April 6, 2018 | Volume 6, Issue 6

ASB CAB ELECTIONS SEE PAGE 2

college rejections see page 4

STUDENTS’ VIEW ON GUN CONTROL see page 6 & 7

LOVE, SIMON MOVIE REVIEW SEE PAGE 10

Fremont High School

the

PHOENIX

Vol. 6 Issue No. 6 april 6, 2018

Marching for our lives

by Nadia Anees Managing Editor

13 students and staff shot and killed at Columbine High School in 1999 in Colorado. 33 people killed in the Virginia Tech Massacre in 2007 in Blacksburg, Virginia. 26 students and staff killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut. 17 students and staff killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (MSDHS) in Parkland, Florida in 2018.

These are only a few of the school shootings in the United States. The ages, backgrounds, ethnicities and situations of each and every school shooting victim are different but one quality they all shared is that they woke up expecting a normal day, clueless of the fact that their lives would end within 24 hours.

One of the most recent mass school shootings, the MSDHS shooting in which 17 were killed, shocked the entire country once again. This mass school shooting sparked a nationwide movement known as the “Never Again” movement formed

by nearly a million students who claim “they’ve had enough.”

Immediately after the shooting, several high school students from MSDHS began speaking out against gun violence, sharing their experiences from the shooting and urging other students to stand up for gun control.

High school students from MSDHS such as seniors Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Cameron Kasky, Alfonso Calderon, Sam Zeif and many more are tweeting, writing essays and being interviewed on numerous platforms to spread their experiences and their hopes for adjusting gun laws in order to prevent other mass shootings from happening again.

As a result of the efforts and voices of these students and many others, attention was spread nationwide and beyond on the need for gun control in America. Debates over gun control and gun violence were spread throughout social media and students began to plan a nationwide school walkout to commemorate the lives lost in MSDHS as well as previous school shooting victims and demand

Caroline He, Nadia Anees | The Phoenix

change.

“I think the significance of everyone walking out on a national scale was pointing out to the audience, well, specifically to the government, that high school kids, who are only supposed to worry about getting into college or what their next midterm or exam is going to be about, are caring about their lives, whereas we have congress and other forms of government who only care about money,” junior Nikhil Mekkattuparamban said.

The date was set for March 14 at 10 A.M for students who chose to participate in which they would engage in civil disobedience and walk out of class. There are many different ways in which schools throughout the nation walked out of school. Some schools, like Fremont High School, kept the protest duration to 17 minutes to honor the 17 lives lost at MSDHS. However, several students went beyond walking out of class by marching through their city, marching to police stations and their city halls.

Some Homestead High School students, for example, had left their campus during their walkout and even made it to Fremont

High School and the Sunnyvale Police Station.

FHS students congregated at the front lawn of school, holding posters and chanting phrases like “Hey hey ho ho the NRA has got to go” or “What do we want?

Gun control! When do we want it? Now!” “[What prompted this walk out was] a need for change, a demand for change,” junior Anisha Bhat said. “I think this walkout was a result of students refusing to just let another shooting go by. They wanted to make sure that students were actually heard this time and the nation listened.”

Although nearly a million students nationwide participated in the March 14 walkout, some students opted out of the walkout for various reasons. Some were against gun control and others did not see the purpose or need for walking out of class.

“I was kind of debating whether or not to walk out,” junior Kate Richardson said. “I did not get entirely the reason why people were walking out. For me, personally I didn’t think it [walking out] made much of a difference really. Though I

really do support the movement, I just didn’t feel like it was something for me.”

10 days after the nationwide school walkouts, a protest called March For Our Lives took place on March 24. The main march, organized by the Parkland students themselves, took place in Washington D.C where around 850,000 people attended. Approximately 837 March For Our Lives protests took place throughout the entire nation according to the website of March for Our Lives.

The nearest protests to FHS were located in San Jose, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Oakland and beyond.

The San Jose protest began at 11 A.M, when thousands gathered at the San Jose City Hall and began marching and chanting together.

Posters with statements like “Arms are for Hugging”, “the only solution is LOVE”, “books not bullets”, “never again”, “am I next?” were seen at the protests. Protesters were photographing each other, chanting at the top of their lungs and uniting for the same goal to end gun violence and demand gun control.

To many students, the numbers seen in the

walkouts and protests throughout the country were overwhelming and thrilling.

“I didn’t expect that much support when we were protesting,” Bhat said. “You could hear the cars honking as they went passed. And I remember I was standing in front of the sidewalk and there was an elderly man who stood next to us the entire time holding up a sign that said ‘I support students’ and I thought that was really sweet... I was really happy about it actually.”

As several people were deeply moved by the outcomes of the protests and the tragedies that have sparked the protests in the first place, many are motivated to continue fighting for the Never Again movement.

“We need to continue until we see change because the government might just be waiting for us to stop,” senior Melissa Navarrete said. “We need to continue [to protest], stick together and not forget about this tragic event.”

Pictures courtesy of Ashlyntear, MyCuteGraphics

News Next year’s ASB cabinet members 2

April 6, 2018

by Eva Devanathan Staff Writer

Recently, there have been elections to determine next year’s class cabinet members and ASB Cabinets. The class cabinets oversee the events, rallies, dances, spirit days and other activities. The four ASB Cabinet members consist of Alexx Eckley, Thalia Rahim, Courtney Mateo, and Prabhat Jammalamadaka. Tommy Pham, along with Khushi Chauhan, Amanda Liu and Jennifer Molina have been elected to Senior Cabinet. The four Junior Cabinet members consist of Neel Bhargava, Tammy Phan, Sandra Kim, and Alex Workman. Natalia Richards, Eva Devanathan, Eesha Bandaru, and Mariam Mortada have been elected to Sophomore Cabinet.

Tommy Pham has recently been elected to a Senior Cabinet position starting in the next school year. Pham believes that his position as a Senior Cabinet member is to communicate with people about what they want for rallies, dances and general events, and then put them into action.

“This is the cabinet member’s jobs to organize these events, and if you don’t take into consideration other’s interests, then you aren’t doing a very good job,” Pham said.

He plans to improve school events in whichever way possible, whether it be through better advertising, timely organizing, or including more interesting events.

Pham also believes that if more people attend these events, it will make them more enjoyable.

Sandra Kim has recently been elected to a Junior Cabinet position starting in the 2018-2019 year. While being a member of Junior Cabinet, Kim plans to organize a more exciting class rally, incorporating more student involvement.

“Another goal that I have is to fundraise money for our class, so that the budget and quality for our junior prom can be increased,” Kim said.

As a Junior Cabinet Member, Kim promises to increase class spirit, listen to student input and represent the opinions of her class to the best of her abilities.

She believes that one of the most significant responsibilities of this position is to be the voice that represents all the diverse opinions of her peers, weighing individual input when making decisions that impact the whole grade.

Natalia Richards has recently been elected to a Sophomore Cabinet position starting in the next school year.

“I plan to continue previous events and traditions while making all events more student involved,” said Richards.

Richards hopes to work with other cabinet members and plan events to inspire school spirit.

“I wanted to get more involved in Fremont. I am already on the Fremont cheer team and have a lot of school spirit but I wanted to make sure others were experiencing that school spirit as well,” Richards said. “I wanted to bring my ideas in order to bring the school together.”

Alexx Eckley has been elected to an ASB Cabinet position starting for next year.

She would like to make sure the student body is heard and to more greatly involve students outside of the ASB class when it comes to spirit days and Fremont festivities.

“I believe that the position of ASB Cabinet is to help guide the class itself, along with my fellow three cab members, and help maintain a positive environment through the whole year,” Eckley said.

She was motivated to run for the cabinet because, after being in the class the last two years, she would like to help give someone else a learning opportunity in a positive and fun environment.

Eva Devanathan | The Phoenix

The BAYCO job fair continues at MVHS

by Michael Wang Managing Editor

The Bay Area Youth Career Opportunities (BAYCO) organization held a job fair at Monta Vista High School on March 21.

The event featured a great variety of companies, from tech companies like Apple and Mindspark to trade companies such as Blach Construction.

The event took a great amount of effort and time to plan.

“We planned [the job fair] for the past two months,” Dhanya Paul, an officer of BAYCO, said. “We emailed a lot of businesses who would be interested in coming.”

The aim of the event was to give high school students more of an idea of

what they can pursue in the future. “[Through the event], students can get a wider perspective on what kinds of jobs are out there and they can expose themselves to companies they’ve never heard of before and I think that’s important,” Paul said.

By meeting with representatives from a variety of companies, students could network and get a business’ contact information, which can help them learn more about the company or about the industry in general.

Roughly 300 people attended this year’s BAYCO job fair.

Several kinds of programs, classes and job opportunities were displayed at the fair. Jobs such as soccer coaching for young

children, teaching STEM topics to children or summer camp counselors were popular among the stands.

There were also conferences such as the Youth Leadership Conference and Q-Zero’s Business camps that were shown at the fair.

Also popular were summer camps that took students to foreign countries for service trips and learning such as Amigos and Rustic Pathways. The representatives of the stands were all excited and motivated to encourage high school students to join their jobs, classes and programs.

While successful, Paul believes there are still ways to improve.

“We could have asked more retail businesses to come as high schoolers tend

to look for those types of jobs,” Paul said.

Aside from job fairs, BAYCO provides many opportunities for students to plan for their future.

“We’re an organization that’s trying to help propel youth involvement in careers and help them to get a head start in their future careers and success in school,” Paul said.

Comprised of students all across the Fremont Union High School District, BAYCO holds workshops every couple months to help students with their resume, job interviews, college essays and public speaking.

BAYCO is an annual event, and there will be another job fair next year during March.

Nadia Anees | The Phoenix

News

april 6, 2018

Stress among FHS teachers

by Caroline He News Editor

Over 46 percent of American teachers report high levels of chronic stress, according to National Public Radio.

Fremont High School is not an exception to this statistic. As a high school in a competitive school district, many teachers feel the pressure that comes from preparing students for standardized tests, like AP tests.

Each teacher experiences a different level of stress due to different causes.

However, for many teachers, most of the stress comes from the large amount of time required for grading, planning curriculum and giving one-to-one help to students.

“The biggest [problem] is time,” math teacher Jacey Scholten said. “There’s just not enough time in the day to do what you want to do, whether it be lesson planning, getting the stuff you need to prep for the next day. Getting feedback to students is super important and there’s almost never time to do that well.”

According to The Washington Post, American teachers work an average of 53 hours per week, which translates to ten hours and 40 minutes per school day.

“I would say the vast

majority, like 80 percent of the stress, comes from grading and curriculum planning, which is, by nature, more involved and higher in volume for English,” Daniel Perez, FHS English teacher, said. “If you think about one essay, one essay for AP… The average AP student has turned in a five pager… I have around 65 AP students... So for this one assignment, it’s 365 pages.”

For one week of assignments, Perez is looking at up to roughly 22 hours of grading for his AP classes.

Because of the time-consuming nature of grading and feedback, Perez will only average three hours of sleep on a school day.

This pileup of work contributes immensely to teacher stress. An hour spent grading is an hour not spent with family, recovering or sleeping. As a result, it becomes harder to maintain an equal pace in work.

“Oftentimes teachers do have to take home their work,” Scholten said.

“Which boils down to taking time away from your family. So that can cause a lot of stress.”

Perez agrees.

“The spillover happened everywhere, and the cleanup doesn’t make it easier,” Perez said. “It just keeps piling up.”

The level of stress teachers experience also

depends on what level of class they teach. Generally, AP and Honors classes are stressful for students to take. They are also more stressful for teachers to plan for and instruct.

“You do a lot more work, faster, and harder work,” Perez said about his AP Language and Composition class. “The harder the assignment, the longer it takes to grade. The other factor is you’re not being graded in content… I’m looking at skills… I have to read between the lines to look at, does [the student] understand what an argumentative topic sentence is, versus a descriptive topic sentence.”

Stress is also contagious. If students are highly stressed in a class, it may cause the teacher to be as well.

“The perception of the class makes students on edge a little bit more,” Scholten said about her PreCalculus Honors class. “All of you are so very academic, and I love that, but it can cause me stress in some way.”

As a result of this chronic stress, some teachers experience negative health consequences and a general decrease in quality of life. “[The stress] quite literally made me sick,” Perez said. “When I was

out and I got pink eye, how ridiculous? It was because my immune system was like ‘you are stressed out of your mind.’ It’s affecting your sleep. Your sleep is affecting your ability to bounce back, and it catches up with you.”

The spillover happens everywhere, and the cleanup doesn’t make it easier. It Just keeps piling up.

Daniel Perez Besides physical health, chronic stress also negatively affects mood, student achievement and a teacher’s enjoyment of their job, according to Gallup.

While a certain level of stress is inevitable for any job, the level public school teachers experience in America, especially considering their level of pay, is significantly higher than the rest of the world, according to NPR. One thing that can help alleviate some stress is understanding.

“Just more awareness,” Perez said. “If you ask for something, what that really, in the back end, requires.”

Junior prom venue has changed

by Hannah Butay Opinion Editor

Traditionally, Fremont High School has held its junior prom at Tarragon, an American-style restaurant located in downtown Sunnyvale. This year, however, the venue has been changed to the Silicon Valley Capital Club in San Jose.

The need for this change came when the Tarragon abruptly shut down about two months before prom was scheduled without informing ASB, leaving junior prom venueless.

“I think we were all just really disappointed to hear that they didn’t even have

the decency to tell us that they closed,” said Junior Cabinet member Courtney Mateo. “We had this venue booked for over a year and we had been planning for months, so it was a huge letdown to know we didn’t have a venue anymore.”

Since the need for a new venue was such short notice, there were several limits on what venues would be readily available.

Fortunately, junior prom was able to find a new home at the Silicon Valley Capital Club, as one of the teachers had a membership, making it much easier to book an event there.

According to cabinet

member Natalie Eizips, the only true change in junior prom will be its venue, as well as a slight increase in ticket cost. Additionally, aside from the ticket price increase, there should be no effect on future events, except for a possible increase in fundraisers.

According to adviser Geoff Wen, since the ticket prices had already been budgeted to accommodate more sales, the ticket cost is expected to increase by only a few dollars.

Overall, the need for a new venue may very well have been a blessing in disguise. According to Wen, Tarragon was primarily used

for its proximity to Fremont as well as its price and a new venue may be able to provide more than just convenience.

“I’ve heard people complain about the Tarragon before, namely that it’s old and pretty small,” said Wen. “With this new venue, Junior Cab can really choose how to have their event.”

Mateo agreed, citing that the Silicon Valley Capital Club is more modern and larger with a view of San Jose.

“I think the new venue is going to be way better overall and everyone will love it,” Mateo said.

IDC Fantastics rally in FUHSD

by Eva Devanathan Staff Writer

Fantastics is a districtwide rally where schools from the district such as Fremont, Homestead, Monta Vista, Cupertino and Lynbrook compete to see who has the most spirit. This year, the event happened on March 23. The Intra District Council (IDC) plans IDC Fantastics, which aims to promote friendly competition while also keeping student spirit alive.

The night-time rally consists of games along with a performance from each school throughout the rally.

Fantastics takes at least two to three months of coordination and development to plan because the council only meets twice a month. This is a very difficult process because it takes a lot of effort to plan these events as other schools are required to participate.

At IDC Fantastics, IDC representatives hosted the rally while also hyping up

their schools. The rally was two-hours long with a preplanning session that took place two hours before and a clean-up session afterward.

Each school was in charge of their own decorations and props, with the requirement that they all must have a school poster.

“We have IDC Fantastics to give the students a nice relaxation period in the hectic semesters,” Fremont IDC and ASB President Sabrina Liu said. “IDC Fantastics is not the only

semester event we throw, however, it once was and still is a popular request from all schools.”

Lynbrook High School has won for the past two IDC Fantastics and has won this year as well. Fremont won first place in sock-ofwar, third place in human table, fourth place in chariot race, third place in balloon pop and last place in orange necking. Overall Fremont High School has placed third this year, beating Monta Vista and Cupertino.

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Fremont High School 1279 Sunnyvale Saratoga Rd, Sunnyvale, CA 94087 (408)-522-2400 | fremonthighphoenix@gmail.com Advisor | Emer Martin Mission Statement: The Phoenix, protected under the California Education code, is a public forum for the students of Fremont High School. The Phoenix staff will publish features, editorials, news and sports in an unbiased and professional manner. The Phoenix is the official student newspaper and is distributed free of cost to the students. The Phoenix publishes eight issues throughout the school year.

Editorial Policy Editorials are the official opinion of The Phoenix.

Opinions and letters are the personal viewpoints of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Phoenix. All content decisions are made by the student editors and do not reflect the official policy of Fremont High School, nor the opinions of the administration, faculty, or adviser.

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Opinion

April 6, 2018

4

Dealing with the pain of college rejections

by Mira Dhingra Staff Writer

Staring at your computer screen, your palms are sweaty and your stomach is in knots. You spent the whole night tossing and turning, counting down the hours until the very second your life may change forever.

For the past couple of years, you have waited for this moment—and now it’s finally here. Clicking on the “Status Update” in your portal, you take a deep breath.

As the webpage loads and your eyes skim the screen, they land on the words “We regret to inform you...”

Getting rejected from your dream school may not have been this dramatic and soul-crushing, but this is exactly how I felt. The minute my brain processed that I got rejected, I could physically feel my heart sink. I spent the rest of the night hysterically crying and the next month or so feeling drained and hopeless.

Everyone says to “not take college rejections personally”. They say that the applicant pool was just so competitive, that you did the best you could and that

it’s the college’s loss for not accepting you. However, none of this feels reassuring when you are actually in this situation.

Initially, I took my rejection very personally.

Though I spent months working tirelessly on my application, I could not help but blame myself for getting rejected. I started questioning myself: Should I have written my essay on something else? What if I selected a different major?

Would it have made a difference if I took the ACT one more time?

Even though I was aware that my dream school was extremely competitive, one of the most competitive universities in the country, I had held on to a small strand of hope that I had differentiated myself from other applicants enough that I would be one of the lucky admitted students.

When I got rejected, I felt absolutely crushed, telling myself that the admissions officers who reviewed my application did not think I was “good enough” to be a part of the new freshman class.

I let my rejection slowly tear apart every little bit of self-esteem and confidence that I had left. I ended up letting my rejection define me.

After a few months of this huge rejection looming over my head, I was soon accepted into my second choice university. Prior to opening my acceptance

letter, I felt nervous and doubtful, scared that I would get the same outcome as my first college decision.

However, when I read the word “Congratulations!,” I burst into tears of happiness.

Being rejected from one of your top colleges is a terrible feeling. It hurts, but it is important to remember that in the long run, it’s just one decision of many, and that you will eventually get accepted into a college that you will be able to thrive and be happy at.

After being accepted into my second choice university, I started researching it more; as I connected with other admitted students, visited the campus and learned more about my major, I quickly forgot about my dream school rejection.

I started realizing that I had spent so much time idealizing my “dream school” without fully looking into it that I had blinded myself from allowing myself to see all of the amazing opportunities that other schools had to offer me.

If I could go back in time, I think I would definitely try to not idealize one specific school. Instead, I would continue to keep my mind open to other schools that could potentially be a better fit for me.

Yes, you may be thinking “She’s only saying this because she got rejected from her dream school.” I can’t disagree with that, but I can say that

Benefits of immigration

by Anoushka Samant Staff Writer

Ever since his inauguration, President Trump has been determined to follow through with his promise of restricting immigration.

However, the steps he is taking are unreasonable and unjust as immigration does not have a negative effect on America.

In fact, immigration is more beneficial to America than many may assume. It has produced net benefits of approximately 50 billion dollars a year to the native population, according to Venngage. Without immigrants, many “unicorns” (companies worth 1 billion dollars or more), would cease to exist, since first or second-generation immigrants founded them. Tesla, Google, Amazon, Ebay, Apple, Uber and Paypal are just some of these unicorn companies.

In this constantly expanding economy, there is a crucial shortage of manual

workers, which immigrants can fill since there are not enough white American citizens to fill the role. A majority of immigrants are well-educated and have influential ideas that can develop to a bursting economy and booming businesses, creating more jobs for American workers.

Along with shaping America’s economy, immigrants also influence people who reside in isolated white communities to become more accepting toward other cultures and races.

Acceptance is important because everyone should feel welcome, no matter where they are.

Additional reasons of why diversity is advantageous are that people of various backgrounds can contribute ideas and perspectives that were never thought of before. The majority of our foods are inspired or come from cultures around the world, and words that are frequently used in English have originated from other foreign languages.

However, while America prides itself on its global and cultural diversity, instead of supporting diversity and immigration, Trump is doing the exact opposite by implementing laws to regulate and restrict immigration. By enforc-

ing a limit on issued work visas, deporting millions of undocumented immigrants and a placing a travel ban on people from predominantly Muslim countries, it seems that what Trump is actually not making America great again, but rather making America white again.

Trump’s ideology is incredibly flawed; he cannot bring himself to accept the fact that no matter what race people belong to, they are still capable people. By forcing immigrants to leave, he is ripping families apart with his immoral decisions for the “welfare” of America.

This is clearly an ethical issue.

Trump is conveniently ignoring the fact that his family members were immigrants as well. The truth is that America has never seen indigenous white people.

People of the white race are, like people of all other races, immigrants too. If white people deserve a place in the United States, so do all immigrants of other races and cultures.

At the end of the day, we are all humans, so having a melting pot of cultures is not harmful, but rather beneficial as our individual backgrounds and experiences better shape our ideas and contributions to this world.

Dana Nissan | The Phoenix

choosing to fixate on a certain university won’t do you much good.

If you get accepted to your dream school, by all means congratulations to you, but I think that it is best to approach the college application system with an open mind and a list of top colleges you are interested in, not one specific #1 school.

After all, your time at college is not defined by the school name or prestige, but rather how much you try to make the most out of the “college experience”— four great years that can you have at any university.

You are not defined by the university you attend, but rather how much hard

work you put into your classes and how much effort you put into joining organizations and creating learning opportunities for yourself. At the end of the day, people do often end up in similar places careerwise, whether they went to a top private university or a local state university.

The day I got rejected from my dream school, I thought the feeling of dread and worthlessness would never leave.

As someone who poured all of my energy and effort into my applications, I truly thought that I would never be able to move on.

However, as a second semester senior who has already happily committed

to a university, I can reassure you that the feeling will eventually pass.

College rejections are probably one of your first major rejections that you will experience—and the harsh reality is that they’re not going to be the last.

However, as someone who has gone through the application process and has received multiple rejections, I can promise that you will eventually be able to get past them.

Allow time to mourn, but be aware that your hard work will pay off in the end and you’ll find yourself happy and making the most of whatever university you decide to end up at.

Opinion Moving on from toxic relationships 5

April 6, 2018

by Michelle Cortez Staff Writer

Letting go of someone that you have become attached to emotionally is something that is very difficult.

“Just leave,” your mind demands you. “Stop letting people walk all over you.”

Your tiny Lizzie McGuire conscience shakes its head, looking over you making all these poor decisions.

But still, gathering the strength to leave is easier said than done.

Toxic relationships are something we should focus on letting go. In relationships, both romantic or platonic, there needs to be effort put in by both partners or whoever is involved in the situation. Effort can be demonstrated mainly through communication and mutual respect.

How do you know you’re in a toxic relationship?

Finding yourself in more of a negative, emotional strain than in awe

of your partner is probably the biggest sign. Reaching this point can be the cause of many fights you and the other person have endured.

There may even be a massive lack in trust and communication. In friendships, it can become transparent when there is envy within friends or criticism being talked about behind each other’s backs.

As teenagers with our entire future ahead of us, we should all refocus our attention on ourselves by not allowing ourselves to slip into these unhealthy bonds. Figuring out that you are in a toxic relationship is the first step in recovering from the damage that was inflicted on you.

Those of us in toxic relationships that are only digging a bigger hole for ourselves by attempting to fill our hearts with the intense love we are all looking for. We need to remember that only we hold the access to our own happiness. I personally took time to get over my toxic relationship because I was afraid of being alone.

I remember my older sister saying, “Block him on all of your social medias and delete his number.”

He was my other half, or so I thought.

Even while people were telling me that my rela-

tionship was obviously at the finish line, I refused to listen. It was difficult for me to let go of our past memories. However I slowly began to realize that my memories would forever be in my past.

I knew I was in an unhealthy relationship months before it officially ended.

The fear of leaving behind the memories made or the fear of being alone should not be the soul reason for staying. There was no communication, no feelings involved and there definitely wasn’t any respect.

As I vented to a teacher of mine she said, “Distance yourself from him, you don’t need that in your life”.

It took me a while to actually do all these things because when I tried to leave my partner, they would ensure me that they would change. And they would. For a week, maybe two. But we would find ourselves in the same argument again at some point.

The day I finally blocked him on all aspects of my life, I got the chance to regain my focus on myself. Now, months later, I’d like to think I became a stronger person.

As individuals, we all require different types of affection and care. We can look at ourselves as flowers.

Each different, each unique.

We all need is love like a flower needs water, but it’s not worth it if the water is poison.

Life is short. There is no point in letting someone manipulate you. There is no way around the fact that it will hurt for a while, especially if you were very connected with the other individual.

There won’t ever be a person or an article to convince you to let go.

Ultimately, you alone will decide your fate.

Leaving might just be the best decision you ever make for yourself.

Allowing yourself to grow as a person will always be beneficial. It does not make you selfish and it does not make yourself weak to be solo.

I am aware that there are many different cases of what a toxic relationship is, and unfortunately some of these situations could lead to violence within the pair.

Although that isn’t what this article is necessarily about, I do want to say that each and every one of you deserve the world.

I am aware there can be life-threatening obstacles in some cases, but I do

want to give my heart out to those who need it.

The following number is a hotline for whomever is in a abusive relationship:

1 (800) 524-4765. Please know that there are people here for you and who will stand with you. You can do it.

Michelle Cortez & Samhitha Tumkur | The Phoenix

The consequences of arming teachers

by Ambika Vaidya Staff Writer

In the wake of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, there have been waves of gun reform suggestions, including one from President Trump.

According to NBC, Trump supports arming teachers with guns. In case a gunman enters a classroom and opens fire on a school campus, his theory is that the teacher could shoot the gunman before the gunman has a chance to hurt anyone.

According to CNN, on Wednesday, March 7, Florida lawmakers passed a legislation that both raised the legal age to buy firearms to 21 years and gave Florida teachers permission to come to school bearing arms.

Theoretically, this sounds like a great plan.

Teachers get to be superheroes, save the day and no one will get hurt except the “bad guy.”

However, what the President and the Florida House did not stop to think was that teachers aren’t superheroes. They are educators, mentors and can be heroes in every aspect of their teaching field, but teachers are not soldiers.

Furthermore, a gun is not a super weapon. It won’t automatically point at the bad guy and shoot them.

In the spur of the moment, if teachers need to shoot the gunman, they need to steady their arms and make their aim steady and sure to keep the bullet from hitting their own students instead.

Even when brandishing a gun, going out into the open and facing the gunman can pose a huge danger.

If the gunman shoots the teacher before, the students are now both in terrible danger with the gunman directly in their classroom and without a teacher.

The chaos of a school shooting could result in a bullet going astray from the teacher’s gun and hitting the wrong person, ending up with both the teacher and gunman going to prison.

Apart from being teachers, these men and women have lives outside the classroom and the school. They have their own

kids, their families.

Why would they die sacrificing themselves for someone else’s children and leave their own kids parentless and heartbroken?

No one should readily expect teachers to be a martyr for their students.

The audacity the President has, to naturally assume that arming teachers will be the best solution and disregard all the glaring mistakes and dangers in his proposal, is unbelievable.

Now, consider a scenario where the teacher is not the hero. Suppose the teacher is the gunman. It is a scary thought, but teachers, after all, are humans, just like students. The SDHS gunman was also human.

According to CNN, he was a nineteen-year old teenager.

He was adopted and then he had lost both his adoptive parents, too. He was also bullied and suffered from severe depression.

Students do not know what goes on in their teachers’ personal lives. For all they know, a teacher could be suffering from bad days too. They could be facing personal problems at home, feeling stressed out and unwell, and worst of all, facing an uncooperative class.

If the teacher had a gun in his or her bolster, the

sudden spurt of anger might lead them to open fire in class.

What then?

According to CNN, on February 28, a teacher from a Georgian high school, barricaded his class and opened fire through a window—fortunately, no student was hurt. The point is that this teacher was crazy enough to pull out his gun in class.

This proves that not all teachers can be one hundred percent trusted all the time, like not all people can be trusted all the time. According to the Washington Post, a gun-trained teacher in California accidentally set off his gun in class on March 13, injuring one student. Even though this was not done intentionally, it still highlights a glaring issue with the arming teachers policy.

Guns are weapons of mass-destruction. They have no place in a classroom filled with innocent students. In the blink of an eye, they can set off and injure or take away the life of a living, breathing soul.

To respond to President Trump’s proposal and the Florida legislation, giving a teacher a gun is not only putting an enormous responsibility on their shoulders and simply as-

suming that they will take it willingly but also a dangerous move.

The Florida legislation simply eliminated all the good it did by raising the legal age of purchasing firearms, when it also allowed the arming of teachers.

This does nothing to protect the students in the case of a school shooting. In fact, it puts them in greater danger of being shot even when there isn’t an actual school shooting.

Handing teachers guns is not the way to reduce gun violence in schools.

If we truly want to significantly reduce the amount of school shootings that take place in this nation, all of us have to come together and vehemently advocate for tighter security in schools, more help and counseling for the mentally ill.

Assault rifles, semi-automatic weapons, should be banned. Every type of rifle, with the exception of hunting rifles, should be prohibited to the general public.

People with a professional hunting license should be subjected to a thorough background check before being allowed to purchase a hunting rifle.

Together, as a nation and community, it is essen-

tial we come together and put people’s lives far ahead of guns.

If we cannot bring ourselves to this, if we still defend guns by saying “It’s the person, not the gun,” then unfortunately, we will be able to do nothing significant.

People may not believe so, but it is all about the guns. A mentally ill person brandishing a knife would not be able so much harm as he would be able to do with a gun. Guns are weapons of mass destruction and have no place especially in a school.

Additionally, time is of the essence. There have already been numerous school shootings in Michigan, Alabama (one elementary school shooting and the other at a university within just a week of each other) and Maryland, just weeks after the Parkland shooting.

It is crucial that we implement gun law reforms immediately. If we cannot bring ourselves to do even this much, then unfortunately, the shootings at Stoneman Douglas, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Umpqua, and Columbine will most definitely not be the last mass school shootings the United States will face.

Special Feature 6

April 6, 2018

vhyr Gun Control: From the Perspe A letter from

The Students Sparking Change

By Sophia Pulido, Sydney Keller, Sydney Sharp

Emma Gonzalez After the school shooting at Marjory Stone Douglas High School, senior Emma Gonzalez was asked by a woman from the school board to present a speech at the subsequent rally. Since then, she’s been using her platform to advocate for gun legislation. During all of this, she’s been mocked by politicians, insulted based on her appearance and she’s still going strong. Gonzalez has inspired a generations to stand up and confron the issue of gun control.

Before winter break this school year, there was a lockdown at Frem and I were inside the classroom when somebody came over the lo ing, “Fremont is on lockdown. This is not a drill.” I probably would didn’t sound as if he just ran a mile. My stomach dropped, my teac windows, and built the barricade. I started to shake sitting behind school. Not my school. Not my school.” We didn’t hear gunshots b moving desks upstairs I winced. A lot of thoughts went through m was just loud noises from the construction next to us. The fear an days. This was a tiny fraction of what the students in Florida felt. I of fear. Every time there is a mass shooting it is all over the media People are upset for a week and then the conversation about gun c politicians push possible legislation for gun reform to the back of lose their lives because of the government’s ineptitude. If you bel It WILL happen again, and again, and again. Mass shootings have ment is failing us. The politicians that have power to make actual the National Rifle Association, in exchange for their silence and c Do something, do anything to ensure this never happens again. I believe this because I am the product of drills, barricades, silence shooting generation. I thought, “not my school” but that’s probab this occurred. This centerspread reflects how many of the student ers, and the activists at Major Stoneman Douglas High School. I b of America. We will make the change. - Alexis Kleinberg

David Hogg David Hogg, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has dedicated every day since February 14th to the birth and expansion of the #NeverAgain movement. Four nights after the shooting which left 17 of his classmates and teachers dead, Hogg and a group of friends met at Cameron Kasky’s house (a fellow MDHS student) and began coordinating interviews with news outlets and meetings with legislators. Hogg’s dedication and passion to this cause have allowed him to deliver heartbreaking and moving messages to his nearly 600,000 Twitter followers and anyone else who has heard about the #NeverAgain movement.

Sarah Chadwick Since the shooting at MDHS, junior Sarah Chadwick has become one of the most prominent members of the #Never Again movement. Her combined use of clever memes and fiery remarks on Twitter have helped her to build an impressive social media platform. Chadwick has also become one of the most popular Parkland students through interviews with large news outlets such as Teen Vogue and New York Times.

Cameron Kasky

Cameron Kasky, a Parkland shooting survivor, is best known for debating with Senator Marco Rubio. Rubio is a pro-gun politician who has received excessive campaign funding from the NRA. In his heated debate with Rubio, Kasky called upon Rubio to cut ties with the NRA which encouraged people to question the funding and stances of their own representatives. Since then, Kasky has been advocating for gun control alongside his classmates.

Gun control around the world & arming teachers

By Katherine Davis & Guy Reuven

In a movement started by survivors of the school shooting, the demand for better gun regulation has become louder and louder. Yet some pro-gun activists claim that stricter regulations and laws will not curb the mass shootings that have become a staple of current American society. As America is fighting amongst itself over Second Amendment rights, looking to other countries on how firearms and mass shootings are handled would provide a necessary dialogue to the conversation on gun reform.

One country with extremely low gun violence is Japan. This is possible because their approach has stark differences to America’s. In the United States, the Second Amendment allows people the right to own guns, however Japan has a history of demilitarization after World War II. If someone in Japan wishes to own a gun they can only buy shotguns and air rifles. Yet, before they can make a purchase, they must go through a background check and a mental health evaluation. The process is extensive, as it also includes written tests, shooting-range tests, and an all day class.

We can also look at countries with culture similar to ours such as Australia. The country had taken hardline gun control measures after the Port Arthur Massacre in 1996 where, according to the Huffington Post, a lone gunman had killed 35 people and injured 23 more. In response, Prime Minister Howard banned all automatic and semi-automatic weapons. There was a buy back of banned weapons along with safety courses, stronger license protocol, and required registration.

The most telling thing about all these examples is the swift attempts to prevent further tragedies. However in the past half a year there have already been three large mass shootings in America. CNN had compiled a list of the 20 deadliest mass shootings in US History. Three of them have occurred in the past six months. This includes the Sutherland Springs Church shooting, the Las Vegas massacre, and the most recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Students across the nation are coming together to demand stricter regulation of guns

due to the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida. However, the government hasn’t been focused on making stricter gun laws. Instead, President Trump and many Republicans have suggested arming teachers in school. The intent was to make students feel safer, however the students at Parkland and across the United States don’t see it that way.

According to the Washington Post, arming teachers will only result in more guns in schools, a problem that only perpetuates gun violence. For example, recently, at Seaside high school in Monterey County, a teacher accidentally discharged a loaded gun in his classroom, injuring a student with the shrapnel.

Arming teachers is not only dangerous, but it changes the expectation of what becoming a teacher entails. If legislation passes allowing teachers to carry weapons, the future educators of America will be burdened with the responsibility of handling a firearm, instead of giving 100 percent of their focus to educating the future generation. Enforcing this kind of legislation also exploits teacher’s morals. Owning a gun is a personal choice, not something that should be forced upon educators.

The debate on arming teachers is still ongoing, but has blown up to ridiculous proportions as it is being considered a legitimate solution to America’s gun crisis. Yet it only fuels the problem. Guns do not belong in school and the government shouldn’t be the ones trying to put them there.

Looking to what other countries have done in response to such tragedies, America’s response to another mass shooting - especially one in schools where children are being targeted - has been extremely weak and nonsensical. Since the government isn’t making a change, the children of this generation are. Maybe it’s time for America to take a step back and look around. Other countries have already taken the steps to prevent mass shootings, so why haven’t we?

Photos courtesy of Twitter, People, New York Post, Zimbio, Citizens Stream Media

Special Feature

April 6, 2018

ective of Fremont Students fqwf

7

the editor

mont during office hours. My teacher, another student, oudspeaker in a shaky and out of breath voice announcdn’t have been so scared if the voice over the loudspeaker cher’s face lost color. We locked the doors, closed the d the desks, thinking to myself, “Not my school. Not my but every time we heard a loud sound from the students my head. Ten minutes later it was over and we found out it nd the empty feeling in my stomach didn’t go away for two I can’t even imagine. No student deserves to feel that kind a. But every time the same exactsame pattern emerges. control slowly dies down, media coverage lightens, and f their desks. As a result of this inaction more children will lieve that this was the last school shooting, you are wrong. e become a norm in America. The United States governchange are being purchased by interest groups, mainly collusion. The students of America are now begging you: no longer believe that school is a safe place. I no longer e, and darkness. I am the product of living in the school bly what many kids and parents in Florida thought before ts here at Fremont feel about gun control, arming teachbelieve strongly in the brave and wickedly smart students

Drawing by Anubha Gupta

Photo Courtesy of People.com ZIMBIO.com The New York Post ccma.cat.com Miranda Kushner-Perez Momina Nadeem

Open Carry: The overlooked approach

By Cres Hohmann

In the aftermath of the Florida shooting, the activism by the students sparked the debate about gun control once again. In light of the recent student-led protests, The people of America have asked for change and lawmakers struggling to comply. However, one debate goes under the radar, the debate about open carry. Open carry is the idea that people should be allowed to openly show firearms in public locations. Although the vast majority of states allow some form of open carry, California is one of the only states to ban any type of open carry, according to Giffords Law Center. Therefore, I propose legislation that allows all legal gun owners to be able to openly carry their firearms in public places.

The data on open carry is inconclusive at best. There seems to be a fundamental disagreement as to whether open carry is beneficial or not, for two reasons. First, a direct study on the topic is nearly impossible, simply due to the sheer amount of variables that affect gun control. Secondly, according to the Washington Post, the NRA helped pass an amendment in the 1990s which essentially cut off all government research on gun control. With two decades worth of government data and analysis gone, it becomes very difficult to find a direct gun control study without a plethora of flaws.

However, there is research that has been done that is reasonable and accurate. This research does not directly reference open carry and can be used in conjunction with logic to build an argument. Overall, direct studies done on open carry are generally not accurate, but other studies not directly related to open carry are more likely to be accurate.

The logic behind gun control is very simple and reasonable. If a person wanted to rob a bank or shoot up a store, they would want to do it with the least resistance possible. Therefore, they would be more likely to shoot up a store with people that don’t have guns. Guns pose a threat to criminals that want to infringe on our peace. I would imagine that any criminal would be worried about a person with a gun ready to stop them if they tried to rob a store. Indeed, according to the Pew Research Center, gun violence has been on a downward trend since 1994. To claim that the 40 states allowing open carry is the entire reason for the decline in gun violence would be a stretch, but it is reasonable to assume that open carry did play a part in that decline.

One of the most pressing concerns for people against implementing open carry is that violent crime would increase.

They believe that criminals would be encouraged to carry weapons, turning a simple robbery into a murder. However, in 2016, five epidemiologists (people who research causes and patterns of injury in humans), came together and released a paper which examined the number of crimes committed with a gun in Pittsburgh in 2008. According to the study, 79 percent of guns that were involved in crimes were stolen or illegally bought. This means that open carry would not affect criminals, who would have guns anyway. Open carry does not encourage criminals to use more guns, they already have access to them. The open carry law would mostly affect law-abiding citizens, who would have a chance to defend themselves if they came in contact with a dangerous criminal. The amount of “bad guys with guns” would stay constant and amount of “good guys with guns” would go up to match that number.

The fundamental reason that California is so resistant against open carry is because the vast population of people are afraid of guns. They are taught that guns can only be used aggressively, to slaughter innocent people. This ultimately gives criminals more power, because they can continue to kill and hurt people unchecked. We are unprotected and unsafe, giving criminals a chance to hurt us with guns and ready to place just as much blame on the tool as the wielder. My brother once told me that “You can’t fight fire with fire, everything will burn.” However in a nation where guns are the fire, the only way to fight fire is with fire and the statistics and logic show that everything won’t burn as badly as you think.

Forcing our voices to be heard

By Momina Nadeem & Guppy Uppal

The massive school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, has brought attention to the issue of gun control yet again. According to CNN, this has been the 18th school shooting this year and we are done with this. Over the course of 3 months, over 50 people have been shot in school shootings alone.

Many people are wondering what the government is doing to solve this issue, but here is the truth: they are doing nothing. They are sitting in their big chairs, sending out nothing but prayers and apologizes to victims. I think there is a substantial amount of evidence that proves tweeting “thoughts and prayers” to the victims of these heinous killings does absolutely nothing.

As a result of the Parkland shooting, teenagers all across United States are protesting for stricter nationwide gun control laws. On March 14, 2018 there was a National Student Walkout all across America. For 17 minutes students walked out and protested on the streets in honor of the 17 victims of the school shooting in Florida.

By displaying civil disobedience and walking out of their classes for seventeen minutes, students all over the country demonstrated what they wanted to happen in modern day America.

For me, being part of the National Walkout was a proud moment because I finally stood up for what I believed in. I didn’t think of the consequences because one absence on my record was not important compared to the cause I was supporting. That moment when I got up, walked out of class, and protested for something that is an impor-

tant issue to me and our current generation felt more important. This is just the beginning of what is coming next from the younger generations. This National Walkout is just the first step to getting what we want: stricter gun control laws across the nation.

Sunnyvale students have done a lot to contribute to this national event. Homestead High School students also marched with some FHS students all the way to the Sunnyvale City Council to protest in support of gun control. I was one of the students who left school to march with the Homestead students. Although it was pouring on the way to the city council, we all pushed through and continued to demand that our voices be heard.

Americans want a change and we all are ready to make it happen. The protests and marches are the first step to getting what we want to make America better.

The day that gun restrictions are implemented into the system will go down in history as the day a great change was made by the American people.

“Do we allow the children to tell us that we should pass a law that says no homework? Or you finish high school at the age of 12 just because they want it so? No. The adults make the laws because we have the age, we have the wisdom, and we have the experience,” Florida representative Elizabeth Porter said in response to the student-led protests.

This reasoning is not only flawed, but also offensive to the students that underwent trauma associated with the shooting.

“There’s people with guns going onto high school campuses and shooting us, and killing us,” Fremont High School senior and National Walkout Day partici-

pant Shannon Lund said. “If you don’t think we have a right to say something about that, then that’s utterly ridiculous.”

What pro-gun conservatives fail to understand is that this issue is not a matter of politics, or a matter of liberal versus conservative; it is, on a very fundamental level, a matter of life and death. No student should have to experience hiding behind a barricade of desks, fearing for their lives.

Time and time again, the actions of lawmakers show us that they simply don’t care. Every time a school shooting happens, it is quickly forgotten and nothing is done. Discussion about gun law reform quickly dissipates, until the next shooting. The March for our Lives movement is meant to enforce the idea that we are not letting it go this time.

“I think it’s really important for everyone to become politically active so that we can make a change,” Lund said. “Because if it dies out, then nothing will really happen. We need to actually take a stand.”

What these adults also fail to understand is that kids grow up and that kids are growing up resenting them for not taking their voices and actions seriously.

Approximately three quarters of all high school students will be 18 by the time that the 2020 elections occur, and some of us will be old enough by the time the midterm elections take place this November.

So, to everyone that values their guns over the lives of their children, I say thank you. Thank you for being perfect examples of who not to be. Thank you for mobilizing an entire generation of millions of people who may be children now, but will soon be adults who will be able to vote and be part of the lawmaking process, against your cause.

Ignoring us now is nothing but a temporary way to delay the inevitable.

Opinion “Philanthropists” 8

by Samhitha Tumkur News Editor

Through their large donations to charities, and maybe their own foundations, billionaires are awarded the title of philanthropist, gaining the respect of millions all over the world.

These donations often give the wealthy benefits like charitable tax deductions, mortgage interest deductions and capital gains.

Because of this, the rich are often allowed to pay less taxes than many of their employees.

Take Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos for example. These rich people are awarded the title of “philanthropist” because of their extravagant donations to various charities and causes.

Although it is commendable that America’s one percent donates millions to charities every year, where this vast amount of money goes is ambiguous at best. In 2017, Bill Gates donated five percent of his net worth, making it one of the largest donations he had made in 17 years according to Bloomberg. This large sum of money was assumed to be going to his own foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

This philanthropic trend is apparent with many of the billionaires in the United States, but despite

whatever good they do, the public is unaware of what they may be doing with the enormous amount of power in their hands.

According to Time, Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, donated over $33 million (about 1000 scholarships) in January of this year to TheDream.us, a nonprofit organization directed toward sending Dreamers to college. $33 million is a large sum of money for many of the people in the country; however, this is only about .00028% of his net worth which is currently $130,900,000,000.

This would be equivalent of someone who is worth 1 million donating about $280.

Comparing Bezos’ generosity to his super rich counterparts like Buffett and Gates would be a stretch.

Bezos’ company is infamously known for underpaying their workers and forcing them to work large shifts compared to other warehouse companies in the United States. Due to the cruel way that Bezos manages his workers, would it even be appropriate to consider this man a “philanthropist”?

If Bezos wanted to prove that he is a philanthropist, his money would be better directed toward increasing his employees’ wages and helping them work less grueling hours. However, Bezos prefer to donate to an outside charity, which would give tax deductible benefits rather than raise his employee’s pay and ultimately reduce the amount of money his company makes. This clearly shows that Bezos’ donation to

a timerelevant charity like supporting those in DACA was just a ploy to gain more publicity in preparation for Amazon’s new products.

However Bezos’ tactics to gain favorable PR is nothing new. Ever since the gilded age in the 1900’s, owners of large corporations have been donating to different charities and have become patrons of arts to overshadow the activities that were happening in their companies.

For example, in the 1900’s, the founder of the Carnegie Steel Company and a well-known robber baron, Andrew Carnegie, was known for forcing his employees to work 12 hour work days and paying them under a living wage. Toward the end of his life, Carnegie donated to different organizations, even founding his own institution to fund scientific research.

Similar to the Carnegie Steel Company, companies like Amazon sacrifice the welfare of their employees to gain more money.

The problem is not that the wealthy donate to charities. Rather, donating millions to charity by using money earned from a company that forces their employees to work long hours and underpays them, is the problem. Philanthropic deeds have become merely a band-aid covering the wealthy’s misdeeds and problematic policies they have within their companies. By donating a small percent of their wealth, billionaires like Bezos can shield the public from issues in their companies and gain favorable PR. Mira Dhingra| The Phoenix

April 6, 2018

Parental influence

by Vivien Su

Arts & Entertainment Editor

The bond between parent and child is unlike any other. To the average kid, parents play a very integral role and are viewed as inspiring role models.

Indeed, parents can be some of the most amazing people because after all, we wouldn’t be here without them. But to what extent should parents be able to influence their kids? Is there a fine line and what exactly is that?

In all honesty, there are no clear cut answers and cultural backgrounds can play a huge role in this.

However, there are some unanimous restrictions and rules that should be enforced when it comes to a parent and child relationship.

I strongly believe that there is a huge disparity between positive and negative motivation.

There’s a common phenomenon that the parents who tend to be overbearing like to relive themselves through their child. These types of parents tend to ignore the needs of their child and as a result, the child does not develop their individuality because they are constantly under a shadow and they never get to step into the limelight. That, I believe, is one of the prime examples of negative encouragement. There are too many examples, even on our very

own campuses, where kids are pushed into pursuing things that they may not even like. Too often, some parent simply cannot empathize with my situation.

It’s times like these when a child has to take the initiative and display a sense of civil disobedience. Life is too short to be living a life that’s not your own.

Nowadays, it seems as if every parent has some sort of role in their child’s academics and lifestyle. On one end of the spectrum, you have the laid back parent and on the other end, you have the one who cares too much. In between, there is an endless variety. A great parent would be right in the middle—strict when they need to be but understanding at the same time.

But in reality, a great parent knows what works for their child best—they know their child’s limits and understands when they have to be overbearing and when they simply have to listen.

Coming from an affectionate family, I strongly believe that if every parent understood their child as best as they could, that might be a stepping stone of breaking through the barrier for kids who are hesitant to ask parents for advice.

With the changing times, many view their parents as outdated or simply put, irrelevant. How could they possibly understand the issues that we’re facing today? I would argue and go back to the age old cliché to say that parents were just like us some time ago.

Of course the context may have drastically changed, but the thoughts, input and experiences that our parents have to offer are sometimes worthwhile.

It all starts with the willingness to ask and listen. Sit down with them

every so often and talk about your issues. If we bottle them up, no one can help us, not even ourselves. Even if it seems as if no one can help, expressing your inner emotions always relieve the stress that they create.

Negative encouragement is when, I believe, that parental advice should be ignored. Parents, like these do cross the line of the extent of their authority. In no way is it easy to recognize, one just has to be willing to ask the tough questions and take action afterward.

Ask yourself: what do I want? Do I need to change?

Or am I happy with myself?

Is what my parent saying for my benefit? Will it make me happy?

Sometimes you just need to have the audacity to try new things. Of course, if the action does not enhance your life even more, you have to come up with a new strategy.

Parental advice, whether “good” or “bad,” should be taken seriously before you decide if you should follow it or not. Depending on your own situation and what you want your life to look like, parental advice may or may not be useful. What our parents do deserve is our attention and our response.

If no communication between the two sides is made, misunderstandings will continue to exist.

Kids themselves, have to be willing to reflect and evaluate whether or not the advice is helpful or not.

Sometimes, yes, and more than often, no. Kids lack the ability to empathize with their parents and instead of absorbing the information handed to them, they tend to blame everything on their parents. At the end of the day, they want the best for us.

Dear Esteban,

Why do motorcyclists dip so much when turning? Isn’t it dangerous?

From, Unfocused Dear Unfocused,

At least the motorcyclists are going somewhere, unlike you if you don’t stop worrying about this and start concentrating on your studies.

Dear Esteban,

I always put myself last and always think of other’s needs instead of my own. How do I put myself before others?

From, Self-Sacrificial Dear Self-Sacrificial,

Ask yourself, are you willing to have your life defined by other people? If so, it is a worthy goal. But if you don’t, remember that your happiness is worth the same amount as others. In the end, making yourself happy brings the same amount of goodness in the world in comparison to making others happy. Is it worth all your pain? Are they there for you the way you’re there for them? If the answer is no, then you have to start to love yourself. Accept that you cannot continually be there for others if you aren’t even there for yourself. You can’t carry the weight of the world on your shoulders; they weren’t built for that. It’s okay to be selfish now and then.

Dear Esteban,

If two vegans are fighting is it still considered beef?

From, A Vegan Who Likes to Fight Dear Vegan,

Only if they eat each other.

Arts & Entertainment 9

April 6, 2018

Steve Lacy: The Underrated musician

by Patrick Ramos Staff Writer

Steve Lacy is a singer, songwriter, musician and producer. He is on the band The Internet and has produced music with Tyler the Creator, J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar, just to name a few. For a mere 19-year-old, this is truly incredible.

Born and raised in Compton, he was surrounded by music, especially thanks to his mother, Valerie Lacy, who pushed him to attend a jazz school.

Once there, he got in touch with people who saw his potential. Soon after, he produced six tracks on the album Ego Death for The Internet at the age of 16. The album was nominated for a Grammy and since then, his career has taken off.

The Internet consists of musicians like Matt Martians, Patrick Paige II, Christopher Smith, Steve Lacy and lead vocalist Syd the Kyd. Patrick Paige II and Christopher Smith have only worked on music with The Internet according to Genius. Matt Martians, however, is one of the founders of the musical group Odd Future, which has members like Casey Veggies, Frank Ocean and Tyler the Creator. Syd the Kyd is also a member of

Odd Future and has worked with countless other artists like Daniel Caesar, Mac Miller, Tyler the Creator, Vince Staples and her own album, Fin, which features Atlanta rapper 6lack and Steve Lacy. The band is filled with very underrated talent that all have worked on music with big name artists.

Lacy’s experience of working with some of the biggest names in the music industry at his age is very impressive. Surprisingly, instead of making music in with studio equipment Lacy prefers using his iPhone with apps like GarageBand. Almost everything from the bass to the drums to his voice are all recorded on his iPhone.

It is just him, his guitar and his iPhone in a recording studio. He also did a Ted Talk about using all the resources you have to your advantage like he did with his iPhone. From making beats on his iPhone 6 to using a dongle on his iPhone X, he has produced songs like 911/Mr. Lonely and Glitter for Tyler the Creator’s album, Flower Boy, alongside Frank Ocean, J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar. He has also worked with Kali Uchis, Isaiah Rashad and Goldlink, and produced Big Sean and Jhene Aiko’s collaboration

project, TWENTY88. And as of recently he has just came out with a new song, Just a Stranger in Kali Uchis new album that has yet to release as of now. After graduating from high school about a year and a half ago, Steve has had more time to pur-

with famous R&B artist SZA, has had great reviews on her EP as Steve and her have great chemistry. Steve’s biggest strength is pulling artists out of their comfort zones into the style of funk and soul.

Perhaps Lacy’s best

sue his passion for music.

After creating Pride with Kendrick (on his awardwinning album, DAMN), he is currently producing The Internet’s second album.

Recently, Lacy produced the EP for Ravyn Lenae’s, Crush.

Ravyn, who recently toured

work was his own demo, titled Steve Lacy’s Demo, which was released in 2017.

It received rave reviews for having very mature instrumentals. Even though all the instrumentals came from an iPhone, they sound extremely professional.

Throughout his EP, he dives into the psyche of teenage love. One of the songs, Ryd, is a classic return to convincing a girl to get intimate in your car. The song Looks is about warning others that no matter how much you like a boy or girl based on their appearance, their inner beauty represents them as a person.

Another song, Thangs, is about doing whatever that special someone wants and Haterloving is about loving your hater as much as your lover.

Lastly, Some is about pursuing love and preventing something bad from happening. Each song has some incredible instrumentals with Lacy’s guitar and bass controlling the beat.

Another one of Lacy’s releases, called C U Girl, has over 2.5 million plays on Soundcloud. The song is about an a young musician, like Lacy, who wants to be with this girl. Unfortunately, they are separated by different paths. He has an abundance of music off of SoundCloud which vary from R&B to even rock. Lacy has only two music videos so far with Some receiving over 2.2 million views.

Lacy’s age allows him

to have time to grow as an artist and person. He has already amassed tremendous skill. His deep lyrics, great guitar, drum rhythms and bass flow have allowed him to become a huge star.

And yet, he is not nearly as famous as other young R&B artists like Khalid and Daniel Caesar. Steve Lacy’s style is so different from the rest of the pack. Khalid takes this very modern approach with a lot of hip-hop and trap influence and Daniel Caesar takes a more soulful and gospel style of music.

Steve Lacy resembles the style that Childish Gambino took more recently with his career with a more neo and punk influenced bass and guitar that are packaged with some touches of Jazz.

Just like his counterparts, Steve Lacy deserves a lot of attention for his amazing musicality and his great heart.

Photos courtesy of Scrimex, Spotify, SMART Exchange, Reddit, Wikimedia Commons , Pixabay and PngImg

The world’s largest prime number

by Veeryan Bhatia Staff Writer

As of December 2017, The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) had once again discovered a new world’s largest prime number. Being over 23 million digits long, the number 2^77,232,917-1, was officially declared the world’s largest prime number on February 2018.

What is interesting about this number is that it is not like any of the other prime numbers that one might have previously

seen. Instead of a simple number, such as 11 or 123, this number is written as a power of 2 minus 1. These kinds of prime numbers were named after Marin Mersenne and are formally known as Mersenne primes.

This includes numbers such as 3, which is equivalent to 2^1-1 and 7, which is just 2^3-1. These kinds of prime numbers are important because they make searching for larger primes a lot easier.

This is because instead of searching through all of the numbers to check and see if they are prime or not, only the numbers that are 1 less than a power of 2 need to be searched. In fact, searching for Mersenne primes is so much more efficient that 9 out of the 10 largest prime

numbers discovered are Mersenne primes.

GIMPS searches through this kind of prime number to discover larger ones. It has a main website where anyone can download their Mersenne prime search software, known as Prime95. Prime95 works on a concept known as a computer network. It has a main server which communicates with computers that run Prime95. Prime95 runs a computer program which searches through numbers 1 less than powers of 2 and checks whether or not they are prime numbers.

Not only do the computers running Prime95 communicate with the main server, but they also communicate amongst each other, making the entire process of discovering the new largest prime number a lot faster.

Although Mersenne primes and GIMPS have been dominating the “battle” to find the world’s largest prime number, other kinds of prime numbers

have also been part of the race. For example, the eighth largest prime number is 10223 × 2^31,172,165 + 1 and the fourteenth largest prime number is 168451 × 2^19,375,200 + 1. Something interesting about the two numbers above is that both of them can be written in the form k × 2^n+1, where k and n are positive integers.

These kinds of primes are known as Proth primes.

Similar to Mersenne primes, they make the process of discovering the largest prime number a lot more efficient. Unfortunately, GIMPS does not search for Proth primes. Its range is only limited to Mersenne primes. Instead, a website known as Prime Grid searches for Proth primes as well as other types of prime numbers. Though Prime Grid does not hold the spot for finding the world’s largest prime number, it will continue to fight for the top spot.

Of course, finding the largest prime number is great for fun and one’s mathematical curiosity.

But what relevance does

it truly add? It turns out that prime numbers play a huge role in E-commerce.

Prime numbers keep the RSA encryption algorithm secure. The RSA encryption algorithm is an algorithm in charge of personal security in electronic transactions.

According to Slate, “RSA encryption, one of the standard ways to scramble data online, requires the user (perhaps your bank or Amazon) to come up with two big primes and multiply them together.

Assuming the encryption is implemented correctly, the difficulty of factoring the resulting product is the only thing between hackers and

your credit card number.”

In essence, the larger the prime number the more secure the algorithm and your personal data during these online transactions.

Ultimately, prime numbers allow society to conduct complex transactions while securing our personal data.

Arts & Entertainment

10

On March 16, the revolutionizing film Love, Simon debuted in over 2,500 theaters nationwide.

Based on the novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, by Becky Albertalli, Love, Simon is one of the first gay, comingof-age romantic comedies to hit the big screen. The movie starts with the protagonist, Simon Spiers, describing his fairly normal life.

However, Simon has one huge secret: he is gay. He does not plan to share his secret with anyone, but when he gains a crush on an anonymous online user, he learns about loving and finds himself.

The cast includes Nick Robinson as Simon Spier; Katherine Langford as Leah Burke, Simon’s friend;

Logan Miller as Martin, the antagonist of the movie and many more stars. Everyone perfectly portrays their characters by elaborately pulling off lines that made the audience burst into laughter or tear up.

Love, Simon certainly does not fall short of humor.

Throughout the movie, there was a great amount of one liners as a form of comedic relief to counteract the more heavy scenes including the struggles of not being accepted by the people you love. This made the whole storyline more appealing to watch, especially since the topic of a closeted teen coming out can be intense.

I personally thought this movie was a tearjerker.

It seemed that every couple minutes, I would find myself crying either happy or sad tears over something that isn’t even worth crying over. Love, Simon definitely knew how to touch the audience’s hearts, leaving no one in sight with dry eyes.

The soundtrack of Love, Simon had lots of hit songs, along with

some timeless ones. A mix between R&B and pop songs were featured such as Love Lies by Khalid and Friends by BloodPop and Justin Bieber. Of course, the movie did feature older jams including, I Wanna Dance with Somebody by Whitney Houston and Born This Way

by Lady Gaga. All the songs featured were great choices that made me want to dance in my seat.

Even though the movie had many positives, I felt like there could have been more emphasis on Simon’s romantic relationships since this is a “rom-com.” I will admit that there was a brief scene in which Simon attempted to flirt with a guy, but that was about it.

Granted, Simon was not out of the closet, so I can understand that there was not much of an opportunity for him to get romantically involved with others. However, the lack of romance was compensated with the loveable connections Simon had with his friends and family.

Though Love, Simon seems like another romance

April 6, 2018 movie, it brings attention to the everyday struggles that the LGBTQ community has to push through. There were scenes in which several classmates were making fun of another gay student.

Also, a part of the movie was dedicated to how homosexuals have to come out to their friends and families.

This part of the film brought up the idea that people should be treated as equals and that heterosexuals and homosexuals should not be separated, but seen as a whole.

When director Greg Berlanti was creating the film’s vision, there was nothing he could compare his idea to because protagonists in other films have never been gay, according to The Daily Beast.

The idea was “[to have] the charm of Ferris Bueller, the identity crisis of Cady Herron, the from-afar crush of Samantha Baker, and the big-swing grand gestures of The Fault in Our Stars or Say Anything.”

However, the concept of a gay main character coming out to the world and

the struggles with it has never been done before. By creating this film, Berlanti is changing the way the world sees and accepts people, therefore, making history Despite the fact that there have been movies and television shows revolving the idea of gay characters in the last couple of years, none of them have been publicized the way Love, Simon has. Though the topic of being homosexual is brought up, they are not about the struggles of coming out to the world and learning to deal with it, which makes those productions different from Love, Simon.

Personally, I love watching romance movies and the fact that Love, Simon was also a comedy made the movie even better. Love, Simon was exceptional in all categories, with it sending a great message and touching everyone’s hearts.

teens of america love love, simon By genavieve Marquez, staff writer

Photo courtesy of Emaze and MyCuteGraphics

The unexpected return of vinyl records

by Manavi Chandra

Arts and Entertainment Editor

There are many ways to listen to music, but one of the most iconic ways is through the vinyl album.

Vinyl albums reached popularity in the 1980s and the 1990s. There were many experiences and reasons that vinyl records were popular.

Sometimes people would have loads of records as collectibles or to own fancy cover art. Even the process of listening to music was an experience within itself, as it includes physically placing the record into the player, moving the needle and rocking out.

But after the invention of the compact disc in the 1980s, vinyl records were slowly forgotten. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, 1.1 billion vinyl records were sold worldwide in 1981. Then sales plummeted with 450 million sales in 1989 and then 33 million in 1995. In 2006, sales were as low as three million.

However, sales have experienced a resurgence within the last couple of years. Billboard reported

this year that in 2017, sales increased by nine percent, at approximately 14.32 million records sold. The Beatles were the top-selling vinyl lps, along with Ed Sheeran, Amy Winehouse, Prince and the Revolution, the soundtrack for La La Land and Michael Jackson.

A reason for the continuous surge in record sales may be that today’s youth find decades old technology more appealing and they are collectibles that are never going to go away. Listening to the way music would have been through a record player completes the timewarp experience. And there are numerous companies that are vowing to bring the experience back today.

Sony was the biggest producer of vinyl records in the 1980s. However, the company marked vinyl records obsolete with the invention and rising popularity of CD and video cassette. After a 28 year hiatus, Sony had announced last year that they will bring back vinyl records. Now, other companies are beginning to join the bandwagon.

Panasonic already released a record player in 2016.

Bringing back the culture of vinyl brings the nostalgic sound quality that vinyl lovers claim cannot be heard in modern day mp3 players and other digital technologies.

“They are less compressed,” Ian Foster, an employee at Ralph’s Records said. “Compression is an audio processing technique that reduces loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds. The more compressed a song is, the quieter it is.”

Records also give a more intimate experience listening to music. Before the gramophone and the phonograph, music was widely perceived as a social event. People could gather at common places, such as concert halls, bandstands and clubs to listen to and enjoy music. However, the emergence of the gramophone and the phonograph in the 20th century caused a radical shift in the social aspect of life as people began to listen and enjoy music in their living rooms.

As a result, music changed

from being a social event to a personal experience as a majority of people demanded popular music due to the convenience that accompanied the records according to the Vinyl Factory.

Whereas in the modern age large groups are accustomed to listening to blaring rock and roll on stereos, listening to a record can make people feel more connected to their music and establish a personal ownership over it. Sometimes that sense of ownership would also come over the 18 x 18 pieces of artwork tacked on the front of it.

This massive shift has affected musicians alike.

Musicians were presented with the challenge of thinking in different perspectives with regard to how to compose their pieces. According to The Science of Rock and Roll, the exercise for composing live performance and record music is one of the challenges that musicians face. Many people could listen to different types of music in line with their preferences, but these massive shifts would often

result in misunderstanding of musicians, since the listeners may not understand the message in the records, especially messages continually etched onto them.

Vinyl records also offer hidden gems that enhance the experience. By the 1970s and 1980s, these hidden inscriptions often made their way onto the record by the hands of the artists themselves. Oftentimes secret messages would etched onto the records itself and iconize it. For example, rockband Nirvana’s 1988 single Love Birds reads, “Why don’t you trade those guitars for shovels?” Nonsense, aphorisms and provocative phrasing customized records, which added to its popularity according to the Vinyl Factory.

Vinyl records forever revolutionized the music industry and will continue to be popular. Their qualities are what set themselves apart from the rest as the public will continue to find new ways of loving them.

sports Tiger Woods putts himself to the top

11

April 6, 2018

by Suryan Bhatia Sports Editor

Tiger Woods is arguably the most famous golf player. Even those who don’t know much about golf have heard of Woods and his achievements. At age 15, Woods became the youngest winner of the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship; he also captured the next two Junior Amateur titles.

In 1997, a 21 year-old Woods won the Masters, making him the youngest player to ever win Masters. With his victory at the 2001 Masters, Woods became the first player to win consecutively the four major tournaments of golf—the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship, as stated by Encyclopedia Britannica. Woods won the U.S. Open in 2008, his last victory so far.

Woods’ lack of recent victories can be attributed to many factors. Right before the U.S. Open in 2008, Woods underwent knee surgery. Woods’ victory involved an 18-hole play-off round followed by a sud-

by Sean Abellera Staff Writer

Large crowds bring much excitement, as cash and reputations are at high stakes. Fans cheer for players up on the stage, each one deliberately using their skill and strategy. . . to play video games.

In recent times, competitive video games, or eSports, have become popular.

For the 2017 League of Legends World Championship, the finals had 60 million viewers. Whether eSports counts as a sport is debatable, however there is no denying the immense growth of the industry throughout the years.

Though simply defined as competitive gaming at a professional level, each eSports game has a complexity of its own. That being said, the more popular eSports tend to be teambased games, being played through many tournaments and leagues as the year progresses. This eventually leads up to one final event, much like any other traditional sport.

According to Kotaku, the concept of eSports

den-death play-off which aggravated the damage to his knee. Following the victory, Woods retired from the rest of the 2008 season. In 2011, Woods suffered a MCL sprain and Achilles tendon strain. The following year, he withdrew from the final round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship due to an injured Achilles tendon and suffered a back spasm. Over the next five years, back and nerve pains cause Woods to miss or withdraw from multiple competitions. Woods received back surgery in April 2017.

Other than his injuries, Woods suffered family problems, many of which were his fault. Following the revelations of his affair in 2009, Woods crashed his car into a fire hydrant. Over the next few months, Woods’ affairs with multiple women were revealed and he checked into a sex addiction clinic.

Following the completions of his rehabilitation program, many of his sponsors drop him as a player. Lastly, in May of 2017, Woods received a DUI.

first sprouted in October of 1972, with students from Stanford University hosting the first ever video game tournament using the game Spacewar! This concept gained traction; in 1980, a Space Invaders competition attracted nearly 10 thousand participants and received widespread attention.

From that point onward, with the introduction of the internet and PC gaming, eSports slowly formed to what it is now. Games such as first-person shooter (FPS) Quake and real-time strategy (RTS) StarCraft were influential during the late 90’s. Stanford University awarded winners with year-long subscriptions to Rolling Stones and by 1997, leagues like the Cyberathlete Professional League eventually handed out prize money worth around 15 thousand dollars.

The popularity of eSports began to rise, and it still rising. According to Business Insider, there was a total revenue of around 500 million dollars and about 320 million viewers in 2016. These numbers are projected to increase to 1.5 billion dollars and 600 million viewers by 2020.

On Jan. 25, 2018, Woods participated in the Farmers Insurance Open.

Over the four days of the tournament, he shot three under par, finishing in the top 23. He next played at the Genesis open, where he

shot six above par. At the Honda Classic, with an even par game, he placed 12th. At the Valspar Championship, he shot nine under par and placed in top two. Lastly, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he place in top five.

Woods is predicted to play at the 2018 Masters.

Tiger Woods’ career and past troubles are interesting. People who looked up to him are now playing with him. Those players occasionally even beat

TIGER Woods at the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational

Popular genres in the eSports industry tend to fall in four categories: fighting games, RTS, FPS and multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBAs). Some prominent eSports of 2017 included the StarCraft franchise, Overwatch, the Call of Duty franchise, Defense of the Ancients 2 (DotA 2), League of Legends (LoL) and the Street Fighter franchise.

While eSport players do not see earnings similar to those of traditional athletes, they could earn quite a lot.

Currently, DotA 2 player Kuro “Kuroky” Takhasomi of Team Liquid is the highest earning player.

Takhasomi earns about three and a half million dollars per year. In terms of teams, Team Liquid, after participating in 1155 tournaments, also tops the highest overall earnings at nearly 19 million dollars. From a single tournament, the highest prize pool was about 24.5 million dollars, belonging to The International 2017, an annual tournament for DotA 2.

As with traditional sports, how much an eSports player earns depends

on their dedication and effort.

According to Alist, many other factors also determine how much a person will earn. This can include sponsorships, salaries, winnings and streaming.

As a whole, eSports has evolved and grown over the past years, so what’s next for this industry to expand upon? Perhaps bring it to the international scene, such as the Olympics.

In fact, according to The Guardian, eSports was announced to be a medal sport at the 2022 Asian Games, a multi-sport event between athletes from Asia.

Likewise, eSports has also been taken into consideration for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

However, it is unlikely any popular video games would take part in the Olympics, as they would be deemed too violent. With that, nearly all the games stated above would not pass

him. He shows that people can get corrupted, but can recover. Since his return, his game has yet to be on par with his former self, but he’s getting there.

Photo courtesy of Golf

to be nonviolent.

According to Ars Technica, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suggest to lean towards video games that directly simulate real sports, such as Electronic Arts’ FIFA franchise.

If this decision goes through, many eSports players will be disappointed.

While sophomore Emma Manzarraga is interested with the implementation, she shares similar opinions.

“It’s those games like Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and LoL

that are fun to watch,” said Manzarraga, “The IOC has to realize what the people around the world would want to watch. Either add eSports to the roster and allow [popular] games, or [don’t implement eSports] at all.”

Accessing eSports related events is relatively simple. Tournaments and

such can be watched through online, television and of course, in person.

There is an abundance and variety of video games being played, so there is something out there for everyone.

Manzarraga plays Overwatch and explains what she thinks of eSports overall.

“It’s a great bonding experience, and also helps hand-eye coordination, typing and … you’re communicating with all of your teammates,” said Manzarraga, “It’s basically like any other traditional sport out there.”

Those interested in participating in local eSports events can refer to Bay Area Gaming for more information.

Photos courtesy of Activison Blizzard, Valve, Riot Games, Capcom, Youtube, EVO, HardcoreGamer and PCGamesN

sports Homemade alternatives to sports snacks

April 6, 2018

12

by Leann Bast Sports Editor

Nutrition is very important for all, but it can be difficult to find healthy snacks that are readily available and visually appealing. To figure out what kinds of snacks are healthy and fairly easy to make, I went online and searched up some recipes. I picked a few that seemed interesting, got the ingredients and made them.

Homemade Protein Shake Powder The ingredients were dry milk powder, dry oats and almonds for the basic powder. This powder can be used for many smoothies. One of the smoothies that was listed on the website is shown down below. The powder was really hard and hot. It wasn’t the easiest thing to clean up either.

EXTRA Creamy Chocolate Smoothie

Extra Creamy Chocolate Smoothie Start off with one scoop of the protein powder. For the Extra Creamy Chocolate Smoothie, add one cup of milk, onefourth of an avocado and one tablespoon cocoa powder. I highly recommend this if you like bitter drinks. This smoothie was not the best thing in the world that I have tasted. It was very sour and I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. As unsatisfying as this was, it was easy to make.

Leann Bast | The Phoenix Recipes courtesy of teaspoonofspice, coupons and sunshineandhurricanes

After that drink, it seemed like a good time to move onto actual food. There were a lot of healthy, homemade snack options, so I choose a few I found interesting and tried them. The foods I tried out were the Graham Cracker Fruit Sandwiches, Vegetable Sushi, Banana Yogurt Bites and Fruit and Cracker Pizzas.

Graham Cracker Fruit Sandwiches The ingredients include graham crackers, cream cheese, blueberries, strawberries and bananas. To make the bite-sized sandwiches, take two graham crackers and spread some cream cheese on them. Then on one of the crackers, put on blueberries, strawberries and cut slices of bananas. Finally, put the other cracker on top, forming a sandwich.

These came out exactly how I expected they would. They tasted really good, plus they were really easy to make. When making these I suggest cutting the fruits up into small pieces so that they fit better on the crackers. They tasted great, but the crackers did break.

BANANA Yogurt Bites

GRAHAM Cracker Fruit Sandwiches

Banana Yogurt Bites To make these, you take yogurt and put them in a cupcake molds. You can probably use any other kind of mold, depending on if you want a specific shape or size to your bite, but I just used a baking tray in the shape of small hearts. You then add banana slices into the yogurt and put it in the freezer. After they were frozen, I drizzled honey onto them.

These melted my heart (pun totally intended). They tasted as good as they looked. The only other thing I would do to improve would be to add a little vanilla. These were pretty easy to make, I only had some difficulty putting the yogurt into the tray. They tasted amazing, but they did melt pretty fast.

Fruit and Cracker Pizzas To make these, take RITZ crackers and spread on some cream cheese. For this, plain or flavored cream cheese can be used. Then, put on slices of fruits. I used assorted berries, grapes, kiwis and bananas. These came out great. They tasted amazing too. The fruit really popped out against the cream cheese, making it look vibrant, appealing and colorful. These were very easy to make. Just like with the Graham Cracker Fruit Sandwiches, I suggest cutting the fruit into small pieces. They also started to crumble after a while.

Vegetable Sushi Don’t worry; these don’t contain any actual fish. To make these, take vegetables and cut them into long strands. You can use any vegetables you would like, I used carrots. After this, wrap them in bread. If you want to add meat, you could add turkey slices. These didn’t come out exactly how I thought they would, but they still looked good. They tasted good but plain. These were also sort of hard to make since the bread kept breaking every time I tried to roll it around the carrots.

FRUIT and Cracker Pizzas

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VEGETABLE Sushi

Out of the snacks I made, the Banana Yogurt Bites were my favorite because they were really cute and tasted great. The snack I liked the least was probably the Vegetable Sushi because it was a little challenging to make and tasted a little plain. These were all very fun to make and I enjoyed eating and drinking them as well. I recommend all the snacks, which were great, but try all of these recipes for yourself and decide which one you like the most.

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