The Antlerette Volume 96 Issue 2

The Antlerette Volume 96

September 2021

Issue 2

The Science Behind Dreams Trisha Tran, Staff

“All men whilst they are awake are in one common world: but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own,” - Plutarch. The Greek philosopher, Plutarch, from the early first century, had already captured the common idea of dreams being mysterious and unique. Dreams are a universal experience but have been interpreted differently and used in various practices. Dream analysis has been dated as far back as the Ancient Egyptians. People have been continually trying to understand dreams and their causes for centuries. Culturally, dreams were thought to be used as communication with a higher being or to predict the future.

However, scientifically, experts still hold differing opinions and theories of their exact biological purpose.

The first theory about dreams is it is a result of brain activity. During REM sleep, also known as rapid eye movement sleep, the brain has high activity and dreams seem to be more intense. Several parts of the brain are activated from REM sleep.

Specifically, the hippocampus and the amygdala are the most active with their responsibilities of managing memories and emotions. The structures fire

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random electrical signals while doing their tasks that end up in the brain, creating dreams that reconstruct memories that we have. This theory, Activation Synthesis Model of Dreaming, was first created by Robert McCarley and J. Allan Hobson, who were Harvard psychiatrists in 1977. They argued that dreams were not super meaningful or an individual’s deepest wishes, but were a result of the brain trying to undergo its routine of taking care of the body’s experiences. Scientists have improved on this theory and believe that the electrical signals are not as random as the scientists had previously suggested.

Another theory for dreams is from the famous neurologist Sigmund Freud, who created the Psychoanalytic Theory. He argued that the meaning of dreams were significant. Dreams were a person’s repressed desires that their unconscious mind held. Freud's theory separated dreams into two categories: manifest content and latent content. The manifest content is the different elements in your dream that occur. On the other hand, latent content is the deeper significance and symbolism behind the objects or figures in your dreams.

Although there haven't been many experts supporting this theory, Freud brought dream analysis to a more mainstream audience.

The Threat Simulation Theory of Dreaming and the Social Simulation Theory is quite similar as they discuss dreams simulating threats and social experiences.

Scientists that agree with this theory argue that dreaming is used as a defense to rehearse how to deal with serious threats. Dreams create a way for the person to train themselves how to deal with social encounters without facing total rejection or fear. With this, people are able to have better relationships with people and be more prepared to deal with present threats. Antti Revonsuo, a Finnish psychologist, is the leader of this theory as he continues his research from the University of Skövde.

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As scientists research the topic more and more, they have actually found that many cultural practices have discovered different properties of dreaming long ago. Tibetan monks have practiced a skill called lucid dreaming far before they received that name. Lucid dreaming is characterized as the person being conscious of the fact that they are dreaming. Many describe the experience as having control over certain elements of the dream, such as the setting or the people they encounter. Through meditation, mindful awareness, and mantra chances, these monks have tapped into this previously uncommon practice far before scientists. To them, lucid dreaming is a part of their goal to discipline their mind to achieve the next step in Buddhism. In order to lucid dream, many recommend starting recording your dreams and being more aware of your surroundings.

Dreams have been researched for thousands of years, but we still don’t know all of the reasons why dreams exist. Many theories have been proposed and are becoming more refined. So, next time you have an intense dream, realize that there is an even more complicated process happening inside of your head.

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Lolita Book Covers and What They Communicate to the Reader Alyson Coles, Writer

Sure, everyone says not to judge a book by its cover. But don’t covers represent an aspect of the pages within? Or at least they should. Take Life of the Party by Olivia Gatwood, for example. This book of poems about girlhood, true crime, and sexualized violence is fronted by an oil painting of a woman, her face replaced by a big smear of paint. At first glance, the woman seems calm, dainty even, with her right hand resting over her ribs. But her neck and shoulders are tense as if someone is standing behind her saying, “act natural, or else”. This encapsulates Gatwood’s fear and how she used it to write Life of the Party in a subtle way that the reader might not pick up on until reading the book. This close relation to the text in a book cover isn’t always the case, though. Google image search “Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov'' and none of the covers truly fit the theme of the book, with almost all of them being either simple typography or concerningly sexualized.

Many quote Vanity Fair, labeling it, “The only convincing love story of our century”...a gross misunderstanding, to say the least.

Vladimir Nabokov, born in Russia in 1899, had the idea for his most popular and influential book, Lolita, as early as 1935, two decades before it was presented to the public. He spent five years writing it, and it took another two for it to be published.

Nabokov spent those years presenting his book first to American publishers, all of whom rejected it, then to British publishers with the same luck, and finally, in early 1955, to The Olympia Press in Paris. The Olympia Press, unbeknownst to Nabokov at the time, primarily published scandalous, controversial, and often erotic works. Lolita, a story about 12-year-old Dolores Haze (nicknamed Lolita)

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who is kidnapped, abused, and raped by pedophile Humbert Humbert, a man in his late 30’s, is indeed controversial but is in no way scandalous or erotic. It is a heartbreaking read. Nabokov, who suffered from childhood sexual abuse himself, knows this. But as it seems, the general public does not.

Nabokov originally had a strict guideline for how the cover of Lolita would look, “I want pure colors, melting clouds, accurately drawn details, a sunburst above a receding road with the light reflected in furrows and ruts, after rain,” and, specifically, “...no girls”. This request was not implemented in the first edition, or in any other edition that I can find. The original Olympia Press cover, possibly the most vanilla of them all, leaves a lot for interpretation. On it, the word Lolita, all caps in a basic, unassuming font, stands alone before a leaf green background.

The vaguely lace-like borders on the edge might allude to the reader that it is a story of elegance, which is true to Nabokov’s writing style but not necessarily to the narrative of Lolita. Even though this cover doesn’t communicate any clear message about the book, it’s one of the best Lolita covers there is. In fact, it’s probably so good because it lacks any context for or interpretation of Nabokov’s work, since the material is so sensitive.

Others, such as GB Transworld’s (a British printing house) 1969 cover, misinterpret the text completely. This cover includes a picture of young Sue Lyon, who played Dolores in Stanley Kubrick’s 1962 Lolita, peering over a pair of red, heart-shaped sunglasses into the camera while she holds a lollipop in her mouth. This is the same picture, in fact, that is used in the cover for the movie, which strays dramatically from the original text in how Dolores is depicted.

Rather than being shown as the adolescent victim that she is in the book, she is here portrayed as a consenting participant in her abuse. She’s never even referred to by her real name, instead being called Lolita, a name given to her by her abuser as a method of controlling her, for the entire duration of the film. In the movie, she is aged up to 14, and is styled to look even older, so in this still,

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Sue Lyon looks nothing like the normal 12-year-old girl that you picture when reading the book. Above this uncharacteristically suggestive picture, the title reads in bold, bright red letters over a black background. To a young reader, or even just to a casual reader, seeing this cover where Dolores is framed as an older seductress every time they pick up Lolita embeds the idea that Dolores and Humbert have a normal and healthy relationship, and blinds them from the true message of the book: that Dolores is just a normal kid. She did not give herself up to an old man, she did not give consent to be kidnapped and raped, and she is not in “the only convincing love story of our century”. It’s not even a love story to begin with.

The sad truth is that a majority of Lolita's book covers portray Dolores in this light. From John Gall’s 50th anniversary cover showing a pair of bisected lips, to Aydin Yayinevi’s 1959 cover depicting an adult woman in the arms of a man, it is increasingly difficult to find a cover that depicts an accurate vision of the story.

This can be harmful not only to readers, but also to childhood sexual abuse survivors because of the false impression that it puts on people who have experienced similar suffering to that of Dolores'. In the end, it’s important that we recognize Dolores, not Lolita, in the story of what happened to her.

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Battle of the Space Jams Grayson Bloodworth, Staff

One of the most iconic movies of all time starring the biggest name in basketball history, Michael Jordan, and some of the most loved cartoon characters, Looney Tunes, was released in 1996. It was an instant classic and will be loved by many generations to come. Space Jam came out in 1996 in the middle of Michael Jordan's monumental career between his two three-peats. It was very clear to many people that Jordan wasn't the greatest actor. Although, nobody really expected him to be.

Just about 15 years later in 2021, the people at Warner Brothers decided to revamp the series and make Space Jam 2 starring LeBron James. The question is, did Space Jam 2 live up to its predecessor, or was it a complete failure?

First off, when it came out a lot of critics were giving it a low rating; therefore, the general public was biased. Space Jam’s goal is not to be the greatest, most wellacted, or even well-thought-out movie. It is made for families who want to have fun watching something. Nobody should have gone into the theaters expecting an Oscar nominee for best picture. No, people should have gone in with expectations of enjoyment. Many people enjoyed the movie overall though. Even some older folk who had seen Space Jam as children went into it with negative thoughts because no fan of anything original is ever excited for a reboot.

The supporting cast for both Space Jams was very well casted. In the original Space Jam, the characters surrounding Jordan as his friends acted much better in the first one with Bill Murray and Wayne Knight stealing the show. But, let us not forget how memorable Don Cheadle’s performance was as the villain of the movie Al-G Rhythm. In the movies, it felt like LeBron put in more effort as an actor than Michael Jordan.

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Jordan’s dialogue felt very monotone, while LeBron was very loud and full of emotion. At times it almost seemed like Jordan didn't want to be there and as for LeBron, well LeBron seemed like he had the time of his life filming that movie.

Though a consequence of that might have been a little bit of an overacted role.

Some might say he had too much fun.

In 1996 Space Jam starring Michael Jordan became the highest-grossing basketball movie of all time and the 10th highest-grossing movie of that year. The movie scored 250 million dollars on an 80 million dollar budget. But on the other hand, Space Jam 2 had a 150 million dollar budget and has pulled in around 95 million dollars worldwide. So, as of right now, the original Space Jam was more successful on paper. It still has some time to catch up though.

Now, to compare the most important part of the movies, the game scene. So, in the original Space Jam, they were fighting to keep Jordan from being taken prisoner and used as an attraction at Moron Mountain. In Space Jam 2: A New Legacy, the game was to keep James out of the AI world and keep Al-G Rhythm in. Space Jam 2, the court, and the set up of the scene were much more visually pleasing with the bright neon court in the middle of Toon World, and the surrounding spectators being many other iconic Warner Bros characters including King Kong. The scene seemed to be much more exciting, especially for the younger viewers, due to the fact that it was all coming from James’ son who had created a video game, which was then used to oppose James himself.

In the original, it just looked like they took a regular basketball arena and made it a cartoon, the lack of creativity on that scene was only accentuated recently when the new court was seen. There were 5 NBA stars that were used in the original Space Jam, but in Space Jam 2 they had a couple of NBA stars and a couple of WNBA stars.

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Tiger Endangerment Sydney Wesselink, Staff

Tigers are the 43rd animal on the Endangered Species list. The number of tigers is rapidly dropping across the globe. Over 95% of the world's tiger population has been lost since the beginning of the 20th century. About 100,000 tigers used to roam the earth around 100 years ago, while today only 3,890 are left. What's causing the numbers to drop so fast? Poaching, retaliatory killings, and habitat loss are the main problems.

Poaching is illegal hunting, capturing, and often killing wild animals for many reasons. Sometimes it’s to claim land for human use or the desire for animal products like ivory, fur, organs, skin, bones, and teeth. Normally they hunt tigers for their canines, skin, and bones. While poaching is a big problem, people in general who aren’t poachers are causing threats to tigers as well. Industrial buildings are creating habitat loss which is limiting their food resources.

Another way people are causing problems is by killing tigers, not for the same reasons poachers do. Why would they do this? People see tigers as a threat since sometimes they will take some livestock. Now knowing this, anytime there's a tiger near or on their property, people don’t hesitate to shoot them.

We can only do so much about these problems, but we can do more than what we’re doing now. If we want to save this species we need to make protection laws more strict to stop poaching or send out more patrols to monitor common poaching areas. I’m not sure we can do anything to stop people from protecting their livestock, but we can stop intruding into the tigers’ world. While industrialization isn’t going to come to a stop anytime soon, we can instead build on land that has less wildlife.

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Celeste - A Game About Mental Health Ethen Lyon, Staff

Every day multiple teens struggle with mental health issues and how they deal with them. Most people are unable to properly take care of their mental health due to certain aspects of their life. Most people can't afford therapy too, considering it can cost a large sum of money, not to mention it has a strict schedule that is not always manageable. This doesn’t help people, along with the fact that a lot of therapists aren't professional. A lot of people who have been to therapy report their therapist not helping.

Celeste, while not being on the same level of therapy, can be a great substitute that teaches valuable lessons and confronts mental health at its face value. There are multiple ways it can help, but the main one is helping people deal with selfworth and anxiety. Through the game you deal with yourself, you deal with your anxiety personified into a separate person. However, this helps the player understand how they can deal with their stress and frustration with things.

The second way it helps is with small goals. The game constantly provides checkpoints, allowing you to stop anytime you wish so you may come back later.

This can help a lot of people that don’t have the energy to do a lot of big tasks do little things while slowly working towards a bigger goal, instead of working all in one go. The little things such as this example make more of an impact than originally realized.

You also get a companion in the game. This helps people to realize that you can’t always do things alone--sometimes you must seek help from loved ones and people you enjoy. This might aid some people to seek out help from friends and family, helping them to improve, little by little. Of course, this would take time, but it would greatly benefit them in the long run.

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In conclusion, get Celeste. It’s an alternative to therapy and gives you someone to relate to throughout the story. It helps a lot more than people realize. Plus it's fun, and it might help to lighten people's moods during depressive episodes or bad days.

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Are Pumpkin Spice Lattes Overrated?

Klaus Curtis, Staff

The pumpkin spice latte, everyone’s favorite coffee, is an exclusively seasonal drink. Why does everyone suddenly love this drink during the fall? For starters, there are of course marketing, the taste of the drink itself, the season, etc. It’s well known that pumpkin spice lattes only come around during the fall, and then everyone goes crazy for them.

Some people dislike the craze around the latte because they don’t understand why it isn’t sold daily. If everyone loves them so much, why not sell them constantly? Marketing. Marketing is the backbone of any business. If they can convince you to buy pumpkin spice lattes during only one season, you are encouraged to get more because of the limited time offer; whereas, if they sold it constantly they would get fewer sales overall since people aren’t rushing to get it.

On the other hand, a lot of people love how it's seasonal. They see it as a drink that should only be limited, possibly because they understand the marketing or it's just because they like to fit in with the crowd.

Both are highly likely scenarios, but I ask you, would you still buy the drink often if it was available year-round? Probably not as often, if at all. If it was available yearly then you would treat it like any other drink; it would lose the attention it got before when it was seasonal. The pumpkin spice latte gets all its attention from the media, when it loses that, it loses its value to the businesses. Then they stop selling it and the people forget about it.

How overrated is the pumpkin spice latte? Very. All it is is a latte with pumpkin and caramel flavoring. There is nothing overly special about it, yet people seem to love it, only during the fall. The drink is a marketing dream for businesses, and although it is a good drink, it is very overrated.

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Marvel vs. DC Diana Cruz, Staff

If you’re a living human, you enjoy food to some extent. Since you love food, I would make an assumption that you probably love butter as well, maybe because of how good it is when spread on bread from Italian restaurants. Many people actually melt butter, but the chef-instructor of pastry and baking, Kathryn Gordon, says that melting butter can negatively affect your dish. Softening butter correctly is crucial since the butter could affect the texture and shape of the food you crave. So let’s walk through how to utilize butter to enhance your food to new levels of taste.

First things first, you have to make sure your butter is the right consistency for baking or cooking. Kathryn Gordon recommends an easy way to test it out claiming “If you put your clean finger against it, it’ll smush a bit and move”. She then goes on to say how it should be somewhere in between spreadable soft and freezer firm.

But there are numerous ways you could soften the butter. One way you can is by cubing it and mixing electrically. This happens to be Gordon’s personal favorite method. Use a knife or bench scraper to cube the amount needed for the portions. Expose it to more air if you wish for it to reach room temperature quickly.

Another way is to pound it with a rolling pin. Gordon says this is a very effective method. After covering your sticks of butter with plastic wrap, get it to move and flatten by smashing it with a rolling pin.

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The last way that I personally recommend is to just simply grate it. I enjoy this method because it shapes the butter small enough to soften very fast. The technique is simple: use the largest size on the grater and slice the tips of butter into smaller portions. Avoid touching the butter while doing this method, because your hands may be warm enough to melt the butter.

Softening butter is a technique that requires slightly more skill than previously considered, as melting the butter is not what we want. Next time you bake, remember the important techniques to make your baking life easier in the long run.

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Contact Tracing to the Average Student Benjamin Carrillo, Editor In

Chief I, like everyone else at this school who’s a student, is currently experiencing this pandemic plaguing our school and changing our everyday schedules, and naturally, I’m very relieved I’m in class again and proud of our school’s perseverance. But despite my happiness about being back in the classroom, I feel compelled to still express some concerns that are currently surrounding the classroom environment. While Elk Grove High has been handling contact tracing to the best of its abilities, I still have pressing concerns with how Covid was being handled.

This school year naturally is like no others we’ve experienced in the past. We’ve been in person, but with extreme limitations that both come as a hindrance and a benefit. We now have free lunches and a consistent schedule; however, both of these come with issues that naturally clash with the benefits of a free lunch and consistent schedules. The main issue in regards to lunches is that lunch has never taken this long to get. These lunch lines are at a capacity that doesn’t feel safe or justified, and while precautionary measures have been taken multiple times, the change they’ve actually made feels minuscule because every time a single change is made it comes with the addition of new issues that arise and take a new precedent. This new lunch issue makes every lunch feel like a highstakes race. If you want to get food and still have time to eat, you need to get to lunch and race there just to eat. This naturally isn’t just unsafe for reasons regarding Covid and the mass crowds racing in, but the people rushing also have a tendency to run into people, knock people over, and are generally rude all for the sake of food. This causes an unsafe environment and the student body, including myself, is dumbfounded by the disappearance of Herd Time in addition to the new lunch rules.

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The loss of Herd Time has offered a definitive schedule that is every day, besides Wednesday. The new schedule on paper sounds like a great idea. The idea of knowing exactly when I get out every day and not having to check what day it is and what schedule we’re on is nice. Herd Time’s loss has made more sense to me over time, but still is a major inconvenience. The removal of it for the safety of the students is a completely valid cause and makes sense.

The contact tracing issue at our school is something that brings a great deal of concern to this school. However, the necessity that it brings is understanding, and the inconvenience will hopefully be outweighed when the world, and our school, move forward from the pandemic.

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Why Fall is the Best Season Ryan O’Sullivan, Copy

Editor

The color orange. Leaves. Warm breezes. Shorter nights. Football games. Just a handful of aspects that might give you a nostalgic feeling towards the greatest time of the year. When I look back on my sixteen years on this planet, most of my fondest memories have mostly occurred during the fall. Fall not only marks the beginning of daylight savings, where we are given more time to sleep during the evening, it also marks the beginning of the best weather cycle of the year.

Right in between the hot and cold weather. The type of weather that you can wear a sweater or a t-shirt and still feel comfortable all throughout the day. Fall is undisputedly the best season that there is, the other seasons simply do not compare.

It is the time of year where watching horror movies feels more engaging. After arguably the greatest holiday of the year, we receive the blessing that is Thanksgiving. A day filled with football games and food that I do not enjoy.

Despite the atrocity that is Thanksgiving food, it is still a great day to catch up with family and enjoy the autumn air. Fall also marks the beginning of my favorite professional sport’s season, the NBA. The beginning of the NBA season is always met with a flurry of speculation and a general buzz regarding the rumors surrounding the NBA and its teams. Overall, the feel of fall is immaculate and incomparable to any other season of the year. The temperature is a consistent 70, so it is not too cold and not too hot.

Winter has a great holiday season, but does it really matter if you can’t go outside without numerous layers of clothing on? While the holiday season's atmosphere is unmatched, it still is not the same compared to the Halloween

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horrors and Thanksgiving feelings of togetherness, which offer a superior feeling as opposed to Christmas time. The weather at this time also is too cold as well, even in California the being cold every day is not worth it.

As for spring, the excitement is imminent, but those like me who have allergies know that it is absolutely dangerous outside. Sure the only holiday is a nice one and a break in between the final stretch of school and the rest of the year, it serves as more of a burden filled with anxiety on what’s to come in the final quarter. Spring simply is the awkward middle child to the other three seasons and doesn’t compare to the interesting factors that come from the other three.

Lastly, summer, the hottest season. How could one not enjoy barbecues and swimming? While I’m not one against summer, there are still clear issues regarding the heat, and summer activities aren’t inherently bad, as the relentless Californian summer heat just carries on for far too long. Summer activities are awesome but are easily outweighed by the seemingly undying heat. The repetitive and relentless heat is enough to make a person want to stay inside.

I do not condemn anyone who does not like the fall season and the October month in particular. It is the time of year that I see as the best. I love Halloween and Thanksgiving and the feeling of a new beginning that comes with fall. It is these along with those previously stated that I believe fall to be the best time of the year.

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Why we should be taught about the history of oppression in school

Cameron Cain, Staff Trigger Warning: mentions of minority oppression, suicide, and self-harm In school, we are often taught little about the oppression all minorities face, only being really taught about slavery and the Holocaust. While these are important things to learn, this is only the surface level of oppression against all minority groups, and only includes people of color, though there are many other groups who face oppression daily. This is part of the reason why we should be taught about the history of oppression for every minority and not just as an optional class but as part of the required curriculum. On top of that, being taught about minorities can help create a safer world for everyone. And although it is unrealistic to expect this to happen in the next few years, or even decades, it is something we can work on in the future.

In today’s age, there’s still a lot of bigotry, prejudice, and misinformation surrounding minority groups, whether it’s towards someone of color, a queer person, someone who is disabled, or any other minority. According to an article on USA Today, black men are fourteen times more likely to be killed in a shooting than white men and eight times more likely to die in a shooting than the general population. Black women have the highest risk of gun violence than any other race or ethnicity, four times more likely to be victims than white women. Asian hate has been on the rise as well, anti-Asian movements increasing by 1,900% in 2020 alone, Donald Trump fanned the flame by referring to Covid-19 as “the China virus”. Another USA Today article shows self-reported data of LGBTQ+ hate crimes that reveal Queer Americans experience 200,000 hate crimes every year and an estimated 53% of Queer

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adults in the U.S live in states that don’t have protective laws for their sexuality or gender identity. According to a Wikipedia page about violence against people with disabilities, studies have also shown that people who are disabled face 1.5 times more violence than able-bodied individuals, an estimated 15% of the world living with disabilities, who are more likely to be poor and socially excluded. And this isn’t even covering all minority groups or going into depth about what these minorities face.

Teaching kids and teens about these minority groups can help decrease the amount of prejudice in the world, as bigotry is a learned behavior. On top of that, it could save a lot of people from internalized bigotry towards themself, especially with gay, trans, or neurodivergent teens, which is a huge issue in those communities as it could lead to suicide or self-harm. An article from Newport Academy goes over suicide statistics, studies revealing Gay and lesbian youth are 3.71 times more likely and trans teens are 5.87 times more likely to attempt suicide than straight teens. Normalizing the talk about sexuality and gender identity in class can help reduce suicide rates in LGBTQ+ teens. By teaching the history of oppression, the school system would be saving a lot of people from both their peers and themselves.

There’s so much hate and violence in the world, and while a lot of progress has been made in recent years, minorities are still suffering. Minorities still face hate crimes and still get killed just for being different. Being educated about these minorities and what they’ve been through and what they still go through today will decrease the amount of bigots in the world and therefore make the world safer for these minorities. In order to do this, schools should plan out lessons regarding every minority talking about the oppression they faced in the past, what they face currently, and how to be a better ally to these communities, including a lesson about microaggressions. Realistically the school system and curriculum will not change for a while, especially in less accepting countries or states, but it would help minorities exponentially.

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The Importance of Positive Mindset

Greg Santos, Design Editor

When trying to make that plank, or finishing that run, there is usually a voice in your head. It’s automatically saying “give up” or “I can’t do it”. Your mind is not your best friend, so you have to train it mentally like how you would physically.

Can you imagine how much more you could get done if instead, your mind said “let’s go, you got it” or “keep going and don’t give up”? However, carrying a positive attitude and mindset does not mean that you completely ignore all of life’s problems and unpleasantries. It’s more of you knowing that you can persevere through any situation thrown at you, regardless of the good or bad circumstances.

This all starts with how you talk to yourself. Self-talk includes those seemingly unavoidable thoughts that run through your mind all the time. You’ve got to detect those negative thoughts in your head. Some variations of negative selftalk include filtering, personalization, and catastrophic thinking. Filtering is when someone takes in the negative aspects in life while ignoring almost all of the positives right in front of them. For instance, someone was dwelling on not getting the shoes he wanted but has a cool hat collection and three other great pairs of shoes. Personalization is when you automatically put the blame on yourself when plans go south. For instance, let’s say you didn’t get an invite to a party you wanted to go to. Someone who personalizes would immediately assume that everyone in that party hates them and doesn’t want them there.

With catastrophizing, you let one thing affect your entire day. Like if you dropped your coffee in the morning, that one small event of your day would carry on over and you let it affect the rest of your day.

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Thankfully, there is a way to completely shift your way of thinking. The process is simple, but does take some discipline and practice. One way to have a more optimistic mindset is to surround yourself with positive people. The mindset is simple: if you hang out with people, you’re more likely to adopt their personalities subconsciously. If you hang out with five negative people, you’ll most likely be the sixth negative one. Another good method is to practice positive self-talk. Don’t say anything to yourself that you wouldn't say to another person. Be encouraging and affirm yourself of the many great things you have going for yourself when your mind starts to get negative.

Numerous researchers have continued to study this physiological idea over the last few years and have concluded that health benefits of positive thinking include increased life span, lowered rates of depression, lower levels of stress, improved cardiovascular health, and better-coping skills during stressful situations. So the moral of the story is, change your outlook. Look through the lens of life with optimism, and be positive.

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