WATCH Magazine - Fall 2022

The watch magazine would like to express its gratitude to the following members of the Porter-Gaud community for their help with this semester’s publication: Chloe Alderson, David Axon, Henry Black, Joey Carter, Elodie Cutler, Kathy Heinsohn, Ken Hyde, Brink Norton, Beverly Oswald, Brian Principe, Larry Salley, Anna Smith, Rucker Smith, Ashley Stock, Rowan Sullivan, Ann Thompson, Anderson Toole, Tom Westerman, and Amber Wilsondebriano.

Table Of Contents

A Celebration of 50 Years of Women at PG

In 1972, Porter-Gaud School changed forever.

Shea Smith

Confessions of a Former Murder Maven

Is it a crime to love true crime?

Ann Connolly Clair

Cool It, America

The “Forgotten President” we need to remember. Ethan S. Curb

The Feminine Mystique Misconceived

The modern age of feminism isn’t real feminism. Abby Comer

Predator Protection Program?

You are the witness.

Lilly Kate Rowley

Living Behind the Supreme Court

A rollercoaster of high stakes. Anna Lehman

Our Mind’s Metropolis

An oddly deep dive into the human brain. George Walton

Fork in the Road

The path of success or happiness? Emily Benasutti

Sending it Home

Why we choose to play sports. Turner Long

Secrets of the Slaughterhouse

Exposing cruelty in the meat industry. Hampton Brooker

Bitcoin is Still the Future People just don’t understand it—yet. Benjamin Zielke

Analyzing Our Intelligence Curated smarts or common sense? Avery Chambers

The Twisted Nature of “Family” Channels YouTube’s got some deep psychological issues. Mirabelle Cutler

Acting or Activism? Musicals are becoming politically motivated. Ella Murphy

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot More Stressful How to fend off the holiday blues. Windland Jaimes

It Ends With Colleen Hoover BookTok and the downfall of reading? Gracie Keogh

Teacher Feature In this feature, we feature new teachers.

Which Music Icon Are You? Kevin Pham and Nina Ziff

Fifty years

ago,

Porter-Gaud got groovy...

The watch magazine staff is honored to celebrate 50 Years of Women at PG

Shea Smith - Managing Editor

Turner Long - Managing Editor

Patton Galloway - Head Publisher

Anna Caroline Symonds - Art Director

Ethan Curb - Section Editor

Anna Lehman - Section Editor

Nina Ziff - Publisher

Carlisle Smith - Publisher

Kevin Pham - Publisher

Emily Benasutti - Staff Writer

Avery Chambers - Staff Writer

Lilly Kate Rowley - Staff Writer

George Walton - Staff Writer

Ann Connolly Clair - Staff Writer

Abby Comer - Staff Writer

Windland Jaimes - Staff Writer

Gracie Keogh - Staff Writer

Ella Murphy - Staff Writer

Benjamin Zielke - Staff Writer

Hampton Brooker - Staff Writer

Mirabelle Cutler - Staff Writer

Ms. Sarah Romano - Faculty Advisor

Mr. Childs Smith - Faculty Advisor

Ms. Abby Laskodi - Faculty Advisor

50 Years of Women at Porter-Gaud: Past, Present, and Future

By Shea Smith

1867 was undoubtedly a turbulent year. Only two years after the chaos of the Civil War and in one of the primary years of the Reconstruction Era, America was left disordered and confused. However, consistent with the spirit of post-war attempts to reconstruct and improve the community, this year also welcomed the birth of our beloved school when Dr. Anthony Toomer Porter founded the Porter Military Academy, combining it with the Gaud School for Boys and the Watt School in 1964 to create the school we all know and love, Porter-Gaud.

Although our school bore its current name in 1964, it was a completely different place. Yes, it still had stellar academics, a literary magazine, and an annual Polygon. It still had a fantastic arts program and a determined football team. Yet one crucial aspect of our school was missing: diversity. Until the late 1960s, every student admitted to Porter-Gaud was a white male. 1967, though, brought real progress when Porter-Gaud School welcomed its first Black students, and although this moment marked a substantial step in the right direction, the entirety of the student body continued to consist only of boys.

loaded with female artists, actors, singers, and musicians. Women are founders of school clubs and leaders in their classrooms; our heads of both the upper school and the lower school are women. How have we come this far?

In 1972, the first female students entered Porter-Gaud—35 girls who were admitted to first through third grades—marking a turning point for the school. Three years later, girls entered the middle and upper schools as well, and in 1976, these same girls

Fast forward to 2022: of the 1059 students at Porter-Gaud, 459 are female, 44% of our student body. 122 of our Porter-Gaud faculty members are women. Girls participate in 42 of the 63 sports teams here at Porter-Gaud (and 25 of those teams are strictly female). Porter-Gaud’s art and music programs are

became the first of their gender to graduate from Porter-Gaud. As these substantial changes were being implemented, Dr. Kathy Heinsohn entered the eighth grade at Porter-Gaud as one of the first female students in the middle school in 1976. “I look with envy now on the diversity of sports, academic, and community programs women can choose from at PG. We broke the ice,” Heinsohn says. She was extremely nervous about starting her academic journey at Porter-Gaud, but ultimately she felt accepted by a welcoming male community. What once would have been considered impractical or unachievable for a female student had finally become a reality here. With a top-tier college-preparatory education now available to all genders, women had an opportunity to pursue their dreams, just like the men in their lives had always been able to. And like these men, Heinsohn was able to graduate from Porter-Gaud, in 1980, going on to obtain her Ph.D. with the help of her PG education. She is currently a successful technical entomologist in Maryland.

Heinsohn is just one of the many incredible women to have graced the PG community with their many gifts. Captain Anne G. Hammond, ‘82, graduated from Porter-Gaud and entered the Naval Academy as a member of only the 7th class of women permitted to attend the prestigious college. Over a 25-year career, she affirmed herself as an accomplished senior-level manager in the US Armed Forces. Sallie L. Krawcheck graduated from Porter-Gaud in 1983 and is now the CEO and co-founder of Ellevest, an innovative digital investment platform for women, as well as a best-selling author of multiple personal finance books geared toward women. As one of Fast Company’s picks in their “100 Most Creative People in Business” list, as well as one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Entrepreneurs to Watch,” Krawcheck has been wildly successful.

How women at PG have shaped and will continue to shape our community

In light of our celebration of 50 Years of Women here at Porter-Gaud, it’s important to pause and reflect on all the progress that has been made by our school community.

Though all of these women have bid a fond farewell to PG over the years, Porter-Gaud continues to harbor an incredible amount of talent, intellect, and excellence in the female students, faculty, and staff it fosters today. The women of our school can truly do it all—on the court, on the stage, in the classroom; You name it, they can do it. Middle school Chaplain Henrietta Rivers recently became the first Black woman ordained into the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina’s priesthood. Senior Kate Kowalski obtained her pilot’s license this summer. The 50 Years of Women celebration serves as an extremely important year for our close-knit community, and PG intends to celebrate the women of the past, present, and future in all kinds of new ways.

We were all able to experience the thrill of the CycloneTown girls’ volleyball game, which highlighted women in athletics, especially the Porter-Gaud volleyball program, with a reunion of past PGVB players. “PGVB, and sports in general, have done so much for so many girls at Porter-Gaud,” says Chloe Alderson, a senior member of the varsity volleyball team. “Not only is it super empowering to be playing for such an amazing team, but the bonds that you build are incredible. It’s like a family.”

All year, our fine arts program will be selecting songs and compositions by female musicians for choir performances. Female guest speakers will be attending campus year-round to share their stories and inspire others. March is Women’s History Month, and PG hopes to create a safe and open space for reflection all month. We hope to welcome sports alumnae, female donors and philanthropists, female writers, and female medical professionals. The service program looks to place more emphasis on visiting organizations focused on supporting women in need, such as the YWCA. Under the guidance of teachers, counselors, and guest speakers, lower school and middle school students will begin to discuss gender dynamics and the theme of women at Porter-Gaud, opening them up to some serious but necessary discourse.

In light of our celebration of 50 Years of Women here at PorterGaud, it’s important to pause and reflect on all the progress that has been made by our school community. Nowadays, with all the incredible women on our campus and their amazing achievements, it’s easy to forget that once, things were different. Women at Porter-Gaud weren’t always taken seriously; they didn’t always have all the opportunities that our women have today.

In 1976, Beverly Oswald began her career at Porter-Gaud, entering as one of the very first female faculty members. Working in such a male-centered environment was initially very difficult for Ms. Oswald. “Most of the male teachers were not very happy to have us there. And a lot of the students did not want female teachers,” says Ms. Oswald. “On my first day, I had one male student get up and say ‘No woman will teach me anything.’ I remember going home after my first year and telling my mom I didn’t want to go back.” Despite the prejudice, she persevered.

Though Porter-Gaud gradually developed into a more accepting culture and Ms. Oswald’s experience improved—she continued her career at Porter-Gaud for over 30 more years— the experiences of Ms. Oswald and many of the first women at PG serve as a reminder that our place in PG’s community wasn’t just given to us on a silver platter—it was earned by the hardworking, determined, intelligent women who came before us. But the legacy hasn’t stopped with them—it is being carried forward by today’s women of Porter-Gaud. Despite this progress, women in our community continue to face challenges in 2022, whether it’s trying to discover our voice in male-dominated areas of study or fighting for equity for female sports teams. The progress we’ve made at Porter-Gaud has been monumental—and each day that we attend school and speak up in our classes and sing in the choir and compete on the court and participate in debate and create art and pray for others and advocate for issues that matter to us—each day that we cultivate our minds and open our hearts—we continue to shape an evolving legacy of excellence.

Confessions of a Former Murder Maven

Is it a crime to love true crime?

By Ann Connolly Clair

This is the story of three high school girls. They fought, as teenage girls tend to do. One night, one of the girls snuck out of her house and was seen getting into a car. The next morning, she wasn’t in her bed. She wasn’t at work. She was nowhere to be found. Months later, a confession came from the other two girls.

“We killed her.”

The police officers were appalled. “Why did you do it?” they cried.

The girls’ response was simple: “We didn’t like her.”

Then they told them how. They drove her to the woods. They snuck up behind her, and on the count of three, they…

And that is where the story goes way too far.

In the fall of 2020, I was scrolling through YouTube when the catchy title “When Mean Girls Become Murderers” hooked me right away. Contrary to what I expected, the woman narrating the video spoke in a calming voice, which made the dark subject matter feel like I was listening to a meditation.

I have always been a big fan of the classic Hollywood murder mystery because of the “Whodunit?” factor. I was proud of myself whenever I could guess who the killer was before the ending (hint: it’s almost always the husband). But this particular video was different: the story was true. The villains were normal teenage girls (like me) upset with their friend (like I have been). They didn’t know how to tell her that they didn’t want her around, so they opted for the worst possible solution. As I went farther down the rabbit hole, I saw that the YouTube channels I was watching had amassed millions of followers, all of whom loved the mystery and drama just as much as I did. There seemed to be a community of millions who were as fascinated by the dark workings of the human mind as I

But a year and a half later, I haven’t watched a true crime video since. Though it used to be a part of my daily routine, the content started to lose its appeal for me when I realized that I was not consuming it to feel empathy for the victims or cheer for justice served to the killer. I was watching it for pure entertainment.

Since the late 2010s, true crime stories have been on top of the world. Netflix constantly has true crime documentaries coming out, such as Abducted in Plain American Murder: The Family Next , or the very popular Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. True crime

Artwork by Amber Wilsondebriano

YouTubers were getting more sponsorships than ever. But recently, people have begun to think about whether or not this “problem solved” aspect—where we, the viewers, play detective—is worth the emotional distress

truth to the audience, right? People have flaws, and purposely leaving out qualities to make them seem more marketable to the masses is frustrating. The killer is allowed to have the full spectrum of his personality examined to the point where it has become a common criticism to accuse true crime creators of “sympathizing with the killer.” Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile focuses heavily on how romantic Ted Bundy was with his wife and the deep love he felt for his child. Bundy’s victims, however, are made out to be average people—rarely given a personality at all. True crime creators seem to assume that excluding a person’s negative qualities may lead to a lack of empathy for the victim, and in most cases, this assumption is correct. Victims who have engaged in a disparaged profession or possess traits that people dislike are not going to be Netflix’s newest venture; they do not have the “requirements” to be the perfect victim.

it causes the people directly involved in the case. The new Netflix series Dahmer is a recent example of this, and one of the more disturbing cases in history because it involves an origin story that begins with him as a young child who then grows into a man capable of committing terrible acts of violence. The series, however, has become wildly popular, raking in millions of views on Netflix. But it is made at the expense of the families of the victims who have endured the pain of losing their relative to a brutal murder. Netflix came under fire recently when it was revealed that the victims’ families had not been contacted, leading to the question of whether or not the series was made to expose a terrible person, or merely to shock and entertain its viewers.

When a story is wildly popular, it is going to be exploited for all of its worth. And when we see the victims in this story, it is easier to see them as a number instead of as people. They become a commodity for YouTube thumbnails or Netflix documentaries. Their names represent a cautionary tale; their personalities are molded to one note: “She could light up a room,” “He always had a smile on his face,” or “She was such a good person.” Sure, people don’t want to speak ill of the dead, which is perfectly fine and probably the most respectful approach, but it’s not always the truth. For a genre that insinuates honesty in the name—true crime—it seems a bit important to iterate the entire

It’s not surprising to me that true crime has been a cultural phenomenon for decades. It appeals to a sense of justice and victory within us, capitalizing on the happiness we feel when the perpetrator is captured. It validates our parents’ wisdom—telling us not to walk alone and never to talk to strangers. It is a reminder that there are people who will commit heinous acts. And with true crime documentaries, we get to see inside the mind of someone who has committed such acts. The human mind is fascinating, so it’s not abnormal to watch true crime to discover more about how it works (or deviates from working), and it certainly doesn’t make a person morbid for liking it. But when did people stop remembering that these true crime stories are real?

Humans are curious by nature, and it makes perfect sense as to why we are invested in the evil villains of true crime. In some cases, we get to see a family that has overcome tragedy, an inspiration to people who are going through something horrific. However, most of the time, we watch true crime for the shock value. They show the extremes of what humans are capable of, and it leaves people wondering “What if?” What if your quiet neighbor is secretly out to get you? What if your boyfriend is a psychopath? Or, most frightening of all, what if I snap one day? Pure entertainment is not supposed to bring up these types of frightening questions. This is where true crime becomes miserable for both the victims and the viewers alike. We will always have questions about ourselves, but true crime amplifies these questions. Perhaps the next time you escape into true crime merely for entertainment you should ask yourself, is it worth it?

When a story is wildly popular, it is going to be exploited for all of its worth.

Cool it

,

America.

The political world is heating up. Here’s how we can keep it cool with Calvin Coolidge.

Price

1p

Monday, March 4, 1929

If someone were to ask who you thought the best president was, who would you say? Perhaps Washington, the first, the founder of our nation. Perhaps Lincoln, who led America through the Civil War. Perhaps FDR, Reagan, Obama, or Trump. The point is that those whom we think of as being the best, those whom we remember, are the ones who made the history textbooks for what they did while in office. How they molded the office of the presidency to their will. How they instituted their agenda on the country.

But what about those who led by restraint? Those who sculpted the presidency by not changing it, who understood that the president is nothing more than a mere man? It is these presidents who are so woefully overlooked by historians, and discounted by scholars, because they did not cause any major shifts in the country’s situation.

But by not doing much, these men did something very few Commanders in Chief have achieved: they sacrificed their own ego and power for the good of the country. They understood the intended role of the presidency.

Our nation’s 30th president is the best example of this. Accurately dubbed “the Forgotten President,” Calvin Coolidge oversaw America’s success during the Roaring 20s. As one of only eight vice presidents to step into the role after the untimely death of his predecessor (in this case Warren G. Harding), Coolidge, characteristically, did not become president of his own volition. Rather the office was cast upon Coolidge after the scandal-plagued Harding administration and in the aftermath of the First World War, leading the American people to look to him for leadership. “Silent Cal,” as he was called, was about as extreme a foil to the Roaring 20s as any man could have been. There exists a famous story in which President Coolidge was approached at a party by a woman who had made a bet with her friend that she could get him to say more than two words throughout the evening. He turned to her, replied “you lose,” and walked away. Reserved, conservative, and rational, he provided a stark contrast to the wild, carefree, party-filled decade—and yet, it was exactly this contrast that allowed America to prosper.

Unlike so many of our leaders today, Coolidge saw the presidency as not a power to be wielded to enforce his agenda upon the people, but as an immense responsibility to keep the federal government out of the affairs of the states while ensuring that the country remained stable.

By Ethan S. Curb

There is no better evidence of this than his handling of the national debt. After the liberal spending practices of Woodrow Wilson that saw a 21 billion dollar increase in the national debt—a 723% jump from predecessor William Taft—Coolidge sought to pare down reckless spending and try to balance the budget. The result? The national debt decreased by 5.3 billion dollars and retained massive surpluses each year he was in office. In fact, Coolidge was the last president to cause a contraction in debt, cutting it down to around 17 billion dollars. To put that into perspective, the national debt stands today at 30.8 trillion dollars, about 1,800 times larger than it was at the end of Coolidge’s presidency, and none of our presidents of late have shown any signs of reducing it.

These are a lot of facts and numbers. But understanding what Coolidge did is vital to the success of our nation today. Though he faced criticism in the moment for his actions, he almost always acted with the future in mind, preferring to focus on the bigger picture. He didn’t recklessly spend money the nation didn’t have for short term benefit, preferring to look ahead at America’s future and plan his decisions accordingly. With today’s politicians, Republican and Democrat alike, throwing our country deeper and deeper into debt, we need to look back to the Coolidge presidency to find a path forward.

But, in light of our raw political climate today, I don’t want to focus on Silent Cal’s politics as much as on how he led. For we are in an era where politicians and celebrities are more interchangeable than ever before, where politics is a competition to be the most flamboyant and to talk the biggest game. Certainly not all, but definitely many members of Congress and the Senate seem to desire to stay in office more than they actually want to help their constituents. Leaders on both sides viciously attack their opponents, spending millions and millions to tear them down and keep themselves in power. (Term limits, anyone?)

Politicians today lambast opponents for their flaws, campaigning on how terrible their policies and personal lives are and how they are “unfit to lead.” They run ads with deep-voiced monologues and inflammatory footage of their opponents, not trying to rally support for themselves, but against the stated enemy. Coolidge chose a different tack. He made a point of never speaking an ill word about those against whom he ran, preferring to focus on himself

and how his achievements would best help the country. He would rather have people elect him than keep his opponent out of office.

Compare this to the 2020 election. Joe Biden ran on a platform centered around the many flaws of Trump’s presidency, focusing on his unpopular response to the pandemic and generally crass personality. This is not a defense of Trump—he made a lot of mistakes as president—but the point is that instead of campaigning on what made him a good candidate (which was and still is admittedly lacking), Biden chose to campaign on a full offense. It won him the election but deepened the political divides already fracturing our country. Trump, in the same vein, made no attempts to be the bigger man, choosing to keep with his usual strategy of orienting every single aspect of his campaign around ad hominem attacks and running on a platform of hatred for his opponent. It’s evident, then, that this disease does not lie along party lines.

The country is now more polarized than ever before, helped along by the continued attacks on Trump and his followers by our current president, and the reciprocating assault by many on Biden and the Democrats. Political attacks may often be warranted, but the consequences of preaching the shortcomings of one’s adversaries will always produce a sick, divided country.

George Washington is often lauded for his selfless acts that defined the presidency. Offered the title of king, after being elected unanimously, Washington chose to step down after two terms in office, setting a precedent for all who would follow. He was presented with all the power anyone could ever want, yet chose to relinquish it for the good of the people. Coolidge, who became president in 1923, chose not to run for reelection in 1928, despite winning the 1924 election in a landslide. He would have been the longestserving president (ten years to everyone else’s eight) in American history at that point but chose to let the American people pick another leader, believing that one man in power for ten years was far too long without a change.

Coolidge was in South Dakota, fishing on a farm in the middle of nowhere when he shocked the world with his decision. The press had hunted him down, looking for a comment on his presidential endeavors. In response, Coolidge went inside the house, wrote out the words “I do not choose to run for president in nineteen twenty-eight” on a sheet of paper, copied it a couple dozen times, and had his friend hand out the slips of paper to each member of the press before locking the door and turning out the lights.

The significance of his decision should not be taken lightly. Coolidge ended his own political career for the benefit of the nation by refusing to run again. He remembered that the duty of the president was to put America first—and mean it,

not use it as a slogan—before his own interests, and acted for the good of the people. His lack of vanity is something that politicians today should aspire to emulate, putting their own careers second to their duty to the American people.

Calvin Coolidge was by no means a perfect president. There’s a strong argument that he went too far with his laissez-faire economic policies, which was the catalyst for the Great Depression. But that does not take away from the fact that there is much to be learned from our nation’s most fiscally responsible president and the way in which he chose to lead. His understanding that America should not spend money it didn’t have in pursuit of solutions unlikely to work is something we need more of today. Our recent and current presidents have increased the national debt by several trillion dollars each term, plunging us deeper into debt with China and other world powers. We need politicians and presidents who take note of Coolidge’s values and govern similarly, who strive to model and exemplify his humility and conservatism (not to be confused with conservative political beliefs). We need leaders who put the needs and wants of the people before their own, who understand that politics is not a game to be won, who step into the mantle of the presidency not because they want the power, but because they truly believe they can make a difference for the American people. We need presidents who build this country up and recognize and respect their supporters and adversaries alike.

We need to remember the Forgotten President.

Photographed by Patton Galloway

THE FEMININE MYSTI UE MISCONCEIVED THEFEMININEMYSTIUEMISCONCEIVED Q Q

How the modern age of feminism isn’t even real feminism.

By Abby Comer

One hundred and fifty years ago, if a person “hated feminism,” they would have hated the Suffrage Movement and its “blasphemous” idea that women should have the right to vote. Fifty years ago, if a person “hated feminism,” they would have hated pay equality, reproductive rights, female sexuality, and domestic violence awareness. Thirty years ago, if a person “hated feminism,” they would have hated the celebration of differences across race, class, and sexual orientation.

But why would someone hate feminism in our current day? Could it be the chants of “girl power” that—to some—have seemed excessive? Or, could it be the sense that some feminists have overshot the mark (equality) and now seem to fight instead for outright superiority?

Before, feminism was a new idea, one that opposed the views of a society that had been dominated by the patriarchy for centuries. It was a movement that fought for change, especially one to lift female empowerment. The modern idea of feminism is arguably most similar to the Second Wave of feminism, purely by the fact that it is viewed by many as radical or calling for new ideas. However, the “radical ideas” the Second Wave

fought for—pay equality, female education, and rights to contraception—are what we now think of as basic human rights.

It must be kept in mind that feminism has never been a trend; it’s a movement that has tried to create equality and empower women. But today, some fear that modern feminists are losing sight of what the purpose of feminism really is: gender equality; this misconception can be seen in a new form of radical feminism that has emerged, one that has gone too far by believing that women are superior (rather than equal) to men, a reverse sexism and the opposite of what the original goal of feminism was. Manhating is not synonymous with feminism nor is it the goal, and those who do so are not only missing the mark of what feminism is but are also incorrectly labeling themselves as such.

The idea that women are inferior to men is, of course, far from new. As early as the beginning of the Neolithic Era, men were assigned to hunt or work the farms while women were assigned to sire and care for children. One such example of the patriarchy’s influence throughout history is rooted in the concept that God is male. However, it’s

The First Wave (1848-1920):

Though The First Wave, also known as the Women’s Suffrage Movement, isn’t the origin of feminism, it’s still the first ever large-scale Western political movement with the purpose of achieving equality for women. This wave is thought to have begun at the Seneca Falls convention of 1848, where nearly 200 women met at a church in New York to discuss the rights of women. At the end of the convention, they created a list of 12 grievances, one of which included the right to vote. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was passed, giving Black men the right to vote. This led to an influx of white women joining the Suffrage Movement, with many wondering why male formerly enslaved people were allowed to vote before women were. This movement ended in 1920 with the passing of the 19th Amendment, which gave white women the right to vote but did not clear away obstacles that kept black women from voting. The First Wave is characterized by ideas that were considered radical in their day, such as fighting not only for the right to vote, but also for equal opportunities in education and in the workplace, as well as the distribution of birth control, even after it was made illegal in 1873 when the Comstock Act deemed it obscene and illicit.

not sensible to say that God has a gender at all. In most monotheistic religions, God is seen as an infinite being, the creator of everything with no real bodily form. So, then, how can something so far beyond us have a gender?

The same principle applies to the implication that God is a woman, as many radical feminists have done through the years. Any idea that God has a gender is an entitled delusion; such a one-sided idea doesn’t support feminism and is merely an attack against the patriarchy at the surface level. To reiterate, feminism is a movement for the equality of women and men, and insisting that God is one gender or the other goes against this idea of equality as it relates to religion. The best course of action for feminism is the acceptance that God has no gender, rather than trading one form of sexism for another. Historically, men have been seen as superior to women because of the mindset that women are weaker and more emotional, seen very clearly in the patriarchy that dominated the world for centuries. In such patriarchal societies, there was a need for female empowerment because there was clear inequality between men and women, and the best way to lessen that gap was through empowered women.

The Fourth Wave of feminism is an example of this mindset being embodied by a large number of people. Yet it feels as though there are fewer things to fight for, so we simply decided to fight for female superiority and gender exploitation under the misused title of female empowerment.

Only recently have women been given equitable representation. This is the purest form of feminism, the

The Second Wave (1963- 1980s):

The Second Wave is thought to have begun with the publishing of The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, a nonfiction work that discusses something that before, many had disregarded: “the systemic sexism that taught women that their place was in the home and that if they were unhappy as housewives, it was only because they were broken and perverse.” Friedan stated that women had the right to be unhappy as they were being oppressed by the expectations of society. Once again, these ideas were hardly new, but they were never before discussed at such scale as in The Feminine Mystique. Differing from the First Wave, the women involved in the Second Wave weren’t fighting for specific rights, so much as they were pressing for social equality to be fully realized. The women were able to gain major traction with the passing of the Equal Pay Act, Supreme Court rulings that gave women the right to birth control and federally protected abortions, and the inclusion of Title IX in the Education Amendments that made it easier for women to get an education, all of which happened between the 1960s and the 1970s. Additionally, this wave fought for women to have the ability to own credit cards under their own names and apply for mortgages on their own behalves, while also raising awareness of sexual harassment in the workplace as well as abuses within marriage. The main purpose of this wave was to change the societal perspective on women; however, women of color still tended to feel alienated from the movement.

idea of equality, which has led to greater opportunity for women and has provided them with the freedom that comes from empowerment. A great example of this is the #MeToo movement that was started in 2006 by Tarana Burke, which provided women with the support and momentum to speak out about abuse that they had previously felt pressured to keep private. This new opportunity led to many women coming forward as victims of rape and then seeing their efforts bring their assaulters to justice.

But, the MeToo movement provided an outlet for everyone to talk openly about their experiences with sexual and domestic assault, not just women. That being said, until recently, the media has still been focusing primarily on female victims. This changed, of course, with the popularity of the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard case. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard of the defamation case between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, in which Heard accused Depp of domestic abuse in an op-ed,

Yet it feels as though there are fewer things to fight for, so we simply decided to fight for female superiority and gender exploitation under the misused title of female empowerment.

leading to Depp losing multiple film roles and damaging his legacy. The salacious trial entranced the public, who largely believed that Depp was the victim. The jury clearly agreed in a unanimous decision in favor of Depp on June 1st, 2022, awarding him 15 million dollars.

Following the conclusion of the six-week-long trial, Heard posted the following on Instagram:

“I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband. I’m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It’s a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously.”

This post strongly displays many of the discreditable traits that have begun to characterize modern feminism. For example: She starts by talking about how Depp’s celebrity stature overcame the “mountain of evidence,” despite the fact that much of her evidence was alleged to have been forged. She also tried to appeal to a female audience by saying that she was no match for the power of her exhusband (read: the patriarchy). She continued her message, stating that “[she’s] even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women,” even calling it a “setback,” attempting to reinforce the idea that one man winning a domestic violence case is a setback for feminism in general. This, however, isn’t the case. The goal of

feminism is equality between men and women; in a truly feminist world, men can be victims just like women.

The exclusion of men’s ability to experience their victimhood is not the only form of exclusion perpetrated by modern “feminism”; there’s a clear example of an In-Group vs. Out-Group mindset in which people outside certain standards are viewed as unacceptable to those within them. Members of the InGroup feel the need to justify the actions of their fellow members while gatekeeping the term “feminist.” I can speak from personal experience on this topic, as there have been multiple situations in which people I know have that they don’t believe that I’m an extreme enough feminist to join “the group.” Telling me that I “ don’t support women enough to be a feminist,” because I believe that though there should be more women in the STEM field, it should not be at the expense of men. Furthermore, it feels as though the modern age of radical feminists (which again

The Third Wave (beginning around 1991):

The so-called Third Wave of feminism is the least pronounced, but is thought to have begun with Anita Hill’s case in 1991, in which she claimed that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, had sexually harassed her at work. While Thomas still ended up being appointed to the Supreme Court, this case still emboldened a lot of women to make claims of sexual assault in the workplace. Additionally, Thomas’s ascent to the highest court led to many women coming out in opposition to the overrepresentation of men in the American government. Furthermore, Thomas’s ascent led to a direct irony— 24 women won seats in the House of Representatives the following year. Kimberlé Crenshaw became a symbol of the Third Wave due to her idea of “intersectionality,” which underscores her belief that many different forms of oppression are all set into one, which led to the Third Wave’s embrace of the fight for trans rights. This wave was also deeply inspired by the rise of the band The Riot Grrrls, which inspired the embracing of the term “girl” and many other feminine ideas that the Second Wave had ardently opposed. This was arguably in reaction to the belief that the rejection of girliness was in itself misogynistic and the fact that some Second Wave members supposedly punished women who happened to enjoy fitting within traditional beauty standards.

doesn’t embody the true mentality of feminism) are living under the pretense that you’re not a real feminist if you do not believe in the same extremities as them. This, again, goes against the ideas of equality—you now have to reach a certain “level” of feminism to be deemed true.

A great example of this can be seen in how other In-Group feminists regard Emma Watson, one of the most influential feminists of the modern age. In 2017 she exposed skin on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine, which resulted in controversial statements questioning her feminist status, such as CNN’s query: “Can you be a feminist and pose in a nearly see-through top for Vanity Fair?” Furthermore, some people believe that she’s not feminist enough because they believe she is only in her position as U.N. Women Goodwill Ambassador due to her privilege. Emma Watson is vocal in her support of women yet she is kept from passing through the gate into the inner sanctum of modern feminism.

A major distinction between modern feminism and its first waves is the difference between a fight for superiority versus one for human rights. Of course, this isn’t always the case; earlier this year, nationwide protests erupted against The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization; participants fought against their ruling to overturn a law that had established abortion as as a constitutional right. Except for this sole instance of fighting for a human’s right to healthcare, many other “feminist” protests seem unwarranted. Many modern feminists are misconceiving what it means to be a feminist fighting for basic human rights.

The Fourth Wave...

The Fourth, or Modern, Wave of feminism is thought to have begun with the #MeToo movement, which is distinct in the fact that it’s primarily taking place online through planned activism. This can also be seen in online hashtags such as #YesAllWomen and #StandWithWendy that advocated for abortion rights in Texas, in addition to the so-called “SlutWalks” that have been planned online to prove that stopping male harassment wasn’t as easy as merely dressing more modestly. According to Vox News, The Fourth Wave is primarily “queer, sex-positive, transinclusive, body-positive, and digitally driven.” This wave tends to target powerful men (as seen in accusations against Harvey Weinstein, the former movie mogul who was first accused of sexual assault in October of 2017) and the systems that have allowed men to target women in the past with impunity. On Friday, June 24th, 2022, Roe v. Wade—passed during the Second Wave—was overturned, removing the constitutional right to abortion, giving states the right to say whether abortion is legal under individual state law. The result was mass protest from men and women alike, chanting the motto, “You’re not banning abortion, you’re banning safe abortion.” Furthermore, this decision has opened up the idea of removing the constitutional right to contraception, interracial marriage, and gay marriage, ideas that were significant during the 2022 midterm elections.

In The Feminine Mystique (1963), Betty Friedan writes about the systemic oppression of women perpetuated by women themselves capitulating to societal expectations that they prefer not to work, vote, or have lives separate from their husbands’. Friedan claims that this lack of agency leaves women feeling unsatisfied. She wrote that being housewives may be satisfying for some, she acknowledged, but certainly not for all. This idea of female dissatisfaction is where the modern feminist movement has found its fight. However, Friedan’s message has been severely misunderstood. The mindset of modern feminism is no longer set on gaining the rights we’ve been denied but rather on exploiting the rights we have gained.

Feminism is supposed to be a social movement to find equality between women and men. Previously, because of the patriarchy, feminism stood for female empowerment with the goal of equality. In modern times, feminists have continued to push forfemale empowerment, even though the gap of equality has largely been closed (acknowledging that this is not the case in every corner of the globe). This push has led to a new form of sexism in which women believe themselves to be superior to men, defying the entire notion of what feminism is supposed to be. Will this be how the Fourth Wave of feminism is going to be remembered? A radical, social media-based movement that simply promoted reverse sexism? This doesn’t need to be the case. Awareness is the first step towards lessening the gap between men and women. The next thing we can do is to change the narrative—let’s promote everyone’s equality instead of anyone’s superiority.

Predator Protection Program

Demi Lovato’s new album, HOLY F***, is selfreflective, therapeutic, and incredibly revealing. The song that has garnered the most attention from the media is “29,” in which she indirectly details the narrative of her twelve-year age gap relationship with her ex, Wilmer Valderrama. Although the pair did not publicly date until Lovato turned eighteen, they met while Lovato was still seventeen years old. Throughout their six-year relationship, the former couple generally received good publicity; the media portrayed their “love” as passionate, yet innocent—every girl’s fantasy. However exciting and eccentric the relationship appeared, though, there was an obvious power imbalance between the two. As a seventeen-year-old, Lovato was not only new to the music industry, but also to romance; adolescent Demi would not have been able to recognize the possible manipulation and grooming tactics of an older, predatory individual. In the song, “29”, Lovato expresses that—retrospectively—her relationship with Valderrama was “far from innocent.” She even asks the question, “what the f***’s consent?” This is not a rhetorical question, nor a hypothetical situation; we must therefore ask ourselves: was Lovato able to consent to her relationship with the twenty-nineyear old Valderrama?

Legally, she was. Thirty-one U.S. states have an age of consent of sixteen years old, which means that a thirty, forty—even fifty-year-old—adult is legally protected in their sexual relations with a sixteen-year-old child. But how could the United States enact legislation that completely contradicts modern psychology? The frontal lobe, which is responsible for decision-making, does not fully develop until around age 25. Due to this, adolescents naturally have increased levels of impulsivity—especially in romantic relationships. And unfortunately, due to their inexperience, many adolescents cannot grasp the perverted nature of agegap relationships. These two conditions, when paired, can make it extremely difficult—if not impossible—for the adolescent to abstain from these affairs. In many cases, the parents or guardians of the adolescent are not enough to prevent these relationships—whether that be because they are uninformed, or simply unaware. As a last resort, these victims should be able to rely on the legal system to not only grant them justice, but also to minimize the possibility of additional assaults. The more these abusers go unpunished, the more likely they will remain unchanged. And how do we know this? Because this is not a new phenomenon. Celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Eddie Murphy, Steven Tyler, and Jim Carrey have historically adhered to a strict age limit when considering potential girlfriends, which is roughly ten, fifteen, or even twenty years younger than they are. And while the current media coverage on these men has adopted a more scrutinizing tone, there have yet to be any serious repercussions.

In the United States, girls ages sixteen to nineteen are four times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape or sexual assault. Of course, there are male victims as well—eighteen percent of juvenile sexual assault victims are boys. This article is certainly not intended to invalidate those assaults, nor exempt them from their due judgment; the transgressions of these assaults are indisputably equivalent to those of the female cases. However, there is a need to priorize the protection of adolescent females as they are the most targeted group of sexual assault in the United States.

You are the witness.

by Lilly Kate Rowley

However exciting and eccentric the relationship appeared, though, there was an obvious power imbalance between the two.

Whether the victim is fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen, she is still developing physically, intellectually, and socially. 16-19 year old girls are the most targeted group of sexual assault, yet they are forgotten most often. And despite the recent pushback in the media against this predatory trend—mainly from affected female artists and actresses—there has been no formal, juridical response to the abuse. We fought the war on alcohol in the 1920s, and the War on Drugs in the 1970s. More recently, we fought the war on tobacco products when we raised the federal minimum age of its sale from

Artwork by Carlisle Smith

The more these abusers go unpunished, the more likely they will remain unchanged.

Living Behind the Supreme Court, America’s Most Mercurial Building

A five-month-long ride on an emotional rollercoaster, and how I learned to eventually unbuckle.

By Anna Lehman

it still remains a mystery to me. However, I certainly experienced my fair share of emotions because of whatever my neighbors—the nine most imposing justices in the world—were deciding behind those doors.

Emotion: Terrified

A week into my first week at SEGL, the reality of the Capitol Hill craziness began to set in. The Supreme Court remained gilded in my mind. It seemed untouchable. To me, nobody would ever dare to mess with its grandeur; I was still intimidated living so close to the “room where it happens” that I couldn’t imagine it ever being threatened.

Emotion: Nervous.

The night before I moved into The School for Ethics (SEGL) in Washington, DC, I immediately took to the steps of the Supreme Court with my father. Its majesty intimidated me. Little did I know, I had just boarded the biggest emotional rollercoaster of my life. On the steps, the freezing winter air—accompanied by my intense nerves—forced me into a full-body, neurotic tremble (which is understandable: I was a sixteen-year-old moving into a dorm with 23 strangers for five entire months). I felt unprepared, undeserving, and generally anxious about the ambiguity that was soon to become my everyday life. What was literally living behind the Supreme Court going to be like?

Looking back at the pictures of me at this hallowed site for the first time, I’m immediately reminded of my movein day anxieties. I questioned just about everything at that time. Will I be smart enough to fit in? Will I have normal roommates? Will I make friends? Will my teachers like me? Will everyone at home forget about me? (I could go on.)

The last thing that was on my mind, though, was what was actually going on inside of the building. I was so intimidated by everything on the outside that I couldn’t even fathom what was to become of its interior, of its content. After my time at SEGL, I never did actually see what was behind the giant oak door and marble columns;

Suddenly, a week into the program, while sitting inside the MMC (our living room), the Supreme Court served me my first taste of fear (and reality) in early February. A man had parked his Chevy Tahoe in front of the Court, attempting here to perform his Twittersphere threats live for the real world to see. This wasn’t even his first time making such bold claims, either. He was apparently a regular security nuisance, already having been arrested once for making the same threats in October. This was no too concerning for most, but I was shocked.

I began to slowly grow accustomed to the general anger and tension surrounding the Court. Regularly, I’d be informed of yet another “suspicious package,” or get redirected to a new part of DC when returning home from a run because of yet another bomb threat. Soon enough, though, this frequency rendered these once terrifying phone alerts into my background noise.

Photo credit: Caroline Zhou

I remember the day when I shrugged off a rumor about a fire threat next door. It wasn’t until dinner that I realized just how awful what had happened was; my friend returned home from her run, pale as a ghost. She had just witnessed an Earth Day protest on the Supreme Court steps—a protest which turned into a fatal demonstration. In order to illustrate climate change’s impact, a man sacrificed himself to his cause and decided to self-immolate. My peers and I were truly shaken up. Why has this degree of violence and intensity become so normalized when affecting change?

Emotion: Overjoyed.

Even amongst all of these threats, the Supreme Court rollercoaster still had incredible heights. Its good days were simply unmatched. When Kentaji Brown Jackson, the first Black female Justice ever to be appointed, was approved by the Senate, the Supreme Court steps practically bubbled over with joy. Hundreds of people gathered around, offering their cheers and their chalk, which decorated the cold marble with warm and welcoming messages for the new appointee. Music groups played for hours; dancing erupted on First Street. One-by-one, little girls bravely came up to the microphone, offering a song of praise during such a gleeful moment. Honestly, I tear up just remembering how happy the Supreme Court made me that day.

In the spring, I took prom pictures outside of the Supreme Court. When I look back on those photos, I still find myself smiling every time. Despite all of the fear that often accompanied the Supreme Court, some of my sweetest memories with my best friends are tied to that building.

Emotion: Disappointed.

Despite this high, though, it remained curious to me that so much violence threatened a place that I once thought was so intimidating and untouchable. Living close by, I learned that the Supreme Court wasn’t nearly as safe as I had initially imagined it to be.

Photo credit: Paul Morigi, Slate Magazine. (Featuring SEGL students)

Why has this degree of violence and intensity become so normalized when affecting change?

In my time in DC, I watched my neighbors craft and drop one of the largest judicial bombs our nation has ever seen: the overturning of the precedent set in Roe vs. Wade.

Unfortunately, the threats against the Court’s exterior became a lens for viewing the interior vulnerabilities of America’s justice system; it took me a long time to realize that, in a very real sense, the Court was issuing just as many threats as were being issued against it. While the Court was bombarded with threats by the citizenry, they launched projectiles right back— just at the wrong people.

I was disturbed by the nature of the protest I had involved myself in. I, really, was rolling my eyes at how the people surrounding me treated the opposition and the topic at hand. In half an hour alone, I snapped 15 pictures of posters with unrelated, confusing, and occasionally insensitive messaging. Abortion access became an afterthought as people flocked around the court, using the moment for an Instagram photo-op, not as a moment for serious protest. Signage hypothesized about Alito’s inability to sexually pleasure women, proclaimed love for the female orgasm, and generally avoided Roe vs. Wade itself. Pro-choice advocates spent the protest pointing arrows labeled “this person is stupid” directly in the face of the opposition. Instead of demanding a separation of church and state, young protesters sought attention by jumping to inflammatory, ad hominem attacks in the name of activism.

At what should’ve been the peak of my Supreme Court emotional rollercoaster experience, I instead found solace in rationality.

In my time in DC, I watched my neighbors craft—and drop— one of the largest judicial bombs our nation has ever seen: the overturning of the precedent set in Roe vs. Wade. In the new case, Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Alito released a brief detailing the future—a monumental decision to remove key protections for a woman’s right to privacy. Politico released a leaked draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito, and I was stunned. The Supreme Court suddenly decided to threaten me, a regular neighbor, admirer, and woman. I felt like I, of all people, could empathize with all the violence and threats that it had endured, so why was I being attacked back? This, perhaps, was the lowest moment on the rollercoaster ride I could’ve ever imagined.

Emotion: Disgusted.

So, in my Ruth Bader Ginsburg shirt and proudly holding a “My Body, My Rules” poster, I ventured once again to the steps and rolled my eyes. America’s feminists surrounded the blast site like rubble after an atomic explosion, and this shared anger began to radiate around the nation. Candidly, we felt like the wrinkled hands of a 72-year-old white male justice just groped every woman’s rights to privacy and bodily autonomy, and all that was left was the ability to protest.

In a nation that prides itself so much on “equal justice under law” and freedom of choice, Alito’s opinion shook my fellow Generation Z peers and me into immediate protest. My right to control my uterus was about to be virtually nonexistent. I was shell-shocked and disgusted.

However, the majority of my disgust that the Supreme Court caused in me wasn’t because of this sudden “pro-life” victory.

Unrelated “woke” posters certainly make a statement, but they make no real change. For the first time, I didn’t allow emotions to pull me towards unproductive activism. At that moment, reason began to take emotion’s place, and I realized the importance of protesting respectfully and with an intense dedication to one topic of importance.

Photo credit: Caroline Zhou

Upon my time circling the Supreme Court, I encountered fantastically clever posters that put my 10-minute Crayola creation to shame. Some made me laugh, inquiring why we weren’t addressing the “elephant in the womb.” Some made me cry, informing me of horrifying statistics on child molestation and pregnancy. Some made me rethink my entire participation in the protest completely.

At what should’ve been the peak of my Supreme Court emotional rollercoaster experience, I instead found solace in rationality.

in American political culture, young protesters seem to be drawn to oversimplified black-and-white narratives encouraged by the media. Political discourse has twisted into a back-and-forth game between one extreme and the other, leaving little room for opinions that fall outside of extreme rhetoric.

With incendiary bombast, politicians of all sides of the political spectrum exercise their influence over Generation Z, fizzling productive political discourse out of style just as quickly as the latest retired Tik Tok trend. Figures like Donald Trump, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Josh Hawley, and Bernie Sanders have formulated a political scene replicating a reality show. My SEGL peers and I reload CNN and Fox News with the same feverish delight as many feel while trying to keep up with the Kardashians. Social media and the natural teenage tendency to seek reassurance in others have forced the expression of political leanings into a childishly linear string: the more shocking you are, the more air time you get, and therefore you make the most change. Needless to say, the current calculus for political impact is embarrassingly simple, and I’ve realized that it shouldn’t suffice for a teen hungry for real change.

No More Emotions: A Call to Action.

By then, I had unbuckled myself from the emotional ride, and so had my friend, who, when attempting to listen and respond to the arguments of pro-lifers nearby, had icy water splashed in his face by a pro-choice advocate who had mistakenly profiled him as an “enemy” due to his mere proximity to a conflicting viewpoint.

Becoming a silent critic of emotional protest—a defining characteristic of my own generation—has been disillusioning. After a while, there’s only so much groupthink, lack of leadership, or general disregard for nuance that a sixteen-year-old girl can handle.

Yes, I support abortion. It’s healthcare, it’s moral, it’s constitutional. Yet, spending a protest ignoring the issue, attacking the opposition, and feeding into the emotionally charged atmosphere that the Supreme Court’s decisions have created quickly began to seem counterproductive.

Emotion: Inspired

Rather than critically thinking or upholding a civil, productive conversation, young people forming convictions tend to push to the extremes. Picking a side isn’t inherently negative; only listening to others with your same viewpoint is. In a particularly polarizing age

Buying into melodramatic, emotional rhetoric fueled by the Supreme Court’s actions decreases any movement’s efficacy. Throwing up unrelated, offensive posters and middle fingers for Instagram likes diverts attention from the core issues at hand, only pushing people further away from joining protests. Real activism means listening to the opposition and being especially skeptical of those who don’t. So, let’s approach protesting issues with a single focus in mind and stop shouting about it. Unbuckle yourself from the emotional rollercoaster along with me in realizing that explosive events aren’t always remedied by equally explosive protests.

Photo credit: Caroline Zhou

Our Mind’s Metropolis

An oddly deep dive into Venus flytraps, modern fit suits, and the crushing realization that our memory is imperfect.

by George Walton

Imagine looking over a city right at sunset. A purple and orange light floods the streets and everything else you can see. Take a moment to watch the people, the ones with faces you can’t quite make out; watch them walk down the sidewalk on their way to wherever. The cars with the tail lights that reflect onto shop fronts. A nice outfit rests on the shoulder of a mannequin. Is that a classic or modern fit? Now focus on your favorite skyscraper. How many windows complement its smooth concrete exterior? How many people live, or work within? How many are even real?

Memory is weird, to say the least. Nostalgia and memory decay plague our brains. From the time we are born, we fall through our lives and, along the way, sometimes without explanation, our mind reaches out and grabs something. It could be something as big as a skyscraper or as small (although potentially just as important) as a singular mannequin. Remember that time you spilled water all over your pants and everyone kept calling you Why do you remember that? Scientifically speaking, perhaps your brain highlighted that memory because it was a lesson: Next time, be more careful unless you want what happened then to happen again. What about the memories that are completely random? Or even better, consider the one-second image that flashes once or twice a month. Who knows what the heck that fragment means, so why is it even there? Ironically, it hurts my brain to even think about it (Sidebar: isn’t it weird that the brain named itself, and then thought it was weird when it realized that?). Maybe one day science will reveal

all, but for now, here we are looking out at that everprogressing sunset.

Back to our vantage point, above that city now. Wait. Where did the city go? Oh yeah—you were born today. Instead of a city, you see an empty field, with the sun just peeking up from behind your shoulder. As time does that annoying thing it does and goes on, buildings surge up out of the ground. Some houses, some skyscrapers. Some pedestrians, some animals, and even some of those weird plants growing in cracks in the road that eat flies. Every detail your brain recognizes now lives in this city. Right about now, you are ten or so. You’ve had your first steps, that giant monolith on First Street. Your first words brand the side of that ‘scraper, about a block from the one that holds the memory of your first steps. On that same street, small houses in comparison: your second, third, fourth, and fifth steps. Small things like this are destined to be obscured by your friends, your first kiss, graduation, marriage, and the first time you’re fired from a job (this embarrassment will eclipse the rest, trust me). For now, though, they are all that’s there to see from your little hill where you watch this city’s growth. The light from the sun makes every detail clear. Now that they are unobscured and properly lit, you can read your first words as if you were speaking them again.

Flash forward to your thirties, and we see the sun flying high and bright above your head. But craning your neck to see it kind of hurts, so let’s check back in on— Oh my Go–wow. Look at that memory. Ooh, that hurt.

Artwork by Anderson Toole

Wow, that’s kind of funny now that you see it from so far away… A bustling metropolis grows up and up and up towards the sun. A tinge of sadness finds its way into this moment of proud hindsight: your old favorite building is nowhere to be found. Were those second steps on First or Second Street? Those first words were what? You’ve traveled so far, so many new buildings popped up, and at some point, like a hungry weed (...or the Venus flytrap), they swallowed up the smaller houses, the people walking down the side streets. Is that your fifthgrade math teacher waving from behind that car? No, wait. Seventh grade. As you go further and further, those buildings remain, but are overwritten by so many more beautiful memories.

Memory could be described as anything because, in a way, it is everything. Everything you know is everything to you. There’s always more, of course, but for you to know that, it must first manifest itself within your mind, and in your memory.

We are all citizens of that city within the minds of others. Whether or not we remain eternal edifices carved onto skyscrapers, a small house in a neighborhood called “High School,” or a person walking down Seventieth Street, we are all just stories and memories eventually.

I don’t mean to be particularly morose, but maybe that’s what this life is. “Our Mind’s Metropolis,” that dingy, sad shack, right next to a small little home in that aforementioned neighborhood of “High School.”

Where’s the lesson in this article? Why have you bothered yourself with reading this depressing junk? Because George Walton wants you to know that we all, more or less, make our own impacts. We decide how we manifest inside the metropolis of our fellow citizens’ minds. We can control what we squint our eyes at from this hill and what we remember to an extent, no matter how dark it is and no matter how far away it might seem. So maybe this story about a city will get a few stories in your mind, or maybe it will be eclipsed by the newest fun fact about cheetahs, space, or even what’s for dinner next Tuesday.

You close your eyes for a second and now you’re seventy. Time flies when you’re having fun, and you know what they say about your fifties, right? Best. Years. Of. Your. Life. Or was that your twenties? Now the sun has begun to dip below the tallest of your memories. Darkness sets in, and as the light fades, so do precious details. And now the metaphor is finished.

Maybe it’s not wrong to be scared of being reduced to a memory. Maybe something deep under that city rumbles “Be someone. Do something. Live forever.” It’s beautiful. What sunset isn’t? At some point in our lives, we’ve all stopped and thought, “Isn’t that a nice one...” Sure, it’ll be night soon, it might be hard to see and stubbed toes might ensue. Yet, here we are, pausing for a second, watching the sun go down, and trying our best to remember this moment forever.

As time does that annoying thing it does and goes on, buildings surge up out of the ground. Some houses, some skyscrapers. Some pedestrians, some animals, and even some of those weird plants growing in cracks in the road that eat flies.

Fork in the Road

Do we travel down a path of success or happiness?

By Emily Benasutti

Some of us are lucky enough to choose our futures. Most of you reading this will. But what will you base your decision on? Will you strive for a life of happiness and fulfillment in your career? Or solely aim for those opportunities that come with financial and social success?

As a high school senior, I’ve been facing these questions more than ever over the past few months. Whether filling out an application on the Common App or answering an inquisitive relative, considering my future has plagued my mind. Which college do I want to attend? Which major do I wish to pursue? Which job opportunities will be available to me? While it’s true that I am lucky enough to choose, quite honestly, these questions do not excite me as much as they frighten me. It’s bizarre how I, a seventeen - year-old , have to make decisions now that will affect the entire trajectory of my future. I constantly wonder if I’m going to make the wrong choice, or if I’m going to feel a different way in ten years than I do now about what I want to do in life. Throughout this process, I’ve considered both the financial and personal benefits of all of my different options, and frankly, it’s difficult to decipher which one outweighs the other. So, join me as I try to pinpoint what defines a truly successful future.

Industrial Revolution introduced a surplus of job opportunities throughout the United States in which men were being hired en masse to work in factories. This new manufacturing era facilitated a societal standard where monetary pay from employers was equivalent to someone’s success. These ideas of financial gain seamlessly bled into the early 1900s, as the “Roaring Twenties” was filled with buzz from the stock market and business tycoons—envisioned as the epitome of success in America. A few decades later, the 1950s introduced technological innovations often purchased by middle to upper-class families. Household appliances such as microwaves, vacuums, and televisions signified financial stability.

As a result, to this day, many people believe financial status to be synonymous with success. The more money you earn and the more material objects you buy, the more stable you are perceived to be. In fact, if you Google search “most successful people in America,” the first two names that appear are Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. But are these men happy, fulfilled? Maybe, maybe not. But they are all undoubtedly rich. The hard truth is, no matter how someone feels emotionally or mentally about their endeavors, they will not be perceived as traditionally successful unless they are rich due to our societal expectations institutionalized throughout the years.

We first have to start by analyzing what “success” means in modern society and how it has evolved over generations. In the late nineteenth century, the

However, many people who seem outwardly successful might indeed feel internally unfulfilled. A wealthy income might provide security for someone, but it surely doesn’t provide satisfaction. According to The Meadowglade, a recent study pointed out that once a certain annual income is reached (nearly $105,000 in the U.S.), we are more likely to have “worse life satisfaction” and “reduced well-being.” In fact, many wealthy Americans note that they have experienced the “treadmill effect.” This phenomenon consists of buying material items that we think will make us happier. Once we’ve acquired them,

It’s bizarre how I, a seventeen-year-old, have to make decisions now that will affect the entire trajectory of my future.

though, we wonder what we can buy next, and the cycle continues. This endless desire for items leaves people unfulfilled, while experiences and passions are what actually lead us to happiness.

to conversations about our future college lives. Despite what I truly want to do with my life, there is a similar pressure to prove myself to my classmates. It’s natural for education environments to feel competitive, especially as a senior when GPAs and extracurriculars are a constant topic of discussion. Sure, pursuing a musical career might fulfill someone’s dreams, but their peers at school are likely to view them as unsuccessful if they aren’t ensured a competitive income.

Now we must acknowledge the various elements that impact the direction of our career paths. Some of our most important decisions are directly influenced by those with whom we surround ourselves. For instance, parental pressure can have a colossal impact on how we live our future lives. Of course, it’s natural for parents to want their child to have a secure income that can support his or her family. And most of the time, parents have nothing short of genuine intentions. However, these intentions typically shift into expectations, and adolescents often feel immense pressure to prove themselves to their parents through education and career status. According to Forbes.com, “A good income was the biggest reason that parents (55%) said that they promoted a particular career.” These pressures certainly apply to me; my parents want me to have a “successful” life, and I want to prove to them that I can exceed their expectations. But too much parental involvement in guiding one’s future might lead to severe regret when individuals seek their parents’ validation over their own.

Recognizing societal and relationship influences is crucial as you embark on your future endeavors, but the question still remains: Should you base your decisions on a future of success or happiness?

Although there are several influential factors in determining my own future, I feel confident in my pursuit of financial stability. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “She actually picked a side?” Well, yes and no. Although my personal opinion might come across as shallow or controversial, I have always been one to desire security in my future lifestyle. I want to be able to spoil myself and those around me and take vacations to places I’ve always dreamed of traveling to. It’s not that I don’t value personal fulfillment; I just crave a comfortable and financially rewarding path in life. Though I know that this direction is desirable for me, by no means do I think that it is the only answer to the question. Your choices in life will remain completely subjective depending on who you are. What I can confidently tell you is this: You are the only deciding factor in the choice that is your future. No matter what societal, educational, or parental pressure is placed on you, your desires should remain the most important motivator. Whether that’s eating oversized corporate muffins while you edit the latest fiduciary report or painting still lifes of Paris at sunset, you should have the ultimate autonomy in your future.

Furthermore, craving approval for our future decisions is not only inspired by our parents, but also by some of our closest friends. I sincerely wish the best for all of my peers, but quite selfishly, I often find myself becoming competitive when it comes

Artwork by David Axon

A wealthy income might provide security for someone, but it surely doesn’t provide satisfaction.

Some of our most important decisions are directly influenced by those with whom we surround ourselves.

What I can confidently tell you is this: You are the only deciding factor in the choice that is your future.

Sending It H⌂me

Why we choose to play sports amongst everything else

By Turner Long

Sports is arguably the most universal “club” in all of Porter-Gaud with nearly 80% of the Upper School student body participating. Whether we play or not, sports seem to touch the entire school—making impacts both big and small—on a daily basis. You’ll always see students leaving class for far-away games. You may also constantly struggle to form plans with your friends when they just can’t seem to shake off volleyball practice. Or maybe it’s a constant battle between finishing homework and actually showing up to practice.

And yet, it’s all too common to hear athletes complain as 3:20 approaches: the smiles that spread over people’s faces when dark, impending clouds begin to loom, the cheers that erupt when a coach sends out a “practice canceled” email, and the afternoon is free. After all, it’s hard to get riled up after a taxing day of school. Maybe you didn’t score well on a test, so it’s hard to put that heavy football uniform on and run drills in the blazing sun for hours at a time. Maybe you had a fight with a friend, but now you have to sit on the bus with them on the way to a tournament, the stress and tension steaming in the air. Or maybe you have so much work to do you feel like you’re going to drown, and so it’s hard to willingly jump into the deep end of the freezing cold pool on a darkening autumn afternoon.

Why then, do we do it? We didn’t sign up for that AP class; the work would have been too much. We didn’t sign up for that bioethics seminar; we were fascinated, but an extra hour before school would have taken too much time. And we certainly didn’t cram our schedules with every club offered, no matter how enticing they may have been; the pressure would have been overwhelming. But don’t sports consume all these things? Our time, energy, minds, and emotions? Why choose it over anything else? Why do it on top of everything else…

This November, four exceptional student-athletes in the senior class signed on to play at to various colleges, with many more committees on the horizon. Rowan Sullivan signed with Vanderbilt, Lucas Acevado signed with Michigan State, and Campbell Skelly signed with Rollins College, all of whom will be playing golf. Ann Thompson signed with Davidson in hopes of continuing her already stellar swimming career. These are remarkable moments in their lives; after all, a secure future at

Ann Thompson signs with Davidson College

Rowan Sullivan signs with Vanderbilt University

a prestigious college doesn’t seem like a bad deal. But what isn’t seen exists behind the curtain—what goes on in the minds of these athletes, and the ultimate reality of the immense pressure they are under to consistently perform.

When asked what drove him to play sports, Sullivan commented that “What motivates me is to be the best at everything I do, not necessarily against my competitors, but to be the best competitor within myself. It sounds clichéd, but the most growth is done under pressure.” Thompson seems to share a similar drive through self-motivation. When asked how she copes with the pressure, Thompson said that “Being at such a high level of both academics and athletics, it is hard not to be a perfectionist. With this in mind, there is one quote that I live by that prevents me from getting overwhelmed if I experience a ‘failure’: ‘You can never be perfect, but by striving for perfection, you can achieve excellence.’ It reminds me that as long as I put forth the best effort possible, everything will turn out okay in the end.”

Pressure. We hear it a lot, but these athletes’ words seem to highlight a truism within the reality of sports: that amongst turmoil, it allows us to experience the most growth through the interlocking ability to both please and perform for ourselves and for others. Sports teach us internal discipline, whether it be in time management, relationships and friendships, or the ability to compartmentalize stress, burdens, and emotional baggage. These skills simply cannot be learned quite as successfully anywhere else: it’s like speaking in public, but no one is forcing you to do it. Instead, you present

yourself on the daily, opening yourself up to flaws and critiques. You practice under watchful eyes. And, no matter how much you hate it sometimes, you do it over and over again, because it leaves you feeling good; it leaves you with a fuller version of yourself.

For Rowan, Lucas, Campbell, and Ann, I wish them all of the best luck on their next adventures on higher playing fields. It takes guts—not just talent—to do what they do, and a true, reliable internal compass, one that points them in the right direction to do their best under extreme circumstances.

So, next time when you walk into that steamy locker room after an intense practice, smile with your friends—you’ve all just gone through hell, and that has made you closer. When you’re running that last lap on the track and feel like you might hurl, keep in mind that you are working your hardest—not everyone can show such grit and dedication as to drive themselves to sickness. When the pool feels too cold, don’t hesitate— you’re there for a reason. When we participate in sports, we find our limits…and then break them. We find ourselves within ourselves. We reflect inwardly on what we truly value—we become stronger in both body and mind, and everyone around us benefits from our growth as well. So all that pressure, all that weight, may very well be worth it considering what we gain in return.

Lucas Acevado signs with Michigan State University

Campbell Skelly signs with Rollins College

Secrets of the Slaughterhouse

Exposing Cruelty in the Meat Industry

By Hampton Brooker

Many people have a pet at least once in their lifetime, whether that’s for companionship, safety, or even just to make them happy. Most people have a pet cat or dog, maybe a hamster. I have a pet pig.

Pigs are considered intelligent animals, yet that is often overlooked because they are often only seen as food. In fact, most animals are entirely underestimated, considering how smart they truly are. From my own experience of having a pet pig, I have learned the true complexity of the emotions these animals actually feel. Whenever my pig is sad or hurt, he cries. If he is happy, he will smile and approach me, and whenever he is scared, he will go under his blanket. These are normal reactions that any cat or dog would have if they were feeling the same. Yet pigs are eaten and dogs are not.

are electrocuted in order to render them unconscious, which makes it easier for them to be moved. Then they are hung upside down by their legs while they wait unawares until, finally, their major arteries are sliced, and they very slowly bleed to death. This process is horribly inhumane and painful for these animals, especially because most are forced to watch their fellow cell mates get killed one by one and are terrorized by their screams, wondering if they are next.

Although this is already a horrible process, let me explain the harm that this so-called “safely procured meat” does to your body as well. The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was passed to protect people from unsanitary meat; however, they completely excluded the fact that these meats are procured with many unsafe chemicals. According to the FDA, meat contains a great deal of growth hormones, injected into the animals to make them prematurely grow into an adult size within weeks. Statistics have shown that pigs in the meat industry are typically killed around five to six-and-a-half months of age at a weight of 200-300 lbs. This is an extremely fast and abnormal growth rate. For reference, when my pet pig was six months he weighed only 50 lbs; at around four years of age, he reached the weight of 300lbs, which is fully grown. So within this short period of six months, farmers manage to fit in around four years of growth.

If you are not one to sympathize with animals or worry for their safety, consider how their terrible conditions affect your health. Many animals are underfed and forced to live in tiny cells where they spend their whole miserable lives—lives that consist of sitting in a pile of their own waste. Most of these animals do not see the outside ever in their short existences. Studies have shown that sunlight and nature improve dopamine levels in humans. This is the same for animals. Happy animals who live in pastures while being raised for meat are proven to taste better. This is because the more Vitamin D found in the animal, the more flavorful it tastes.

Another repulsive detail about how meat is procured is the way animals are killed. There are many different methods of how we slaughter them. The most common process typically goes as follows: animals

A research study done by the University of California Agricultural Issues Center proved that meat consumption poses other dangers in the form of antibiotic residues in beef and dairy, as well as salmonella in poultry. Ingesting such elements can cause severe illnesses and even permanent damage to your body in drastic cases. Due to an article by the National Cancer Institute, we know that other risk factors include the chemicals heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons found in meat, both of which are known to increase one’s risk of cancer. It is impossible to really know what chemicals you are eating along with your meat; therefore, it is important to know the threat of what could happen.

little known fact about cruelty in the meat industry pertains to a law passed in 1958 known as the Humane

A

“Were the walls of our meat industry to become transparent, literally or even figuratively, we would not long continue to raise, kill, and eat animals the way we do.”

-Michael Pollan

Methods of Slaughter Act. This law includes all animals except chickens, which make up 90% of the meat industry. This act was put in place to increase humanity in the slaughter process and offer animals a less painful death. But sadly this law is hardly ever enforced and often overlooked, mostly because making sure all animals are properly shocked and cut before death is a very demanding role. It’s faster to do it improperly, which is why animals continue to be carelessly slaughtered as if their lives mean nothing.

The main reason for these acts of cruelty against animals is found in the increase in demand for their products. Roughly 80 billion animals are slaughtered yearly because of how many are needed for human consumption. Worse, masses of meat, at least at the consumer level, are not even eaten. Around 26% of all meat is thrown out, which is the equivalent of over 20 billion animals. The excess meat being thrown out goes straight to landfills, which contribute to the world’s large amount of carbon emissions.

The meat industry is not only affecting our bodies, but also the Earth. As the need for meat increases, the industry expands, causing a need for more crops. These vast crops are specifically grown to feed the livestock. To make space, forests must be cleared, leading to mass deforestation. Also, the runoff from the chemicals used on the crops often flows into swamps of manure from the factory. Every time there is rainfall or a storm, the swamp overflows, and toxic chemicals are released into the world.

Humans need to stop excessively consuming as much meat as we do now. It is extremely unnecessary and unethical for this many animals to be dying when only a fourth are eaten. It is our role as humans to protect the world we live in and the creatures that live among us unless we wish to go extinct. Some ways to help would be to only eat meat a few times a week, advocate for animal rights, or educate others. Doing small acts like this could help our health, the environment, and animals’ lives. If you continue to feel no sympathy towards our ecosystem, think about the effect that this overconsumption will have on you. Take the step to save our planet and its animals.

Artwork by Anderson Toole

Bitcoin is Still the Future. People Just Don’t Understand it Yet.

Never before has there been a more valuable, secure, or revolutionary way to invest and hold currency.

By Benjamin Zielke

In a world full of self-driving electric cars, social platforms connecting people on opposite sides of the globe, and promising prototypes of a digital Metaverse where we can escape to different realities, why do we still carry around green paper bills? The future is digital, and old federal notes that have been halfway across the country aren’t a part of it.

Consider that we’ve been living in a world where currency has divided us, limiting interactions between people just because they don’t use the same form of payment, where all of your hard work can be taken by the removal of a cowskin billfold in your pocket, and where governments decide how much your earnings are worth as they gear up

Bitcoin, you can pay anyone, anywhere, at any time and not be subjected to the limits of the Euro, the Yen, or the Dollar.

It is truly the currency of the world, giving us all the chance to be pioneers of the future and the biggest digital revolution to date. And it is only just a few clicks away.

The question many are curious to know in this day and age Many insist on calling it a currency. Some will say it’s digital gold. Some even say it’s an asset, like stock. Really, Bitcoin is all of these and more, which is the very reason there is so much confusion when it comes to defining the term. It cannot easily be identified as one single “thing.” Bitcoin has a large number of potential uses, so calling it just currency or just digital gold would not really define what it actually is. It is better, I think, to call Bitcoin and its underlying foundation, the blockchain, a digital platform that represents the future of money and prompts a limitless amount of projects and technologies.

The Bitcoin revolution has been met with concerns due to its volatility (sudden price actions)—the coin has plunged more than 52% in 2022, leading many to believe that the crypto craze is over before it even began. Crypto, in these skeptics’ eyes, was destined to fail from the beginning. Its early—and large—drops in value seemed to confirm this belief. Many even speculate that cryptocurrency was never meant to be taken seriously anyway, and that it was created

as a joke. How else, they ask, could a project claiming to be the future of currency have just come out of nowhere?

Given the recent FTX news-making headlines, you may think that crypto and the various companies working with it are unusable and face a similar fate. This is not the case, however, but rather a singular instance of a man who deliberately committed fraud and malicious acts towards his customer base in order to gain wealth and spend money that was not his—a crime, not a facet or feature of cryptocurrency. Sam Bankman-Fried (the CEO of FTX) is not a Bitcoiner; he is against the very institution, as shown through his actions, and he will pay the price. Meanwhile, as inflation has risen this fall, the very idea of money continues to become one of abstraction; it’s no wonder, then, that Bitcoin came to the surface. It was time for the way we buy, sell, and store value to change; a new system has long been overdue.

The world needs a new form of money that has value, permanency, and global utility. Most importantly, the currency needs to be of the people, for the people, by the people. After all, there is no law stating that we must use the US dollar; we can use anything to buy something as long as it has some agreed-upon value. The lack of mass adoption, however, is what has prevented the shift to a new currency.

Besides, the US dollar is familiar, safe, and widely used throughout the world, right? Why would you want shillings in exchange when you can have the dollar used by everyone else? By adhering to the standard, we have forgotten that the standard itself could be better. After all, it hasn’t changed for 237 years. We the people are the ones who use currency each and every day so the government should conform to our desires. Why do we still use a currency that is managed and manipulated by a government? Consider that the idea of “value” is lost in the dollar; at one time it was backed by gold, making it a “trust,” a dollar represented by a certain amount of gold. But in 1933, the dollar stopped being backed by gold; it has value simply because the government says it does. When you disperse and shatter the smoke and mirrors, the dollar truly is just paper, after all (linen and cotton, actually); one dollar bill costs 7.5 cents to make.

So, what gives Bitcoin value, then? Is it not just lines of code? How is that valuable, you may wonder?

To understand this, one first needs to understand the nature of it and the core technology it utilizes, a system called blockchain—a technology used by almost all cryptocurrencies. Blockchain is a digital ledger that formally records transactions between people. Think of ancient times when the trading of goods was recorded on stone or papyrus. It’s the same today, but updated for a digital age, in which anyone can see these transactions with just a few clicks. Blockchain verifies and records every transaction on over 70,000 computers but—importantly— in an entirely decentralized manner. This means the ledger of transactions is spread out through a large network due to the large number of computers involved; there is no one central location where each transaction is recorded. This approach is more secure, as any threats to the system would require all 70,000 computers to be hacked. Additionally, the digital ledger stores a record of every detail of each transaction occurring on the blockchain, allowing every transaction to be traced back to its origin, utilizing wallet addresses that represent people. As such, blockchain creates confidence, ease of use, and accessibility through its groundbreaking technology.

So back to the question of Bitcoin’s value: up until this point, there have been many different uses of blockchain technology that have gained massive popularity by taking the technology of blockchain and putting it to uselessness by using the technology for memes, or jokes that poke fun at the whole idea of crypto.

A popular example of this relates to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are digital artworks or images depicting numerous dog breeds, apes, popular art, and catchy memes, all of which are stored on the blockchain. Because of these “blockchain fads,” many think the technology itself is useless, having no real-world helpful application. But these characterizations do not hold true to what blockchain and cryptocurrencies really are. At their core, the provided examples are merely applications of the larger and more important capacity for blockchain technology. Despite Bitcoin being an intangible internet currency that seemingly has no value, it has a huge amount of worth due to the technology behind it; in fact, blockchain itself, particularly its infrastructure that can be used for payments, may be a digital goldmine.

But how does blockchain really work in practice?

Let’s consider an analogy: Imagine a man—we’ll call him Satoshi (an homage to the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto)— who wants to buy a Lamborghini Aventador (a really fancy car) with Bitcoin. Once he sends his Bitcoin to the Lamborghini dealership, there commences a technological process: Bitcoin transactions are like messages, or emails, which are digitally signed using (a method of protecting information and communications through the use of codes) and are then sent to the entire Bitcoin blockchain network for verification, or “mining.” So, Satoshi’s transaction would be signed, added to the Bitcoin blockchain, and sent to the entire Bitcoin network for verification. Once processed, all the details would be recorded, forever, by the creation of a block

How does mining work? The type of miner used for Bitcoin focuses on solving complex math, or “work,” to verify. This is why it is called mining: the computer is searching until it finds “gold,” or the verification of a transaction. Let’s dive into these types of miners more.

“Proof of work” (often shortened to POW) utilizes mining rigs to verify transactions on the blockchain by processing and verifying blocks of transactions. The miners solve complicated math equations, creating competition for the highest payouts, based on who has the best hardware and can process the shares the fastest. These miners are paid in mining fees, or a transaction fee, the only fee in a crypto transaction. Additionally, 60% of Bitcoin mining utilizes renewable energy, and, according to Cointelegraph Bitcoin uses significantly less energy than banks due to the efficiency and simplicity of functions.

So back to our sweet car purchase. Saotshi’s transaction is submitted to the blockchain, which is submitted to Bitcoin’s network, which uses proof of work to verify transactions. A man named Elon, who is in a gold mine, then searches for Satoshi’s transaction as he would for gold, except he’s looking for this particular block. Once he finds it, he verifies the gold to make sure it is real. Elon does this to make sure the transaction is verified and recorded as completed on the blockchain, and for his trouble, Elon gets a reward– a mining fee. However, if another miner found the transaction, or “gold,” before Elon, they would get the mining fee instead. This creates open competition in proof of work for who can find and verify the most transactions, all dependent on the miner’s strength, or in this case, computer power (called “hash rate,” by the way, in the mining space).

As already noted, Bitcoin cannot be easily defined or grouped as a singular thing– it is many things at once existing as a platform that can continually be expanded. This is also why the U.S. Congress has had to put cryptocurrencies in a class of their own to manage them, as they are similar to nothing we have seen before. However, Bitcoin is simply an adaptation of blockchain technology. Though this technology has been used to create and launch thousands of different coins and applications, at the top is Bitcoin. Why? Quite simply, Bitcoin was the first to utilize the technology.

But, what makes Bitcoin and blockchain so powerful?

1. It’s finite. As an asset, no one individual, government, or country can manipulate its value. There are and always will be only 21 million Bitcoins in the world. Unlike the USD or the Euro, the market of supply and demand will determine its value, and it cannot be artificially increased or decreased.

2. It’s secure. Bitcoin’s blockchain leverages a very sophisticated security algorithm that cannot be hacked. The primary reason it’s so complex and safe is that hacking it would require not only penetration of the algorithm but also every computer processing Bitcoin transactions.

The world needs a new form of money that has value, permanency, and global utility. Most importantly, the currency needs to be of the people, for the people, by the people.

3. It’s decentralized. Every blockchain-based Bitcoin transaction is processed by many individuals working to verify each and every transaction.

Bitcoin offers users a new way to pay by allowing the user to truly own the currency itself and pay in whatever fashion they want to. Transactions can be made anywhere at any time, without a government creating more or controlling the currency. Bitcoin is already being adopted in some parts of the world, with countries like El Salvador adopting Bitcoin and establishing an economy from nothing. What is even more fascinating is that payments can be sent to El Salvador from anywhere or anyone in the world with a couple of clicks. Unlike paper notes, which rely on government trust, amounting to green paper with only perceived value, Bitcoin has technological value. When people invest in Bitcoin, they are investing in a new technology that holds real value.

Inflation would be an idea of the past in a post-dollar world, as the existence of only 21 million Bitcoin means there can be no change in the amount of coins, allowing for stability that we have never before witnessed in the world.

Cryptocurrency wallets such as Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, and BitPay allow consumers to buy and store cryptocurrencies as well as spend crypto in a world that still uses paper money made legal tender by a government, or fiat money (the term used to describe government-issued currency). It is as simple as downloading an app, creating a wallet (also creating a secret password to recover the wallet at any time), connecting a bank account, and buying crypto, which can either be held as an asset or spent. The presence of fiat is still very present in this process, however. For example, if you were to buy something using crypto, you would first have to convert fiat money into crypto. When purchasing an item, it can go two ways: if the merchant (the seller of goods) accepts crypto, the process will be a quick, easy, and direct transfer with minimal fees on both ends; if the merchant does not accept crypto, then the crypto has to be converted back into fiat for the seller to accept, performed by services like Bitpay. Both of these processes are equally as efficient and easy as the other, but the second introduces an unnecessary middleman, similar to traditional banks which go through numerous communications with the merchant to verify a single transaction. In the future, with a world full of Bitcoin users, transactions would truly

just be from one person to another. This means no banks, no waits, and no high fees. Crypto, in this sense, is ahead of its time.

So back to our Satoshi example: the dealership he is at accepts Bitcoin. Satoshi submits the transaction, it turns into a block, then is mined, and the payment goes directly to Lamborghini. This transaction is recorded on the blockchain, so there is proof that Satoshi did indeed pay for his Aventador. On the blockchain, you can see who mined the transaction, the wallet address from which the funds originated and were received, and the corresponding wallet addresses, allowing for full transparency. These events occurred in seconds thanks to Bitcoin’s technology, and so Satoshi is able to drive off in his new Lambo after just a few minutes. The dealership is happy, as they have been fully paid, and best of all, no banks were involved.

With the benefits of Bitcoin, how will it be adopted?

It’s simple: by you and me. Bitcoin relies on this new generation of people that rely on technology now more than ever, meaning we are going to be the ones who usher in this new tech. The old way of paying is an idea unchanged for decades and is simply not fit for a new age focused on technologies that have evolved to showcase technology, energy, ease of use, accessibility, interaction, security, and devaluation. Bitcoin solves all of these problems, yet many disregard it. Those who realize this, trust it, and Hold On for Dear Life (HODL), will be rewarded and recognized as revolutionaries. Those who sit on the sidelines, doubting the plausibility of such a proposal, will be grouped with those who doubted the ideas behind the internet or the iPhone. The difference here, however, is the scale of Bitcoin is one we have never witnessed before– we are talking about changing the currencies of the world. Simply put, crypto is a whole new technological space that will rock the earth. Crypto will empower, connect, and pave the way for even greater ideas. It will become the people’s money.

Analyzing Our Intelligence

Curated smarts or common sense

By Avery Chambers

Pick a side: book smart or street smart? Based on society’s perception, you can either be academically or culturally acceptable. Not both. So, which are you?

I’ll provide you with a scenario: You walk into a room and there are two separate groups of people. One group is actively studying, discussing academic topics, notes scattered everywhere. Another group is casually talking with their peers about the latest trends or last night’s sports game. Which group is more appealing and welcoming to you?

But what if you didn’t have to pick a side? Our intelligence capabilities don’t have to be confined to two simple categories. Ultimately, the idea of these two types being irreconcilable is fundamentally dependent on stereotypes.

While the modern conception of intelligence involves stereotypes, the original idea of academic intelligence versus excellence in interpersonal skills was actually used in Latin philosophy. A priori and a posteriori are phrases used to distinguish different types of knowledge and determine whether that knowledge relies on empirical evidence or experience. A priori knowledge is obtained by analyzing concepts independent of experience, closely resembling the idea of book smart. A posteriori relates to when knowledge is obtained through worldly experience, closely resembling the idea of “street smarts”. When these terms originated, they did not include the same stereotypes that today’s society enforces. Those who enjoy learning and excel in scholastic situations are deemed condescending terms such as “nerd.” Individuals who experience difficulty in school yet excel in social situations are viewed as “dumber” than others because they are not gifted academically. The original Latin terms have evolved over time to include the stereotypes that modern society has created.

When I researched examples of book smart individuals, a picture of Albert Einstein immediately appeared. Einstein is commonly used as an example because he was essentially a genius, widely known for his multitude of scientific breakthroughs. On the other hand, I believe a clear example of a street smart person–or in this case, a creature—is Sebastian the crab from The Little Mermaid. Sebastian possesses a knowledge that allows him to educate and protect Ariel in the new, human world. The crab serves as an example of people who understand the world around them and can help others move through life with minimal setbacks. However, society will often contrast the two and deem book smart individuals as superior. Society often views people as incompetent in grasping complex topics when they lack academic intelligence. But Sebastian’s skills are equally as valuable as Einstein’s high level of intelligence. Without Sebastian, Ariel would have been completely misguided. Even though book smarts and street smarts were inherently designed to establish two completely separate spheres of intelligence, I believe this categorization can be debunked.

Stereotypes are not accurate representations of intelligence. They are mere surface-level observations made by those around us. Society has made us feel like we have to be completely defined by one, and that nothing about ourselves can be changed. In reality, we accumulate qualities from both spheres of intelligence; they are not innate qualities. We weren’t born knowing how to use language or read or write. We weren’t born knowing how to read the people around us. These qualities are learned throughout our life experiences. If you identify with one type of intelligence, it does not entirely negate the existence of the other.

The clear-cut definition of “book smart” is entirely dependent on academic excellence, and the assumption is that when people excel in academics, they lose social skills. These people are dedicated to studying, the belief goes, and therefore do not

take the time to socialize. In the past, I would have typically defined myself as one of these people. I have spent hours studying, strategically writing out study plans to help myself excel. I often desire to please the perfectionist part of my personality, telling myself my grades need to be exceptionally high. My hard work often results in outcomes I am pleased with. Despite my academic strengths, I would not consider myself socially unacceptable; I spend time with my comforting and supportive friends every chance I get. Throughout high school, I’ve discovered that social skills do not necessarily come naturally to me. But I’ve also learned that I am not incapable of being social. I merely have to push myself out of my comfort zone, which I feel many others can relate to. The stereotypes surrounding the constant competition between these two types of individuals would align my social struggles with my success in academics. But I disagree with such thinking. I believe the division derives from shallow observations. It seems like since a person excels in one area, they would lack excellence in the other area. However, an individual getting good grades does not mean we can assume they are incapable of socializing or possessing cultural awareness. Maybe they choose to spend their time and energy elsewhere. We cannot let our divisive society, including our close friends, reduce us to those surface-level observations.

So why does society try to box us into one category of “smart” and make us feel as if we can’t be intelligent in other ways?

Currently, our lives revolve around academic achievement. All we have ever known is school. Many of us might not yet understand what it means to “live in the real world.” Therefore, we tend to praise, or even envy, those with academic achievements—I have always felt that way. I used to think that the college I attend could determine my entire success in life. I craved academic validation and believed that if I didn’t get

into an exceptional college, I wouldn’t be successful in life. But I’ve learned that there is a multitude of other things that make your life full, such as maintaining strong relationships with family and friends. Those skills derive from your knowledge of how to interact with others. These skills are also important for future success, as they bolster one’s ability to establish business connections or interact with patients as a physician. Or maybe you become an influencer who enforces popular trends. Your whole life isn’t dependent on one sector of “smart.”

Scientifically, the categorization of book smart versus street smart can be invalidated. A psychologist, Howard Gardner, has a theory called Multiple Intelligences which challenges previous beliefs about intelligence. Gardner observed many types of people before forming his theory, including normal children, gifted children, and even brain-damaged adults. He aimed to encapsulate the full range of talents people can have, proving that our knowledge includes multiple facets, not just one or two. In summary, Gardner explains that human intelligence can be differentiated into eight modalities: linguistic, logical/mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. The traditional notion that we only have a general intelligence is disproven. People are knowledgeable in a multitude of different ways. Therefore, our intelligence is expansive, complex, and extremely difficult to condense into one category.

Maybe you identify more with the scientific geniuses of the world, or maybe with the social geniuses, but remember that many distinctive worlds of intelligence exist. In reality, there is no bold dividing line between Einstein and Sebastian, no physical barriers. Only mental barriers. We can learn to overcome the categorizations of society to fully embrace who we are.

Artwork by Anna Caroline Symonds

The DarK AnD TwisteD irony BEHIND

“Relatable” family ChANnElS

The deep psychological issues that stem from family social media accounts

By Mirabelle Cutler

The title of this video posted by the popular YouTubers The LaBrant family gained national attention, and with good reason. Thousands of their concerned fans reached out, expressing empathy; however, to the shock of many, the video was soon proven to be false. The family did follow up to share that it was merely a medical error, and that, no, their daughter did not actually have cancer. Even if there truly was a mistake in a medical procedure or diagnosis, the parents’ posting seems to be an aggressive exploitation of their daughter’s identity (even privacy) merely for the purpose of more views.

In another one of their family videos, the same parents pulled a prank in which they told their nine-year-old daughter, Everleigh, that they were giving away the family dog. Obviously, she became distraught, and the family broadcast that emotional distress for more views and clicks, which was again troubling to many irate viewers.

Online demonstrations of bad parenting seems to be trending. In another instance that occurred in 2017, a family YouTube channel that went by the name of DaddyOFive was involved in a huge controversy surrounding the abuse of the children who starred in the videos. The father, Mike, faced severe backlash after he uploaded a prank video in which he blamed his son for spilling ink on the carpet. In the video, his son, Cody, is shown crying and screaming that he didn’t do it. Yet, Cody continues to be verbally berated and screamed at by his father. This type of behavior is emotionally abusive and severely damaging, with a profound impact on those who suffer from it. To no one’s surprise, the father recently lost custody of his children, was placed on supervised probation, and had his channel deleted. When scripting ideas for their new videos, these family accounts have a clear goal in mind: to increasingly dramatize their themes, regardless of the controversies that follow.

Yet another problematic creator who has recently come under fire is Jordan Cheyenne, a YouTuber who posts lifestyle and parenting videos and has over 530,000 subscribers. She posted a video on YouTube in which she motivated her son to cry after he received news that their family puppy had been diagnosed with a potentially deadly illness. She told her son Christian to “act like you’re crying,” to which he responded that he was

“She got diagnosed with cancer.”

“This type of behavior is emotionally abusive and severely damaging, with a profound impact on those who suffer from it.”

The LaBrant Family

crying. Clearly, her son was devastated, but instead of comforting him, Cheyenne only encouraged his tears and sought to increase the emotion he was showing in order to gain more views and interactions.

The ACE Family Channel, a hugely successful family channel currently facing backlash, has an enormous following of 18 million subscribers on YouTube. Their videos have titles such as, “STEEL GOT HURT BAD ON CAMERA,” and “EPIC CAR ACCIDENT PRANK!!,” each broadcasting emotional topics in a lighthearted way that is distasteful to many. These accounts continually show that they are profit-driven solely for the purpose of views, and the ways they achieve this can be profoundly damaging and morally wrong. When these types of families see their children encountering such drama, they pull out cameras and begin to record to gain more notoriety—and thus more traction online—all the while disregarding the child’s embarrassment or emotional stress.

at the most. The responses that are coming from these controversial videos, regardless of the intent, are still boosting interactions, which, in turn, leads the channel to more success. These families seem to know that the more controversial they become, the more views they are going to get. Many are right to wonder why the parental figures of family accounts on social media platforms want to profit off issues regarding their children for the sole purpose of clickbait. These families may have always been dissimilar to others when it comes to their parenting methods, but their need to project their children as characters on social media seems to overlook certain dangers in the real world.

This is not meant to bash the entirety of family accounts and the material they produce; a majority of these accounts are relatively innocent, and much of their content, even that which can seem over-the-top, appears simply to have been made to entertain others. Each production uses heavy saturation as well as bold and bright fonts to draw young viewers in. These family channels, however, can cover very serious topics that younger minds are not likely able to fully comprehend. Such content can be extremely damaging and confusing for those who are still growing and changing, and these types of emotionally packed videos can negatively alter them and their maturation.

The repeated cycles of shaming children in these channels has a hand in encouraging negative selfperception and low self-esteem in those who are viewing these videos. Children are heavily influenced by what they see, hear, and experience in the online world. For children to grow up secure and healthy, there must be a place where they have their own privacy and a family environment unaffected by outside influences.

The main purpose of these family channels would seem to be to create relatable and fun content, but for the price of fame, some families take drastic and invasive steps to earn more views in a way others perceive as unusual at the least and possibly very unhealthy

“When these types of families see their children encountering such drama, they pull out cameras and begin to record to gain more notoriety—and thus more traction online—all the while disregarding the child’s embarrassment or emotional stress at the moment.”

The Ace Family

Another complaint many have with these specific accounts is that they feature children being punished on camera for making harmless mistakes, and, as a result, they become extremely pressured and stressed to constantly perform for their online audience. These children are the main focus of the channel and thus relate directly to the channel’s success and revenue. Naturally, as a result of this, the parents shine a spotlight on the children for more success. The psychological effects of being recorded throughout your entire childhood can be profoundly detrimental in many aspects of your life. One family content creator stated that when her teenage daughter asked her not to share her life online anymore, she felt as though she couldn’t stop because it had become a part of her own online identity, and she felt obligated to keep it up. Her daughter adamantly stated that she felt extremely uncomfortable having her pictures and information posted online to strangers without her consent.

These young children grow up believing that they have to put on a facade for the camera and mask their true opinions and emotions on specific topics. Such behavior can translate into their adult lives, and their online presence from the past may risk overshadowing what they do in the present and future. Naturally, when young adults leave their parents, they hope to make an individual name for themselves. But in this context, such hopes can prove futile. The internet is forever ,and someone’s online footprint can influence others’ opinions of them before they have even met the individual. The lack of privacy that these children have had for all of their lives very likely changes their views on the world. Additionally, this constant exposure changes how they express their emotions in the presence of others. The children that have become “cash cows” for these channels are being forced to work longer hours than legally sanctioned (over eight hours a day). “Child stars” step into society with a metaphorical “blindfold” that emotionally stunts them and leaves them unprepared to have an individual and healthy sense of self. If they were always expected to perform in the past, but enter a present where there

is no camera in their face, many may draw a blank for how to perform socially in the real world. Like Disney Channel child stars, who may have been initially forced into the job without any voice in the decision, they may fade out of the media’s lens as they grow older and enter into a world they aren’t ready for.

Even if a lot of people are not personally watching these videos and not interested in the content at all, know that there is a prominent younger generation that is, with easy access to a lot more content just like it. It is crucial to tell these younger family members or friends to stop interacting with and watching these videos in order to foster a healthier environment for these children to grow up in. Obviously, these family accounts stem from unstable family dynamics, but the promise of fame motivates them to continue. If viewers stop interacting and participating with these channels, then creators will be forced to reassess the content and change their angle.

“Like Disney Channel child stars, who may have been initially forced into the job without any voice in the decision, they may fade out of the media’s lens as they grow older and enter into a world they aren’t ready for.”

Acting or Activism?

By Ella Murphy

On my gridlocked drive to the Winter Garden Theater in New York City, I looked out my window, and, amid a hundred bright signs in Times Square, I saw one for the new Jagged Little Pill musical lit up in bright blue. Excitement filled me; I was dying to see what it was all about. Seeing the Broadway classic Annie the previous day had warmed my heart in the midst of a bitter New York winter, giving a whole new meaning to that famous line “The sun’ll come out… tomorrow!” However, I had a feeling that this new show was going to have a completely different vibe than Annie

As I stepped into the warm theater, packed with people, I had high hopes for this new musical, which had just opened with rave reviews. A couple of hours before the show started, I Googled the play to give myself a brief summary of what was to come. The only context I had was knowing that the soundtrack was from the “queen of angst,” Alanis Morisette, the artist whom Rolling Stone once described as “the one who threw on Adidas low-tops and an oversized T-shirt and thrashed her hiplength, un-straightened, un-blonde hair around any stage she could find while singing a hook about how her whole purpose in life is to never let some guy forget what a [jerk] he is.” At the peak of her career, Morisette was known worldwide for her ability to flip off society while simultaneously and unapologetically bringing in a new wave of fans and alternative rock.

While sitting with my family in Row D, center stage, I was on the edge of my seat. I was already a fan of Morisette’s music, and I couldn’t wait to see it in the show. The lights dimmed and the velvety red curtain rose to reveal a

rock band on a platform belting out “All I Really Want.” The actress’s face contorted into a grimace as she excoriated her confined situation with the lyrics “Why are you so petrified of silence? Here, can you handle this?... Did you think about your bills, your ex, your deadlines, or when you think you’re gonna die? Or did you long for the next distraction?” The aggressive energy radiated off of the stage and into the audience in a moment that remains engraved in my mind, even today.

For the next two and a half hours, the actors whisked the audience through the lives of a seemingly normal family who was dealing with issues such as drug abuse, sexual assault, and academic pressures. Some of the actors portrayed these situations through strange yet compelling interpretive dance, which kept my eyes glued to the stage. Dark humor was used frequently to convey these unfortunate circumstances. I left the theater with tears in my eyes and a newfound hunger to stand up for what is right.

Any play or musical needs conflict; whether that conflict is lighthearted or not depends on the scenario. Take Annie, for example, in which a poor little orphan girl can’t seem to find her forever home. While the topic of adoption is certainly very real to many and possibly heartbreaking to some, its reality is diluted by giddy dance numbers and the wildly unique story of an impoverished redheaded girl adopted by one of the richest men in America. But the lack of realism in this far-fetched fantasy is what makes the play wholesome and fun, attracting an audience of all ages. Another example of the gravity of a serious topic being diminished by fun costumes and newfound treasures is The Wizard of Oz, which made its Broadway debut in 1903. It’s a story most of us know well: a girl is taken to a faraway land by a tornado where she goes on a fairy-tale adventure before returning home, with help from some funny and entertaining characters such as the Cowardly Lion and the brainless Scarecrow. In both Annie and The Wizard of Oz, there are two lost girls trying to find a way home. While their situations are high-stakes, these dramas entirely lack the gritty realism of today’s topical issues.

We began to see a change in the Broadway world with the emergence of Wicked in 2003, which shifted the focus from the hero to the villain. Although Wicked is not the only Broadway show to feature the villain as the main character, it’s notable because of its sheer popularity. Along with

Musicals are becoming political and social movements and shying away from their original purpose: to please the public.

the evolution of the topics of musicals, the age range of audiences has also changed. Since these new musicals have grabbed the attention of younger generations who were exposed to heavy topics through events such as 9/11 and the 2008 Great Recession, it’s no surprise that Wicked was the precursor to, and somewhat of a catalyst for, darker-toned musicals such as Jagged Little Pill.

Almost twenty years after Wicked’s widely-admired narrative approach, shows became more centered around topical issues and as a platform for expressing social and political opinions. Unsurprisingly, this has upset some and inspired other viewers of Broadway’s current shows. That being said, modern-day audiences should keep in mind that the stage has always been used for expressing opinions and not just storytelling.

Art has always been a place of honest expression that has threatened the norm of comfort and traditional beauty. In today’s world, art is progressive, raw, and fluid—a description which Jagged Little Pill fits perfectly. However, it stirred up controversy as a harshly real musical that utilized dark humor. Some critics viewed it as something that had been twisted to fit a stereotype, but what many fail to see is that Jagged Little Pill created a fresh way to convey relevant controversial topics through satirical acting and grunge music. Reviewers from The Guardian felt that “it was a great way to introduce these topics to young and old viewers alike” in order to let them form their own opinions without completely shoving the topics down their throats.

As musical theater extends from the stage to your iPhone music library, the songs and their messages reverberate throughout your life. In Jagged Little Pill , each character undergoes a transformative journey and sings to the masses about political and social issues present in society today. In the past, musicals have lacked the complete gritty realism of Jagged Little Pill and modern musicals like it. Today, musical theater is used as a platform for showcasing political and social issues in the form of catchy songs. Some may perceive this as “woke” principles taking over the entertainment industry, while others see it as an outlet to express the demons in your head. Whatever the case may be, it is apparent that this “Activism Theater” is here to stay.

Jagged Little Pill (2014) tells the story of the Healy family. The musical aspect of it demonstrates a new way to convey heavy topics through satirical acting and rock music. The storyline centers around each of the family members grappling with certain difficulties: the mom deals with opioid abuse; the dad works too much and is always absent from home life; the son cracks under social and academic pressure; and the daughter struggles with her identity as she tries to be an activist for gender equality and rights in their haughty town. Throughout the play, each character unravels but ultimately makes a full-circle comeback.

Gritty topics like these have never felt so raw in a Broadway play, reflecting society’s recent focus on these problems. It’s understandable that viewers might be upset or even enraged by these topics—they are heavy and can be uncomfortable to watch—especially because many of us go to Broadway to escape the trials of everyday life. It is possible that some could have viewed the interpretation of the Healy family as shallow, as if the writers were trying to make it seem like every family has something wrong with it. Despite this criticism, the musical has been largely considered positive— summed up neatly in one review— “as a graceful jumble of raw pain, healing, and empowerment never before seen in the Broadway realm.” And while the content is blunt and upsetting, it is very real.

The aggressive energy radiated off of the stage and into the audience in a moment that remains engraved in my mind even today.

Artwork by Anna Caroline Symonds

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot More Stressful…

Think of ways to fend off the holiday blues.

By Windland Jaimes

The end of summer vacation still leaves us about a month or two to enjoy the leftover warm and humid weather as we adjust to the new school year. Time to see old friends in new classes and to be grateful for all the people in our lives, even as papers and projects start piling up. The start of October, though, is when everyone begins to get into the holiday spirit, pulling out the fall clothing bin that has hidden in the closet all year. Before you know it, it’s time for sweatshirts and pumpkin candles, Thanksgiving meal prep, and maybe even early Christmas shopping.

When you’re a kid, and with a string of big holidays ahead of you, there’s so much to look forward to. From here on out, your road ahead is littered with costumes, Snickers and Kit Kats, Thanksgiving dinners, family reunions, hot chocolate, colorful gifts, and, if you’re lucky, staying up till midnight on New Years to watch the ball drop. It’s no surprise, then, that kids tend to view the holidays as nothing but sweets, presents, and endless fun, a time with few responsibilities and burdens. What’s not to love about holiday breaks, numerous gifts, treats, movies, and pumpkin spice lattes?

Halloween used to be my favorite. The long night would end with sore feet, sweaty palms, and chocolate-covered fingers. Imagine the most extravagant party, a haunted house, blow-up ghosts and ghouls, buckets and buckets of candy, and every cookie and creepy candy imaginable. It was all there. Some years our neighbors would even dye their pool blood-red, and everytime, at the end of the night, I would always go home looking like a Stephen King novel. My brother and I would sneak upstairs away from the adults and count our candy. We didn’t want our parents to throw out a single piece, not even the Almond Joys. We’d stack up our bars and make our prized collection look pretty. We couldn’t let a single piece go to waste; this stash had to last through the new year.

Thanksgiving morning was also another great time. My cousins and I would wake up to the house smelling like every food we could imagine. We’d spend the whole day “helping around” the kitchen (for approximately five minutes), but eventually would get bored and go entertain ourselves. After sitting down and saying a blessing and something we’re thankful for, we’d eat everything on the table, whether we liked it or not, stuffing our faces full until we couldn’t breathe, and then leave the dinner table without a care or responsibility in the world—after the caramel cake, that is.

But waking up on December 1st with my brother and running around the house looking for our Elf was probably the most exciting time of the year. This hunt would go on for twenty-three more days, becoming a thrilling morning routine. Sometimes he was emerging from a vase, cleaning the dishes, or hanging above our bunk bed. When we finally found him, all we wanted to do was go to bed so we could wake up and find him all over again. That is, until Christmas morning, when we’d wake up, give the absence of our elf one last quick thought, and then dash to the cornucopia of presents under the tree.

But five-year-old me—even ten-year-old me—never stopped to consider what made the holidays so great. Kids get to enjoy endless “free” candy, food, and presents. What really made everything so perfect and fun? My parents. And not just them, but my entire family working so hard to give us a great holiday season. Who decorated the house every year with turkeys, bells, and tinsel? Or bought us pumpkins to carve? Who cooked that caramel cake and the delicious family turkey that we loved so much? None of these luxuries just appeared on the table. They were made with love, yes, but also with a lot of time and dedication. Who hides the elf? And puts out the presents? Our families are the ones who work to make the holidays so enjoyable.

No longer should the holidays, then, be just about sorting your candy and running around the house not helping with meal prep. Now in our teen years, it’s time for us to contribute to making the holidays an enjoyable time for everyone. It’s time to help bake the caramel cake, shop for the right gifts to give, and wrap presents to place under the tree, which are all the reasons this magical time of the year can be stressful—even overwhelming.

Kids often completely overlook the fact that stress levels are at their highest during this time of the year, with so much responsibility dumped onto people’s plates around this season. Just as Halloween ends, the Christmas

The chaotic nature of the holidays aren’t meant to be perfect, yet people exhaust themselves trying to make them that way.

decorations go on sale, and people start planning presents for friends and family. All of these stressful events seem to happen at once. With constant pressure and overwhelming responsibility, the holidays can become an excessive and extensive commitment.

There’s endless pressure to be at your happiest (“Where’s your holiday spirit?!”). Feelings of guilt can arise for not being grateful, joyful, or cheerful in your every waking moment. This stress starts with Thanksgiving, followed by family reunions. Parents want to make a good impression on their own parents every year so that they can see what amazing grandchildren they have raised. It’s time to pull out “yes sirs” and “yes ma’ams” in conversations and talk about school life, politics, and current events for hours at the dinner table. Even though it shouldn’t be, family reunions may seem very mentally demanding. Often, they don’t mean to, but families can come with a lot of baggage. This conflict is normal because this is just part of relationships within a family, but it can still be very stressful to deal with.

Parents’ stress levels tend to rise due to their entire family flying into town. They may drive us crazy (even if they don’t mean it) but they still care. Growing up means having more responsibility. It means being treated like an adult.

Having little siblings is something else to consider. Guess who has to remember to hide the elf for the younger kids? Guess who needs to do the dirty work in the kitchen on Thanksgiving day? Kids don’t understand the stress and anxiety their parents are under because they only get the product of what parents work hard to produce. They are often blind to the real responsibility all parents take on.

Holidays for some can be a time of loneliness. There are people who don’t have friends and family to spend the season with, and this season can remind them of those they’ve lost. The presents and treats don’t matter if you don’t have people to share them with.

The holidays can still be really enjoyable, of course; it’s just a matter of how one can enjoy the occasions now that we have a lot more responsibility on their shoulders. As a kid, it’s easy. Most everything is handed to them in an orange jack o’lantern bucket or on a fancy white porcelain dinner plate. But, beginning in our teen years, being more mature means having more responsibilities and the maturity with which to handle it.

Many people feel the need to make the holidays perfect, when in reality, it doesn’t matter much. The chaotic nature of the holidays aren’t meant to be perfect, yet people exhaust themselves trying to make them that way. People demand perfection, but because they are working so hard to make sure everyone else is having a good time, they end up losing a sense of security for themselves (and maybe a little bit of sanity). There’s no need for all of the extra work just to seem perfect, because it’s added stress that no one should have to deal with around this time. So don’t stress about overcooked pie and couch cushions. It’ll make everyone’s day easier.

This time should be something to look forward to, and not a season people should dread. There’s plenty to enjoy about the holidays, of course, and so much to be thankful for. And to recognize these good qualities, everyone should work on decreasing the stress for themselves (no one else may do it for them). Plan ahead. Guide the conversation to avoid the controversial, tedious topics. Take some time to step away if the constant socializing is draining. Set boundaries instead of trying to meet other people’s expectations. A balanced schedule can be key, as is one’s careful managing of time. There will always be stressful parts of the holidays, but to avoid this, go through each holiday with an eye towards optimism. Once the weight of the stress, anxiety, and tension is eliminated, people can recapture the magic and vibrancy that the holidays are really about.

Artwork by Anderson Toole

It Ends With Colleen Hoover

BookTok Has Brought the Downfall of Original Writing

By Gracie Keogh

It Ends With Us.

Those four words seem to have a grasp over many teenagers and young adults recently. This is a new adult (NA) novel written by Colleen Hoover, a breakout author who writes dark and gripping romance books – I say this sparingly, although many people agree. I, however, do not find her writing to be anything special. It Ends With Us took publishing companies by storm, selling over 1,000,000 copies with help from BookTok (the book side of TikTok). BookTok has helped sell

authors are now pressured to add “spicy” elements to make their story more marketable, taking away from the initial purpose of writing: telling a story. Now that I’ve hopefully hooked readers with my brazen statement, I just want to make one thing clear: a popular book or author does not mean it’s quality writing. The main suspect for recommending these sub-par books? BookTok. My blood boils every time I see a book recommended in this way.. Many books seen on the app such as They Both Die at the End, A Court of Thorns and Roses, Lightlark, Truly Devious, Red, White, and Royal Blue, The Summer I Turned Pretty, and The Hating Game have set a trap to lure readers.

HOW TO LURE READERS INTO READING YOUR BOOK:

1. Have an aesthetic background.

2. Put a trending song on in the back (but slowed down for a more dramatic effect).

and recommend hundreds of books to millions of users on TikTok, but this begs the question: How are these books chosen to become the next sensation, and are they even any good?

Short answer: no, they’re far from being good. Long answer: it’s more complicated than that. There is no way to describe the downfall of writing by summarizing the effect on all genres. Each genre has its own reaction to this new age of technology and promotion, and although some genres such as thriller and mystery seem to stand the test of time, romance and dystopian have gotten sucked into the vacuum of foul writing.

Writing has become disingenuous and is no longer unique. By mass-promoting specific book plots and tropes, authors seem to prioritize profit rather than passion from their work, which leads to clumps of empty words rather than compelling stories. In addition,

3. Put a quote in from the book which the reader wants to find out what leads up to that point.

4. And there you have it: you’ve got willing readers.

Romance

Let’s start with the most popular romance book to date, It Ends With Us.

Its focus on domestic abuse is seen from different viewpoints, one from a child–the product of an abusive marriage–and one from the same person in an abusive and manipulative relationship.

It Ends With Us does a fine job of balancing these two dynamics; this repetitiveness is one of the reasons I disdain Hoover’s oeuvre; however, it’s also the reason

“The hype had screwed me over once again. The writing had been some of the worst I’d ever read.”

so many love it. Hoover’s books are consistently the same. Readers are only hooked because they’re waiting for the climax—for the couple to get together or a secret to be revealed—reading 350 pages for a hit of dopamine. Readers come back to fulfill this craving until they’ve consumed every book in the author’s repertoire—an easy cash-grab.

Ugly Love ? Very similar to Heartbones. Heartbones loosely follows the same plot as Reminders of Him Reminders of Him is a kin to Verity

Interestingly, the only reason these books are bestsellers is their repetitiveness. Teenagers and young adults, who probably haven’t read anything since Percy Jackson in fifth grade, are now discovering this writing with its dark, mature themes to be the best thing since sliced bread. Don’t get me wrong, Colleen Hoover isn’t the only author that writes repetitive romance novels. There’s Ali Hazelwood, author of The Love Hypothesis , who writes the same

clichéd brain-rotting romances. Each one involves a girl in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) with an urge to be a feminist who meets a boy who she thinks is arrogant, but he has secretly been in love with her for years. They’re forced to work on a project together, and then…Boom! She realizes she likes him! It’s the same derivative plot that’s aesthetically pleasing yet infertile.

Popular books can also become popular television shows if beloved by enough people. Julia Quinn and her eight-book long TV-show adaptation, Bridgerton , has become a major success thanks to Netflix and BookTok—though I wouldn’t call it exceptional at all. At camp this summer, I got to read all eight books. It was both the highlight and lowlight

of my month in the mountains. The plot for each book is so similar that I forgot how they differ from one another.Another series that has blown up thanks to a media adaptation is The Summer I Turned Pretty written by Jenny Han, author of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before . To sum it up, it’s about a teenage girl in love with a family friend. The two families spend the summer together at their beach house. The love triangle consists of Belly (15 years old), who is in love with Conrad (18 years old), whose brother Jeremiah (also 15 years old) is in love with Belly. Yikes! Confusing, right?. Each book in the trilogy represents another summer with more development in these tricky relationships. Similar to almost every book in this article, I picked it up and was excited to read it because of the hype surrounding it, but I was greatly disappointed.

The writing is some of the worst I’ve ever read. It describes a world without inviting the reader into it. Words have the power to allure and welcome; this is how literature has survived for thousands of years. It’s what makes an author stand out. If one were to completely copy and paste whole stories and character arcs, then the reality would be a lack of enjoyment for readers. Yet, because of apps like TikTok and their ability to promote the “best” of each genre, readers unknowingly step into a trap that takes their money in exchange for a book they’ve essentially already read.

This novel captured BookTok by storm, due to its LGBTQ2IA+ and POC representation. This was a cheap ploy to target a specific demographic, only to underperform. I decided to see what all of the hype was about when a book club I was in chose to read it; when I finished the story, I was so disappointed, I didn’t pick up another book for two weeks.

Dystopian

Fellow junior and WATCH writer Abby Comer felt that current dystopian books (the amazing 2014 era) perfectly embody “good plot, bad writing.” The rise of YA dystopian fiction began with The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner , showcasing plotlines that hadn’t been seen before. The fall? Well, that’s the Divergent series.

However, a dystopian series that made waves after what people thought was the collapse of YA dystopian was Neal Shusterman’s Scythe series, an iconic trilogy set in a futuristic world where humans cannot die. To combat this problem, the government trained Reapers— humans who become immortal to kill in order to make sure overpopulation didn’t create food shortages and severe loss of natural resources. The story follows two teenagers, Citra and Rowan, who are chosen as Reapers. This book is amazingly written, exploring the difficulties these teenagers face preparing to live for eternity while taking others’ lives.

However, where there is good, there is bad. The opposition to the gloriously written book Scythe is They Both Die at the End written by Adam Silvera. In the book, which shares an oddly similar plot to Scythe (except for the presence of Reapers), the victim gets a phone call saying that they will die in 24 hours.

Another YA dystopian series is a six-book-long adventure called The Program , in which depression becomes an epidemic in the United States. As a response, parents send their children away to facilities to “cure” them. In reality, it brainwashes them. It sounds promising, but the writing is lackluster, and the book has little to no world-building. The character depth is minimal; every two books the author switches the main characters. Not only is the reader offered little closure, but there is also no satisfying link between characters. Reading this series is more of an obligation than entertainment; there is no motivation because there is no purpose.

One dystopian series that almost broke out of the dumpster fire of this genre is The Darkest Minds , by Alexandra Bracken. Following the found-family trope, characters fight against the government with their powers after having survived a fatal sickness. The first book is amazing, even getting turned into a movie released in 2018. However, the second and third books are underwhelming, seeming to copy the plot of The Hunger Games .

Fantasy

Fantasy is most likely what we connect our childhood with. Popular series include Lord of the Rings , Harry Potter, Twilight , Shadow and Bone , Throne of Glass , A Court of Thorns and Roses , and The Zodiac Academy.

The fantasy genre has gotten out of hand, however, in the past couple of years. At the start of COVID, the idea of reading a fantasy novel with a strong female protagonist was all BookTok could talk about.

“Enemies to lovers, ballrooms, flowing gowns, daggers strapped to the thigh, adventures” pretty much summed this genre up, revealing that modern fantasy clearly relies more on aesthetics than decent writing.

The Zodiac Academy is the latest victim of following this misleading trend. The story contains many fantasy elements, including its own world of magic, vampires, werewolves, dragon-shifters, kingdoms to conquer, and an emphasis on zodiacs. It is a difficult task to appease the lovers of many subgenres of fantasy. Each subgenre seems to clash with another, creating a wall between each fantasy. There’s sci-fi fantasy, elven/fae fantasy, and magic fantasy. However, these subgenres all seem to have heroines that make the dumbest choices one can, all while trying to not fall in love with their tall, dark, handsome, brooding enemies. One can spot who the protagonist is going to fall for from a mile away.

a TV show), which gained international success with its original and alluring plot. Agathe Christie wrote amazing murder mysteries in the 1920s, including And Then There Were None , which I read in fifth grade and set me on the mystery/thriller reading track. She also wrote The Murder on the Orient Express, which eventually was turned into a movie. Her books are so amazingly unique with twists and turns one wouldn’t expect, keeping the reader invested.

In contrast, a book I was more than happy to put down was Truly Devious , set at a prestigious boarding school in Vermont with unorthodox learning methods. A young girl Stevie must solve a murder mystery from 70 years ago. It sounded so promising, new, and refreshing. I was sure I was going to like it. In fact, I bought the ENTIRE trilogy even before reading it. However, I was so deeply disappointed that after I read the first book, I decided to just skim the second; the writing is worse with every chapter.

What Does This Mean?

To be able to find the difference between a sub-par book and your next five-star read, you’ll need to push yourself deep into your bookshelves until you find the writing style, genre, and tropes that you enjoy. I now know that my automatic skips are: books about miscommunication and love triangles. Writing should be a gateway for people to escape. Books with love interests easy to root for, a “complex” plot, and raunchy scenes are the key formulas to gaining views and reads. The double-edged sword of BookTok has struck authors deep in the heart; now they need to decide whether to perform emergency surgery or to let themselves bleed out.

Mystery/Thriller

You’d think it would be hard to copy the plot of a mystery because everyone will know. A Silent Patient, which I read over the summer, is one of my top reads of the year. It’s exactly how a psychological thriller should be written. A.J. Finn wrote The Woman in The Window (which Netflix later turned into a movie and

“To be able to find the difference between a sub-par book and your next five-star read, you’ll need to push yourself deep into your bookshelves until you find the writing style, genre, and tropes you do not enjoy.”

Teacher Features

Learning just a little bit more about all the new faces at Porter-Gaud this year!

What have you been reading?

Parenting is Hard and Then You Die by David Clarke - Trying to prepare for our first child.

What have you been watching?

Currently rewatching Game of Thrones (hoping that I may find something that redeems the ending) in between watching House of Dragons (redeeming Game Of Thrones so far), Rings of Power, and City on a Hill.

What do you listen to? I love listening to yacht rock, country, Broadway showtunes, and Dead & Company. I also enjoy listening to The Crime Junkie podcast.

Who do you follow?

I try not to spend a lot of time on social media, so I do not follow people regularly.

What have you been designing?

Baby Anderson’s room. Going with a safari animal theme :)

What have you been reading?

I love love love to read. I’m currently working my way through Edgar Allan Poe’s collection of detective stories. He is my favorite American poet, and he is also the creator of the detective genre! We owe Edgar Allan Poe for the inspiration behind Sherlock Holmes!

What have you been watching?

My fiancee, Laura, and I are about to finish watching Lost. This is my second time watching the series, my first being when it came out live week-to-week. I love the mystery, sci-fi, and mythos created by the show, and I believe it still holds up twelve years later.

What do you listen to?

Music is my life. I listen to music constantly, as many of my students can tell you, since I usually have some playing as they walk in the door. I try to listen to as many genres as I can, as long as the songs are produced well. Currently, the song that’s been on repeat is “YUKON (INTERLUDE)” from Joji’s upcoming album SMITHEREENS.

What do you like to write?

I am currently compiling data for and writing a genealogy (family history) of my family that I want to publish one day. This is a passion project of mine, and it will aim to be more of a character study of different families and individuals, whose stories have at times floored me, rather than just a collection of names, dates, and locations. When it’s complete, it will be able to trace back, with solid documentation, to at least 1617.

Favorite Color? Dark Night

Favorite Color? Garden Spot

Ms. Suzanne Anderson Director of Human Resources

Mr. Jordan Click US Latin

Ms. Alex Leblanc Assistant Director of College Counseling

What have you been reading?

I am currently reading Billy Porter’s Unprotected: A Memoir. I heard him speak at a conference recently, and I bought the book before he even finished speaking!

What have you been watching?

After binge-watching every season of Netflix’s Formula 1: Driven To Survive docuseries over the summer, I have been following the current F1 season closely. It has been really fun to learn about a new sport and cheer for Team Red Bull, even though my husband works for Mercedes-Benz...

What do you listen to? I LOVE a good podcast. My favorites include the “Murdaugh Murders” (yes, I listen to it every Wednesday, on my way to school), Vanity Fair’s “Dynasty,” “The Prosecutors: A True Crime Podcast,” “F1R The Girls,” and “Tell Me with Ellen Pompeo.”

What do you like to eat?

Since moving to Charleston this summer, I have enjoyed exploring the local restaurant scene with my family and friends. I recently went to Jackrabbit Filly with my sister and had a fantastic meal! After traveling to Asia multiple times, this was a fun twist on the classics. I’ve also really enjoyed Laura’s in Summerville and Page’s Okra Grill. Where should I go next?

What do you like to design?

When we moved to Charleston over the summer, we purchased our first home so there has been a lot of design work and decorating! Currently, I am focused on laying down tile in my home pottery studio so that I can get back to throwing clay!

Favorite Color? Privilege Green

What have you been reading?

Bad Girls Throughout History: 100 Remarkable Women Who Changed the World by Ann Shen. This one is good because it’s an easy pick up and put down. Quick little short stories before bedtime. Also The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. I was given the first book in The Hunger Games series by a student many years ago. I read them all. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was a parting gift from one of my former students and I have just now gotten around to starting it.

What have you been watching? House of the Dragon. SEE. Anything in the genre of Historical Drama

What do you listen to? Always something. Pandora is usually on in my classroom in the early morning. The channels are always changing: Hip Hop BBQ, Hipster Cocktail Party, or Urban Cowboy? Depends on my mood.

What do you like to collect? Stamps in my passport. I’ve got about 19. My next stop is Poland (fingers crossed).

What do you like to cook? Something Italian from scratch. I studied culinary arts while living in Italy for a short bit. I love making homemade gnocchi and have a knack for creating the best antipasti platters!

What do you dance to? Disney songs in my kitchen as dinner time entertainment for my three- and five-year olds! They think “Mom’s” interpretive dance moves are pretty funny.

Favorite Color? Aloe

Dr. Liz Good US History

Dr. Yerko Sepúlveda Director of Community Engagement and Belonging

What have you been reading?

I like to read multiple books at the same time. As of now, I am reading This Bridge Called My Back (Writings by Radical Women of Color) edited by Moraga and Anzaldua, and I am also reading The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward by Daniel Pink.

What have you been watching?

My wife and I decided that it was time for us to watch Grey’s Anatomy, so we are bingewatching all eighteen seasons.

What do you listen to?

Not too long ago I discovered Alex Cuba, an Afro-Latino singer. He is my friend every morning and evening on my commute to school and then back home.

Who do you follow?

Way too many to mention, but I appreciate the LinkedIn posts by Adam Grant, Simon Sinek, Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, and I am following the Instagram account of a former student who is a best-selling author: @iamweatherspoon.

What do you like to collect?

People collect different souvenirs from their travels. Because we love art so much, a few years back we started collecting watercolor paintings from all of the places we have visited. This summer we bought some in Mykonos, Greece, and Nice, France. Most importantly, as soon as we moved here, we bought some Charleston paintings. Now I can say I visited Charleston. WAIT A MINUTE, I actually live here now :-)

Favorite Color? Dress Blue

What have you been reading?

I don’t read real books as much as I should. I am currently pretending to read Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! and a history book about China.

What have you been watching?

My wife, Leah, and I are current with all of the shows that we regularly watch. Just waiting for new episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Walking Dead, and the Star Trek franchise. (Yes, I know The Walking Dead has gone down the toilet, but I am committed.)

What do you listen to?

My new used car came with Sirius Radio, so I’ve been listening to the decades themed stations. And NPR. I have always and will always listen to NPR, daily. Gotta stay informed.

Who do you follow?

I don’t really do social media. I know my worth and don’t need to hear it from others. Though I technically have Facebook and Twitter, neither knows anything that I have done in the last five years. If you want to see what I am having for dinner, invite me over to eat your food.

What do you like to collect?

I am really into Legos, specifically Star Wars Legos. I love the zen of quietly following directions and building something structurally and aesthetically beautiful. I love troubleshooting and creative modification. I had to dismantle all of my projects for our move around the world, so I have an exciting and trying task ahead of me.

What is a good fun fact?

A starfish is neither a star nor a fish.

Favorite Color? Scanda

Dr. Bennett Adkinson US Physics

Bernard Blaney US Biology

What have you been reading?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, the book that Blade Runner is based on.

What have you been watching?

Netflix: Money Heist and The Neighbor.

Amazon: Little Coincidences

What do you listen to?

Pol Granch, Spaniards, and French pop singers.

Who do you follow?

Twitter DysphagiaKitchen and Speech Therapy Works.

What do like to eat?

I enjoy eating fried eggs with garlic and drinking natural orange juice for breakfast on Sundays.

What do you like to cook?

I love cooking homemade pizza. I cook the dough, and the toppings I like the most are spinach, red pepper, goat and blue cheeses, fresh tomatoes and eggs. I also cook delicious tunafish empanadas.

What do you like to collect?

I am fond of magic, especially card magic, and I collect all different kinds of card decks. I like Juan Tamariz, an international magician from Spain.

Which Broadway Show would you like to see?

When I have the opportunity I see a Broadway Musical Production. My three favorite musicals are Rent, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Les Miserables—this one I have seen six times in three different countries.

What have you been reading?

I am currently reading through hundreds of articles on gifted and talented education, emotional intelligence, and equity in education. I will soon be challenging my freshmen biology students to read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

What have you been watching?

It’s football season...GO GAMECOCKS!!! GO RAIDERS! Just win, baby! Other than football on the weekend, which my wife and I enjoy together, there is not a lot of TV time for me. I did get to binge-watch some of the series Breaking Bad at the beginning of the school year, at the request of some of the students. I had heard the show was popular, but hadn’t seen any of it. Eventually, I’ll get to check out the latest Star Wars series.

What do you listen to?

Hip Hop, Reggae, and Jazz. I’m a big fan of classical music and the LOFI hip hop/jazz stations on YouTube when I’m studying and working.

What do you like to eat? More than I’m supposed to! I love to eat! I’m a native Charlestonian, so I know my way around the kitchen as well! You can’t love to eat and not know how to cook!

What have you been writing?

Dissertation on the underrepresentation of African American males in gifted and talented education. This is why I’m reading so many articles!

Favorite Color?

Capri

Favorite Color? Amalfi

Mr.

Mr. Angel Cazorla US Spanish

Ms. Kate Gilliom College Counseling Administrative Assistant

What have you been reading?

I recently read The Lying Lives of Adults by Elena Ferrante. Best book I have read in years and Netflix is filming a series based on the novel.

What have you been watching?

Agatha Raisin on Acorn TV. The main character is a former PR executive who moves from London to the Cotswolds and becomes a private investigator. I love a good British mystery series and Agatha has an enviable wardrobe.

Who do you follow?

I follow a lot of wellness accounts on social media, especially skincare. Some favorite accounts include Reform Wellness, Barefaced, Kathleen Jennings Beauty, and Things I Bought and Liked.

What do you listen to?

My guilty pleasure is Italian pop/rap music. When I was teaching Italian, I had a Spotify playlist each semester for my students with current hits so that they could get more exposure to the culture and the language. My current favorite songs are “La dolce vita” by Fedez and “Supermodel” by Maneskïn.

What are you designing?

I’m currently designing my new bedroom. We are adding an addition onto our house and I am dreaming about my new space. I spend a lot of time on Pinterest looking for new ideas and going to furniture stores. I even braved The Final Cut— the Anthropologie/Urban Outfitters/Free People outlet in Augusta and found some great bedding.

Favorite Color?

Amaryllis

Ms. Abby Laskodi US English

What have you been reading?

I am 100 pages into Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I fell in love with the show this past summer and could kick myself for not reading the books first. I also enjoy writing young adult fiction, and thus “research” by reading the latest Sarah Dessen or equivalent. I am reading Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi for my military book club, which covers an Afghan woman who escaped in the 70’s and became an American doctor. In addition to personal choices, I am re-reading texts that I will teach this year.

What have you been watching?

As alluded to above, I love gushy teen dramas. My latest binge of choice is Never Have I Ever. I also admit to watching the Bachelor/Bachelorette, which I am invested in for comedic purposes only, I swear.

I just started watching The House of Dragons, because I couldn’t get enough of the original femaleled drama and am now invested in the spin off. And any millennial will admit to sprinkling in Friends on a weekly, if not daily, basis as comfort food.

What do you listen to?

I am always on the hunt for a new band that resonates with me. I generally listen to Lord Huron, Mumford and Sons, and any indie equivalent, as well as an array of 90’s music. I also am an avid audiobook listener and am currently listening to The House Across the Lake by Riley Sagar.

What are you writing?

I am working on a second novel. Some days I relish in writing this story, and other days I wish I weren’t burdened by it, but it will haunt my mind until it is all out on paper. I try to write every day, whether it be journaling for therapeutic purposes or constructing long pieces as a creative outlet.

Favorite Color? Redbud

Cathi Hilpert Director of Strategic

Ms. Kenton Youngblood Director of Alumni Relations

What have you been reading?

I am currently reading This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub. One passage says, “It was the worst fact of parenthood, that what you did mattered so much more than anything you said.” So true! Before that, I read The Mutual Friend by Carter Bays, which was a fascinating look at how screens and technology have become so intertwined with how we live our lives. When not reading literary fiction, I gravitate toward cookbooks or memoirs.

What have you been watching?

I recently finished the first season of Loot on Apple TV. Maya Rudolph does a wonderful job playing Molly Novak, who’s figuring out how to become a philanthropist after receiving an $87 billion divorce settlement. As someone who spent the past four years working for a nonprofit devoted to clean water, I found the episode where she drinks contaminated water on stage at a conference so incredibly gross and entertaining. It’s one I will never forget!

What do you listen to?

These days, I generally listen to anything that overlaps with what my oldest two children like. So, for now, that means Olivia Rodrigo and Dua Lipa for my seventh grader and Taylor Swift for my fourth grader. I also find myself singing along to “Relate” by For King & Country, any time I hear it on the radio. The lyrics really resonate with me.

What do you like to cook?

My oldest daughter is a vegetarian, so I am always trying new recipes that work for her and can be adapted for the rest of the family. A favorite, right now, is butternut squash and black bean enchiladas. I am also on a mission to find the magic recipe that will get my kids on board with tofu. It’s so versatile but needs better branding!

Favorite Color? Plum Dandy

What have you been reading?

Inspired by the HBO Max series The Gilded Age, I’ve been reading lots of historical fiction about that time period.

What have you been watching?

I’m about to start my annual binge of Gilmore Girls to herald the fall season. If you know, you know.

What do you listen to?

I made an 8-hour playlist during quarantine called Covid-90s that is all songs from the 90s, and I still listen to it all the time.

Who do you follow?

I love following @humansofnewyork—especially when they start a multi-post story that unfolds over the course of a day or two.

What do you like to cook?

I’m cooking my way through Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture from my Kitchen in Mexico by Rick Martinez. It’s a beautiful book divided into different regions in Mexico. My favorite recipe, so far, has been shrimp tacos, and I’m becoming a pro at making homemade tortillas.

What is one of your hobbies?

I am constantly picking up new cookbooks and trying new recipes, and I chronicle it all on my foodfocused Instagram account @kitchenriffin. What started as a little hobby has exposed me to a vast community of other passionate home cooks, and now I have foodie friends all over the world.

Favorite Color? Searching Blue

Ms.

Communications

Who’s Your Music Icon Soulmate?

Take the quiz to find out who you most identify with. Be sure to keep track of how many times you choose the same letter!

1. What is your favorite color?

A) Navy blue B) Pink C) Orange D) Sage green

2. What is your favorite food? E) Fruit

F) Grey Poupon mustard G) Fried chicken H) Eggo waffles

3. If you had a million bucks, what would you buy?

A) Private jet B) Luxury Cars C) Private tropical island D) Designer clothes

4. What is your go-to article of clothing? E) Dress F) A white t-shirt G) Boots H) Sweats

5. Where’s your dream vacation location?

A) Dubai beach escape B) English countryside C) Geneva boatride D) Grand Canyon

6. What is your favorite way to relax? E) Getting a manicure F) Journaling/Writing G) Hanging out with friends H) Self-care

7. On a bright sunny day, what would you do?

A) Go to the beach B) Hang out with friends downtown C) Go to the park D) Stay inside. I don’t like sun

8. What is your favorite way to spend your time? E) Knitting or crocheting F) Playing games G) Listening to music

H) Late-night conversations with friends

9. What is your favorite season?

A) Summer B) Autumn C) Winter D) Spring

10. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? E) Vanilla F) Mint chocolate chip G) Chocolate H) Cookies and cream

Created by Nina Ziff and Kevin Pham

Your Music Icon

Count up all your answers to see which letter you selected the most and match it with the artist below.

A. Taylor Swift

B. Nicki Minaj

C. Bad Bunny

D. Tyler The Creator

E. Harry Styles

F. Kendrick Lamar

G. Kenny Chesney H. Mac Miller