The Featheralist: Volume 01, Issue 03

003: BALANCE

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T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

The Political and Literary Magazine of

Del Norte High School 16601 Nighthawk Lane, San Diego, CA 92127 We’d love to hear from you! dnhshumanities@gmail.com Visit our website! https://dnhshumanities.wixsite.com/thefeatheralist

by Manasvi Vora

scared generation. only we’re not as scared as everyone else because don’t forget- we were born into this. we grew up on stories of tragedy but even worse, we grew up on knowing that some of us would be hated for just existing. and we’ve never been proven wrong. you can say it was worse for you, you can say we were born with rights your generation never had. you’re right. of course we’ve never fought for a war or in a war or against a war. and you might be right. it’s been a lot worse in the past. but that doesn’t mean we can’t say anything about our future. the problem is, better doesn’t mean best and i’d rather be stabbed than shot but neither is a good choice. so our generation is out of balance - and its only getting worse.

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opening

we are the post 9-11 generation. and because of that. we are the no liquid containers over 3.4 ounces generation, we are the randomly selected for additional screening generation, we are the take your

if you were born in 2001 or after, america has been at war your whole life. surprise (is it really?). if you were born in 2001 or after, america has been at war with itself too. we are the school shooting generation where our safety is a political issue. clear backpacks and not gun control. even we know this isn’t going to save us. we are the generation where in twenty one weeks of twenty eighteen we had twenty three school shootings. and our government is too busy arguing with each other to prioritize our lives over the money they are being paid. we are the generation where we don’t know what to believe but we know we have to pick a side. we are the generation that has to start taking it into their own hands. we are the generation

we’ve grown up too early. been exposed to so much hurt so soon. there is not a day that goes by that i don’t hear someone say “quick, kill me”, or “ready to die” or even a “maybe if i just stop living now i don’t have to deal with this”. now if you’re part of our generation

everything. my generation is so so so tired. our depression and anxiety rates are rising, haven’t you heard? so maybe we all do really want to die but we just want to get into college a little more. our generation is out of balance. chasing after the next thing the next class the next ap score the next sat the next college the next job the next the next the next. tripping over our own hopes and dreams on the way to something more. we don’t even have time to sleep. we do homework through lunch and life is hard. nice generic statement, you say. life is hard for everyone, you aren't special, you say. okay maybe us del norte kids with mostly multimillion dollar homes and food to eat every night might not always think life is hard. but us del norte kids with our constant battle for that gpa and varsity team and internship and homework and friendships and parents and college and happiness and maybe sleep if we remember? life is hard. you already feel it, don’t you? but we’re not the only ones by any means. our whole generation is out of balance. and it’s only getting worse.

people make it and don’t look back. and some people just watch the rest tumble down. (we already know that some just let go) so our generation is broken. we are out of balance. we don’t know what we’re doing or even why we want to. deep down we’re all so scared to lose it or lose or not be someone they want us to be. so so many of us don’t care about our health or ourselves or our hearts anymore. life is hard. and at this point i’m just hoping we haven’t given up.

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POLITICAL

05 07 09 11 13 17

interview - principal schultz

by Ayesha Aslam-Mir and Featheralist Officers

interview - mike levin

by Nora Mousa and Skyler Wu

u.s. involvement

by Marco Villanueva and Andrew De La Pena

john mccain - looking back

by Andrew Wang

the new age of electronics

by Cadence Schiffer

eu articles 11 and 13

by Manseej Khatri

CREATIVE

18 21 23 03

the death of school orchestras

by Ken Zhou

double-edged

by Kane Xu

uncertainty

by Kayley Tung

bronchitis and a jade necklace

by Angela Chen

bygone youth

by Ellie Feng

the dangers of 6 (sneak preview)

by Bella Chong

something resembling humor

by Phoenix Dimagiba

duck syndrome

by Varsha Boudepudi

take five

by Isabel Shih

sacrifice

by Manasvi Vora

balance

by Danica Chen

24 25 27 29 30 31 33 35

wrap - up closing

by Ayesha Aslam-Mir

about the contributors + credits

by the Featheralist Writers

words of

encouragement

busy, busy, busy the world feels like chaos but even in chaos, there is some serene beauty

It’s only been a few months since the start of school, yet all of our schedules already seem so jam-packed, whether it’s finishing up SATs, or worrying about balancing grades and social life. Here’s a friendly reminder to everyone struggling under stress: others’ stress does not invalidate your own. Just because somebody else may have circumstances that “bypass” yours in terms of difficulty and pressure, it does not make your own situation any less valid. I’ll say it louder for the people in the back: the stress of others does not invalidate your own.

When dealing with stress, remember that feeling overwhelmed is normal. I like to believe that everything happens for a reason, so take a deep breath and close your eyes. Genuinely, in the end, everything will be okay. If it is not okay, it is not the end. And maybe, you just need to scream. It helps.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week, and cheers to the rest of a wonderful school year!

Sending love, A fellow student (Andrea Baek)

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T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

interview principal schultz Conducted by Ayesha Aslam-Mir and other Featheralist Officers

“How would you introduce yourself to the students of Del Norte, not in the announcements, but just how you want us [students] to know you meeting you in person?”

I think what I’m really interested in all of you knowing is that I'm interested in getting to know all of [the students]. First and foremost, I want to come in and learn the culture and ways of Del Norte. It’s an amazing school… The idea of including each and every student and what it means to be a nighthawk is really important for me to continue. Very powerful for you as students to come onto a campus that you feel safe, that you feel secure in not only being a student but learning and developing and becoming a person. I’m here to ensure and make sure to help all of you to have an opportunity to be successful in whatever it is you want to do.

I hope that over the course of my time here we can continue to develop the idea of students being innovative and looking at different ways to solve unique problems that you’re going to have to because that's really what education needs to be is giving you tools in your toolbelt that are going to allow you to unlock and solve the problems that you’re going to unlock and solve when you leave this place and some of that is going to be difficult. I want to learn from you guys because you guys have unique perspectives and voices that are part of the story and need to be heard.I’ll work to include and include everybody’s voice in all the decisions we make. It's going to benefit all of you, and that’s why I’m here.

“You mentioned school culture. What are your goals for that? How will you help strengthen our school culture, especially since we are a moderately new school?”

You know, with the foundation that’s already been established, and that idea of inclusivity is something I keep hearing and seeing as I walk around campus, and look at all the mottos and credos. I hope that those are the norms and morals of this place and if they’re not then we have to ask ourselves why because that’s what this school is built on and how to get back to those if that’s not the case. I think Del Norte is unique in that in a very short period of time (this is the tenth year) this place has built itself into a powerhouse.

One of the challenges that I’m going to propose to the upperclassmen is how do we continue plug in those below you so that they become a part of the nest. Ultimately, what we are is a community, and a family, and we’re going to love one another, we’re going to get upset at each other, and that’s what families do. At the end of the day I want all of us to understand that we’re all here for eachother and something that you’ll hear me say constantly is if we can be anything let’s make sure we are kind to one another.

“You used to be at Bonita Vista. Bonita Vista has been around for a very long time. We’ve been around for only ten years. We still have a new school culture, while at Bonita Vista a kid’s parents might’ve went to the same school. During your tenure as principal, how do you plan to specifically transition us from that “new school” identity to that of an older school?”

Part of that comes from me being a social scientist; I was a history 05

“On a more pressing tone, following the Parkland shooting, a lot of activist unions cropped up at Del Norte, mainly Nighthawk Activists United, but also some other organizations like the LGBT Alliance. We also have the environmental club and [others] like that.

We’re just wondering: do you think that a high school benefits from having such organizations on campus and what is your ideal method to deal with outspoken partisan organizations at our school?”

I think that any student having an opportunity to express their voice is teaching and learning how to become an adult. I really think that’s what high school’s all about. Here’s where you’re going to shape your perceptions about the world, you’re gonna carry with you for a lot of years to come. That’s gonna change over time but this is a safe, confined kinda place that u get the opportunity to develop a voice and learn what works and doesn't work and i think it's our job as an institution to keep it a safe place and as long as the dialogue is safe and we aren’t being malicious to others and we’re looking to include everybody in what we’re doing, then we’re on the right track.

“In your mind, how does a student body interweave academics, social life, athletics and politics so it makes a good balance at our school? ” That’s the tricky part, the million dollar question; we get wrapped up in believing school is an ends to a mean whereas school is a process in becoming a human being and ultimately each one of you is gonna find a college that's right for you, rn everyone wants to go to harvard princeton yale standard, but that's not the reality.

We can call ourselves intelligent ppl and be very scientific and still have irrational thoughts about what is reality… very few people can go to those colleges but that doesn't mean there aren't other places out there that aren't equally as good. Ultimately we're all

gonna find where we’re supposed to be. Its difficult coming to terms with that.

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teacher, and I think we really have to always be grounded in our history, and we’re developing that history as we progress through the years, and, again, the way that I see it, a very strong image, a very strong foundation has been built at Del Norte: the idea of, again, nobody sits alone. We include everybody, each and every student is included in all that we do, in all the decisions that we make. If you see a student that’s alone you go out and you meet them, and you say hello to them. The idea of Link Crew, for example, is again a really important component, I think, for plugging in and helping to develop that culture. So ultimately just continuing to build on that foundation that’s been set, and over time you develop those traditions, and I think at our ten year point in time, which is young for a school, we have the opportunity to ask ourselves “Is the mission of Del Norte still the mission? If it isn’t then what does that mission look like?” Again, I want to bring students into that picture and really give you guys the opportunity to shape what legacy you want to leave here.

“We have a lot of student run organizations on campus.

How far is too far?“ When we’re hurting people. When people aren’t included, we aren’t feeling safe, we’re talking maliciously about one group or another group.

“What’s your previous experience with this?”

Parkland has been a touchpoint nationwide. It’s a much bigger issue at high schools so I think it’s more relevant. Last year I was at a middle school and many students wanted to show their support (I liked the fact) and what I said to groups of students that wanna do something and I’m all for that but I want us to do something with a purpose, not just to do something. I wanted us to follow the intended purpose, which was to show support.

“You’ve taken a position as head of the Nest and now have to chance to inspire thousands of students you have yet to meet. What are your plans for helping students stay college ready future focused and globally aware? ” To listen to all of you, to observe, to ask questions. That’s our mission statement --globally aware, future focused-- and I get the opportunity to ask “is this really who we are?” is this who we are ten years later or are we something different? That's a great mission statement, thats something thats very powerful in the way that it's worded, that's what mission statements are supposed to do. I get the opportunity to ask all of you is this who we really are? Is that was defines what it means to bean a nighthawk? It's a great mission to inspire to. In a short period of time its allowed del norte to become a powerhouse. We have that opportunity because we now have 700 ninth graders walking in. we have the opportunity to inspire them to rise to the challenge. We can look at ourselves internally and be retrospective. How can we be even better?

“Obviously high schoolers have a much more refined and developed taste than some of our middle schoolers. If you were to add one thing to the cafeteria school menu, what would it be?”

Ribeye. I'm a meat and potatoes guy. Medium Rare. For dessert, tiramisu.

“What sport would you play on campus if you were a student?”

Water polo, I played it when I was younger.

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T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

interview Representing Us at the National Level

mike levin

With intense excitement surrounding the results of the 2018 midterm elections, The Featheralist was extremely fortunate to be granted an interview with our new 49th district Congressman-elect, Mike Levin.

Representative-elect Levin boasts an incredible background as an environmental attorney and we are very excited to see what he will do in Washington next year.

Conducted by Nora Mousa and Skyler Wu “I know that you have a very extensive background as an environmental attorney. What clicked, or spurred you to join politics, especially at the national level?”

Well, I started in politics when I was about your age. I got involved in some local campaigns, and when I went off to college, I got very active in Democratic politics. When I graduated from Duke Law School, I had the opportunity in my twenties to run the Democratic party in Orange County, my home county. My policy expertise has been in clean energy and environmental policy and I felt as though I could help out with that. Then we lost in 2016, literally the next day I was thinking about what I wanted to do and the difference I wanted to make. And my wife and I, had decided, what good are any of our background, education and experience unless we put it to good use and try to serve a cause greater than ourselves? That’s what led to my run for Congress.

“So, given your background as an environmental attorney, what legislation do you plan to draft or push in the House in that area?”

Well, I’m very concerned…It’s very important to know that the EPA didn’t used to be so partisan. In other words, the EPA was created during Nixon’s presidency with overwhelming Republican support. Somewhere along the way, it became a more partisan thing. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We all breathe the same air and we all drink the same water, and we all like going to the beach, no matter if we’re a Democrat or Republican. Unfortunately, a small handful of big oil companies and other special interests have taken over the environmental policies of this administration. And I am very concerned, that the EPA, under Trump, wants to bring back lower safety standards for things like mercury, or asbestos, or lead paint, nerve agent pesticides, or even radiation. Growing up in Southern California, I remember not all that long ago, we had much worse air quality, and that there were days where you couldn’t go outside during recess or lunch because the air quality was poor. I don’t want to go back to those days, and I don’t think you want to go 07

back to them either. So I will fight to maintain a cleaner environment, and I am honored that I am endorsed by a lot of the environmental organizations. It’s really important to me that we have a Congress that is focused on keeping our air and water quality clean and safe.

“With the US recently backing out the Paris Climate Accord, how do you view international climate agreements and their effects on industry and trade?”

That’s an excellent question. I thought it was a very poor decision for us to leave the Paris Climate Accord. I strongly support the United States taking a position of global leadership regarding climate change. The overwhelming scientific consensus is that climate change is occurring, and that man is contributing a big deal to it, and we as humans better reduce our carbon emissions footprint or we’re going to damage the planet beyond repair. The signal that the United States sends to the rest of the world is very important, but the signal that President Trump’s administration sends is that “those countries who want to clean up those greenhouse gas emissions, you’re on your own, and the United States is not going to lead anymore.” I would argue that we have gone from a leader to a laughingstock as it pertains to climate change. We’ve got to go back to global leadership. Again, I would be hopeful that I would be part of the solution.

“What are some pieces of Republican legislation that you would be possibly willing to support?”

There are a lot of things that should not be so partisan. One of them is infrastructure. There is no reason why we cannot pass a really robust federal infrastructure package. We put thousands and thousands of people in our local community to work building roads and bridges and the electric grid of the future, telecommunications infrastructure of the future—all of that should not be partisan. We all benefit from it and it would create great local economic growth for us as well. And, if you recall, this President

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“We all breathe the same air and we all drink the same water, and we all like going to the beach, no matter if we’re a Democrat or Republican.”

ity where they want the laws of other states to apply to San Diego.

I don’t think that’s right and I don’t think that’s what we need. And we’ve got to stop this ridiculous discussion about arming teachers; I am honored that the California Teachers [Association] has endorsed our campaign. They don’t need to be responsible for arming themselves and keeping the schools safe; they need to teach students. That’s what their focus needs to be. I’m also honored that we’ve been endorsed by Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action, and Giffords.

Still on the theme of issues pertaining to students, what role do you think the federal government should play in public education, especially regarding precedents set by No Child Left Behind and the Common Core? Where do you think the line should be drawn between State and Federal control?

Well, both are obviously important-- the state’s control of funding as well as the federal government setting the policy priorities. I am a huge advocate for public education and public schools, and I always want to promote and protect our teachers and our students in our great public schools. I worry that Betsy DeVos doesn’t believe the same way in public schools-- she wants to privatize the public education system and make it more of a profit based system. I think that our students and our teachers need to come before profits. To ensure this, I will work closely with the California Teachers Association and our great local school boards, many of which have endorsed me. I am a huge proponent for our schools and I also care about keeping the cost of education reasonable for college students, community college students, and those doing vocational programs; I want to make sure that you don’t graduate with a mountain of debt and that you don’t have interest rates that are so high that you can never pay off those loans. I want to make sure that when you graduate, whether it be from a community college or a college or a vocational program, that you can go and pursue the career path of your dreams, rather than one that you have to pursue because you have to make ends meet.

and this Republican Congress has talked a lot about an infrastructure bill, but they haven’t got anything passed. I want to see if we can all work together to get something done.

“At Del Norte we have a very activism oriented student body with groups like Nighthawk Activists united. A lot of these groups came about after the Parkland shooting in order to advocate for school safety. But of course, as you know, San Diego and Orange County are some of the more conservative areas of our state with many in support of the Second Amendment. What would be your ideal direction for comprehensive form that reconciles these two interests? ” Well, I think you need members of Congress who will stand up and fight for common sense gun violence prevention and gun safety. I would support a ban on military style assault weapons and high capacity magazines. I would support fully funding research into gun violence prevention for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I would support an end to the concealed carry reciproc-

As a freshman representative, what committees or sub-committees could you see yourself being a part of ?

We recognize that it is by appointment but where do you think you could be most effective?

Well, you’re right, you don’t get to call your shots, but Energy and Commerce are great committees. However, you don’t get to serve on such committees as a freshman. So your choices are somewhat limited. But I would like to serve on Transportation and Infrastructure as we were just talking about the importance of infrastructure.

I think that given my background in clean energy, I could be a good fit for that committee given the need to modernize our electric grid.

Just the same, Veterans Affairs would be great given that we’ve got Camp Pendleton in our district, one of the largest Marine bases in the country, and we’ve got so many great Veterans that have served and so many active duty men and women. Also, Natural Resources would be a great fit because of my environmental background. So those are three that I would mention. Of course, Energy and Commerce as well as the House Intelligence Committee do not allow freshman representatives to serve, but if they ever made an exception, I would be more than willing.

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T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

u.s. involvement: north korea

by Marco Villanueva Some staff here at Del Norte may be able to think back to January of 2002, when we were under the leadership of President George W. Bush and tensions with the Hermit Nation (North Korea) were at an all time high. The United States declared North Korea part of the Axis of Evil alongside Iran and Iraq. Later that year in June, North and South Korean naval vessels engaged in a naval battle in which thirty sailors from both sides were killed. You might think that’s it.... but it’s not. In December of 2002 and leading up to January of 2003, North Korea expelled UN inspectors, withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and as if not enough, announced that it was developing nuclear weapons, citing U.S. aggression as its cause. These actions stunned the western world, and quickly prompted waves of condemnations and threats. The world was sure that no country could be brazen enough to do this, yet right before their eyes stood a shining example. What was there to do?

Fast forward to December of 2015, when North Korea claimed that it had detonated its first hydrogen bomb (to the skepticism of experts). Since 2006, the United Nations Security Council made North Korea the subject of sixteen different resolutions, ranging from human rights abuses to their reckless use of nuclear technology. In the coming years, the European Union, the UN General Assembly, and scores of other nations including the US smashed North Korea with multitudes of sanctions. In 2016, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. Expect a turn around?

It didn't happen. In July of 2017, North Korea conducted a missile test over the Sea of Japan, sparking mass panic on the Japanese islands. However, the repercussions were much larger. Experts believe that the missile fired into the sea was capable of reaching Alaska, therefore capable of endangering the United States. Yet again the state flexed its power two months later in August: North Korea threatened to fire a nuclear warhead at the U.S. territory of Guam, after President Trump’s “social media outburst’.

The President had also threatened to destroy North Korea with “fire and fury” if Kim Jong Un did not cease his provocations. In October of 2017, the USS Ronald Reagan, USS Theodore Roosevelt, and the USS Nimitz (all

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aircraft carriers) were accompanied by a strong cruiser/destroyer escort deployed to the Western pacific as a show of force against the rogue nation. Asia seemed to be entering a free fall of turmoil and, and no one person or organization seemed poised to stop it.

But in January of 2018, North Korea turned a new leaf. In a move that shocked the world, Kim Jong Un and President Trump as well as South Korean President Moon Jae In agreed there was a need for peace, for mutual prosperity in the region. For the first time in several years, talks began between the two rival nations and the United States began. In February of 2018, South Korea and North Korea participated in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics as one unified country in a historic moment for the rival nations. And in April, the leaders of both countries, technically still at war with each other (since an official treaty had not been signed after the Korean War), met in Panmunjom. In the first summit of North-South leaders since 2007, President Moon Jae-In of South Korea and Kim Jong Un of North Korea shook hands and conducted peace talks. In their meeting, they mostly focused on the denuclearization of the Korean Península. In June North Korea continued its peace initiative by agreeing to an epochal meeting with President Donald Trump, mostly centered on the denuclearization of the Korean Península and, according to the agreement signed by the two leaders, “promotion of peace, prosperity, and security of the Korean Peninsula and of the world.”

Relations with North Korea have advanced far more than we could have ever imagined only a few years ago. But the United States and the world still has mounds of work to do. And hundreds of questions remain unanswered. Will North Korea abide with the agreement they signed? Will the US continue its efforts towards peace and prosperity on the Korean península even after the November midterm elections? We have avoided war. We have smashed the imperialistic dreams of North Korea. But it is up to us, the public, to decide: Are we ready for a unified Korea? Can we even depend on Kim Jong Un to continue his peace program? That, in another issue of The Featheralist.

by Andrew De La Pena Afghanistan: a country you may have heard of in the news. The U.S has been involved in a war in Afghanistan for 17 years. That is the longest America has ever been at war. So why are we at war with a country across the globe? The war’s origins root in the attacks on September 11th 2001. The tragic deaths of almost 3,000 sparked President George W. Bush’s War on Terror. The goal of this conquest was to strike back on the perpetrators of the attacks, Al Qaeda and their allies. Very few thought that the War on Terror would lead to the longest conflict in U.S History. However, according to the Department of Defense, the death of 2,304 U.S soldiers.

costing American taxpayers 45 billion dollars a year. Another reason is that America and its NATO allies have no chance of victory. Global superpowers have waged war in Afghanistan and failed. The best example of this is when the U.S.S.R invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and ended up fighting a ten-year war. Their loss in Afghanistan contributed to the demise of the Soviet Union.

It is also highly unlikely that the Taliban will give up. The Taliban, like what Americans faced in Vietnam, is not a grand army. They use hit and run tactics, instilling fear into the populous. They want to wear down the Americans until they give up.

The war in Afghanistan has included three U.S Presidents: George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and current president Donald Trump. All have handled the war in different ways. Bush, the one who started the war, wanted to defeat the terrorists in Afghanistan and establish a democratic state that respects its people and can govern its territory effectively. He also wanted Afghanistan to become a reliable ally that could help the American troops fight the War on Terrorism. Former President Barack Obama wanted to end U.S involvement by the end of his presidency, but also make Afghanistan safe from extremists. Obama described the war as a “War we have to win”. He soon realized that he could not end this war, and stopped the withdrawal of American soldiers. During his presidency, America ended their combat mission, Enduring Freedom. This allows the Afghan army perform the bulk of the work. Ending the combat mission now allows Americans to train Afghan soldiers, and lower engagement of the Taliban. Our current president, Donald Trump, has taken a more aggressive approach by increasing American air strikes and increased troop deployment.

“The biggest issue with the war is that it is an economic drain. Military supplies do not grow on trees.”

Now we can get to the true question: Should the U.S keep fighting in Afghanistan? First, let’s look at why not. The biggest issue with the war is that it is an economic drain. Military supplies do not grow on trees. It costs money to maintain a strong military force.

One American M1 Abram tank costs 8.92 million dollars, the unit cost for an m4 carbine is around 700 dollars, and one F-15 strike eagle is 31.1 million dollars. The sooner America ends its involvement in Afghanistan, the sooner American taxpayers are relieved.

It is estimated by the Pentagon that each year in Afghanistan is

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u.s. involvement: afghanistan

Second, why should America continue to support the Afghan government and their fight against the Taliban? Afghanistan is still very corrupt and disorganized. The Afghan government is still filled with major corruption, and the threat of terrorism is still alive.

If America wants to eliminate terrorism as a major threat, Afghanistan is the place to start. Many believe America and NATO need to end major Afghan corruption and build a strong functional Afghan army before they exit.

So what should the U.S military do? The U.S should exit Afghanistan as soon as possible. Afghanistan has costed America as much as the Second World War. It’s highly unlikely that the Taliban will reach a political agreement. The war is equivalent to an endless money pit. In an a 2012 interview, former Secretary of defense Robert M. Gates said, “If Iraq and Afghanistan have taught us anything in recent history, it is the unpredictability of war and that these things are easier to get into than to get out…” America went into confident in making Afghanistan a better place, but it now has become a war based on pride. The U.S government doesn't want another embarrassment like Vietnam. Afghanistan has contributed to the collapse of one global superpower. Will our beloved America be next?

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T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

senator john mccain

by Andrew Wang On August 25, 2018, America lost a hero. John McCain, former soldier and longtime senator of Arizona, was dead. His passing sombered our nation: thousands of people mourned, flew flags at half mast, and lined the road to his funeral. However, opinions on the senator still remain divided. Many only remember Sen. McCain as a runner-up -- the man who lost to Obama -- or the fiery defender of the Ghazala family in the 2016 election.

Some saw Sen. McCain as a reformed politician, a resolute defender of our freedoms, and most importantly, a man who inspired change. But regardless of whether one believes his political successes outweighed his failures, it is indisputable that John McCain has left a lasting mark on our country.

On August 29, 1936, John Sidney McCain III was born to John and Roberta McCain. From the beginning he seemed to be destined for a military career, as his father was a decorated navy admiral. McCain would later join the Annapolis Naval Academy in 1954, where he soon garnered a reputation as a troublemaker, becoming a member of the “Century Club” (students who received 100 or more demerits) each year. In 1958, John McCain graduated from the Naval Academy fifth -- from the bottom of his class. Surprisingly, he graduated from flight school only two years later in 1960. But McCain couldn’t just bring his career to such an anticlimactic end. Little did he know that the future would hold one of the most inspiring and well-publicized Vietnam War survival stories ever.

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After rapidly climbing through the military ranks, McCain’s career seemed to take a brief moment of respite. However, McCain was about to embark on a mission that would change his life. On October 26, 1967, during a raid on a North Vietnamese power plant, McCain was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. He hit the water with three broken limbs and was promptly beaten and thrown into Hỏa Lò, a torture center and prison for North Vietnamese prisoners of war known to the Americans as the “Hanoi Hilton”. Later, when his jailors found out that his father was an important military figure, he was offered an opportunity to be released for propaganda. McCain valiantly refused, stating that he would only agree to be released if every other American soldier captured before him was released first.

McCain endured five and a half years of abuse until he was finally released in 1973, and his survival story received extensive media coverage. For his efforts, he also received the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Distinguished Flying Cross awards. But after his time in Hỏa Lò, his physical condition had deteriorated to the point where further military service was not possible. Thus began his introduction into politics.

McCain’s public image was in shambles, but he did not waste any time licking his wounds, and immediately launched himself into a new cause: forging a path of economic reform. His efforts were wildly successful, winning him reelection to the Senate two terms in a row. He also partnered with Democrat Russ Feingold to help pass one of his most important pieces of legislation, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which limited the use of money not regulated by the federal government (“soft money”) to fund advertising in political campaigns.

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By the time of his graduation from flight school, the Vietnam War was already underway. In 1966, McCain boldly volunteered for combat on the front lines, eventually finding his way into a position piloting carrier-based attack planes. McCain was soon pushed into Operation Rolling Thunder, a bombing campaign enacted by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, and his skills saw him quickly rising to the rank of lieutenant commander in early 1967.

McCain also developed a reputation as a “maverick” who occasionally went against the agenda of the Republican party. Despite many Republicans being conservative in their political views, McCain was unafraid to fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, advocate for affordable healthcare, and a plethora of other issues. In addition, he advocated, albeit unsuccessfully, for a federal tax on tobacco products to reduce smoking. During the historic 2008 election where Barack Obama was elected president, John McCain famously defended Obama from a critic who called him “Arab,” stating: “He’s a decent family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what this campaign is all about.” McCain’s defense of Obama surprised America and most definitely caused tension within the Republican party, but his bravery was appreciated by Obama and citizens nationwide. Furthermore, during the 2016 election, when Donald Trump made racist remarks about the Ghazala family, whose son had died fighting for America in the Iraq War, McCain immediately came to their defense.

McCain developed a reputation as a

“maverick” who occasionally went against the agenda of the Republican party.

In 1976, John McCain was assigned to be the Navy’s liaison to the Senate.

Before long, he had been elected to the House of Representatives twice (1982, 1984) and was about to serve his first Senate term starting in 1986. However, John McCain would soon get caught up in his most famous scandal: the supposed bribery of the “Keating Five.” The story began with Charles Keating, Jr. and his attempts to save the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association.

After Keating was suspected of surpassing the cap set for volatile investments, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) launched an investigation and found that Lincoln had surpassed the cap by almost $615 million dollars. Five senators, including McCain, came to his defense and requested that charges not be pressed mainly because Lincoln was a major employer in each of the states they represented. Later another investigation would be launched against each of the senators to investigate whether they were “improperly intervening with a regulator to protect a campaign contributor” because it was found that Keating had funded each of the senators’ campaigns, and was even a close friend of McCain’s. Although John McCain came out of the cause with few legal repercussions, his reputation had taken a significant hit.

One 1989 Phoenix New Times article describes McCain as “the most reprehensible” out of all of the Keating Five, a “sociopath” who could tell lies with a straight face.

However, McCain’s career was about to come to an untimely close. In mid-2017, he was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an extremely malignant form of brain cancer. McCain, however, was unfazed. Despite his worsening condition, he appeared in the Senate on July 28, 2018 to vote with the Democrats against the repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as “Obamacare.” Together with fellow Republicans Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, they were narrowly successful in blocking the repeal with a vote of 51-49 against the repeal. It was McCain’s last action as the maverick of the Republican party. Soon afterwards, Sen. McCain peacefully passed away in his home on August 25, 2018.

In the end, John McCain was not just a war hero. He was not just another senator. He was not just a Republican that dared to stand out. He was all of those, and much, much more. From being a prisoner of war to becoming a presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain showed tremendous courage and dedication that truly proved his passion for politics and love for his country, even when they forced him to take a stand against the party he stood for.

Although he has passed from this world to the next, Sen. McCain has left an irreplaceable legacy of heroism and change that will remain for decades to come.

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T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

THE NEW AGE OF

ELECTRONICS

by Cadence Schiffer

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ISSUE 3, BALANCE

As modern society cruises along in the highly evolving digital age, the dependence on electronic devices grows higher and higher. Everywhere you look, people are talking to each other on phones, texting, listening to music, playing games, and reading emails or ebooks. It seems the options are endless when it comes to using devices, especially when they are now more speedy, more powerful, and more portable than ever. Perhaps the phone or laptop will be the object that collectively defines our century. However, the devices we use every day have a hidden side that is slowly deteriorating our health.

One of the biggest contributors to the deterioration of our health is sleep-deprivation, a common occurrence amongst the majority of our population. The screens from electronics produce blue light, which, while beneficial during the day, lead to sleep-loss and a higher risk of various disease, including, but not limited to, some types of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure, not to mention obesity. In fact, a majority of the issues that come with electronic devices boil down to lack of sleep they cause. Sleep-loss from devices mainly comes from the disruption of the production of melatonin, a hormone that plays a large role in sleep. Although melatonin’s secretion is disrupted by most other forms of light, blue-light takes the biggest toll on it. Sleep is vital to the upkeep and smooth running of the human body. With a lack of it, we develop serious medical issues that seriously harm our lives, which includes both physical and mental problems.

Physically, lack of sleep has been proven to lead to various diseases, not to mention the extreme fatigue we all know too well. According to Harvard University, we can develop but are not limited to“...some types of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity” with lack of sleep. This is due to both fatigue and hormonal changes. Those who are sleep-deprived are clearly more tired, which would lead to decreased motivation to exercise. Not having burned a sufficient amount of calories contributes to weight gain and, in turn, obesity.

Additionally, being awake longer means that there are more opportunities to eat. So, in addition to taking in extra calories, you aren’t burning them off. Another factor leading to increased hunger and appetite, deriving from sleep-deprivation, is the change in the levels of Ghrelin and Leptin, two hormones that control hunger. With sleep deprivation, Ghrelin levels increase and Leptin levels decrease.

Ghrelin controls hunger and appetite as well as promoting fat storage. Leptin, on the other hand, suppresses hunger. (Beccuti and Pannain). Having the levels of these hormones thrown off means that your hunger and appetite will go up as well as a promotion of fat storage. Which, of course, can ultimately lead to obesity. Obesity, in turn, has been shown to lead to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc.

So, in theory, the solution to all these problems would simply be to sleep. Sadly, this is not feasible. Many people have busy schedules, whether they are students or working professionals, that force them

to be up late at night on their devices, doing schoolwork, writing papers, and reading or responding to emails, among other things.

However, there are also who stay up late at night checking social media, playing games, and just goofing around in general. Most think nothing of it, but this behavior is due to the intentionally addictive engineering of leisurely applications on devices. Adam Alter, a New York Times bestselling author, writes about the way our devices captivate humans in his book Irresistible. He mentions games like Candy Crush, Flappy Bird, now removed from app stores due to its addictiveness, and World of Warcraft. These games use specific details in their programming--small “rewards”, called “juice”, like music, color, and upgrades--to hook players into playing their games more and more. The “juice” in these games cause our brains to act in a certain way that, when physically observed, resemble the activity of a brain when a drug addict injects his drug. However, “heroin acts more directly, generating a stronger response than gaming, but the patterns of neurons firing across the brain are almost identical.

‘Drugs and addictive behaviors activate the same reward center in the brain...as long as a behavior is rewarding--if it’s been paired with rewarding outcomes in the past--the brain will treat it the same way it treats a drug’” (Alter 71). This similarity in brain activity boils down to dopamine, a hormone dubbed the “pleasure hormone”. However, dopamine is not only released when we engage in addictive behaviors; it only is released in very high amounts in comparison to a relatively small amount in non-addictive situations. Such a high release is highly addictive, so, in turn, we get addicted to the games that cause such a release of dopamine. Our increased addiction to these games causes us to play them more. Of course, with more people playing their games more often, developers make more money while hurting us in the process. Several times throughout the book, Alter mentions the subjects he interviews attending rehab for their addictions. Many people associate addiction with drugs, alcohol, and the like, but people going to rehab for electronic addiction shows how drastic this type of addiction can be.

Gaming addiction, or addiction to electronics, can push people into disrepair (they don’t take care of themselves and just play the game they are addicted to all day). Electronics also isolate people which is perhaps one of the worst effects of the widespread use of devices.

Humans are social animals. Even though we are “interacting” through the screen, it lacks the emotion we receive from face-to-face interaction. Without constant exposure to real-life interactions, we fall into social isolation, from which depression, social phobia, stress, anxiety, and a number of other mental disorders develop. However, devices are not completely bad. We have gained a wealth of knowledge and the ability to communicate from two corners of the globe with them. But, we just need to be wary of the consequences they also cause.

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T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

I conducted a survey that asked students what their thoughts on devices were and how they thought the gadgets affected them. I first asked how students felt about the general impact of electronic devices on their own lives.

I found it interesting that there was an equal divide between the negative and unsure answers at 14.5% each. I personally relate to the unsure respondents, especially after having writing this piece.

I continued with another general question regarding device usage.

peers were spending 2-3 hours on social media. However, 2 and 3 hours were the next two highest times.

I continued and asked about social media’s impact.

A large 60.0% responded unsure, which is also how I personally feel.

For me, at least, there is not enough research to completely support one side or the other, but there seems to be more research on the drawbacks to devices and specifically social media. But our position on social media, there is going to have to be a lot more research, which has not been conducted yet.

I began asking questions about sleep since I was interested to see how devices really affect the sleep schedules of teens.

It was no surprise to see a large variety in device usage. How much you use a device really depends on your task and, in some sense, impulse control. If you fall into the social media “hole”, you will spend a lot more time on a device than someone else who has better control and doesn’t fall down the “hole”. And just because you don’t have as much control over your desire to use social media doesn’t mean you are weak. Remember, devices are engineered to be addictive, sometimes even as addictive as drugs. So, protect yourself against that addiction and understand your weaknesses and strengths when using devices.

I then began asking more specific questions regarding social media and sleep. I first asked how much time the respondees spent on social media per day.

The results were extremely varied, with a range of 0 to 8 hours.

However, the most amount of time spent on social media was only 1 hour, at 38.2%, which surprised me. My personal view was that my 15

It was no surprise that when I asked how many hours, on average, my respondees got per night, the data was all over the place. It varied from 1 to 10 hours. To whoever it is that gets up to 10 hours of sleep per night, I am insanely jealous. However, the majority of people got 7 hours of sleep.

From this, I wondered how many people’s sleep schedules were affected by their use of social media.

I was not surprised by the results. Reflect on this, and be honest with yourself: how much of your sleep is lost to device/social media use? I won’t be ashamed of it; plenty of my sleep has gone down the drain from getting trapped in the “hole”, whether it may be texting a friend or just scrolling through my Instagram feed. I always assure myself that I just lose track of time and that it won’t happen again, but isn’t

ISSUE 3, BALANCE

that the excuse we all tell ourselves?

However, allow us to continue. There is a clear majority to the number of people that feel their use of devices affect their sleep. So, I wondered how people would rate their attention-span, or how dedicated to a task they were (keep in mind responses were on a scale of 1-10).

Based on the responses to the previous question, I was not too surprised with the results of this question. I, personally, relate to a 6.

To those who rank at a 10, ouch.

I started closing up the survey with a general question.

First off, for this question, I’m glad that people are at least recognizing that they are spending too much time on devices. That’s the first step in making your device usage better for you and your health. With more awareness about the issue, more support and funds will be given to researchers to research electronic devices’ effects on us.

Then, we’ll be able to truly understand how our devices are truly affecting us.

“How much you use a device really depends on your task and, in some sense, impulse control.”

I myself have had many experiences with the drawbacks to using devices. I have lost a good amount of sleep from falling in the “hole” of just surfing the web. It’s created a good amount of stress for me and there are many times where I wonder if my life would be better without devices.

However, I live in the technological age and I can’t seem to escape them, no matter how hard I try. So, I try to regulate my usage as best I can and use methods/tools, such as turning off all notifications, setting a 30-minute timer to remind myself take a break, or using apps like Forest or Moment, to give myself breaks as well as to focus myself on the task-at-hand. Of course, some of these tools have been more effective than others, and I am constantly on the hunt for ways to decrease my device usage.

We need to understand the risks and benefits to everything, especially with electronic devices. They are used in almost everything we do, but without the research to tell us whether they are harming or helping us. Without a true understanding of the consequences, we may very indirectly cause our society’s decline. With a decreased amount of social interaction, we could be headed down a path where society just falls and the human race cracks as a result of its own actions. It will be no one else’s fault other than our own.

So it is also our responsibility to help ourselves. You can start by educating yourself on electronic devices and their effects on human physiology. Understand how the cool tech that surrounds us today may or may not hurt you in the future. There are also plenty of tools to help you track your device usage as well as help your productivity and focus (see above or you can look up some on your own).

Utilize some of the tools a device offers to protect yourself from its consequences, even if there is not enough research to be sure. The future may be unknown, but the least we can do everything is to be prepared for anything that comes our way.

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T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

articles 11 and 13

by Manseej Khatri

Recently, the EU voted in favor for The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, otherwise known as the EU copyright directive or EUCD for short. The new Directive set out to update the 17-year-old copyright regulations to better suit the ever expanding internet. While most of the directive passed through smoothly, Article 11 and Article 13, also known as the “Link Tax” and “Upload Filter”, respectively, were met with more resistance.

Article 11 of the EUCD is designed to promote publishers, giving them the right to ask for a license to share their articles. This means that commercial third party websites that link news articles using the headline as a description now have to pay the publisher for the rights to use that article. This act hits news aggregators such as Google News especially hard, since now a portion of their revenue goes to the publisher. Exaggerated interpretations of the law state that individuals sharing articles will also have to obtain a license to share the article, but fortunately, amendments to the article state that individuals sharing articles for “private and non commercial use” will be exempt from the law. Proponents of the article claim that accepting the EUCD will give fair compensation to publishers. However, opponents of the article claim that these publishers rely on news aggregates. They point to national attempts from countries like Spain and Germany that instituted a similar law however in both cases web traffic to publishing sites dropped drastically since aggregators, like Google News, either refused to share articles that required a licence or were unable to pay the fees and collapsed.

Article 13 of the EUCD is much more controversial. The article states that any “online content sharing site” (social media) will be held liable for copyright infringement occurring on their site. One of the main concerns with the article is that it violates free speech as memes or parodies will be subjected to copyright strikes, but prior laws already place content formats such as memes and parodies under protection. However, there is still the question of feasibility. The simple truth is that there is no technology currently 17

capable of sorting through all the content being uploaded to social media sites without making judgement errors. It is simply impossible to compare uploaded content to an entire database of copyrighted content in a timely and efficient manner and copyright algorithms are notoriously bad (and costly) at determining whether content is in violation of copyright laws. Algorithms and databases also cannot determine the context of content that was uploaded.

For example, imagine that one day someone decides to upload a snippet of a movie to make a reaction gif. While that reaction gif is protected from copyright laws since it is a meme, a computer algorithm or database has no way of determining that. Companies could hire people to manually check uploaded content, but there is frankly too much content being uploaded daily for people to possibly sort through it all.

The simple truth is that there is no technology currently capable of sorting through all the content being uploaded to social media sites without making judgement errors.

Regardless, The EUCD voted to pass the directive on September 12, 2018 and it is expected to pass through the final rounds of voting and begin to be enforced as early as January of 2019. While there is still a chance to block the directive, it is unlikely. Though the vote is to take place in the European Union, American citizens will also be impacted since sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, etc. will be forced to comply to the EUCD if they want to maintain their European user base.

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the death of school

orchestras

by Ken Zhou

Imagine the screeching of a 6th grade orchestra: a cacophony of the young, both new to their instrument and new to the idea of “music�. Imagine a whole horde of eighty kids, packed into chairs, blasting away with their wooden implements of auditory destruction. And please, attempt to imagine the noise, the discordance of 70 children in packed chairs, and the nightmare of it all. Let that scene roll through you. Let it astound you with its claustrophobia, its calamity, and the horror of its sound.

Believe it or not, there actually is potential in such a scene. Potential conditional on the kids sticking to their instruments and practicing. Potential conditional on the kids being passionate and working hard. All of those things you see on an inspirational poster but would never dream of actually doing. Despite the screeches and shrills, I found solace and happiness with a group of faces with whom I would practice with, laugh with, and enjoy music with.

But by the time I reached high school, none of those faces remained.

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T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

I was not born to a lineage of musicians. But like most middle school musicians, I was conditioned to connect with music with college, and college with success. My expectations for myself stemmed from my brother, who had somewhat made a name for himself as a musician. He wasn’t a virtuoso or some prodigious youth born with their head stuck in the butt of a piano—but he practiced. And because he was successful at playing an instrument no one else in the county wanted to play (that instrument being a viola), he somehow landed a spot as the first chair of the county honor orchestra and his school’s AP Orchestra. AP Orchestra. We shall speak of this later. Upon moving here to San Diego in the summer before 6th grade, I immediately joined Oak Valley Middle School’s orchestra to step up to my brother’s legacy as a musician.

Even though he ditched the viola as soon as he entered college, there was a precedent to follow. I wouldn’t—no, I couldn’t be less than him.

By some curious coincidence, all of my newfound friends in California were in Oak Valley’s orchestra. While they were the first chairs of the claustrophobic violins, the inaudible cellos, or dejected violas, training hardcore since elementary school to become the next Yo-Yo Ma’s, I, in contrast, had just happily started on my instrument and sat snugly in the hermitage of the second-to-last chair of the cello section. It was a good time, though, despite my incompetence and the cacophony I had previously described. It was a community. With my friends.

Onward to the 7th grade.

Times changed somehow.

Many started to consider the prospects of high school and that looming foreign language credit requirement. While some of us (the majority of those who stayed) could just wave our AP Chinese waiver around in high school and remain in Orchestra, many others jumped off the Orchestra train to take introductory Spanish courses, to mitigate the impact that god-forbid, 4.0 courses would have on their high school transcripts. Even more, some others jumped ship because their passion for orchestra had disintegrated eons ago.

Most would expect that losing over 25% of your member base would be catastrophic, but what followed was actually liberating.

Yes, I’m being melodramatic. But with the chaff gone, what followed was the best year of middle school orchestra in the history of my time in a middle school orchestra; the 7th grade orchestra was great. My friends—all the star players of their sections, all coincidentally Asian, all very ambitious—were with me through every hour of that two hour class. The top chairs of every section knew just what they were doing and were very good at doing those things.

And I, apparently, had become one of those people when by right of succession (meaning that everyone between me and the front

19

had left) I became second chair of the cello section. Go me.

Enter the 8th grade, that damning year when everyone and their mother realizes the imminence of high school and the college grind and responds accordingly. That ‘everyone’ included my best friend, the first chair cellist of my 7th grade, who, in the interregnum between 7th and 8th grade, had ditched orchestra and joined the ranks of those who wanted to get a head start on their high school language credit. By right of succession, I had become first chair. I tripped into it simply because there was no one older or better, not because I was good. But for all intents and purposes, I had fulfilled the mandate of that unspeaking Asian parent perched on my shoulders. I had ascended to the pinnacle chair. Boldly, with a puerile smile on my face, I could write this on my college apps: “Ken Zhou, 8th Grader and the First Chair of an Orchestra for Babies.”

In the following year, when my grade had finally joined the ranks of the enterprising, depressed GPA-mongering high-schoolers of our day and age, most all of my remaining friends in Orchestra left. I was alone on the first day of Orchestra camp. As I peered around in a sea of unfamiliar faces, all who remained was me. Not gonna lie, it was pretty sad.

But I quickly realized that it wasn’t hard to see why they left. The requirement to being in DNHS’s Orchestra was simply staggering, at least in the wider context of their GPA aspirations. Not to say that it’s unreasonable—after all, an Orchestra needs to have a consistent roster of players for all parts of the year. But a three trimester requirement? Outrageous. Three trimesters of 4.0s per year? Blasphemous. And it took four years in order to make it worth a damn on college apps? Well, you might as well have asked them to shoot themselves and their Ivy dreams in the foot. You couldn’t climb the ivory tower with a cumbersome cello on your back, could you? That was, after all, what they told me I was doing.

The fact of the matter is this: to my friends—who were the best of the best in middle school—joining the high school orchestra just wasn’t worth it. We’ve all heard the mantras about doing what we love and finding some sort of satisfaction at the end of it, but we all know that’s a very idealistic notion in our day and age. We live in an age of GPA-mongering, it’s as simple as that. In an era where each nationality is pitted against their own nationality during the college application process (exacerbated through affirmative action), one needs to be competitive amongst their peers, and minimize the number of 4.0s in their gradebook. To my 5.0-stacking friends who were up against their 5.0-stacking competition, Orchestra would’ve done nothing but bring their GPA down. And they couldn’t afford that. It’s just that simple.

It’s not simple for Orchestras though, oh no—it’s catastrophic.

What happens when the most talented people of an organization

None. That’s the answer to the rhetorical question. There is no point.

I’m not going to say that Orchestra is dying. I’m not going to say that performing arts in general are dying. The passion is still there—just look at any famous youth symphony in our area. But school orchestras are dying. The prestige that schools get from having a good orchestra is disappearing. And most importantly, the musicality—the sheer love for music you get from playing music with your friends; it’s decaying. And that’s sad.

In an era where GPA is everything, the “best of the best” just aren’t afforded any incentive to stay in orchestra anymore. Every year you spend on the music program is another AP you could’ve taken, another 5.0 you could’ve added to your gradebook to boost your GPA by a measly 0.01 that, over 12 trimesters, could’ve added up to 0.12. There is no retention of star players because there is no attempt to retain. Passion is pushed to the side when college is on the line. Moreover, many students simply do not prioritize music or even the arts in general anymore. Unfortunately, they are all too caught up in the flawed notion that the arts are soft, and that the only passions worth developing are those that appear the most lucrative or “hard-core.”

Plano, my hometown, never had this problem. Plano had AP Orchestra.

Yes, you heard me right. Plano incentivized and nurtured its music program not only with an appeal to musical passion, but also with the lure of an “easy” GPA boost contingent solely on pride, practice, and performance.. But that’s not all Plano provided for its music programs; we had school-funded, top-of-the-line private teachers who were available for students on site after school.

day, the music program just feels so neglected by our administration.

As I step into the junior year, I ascend once more to the first chair of the cello section. And I say this: it’s not going to change—any of it. The only way to preserve the longevity of our school orchestra is to accommodate for the GPA rush. We have to make orchestra worth it, even more worth it than an anemic GPA boost. But that GPA boost is only a stop-gap solution. In order to save orchestra in Del Norte, we need to adopt a campus-wide initiative elevating arts as a whole. We need to reverse the tide of nonchalance towards the arts. We need to demonstrate to the Del Norte community that the arts are, for a lack of better words...cool. We need to take that intimate camaraderie in each instrumental section and display it to the whole school. In a sense, in order to save the arts and save orchestra, we have to show it off. Big time. We can do it. So let’s do it. A revival in student interest for music is definitely within reach.

ISSUE 3, BALANCE

leave? Stuff starts going downhill. The prestige of the organization fades. And with that loss of prestige comes with a further loss of a potential influx. What happens to the people, then? The people who ‘wasted’ so much of their time to develop a talent that they would never apply in high school? Well there’s options out there for people who love both music and their GPA: options like MMYO, CYO, SDYS and other out-of-school youth symphonies that won’t introduce a horde of 4.0s into your gradebook. So if you have both a passion and an ambition, what point is there in joining a school orchestra?

I joined orchestra in the 6th grade because I had to owe up to the expectations of my parents. I stayed because I saw my friends everyday in that class, and because I loved making music with them. And when 9th grade hit and everyone was gone, I stayed because I thought that the high school orchestra was an ensemble of geniuses. Because the first two chairs of the cello section were my idols, and the first chair of the viola section was the best sounding viola I had ever heard. I made friends in Del Norte’s orchestra; it bridged a gap between grades for me that would’ve never been bridged if I had been swept up in the GPA rush like the rest of my friends.

Orchestra gave me a reason to make music a part of my life; it conditioned me to spend more than an hour each day on developing my talent and my love for performance. Without it, I’d be spending yet another hour each day locked up in an academic class and bolstering my GPA, just like every other one of my peers that gave up on pursuing their passions in high school. Without it, I’d be worse off, with no refuge away from the academic pressure that pervades our every waking moment these days. I’m glad I stuck with it. I’m happy.

But as the years roll by and golden ages pass and the pinnacles of each section leave with no one to replace them, I feel a profound sadness. Del Norte’s orchestra, so glorious, should not die so quietly.

California cannot be more of a contrast. Here, our school provides a pittance of 6,000 dollars as “funding” for our school’s music program: an amount that’s not even enough to cover our yearly maintenance costs. At the same time, our administration gladly throws 20,000 dollars into the recent gym renovation like it’s nobody’s business. Yes, we have fundraisers, but, at the end of the 20

T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

''It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.''

- Charles Dickens.

double-edged I have always grown up under the mantle of despair. Since my childhood and even to this day, my family has always struggled financially. Because of familial obligations, not only do I have to support my own children, but I also have to send money to my aging parents. Because I lost my job, I currently have no source of income. And because I am just on the verge of collapse, I decided that perhaps it would be therapeutic to go to the flea market.

As I arrive at the local flea market, I am immediately greeted by an employee: “Welcome to the Marketplace!” The smell of the marketplace is always unpredictable: it is a blend of distinct odors, from the salty tang of seafood to the fresh aroma of fruits and vegetables. The air buzzes with vibrant conversations of bustling customers. Kids are running around, kicking a soccer ball and splashing in the dirty mud. Every corner of the marketplace is filled with different stalls and shops, from fancy restaurants to busy barber shops. Unlike the bleak and colorless chore of everyday life, the marketplace is its own microcosm distanced from the stress of the real world. I forget all of my sufferings as I am enveloped in the vibrance of the marketplace.

Buying things in the market is like a scavenger hunt. There are no signs providing directions. The only way to navigate is to ask other people. I love the spontaneous adventures of meeting new people and the ultimate satisfaction of finally finding all the goods I want.

On every trip to the marketplace, I meet up with some of my close friends and engage in friendly conversations. As I went about trying to find my friends, I saw an old man who was selling some small gadgets.

“You look a little bit down. Bad day?”

Without so much as a second thought, the stranger greeted me with a welcoming warmth . As he widened his smile, I noticed that he was missing one of his front teeth. His skin was wrinkled and tanned from years in the sun, and his clothes smelled of old leather.

“Yeah. My life’s going through a rough stage, and, I don’t know…

I’m just feeling overwhelmed. I just lost my job, and the taxes 21

by Kane Xu

won’t pay themselves. When I come home, I don’t even know what to say to my kids...”

I was glad to have someone listen to my pain and hardships, but at the same time, I felt needles of pain and guilt sinking deeper into my heart.

“You’re not alone. I’ve been through tough times. I’ve witnessed many deaths and lost many friends. At one point I stared death straight in his cold, dead eyes. But I believe that with despair comes hope, with hate comes love, and with sadness comes happiness. Here, take this as my gift.”

He took out a small double-edged knife and pressed it into my hands.

“I made this makeshift knife myself back in the trenches of Europe. It saved my life many times throughout the war. When I was captured, I used the blade to cut the ropes I was tied with and barely escaped with my life. This knife gave me hope and strength in a time of grief and despair. I have kept this item close to me ever since. But I am old now, and you still have a long life ahead of you.

Trust me, your life is worth living. So I hope that by taking this knife, you’ll realize that there is still hope. Never forget this: this knife can save a life, but can also take it away just as easily. It all depends on how you use it.”

I graciously took the pocket knife and the old man’s advice, and put it in the back of my pocket. As I left the market, I felt as if I regained a piece of my humanity. I no longer felt the unending misery that held me down. But most of all, I no longer felt the desire to end my life. The pocket knife serves a multitude of purposes, from something as simple as cooking to surgically removing a splinter. Likewise, I found a multitude of purpose in my life.

Perhaps, the old man is right: my life is worth living.

But then I thought back to the old man’s warning. How can this knife harm me? After all, I only use it to benefit me; I would never use it to harm anyone. Nevertheless, I put the thought behind me and carried on with my life.

ISSUE 3, BALANCE

Fifty years later, the invention of artificial intelligence has completely changed the world. For better or for worse, it is hard to say. For the entirety of my life, I have been in pursuit of happiness.

I had it all: money, fame, and power. But despite this, happiness only seemed to move farther and farther out of my grasp.

As I enter the now heavily-secured doors of the Marketplace, I am greeted with an automated voice: “Welcome to the Marketplace!”

But it does not sound the same. The store always has the same plastic smell, the same dull atmosphere, and the same bland products. There are no flecks of dirt, no scattered papers, nothing to disturb the perfect cleanliness of the stores; the entire store is now painted in a dull, homogenized hue of white. It’s funny, actually. The grocery store’s atmosphere matches my mundane life: quiet, dry, and insignificant.

Because of the rapid development of AI, buying things nowadays is very different. With a simple press of a button, a drone can deliver a desired product straight to your service in minutes. I never cease to be amazed by how these new innovations make our lives better and more convenient. After all, how can AI harm us?

But today I thought twice. Does technology really benefit humans in the long run? Is convenience the key to happiness? As I look down the aisle, nobody makes eye contact. Every single eye is glued to an electronic screen, every single ear is plugged with earphones. I glance around at the people standing next to me.

They all had the same stale, melancholy expression on their faces.

Like me, there was not a glimmer of joy on their faces.

There used to be different shops and small stalls set up throughout the marketplace, and I could always strike up a friendly conversation with the shopkeepers. Now, the shopkeepers are all gone.

Since the artificial intelligent revolution, they were all forced out of business and replaced with “superior” AI-powered machines.

Besides robots, there is no one to talk to, no one who will listen to my suffering, no one who will care for me.

spotless and pristine.

“I’m fine,” I answered. But deep inside, I knew that my reply didn’t matter. I knew it was already being inputted into blocks of code, waiting to be calculated and evaluated. I knew that in reality, I was all alone. I longed for the spontaneous adventure of searching for new things to buy. I longed to see kids running around, kicking a soccer ball, or splashing in the mud. Above all, I longed for the compassion and empathy of another human being.

Everytime I visit the marketplace, I search for happiness, but I find none. Artificial intelligence removes the thrill of meeting new people and making new friends. It takes away the satisfaction of finding something new. Going to the market is no longer an escape from the stress of the real world; it is another box to check off my to-do-list.

Who knew artificial intelligence -- the tool that benefited humans in numerous ways -- would contribute to the demise of human civilization? I realize that it is the little moments and details robots cannot replace -- the old man’s missing tooth, the pleasant aroma of the marketplace, the laughter of kids -- that makes living life worthwhile. How I wish the old man from fifty years ago could see the Marketplace now!

I reached into my back pocket and felt the familiar cold of the the double-edged knife. It was the only connection that I had remaining with the past. Frankly, it was the only trace that I had left with my humanity. As I left the market, I felt as if I myself was slowly turning into a robot.

On that day, I did not live to see hope again. Who would have guessed that a pocket knife -- the item that gave me hope and a purpose to live -- was the same item that took it away?

“How are you doing today?” asks one of the robots. The robot’s plastic teeth are crystal white and perfectly shaped, their surfaces 22

T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

i’ve become distant, retracted inside i used to be happy, but now i don’t know sometimes i think i’m the best. i’m the worst. sometimes i think i don’t know anymore. within my small mind a lack of cohesion is easy to find. perception is reality, mistakes make you who you are. but i don’t like my mistakes. but i don’t like who i am. i liked who i was. that is to say, i liked who i was, before. i don’t need your worries concerns or sympathy i just wish that, sometimes, life worked out differently but i know that, sometimes, life doesn’t go perfectly but that’s okay. i have the choice to make life a better one i need to be strong courageous, unwavering to take the first step

uncertainty

by Kayley Tung

and to start anew though life may be a struggle though life may be a lie i’ve got a whole lot ahead of me and in this whole broken world this is a time to heal: here is to life, to all the pain and sorrow. maybe i’ll wake up happier tomorrow.

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ISSUE 3, BALANCE

bronchitis and a

jade necklace

by Angela Chen

Around my neck hangs a small jade stone with a carving of a snake on it. Born in the year of the snake, my grandfather said. He had bought the necklace for ten RMB (a little under two US dollars) from his hometown in China, and when he gave it to me, my mother peered over his shoulder and scoffed. Ten dollars for a jade necklace? It’s a fake for sure. Made of plastic.

Fifteen-year-old me thought it was pretty. Sentimental and aesthetic value over money, right? So fifteen-year-old me wore it every day; a symbol of my heritage, a reminder of my family.

A month later, fifteen-year-old me caught a cold. It started simple enough, but my exhaustion from sophomore year’s sudden increase in academics (cough cough APEC notes cough cough hack wheeze cough) crippled my immune system and left me with bronchitis. Coughing.

Throat grated raw. Lungs stumbling for breath, limbs heavy. When I tried to sleep at night, my coughing would keep me awake for hours.

At school, I had to wear a surgical face mask to prevent from coughing all over my classmates. In desperation, my family fed me Chinese herbal medicines, which helped my lungs but hurt my stomach until I could barely eat. When the doctor finally gave me antibiotics after six months of slowly transforming into a mucus monster, my immune system betrayed me and initiated an allergic reaction instead.

I remember lying down on my bed for hours, unable to force myself up and too tired to do anything but scrutinize my jade necklace. Are you the reason I’m sick? You hang on my chest 24/7, right on the patch of skin above where I feel the most sick. Are you sapping my life force through osmosis? After a quick Google search, I learned that in traditional Chinese feng shui, jade is a symbol of harmony, balance, and healing. The irony, I lamented. Time to lie down some more!

After two weeks of antibiotics, four months of bronchitis, six months of lethargy, and eight months of wearing the face mask for fear of getting sick again, I realized I lost nearly a tenth of my body weight. With this realization, however, came another one: I need to find a balance between pushing myself to reach my goals and taking care of myself. Rather than focusing solely on academics or extracurriculars, I need to give equal attention to my health; only then can I actually achieve other goals.

Whether my jade necklace is plastic or not, whether it brings my life balance or not, I will create balance in my life myself. I will walk this tightrope and overcome whatever problem life throws in my path. This is the only way forward.

Today, I am seventeen. In a few months, I will be leaving the comfortable nest of Del Norte and entering a new stage of life, and I will find myself in new places and new situations, meeting new people and facing new obstacles. It’s scary and unfamiliar and I don’t feel ready. And even though I know that future me will look back fondly and laugh and laugh and laugh at how scared my seventeen-year-old self was, I’m still scared.

But at least I have my necklace with me.

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T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

bygone youth

by Ellie Feng

Today is her 5th birthday. She sits amidst a sea of hot pink balloons, impatiently fidgeting as she waits for her birthday surprise.

Her mother takes the gift out of its cherry wood box and gently places it in her tiny palms. The glittering snow globe fits perfectly in her soft, chubby hands and she gasps.

"Is that me?" she asks, staring wide eyed at the little girl dancing inside the globe.

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He offers her an animal cracker and she giggles. Giraffes don't look like that, she thinks. But she still accepts with a smile.

Today is her first day in first grade. She sits with Joey on the swing set during lunch and they takes turn pushing each other higher and higher and higher, until they can stretch out their fingertips and touch the golden rays of sunlight. After they fall to the ground laughing, they kneel on the grass together, scavenging for four leaf clovers until their hands and clothes turn bright green.

A shout rings out. She whips her head in the direction of the cry.

Across the playground, a fifth grader shoves a third grader down onto the asphalt. Hard. She flinches back in shock. How could someone be so...so...mean?

Today she comes home from school crying. Mud splatters stain her shirt and a jagged hole disfigures her flower patterned leggings. She runs straight into her mother's arms. Someone stole her lunch, and pushed her into a mud puddle.

An older kid shoves his way through the crowd, bumping into Joey, who lets out a yelp of pain.

"Get out of my way," he growls. When they make eye contact, the kid’s eyes light up in recognition. "Apparently yesterday's lesson wasn't harsh enough for you, weakling." He cracked up. What was he talking about? She clenches her fists and makes a swipe at his face but he ducks and casually walks away. Joey's face is stark white.

Today she discovers her true place in the seventh grade social order.

Glasses. Braces. Unibrow. How many new names has she received in the past few weeks? You would look a lot prettier if you did something about those horrid freckles. There seemed to be a solution for everything. Freckles? Hide them with foundation. Acne? Slather on concealer. Invisible eyelashes? Mascara is all you need. But there seemed to be no solution for the emptiness she felt in her heart. Does it take this much to be accepted?

Today is a day like any other. She slurps down her cereal then checks her reflection in her phone screen. She was unrecognizable, down to her very skin color. Eighth grade. She has finally mastered the art of blending in. No one had any reason to pick on her.

Today is the last day before winter break. She watches, hypnotized, as a fifth grader climbs on top of the lunch table to get everyone’s attention. He sneers at the kid sitting across the room.

Just as she swings on her backpack, her family's neighbor pounds frantically on their door. In a matter of seconds, the door swings open, he runs in, and the television turns on. A reporter appears in the neighborhood across town. The headline reads: "Breaking news: local boy commits suicide after two years of continuous bullying". In the middle of the confusion on screen, she sees Joey's pale and lifeless face.

“Don’t think about coming back after New Year’s,” he warns. “You and your family don't belong here. Go back to where you came from!”

The reporter speaks rapidly, but none of his words make sense anymore. Joey wasn't bullied. She was sure. He was stronger than anyone.

He smirks and a chorus of giggles erupts among his friends. Who is his next target? He scans the room for the outcasts, the misfits, the ones with a skin color other than his white. Suddenly, Joey grabs her by the hand and guides her through the crowded cafeteria, pushing through the throng of laughing students. They reach the exit just as the bell rings. She thought to herself: Would I have to leave too?

The neighbor buries her face in her hands. This couldn't be happening. It isn't happening. But he hid his pain for two years. Two years wore down all of his defenses. He finally crumbled.

"I don't want to go back to school," she whimpers.

Today she sees a gun for the first time in her life. The news reporter on TV urgently analyzes the latest development: "School shooting: 7 injured including students and staff". Her mother tries to change the channel, but she cuts her off.

"Mom, why do people hurt other people?" Her voice shakes. There is no answer.

Today, sixth grade ends. After a year of being preyed on by the eighth graders, she was ready to discard her identity as a weak underclassman. She and Joey stood fearlessly at the front of the school, where everyone crowded around, waiting for the bell that signaled the start of summer.

ISSUE 3, BALANCE

Today is her first day of kindergarten. She is dressed head to toe in soft pink and chats excitedly with her table mate. His name is Joey, but she can't pronounce that. She calls him "Jee".

She stumbles back in shock straight into the bookshelf, and several books to fall to the floor. The snow globe teeters and swivels over the edge of the shelf.

It tumbles down and down and down and down.

Her world shatters.

Today is my 30th birthday. I sit in silence.

No presents. No cake. No candles. Only the bittersweet memories from my childhood that still somehow bring a smile to my lips. The illusion of happiness I was trapped in broke long ago.

They never told me that reality would slash at my spirit again and again until I forgot how to feel. I am numb.

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T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

The Dangers oF Six - SNEAK PREVIEW TALE ONE: A Mansion on the Hill - by Bella Chong

Part One “WELL IT SEEMED LIKE a good idea yesterday,” Jaxon drawled as we all gaped up at the terrifying house before us. The shutters had almost fallen off their hinges, the porch was barely intact, and the darkened branches of the dead trees in the yard were bolded against the full moon tonight. But the creepiest thing about the house was the perfectly standing front door, painted a sleek dark brown with not even a dent or scratch.

Jaxon had said last night that it spelled out a perfect adventure. Right now, all it spelled was “DANGER”.

Alessia scrutinized the building's front, narrowing her eyes at the fog that clung to the ground in the massive front yard. “You'd think the creepy fog cliché wouldn't really exist.”

“Maybe it's just an abandoned, old house kind of thing,” Atlas suggested with a shrug of his shoulders. The six of us—Alessia, Dior, Atlas, Drew, Jaxon, and me—were out at the ungodly hour of 3 in the morning. The day before at some classmate's Halloween party, Jaxon had suggested we took a nice trip somewhere the next day. The abandoned Hael Mansion on the hill was not what the rest of us were expecting.

“It will be fun,” he said. “No one will die”.

But in all honesty, Hael Mansion was around 7,000 to 8,000 square feet of full on creep, and although it was November 1st, it still looked decked out for Halloween. The mansion had been abandoned a couple decades ago and had withered down to this monstrosity.

Several accounts have reported strange noises, paranormal activity, and sometimes when people went in… not everyone came out.

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Jaxon scoffed. “Don't be such a goody goody, Berk. Even Dior's not complaining about this.”

“Oh, I'm just cursing you and this place in my head,” Dior replied, giving him a tight-lipped smile. “I have a presentation first period, so make this quick.”

Jaxon clapped his hands together and began to skip over to the front yard. “Alright! Now that everyone's on board, let's go invade a house!”

Part Two I ALMOST DIED just walking into the house. What does that say about venturing further in? Yeah, that I will die. And it would be all Jaxon’s fault.

While we had made it past the sea of fog with mushy grass underneath it, tiptoed across a river of broken porch, and pushed past the creepy front door, I was still almost impaled by a lamp.

“WHY IS THAT LAMP POINTY?” I screamed after safely walking around it.

The lamp shade had decomposed into a gross green mold, and the lightbulb was shattered, while the sharp wired frame jutted out like knives. That goes to say that I almost walked into said knives.

The whole foyer was dark, with only the light from the moon outside casting inward, and smelled like a lot of dust and dirt. Like the total mom I was, I pulled out a few headlights and hand-held flashlights from my backpack.

“Aw, thanks Berkeley,” Alessia cooed, tying a strap around her wrist. The guys put the headlights onto their foreheads, while I made sure that my flashlight still worked. “You did make sure these worked before you left the house, right?”

I hummed to myself. “Uh, sure I did.”

From there, we turned right into a small parlor. There were a few couches and armchairs blanketed in dust that surrounded a table with a huge crack in the wood. A dark, dank fireplace sat at the back behind everything.

We moved to the next room. Lucky for us, the floor wasn't about to cave in and the hill in which this house sat upon was good foundation.

It was an office with another killer lamp on the dusty desk. The walls were lined with shelves, but the shelves were completely bare. Somebody must have come and stolen all of the books.

Heh, I should've thought of that, I thought to myself.

After we decided that this room had no importance, we found the kitchen next. There was no fridge, no dishwasher, and the sink had no faucet. The counters were all made of molded granite and the wooden cabinets had rotted wood.

https://dnhshumanities.wixsite.com/thefeatheralist

“It's 5 hours until school, Berkeley. Get it right,” Drew laughed.

View the entire 3-part tale online on our website!

“You know we have school in like, 4 hours, right?” I folded my arms over my chest and hugged myself. Just looking into the fog made me feel like there was something crawling on the skin under my jacket. “And there is no way I am skipping a day in my senior year.”

ISSUE 3, BALANCE

To me, it sounded like something straight out of an Edgar Allen Poe story, meaning for someone like Jaxon, it was the perfect thing to do on a freaking Thursday morning.

The six of us shuffled in, opening up cabinets and peering past peeling wallpaper. I took hold of one of the edges of a cabinet door and flung it open with my thumb and index finger...

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T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

something resembling humor

by Phoenix Dimagiba

The important thing to note about this article is that I am very much an unreliable narrator.

My name you know already, but my personality? Probably not.

Among friends, I’m a noted smartass and notorious jokester, among other things. I like to think that every now and then I get a couple really good zingers in (but then again, I have to, don’t I?). In this article, I’ll be considering some of the ways I try to get to those few good jokes. However, I’ll be staying away from the classical comedic devices demonstrated in works from esteemed writers like Shakespeare (hyperbole, understatement, etc), since those are covered in your English classes anyway (and are a bit dry for my tastes). Instead, I’ll use broader, more colloquial concepts that I see in my own humor. Hopefully, this’ll make a little more sense.

Though not itself a humorous device, charisma is an integral part of humor. The first step in tricking others into thinking you’re funny is tricking yourself into thinking you’re funny. Smile, go with it, and if your joke is as bad as my GPA, take it in stride. Of course, if the joke requires a deadpan expression, modify how you carry yourself based on the situation.

Ah, self-deprecation, one of the mainstays of our generation’s humor. Too little and you might come across as arrogant, too much and you might unnerve your conversation partners. Best used in moderation, self-deprecation reminds the audience that, yes, despite your evident comedic genius, you are still mortal. The ability to find and poke fun at one’s own flaws also hints at a person’s well-developed with and self-awareness, while also belying a sense of confidence.

Humor should also have immediate relevance, whether it be events in the news, something that happened that day, or the topic of conversation. It’s not funny if nobody understands you. Sure, history jokes work well if you tell them in class, but the unenlightened who aren't in your class won’t get it. Humor is about manipulation of logic, or jumps of logic, and the brain can’t connect pathways between the absurd and something it has no record of.

Likewise, jokes relevant to the topic of conversation virtually guarantee someone will remember the subject (unless, of course, your current company has the memory of a particularly dim-witted bird).

Chances are good that you have at least one friend that makes the absolute worst, cringe-inducing, gut-wrenching, sanity-breaking puns, dad jokes, etc. I often find myself guilty of this one. As with self-deprecation, a good sense of humor (in my opinion) isn’t built entirely on these jokes. However, they work especially well in the

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company of longtime friends that you feel inclined to annoy. Not so well in sophisticated company, where it would be best to stick to the “highbrow” content.

“The first step in tricking others into thinking you’re funny is tricking yourself into thinking you’re funny. Smile, go with it, and if your joke is as bad as my GPA, take it in stride.”

One of my favorite comedic techniques to use is imitation. They say it’s the highest form of flattery, and while that’s not always true, it can definitely be funny. Imitations rely on well-known characteristics of an individual, whether it be mannerisms, voice, oft-heard sayings, etc. Voice is usually an impressionist’s most valuable tool, as it can create a direct impression when combined with a person’s usual speech patterns, or an absurd situation with slight variations.

You ought to be careful when using impressions in close proximity to the person you’re mimicking, as they might not take too kindly to your comedic range.

All in all, the practice of humor is a delicate art, involving innumerable variables (audience, personality, context, etc). It can be a valuable tool in lightening situations or making a fun time even better. In my humble opinion, everyone should be a comedian in some way. After all, a good joke has to have positive social and psychological effects on both you and your audience if for no other reason than to have fun. Am I right about that?

ISSUE 3, BALANCE

duck syndrome

by Varsha Boudepudi

“Picture a duck, gracefully gliding on the surface of the water, but what you don’t see is its feet frantically paddling underneath the water.”1 Just keep paddling your feet That’s all they ever told me Just keep up, don’t fall behind That’s all I ever tell myself Am I swimming towards my future, Or towards someone else's goals?

And some days I don’t really know Why I started swimming at all But I don’t want to get too far behind No, I can’t risk getting far behind So I swim faster just to keep up this time But with every stroke I take The current seems to hold me back The water ripples like my fate Getting farther away from me Until it gets to where I can’t reach it at all All around me I see The other ducks floating by silently Do they hear my legs kicking in the water?

I need to stop, I need to be quieter

Some days I just want to take a break But then the other ducks swim past me Are they stronger? Are their wings lighter?

What’s wrong with me?

What is this curse placed upon me?

Why do my wings feel so heavy?

Have my feathers been replaced with metal?

Is that why I always feel myself sinking?

I want to scream that I need help But no one else is doing that So I’ll bury my voice again I’ll try to keep calm like everyone else Am I really in this alone?

Am I really the only duck That can’t swim on?

Little duck, if you could just peek under the water You’ll see the truth Everyone is paddling hard Just like you So don’t be afraid to stop when the current is too strong How fast you swim is not who you are You’re not in this alone Every other little duck is struggling too

Chen, Shirin. “The Stanford Duck Syndrome.” The Undergraduate Times, The Undergraduate Times, 17 Feb. 2015, ugtimes.com/2015/02/discussion/the-stanford-duck-syndrome/.

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T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

by Isabel Shih

take five

My identity is a kaleidoscope of colors, vivid yellows and blues racing, churning in my heart.

Yet it too is a murky, brown river, silt shifting below the surface, unsure, a changing balance at best; it’s too bad that people see what they want to see.

For all the times I paid my respects to my foreign grandmothers, when they whispered the longing pain of fleeing China, stories as ancient as the wrinkles folded like soft dunes across their foreheads, I never understood their suffering and could only passively nod my head.

I never seemed to understand their native tongue either: their language refused to bloom for me and so in pounding frustration, they became shrugs and smiles and sighs instead.

Yet frustration always turned to embarrassment: in the heavy air of the markets of Taiwan, the vendors stared and whispered harsh intonations of: “wai guo ren,” or “foreigner. outsider. unwanted.”

Words that made my cheeks turn pink, words that made me walk past in shame.

It makes me sad that It’s a feeling not too unfamiliar.

I write this for the time in first grade when I proudly brought seaweed to school, and my classmates mimed throwing up, and then moved to another lunch table, so that I begged my mother for PB&J the next day, For the time in fifth grade a boy told me my brown eyes were pretty, and I never believed him ‘cause all the heroines in my stories had blue eyes and pale skin, And right after that when he stretched his eyes out like cruel paper slits slicing my red heart, and asked if my lunchmeat was dog, and told me, “It's okay. We’re both Asian.”

Because when you’re scared to tell people who you are, when you start to tell people it doesn’t matter at all whether you’re Chinese or Vietnamese or Taiwanese or Malaysian Korean Indonesian Filipino Japanese or really any Asian at all, when you want to hide yourself out of shame, and you don’t know where you belong, it’s hard to feel like you’re at home.

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ISSUE 3, BALANCE

32

T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

i have never known sacrifice like my mother sacrifice sac-ri-fice it tastes thick in my mouth like dreams pushed down layers and layers of wishes compressed. dream jam. i wonder what it tastes like.

sacrifice

by Manasvi Vora

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bittersweet? but then again i have never tasted bittersweet except i have felt sacrifice more deeply in my bones a gelatinous, languid fluid.

i turned myself inside out to fit your expectations

so maybe i feel that sting in my lungs when i remember what i have lost

and when you knew the world would never treat you the same as everyone else

but i have never known sacrifice like my mother.

i knew that my family would never do it either

who left her friends and family behind in india to come to america and love us

i have sacrificed my childhood for this.

and i understand. no that’s the wrong word i will never understand but i get it i get that deep heart-wrenching regret in your eyes that quickfire smile you paste on your face opportunities! why would you not. but it is a sharp edge sacrifice nonetheless

this school/this life/this heart split my lips biting stress and swallowing hurt lodged in my throat turned to dragon fire forging new words. new shell/new skin/new heart do i want them?

(it is my sacrifice)

did knights want to slay? yes and no.

when i gouge my skin with my nails and bite down my tears

the thrill of life is indescribable

look! no weakness ma!

i am goddess reborn fire and fury and hold up no i'm brown in america bite my tongue only kinda burning

i'm not wasting what you gave even though there live more yells than laughs in the hollows of my ribs even though cobwebs curl up the back of my throat until i’m choking again and i don’t know why even though every breath i take is a rattle when i don't feel enough i shove it back down inside me until the feeling is numb and gone even though my hands shake when i talk and i have never once believed i am not wasting my time loving my friends

ISSUE 3, BALANCE

seasoned with knives

burning like the last candle dying like the fireworks on diwali like my skin and bones and eyes but there's something creeping up my throat that's wrong 70% water, you say? i am more regrets and lost nights than water that's a clever way of saying i'm dehydrated and sad so

so when you say i have not given up anything like you

i can't cry but i can't stop wanting to

you are right

and that is what i have given up for this

but when you felt a stranger in a country not your own

that is my sacrifice

i felt a stranger in a mind not my own

sac ri fice

when you had to change yourself to fit the world’s expectations

i was right. it stings.

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T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

balance

by Danica Chen

So there’s this scale on his grave, right? It’s an ordinary scale, like the cliche judge’s scale, the Libra scale, you know what I mean? Shiny yellow metal and two plate things hanging from both sides, except there’s a wooden box weighing the left side to the ground. You don’t understand how it got there. You’ve been going every day with flowers and tears and all that and you have no idea how or why it’s there. You try to pick up the box. It doesn’t move. You push down on the right side. The scale does not move. You place down your roses and push down harder. The scale does not move.

So you spend the rest of the week collecting rocks. You gather pebbles behind your house, collect stones from rivers, heft rocks shorn from the side of mountains, basically everywhere you can find them. You bring as many as you can hold to the graveyard every day, stacking them on each other one by one and waiting for the left side to tip. And it doesn’t, not even a little bit. You start to buy all the metal you can, spending everything you have on useless tools and knick knacks and dragging them all to the graveyard at once, out of breath but not tired in the slightest. You balance them all on the right side until it looks like the beginnings of a junkyard. Nothing happens.

You buy a wooden box with about the same dimensions as the one in the graveyard and place it on the scale. The scale doesn’t move. You buy a iron box with about the same dimensions as the one in the graveyard and place it on the scale. The scale 35

doesn’t move. You buy a gold box with about the same dimensions as the one in the graveyard and place it on the scale. The scale doesn’t move.

You take all of his old stuff and toss it on with the rest of the garbage. It’s not like anyone’s using it anymore, anyway. You’re using it, in a way, to remember him by, but you’re in the graveyard often enough that you don’t think you could ever forget.

When that doesn’t tip the scale, you take all your stuff and throw all that on, too. You’re not surprised by the outcome, but still disappointed. The roses you placed at the foot of his tombstone have started to rot; the edges of the petals are turning a sickly yellow.

You pray to every god above for the box to rise. You go all out, too – candles, silk, burning lavender, you make it a big affair.

That fails. You pray to every god below, which fails too. You wonder if this is because this is out of their control. You wonder if this is because one of them did this to you. You wonder if the scale is a god. You don’t like, sleep much anymore.

When you run out of money, you get an axe and hack down trees, you look for debris in abandoned lots, you rummage through people’s trash at night with less shame than you would’ve imagined. You start digging, too, dumping every shovelful of dirt you excavate onto the scale, and you accidentally hit a coffin once. You wonder, briefly, how much coffins weigh.

Eventually, you start stealing, taking anything you can as soon as the opportunity presents itself, and throwing it upon the growing heap on the other end of the scale. It doesn’t matter if what you take is heavy because like, it still weighs something, you know? You’re completely fine with stealing. You don’t do anything except steal things now, really. You take extra care to steal boxes–golden chests and oak barrels and stuff. You don’t know that it makes any difference, but you don’t exactly know what would. And you wouldn’t do anything these days if you waited to know what you were doing.

What are you going to do? Is there anything you can do?

There’s nothing you can do except do. So you do. You don’t bathe anymore either, by the way.

You pile everything on the scale and nothing, nothing, nothing changes. Winter comes, and with it comes vicious rainstorms.

The graveyard is half-drowned, lightning strikes the trees, his headstone erodes. The scale is unaffected. You think you are too, kind of.

You sleep in the graveyard now, which is weird, but it’s also fine, because anyone who could judge you for it definitely isn’t coming to the graveyard anymore. It’s essentially abandoned now, really. Nobody wants to risk being around you. You can’t exactly blame them for that, and it’s fine, because you don’t want to talk to other people that much anymore either.

You dream of him. You dream of the box bleeding. You wake up crying, and you are so, so angry.

You kill livestock in the middle of the night and drag it back to his grave. Even you know this is like, super gross. People start to notice the missing cattle, the absent stables, the blood in the pastures, stuff like that. You don’t know what they’re thinking, what they do or don’t suspect, or whatever. Any given day you know the town could decide to burn you in just vengeance, but they never do, so you never stop. You put them on the scale and it does not move, but the corpses do start to smell, stronger than you would’ve suspected. It follows you now wherever you go.

You try to bend the scale. You try to knock the scale over. You try to set it on fire. It is invincible. You feel an aching in your limbs and remember you, on the other hand, are deeply vulnerable.

You don’t know what it wants. If you just knew what it wanted, you’d find it, whatever it was, you’d find it. Whatever it needed to balance out, you’d find it, you’d do it. You’d do it without

thinking. You don’t think anything much, these days. You don’t think much of anything. You think you loved him, and you think you still do, somehow. But you don’t think much of anything these days.

You take your axe and swing it down onto the top of the box.

You’re so ready for it to break that you can hear the sound of cracking, splintering wood ringing in your ears. It doesn’t break. You bring the axe down again and again. It’s not fair.

You deserve to destroy it. You deserve to. But you don’t.

ISSUE 3, BALANCE

The weird thing, you realize months too late, is that you never manage to bury it. Like, with everything piled on top of it, with enough dirt to bury a town of bodies, the scale remains untouched beneath it. Not even rusted. Not even unpolished.

The image is almost funny–a tower of bric-a-brac balanced precariously on one uplifted end while a box no bigger than a housecat weighs down the other. It’s like, objectively hilarious.

It’s a sight fit for a children’s book. It’s super funny. It’s really funny. You can barely stand how extremely funny it is. One day you imagine it all toppling down and crushing you, and you laugh about it for the first time.

You put an armful of sheep bones on the scale one day, hands shaking. They don’t really stop doing that anymore. The scale doesn’t move. You bash your fist down on it and metal scraps and dust go flying. You hear something glass shatter beneath your hand. Fragments of bone burrow themselves in your skin.

You scream and you hit it a second time. You attack it again and again in a blind fury, and it’s pathetic, and meaningless, and completely ridiculous, but you do it, because what else can you do? What else could you possibly do? You scream until your throat goes raw, but you don’t hear the sound, you punch and kick and claw until your breath goes ragged and your skin feels raw. Your knuckles are red. Blood drips onto the burnished gleam of the scale. And it tips down. And you hear the echo of a single drip from the box.

you try to pick up the box.

it doesn’t move.

And you have no idea what to do or what to think because, you did something. You finally, finally did something, oh my God, and you know how to breathe again all of a sudden, and it’s like humanity is coming back to you at once in one dizzying, frenzied crash. You do the first thing that comes to mind. You grab your axe and cut off your hand. You hear the edge sawing through bone and the sickening, miraculous thump of your hand hitting metal. You hear that sound reflected on the other end of the scale, and you watch the box tip more to the right.

You cut off the rest of your arm, you carve out an eye, you pull out your teeth, you are happier than you knew you could be, you watch the scale move closer and closer towards equilibrium, you hack off hair and nail and bone until you are almost a husk, and in a cloud of euphoria, you lay what is rest of you on the end of the scale and close your eyelids over your empty eye sockets. And you disappear.

And he’s climbing out of a wooden box that looks as if it were struck by lightning, wincing at the pain in his joints and behind his sternum. He doesn’t remember anything, know anything, see anything but a scale with a box on one end and a tombstone with your name on it. He tries to pick up the box. It doesn’t move.

36

T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

Reading and reflecting on reality results in a bleak outlook on life.

Perhaps we tend toward the pessimistic over the optimistic because we grew up in eras of hatred, disaster, and polarization. Terrorism and genocide. Natural disasters and hate crimes.

But we are not those things.

We will find purpose. We will educate ourselves on what we care about because we know our efforts and energy are worth more than a class we do not care about. We will find time to spend with people we care about because they nurture us and help make us better people. We will become our governing body. We will not allow single groups to make the decisions for the rest of the young and diverse. We will not allow intolerance of our peers by our peers. We will not allow violence and hate. We will increase our own school safety, we will vote on important laws, we will incite change in a system built to prevent it. Because we care.

About politics. Education. Mental health. Social living. Physical health. Family life. Spiritual health. Whatever matters to you. If we focus on one or two aspects of our human life, we will never be in tune with the rest of ourselves.

Most certainly, we will not continue without control over ourselves. Because we will find our balance. Fret not if you believe you cannot find passion, because passion will find you. If you tune your life to give time to what you prioritize, it will find you.

Let us not run for our eighth or ninth club position. We will run to our friends in need. We will not lose sleep over a fifth AP class or extra extracurricular merely to add meaningless values to a grade point average or number in the gradebook. We will lose sleep out of excitement and anticipation for our hobbies, to meet our loved ones, to make innovations never seen before. We will not take a class because we feel obligated to. We will because we want to.

We are still human beings, newly emerging into our adulthood and a new era to nurture possible longevity. We will not be overwhelmed by a pressure to conform because it will break our sense of balance. This stage in our lives is crucial to finding tools to repair and maintain our balance-- our seesaw, a fun plaything that brings us our swinging times, necessary cycles of highs and lows-we only need to find them. If others continue to play on their playgrounds without stopping to take time to repair the see-saw, they will never play with it again; they will be stuck without it and forced to climb the ladder and stumble down the slide, then turn around to repeat. They will swinging all the way across the monkey bars… only to turn around and make the same journey. They won't have the opportunity to catch themselves and use their own strength to propel themselves up toward their goals, to work on a harmonious momentum with their peers, to maintain a unique balance the rest of the playground doesn’t have. We can’t keep retracing our steps, sticking with isolated pieces of equipment, without the ability to enjoy and share the whole playground with one another. We can’t be stuck without our see-saw. Life without it lacks a full composition.

We will not let pessimism get the best of us because we have to cut out entire portions of the wholesome, diverse meal of our lives for some lesser important concepts that might be forced onto us.

Instead, we will establish our own sense of balance. Students of Del Norte especially have the opportunity to not only be aware, but able. Spreading this sense can only enrich, and most importantly, empower us.

37

closing

by Ayesha Aslam-Mir

ISSUE 3, BALANCE

contributors curators of the featheralist

Skyler Wu

Isabel Shih

I seek to explore the intersections of science and the humanities. I believe that phenomena at the quantum and macro levels oftentimes reappear in international and sociopolitical interactions.

"A short blurb about yourself."

Ellie Feng

Kane Xu

I am a dreamer and artist. I love reading and exploring new worlds filled with new and exciting people, places, and ideas.

I like to play soccer and slurp on noodles.

Angela Chen

Manasvi Vora

Unicorn extraordinaire.

I support intersectional feminism and the rest of my beliefs can be summed up in the fact that I think Lemonade Mouth is the best DCOM.

Ayesha Aslam-Mir

Nora Mousa

Reading is extraordinary, but like painting, writing allows for endless possibilities of expression, and that's one of the best thing we humans have going for us: the arts.

Always shook... and late.

Andrew Wang

Siham Bougour

Danica Chen

Derrek Fan

In 20 years, I think the antinuclear and LGBTQ movements will have a significant impact on American society. Both movements are relevant to today's society as well.

I believe that phenomena at the quantum and macro levels oftentimes reappear in my dreams about bird cheese. Andrew Wang has owed me $7 for three years. It's time, Andrew.

Insert something subliminally meaningful here.

Not sure what knowledge I have to offer... um, designing a magazine is challenging!

Art is a pretty big passion for me although I don’t do much serious art, just a lot of doodles.

38

T H E F E AT H E R A L I S T

other contributors Cynthia Wang

Allen Chen

I especially enjoy creating visual art and playing classical music. I believe that the arts provide a deeper layer to life that academics cannot always provide.

My hobbies include reading, drawing, and world domination.

Iris Ding

Marco Arroyo Villanueva

Creating art and exploring stories.

Bella Chong

Imran Tallman

Phoenix Dimagiba

Shaurya Shekhar

Andrew de la Pena

Andrea Baek

Cadence Schiffer

Arya Karthik

I am passionate about putting my thoughts to words in the form of stories. I love reading, especially fantasy and action-romances.

A situationally charismatic and eternally sarcastic quipster.

Like 884,288 other people in the U.S my name is Andrew.

A believer in the power of knowledge.

Kayley Tung

I wear large sunglasses in pictures as a poor attempt to hide my face.

39

I am a determined person that thrives under pressure. I enjoy dirt biking, debates, and all types of cars.

I like the sound and smell of rain, the smooth sand on the beach, and the joyous feeling I get when my enemies meet their downfall.

I am an ambitious dreamer. I aspire to pursue excellence because success will come to follow me.

Ambiverted extrovert. I like to eat and sleep. I believe in the idea of love, pessimistic realism, and the beauty of illogical thought processes.

Self taught artist and aspiring functional person.

I enjoy art in all its forms and like to spend my time improving on my skills as an artist.

ISSUE 3, BALANCE

bibliography U.S. Involvement: North Korea

Anon, 2018. North Korea profile - Timeline. BBC News. Available at: https://w w.bbc.com/news/world-asia-paci ic-15278612.

Anon, 2018. Q&A: North Korea, Sanctions, and Human Rights. Human Rights Watch.

Available at: https://www.h w.org/news/2018/05/30/qa-north-k rea-sanctions-and-human-rights#Q1.

Anon, 2018. Trump and Kim joint statement from the Singapore summit. The Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washin tonpost.com/news/poli tics/wp/2018/06/12/ trump-and-kim-joint-stat ment-from-the-singapore-summit/ ?noredirect=on&utm_te m=.a2c39cdc2c0a.

Anon, What to Know About the Sanctions on North Korea. Council on Foreign Relations.

Available at: https://www.cfr.org/bac grounder/what-know-about-san tions-north-korea.

Dorell, O., 2017. Is North Korea in the UN? Yes, it is among most sanctioned members. USA Today. Available at: https://eu.usatoday.com/st ry/news/world/2017/09/19/north-k rea-united-nations-sancti ned-member/682381001/.

Murphy, Brian. “South Korea's Moon: Reaching Accord with North Korea Could Take Years.”

The Washington Post, WP Company, 11 June 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific south-koreas-moon-reaching-accord-with-north-k rea-could-take-years/2018/06/11/ c436361a-6d53-11e8-bf862351b5ece99_story.html?utm_ erm=.4ea43ecb46c2.

Worley, W., 2017. North Korea threatens Guam over Donald Trump's twitter antics. The Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/ sia/north-korea-guam-missiles-threat-do ald-trump-twitter-a8000276.html.

U.S. Involvement: Afghanisan

Siddique, Abubakar. “Taliban Strategy In Afghanistan: 2017 And Beyond.” RFE/RL, RFE/RL, 24 Dec. 2017, gandhara.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-taliban-strat gy/28936181.html.

“The History of the Afghanistan War - CBBC Newsround.”

BBC, BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/new round/15214375.

“Viewpoint: Why the US Should Withdraw from Afghanistan.”

BBC News, BBC, 22 Aug. 2017, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41016347 Posen, Barry R. “This 9/11, End the Afghanistan War.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 10 Sept. 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/opin on/2018/09/10/9-11-end-afghanistan-war-edit rials-debates Downie, James. “Trump's Instincts Were Right: The U.S. Should Leave Afghanistan.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Aug. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-part san/trumps-i stincts-were-right-the-u-s-should-leave-afghanistan King, John. “Gates on 2012: ‘I Think That Who I Vote for Will Remain My Private Business.’” CNN, Cable News Network, 2012, cnnpressroom blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/02/gates-on-vo ing-2012-i-think-that-who-i-vote-for-will-r main-my-private-business/.

The New Age of Electronics

Alter, Adam. Irresistible: Why We Can't Stop Checking,

Scrolling, Clicking and Watching. Bodley Head., 2017.

Beccuti, Guglielmo, and Silvana Pannain. Sleep and Obesity, U.S. National Library of Medicine, July 2011, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ MC3632337/.

Byrne, David. “Former Talking Heads Frontman Says Consumer Tech Is Working against What It Means to Be Human.” MIT Technology Review, MIT Technology Review, 7 Sept. 2017, www.technologyreview.com/s/608580/elimina ing-the-human/.

Harvard Health Publishing. “Blue Light Has a Dark Side Harvard Health.” Harvard Health Blog, www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy blue-light-has-a-dark-side.

Johnson, Sue. “How Gadgets Ruin Relationships and Corrupt Emotions.” Wired, Conde Nast, 3 June 2017, www.wired.com/2014/02/gadgets-ruin-relatio ships-connection-illusion-one/.

“Melatonin: In Depth.” National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 16 July 2018, nccih.nih.gov/health/melatonin.

Articles 11 and 13

Vincent, James. “EU Approves Controversial Copyright Directive, Including Internet 'Link Tax' and 'Upload Filter'.” The Verge, The Verge, 12 Sept.

2018, www.theverge.com/2018/9/12/17849868/eu-i ternet-copyright-reform-article-11-13-approved.

European Union. Parliament “Parliament Adopts Its Position on Digital Copyright Rules .” News European Parliament , 12 Sept. 2018, www.europarl.europa.e /news/en/press-room/20180906IPR12103/pa liament-adopts-its-position-on-digital-cop right-rules.

Lomas, Natasha. “Wikimedia Warns EU Copyright Reform Threatens the 'Vibrant Free Web'.” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 4 Sept. 2018, techcrunch.com/2018/09/04/wikim dia-warns-eu-copyright-reform-threatens-the-v brant-free-web/.

Russell, Brandom and Vincent James. “Everything You Need to Know about Europe's New Copyright Directive.”

The Verge, The Verge, 13 Sept. 2018,ww w.theverge.com/2018/9/13/17854158/ eu-copyright-directive-article-13-11-internet-cen sorship-google.

Karnitschnig , Matthew, and Chris Spillane. “Plan to Make Google Pay for News Hits Rocks.” POLITICO, POLITICO, 28 Jan. 2018, www.politico.eu/art cle/plan-to-make-goo le-pay-for-news-hits-rocks-copyright-reform-eur pean-commission/.

Senator John McCain

Epstein, Kayla. “Five of John McCain's Most Courageous Political Moments.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 27 Aug. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/pol tics/2018/08/27/five-john-mccains-most-cour geous-political-moments/?noredirect=on&utm_te m=.d4ac2af04ee4.

Fetini, Alyssa. “The Keating Five.” Time, Time Inc., 8 Oct. 2008, content.time.com/time/business/art cle/0,8599,1848150,00.html.

Fitzpatrick, Tom. “McCain: The Most Reprehensible of the Keating Five.” Phoenix New Times, 3 Apr. 2016, www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/m cain-the-most-reprehensible-of-the-kea ing-five-6431838.

“John McCain.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 31 Aug. 2018, www.biography.com/people/john-m cain-9542249.

Jones, Clifford A. “Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.”

Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 4 Sept. 2018, www.britannica.com/topic/Bipart san-Campaign-Reform-Act. Levy, Daniel S. “John McCain's Journey From Navy Upstart to Prisoner of War.” Time, Time, 26 Aug. 2018, time.com/5377698/john-mccain-prisoner-of-war-vie nam/.

Nowicki, Dan, and Bill Muller. “McCain Profile: At the Naval Academy.” Phoenix Arizona News - Arizona Local News, 1 Mar. 2007, archive.azcentral.com/news/ele tion/mccain/articles/2007/03/01/20070301mccai bio-chapter2.html.

Robert. “John McCain, War Hero, Senator, Presidential Contender, Dies at 81.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 Aug. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/08/25/obituaries/john-m cain-dead.html.

Segarra, Lisa Marie. “John McCain Defends Barack Obama in Video From 2008 Election.” Time, Time, 20 July 2017, time.com/4866404/john-mccain-barack-obama-a ab-cancer/.

Spector, Ronald H. “Vietnam War.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 11 Jan. 2018, www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War.

Art Credits Page 02

Art by Cynthia Wang

Page 08

Iconography by ‘Freepik’ on Flaticon

Page 13

Iconography by ‘Smashicons’ on Flaticon

Page 17

Iconography by ‘Eucalyp’ on Flaticon

Page 21

Art by Cynthia Wang

Page 23

Art by Cynthia Wang

Page 25

Art by Arya Karthik

Page 27

Art by Iris Ding

Page 29

Iconography by ‘Pixel Buddha’ on Flaticon

Page 30

Iconography by ‘Freepik’ on Flaticon

Page 32

Photography by Imran Tallman

Page 33

Art by Cynthia Wang

Page 35

Art by Cynthia Wang

Page 37

Art by Angela Chen

40

“We will find purpose.

We will educate ourselves on what we care about because we know our efforts and energy are worth more than a class we do not care about. We will find time to spend with people we care about because they nurture us and help make us better people.�