateful for life — even if i don't sound like it all the time — but i really cherish my life so much.

to look forward to outside of just being his disease,” said Rebecca Hodge, Zachary’s mom.

This is exactly what James envisioned when she first started the program seven years ago.

“I get to hang out with kids who are going through similar things that I went through, or who are in remission and have questions or just want to be normal,” James said. “That's why I did it, so they have a space where they're around people their age who know what their situation is.”

On days Zachary isn’t at the climbing gym, he could be found driving to or from Pennsylvania for treatment. At four years old he was first diagnosed with neuroblastoma. At eight, he’s fighting for his life against persistent relapse.

But every third Friday of the month,

Zachary and Christian grab their chalk bags off the shelf in the garage before piling into the car. Once they arrive, the boys make their way to the back of the gym for introductions and stretching before getting on the wall.

What began as one person’s journey through illness has transformed into a nationwide movement of hope. Through Rock Cancer, James has created more than just a climbing program — she’s built a community where young cancer patients can find strength, both on and off the wall.

“I really could have died, but I didn't,” James said. “It makes me so grateful for life — even if I don't sound like it all the time — but I really cherish my life so much.”

Visit Rock-cancer.org to learn more.

the

that we can't bring ourselves to acknowledge 58

OPINION

STAFF EDITORIAL

In order to create our editorials, the majority of the members of The Communicator’s staff write about what the edition’s theme means to them. For five to 15 minutes, they compose paragraphs that include anecdotes and definitions and examples. Then, one of our Editors-in-Chief studies each blurb in search of a common theme or an inspiring angle.

Although we don’t always elect to cover the most written-about topics, we find repetition across journalist’s passages without fail. This time, amidst accounts of summer camp and holidays, fireplaces and favorite blankets, friends’ embraces and home cooked meals, something else loomed.

That something else, (or lack thereof) was schoolwork.

“What is comfort?” We asked. “My mom’s banana bread and an empty overdue tab,” “A relaxing weekend … because I didn’t have much homework,” “My brother’s jokes and nothing on my to-do list,” they answered.

The juxtapositions were glaring.

High school and the learning that comes with it takes work, and sometimes lots of it. Stress, overwhelm and avoidance pile up along with presentations, papers and projects — it’s not uncommon.

The beauty of Community High though, is that our teachers care a whole lot. They care for the subjects they teach, for their colleagues, for the school they make their home and — most of all — they care for us, their students. CHS’s adults keep up with the school and life goings-on of over 500 kids and support us through our obstacles and accomplishments alike.

These truths benefit everyone who gets to be a part of the CHS community: how could they not? Our school is built on the values of empathy and helping hands, and the camaraderie that those pillars support allows us to grow, flourish and have fun all the while. Thus, when we need an extension on an assignment from time to time, it’s granted more often than it isn’t.

Some leeway is essential from equity, balance, mental health and relationship-building standpoints. Further, it’s proven that fostering a less stressful environment can boost overall well-being and allow learners to produce higher-quality work. Of course, students’ responsibilities and circumstances vary. And of course, corresponding accommodations ought to be a fact of life both within and beyond schools’ confines.

Too much of this though, and the blessing turns to a curse. We begin to learn to expect unending slack, but

there’s not always slack to be given when it comes to the world on the other side of CHS’s walls.

This is a call to toughen up, but it is certainly not a call to throw balance into the wind. By all means, our teachers are being honest when they say that our health and safety come before any essay, worksheet or reading.

The very people writing this editorial have made good use of their fair share of deadline deferrals; we’ve bitten off more than we can chew, gotten carried away in slews of social events and had due dates slip our minds. And every time those stumbles are met with forgiveness, we’re appreciative. It’s not every time that we walk away guiltfree though.

Sometimes, we take too much advantage of the freedom CHS bestows upon its students and at the end of the day, it’s us students are the ones who lose out the most. We’re assigned work for a reason, and that reason is not just to keep us busy; every missed piece of classwork is a missed opportunity to absorb knowledge.

This extends to the matter of Artificial Intelligence too. While AI is an undeniably convenient tool that is integrating itself more and more into our world by the hour, we’ve got to be wary of its place in education. It’s one thing to ask ChatGPT to evaluate an already-written report, summarize a long article or confirm that the level of entropy you calculated is correct, but it’s another story to generate entire assignments without having to even read the directions all the way through. AI has already become a Pandora’s box of academic dishonesty.

While avoidance, AI abuse and other ways students circumvent or delay work (skipping, plain-old cheating, etc.) are the exception and not the rule, they remain at the root of the issue of homework overwhelm. Repeatedly failing to complete our tasks as they’re meant to be completed erodes students’ capacities to manage any workload at all; procrastination is learned.

This all results in the magnification of school’s stress, which in turn pushes our to-do lists to the forefront of our thoughts, and that’s never comfortable.

So what gives? We’ve got to meet in the middle — it’s on students to meet teachers’ leniency and flexibility with maturity and accountability. Beyond fears of zeros or getting caught googling FOS test answers, the fact of the matter is that evading assignments is the culprit that we can’t bring ourselves to acknowledge.

So next time your plate of chores is piling up, meet it head-on — your life will be more comfortable as a result.

THE COMMUNICATOR

59

N

a ’ m s Kitc m a n h a en y a

Whether it's a cup of Indian coffee or a spinach curry, my grandmother's dishes offer a taste of comfort in every bite.

BY JANAKI NALLAMOTHU

I open the heavy door to my grandmother’s house. I breathe deeply as the smells of multiple dishes hit my nose. My mind rushes to guess what dishes my grandmother, Nayanamma, made today. Navigating the laughter and hearing the crunch of snacks from my aunts, uncles and cousins sprawled across the living room, I make my way to the heart of the home: the kitchen. Here, Nayanamma does final touches on her food, her masterpiece for the day.

No matter when we come, something fresh is always cooked on the stove, the aromas tickling my nose.

Nayanamma always makes a feast when her family comes, no matter how many or few arrive. As soon as she announces that it’s time to eat, we jump up and crowd around her counter, piling our plates with steaming food.

As I sit down at the table, my mind clears and I focus on the plate in front of me; everything else melts away. I love the different flavors and spices that tingle my tongue as I spoon rice and curry into my mouth.

Her foods feature rich flavors and a balance of textures. Whether it’s the warmth of a soup, the crispy potato fry or the burning of the chai tea, her food offers both physical and emotional nourishment. It’s more than just satisfying hunger; it soothes away stress, bite by bite, plate after plate.

As we finish our meal, our stomachs are full and our eyelids droop as we try not to fall asleep in the comfort of her house. Before leaving, everyone takes the classic plastic containers stored in her cupboards and fills them to the brim with food. As we load them up, I’m excited to bring them home and eat her food for the rest of the week. While

we may come in empty-handed, Nayanamma always makes sure we never leave like that.

Cooking is Nayanamma’s love language. She loves to feed her children and grandchildren — including her granddogs. She’s been cooking her whole life, so her skills are honed. She builds every dish instinctively, rather than following recipes with arithmetic measurements. She learned the basics when she was a little girl in India, the recipes being passed down from generation to generation. Her mind is filled with dozens of recipes. Now, she’s started to teach me her way of cooking and pass down her knowledge. Each recipe has the same foundational mix of spices. If I get that down, I could make any dish I wanted using any combination of vegetables.

The preparation of her food involves ritual — the same bowls she serves the food in, the same cups for water, the same tub of homemade spice mixture. Everything stays the same, everything is well-loved. The consistency of these elements wraps us in nostalgia, providing us with comfort and familiarity.

My grandma puts love and care into every dash of spice, chopping of vegetables and final mix before serving. It’s her way to show the people she’s cooking for that she loves them. And by eating her food, we show her that we value and appreciate her and love her back.

Whether it’s the texture, taste or memories of eating lunch at Nayanamma’s house with all my cousins and seeing the same scene every time, these foods offer a source of familiarity and stability in my world. The experience of eating her food offers a sense of peace and warmth that lingers long after the meal is over.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JANAKI NALLAMOTHU

Don’t Say Sorry for Everything The comfort in constantly apologizing for speaking your truth.

BY LUCA HINESMAN

For years, “sorry” was my reflex: my way of shrinking myself to fit others’ expectations. I was constantly second-guessing everything I said and fearing what others might say in response. To avoid judgment, I would immediately apologize for whatever I may have said. My remark could be completely harmless, yet I felt the desperate need to apologize.

When I said sorry, people usually responded, “You’re good.” My shoulders would drop, and I would feel a ginormous weight lifted off me — people’s judgment.

Having my apology approved provided me with an unhealthy amount of comfort. This pattern continued for years, truly going unnoticed, until I started experiencing it with others.

My compulsion, which in my eyes was unique, wasn’t going anywhere. Until I was in social situations and heard people doing the exact same thing I did: they too were saying “sorry” for something they shouldn’t feel sorry about. We were one and the same, and yet I found myself growing irritated when I witnessed the obsessive apologies of others.

Why should they feel sorry for simply speaking up?

Why should I feel sorry?

I realized I didn’t want to be sorry for my genuine self. The act itself was tiresome and weighed on me consistently. I wanted to be unapologetic, or at least come close to it. I wasn’t going to be sorry anymore for laughing loudly, expressing myself or trying my best. Being unapologetic meant speaking my truth. It meant being proud of what I had to say and knowing I was enough.

I no longer had to be sorry for being Luca.

I knew this habit had been ongoing for quite some time, and that it wouldn’t be impossible to overcome.

This compulsion would probably always be there, but my awareness helped limit it, slowly taking away its power. I spent time assessing when it was appropriate to apologize: when I disrespected someone, when I messed up or when I truly needed forgiveness. I decided to stop apologizing for things that weren’t harmful — such as speaking my mind or asking for help.

These changes came with a variety of different reactions. Some were shocked by my lack of apology. “What do you mean you weren’t sorry for asking a question?”

How shameful of someone to ask for guidance. Yet, I felt truthful; I wasn’t lying anymore about how I felt. People were starting to see a side of myself that was genuine.

I am not going to live in constant fear.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ESH SCHADEN

NARRATIVE

Woven Together Sibling relationships are difficult as it is.

Finding comfort in the challenges is a key part of sisterhood.

BY KENNEDY MCDONALD

I grew up surrounded by sisters, I had everything from a biological sister to step sisters and even a step-step sister. By the age of nine, I had five sisters split between my parents’ houses. My mom’s house, where I spent most of my time, was filled with girls coming and going. My four sisters and I who lived there would go back and forth between our different parents’ houses, with schedules that lined up so we could all be together a couple of times a week.

My mom’s house was a place filled with an atmosphere that ranged from screaming, crying and fighting to spending quality time together and playing games. It was a house filled with hand-me-down clothing, sequined dance costumes and iMovie creations. Knowing that my sisters were coming over for the weekend was an indescribable excitement to nine-year-old me.

Gaining three older sisters immediately gave me someone to look

up to and aspire to be like. Watching them go through the different levels of education and phases of adolescence made me want to imitate everything they did. The music they listened to, the clothes they wore and the way they spoke were all things I wanted to do just like they did. I would do anything to have them think I was cool, whether it was memorizing the lyrics to their favorite songs or listening to the way they talked to their friends and using those words.

With my older sisters being such a major influences on me, decisions that I made due to them are major factors that are still very relevant in my life. Watching my older sisters perform at their dance recitals from backstage encouraged me to start taking dance more seriously and eventually try out for higher and more competitive levels. When my older sister was a sophomore and began talking to me about Commu-

nity, I instantly knew that I would apply, and when I got in, I knew I should go.

As annoying as it was, I had someone who could share their experience with me, could give advice to make things so much easier. Having someone there to answer my questions when I went into middle school or someone to wave at on my first day of high school were small things that made such a huge difference. As I get older, having someone to call when I’m stranded and need a ride or someone to talk to about the most recent drama in my life are things I’ve begun to rely on them for.

Watching my two younger sisters grow up feels like stepping into my older sisters' shoes in a way. Knowing that everything I do has such a major impact on them feels like both a responsibility and a privilege.

As I get closer and closer to going off to college, I stand by and watch my older sister do the same. As she approaches her second semester of senior year, I am near the second semester of my sophomore year. Having firsthand experience with the highs and lows of the senior year before I’m even a senior is an experience I’ll be forever grateful for.

Watching the person that I share a dance studio, a house and a school with graduate is such a specific and crazy feeling.

The older I get, the more I become aware of how lucky I am to be surrounded by people I know I can talk to. Knowing that I have at least five people in my life that I can constantly count on helps push me through my day. Being comfortable with someone to the point where I can get angry and fight with them and still know our relationship will recover is a special amount of trust to have.

Having sisters is something that I was privileged enough to grow up with and I will forever cherish my relationship with them.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANIEL JACOB

63

M D GL B Op-Eds Seniors from Ryan Silvester’s first Modern Global Relations class share Op-Eds on global development.

The IMF’s Role in Global Development: A Balancing Act

BY KYRA KAHANA

Imagine a country teetering on the edge of economic collapse — its inflation soaring, unemployment rampant and essential services grinding to a halt. For many nations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) represents a last hope. As the IMF steps in, it offers loans that can stabilize the economy and prevent catastrophe.

However, the reality is more complicated. While the IMF’s role as a financial “first responder” is critical, the conditions attached to its assistance often leave nations in deeper trouble in the years after the loans are disbursed. I believe the IMF must move beyond harsh budget cuts and focus on strategies that empower nations to achieve long-term, sustainable growth.

The IMF was created in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference to promote monetary cooperation, prevent economic crises and stabilize the post-war world. For decades, it has served as a lifeline for nations 64

in dire financial straits. During the pandemic, the IMF extended rapid financing to over 80 countries, helping them manage debt, maintain public health systems and shield vulnerable populations from economic fallout. The IMF’s ability to mobilize resources quickly is one of its greatest strengths; however, its interventions often come with heavy consequences.

The loans distributed typically come with conditions that impose austerity measures. These may include slashing public spending, raising taxes or privatizing industries — measures which hurt the most vulnerable. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kenya received an IMF loan that required a public sector pay freeze and higher taxes on essentials like cooking fuel.

These policies worsened poverty, leaving millions struggling to afford necessities.

In Greece, the IMF’s strict policies in response to the 2010 Eurozone

ART BY KAYLEE GADEPALLI AND CLARA FREETH

crisis led to pension cuts and rising unemployment, deepening the recession and fueling public outrage.

While intended to restore fiscal stability, these measures harmed social equity. Critics, including economist Joseph Stiglitz, argue that austerity policies stifle growth and prolong recovery. A 2020 Oxfam report revealed that nearly 90% of IMF loans during the pandemic included austerity measures, even as IMF officials warned wealthier nations against using the same tactics. This double standard highlights the need for reform.

The IMF has shown signs of evolution and is beginning to recognize the harmful social impacts of austerity. It has increasingly emphasized social safety nets, reduced poverty and tailored solutions. For example, the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility focuses on reducing poverty in low-income nations, and the IMF has started including climate change and sustainable de-

velopment goals in its framework.

However, progress remains slow, and the IMF’s traditional focus on fiscal discipline often overshadows these newer initiatives.

To truly support global development, I believe the IMF must do more than stabilize economies — it must foster sustainable, inclusive growth. This means rethinking the way it structures loans and conditions. Rather than focusing on immediate budget cuts, the IMF should encourage investments in public infrastructure, education and healthcare — key areas that fuel long-term growth.

The IMF should also tailor its programs to the unique challenges of each country, rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach. For example, rather than imposing austerity, the IMF could prioritize debt restructuring, allowing countries to invest in recovery without the pressure of fiscal cuts.

Transparency is also crucial. The

IMF must engage with the governments and citizens of borrowing countries, ensuring its policies reflect the needs and aspirations of the people they affect. By partnering with local organizations and experts, the IMF can design programs that avoid unnecessary social harm while still achieving fiscal goals. It must also be held accountable for the social consequences of its actions, ensuring that the interests of the most vulnerable are not to be overlooked.

The global economy is facing unprecedented challenges, from climate change to technological disruption. If the IMF wishes to remain relevant and effective, it must adapt to these new realities. This includes expanding its focus to incorporate climate resilience, equitable technology adoption and the reduction of global wealth disparities.

The IMF should help nations develop sustainable economic models that address these challenges without sacrificing the well-being of their THE COMMUNICATOR

citizens.

The IMF has the potential to be more than a financial firefighter: It can be a beacon for inclusive development, showing that stability and prosperity are not mutually exclusive. Reforming its policies to prioritize human well-being over fiscal rigidity will not only strengthen the IMF’s global credibility, but also ensure that its interventions leave nations better off, not burdened by lasting scars.

Reshaping the IMF is not just a policy challenge — it is a necessity for building a more equitable global economy.

By shifting its focus toward fostering sustainable, inclusive growth, the IMF can evolve from a crisis responder to a true partner in longterm development. Achieving this will require bold improvements and greater accountability, but the potential outcome — a world where all nations have a fair shot at prosperity — makes it a goal worth striving for.

65

Beyond Political Independence: The Fight for Economic Sovereignty

BY LUCAS FAINTER

While many believe colonialism is an artifact of the past, its impacts remain deeply ingrained in modern, postcolonial nations. The word “postcolonial” may suggest a complete separation from colonial rule, but its deeper significance remains relevant. Although these nations have achieved political independence, systems of exploitation and dependency established during colonialism persist to this day and have even evolved. These systems have devastated nations such as Jamaica and several more in Africa by creating economic reliance on foreign capital and global markets.

Far from being historical artifacts, these exploitive structures continue to shape modern development and are reinforced by global economic institutions, multinational corporations and policies that prioritize profits over people. Understanding colonialism’s enduring impacts is an essential step in addressing the economic challenges of the postcolonial world.

Jamaica’s postcolonial economy exemplifies these challenges. As Vijay Prashad explains in "The Darker Nations," Jamaica’s economy was historically centered around sugarcane plantations and later its vast bauxite reserves. These resources were heavily exploited under colonial rule and continued to be after Jamaica gained independence in 1962.

Postcolonial leaders like Prime Minister Michael Manley implemented economic policies such as “industrialization by invitation” to promote economic independence.

However, these efforts were undermined by the dominance of multinational corporations and restrictive terms given by global financial institutions. As Prashad notes, “What Jamaica exported despite its fabulous resources was cheap labor, and what it gained for that was a pittance toward its grandiose development aims.” Jamaica’s resources, especially bauxite, primarily benefited foreign corporations, while limited returns failed to support critical infrastructure, education or healthcare.

Jamaica’s reliance on foreign-con66

trolled resource extraction left it unable to generate sufficient domestic revenue for growth. This dependency on foreign capital forced Jamaica to seek loans from institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to address economic challenges. However, IMF interventions worsened the struggles.

Structural adjustment programs (SAPs) in the late 1970s and 1980s forced Jamaica to devalue its currency, cut public spending and privatize state assets — a pattern common among countries receiving IMF funding through SAPs. According to the Washington Post article, “Did the IMF actually ease up on structural adjustment?" IMF structural reforms “directly target market-state relations in borrowing countries, such as mandating the privatization of public utilities or changing the competition framework. As a result, governments’ freedom to select policy instruments in dealing with crises is constrained.” Jamaica’s economic struggles highlight how institutions like the IMF perpetuate frameworks that resemble colonial exploitation, enforcing policies that prevent economic sovereignty and increase dependency. Jamaica’s experience reflects a broader pattern of postcolonial nations trapped in systems that favor foreign interests over local growth.

Similar patterns of exploitation and dependency are seen across Africa where colonial powers drained much of the continent’s wealth while neglecting the development of local economies. In "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa," Walter Rodney argues Africa’s underdevelopment is a direct result of European exploitation during colonialism.

He explains that, “A second and even more indispensable component of modern underdevelopment is that it expresses a particular relationship of exploitation, namely, the exploitation of one country by another.

All of the countries named as ‘underdeveloped’ in the world are exploited by others; and the underdevelopment with which the world

ART BY KAYLEE GADEPALLI AND CLARA FREETH

is now preoccupied is a product of capitalist, imperialist, and colonialist exploitation.” Africa’s underdevelopment is the result of systemic exploitation, not something natural or inevitable. Colonial powers structured African economies for their own benefit, neglecting infrastructure, industries and human capital.

This left African nations reliant on raw material exports, trapping them in poverty and making them vulnerable to global market shifts. These dependencies, rooted in colonial policies, still hinder Africa’s ability to achieve self-sustained growth.

Some argue postcolonial nations should take more responsibility for their circumstances, claiming decades of independence are enough time to make meaningful progress.

While national leadership does play a role, this perspective overlooks systemic barriers and the influence of global economic exploitation. Multinational corporations and financial institutions still hold great influence in postcolonial economies, shaping policies to favor foreign interests over local ones. Structural inequalities rooted in colonialism have caused enduring poverty and dependency that cannot simply be undone in one generation. Addressing these challenges requires dismantling the underhanded frameworks we have in place, not unfairly blaming victims.

The legacy of colonialism is far from history: it remains a powerful force, shaping the economies of postcolonial nations like Jamaica. Despite political independence, these nations remain tied to exploitation and dependency rooted in colonial rule, upheld by multinational corporations and global financial institutions. The struggles of Jamaica and Africa’s systemic underdevelopment demonstrate how colonial impacts persist through policies prioritizing profit over fair development.

Understanding these impacts is essential for building a global movement toward equitable, sustainable development and enabling postcolonial nations to achieve prosperity and sovereignty.

Debt in Developing Countries: How Sustainable is Growth Under Increasing Debt?

BY LILY EGGLESTON

In recent history, developing countries have been impacted by an increasing dependence on borrowing, which has led to rising debt burdens as they work towards economic growth. However, this reliance on foreign borrowing can ultimately harm economic growth rather than achieving its intended purpose.

While borrowing has the potential to fuel progress, the accumulation of debt raises concerns about long-term sustainability. Notable examples include countries like Jamaica, Zambia and Brazil, which have experienced the negative side effects of foreign investment and their relationships with the IMF. Solutions to address the instability caused by growing debt include shifting toward debt restructuring and implementing long-term financial strategies that prioritize actual development over short-term “success.” Without effective debt management strategies, combined with non targeted aid, the growth of developing nations will remain unsustainable.

Around the world we see examples of countries where growth was attempted while managing debt: Brazil faced hyperinflation in the 1980s, regularly exceeding 100%. While it is well-known that this was due to the government’s practice of printing extra money to meet its needs, less attention has been given to the IMF’s role in prolonging Brazil’s economic crisis. The IMF’s loan conditions, which required austerity measures and structural adjustments, only worsened the situation by slowing economic growth and deepening social inequality, thus prolonging Brazil’s economic crisis.

It is worth acknowledging that now — 40 years later — Brazil is labeled as one of the most advanced “developing” countries.

In Zambia, the country faced significant economic challenges in the

1990s after taking on large amounts of debt, much of it from foreign lenders. The IMF’s structural adjustment programs, which were intended to stabilize the economy, instead led to cuts in public services and rising poverty, delaying Zambia’s work towards sustainable development. In 2021, it implemented austerity measures in Zambia that would “allocate more money to debt servicing than the education, health, water and sanitation sectors combined,” according to Amnesty International.

In Jamaica, an underdeveloped economy can be attributed to a long history of resource exploitation and colonialism. Vijay Prashad discusses this further in his analysis of the Jamaican government in “The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World,” claiming that in a post-colonial economic state, Jamaica’s shift to a model reliant on foreign capital — specifically the sale of bauxite — ultimately disadvantaged its economy in the long term. This dependence on the sale of foreign resources is unstable, and when import costs cannot be met, the only quick solution becomes taking on more debt or relying on aid.

The growing issue of climate change adds another factor to consider. As climate change disproportionately affects countries in the Global South, it is likely that IMF and foreign aid will be similarly disproportionate. This may only set these nations back further. The IMF itself has studied the impact of climate change on economic development. According to its research, “a single drought can lower an African country’s medium-term economic growth potential by 1 percentage point.” This worsens the cycle of debt as already vulnerable countries are forced to balance environmental recovery while simultaneously trying to build up their economies which THE COMMUNICATOR

already may be in unstable conditions with burdens such as foreign debt. Additionally a government’s focus on debt repayment could reduce funding towards climate protections and policy. Ultimately, the combination of rising debt and climate change challenges the work made towards stable, long-term development.

The solutions to this problem are varied, as every country experiences a different economic burden. For Jamaica, a diversification of non-resource based exports would be necessary after a historic relationship with resource exploitation and colonialism. For Brazil, the IMFs strict austerity measures led to more instability amongst the population, a solution would be more gradual reforms as well as more consideration over who government public service cutting primarily affects. The IMF generally emphasizes government spending cuts and export strategies when helping countries. However, a more sustainable solution would involve improving the country’s domestic economic diversification instead of just making short-term government austerity cuts which worsen public funding and stability.

In conclusion, the growing reliance on debt for economic growth in developing countries is an unsustainable model that does not align with long-term stability. While the IMF’s interventions and foreign aid may offer short-term relief, they often have an overall negative impact on the challenges these nations face.

To achieve sustainable development, countries must prioritize domestic economic diversification, and, if they get IMF intervention, attempt to implement more gradual reforms, with less government cuts, and prioritize a focus on long-term economic growth rather than immediate, short-term fixes.

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BULLET BULLET BULLET by BULLET BULLET BULLET BULLET BULLET BULLET BULLET BULLET BULLET BULLET 68

An insight into what the American education system has taught me about school shootings.

BY CLARA FREETH

I don’t care about gun violence.

— AT LEAST, that’s what my reaction — or lack thereof — might suggest.

When news breaks of another shooting, my response is limited to a clenched jaw or a momentary dropped stomach before I return to worrying about tomorrow’s homework or next week’s big game. In a world where violence feels like the baseline expectation, I have learned how to compartmentalize our seemingly regularly scheduled tragedies.

This apparent apathy isn’t disinterest, but rather a wall I’ve built, brick by brick, bullet by bullet, creating a sense of emotional distance, no matter how false it may be. I ran right into it at a recent high school dance. A balloon popped, and I watched as a crowd of glittery heels and slightly sweaty dress shirts instinctively tensed, scanning for exits. For a moment, everything was quiet. As the realization sank in that it was just a balloon, shoulders dropped and dance circles re-formed, but one thought stuck in the back of my mind: in the case of actual danger, there was almost nothing we could have done to protect ourselves.

I thought back to freshman year, sitting in the car with my mom: the white leather seat sticking to my thighs and the green fabric of my backpack resting against my shins as she told me about a shooting at a school barely 80 minutes from mine. Four students died at Oxford High School — though it’s telling that even despite its proximity and relative recency, I had to double-check the school’s name. There have been so many incidents like it that they have blurred together in my mind, each new tragedy layering over the last like sediment, building the

FEATURE

IN 2021,

4/5 U.S. MURDERS INVOLVED A GUN.

foundation of our new normal.

This pattern of violence extends far beyond school walls, threading its way through every aspect of American life. On Dec. 4, 2024, Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot outside the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel in Manhattan. Less than a month later, on Jan. 1, 2025, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old army veteran inspired by ISIS, drove a rental truck into a crowd, killing 14 and injuring 57 in the process, before being killed in a shoot-off with police. Each incident adds its own brick to the wall of desensitization.

The statistics paint a picture of an American crisis. According to the Pew Research Center, about four in five U.S. murders in 2021 involved a firearm — the highest percentage since at least 1968 when the CDC’s digital records first began. Moreover, more than half of all lives lost to suicide in 2021 involved a gun — the highest percentage since 2001. Since 2019, we have seen a 23% increase in gun-related deaths, with a gun-murder-related spike of 45% during the pandemic.

As a nation, we’ve created a culture of destruction. According to The Gun Violence Archive, “mass shootings are, for the most part an American phenomenon.” We’ve normalized the unthinkable, routined the horrific. This way of being isn’t new, it isn’t some outlandish theory; it’s the way we are. But it doesn't have to be.

The reality is that guns have become more constitutionally protected than my ability to make healthcare decisions. We live in a world where the opening of a bag THE COMMUNICATOR

of chips in a cafeteria could trigger panic, where mental health resources remain scarce while access to weapons grows easier, where socioeconomic status and race influence both the perpetration of violence and the way we respond to it.

I live in a world where, in order to protect myself, I have to build walls to protect me from the lurking thoughts of bloody backpacks and empty desk chairs. They allow me to function in a world where my classmates are simultaneously keeping up with algebra homework and updates about the latest school shooting.

But here’s the thing about walls — they don’t just keep pain out: they keep us trapped in a cycle of inaction. It’s time to stop accepting this as our normal. Each brick we lay to protect ourselves unintentionally becomes an obstacle to change. It’s time to tear them down and feel again, fully and deeply, even though it will hurt, because that’s what it will take to finally create change.

The truth is that I shouldn’t have to publish a piece like this. No student should have to develop coping mechanisms for recurring violence. No teenager should know the best hiding spot or fastest way out of their chemistry classroom. No child should have to distinguish between a popping balloon and a gunshot.

And yet, here we are. Until we decide that the well-being of our children matters more than an individual’s ability to possess a weapon, this will remain our reality.

The question isn’t whether there will be another school shooting — it’s whether we’ll care when it happens.

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Who Am I? You don’t know who you are and neither does anyone else.

We’re a million different versions of who we desire to be.

BY ISABELLA MALDONADO

I know what it's like to be a fish swimming against the current. On my first day of middle school, I walked in wearing an outfit I had carefully pieced together from the clearance racks: a bright colored t-shirt and jeans that had gone out of style a year ago, I thought I was going to fit right in. But as I walked into my new middle school all of the other 11-year-old girls were draped head to toe in lululemon. There was a silent yet unquestioned understanding that I didn't belong. I just wanted to transform into a version of myself that anyone could accept.

And so I did, I became a chameleon.

Famous English philosopher John Locke once said, “We are like chameleons, we take our hue and the color of our moral character from those who are around us.”

This results in the chameleon effect, a subtle but powerful instinct to mirror those around us. Sometimes, it’s harmless — automatic, even. We laugh when others laugh, cross our arms when they do and slip into shared speech patterns without realizing it. But sometimes, it’s deeper. Sometimes, we shift parts of ourselves — our humor, our confidence, even our opinions — to fit into the spaces we find ourselves in.

That balance — between being yourself and being what others want you to be — is a tightrope. And some people, like Eddie Mobilio Breck, feel like they live on that tightrope.

“I hyper-analyze people based on their facial expressions, their body language, their tone,” Mobilio Breck said. “I alter myself in a way that makes them want to be around me.”

It makes sense — people like people who make them comfortable.

But at what cost? If you spend so much time molding yourself to what others want, do you even know what you want? At some points in my life, I have felt like I don’t truly know who I am. I have wondered if my favorite color is a fad, or if the way I dress is just because I see the other girls in my school wearing those 70

clothes. Most of the time, I wanted someone’s first impression of me to be a good one, to stick.

“First impressions to me are like the most important thing in the world,” Mobilio Breck said. “And then I’m always scared that my good first impression is gonna wear off.”

The fear of losing people’s approval — of slipping out of the mold you created for yourself — can feel suffocating. And it’s not just about personality; sometimes, it’s about language, about perception.

Klava Alicea first felt this when doing a semester abroad in Spain, it was the first time that everything surrounding her was foreign, sometimes who she was could even be foreign to herself.

"When I was in Spain, I think people just perceived me as childlike because of how I spoke. And in some

ways, I think I played into that. It made me realize how much language shapes how people see you,” Alicea said. “I had a friend from Paraguay in fourth grade, and she didn’t speak English very well, and I just thought she was very little, like, ‘Oh, she’s so cute.’”

The way we present ourselves changes how people see us. And sometimes, when the world tells you who you are, you start to believe it.

Alicea wasn’t a different person in Spain, but she was a different version of herself — one shaped by the way others treated her. And she isn’t alone in that.

“People thought I was different, less smart maybe, just because I wasn’t as fluent,” Alicea said. “It really changed the way I thought about how people interact with each other."

Research has shown that people naturally shift their personalities in different social settings. A study published in “Social Psychological and Personality Science” found that people unconsciously adapt their personalities depending on their environment and the people they are with. It’s not always calculated; most of the time, it’s just instinct. We absorb the energy of a room. We adjust, we blend in, we survive.

But there’s a difference between adapting and losing yourself entirely.

“Sometimes I live for other people’s appeasement,” Mobilio Breck said.

Maybe that’s the heart of it. Maybe that’s the real danger. It’s not just that we change — it’s that we can become so consumed by pleasing others that we forget who we are outside of them and how we are perceived by the outside world.

“Sometimes you do have to do a little bit of a switch-up because if you want to fit in, you have to live up to those people's standards,” Mobilio Breck said. “Maybe that's what I do by accident, but I don’t realize it.”

That’s the trick of the chameleon effect, most of us don’t realize how much we change and how fast we alter ourselves. Maybe changing who you are is harmless when it’s small— when it’s a shift in humor, a softening of edges. But when it turns into a full-body transformation, you start to feel like you’re performing every moment instead of just being.

“I don’t think anyone really knows who they are because you’re so different in every setting,” Alicea said. “Who’s to say, ‘Oh, this is exactly who I am,’ when that version of you only exists with one person?”

At the end of the day, we’ll never be just one thing. We’ll never be just one person. But we can choose what parts of us are real, and fit each piece of us together like a puzzle. And little by little all the pieces make a picture of who you are, not just a chameleon but a combination of everything you are and wish to be.

I don't think anyone really knows who they are, because you're so different in every setting.

KLAVA ALICEA

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Productive Struggle The balance between the good and bad stress surrounding school, friends and life.

BY JANAKI NALLAMOTHU

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We need a little bit of anxiety in order to function, those feelings of worry or unease. Without it, we probably wouldn’t meet our deadlines, there would be no reason to care about our grades and we would never grow or succeed.

Although anxiety and stress have negative connotations, they help us accomplish tasks that our minds deem difficult or scary.

This type of “good stress” is called eustress, where the stressor is an opportunity and you work to get the best possible outcome. Any kind of stress is a demand placed on your brain or physical body. A situation that makes you feel frustrated or nervous can trigger it.

“It’s not good to be stress-free because it’s not possible,” said Dr. Venkat Polavarapu, a psychiatrist at the Ann Arbor VA Healthcare System.

“The world is not like that. So anyone who lives that way is either in denial or is afraid of embracing that ART BY GABE DEEDLER

stress.”

Productive stress occurs when individuals perceive stressors as challenges rather than threats. This kind of stress motivates us and keeps us on our toes. Eustress allows our brains to focus on one particular task at a time instead of flooding our mind with every little task we have to do.

But we’re always walking the line of being productive without pushing ourselves too far. We’re always teetering on the edge of our comfort zone, figuring out if we want to make that leap or fall back into what we know.

The pressure we put on ourselves can help motivate us to reach our goals; however, too much internal pressure creates anxiety and timidness. It makes someone feel overwhelmed. External pressures can come from those around us — family, friends, teachers. Even if they’re applying pressure subconsciously, the stress is there.

Receiving a bad test grade might

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EASY

Dr. Venkat Polavarapu

feel like the end of the world to some of us. It may weigh down on us because we don’t know what to do next. The “failure” has made us self-conscious of our abilities. Those kinds of responses are not healthy.

“The difference between an individual who’s never handled failure and someone who has is the understanding that things are not always easy for them, but they’re working and they see the progression,” Dr. Polavarapu said. “They see the ups and downs — failure and positivity — in a healthy way.”

In school, we’re put under the stressors of tests, projects, essays and friends. We’re meant to be present during every class from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. But after school ends, we’re still busy with homework, a job or sports. Some days, it feels like we never get a break. This form of stress can lead to burnout.

Without coping mechanisms and ways to take care of ourselves, we

get lost in our minds with the long lists of “to do.” We don’t have that release or escape. Our mind needs time to rest and recharge, just like our physical body does. If we don’t mark out time to take a break, our mind is overloaded and our body becomes anxious. We need a balance.

Junior Maggie Williams likes to decompress by watching movies, playing games on her phone and spending time with friends, family and her dog. She has learned that procrastination is something that will inevitably hurt her.

“We procrastinate because the urgency isn’t there,” Dr. Polavarapu said. “When you start to procrastinate for multiple things, that’s when you feel that unhealthy stress.”

When you procrastinate multiple things, your mind makes that “to do” list longer and longer, and your body relays symptoms of anxiety.

The amount of stress builds up as your mind comprehends everything.

THE COMMUNICATOR

“I feel like if you try to think about everything all at once, it gets really overwhelming,” Williams said. “But if you can say, ‘Let’s do one thing at a time,’ it gets done.”

Realizing that focusing on one task at a time is more effective and efficient has helped Williams learn to manage her workload. She understands that some projects are more urgent than others and weighs their importance while keeping in mind when they need to be done by.

However, unhelpful coping skills can cause recycled stress, leading to increased levels of anxiety and depression. One way this can happen is simply pretending the problem will go away by itself and not working towards a solution.

Healthy techniques to reduce stress and anxiety in daily life include limiting caffeine consumption, getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, meditating and working directly to resolve the things that caused the stress.

Another way to handle stress is using a support system. You need people you can open up to about how you’re feeling and who will put you at ease.

“When you don’t have that support system, you feel so isolated and think that you have to do it on your own,” Dr. Polavarapu said. “People fail to reach out to those that are right there in front of them.”

Spending time with others brings a sense of comfort. The people close to us increase our self-esteem and self-worth. They contribute to our overall happiness and provide the support we need. Having a support network of friends, family or teachers can provide emotion relief, encouragement and a fresh perspective on challenges.

“You need people in your life that are not going to be your cheerleader,” Dr. Polavarapu said. “You need people to take the initiative and tell you when you need help.”

While there is both bad stress and productive stress, we need a mix of both. We’re not able to succeed and grow unless we have that motivation, but when that stress reaches high levels, we need to be able to control our responses. Every risk is a growth experience, no matter the outcome.

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AGREE TO The same gap is still the same length when split up.

BY WILSON ZHENG

Our comfort zone is our safety bubble. It’s where you can find things that feel nice, warm and familiar.

Reading a book in my bed, playing video games with my friends late into the hours at night and practicing my favorite pieces on the piano are all things I find comforting.

As humans, our brains are wired to seek comfort; when we get in stressful situations, we naturally release stress hormones such as adrenaline to encourage us to flee from perceived danger. And while it’s normal for us to want to be in these safe places, we also feel depressed and unfulfilled when we are stuck. We have the instinct to learn, to grow, to improve.

There’s a common saying that life begins where your comfort zone ends and that you need to step out 74

of your comfort zone. What do you see when you picture that? For me, I see two tall cliffs with a large gap where one mistake would lead to your doom. Do we need to make that jump? Not only is it unnecessarily difficult, but it’s also stressful.

Just like how you wouldn’t run a marathon without any training, you don’t need to do discomforting things to improve. While I understand the reality that facing discomfort requires risk and effort, it simply just misses the point. Of course, we want to challenge ourselves and learn to improve, but that’s not the same as seeking discomfort itself.

Discomfort is an experience, not a recipe. And deciding that only people who face it “improve” or are “better” simply doesn’t make sense.

Every few months, my piano teach-

ART BY BEE WHALEN

er would hold piano recitals, and of course, being the little eight-year-old I was, I was scared. I messed up, I was nervous and I couldn’t hold myself well even after going through scenarios many times before at home.

But as I performed more and more, each recital became just that tiny little more cohesive than the one previous, and before I knew it, I would even be looking forward to presenting what I had learned.

It’s a given that some things are going to be tough, but with each problem, there comes an answer, and with each answer, you will build and expand your comfort zone.

Even the biggest gaps can be bridged with small, sturdy planks.

While it might take a while, at the end of it, you’ll have a bridge that you can cross time and time again.

DISAGREE No matter how good it feels, getting too comfortable is dangerous.

BY ZANE SWERDLOW

Growth rarely comes from comfort.

When we hide from discomfort, our lives are susceptible to deep stagnation. In my own experiences, the most consistent enemy of personal growth and achievements has been the irresistible pull of comfort. To accomplish ambitious goals and make a change in your life, rejecting comfort is an important step.

If something is too easy, it probably won’t make much of a difference in your life. Making change is hard, and we are hardwired against it. In the modern world, our basic survival needs are relatively well taken care of. As high schoolers, it’s easy to sit back and let the world take you for a ride. Wake up, go to school, go home, go to sleep. Most of your days are predetermined, and this lack of control is what creates comfort. Responsibilities are clear and straightforward. Only by venturing into discomfort are we able to realize that this comfortable life results in medi-

ocrity and status-quo-adherence.

Ambition is the driver of humanity; our lofty goals move society forward for the greater good. It’s easy to be ambitious, everyone has dreams that feel unobtainable. Why is it that so few people ever seem to reach the pipe dreams of the masses? There is one massive barrier: abandoning comfort. Yes, incremental change is worthwhile — any positive change is good. But if all we do is take baby steps, someday, there will come a step along the way that’s just a little too large. To pursue ideals without fear means leaping over obstacles from the get-go.

The least comfortable things I have ever done just so happen to be the most rewarding, and not by chance.

When I went to summer camp for the first time, I wasn't comfortable.

Making friends was scary, and I had plenty of fun things to do back home. But in the end, I left summer camp with new friends that I THE COMMUNICATOR

wouldn't trade for the world, having gotten the chance to try new things and live in the moment. Camping is uncomfortable — carrying heavy backpacks and sleeping on thin foam pads. Without this discomfort, I could never have witnessed the beauty of nature in its wild, unadulterated state. Being on the rowing team often felt tortuous, with long and grueling practices dominating my every evening. It was all worth it for the rush of race day, working as hard as we could as a team.

For me, comfort is a vice. I love it emotionally and seek it often. But higher in my chain of consciousness, I know that being too comfortable will stop me from creating the life I want. I have big ambitions, as I know many of us do. As far as I can tell, loving comfort is what has held me back the most so far.

If the familiar didn’t feel so good, I wonder how much further we all could go.

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READERS WRITE Short personal narratives centered around our staff's experiences with comfort.

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JANE GROCOFF

My room is the place I spend most of my time in. I find comfort in relaxing in a space that's just my own. The furniture has moved around, my dresser and desk are completely different from what I had two years ago, and although my room has changed visually, the memories in that room haven’t changed.

I remember playing with my friends, ripping all the blankets off my bed and making a fort or refusing to go to sleep when I was seven and throwing a tantrum on the floor. I remember never wanting to be in my room. My room was only for sleeping and playing with my friends, but never playing alone.

Now, my room is the place I want to always be. I try my best to keep it clean, but if I’m spending all my time in the same place, I can’t keep clothes off the floor for more than a week. The comfort of being in my room has become my favorite thing. I go up to my room after school, whether that’s to be lazy and just lay in bed or to be productive and get all my homework done at my desk.

My room has become my safe space over the past few

years. The same pillows since 6th grade lay on my bed. The white walls haven’t changed, and the big mirror hanging over my dresser hasn’t moved since I can remember. Although it now has items hanging on it, like the tote bag I use during the summer or the purple cowboy hat I wore to Olivia Rodrigo’s concert, it’s still the same mirror, and I see the same image of myself every time I pass by it. The mirror holds memories that I get to look at every day.

The whiteboard calendar that hangs on my wall has been there for years. I’ve covered up the whiteboard with memories from camp that bring me back to those days. The cork board next to it is full, leaving barely any room for anything to add. It has confetti from the Eras Tour and a plastic bag of white paper snow from the Nutcracker that I collect every single year.

Those memories bring me comfort and never fail to make me smile. Even though those things are all hanging around my room, whether they’ve been there for five months or five years, they hold memories from the past, I can find comfort in things that have passed, and holding those memories in my room brings me the most comfort.

EDDIE MOBILIO BRECK My parents introduced me to this one movie when I was very young. It’s called, “Bread Comes to Life,” and I’ve never known anyone else who knows of it. It shows the intricate process of creating bread from scratch and highlights the vast variety of bread available and emphasizing that everyone enjoys it.

The movie continues with the soft sounds of a harmonica playing in the background as Lily Tomlin narrates the bakers’ moves and the recipes for the loaves.

I remember being around five years old, tossing and turning in my bed. It was too quiet. I didn’t want something too loud, though, since I did need to sleep after all. I rubbed my eyes, all dry and slightly painful to open. I tossed my red plaid blanket off of me and lifted myself out of bed with my feet quietly hitting the floor. One step at a time, I walked into my parents’ bedroom.

Opening the wooden-lined glass-paneled door, my parents lay there with a movie in their hand: “Bread Comes to Life: A Garden of Wheat and a Loaf to Eat.” As the slitted box whirred and the movie skipped a second or two every so often from the slight scratches on the disc, the movie played. Within a minute, my eyes are closed and my mind is in the fields of the wheat grown and the dough kneaded and risen into a forever memory.

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ELLORA KIRBAT

I spent every summer on the sandy shores of Lake Huron, its vast body stretching out for miles had become my escape. The wooden cabinets and the themed bedrooms told a story of my entire childhood, from running around barefoot in swimsuits to cooking for hours and watching the stars. Every moment there meant letting go of our everyday lives and becoming someone new, someone free for a few short days over the weekend.

I was able to let go.

Through the autumn chill and long Michigan winters, my bedroom inside the sea blue cabin sat waiting.

Its bright orange striped walls and stick-on flower decor screamed the song of summer. I had tossed the pink comforter around myself many nights after the restless three-hour drive on Friday afternoons. My head had sunk into the petal-covered pillowcase I've had since I was born, the familiarity providing more happiness than the warmest colors.

The room was covered in toys that eventually started to collect dust. The LEGOs that I had once reached for

PAYTON SLY There are so many beautiful pieces to the puzzle of life, but my best friend is the piece that fits just right.

Nothing is better than realizing when our conversations had turned from “whose mom is driving?” to “your car or mine?” Faking emotions around each other and being afraid of vulnerability turned to being able to read each other’s emotions better than our own. “Just this girl at school who helps me with math sometimes” turned into “my best friend.”

A lot about growing up is watching people come and go, forgetting

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about old friends, growing into a better you and making changes to the people you spend time with.

True comfort comes from someone you can feel yourself around, someone like the girl I thought was weird in fifth grade. Watching each other change and develop deeper understanding and emotion is one of the highest tiers of friendship. A feeling of connection not one thing can match; a feeling so comfortable and so safe.

We went to the same school from fourth grade to eighth grade. When high school came around the corner,

everyday became replaced by lip gloss. Even though I had grown up, the magic never got old. Even now, my favorite stuffed animals from each period of my life sit in the corner, watching over as if they were wise guardians who have seen me through every victory and trial.

The petaled walls chip slowly as the weight of 20 years of joy wears them down. And although I brush past it every time I walk through the wooden doorway, my puppet show station remains untouched with the “tickets for sale” sign still hanging. My memories are frozen in time, though often revisited through photographs sent over text with a message that reads, “Look what I found!”

Moments that taught me joy, laughter and freedom began within those orange-striped walls. Sitting with my family while the Bollywood classics that are older than I am blast over the speaker, watching the waves crash with anticipation of jumping the clear water, no matter the temperature. Every day began with staring into the sun, every night ended with those pink sheets and petal covered pillows.

we had to carve our own paths and go to different schools. But however much time we spent apart, our hugs never became shorter, and our comfortability around each other never lessened. Driving around aimlessly, watching Gilmore Girls, eating ice cream or simply just talking; she paints my sky with more color and I know that is something that will always give me comfortability.

Whenever I go to her house I know I have a toothbrush waiting in the bathroom and probably a pile of my clothes built up from all the times I left things.

MALCOLM LONDON How many pairs of socks have you lost? Five? Ten? Over the course of your life, how many socks have fallen behind the washing machine or slipped under your bed?

Fifty? More?

Scientists estimate that a person loses 15 socks a year.

That’s 1,125 socks over a lifetime. 1,125! Did you even notice they were missing?

My parents, it seemed, were well aware of this phenomenon. And to combat the inevitable sock disappearances in our household, my sister and I could always expect a few new pairs for Hanukkah.

We would sit giddily around the living room table, trying to guess if the small box between us was finally the Nintendo Switch we’d asked for. Grinning, we’d tear off the wrapping paper — only to find a dozen oddly colored, “high quality” socks inside. Smiles turned to sighs as we started sorting through them, while Mom explained why this year’s socks were even better than the ones we got last year.

It became a tradition — one we never exactly looked forward to, but one that never failed to repeat itself. Year after year, the gifts we wanted would sit upstairs, neatly wrapped and waiting; but first, the socks. Always the socks.

Some years they were thick and fuzzy, other years they were stretchy and compressive, as if our parents had carefully studied our lifestyles to determine what fabric would suit us best. They would watch expectantly as we pulled them from the box, waiting for some sign of enthusiasm, but they knew as well as we did that socks are not exciting.

And yet, despite our initial apathy, those socks always ended up on our feet. Whether it was a chilly school morning or a cozy afternoon at home, they were always reliable and comfortable. We never asked for them and we never got excited about them, but sometimes they were exactly what we needed.

At some point, without even realizing it, I stopped rolling my eyes when I unwrapped them. I stopped seeing them as a buffer between me and the real presents.

Because having a warm pair of socks to put on made my mornings just a little better each day. And I knew that, even if they were lost, there would always be more waiting for me next Hanukkah.

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W

Marcel Proust’s questionnaire, created in 1890, featuring Evelyn Stansfield.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? Accepting who you are and accepting the things you have leads to perfect happiness. What is your greatest fear? I have a pretty big fear of heights. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? I can be very critical of myself at times. What is the trait you most deplore in others? I deplore it when people are mean for the sake of a joke. Which living person do you most admire? I most admire Michael Cera. What is your current state of mind? There are always gonna be people who criticize you for living your life and you cannot change that. So all you can do is live your life and be happy. On what occasion do you lie? I lie when I am feeling sneaky. Which living person do you most despise? I despise Jim Carey. What is the quality you most like in a man? I like it when men practice chivalry. What is the quality you most like in a woman? I like it when women are beautiful. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? I love to use the word “ate” to describe something good or cool. What or who is the greatest love of your life? I think that King Princess could be the love of my life but I’ve never met her so I don’t know for sure. When and where were you happiest? In sixth grade, I was confident in myself, and I felt really good about where I was in the world. Which talent would you most like to have? I would love to be able to spin plates or juggle. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I would change my habit of procrastinating, especially when it comes to school.

What do you consider your greatest achievement? Getting an A+ on my math final. 45 out of 45! If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing,

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BY LUCA HINESMAN

what would it be? I would like to be reincarnated as a salamander.

Where would you most like to live? I want to live in either Chicago or Boston when I’m older. What is your most treasured possession? I treasure my “Spider-Man” lanyard. It’s pretty and I like it a lot.

What is your favorite occupation? I think being a firefighter is the coolest job someone could have.

What is your most marked characteristic? I think I’m a very loud person. What do you most value in your friends? I like people who know how to have a good time and can just be silly and fun to hang out with. Who are your favorite writers? All of the Kurt Vonnegut books I’ve read are super good, and EB White has a special place in my heart because “Charlotte’s Web” was the first novel I ever read. Who is your hero of fiction? I’m gonna go with Gob Bluth from “Arrested Development.”

Which historical figure do you most identify with? I really identify with Abraham Lincoln. Who are your heroes in real life?

My mom and Luca Hinesman are my heroes. What are your favorite names? I like names that can be shortened to a nickname, and my favorite one is when “Elizabeth” is shortened to “Eliza.” What is it that you most dislike? Garden flamingos. What is your greatest regret? When I was five, I was dancing to “Roar” by Katy Perry, and I was listening to it on my family iPad. I was spinning, and then I lost grip of the iPad, and it went flying out of my hands and cracked. It was a really sad time because I loved that iPad, and I got in a lot of trouble for it. How would you like to die? I would like to die when I’m good and ready at 75 years old in a fatal car accident. What is your motto? Be-you-tiful.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANIEL JACOB

Evelyn

STANSFIELD

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T

M IFF I OU T N N AR Y DIER The journey of an how an artist's surroundings have inspired and encouraged her to keep creating.

BY KAYLEE GADEPALLI AND VIOLET KNYAL

Tiffinny Moutardier’s desk is covered in unfinished pieces, scratch marks, paint and paper. Her favorite place to create art is her bedroom.

When she was a kindergartner, one of Moutardier’s art pieces was selected to be in the Ann Arbor District Library. Now, you’re more likely to see her pieces featured during Commstock or the Neutral Zone during an art show.

“I’ve been doing art ever since I can remember,” Moutardier said.

“I’ve found myself enjoying it.”

Recently, Moutardier has found herself inspired by a more gritty look. Since she normally works in black and white, she was challenged by switching to a more colorful art style after thinking in grayscale for so long.

“Originally, [my art] was mostly cartoonish stuff,” Moutardier said. “I’ve been doing a lot of new styles, and now I’m branching out to sculpture and realism.”

In terms of mediums, Moutardier tends to stay away from pastels because of how messy they are, but 82

ART COURTESY OF TIFFINNY MOUTARDIER

wants to experiment with using them in the future.

“I like to be really organized and neat with my drawings,” Moutardier said. “I feel like I really need to get out of that, and I need to be more loose when I make art.”

Like many artists, Moutardier has struggled with procrastination and a lack of time to work on her art portfolio or finish pieces. When she has artist’s block, Moutardier finds it helpful to step away and focus on something else for a few minutes.

When she comes back to it, she usually finds it a lot easier to continue.

“It’s fun to draw, and you can do so much with it,” Moutardier said.

“There’s so many different shapes it can take.”

Moutardier wants to continue creating art in the future and is thinking about going to an art college in.

She makes art for the feeling she gets when she finishes a piece.

“It’s like a dopamine rush,” Moutardier said. “Sometimes the process can be really frustrating, but the end product always makes me happy."

OPINION

THE COMMUNICATOR

A I L A M A BUCHER PHOTO COURTESY OF AMALIA BUCHER

CONSTANT

The motive behind Amalia Bucher's commitment to keep her passion for dance alive.

BY KAYLEE GADEPALLI AND FINA KUTCHER

Amalia Bucher has been dancing since she was five years old. Her mom put her in ballet when she was younger, and she has stayed with it for the past 10 years.

“I loved it,” Bucher said. “I would get so excited to go to every class. It just kind of clicked for me. I felt like that’s what I was meant to do.”

As the years have gone by, she has added jazz, hip hop, contemporary, tap and acro to her repertoire. To Bucher, dance is an art form because of the way you can use it to express yourself through movement and different styles. It can offer experiences to meet new people, build a community, step out of your comfort zone and grow as a person.

“I do consider myself an artist with my dancing,” Bucher said. “It gives me a way to be creative in my everyday life and a way to express myself.”

As she has grown up and gotten more serious about dance, Bucher has come to regard it as less of a hobby and more of a commitment.

“I’ve struggled with balancing it with my social life and my academics,” Bucher said. “That’s something I’ve had to work through. But I’ve always loved it.”

Bucher has experienced periods of doubt where she compares herself and her level of dance to other dancers. Something that helps her get through it is seeing how much she has grown in her dancing abilities throughout the years. Bucher looks back at old videos of her dancing and imagines how her younger self would react if she could see her present self. She also understands the importance of taking a break.

“Realize that it’s okay to have bad

days,” Bucher said. “It’s okay to have days where you don’t do as good in dance as you would like to, and just realize that that doesn’t mean anything about you as a dancer. It’s just a bad day.”

Bucher reached a turning point as a dancer when she started competing. It helped her to gain new understanding of the whole world of dance, from the judges’ perspectives to other peoples’ viewpoints of what they thought of her dancing. Getting professional feedback from completing her solos has helped her to grow as a person and realize what she can do to improve.

“It’s really taught me how to persevere and work hard, and not just in dance, but in school,” Bucher said.

“It’s taught me how to be committed to things and have a good work ethic outside of dance.”

At her very first competition, Bucher received a Judge’s Choice Award for one of the dances she was in. When she went up to accept the award on stage and stood in front of everyone, she felt so much happiness and love for her art form. That memory drives her to practice more outside of her studio to reach her personal goals as a dancer, making sure to stretch every day at home and work hard to maintain her strength outside of dance practice.

“Being in dance and doing what the teacher tells you isn’t enough to reach your goals,” Bucher said. “It’s really taught me to work hard outside of dance.”

Even though it can be competitive at times, Bucher feels that everyone is so supportive and wants what’s best for her. She remembers one moment before going on stage to comTHE COMMUNICATOR

“

Being in dance and doing what the teacher tells you isn’t enough to reach your goals. pete her solo, when a girl next to her wished her good luck and told her she would do great.

“That gave me a boost of confidence,” Bucher said. “Everyone is connected because we all have this love of dance, and we can all share it in this community.”

Bucher loves having opportunities to attend conventions and take classes from people she looks up to. She feels grateful for everything dance has brought her and sees herself as someone in the middle of being an artist and an athlete.

“I do think dance requires a lot more strength and athleticism than people think it does,” Bucher said.

“I think there’s a really creative aspect to it as well. I balance both in my dancing.”

Bucher does her best to represent herself through these dual identities as a dancer and hopes that people see her that way too.

“Dance is such a creative thing,” Bucher said. “Things like improvisation help you express yourself and you can just do your own thing and really express yourself as an artist.”

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Eloise’s world Eloise MacDougald’s room is filled with pieces of her life that remind her of the good, the peaceful and the people who make her feel those things.

BY CLAIRE LEWIS

Eloise MacDougald’s bedroom is a window inside of her brain and a reflection of her life as it’s been and how she hopes it will be. It’s a collection of the small things, from the mittens she wears to sleep in the winter to the sunglasses that hang from her lamp.

From the second you walk into MacDougald’s room, you can tell she’s a person who cares deeply for life. Her room is a big space, so it’s taken a long time for her to collect enough little things to fill it. She first felt the need to cover her walls when she lived in Scotland for a year during her dad’s sabbatical. The MacDougald's were living in an apartment at the time, and she describes her room as sterile and strange.

“I had this need to claim a wall and make my own space because it was such an unfamiliar world over there,” MacDougald said. “I think that was the beginning.”

Now, back in the house she’s had for her whole life, she has a one dollar bill taped to the ceiling, the exact bill that had stayed in the back of her phone case throughout her year abroad. It’s just one example of the sort of things that she has collected. MacDougald keeps every boarding pass, claw-machine prize and letter — all the things that most would disregard as something indistinguishable from trash.

She pastes all these artifacts on her walls as if they’re trophies, and in some ways, MacDougald regards them as so.

“I like to keep the small things as a reminder of the much bigger good things,” MacDougald said.

She likes everything out in the open — it would be easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of paper and printed out pictures that line the walls, but if you pay attention to all of it, you can sift out MacDougald’s unique story.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY CLAIRE LEWIS

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Credit: Disney UK

MOVIE

Moana 2

BY ADDIE MCCREADIE, ISLA THARP AND SOFI DAS

2" came to theaters as a thrill- learned to be accepting of help and open to perience for families to watch together, but ► "Moana ing sequel to the original animation mistakes. Characters the world has known it is also fun to watch with friends and enfrom 2016. The movie follows Disney’s iconic protagonist, Moana, as she faces a new wave of challenges and attempts to connect with people beyond her home island.

Disney has created quite an impressive reputation surrounding its sequels and spin-offs, being met with overwhelming praise for movies like “Frozen II” and “Inside Out 2.” But does the Moana franchise measure up to Disney’s other releases?

The first Moana movie earned $56,631,401 in domestic, box-office revenue, leading the sequel to bring in a whopping $139,787,385 upon domestic opening.

Although the numbers certainly speak to the movie’s success, they don’t say much about viewer experience.

Though the first Moana movie was released eight years prior to its sequel, the movies blend together seamlessly and both capture a similar, youthful feeling. Exciting new characters, such as Moana’s little sister, made their debut on the big screen, but the writers did not forget about the classic personalities that brought magic to the first movie. Maui, Moana’s previously hard-headed companion, took on a protective fatherly role, and Moana herself

for years unveiled new sides of themselves, creating an enchanting production that was fresh, yet familiar.

However, the film was lacking in the musical department and there was a disconnect between the style of the songs and the animation. The music was produced and delivered differently, and the songs had stayed true to their original feeling. The previous soundtrack included many catchy numbers that feature the famous Lin-Manuel Miranda and stayed with listeners for years to come. However, the recent soundtrack contains few outstanding or memorable lyrics.

A prevalent theme throughout the film is the idea that there will always be an alternative path to take. This advice is given to Moana by a new minor villain, Matangi.

As Moana grapples with being a wayfinder, she believes that leadership must mean having the perfect solution. Matangi encourages her to consider that life’s unknowns are unavoidable and that getting lost is often an integral part of finding your way.

Although the execution and plot of the second movie might never outshine the original Moana, it is a thrilling sequel with some surprises but still the same beloved characters as before. It is the perfect PG ex-

joy the feeling of nostalgia while watching one of Disney’s most iconic princesses sail across the screen.

QUICK FACTS "Moana 2" began as a TV series in 2020, originally planned to air on Disney+.

Maui is based on the demi-god Māui in Polynesian mythology.

Moana 2 is the third highest grossing movie of 2024, behind Inside Out 2 and Deadpool and Wolverine.

REVIEWS

Nosferatu MOVIE

BY EVA MILLWOOD

spent over six hours in different the- “The Lighthouse.” Real gothic horror with a telling of grooming. But ultimately, this ► Iaters the days after Christmas expe- vague evils throughout the telling, whether is ignored, rewriting a female character to riencing the triple viewing of “Babygirl,” “A Complete Unknown” and of course, “Nosferatu,” the pivotal Robert Eggers’ interpretation of the 1922 Count Dracula knockoff. The silent film remake was a feast for the eyes, but lacked meaningful context.

The first half was horror eye candy, visually cold and off-putting. This makes it only somewhat easy to ignore the small pet peeves that were the British accents in a film set in Germany, and Aaron Taylor Johnson’s theater kid-usage performance as Friedreich Harding.

But by the first hour, it grew to the visual aesthetics of a 2010s Tim Burton film. Excluding the costuming and occasional well done shot, this film felt lackluster compared to Eggers’ “The Witch” (stylized VVitch) and

through a black goat of Satan in disguise or a siren to represent the growing insanity of an isolated lighthouse.

“Nosferatu” creates no air of mystery with its iconic villain, Count Orlock. You practically now see his now mustached face within the first minutes of his screen time.

In terms of narrative, “Nosferatu” feels thematically muddled; there are vague elements that attempt to explore the psychology of Ellen Hutter in 19th-century Germany. Although Lily-Rose Depp, the actress behind the titular lead, satiated my expectations for complexity in acting, the allegories surrounding the film fall flat. This could be the darkest interpretation of “Nosferatu,” Count Orlock and Ellen Hutters’ relationship is that, which is

The Picture of Dorian Gray

attempt more depth, leaving a single-handedly more shallow plot. Murnau’s original art, and even Herzog’s take on Nosferatu, are abandoned in favor of artistic erotica and jump scares.

It is, at best, a well-intended horror whose writing fell flat and at worst a perverted fantasy. Changing Orlock to a parasite rather than its initial place as a seducer while still stopping itself from showing the true grime and blood the story needed.

Eggers’ “Nosferatu” is a film that has been heralded as a modern masterpiece, but it is merely a copy much like the original “Nosferatu,” a copy that lacks any enjoyment and love for the initial piece thats disguised through beautiful gowns and layers of dark shadows.

BOOK

BY MARK IONIDES

excuses its complete lack of plot-based justi-

books about beauty have a sim► Many ilar story to tell: the superficiality of fication. It enables the novel to tell two stogood looks and how true beauty always lies within. Despite the popularity of this narrative, or maybe because of it, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde manages to offer a deeply striking perspective.

Throughout the book, Wilde challenges the meaning of beauty with a powerful mix of frankness and colorful expression.

“The Picture of Dorian Gray” follows Dorian Gray, a kind and handsome Victorian gentleman, through the long and slow degradation of losing his youth. However, Dorian does not age in the normal sense: his physical appearance is preserved, forever perfect. Dorian’s beauty is protected by a portrait of himself, painted in his innocent early years, that grows old in his place. It allows Dorian to remain physically young for decades, while the portrait twists and withers into a sad old man.

While the plot device of a cursed portrait that grants infinite beauty can feel awkward at times, the elegance with which Wilde uses it to send his message more than

ries simultaneously: one of Dorian’s lavish and corrupt life enjoying all the blessings of youth, and another of his descent into hideousness as age takes all the kindness, conscience and innocence he once took for granted.

By drawing comparisons between these two lives, the same events can have thickly layered meanings that depend on which perspective you choose to view them from.

At the same time, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” avoids feeling so dense with questions as to lose the thread of the story.

Deep themes aside, it paints a fascinating and grotesque picture of the life of a man devoid of care except for himself, willing to take advantage of anyone in his life for simple pleasure.

As Dorian’s inner self strays further and further from what he once was, he turns on the people closest to him and yet never feels a twinge of guilt. Only after all but his closest allies have abandoned him does he begin to regret, which will ultimately deTHE COMMUNICATOR

Credit: Penguin Random House

stroy him.

Drawing a single conclusion from the book is difficult. As with all the best stories, different interpretations are possible that lend dramatically different meanings to the work. It doesn’t help that Wilde’s dense style and 19th-century language can sometimes make it difficult to gauge his tone and intention. But more important than a clear message is creating new perspectives and ideas, at which “The Picture of Dorian Gray” certainly excels. The book’s message is not as simple as it might seem, but that only makes for a more interesting and entertaining read.

Minecraft GAME

BY NINA BEALS AND TIA COCCIOLONE

up of just blocks and out needing to collect resources and colorful blocks. ► Made colors, Minecraft, created by keep themselves alive. You have acMinecraft combines real life and Markus Persson in 2011, offers a secret world safely stored in your pocket. Unlike the harsh reality of the real world, in Minecraft, you can be anything and do everything your heart desires. From farmer to explorer, the world is your oyster.

Minecraft is considered a sandbox game, which means the player has total control over what they do and create, allowing them to interact with the world in a nonlinear fashion. The possibilities are endless.

There are two different settings you can play. In the classic survival mode, you have to fight different monsters, each with their own unique strengths, hunt for your food and build your own shelter in order to survive. This setting can be a lot of fun but stressful, which is why the game offers different levels of difficulty or a creative mode, a different setting altogether. The creative setting gives the player the ability to create whatever they choose with-

cess to every kind of block and the ability to fly and swim, along with all the tools you could need to fuel your creativity.

The high-tech graphics make the world of Minecraft so alluring. The game seems simple at first, but holds so many side quests and secrets that can only be found through endless hours of exploration. There are features to grow crops, breed animals, make potions and so much more. If you play with friends, everyone has something to do.

How can you play with friends?

Well, Minecraft is a multiplayer game, meaning you can create worlds with your friends from any place, mobile or desktop. The game offers many more opportunities with multiple characters, so it’s designed to be played with friends. Minecraft also has calming music and sound effects for all the characters, including the villagers, creepers and animals, that help you immerse into the world of ART BY BEE WHALEN

fantasy through its many versatile terrains — you can pick different seeds to customize your world and create landscapes such as the arctic, cherry blossom fields, desert plateau, jungles, mountains and bamboo forests. The game also simulates weather; it rains, snows and shines, making the game feel more realistic to the player.

The game expands as you explore, so there is never an end to the excitement. You can even venture into different dimensions, such as The Overworld, The Nether and The End, each carrying new challenges — like the Ender Dragon! This makes this game so unique because there are no checkpoints, goals or finish lines, only freedom and ways to express your creativity. Games like these provide lots of comfort for people because they offer an escape from reality. No matter what your interests are, you should definitely give Minecraft a try!

REVIEWS

Credit: untilthengame.com

Until Then

GAME

BY WILSON ZHENG

The plot revolves around the stu-

world-building are impressively deep

how Mark and his friends deal with the aftermath of “The Ruling,” a series of natural disasters that erupted on Earth all simultaneously. As Mark goes through his life practicing for his piano audition, buying emoji-shaped cookies for his friends and building relationships, he starts to experience weird, long bursts of deja vu, almost like he had lived through a previous life of himself in another timeline. These episodes leave him questioning whether he has brain damage or something totally different instead.

There’s a texting system in the game, and it lets Mark’s personality shine. As the phone buzzes, the iMessage app is pulled up from the left. You’ll have some say in what is written, but you’ll also notice him write a response, delete it, write another and delete it yet again. Just like in real life, it takes him and others time to respond and think about what to type. If you choose stupid responses, Mark will be left on “read.”

Sometimes, you can’t help but laugh at the banter between everyone.

The game doesn’t have voice acting, meaning it’s a lot of reading.

However, there are never blocks of text, the longest lines being just a few sentences long. The character and

where it’s mentioned and thrown away. The game is portrayed through conversations, thoughts and visuals, so there’s no part where there is spouting of exposition. Rather, you get to know the characters and the world surrounding them as the game progresses.

As far as the visuals go, they are stunning. The 2D-pixel art characters go surprisingly hand-inhand with the 3D backgrounds, and the cleverly pulled lighting puts it above many other indie studios in terms of visuals alone.

I don’t want to spoil too much, but with music being a major plot device, it makes sense that there’s been a lot of love put into the soundtrack and audio design. Not only does it help lighten the mood of the fun scenes, but also works in the other direction, making dark moments seem even more scary than they are.

It takes around 15 hours to complete the whole story, so it’s a pretty long play-through. But, playing through the game is an absolute joy.

Every character is beautifully written and relatable, and it’s one of the best games I’ve played in a very long time. Polychroma Games have truly made something special, and I hope to see more from them in the future.

alarm is going off. It goes ► An off once, twice, 10 times, 20 dents at Liamson Integrated and and connected, unlike some stories times. It’s annoying, but it means something.

It’s time for another day of school, Mark.

Released by Polychroma Games in 2024, you begin “Until Then” as Mark Borja, a checked-out high schooler speeding to the train station in bustling Manila, Philippines. He and his friend, Ryan, an aspiring basketball player, have left their parts of the group project unfinished with just minutes to spare.

Somehow, with the power of nonsense, Mark and Ryan barely make it before class starts and therefore avoid the wrath of Louise, the class president and member of the group.

Mark’s your run-of-the-mill teenager: playing hours of video games, scrolling his phone and skating by school with minimal effort. Both his parents work overseas, and he lives alone. Despite this, he treats it like it’s normal and continues living life like always.

What’s going to happen? Love?

Loss? Denial? All of the above? To be completely honest, some of the themes in this game are kind of cliche and are commonly seen in media, but the fact that the studio has managed to make such a beautiful story leaves a lot to be said.

THE COMMUNICATOR

Miss Congeniality MOVIE

BY TIA COCCIOLONE

“Miss Congeniality,” a 2000s comedy movie with a twist of romance, follows with the classic plot of ugly- girl-turned-pretty, is a comedic movie with a twist of romance. When the Miss United States Pageant faces a bomb threat, the FBI decides an undercover agent is the best way to diffuse the situation. Gracie Hart, played by Sandra Bullock, is the only female agent who fits the profile. As "just one of the boys," tom-boy Gracie is foreign to femininity and extremely reluctant to the idea of conforming to the idealizations of society.

After some convincing, Gracie finally agrees, and the makeover begins. Taking an entire ware- Credit: Lighthouse Media Fund house and full team of cosmetologists, Gracie becomes a super model version of herself.

Crowded by comedy and sexism, But no matter how beautiful she looks, her character a wholesome and wonderful mesclearly feels out of place. She is trained by the most in- sage can still be found. The initial tense and successful pageant coach to become the perfect perspective Gracie has is supposed girl for the stage — care-free, perfect and a little dumb — to match with the audiences, seesomeone she's not. Soon enough, she's thrown into the ing these "girly" women as nothing field, or in this case, onto the runway. more than what they put up on the "Miss Congeniality" is so interesting because Gracie is stage. But as we progress through the so set on not fitting into the narrow definition of beauty film, beauty is redefined, unlockthat she finds herself unknowingly defying these norms ing a new perspective. Even after goso far in the opposite direction; it's just as conformative ing through all these severe physical to societal standards. As a smart and almost rudely clever changes, Gracie is able to win over woman, she lacks feminine qualities to the point of even the audience and judges by letting basic hygiene and manners. But as we watch her grow her authentic, genuine self shine and discover herself, she explores how strength and in- through. Beauty becomes so much telligence can work hand in hand with feeling beautiful. more than just an appearance — it At first, Gracie sees these pageant girls as what every- becomes compassion, kindness and one else does — an airhead with a smile — but immersed confidence in oneself. in this environment, she's forced to see a new side of all these women. During an interview in the movie, Gracie is asked, "There are many who consider the Miss United States Pageant to be outdated and anti-feminist. What would you say to them?" "Well, I would have to say, I used to be one of them. And then I came here, and I realized that these women are smart, terrific people who are just trying to make a difference in the world. For me, this experience has been one of the most rewarding and liberating experiences of my life," Gracie responds.

Although this film was no cinematic masterpiece, it's one of those shows you can watch over and over again without out getting bored. With such great acting and a touch of romance, this movie becomes a classic comfort film.

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Credit: Lighthouse Media Fund

"Miss Congeniality" is available for rent on Apple TV, Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play and Fandango for $3.99.

REVIEWS

THE

MUST LIST

BY NINA BEALS

Poet’s 2 Dead Society Credit: Miramax

Good Will Hunting

BY LUKAS DINKELMANN

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of the 4 Lord Rings: F.O.T.R

5 Avatar

Credit: 20th Century Fox

THE COMMUNICATOR

3 Brave

Credit: WingNut

liams. Sean is different from the others. Their initial sessions are tense, but they gradually connect, matching each other’s energy in a way that feels real and raw. Sean challenges Will in ways no one else has. Slowly, Will starts to open up.

At the same time, Will falls for the girl from the bar, Skylar. Their dates are some of the most heartwarming scenes in the movie, but their relationship isn’t without its struggles.

When Skylar discovers Will has been lying about his family, they have a big argument. This confrontation forces Will to reflect on both his life and choices.

The movie ends on an emotional note: Will leaves a letter for Sean, telling him he’s going to California to be with Skylar, finally taking a leap toward happiness.

“Good Will Hunting” dives deep into themes of love, pain and personal growth. It’s a story about breaking down walls and letting people in, and it’s told in such a heartfelt way. It’s definitely one of my favorite movies, and I think everyone should watch it.

Credit: Disney

I remember the first time I watched “Good Will Hunting.”

I was about 13, and my dad called me into the living room, saying he had a movie he thought I’d like.

From then on, I was mesmerized.

I’ve probably watched it five or six times since.

The story kicks off strong. Will Hunting, played by Matt Damon, is a young man from South Boston working as a janitor at MIT. He seems ordinary, but he’s a secret genius who solves a nearly impossible math problem left on a chalkboard by a world-famous professor. Despite his brilliance, Will’s life is a mess.

He gets into trouble with the law for assault (which is something he's done before) but this time, there’s a catch. To avoid jail, he agrees to two conditions: work with the professor and attend therapy.

Will reluctantly agrees, mostly because he wants to stay out of jail and see the girl he met at a bar the night before. Finding the right therapist isn’t easy, though. After several failed sessions, he finally meets Sean Maguire, played by Robin Wil-

Credit: Touchstone

MOVIE

Credit: Amazon Studios

1 Beautiful Boy

Out Loud.

Three albums to hear now.

BY JAKE WILLIAMS

“Mahashmashana” Father John Misty Father John Misty, also known as Josh Tillman, has been teasing “Mahashmashana” for a while. Now that it’s finally here, I can confidently say that it’s everything the singles suggested it would be and more.

The intro song and title track, “Mahashmashana,” is an absolute beast, rounding out to over nine minutes, the longest song on the album. This song is a masterclass in composition with swelling strings, expressive drum fills and sweet piano keys. In the final minutes of this song, Tillman’s singing takes a back seat allowing the instrumental to bloom into something truly magnificent. Every instrument grows and continues to mesh, all while the song throws new components into the mix, such as a wailing saxophone that owns the show until the song’s final moments. This grand experience is so easy to get wrapped up in, to the point where you can completely forget about the seven other songs that follow it.

The fifth song, “Screamland,” might be my favorite song on the album. It opens with Tillman delicately singing over some soft piano chords. As the song progresses, the instrumental grows, layering in subdued drums and dreamy strings. When the chorus hits, the drums become crisp while every other part of the instrumental becomes distorted and hazy, akin to a wall of noise. It sounds like the song itself is breaking apart.

The seventh song, “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All,” is unbelievably groovy. Jaunty piano chords, smooth saxophone and persistent percussion makes this a song that’s almost impossible to not tap your foot to. Lyrically, Tillman always packs a lot into his songs, and this is no exception. Throughout the seven verses, he touches on his own career, how pain and suffering give meaning to life and how time itself can literally make you a fool.

“Mahashmashana” feels like a turning point in Tillman’s career. Tillman himself even said that while “Mahashmashana” isn’t the end, it feels like a “last album” in spirit, and I couldn’t be more thankful that it isn’t actually the end. There’s no one doing what Father John Misty is doing.

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CONSTANT SPORTS

“SOS Deluxe: LANA” SZA

“Perverts” Ethel Cain

“SOS Deluxe: LANA,” which I will now refer to as “LANA,” is a slightly confusing release due to its identity as a deluxe for an album that dropped over two years ago, consisting of 15 brand new songs which could’ve just belonged to their own album. Despite these choices, “LANA” is still a great album with some of SZA’s catchiest material to date.

The sixth track, “Scorsese Baby Daddy,” is one of the most replayable songs on the album with some thick percussion and absurdly plucky acoustic guitar passages.

SZA’s vocal performance on this track is a stand-out as she layers multiple takes of her singing over each other, which gives the song a fuller feeling.

“Kitchen” is an absolute ear-worm with one of the most addictive choruses SZA has ever written. It samples the Isley Brothers’ track, “Voyage to Atlantis,” in an incredibly effective way while combining that with small, twinkling synths that make this track nigh-impossible to get out of your head. Like many of SZA’s songs, the lyrics on “Kitchen” dive into a toxic relationship that she was once in. She sings about having to choose between love or self-preservation and how it’s “so hard to do the right thing.”

The second-to-last track, “Another Life,” is easily one of the best on the album. The beat features heavy percussion and an incredibly catchy guitar riff. SZA’s lyrics delve into another relationship that she wishes could’ve turned out differently, saying, “In another life, I know we could ride out.” On most other albums a song like, “Another Life” would be the finisher, but for SZA, it’s just another track within the album.

Though not quite as thoughtful or expansive as “CTRL” or “SOS”, “LANA” is still another great album from SZA with some very catchy bops that won’t leave my music rotation for at least a couple months. More than anything, “LANA” is an exciting teaser for what SZA will do next.

Ethel Cain’s new album, “Perverts,” is crushing in just about every facet of its construction; the atmosphere is suffocating, the subject matter is uncomfortable and depressing and the drone songs that make up almost half of the album are, in my opinion, great, but definitely not something everyone will vibe with. All this being said, I believe “Perverts” is absolutely fantastic and an exciting step forward for Ethel Cain.

After an opening track of dark, unsettling ambiance, we’re given the track “Punish.” Cain’s airy vocals float over a somber piano with subtle bits of ambiance layered underneath. A little over halfway into the song, a roaring guitar slides into the mix and almost completely drowns out the piano. Cain’s repetition of the line “I am punished by love,” combined with the abrasive guitar, gives the song a feeling of catharsis that remains present throughout the album.

“Vacillator” is sonically one of the most gentle songs on the album, but that doesn’t stop Cain’s lyrics from being filled with melancholy. The song centers around a vacillator, someone who longs for connection but can’t ever seem to find it in their present relationship, which leads them to becoming closed off and eventually ending the relationship. Nothing in the song shows this quite as well as Cain’s ending refrain of, “If you love me, keep it to yourself.” The song’s instrumental consists mostly of slow drums and Cain harmonizing with her own voice, similar to Bon Iver’s style of singing.

The final track, “Amber Waves,” is incredibly dreamy and slow. Coming in at around 11.5 minutes, “Amber Waves” is only the fourth longest song on the album. The song begins with Cain lightly singing over a softly played guitar, but as the song progresses, the guitar becomes more and more distorted before cooling off as the song slowly tapers out. “Amber Waves” makes you feel as if you’re floating, especially in the back half, with how soothing its instrumentation is.“Perverts” is an emotionally draining album that certainly won’t be for everyone, but those who can connect with it will find something really special.

THE COMMUNICATOR

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Remember ‘24?

Solve this crossword centered around last year's trends, events and influential figures.

BY KAYLEE GADEPALLI AND FINA KUTCHER

ACROSS

DOWN

3 Two’s company, three’s a tennis match 6 We’re holding space for its sequel this year 8 What Hailey Welch does on her claim to fame podcast 10 A record-breaking animated Netflix show with a legendary second sea-

1 Who seats you at the 2024 halftime show 2 Looking for a man in this department (6’5, blue

son

11 This Royal girl is working it out on the remix with Charli XCX 12 Hot takes on a cake 13 “This is going to ruin the __.” “What __?” “The world __.”

14 Demi Moore won her first award at the Golden Globes for her starring role in this movie

15 A card game that Beyonce likes to play in Texas 17 Kendrick describes this man’s attempts to strike a chord 19 The tour that speedruns Taylor Swifts discography 22 The bowl that sent our local college football team the National Championship 23 Jojo Siwa’s “new” genre of music 26 A quadrennial movement (the reason we had an extra day in 2024) 27 Sabrina Carpenter’s favorite color 28 A baby penguin named after a pasta dish

eyes), 4 What species Moo Deng is 5 Something you spill on a world tour 7 Charli XCX and Troye Silvan’s joint tour 9 “You know what else is massive?” An iconic haircut 11 Look in the mirror and who do you see? Timothee Chalamet 16 The Midwest Princess herself 18 The breakdancer at the 2024 Olympics that broke the internet 20 The solar phenomenon that fell on April 8 21 Very __, very mindful 24 Host city of the 2024 Olympics 25 The neon green summer lifestyle

BONUS SCRAMBLE Oxford’s 2024 Word of the Year

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CONSTANT

Comfort Zone Comic Zeeb and Elby return for another adventure!

BY KAYLEE GADEPALLI

THE COMMUNICATOR

97

HUMANS OF COMMUNITY

“Where do you find comfort?”

BY KYRIE GARWOOD

Jupiter Gergics Senior

“

Ryan Grant Senior

“

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Something that brings me comfort is structure and a fully scheduled day, because I don't have to think about what I'm going to do. I already know, and I stick to that plan. It's less stressful for me. I fill up my breaks and my weekends with as much work as I possibly can, so I have little to no free time because that's how I like it. I just try and schedule myself out weeks at a time, two weeks, three weeks, a month. Just, you know, keep scheduling out so I'm not getting to that point where I'm having to think about the day or what I am going to do today. I'd say it causes me less burnout because I don't have to think about what I'm going to do.

Probably at home, in my room, on my bean bag. I really like that bean bag. I think it might have been from Costco. A while ago, I was going to have some kind of occasion in my basement at my old house. We wanted some more furniture down there because it's just a barren room. So we bought it, and I liked it so much that I took it to my room. It's very old by now, but still very comfortable. Sometimes, when I hang out with my best friend, we'll just sit there and watch YouTube. It's really comfortable because we get to just sit there. I think it's also an emotional comfort because it's trustworthy to me. If I'm sewing or something, I'll put a needle down and I'm not, like, "Oh no, I can't taint it." It's not delicate, it's a safe space.

CONSTANT

Liriel Lane Junior

“

Just like being at home with my cats, Murphin and Murphy, and my sister. My mom really liked the name Murphin because of the road, and we got two cats so we just made a girl version. We used to live near Murphin Lane. My cats are eight now, but I still remember when they were kittens. I just love that they're always there, especially when they're just laying on me. It's nice. Although sometimes we do have to put them on a diet. Sometimes you can get too many treats. They're like, mostly inside cats, but sometimes, if I'm hanging out in the backyard, they'll come out.

Maggie Beeson Senior

“

I find a lot of comfort in hanging out with my friends, and I'm thankful that I was able to find them, even if it wasn't the entire high school that I spent with them. I'm really happy I found my people. I think the thing about Community is everyone knows each other at least a little bit. I thought that by transferring in I wouldn’t be able to find friends, that I was gonna be alone and not know anyone, but when I first transferred, I knew at least five people in all my classes, people I knew from middle school. That's kind of the weird thing about Ann Arbor, everyone knows each other at least a little bit, and there are a ton of people who are easy to meet. So it was just nice, because I could talk to anyone, and anyone would talk to me. I'm going to miss this place.

THE COMMUNICATOR

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The Communicator www.chscommunicator.com

N E W S

O P I N I O N

A & E

F E A T U R E

CONSTANT

From Soup to Sourdough

BY MAGGIE LAMB, ADDIE MCCREADIE AND AVA GRIFFITH

Maggie Lamb "One of my biggest inspirations in life is my great-aunt. Every summer, my family would go up north to her lake house and spend a week with her. The first thing she would make for us upon our arrival was always her broccoli cheddar soup. Walking through the front door and instantly being hit with the smell of warm, cheesy soup is one of my most comforting memories."

Soup Recipe

Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

Ingredients:

2 14.5 oz. cans of chicken broth 2-3 large carrots, peeled and diced 4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed into small pieces 1 tsp. onion powder 2 small heads of broccoli, washed and diced small 3 tbs butter ⅓ cup flour 3½ - 4 cups milk 4 cups shredded cheddar cheese 1 tsp. salt ½ tsp. garlic pepper 6 slices of turkey bacon, cooked and chopped

Recipe: Ava Griffith "Bread has always been one of my favorite foods. Whether paired with warm soup or a layer of fruity jam, it has been an easy and versatile staple.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, my dad learned how to make sourdough from scratch. Each Sunday morning, our kitchen was filled with its soft scent, and I couldn’t imagine a sweeter start to my days."

1. In a large pot, combine ingredients through onion powder.

2. Bring to a boil, cover and let simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Add broccoli, cover and let simmer for an additional 10 minutes. While soup simmers, melt butter in a saucepan.

5. Whisk in the flour and cook for another minute or until golden brown.

6. Whisk in milk and cook for additional five minutes until the sauce thickens.

7. Add cheese and stir until melted. Add salt and garlic pepper.

8. Pour cheese sauce into soup pot, and stir until well combined.

9. Add more milk for a thinner consistency, and add additional salt and pepper if needed.

10. Top with turkey bacon pieces. Serve warm.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ADDIE MCCREADIE

1000g flour (80/20 bread flour/whole wheat) 800g water (80 degrees Fahrenheit) 200g starter 20g salt

Recipe:

1. Activate the starter and store at 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Mix all the flour and 750g of water four hours later.

3. After one hour of letting mixture rest, add starter and 25g water. Mix and let sit for an additional 30 minutes.

4. Mix and add salt and 25g water. Hand mix and knead for five minutes.

5. Put dough into a bowl with a cloth covering and folds five times every 30 minutes.

6. Shape loaf into batches, let rest for 30 minutes.

7. Let loaf chill in the fridge overnight.

8. The next morning, preheat Dutch oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

9. Bake for 23 minutes with the lid on and 20 minutes with the lid off. Let the bread sit for a couple hours, then cut into it and enjoy!

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Our Turn Staff members talk about finding comfort.

BY AMELIA SANDSTROM

Luca Hinesman

“I’ve watched movies for forever. Going to the movie theater was always a big, special event for me. I really like the act of going somewhere and everyone getting together to watch one piece of media. I think the movies I find the most comfort in are movies I would watch a lot when I was younger, specifically 2000s movies. I found a lot of comfort in Disney Channel movies. Me and my siblings would learn the choreography, dance and sing. “Parent Trap” is such a go-to, I love it. I would watch “Night at the Museum” with my grandparents, which was always fun. I find a lot of comfort in that. Not only was it simpler times, but it was also carefree.

Growing older, I dove into certain directors, found what I liked about their directing style and learned about cinematography.

Now that I’ve started acting at Community with CET, it’s fun to be able to watch people on screen and acknowledge their acting.”

Eddie Mobilio Breck “Art can be relaxing, but it can also be frustrating. For me, there’s comfort in knowing that I’m getting better at something, even if I don’t like how the one little piece turns out, it’s like a puzzle, because every piece you put together, it makes more of the entire thing, and you get better. The pieces are easier to find, where to put, until it becomes this giant thing of beauty. When I do art, it’s mainly on my own time, and it makes me feel like I can actually do what I want to with myself. And it’s not affecting other people, because it’s just me and my own space, my own materials. It’s very freeing.”

Paige Plavnick “The first thing that pops into my head when I think of comfort is what I do when I’m feeling upset. But I don’t think that that’s all of what comfort is for. So, it’s like, “What else do I find comfort in?” And I guess I would say the pancakes that I have every Sunday, the baby blankets that I sleep with, drinking hot chocolate with my little sister while watching Christmas movies. Just the little things like that. More of that is what I actually find comfort in. I feel like that would be more of when I’m feeling sad or frustrated.

Obviously, I find comfort in my friends and like spending time with them, even when I’m not sad or frustrated. For me, there’s comfort food, my blankets, comfort people. I guess there’s a lot of different aspects.”

ARE YOU COMFORTABLE? ARE YOU COMFORTABLE? ARE YOU COMFORTABLE? ARE YOU COMFORTABLE?