The Mark May 2024 Volume XV Issue V

Volume XV Issue V Funded by the PTA

the

4 Businesses Without Borders 6 Lost in the Sauce the History of Tanforan Mall 10 Behind and Menlo Park Train Station School Relationships: 12 High Worth it or Not? 14 Bears Doing Big Things Through the Smoke: 15 Seeing Vaping Culture on Campus 16 Faces of M-A 22 The Galles Guide: Summer Edition

pg. 20: Sports in Rewind

p g. 8

s : Breaking the L d Trend ink Between Body Types an

pg. 7: Dog Bandanas by Pawsitive Paws

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pg. 18: The Music Moment

Menlo-Atherton High School 555 Middlefield Rd Atherton, CA 94027

A Note from the Editorial Board What a year it’s been! From being national student press award finalists to publishing 600 stories online and printing a record-breaking five Marks, we’ve been staying busy and are ready for a little beach time.

We’ve also reached many other milestones: creating a new TikTok page (follow @machronicle if you haven’t already), garnering over 23,000 views on an online story, and even getting a new class fish! As we transition to a new Editorial Board, we want to thank our past Editors-in-Chief for their ambition and continued guidance, the PTA for providing the funding to do what we love, and our amazing teachers and administrators for giving up hours of their time to support our publication.

Our retro summer Mark features a groovy, saturated color palette of bright oranges and refreshing teals and blues. We hope you enjoy this nostalgic edition before diving into summer vacation.

HAGS, The M-A Chronicle Editorial Board

Our Staff

Editors-in-Chief

Celine Chien, Ben Siegel

News Editor Ameya Nori

Culture Editor Celeste Zucker

Sports Editor Tessa Ellingson

Events Editor Lindsay Park

Social Media Manager Allegra Hoddie

Staff Writers

Andrew Ahn, Damian Boye, Kate Budinger, Rose Chane, Penelope Chapman, Jolene Chu, Mateo Cuellar-Koh, Natalie Fishman, Ellen Forte, Gaby Foster, Sonia Freedman, Avery Galles, Collin Goel, Isabel Habibi, Brian Hoyle, Tiffany Karp, Leehan Kim, Niklas Klemmer, Peter Koren, Akemi Kwan, Dylan Lanier, Sarah Larson, Jenna Lee, Sam Leslie, Riya Mehta, Sofia Merlino, Huraman Orujov, Amala Raj, Cleo Rehkopf, Nava Riahi, Michael Roman, Isabel Seniawski, Jace Thomases, Chase Trigg, Jonathan Weeks, Sarah Weintraut

Designers

Kitty Cormican, Mackenzie Danzig, Riona Faruqi, DonnaBella Gaetano, Tessa Goldman, Logan Greenbaum, Becca Koeing, Eileen Liu, D’Anjou Paul Libunao, Karen Martinez, Riya Mehta, Micaela Rubinsky, Amari Witt

Advisor

John McBlair

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Businesses Without Borders

by Eileen Liu

HE&C Tea + Pot

When Vivian Zhang first immigrated to Palo Alto from Harbin, China in 2014, she noticed there weren’t any restaurants in Palo Alto serving hot pot. “I really like hot pot and Chinese tea culture, and I got the idea to start a hot pot restaurant,” Zhang said.

Zhang started the lengthy and challenging process of planning the logistics of the restaurant at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March of 2023, HE&C (Health, Energy, and Connection) Tea + Pot finally opened its doors to the Peninsula.

The store serves hot pot in its signature porcelain pots with a variety of soup bases and is known for its A5 wagyu beef, which is flown in directly from Japan.

’ weddings,” church, and for friends ood dw Re in t ree St ce ren Along Flo said Funes. local restaurants rking City, nestled between After fifteen years of wo d Gifts an r we Flo r ise he rad t Pa lef s s, and bakerie at Michaels, Fune ighbors. When she stands out from its ne position. That’s when or, they do the gh rou flower th r lk he wa customers decided to expand ve of wa a by d ete flowers, gre ke y ma tel I are immedia business. “When radise Pa e sid In . nts ughter sce da thy my , floral and ear I feel peaceful. So Funes sa Ro rs ne business ow , a fts en Gi op d Flowers an suggested that we s, ne Fu ela ari M r, hte ug and her da together.” nt botanical carefully curate differe Rosa and Mariela have store. the of er rn co h es in eac for categories different responsibiliti d in ste ere int en nes said, be s Fu . ha s ess ne Rosa Fu running the busin love “I . od ho th ild wi ch r me he lps ce flowers sin “My daughter he r, my do lva Sa El ng in eri ck sw ba an d d flowers, an the computer an them,” she said. with the grandma has a field of the phone, and I work erent diff of s me na the ed rn “There, I lea flowers.”

Funes moved I am types of flowers.” After Funes said, “Whenever rked at wo e sh of s, s rie ate St mo d me ite to the Un working, I have running ile wh s and aft Cr ers d ow an fl ts th Ar Michaels how I grew up wi e. sid On the ily. on fam ess my sin d a small bu how they helpe the United in rk s wo e’ to tin d len rte Va sta d I “When Mother’s Day an but my s, job nt ere ve diff fi d d an rke d States, I wo Day, my husban en she was eleven store daughter got cancer wh kids all help me in the ke flowers on ma to d with rte or e sta I vic so ser , years old with customer de flower ma I r. he of e car e tak the side to deliveries.” ends, for my arrangements for my fri

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Zhang said, “We don’t use any MSG in the restaurant. We just make fresh dishes every morning, and every dish we create is refined to its finest.”

As a first-generation immigrant, Zhang has overcome many challenges along the way to opening her restaurant.

“When I arrived here, I didn’t have a lot of language skills since I didn’t go to college in the U.S. When I came to America, I wanted to open a restaurant so I could connect with everyone. This is my dream—to bring delicious flavors to my good friends and spread Chinese cuisine in the U.S.,” Zhang said.

When asked what advice she would give to other recent immigrants, Zhang said, “Perseverance is a victory because as long as we have this love in our hearts, success will definitely reach us.”

Paradise Flower and Gifts

Nuts For Candy & Toys

The sma ll Avenue in shop located alo ng Broad Burlinga way m with “ Nu Over the ts for Ca e is hard to ignor ndy & To e neatly in pillar in th years, the store h ys” pasted golden le as becom e tter Taking a ea candidate community. Out peek thro s across its wind of 3.3 mil s , th ow. ugh the g e see that th s h o lion p was on businesse lass e eo s that wo candies a store is overflowin , you can n the Bu f only 80 Year Awa nd toys. O g with sine rd for Ca ve owners N lifornia in ss of the its volun ora and Jo r the last 29 years te 2016 e r work and , hn Kevra not only commun dedicatio due to brought nian hav it y . s e n to the m have also il John Kev created a es to children bu r t a la nian said commun responsib ity throu sting impact on th ility to giv , “ It’s my gh their s e philanth e commun ervice an ropy. ity becau back to this d Opening s e o this com pened up mu their arm shop is th in December of 1 this coun s and acc nity 994, the e third o tr e pted us in y .” ld Broadwa est busin Born in L y. A ess along e b Nora and fter the couple g anon, Jo to the Un ot marrie Jo ited State hn Kevranian ca d, over John hn Kevranian de me s at the a N ora Kevr cided to ’s parents ge of nin a take ’ store an store. e.

She mov nian is originally d open a ed from Isra candy The store el. then mov to Canada at the made a b a e ge of eigh d to with peo th u z e z U t, in m n it arrying Jo the ple ed States hn. after build the of all ages scram late ‘90s, John Kev bling to ir Beanie Ba Kevrania be able to ranian said, “ Ever n said, “ W by collections. Jo yone sho m hn e years fro uld can’t only ake a change for m 1997 to had some wonde th th e rful 1 known a care abou ink about ourselv good. We s the Bea 999. We were es. ty nie Baby Peninsula for other our community, y If you Kings in .” s.” ou do go the od

Located along El Camino Real, FEY Restaurant, also known as 福恩园 (Fu En Yuan), is one of the Peninsula’s Chinese restaurants serving authentic Sichuanese cuisine since 2012.

In the 1980s, owner James Gao immigrated from Beijing, China to the Bay Area. “He worked a lot of tour bus driving and kitchen jobs. But eventually, he wanted to be his own boss,” said his daughter, Anita Gao. In 1988, James Gao decided to open up his first Chinese restaurant, James Hunan. The Menlo Park location, which opened in 2012, is now their flagship restaurant.

However, James Gao’s journey wasn’t easy. “My dad struggled a lot. He lived in basements and faced a lot of racism working here. There were not a lot of Chinese restaurants in the ‘80s, and my dad worked long hours,” said Anita Gao. James Gao first immigrated to the U.S. while Han Ying, Anita’s mother, stayed in China. “My mom would go to the community phones to call my dad. The only way to cope with homesickness was to just work and send all the money back home,” said Anita Gao.

Having FEY as an established restaurant in the community for more than 30 years, the Gao family has built close relationships with their customers and people in the restaurant industry. “We have a lot of local customers, and they make this place their home.

My parents have formed a community of restaurant owners and suppliers. We only employ immigrants, and a lot of our chefs don’t have a standing when they first come over here, so we set them up with bank accounts and other resources,’’ said Anita Gao. She added, “My parents are here every day. It makes me happy to see the customers eat and order and enjoy their food.”

FEY Restaurant

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Lostin inthe the Lost SAUCE SAUCE

by Tiffany Karp

by Tiffany Karp

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n full honesty, I am not usually a fan of barbecue sauces or any barbecue-flavored foods. However, McDonald’s barbecue sauce deserves the hype. It has a very subtle smoky taste but is more sweet than anything else. While the average barbecue fan may not gravitate toward this sauce, I think that it complimented the fries nicely.

his divine dressing has a tangy, mustardy flavor that balances well with the sweetness of the honey. Despite having many other sauce options, the original Chick-fil-A sauce is undoubtedly the staple of their entire menu.

I quickly realized why so many people come to Chick-fil-A for their sauce.

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Origina l u Sa

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Sauce! Sauce! Sauce! Regardless of your culinary preferences, we can all agree that nothing will elevate your palate like a complimentary condiment. But before you get lost in the sauce, let’s dive deep—real deep—into which sauces deserve a spot in your life. Buckle up, ‘cause it’s time to get saucy.

I

nitially I was intrigued by what was behind this famous secret sauce, but my amateur taste buds were quickly able to decipher the flavor: mayonnaise, ketchup, relish, and onions. So… Thousand Islands dressing. Though I prefer to keep my sauces smooth—that applies to you too, peanut butter—I thoroughly enjoyed the little bites of crunchy relish incorporated throughout. This sauce earns top spot for its perfect balance of salty and tangy flavors.

After a lengthy investigation, I can conclude that the In-N-Out sauce was the best. It had the ideal balance of salty and tangy flavors and elevated the fries and burgers just as a sauce should. After a long expedition of “tasteful” experimentation, it was time to retire my saucy judgment and take a trip back to In-N-Out, where a Double-Double with extra sauce was calling my name.

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Dog Bandanas by Pawsitive Paws

by Tessa Goldman

Junior Tuva Andreasson has been creating and selling dog bandanas for almost four years through her small business, Pawsitive Paws.

The COVID-19 lockdown brought both a new puppy and countless hours of Instagram scrolling to Andreasson. “I saw all these beautiful small businesses on Instagram that inspired me to learn how to sew,” she said. After some practice, she started selling bandanas on Instagram and Etsy. She said, “I started to frequently post Reels and reach out to accounts to be my brand ambassadors.” In just a few months, dog accounts were sporting Pawsitive Paws.

“It was very much a trial-and-error process at the start.”

“It was very much a trial-and-error process at the start,” she said. As thousands of new small businesses took to these platforms during COVID, it was difficult for Andreasson to find an audience and make a name for herself. “I found that Instagram was the best way to reach new audiences and build a community,” she said.

Andreasson has had to learn how to balance her schoolwork with running a business. One way she handles this is by stocking up in the summer. “I sew plenty of bandanas in August. That way, I only need to spend time making special custom bandanas during the school year,” she explained.

Andreasson also releases seasonal collections, each with new themes and designs. She releases one to two large

“I started to frequently post Reels and reach out to accounts to be my brand ambassadors.” collections during the summer, and then spaces the rest out throughout the school year.

Andreasson’s bandanas range in colors and patterns thanks to her supplier. She gets her textiles strictly from her favorite fabric store, which happens to be in another continent: Annalunda Fabrics in Ängelholm, Sweden. She buys them during her annual summer visits to Sweden. “I’ve loved this store since I was little. It always has the most beautiful and lively fabrics

that inspire a lot of my ideas for each collection,” she said.

Customers can also order unique bandanas, where the size, print, and message are up to the customer to decide.

All orders of the pre-made bandanas are packaged and shipped in two to three days, but depending on the customizations, custom orders can take up to a week. The tie-on bandana makes it easy for customers to create the perfect fit for their pets, but if the size doesn’t work out, they can request individual measurements at no extra charge.

Andreasson hopes to keep Pawsitive Paws alive for as long as possible. In the next few years, she plans to come out with new items in addition to the classic bandana and to create her own website. In the short term, customers can keep an eye out for a new collection coming out this summer.

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Breaking t he Link

Y2K, coquette, VSCO, Pilates Princess, grunge: in today’s modern fashion landscape, the trend cycle ensures the constant consumption of a wide variety of aesthetics. All these trends, though, are associated with a specific body type—making them inherently exclusionary and detrimental to many women’s mental health.

The style of Y2K is best known for pieces that reveal one’s midriff, most notably low-rise jeans. The fashion industry used these styles to fuel an obsession with an unhealthily skinny physique enforced by a diet culture encouraging extreme weight loss.

High-waisted mom jeans, marketed as body-positive, became more prominent beginning in the mid-2010s. While the mom-jean’s high waist hid the wearer’s stomach, it still emphasized a thin waist through the hourglass silhouette. The trend of being skinny never went away— it just shifted.

Regardless of attempts to relegate unhealthy body standards to the past, no single era is a monolith in the commodification of women’s bodies.

Due to the cultural emphasis on their appearance, women constantly face an extreme amount of pressure to fit a certain look.

A recent trend, Pink Pilates Princess, embraces wearing pink, Y2K-esque clothing and going to Pilates. This trend has tied women’s bodies to a clothing style by encouraging women to take Pilates classes to obtain a toned physique with washboard abs, all while wearing pink and yoga pants.

Another clothing trend that ties one’s body to a hyper-feminine clothing style is the coquette aesthetic, defined by wearing lace, bows, frills, and the color pink. Yet despite its innocent exterior, participants of the coquette aesthetic

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often only support light-skinned, thin women. Some women who participate in the coquette aesthetic also have ties to pro-anorexia social media pages; On Reddit, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Tumblr, these “coquette” accounts encourage women to count their calories to be thin and frail.

Between

love indulging in aesthetics. However, this becomes problematic when we link specific body types with different aesthetics. Instead, all body types should be seen and embraced within an aesthetic. Many currently popular aesthetics fail to do this because they tie a specific body type to a style.

The trend of being skinny never went away—it just shifted.

Even trends that don’t emphasize being thin still make women feel like they need to conform to a certain body type. In 2014, Kim Kardashian—who is rumoured to have undergone BBL surgery and made curvy clothing mainstream—said, “I feel proud if young girls look up to me and say, ‘I’m curvy, and I’m proud of it now.’” Kardashian’s curvy body was so iconic that when she wore an all-black body suit to the 2021 Met Gala, she was instantly recognizable—the clothing wasn’t the fashion statement, it was simply just her body.

It is certainly okay for people to

Brandy Melville, a popular clothing store for teenagers, intentionally designs small clothing and then markets it as “one size fits all,” which was recently changed to “one size fits most.” This feeds into the message that clothes shouldn’t fit women, women should fit their clothes—all masked behind the language of inclusivity.

Under the expectations imposed on her, a woman is faced with an impossible choice: try to keep up with the latest trends and their body standards and inevitably fail, or choose to ignore societal pressures and be ostracized.

Because large corporations exploit

s d n e r T Body Type and

ig

by Mackenzie Danz

Even trends that don’t emphasize being thin still make woman feel like they need to conform to a certain body type. female insecurities, women spend excessive amounts of money on their appearance. Despite earning 16% less than men on average according to Forbes, women still spend 16% more than men on clothing, depleting their already disproportionate funds.

The fashion industry has tied body image and fashion together by creating a body standard and emphasizing the value of appealing to it using clothing.

When we celebrate the twig-thin bodies of runway models, we send a message: a woman’s worth is defined by visual appeal, and this appeal should be commodified.

Trends and aesthetics should not require or be associated with specific body types. For your body and your bank account, wear what brings you joy.

To heal our relationship with fashion, we need to heal our relationships with our bodies.

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The Dark History Behind Tanforan Mall

by D’Anjou Paul Libunao

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which incarcerated over 125,000 Japanese Americans in the United States.

Unfortunately, from April 23 to October 13, the Tanforan Racetrack was used as a temporary detention center for Japanese Americans with a peak population of 7,816 detainees.

The Tanforan shopping center in San Bruno is closing permanently but has played an integral role in the Bay Area’s history over the past couple centuries. It transformed from a horse racetrack to a Japanese American detention center that held over 7,000 people, finally morphing into a popular shopping mall.

Before its use as a racetrack, the Tanforan Mall area was part of the Mexican land grant Rancho Buri Buri given to Jose Antonio Sanchez in the 1820s. After his death, Sanchez’s land was divided among his descendants, including Toribio Tanforan— the namesake of the Tanforan Racetrack, which was established in 1899 by Prince Louis Andre Poniatowski.

From 1899 to 1964, many famous racehorses competed at the racetrack, including the iconic Seabiscuit, who briefly stabled there in 1939.

When gambling was banned in 1908, the track switched to automobile races until the ban was lifted in 1932.

Tanforan also has historical ties to the army. Eugene Ely accomplished one of the most historic aviation feats when he flew his biplane from the Tanforan racetrack and landed on a flight deck built on the USS Pennsylvania in 1911. His voyage signified the start of naval aviation in the U.S. Navy.

During World War I, a volunteer regiment of the 144th Field Artillery of the U.S. Army used the racetrack as an army training camp.

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“Later, we found out that was gonna be our mattress.”

After World War II ended and the center shut down, horse racing continued at the Tanforan Racetrack until July 31, 1964, when the grandstands caught fire and the track was permanently shut down.

In 1970, the Hapsmith Company developed the Tanforan shopping center

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“In [a certain] small horse stall, there were just two cots and a big canvas sack on the bed—I didn’t know what that was for,” Ogawa said.

“Later, we found out that was gonna be our mattress.”

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The San Bruno Public Library compiled interviews with people who lived in the assembly center. Interviewee Frank Ogawa said, “All we knew about Tanforan was that it was a racetrack. We only had about 3-4 days notice to pack and sell everything to be ready to depart to Tanforan.”

Japanese Americans at Tanforan were forced to live in hastily built barracks or horse stalls. “In [a certain] small horse stall, there were just two cots and a big canvas sack on the bed—I didn’t know what that was for,” Ogawa said.

where the racetrack once stood. The mall was finished in 1971 and renovated in 2005.

The San Bruno BART station has a memorial for those held at the Tanforan Assembly Center which contains the names of every detainee. To learn more about the history of San Bruno, you can visit the San Bruno Public Library or listen to San Bruno Voices, an oral collection of interviews from residents discussing key moments in the city’s history.

A Look Into Menlo Park’s 150-Year-Old Train Station

by Logan Greenbaum

Menlo Park is a modern, innovative city—but several of its buildings are relics from the past. While quick to overlook, the train station is actually the oldest railroad passenger station continuously in use in California, earning itself a spot on the National Register of Historic Places and recognition as a State Historic Landmark.

The station transports riders, including many M-A students, anywhere from San Francisco to Gilroy.

bordering County Road, now El Camino Real, and built two houses with a common entrance,” reads the Menlo Park history website. Across the driveway of the houses, they built a massive wooden gate that read “MENLO PARK” and had the date August 1854.

“Being from Galway, Oliver came up with the name Menlo,” said Crane. An excerpt from Oliver’s diary from February 6, 1855, reads, “On last Friday, Dan stopped at the store for me, with his buggy to accompany him to our Ranch [Menlo Park] so called by me after Menlo, a lovely place on the banks of the Lough Corrib two miles from the Town of Galway, the ancient Town of my nativity and of my ancestors.”

Nine years after the Menlo Park gate had been built, the town had a station. It was seldom used in its early days, but traffic increased after the 1891 opening of Stanford University, prompting a remodel in the 1890s in which Victorian ornamentation was added.

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“The tracks opposite the Menlo Park Ranch sign weren’t a stop at the time, just a staging point while the bridge was built over San Francisquito Creek.”

------------------The station’s 150-year-old history is tightly interwoven with Menlo Park’s. It was completed in 1867, four years after the tracks were built. Back then, Menlo Park had yet to be incorporated permanently. “The tracks opposite the Menlo Park Ranch sign weren’t a stop at the time, just a staging point while the bridge was built over San Francisquito Creek,” said Bo Crane, a Menlo Park Historical Association historian.

In 1854, Menlo Park received its official name. “Two Irishmen, Dennis J. Oliver and D. C. McGlynn, purchased 1,700 acres

About 20 years later, an extension was added to the building to accommodate traffic from the U.S. Army’s Camp Fremont during World War I. “Menlo Park only had a population of 2,000 at the time Camp Fremont was built in 1917,” said Crane.

“Easy railroad access and pleasant climate attracted wealthy San Franciscans to build their summer homes, estates, and universities in Menlo Park,” reads a pamphlet by the Walking Tour of Victorian Architecture in Downtown Menlo Park. The southbound railroad from San Francisco also meant that the San Franciscans could get to their second homes near Menlo Park faster. The $2.50 one-way ride took 80 minutes instead of the four hours a stagecoach took, helping put Menlo Park on the map.

Even though it’s one of 31 stations along the modern-day Caltrain route from San Francisco to Gilroy, the Menlo Park train station sets itself apart with its rich 150 years of operation.

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High School NOT WORTH IT High school maintain a romantic relationship by dating relationships are people in high school. However, based on my personal experience, I would rather forgo a everything; they’re wonderful and horrible high school relationship and miss out on that potential growth because I believe it’s more and inspiring and messy all at once. Yet the question important to focus on other aspects of selfimprovement, especially because many high remains: are they worth it? school relationships are glorified distractions.

After nearly four years of I’ve dated two people during high school, watching my peers venture into the world of young romance (and and both times I was the most distracted I’d ever been. Relationships take time and effort dabbling in it myself ), I’ve got some thoughts that I can’t keep from out of students’ already busy schedules. There were certainly very positive aspects of my bubbling over. relationships, like the excitement of the chase High school relationships can be or the elation of the first kiss. However, I also valuable opportunities for personal growth, but most are not, largely due to spent less time with my friends, screwed up my sleep schedule, struggled more in school, a culture of romantic hype. and still felt like I wasn’t putting enough work But Dylan, you might ask, how can you be so cynical? Haven’t you ever felt into my romantic relationship.

Even if many students would rather focus the indescribable joy of falling in love? on themselves than find a partner, high school No. I have not. And I don’t think my life would be that much better if I had. culture can make it hard to remove yourself from the dating scene. Dating has become I’ve spent most of high school focused on building genuine friendships, pursuing my passions, Relationships take time and investing in my personal and and effort out of students’ social development. already busy schedules.

Overall, I would say I’ve had a pretty positive experience, a quintessential part of the high school and I’m glad I was able to experience, and those who don’t date may feel devote my time and energy insecure or abnormal. to self-improvement— The idolization of high school relationships academically, socially, and encourages us to date people solely for the emotionally. sake of dating. We view dating as a way to I think it’s true that you can also liven up our lives largely because teenage culture puts romantic relationships on an improve your atmospheric pedestal. We tend to judge ability to romantic partners by their proximity instead of their quality because we’re convinced having someone mediocre is better than having no one.

by Dylan Lanier

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I realized that I find healthier excitement in my friendships and personal passions, and should turn to them in times of discontent instead of lowering my standards and trying to use someone else as an entertaining fling.

Wow, that was a lot of ranting (and hopefully some good advice sprinkled throughout). And while it may seem otherwise, I promise I am not anti-love.

However, we need to recognize that relationships are not the end-all-be-all, and that developing yourself as an individual is always a constructive pursuit. Focus on yourself and live your life with personal purpose, investing in people you truly care about and only adding romance as it arises, not the other way around.

While you will miss out on certain experiences if you choose not to date, you will give yourself more time to grow as an individual, which will allow you to reach greater satisfaction and success. You will also be a better romantic partner in the future by establishing your own identity and goals now.

Romance Is...

WORTH IT There is nobody I have talked to about love and relationships more than Dylan Lanier.

Dylan and I are always gossiping about our recent dates and how they went wrong—for me, a guy attempting to woo me by freestyle rapping, and for him, a very strange first kiss involving tomato soup.

Of course, we live for each other’s dramas and adventures, but we also frequently discuss love and its role in our lives. You’ve heard Dylan’s take—here’s mine.

We come into our first relationships like baby birds thrown from the nest.

We come into our first relationships like baby birds thrown from the nest, with only cheesy love songs and cliched rom-com scenes of someone holding a boombox outside of a window to guide us. Maybe an older sister if we’re truly lucky.

While the butterflies and linked sweaty palms are fun, the main purpose of a first

relationship is to explore who you are in the context of a romantic partnership and to get to know yourself.

When I look back at my first relationship, I realize that it was crucial in shaping me as a person.

Although this relationship ended—I continue to be the person that the relationship, and their love, allowed me to grow into. I know that I deserve to be loved and no longer settle for less than the reasonably high standards that were set. I know what I contribute to a relationship as well as what I need to improve on. The person that I grew into stuck around past the actual relationship.

I agree with Dylan that our schedules may feel jumbled, and maybe looking back, I should have prioritized going to bed instead of staying up on FaceTime. But learning how to balance this is all part of the learning curve of a first love. And this learning curve will happen eventually, so why not get ahead of it?

But learning how to balance this is all part of the learning curve of a first love.

Dylan also describes feeling a loss of independence, saying that he lost track of his priorities and struggled to manage a relationship on top of the other parts of his life. While it’s undoubtedly stressful to have to juggle so many things at once, it’s crucial to learn how to balance the busyness of life and be in a relationship without sacrificing too much independence. This trial-and-error,

the chaos of navigating this new part of life, is exactly why first love is needed.

At the end of the day, I’m neither dating to marry nor to break up. I’m dating to enjoy being with someone for as long as we feel like we enjoy being with each other, whether that be for a couple of months or even longer.

Of course, there is always the risk of being hurt. But I, for one, would rather love and be loved—even if it ends with me in tears—than never experience it at all.

Although first relationships don’t have to happen in high school, we shouldn’t immediately reject them.

If you find yourself wanting to have that first high school relationship, put yourself out there! You might as well give it a shot than never know what joy could have come out of it. Stay open. Strike up a conversation with your desk partner, ask the guy in your English class to do homework together, and be bold. Open yourself up to the wonders of teen romance!

by Isabel Seniawski

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B

E A R

doing

by Tessa Ellingson and Celeste Zucker

BIG THINGS

Marianne Cooper

Ethan Tasch

Daphne Brooks

“I think there is a direct line between trying to understand my experiences at M-A—a frankly unequal institution— and me now seeking to study and share knowledge about forces of inequality,” said Marianne Cooper ‘91. Cooper is a sociologist who works to turn her research into action through writing and public speaking.

After graduating from M-A, Cooper attended UC San Diego, where she started with a major in political science.

But then she found sociology.

“I took my Introduction to Sociology course, and it was like a lightning bolt hit me,” she said.

Cooper later obtained her PhD in Sociology from UC Berkeley, where she found public sociology—an approach that aims to communicate with a wider audience.

Cooper is now a Senior Research Scholar at Stanford’s VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab and studies gender bias, focusing on advancing women’s leadership. She works to “translate [research] into something the public can understand.”

Cooper’s advice to M-A students: “Just because something is hard doesn’t mean that it’s not your thing, so don’t close off certain paths for yourself just because you’re not quite there yet.”

Ethan Tasch ‘16 started playing guitar when he was eight. Since then, Tasch has amassed over 25 million streams of his folk-pop music as well as countless features on Spotify editorial playlists.

“I put a video of me playing guitar up on Facebook freshman year. People didn’t really know I played guitar until then.

Afterward, I kept posting videos and showing more of my music,” he recalled.

After graduating from M-A, Tasch attended the University of Southern California, where he majored in Popular Music. “In my sophomore year, I hurt my hand, so I couldn’t really play guitar.

That was when I started writing songs and singing.”

In 2020, Tasch signed with R&R Digital, a label that also works with Dijon and Mt. Joy. On July 28, 2023, after two EPs, he released Got Him!, his debut album.

Tasch opened and was the guitarist for Bea Miller’s 2023 Gauche Tour. About their San Francisco show, he said, “I did an ‘M-A, You Know!’ chant and everyone went crazy.”

Tasch’s advice to M-A students: “Don’t do your homework during lunch or brunch. It’s so much added stress and you can just do it at home and it will be better quality.”

“I am forever indebted to all of my English teachers,” said Professor Daphne Brooks ‘86. Brooks is a professor at Yale University who teaches African American Studies; American Studies; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; and Music.

Brooks always had a passion for English and journalism. She said, “For the longest time, I really wanted to be a rock music critic.”

After graduating from M-A, Brooks attended UC Berkeley, where she majored in English and minored in African American Studies. A year after graduating, Brooks started her dissertation program at UCLA, focusing on early African American literature. She said, “I was really interested in how there were so many Black women in the 19th century who were writing literature as a form of resistance, and fighting for the liberation of African Americans.”

Brooks’ advice to M-A students: “Think outside the box and be willing to reach across whatever barrier is between your community and another.”

Tasch for his song “Shell”

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S

Seeing Through the Smoke:

Vaping Culture on Campus Whether it’s in a bathroom stall during brunch or behind the bleachers at a football game, vaping at school is a persistent phenomenon—but not a new one.

The alluring cigarettes of the ‘90s have morphed into fruit-scented plastic pods filled with highly addictive nicotine and commonly found in the hands of high school students. Both on and off campus, students huddle together and mindlessly pass around e-cigarettes, taking hits between sentences without a second thought.

In a 2023 survey, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported that 10% of high school students— over 1.56 million teens—currently use e-cigarettes.

Vaping has become a large aspect of student culture, which has desensitized many teenagers to its countless dangers, making it harder to quit.

One anonymous student shared, “I’ll often try to quit but end up continuing because it’s so normalized in my life by other people.” Another student added, “In social settings, people are always openly vaping, and it’s tempting to take a hit.”

“In social settings, people are always openly vaping, and it’s tempting to take a hit.”

Although M-A’s administration does its best to stop students from vaping on campus, it’s difficult to combat the issue at large, because many students’ addictions began even before high school. “Everyone around me started owning vapes, and it was something we saw the high schoolers doing, so we wanted to be mature in that way,” one student said.

The accessibility of vapes through online “plugs” also perpetuates their chokehold on teens by allowing minors to avoid getting ID’d in stores. A student said, “I get most of my nicotine from plugs on Snapchat, who drive to my location and drop it off.”

Some students understand vaping’s harms and consequently refuse to buy their own e-cigarettes, opting instead to use their friends’ devices. One student said, “I won’t buy my

own because I’ve seen how my sister’s addiction has impacted her ability to exercise. But when I’m in a social setting and people are doing it around me, I always find myself using theirs.”

Many students also report their addictions hurting athletic performance, with difficulty breathing and lightheadedness. Even so, some students are struggling to leave their vapes for good. One student-athlete explained, “I always think that two more hits won’t do anything, and then find myself coughing at practice.

Still, I just work to push through it instead of quitting.”

One student said, “When my lungs started burning during exercise and I started coughing more, the effects became real to me, and that’s what finally encouraged me to quit.”

Teens want to quit: 58% of current high school tobacco product users reported that they stopped using all tobacco products for more than one day during the past year in an attempt to quit. However, many resources aren’t available to teens.

Because many teens aren’t open about their addictions, they can’t access the medications and therapies that make quitting easier and prevent withdrawals. Many of the drugs tested for quitting also exclude youth. The FDA is developing drugs for quitting vaping that are not approved or tested for ages 16 and under, which leaves teens behind.

Freshmen are required to take Life Skills, which includes a unit on Drugs and Addiction that advises students to not use substances. Education on the harms of vaping and nicotine must continue as, according to a Truth Initiative study, people more familiar with the effects of vaping were three times more likely to attempt to quit.

Vaping’s deep integration into student culture leads students to overlook its blatant harm. In addition to nicotine’s inherently addictive quality, easy access and its prevalence in social events make quitting all the more difficult.

by Huraman Orujov

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FACES OF M-A

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Bianka Isabella At six years old, Bianka Isabella found her love for music in church choir. A few years later, she watched her cousin win ABC’s reality TV show Boy Band. “Seeing him write his own songs and touch people’s hearts inspired me to pursue music,” she said. Now, Isabella is a junior at M-A with multiple songs released on Spotify, a debut EP on its way, and her very own rock band.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, Isabella put her original music online for the first time. “It was really intimidating,” she said. “I was in seventh grade when I put out my first song. It blew up on YouTube and got around 3,000 views, which is a lot for a seventhgrader’s first song. I got super overwhelmed, so I deleted the video.”

In 2023, Isabella started going to The Riekes Center, a hub for fitness, arts, and environmental awareness in the center of Menlo Park.

“At first, I went to Riekes to work out, but that didn’t go as planned,” they laughed. “I figured out they had a music program, so I started to take voice lessons. As soon as I entered the music program, the staff told me I should audition for the Spain trip.”

The Riekes Center put together a band—called the Riekestra—to travel to Spain during the summer of 2023, where the musicians and vocalists performed covers of hits like “Valerie” by Amy Winehouse and “Hotel California” by the Eagles at beaches and campsites.

influences on my music. I try to separate myself from other people because what is the point of making music if I sound like somebody else?”

Vega started rapping around the first Christmas of the COVID-19 pandemic when he got an at-home studio setup.

“At first, it was hard to balance music with school,” he said. “I was putting music before school during the pandemic, but then I decided that I wasn’t messing with that. Now, I make sure to do my schoolwork. Once I handle my business first, I have a lot of free time to do music, and since my studio is at my house, it’s easy for me to do.”

Vega has three albums and one EP out on streaming platforms, plus a few singles and features. “I’d describe my music as versatile,” he said. “I have turnup songs for parties, singing songs, and all kinds of different sounds.” With its electronic beats, heavy 808s, and stylized autotune, Vega’s music could generally be categorized as mumble-rap or trap.

When asked what he likes to rap about, he laughed before saying, “Money and girls.” He paused, then added, “I also love talking about my past life and the trauma I’ve gone through.” There is no shortage of fun on his records, as seen in his recent upbeat track “Hell Nah,” but Vega also opens up on more vulnerable songs like “Time Fade Away,” in which he

t n e m o M BabyG c The Musi

by Ben Si egel

“I’m always listening to my own music. I have around 500 unreleased songs that I just vibe to all the time. I try to listen to other artists as little as I can.”

This is Gildardo Vega—known to his friends as Gil, and known to his Spotify listeners as BabyG. He’s a senior at M-A by day and a recording rapper by night.

His favorite artist is Lil Durk, but his most-listened-to artist is himself. “I listen to my music a lot so I don’t get ideas from other artists and end up sounding the same as them,” he explained. “I do have favorite artists, but they’re not

“I’m always listening to my own music. I have around 500 unreleased songs that I just vibe to all the time. I try to listen to other artists as little as I can.”

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“Being in a band is like being a turtle: you have a shell on your back.”

“The band became so close because of how much we had in common,” Isabella explained. “We were all there to do something we loved. Performing was draining but so exciting at the same time.

The adrenaline of being onstage was amazing.”

Playing with the band introduced Isabella to new genres that now influence her solo sound. “My music is inspired by a lot of 2000s pop punk, like Avril Lavigne and Paramore,” she said. “Rock was never my style, but playing rock with this band helped bring out a side of me that I didn’t know I had.”

When the Spain trip came to an end, so did the Riekestra. But the band members wanted to continue making music together, so they created their new band Psyche.

“We got together to play the songs that we learned for Spain and some

new songs as well,” they said. Though they only play covers at the moment, the band is planning to work on some original music in the future.

For a long time, Isabella just wanted to be a solo artist, but she changed her mind after joining the Riekestra. “I realized that the connections you make and the support you get in a band are so much better than what you get from making music on your own. Being in a band is like being a turtle: you have a shell on your back,” she said.

Outside of Psyche, Isabella continues to write her own solo music. She recently released “My Mistake,” a punchy pop tune that Isabella described as being about “the stage of wanting to be with someone but knowing it’s a mistake.”

The intimidation she felt when she released her first

raps, “Having a child, being a deadbeat, I swear that’s my biggest fear.”

Vega writes all of his own lyrics, but he doesn’t exactly write them. “I just say one thing into the microphone, take a break, say the next thing, and then keep going. I’ve gotten better at it the more I’ve done it, but it was a struggle at first.

I wasn’t as good as I am now, but I’ve developed.”

He continued, “I don’t like [physically] writing because it makes me think too much. When I try to write before recording, I just sit there with my phone wasting my time. But when I don’t write, I can get a song done in ten minutes, and it’s more natural.”

When asked about his post-high school plans, he wanted to make sure he got his message across: “Everybody keeps asking me this! I’m going to college. I’m going to go to school for business or

marketing. That’s what I need to do. I’m not about to just not go to school. That would be stupid.”

“I’m going to keep taking music seriously, but I’m not going to rush it,” he continued.

“Even if I blow up while I’m in school, I’m still going to finish college, even if it’s online.”

song hasn’t gone away, but she’s learned how to manage it. “It’s intimidating to be in high school and release music, and it’s scary to wonder if people will make fun of me,” they said. “But I’ve realized that there will always be people who like my music and people who don’t, and that’s okay. Sometimes it’s good to take criticism and improve, but I never take it to heart too much.”

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Rewind R

Sports in Boys Basketball

Seeded first in the CCS Division I bracket, the varsity basketball team boasted an impressive overall record of 21-8. The Bears narrowly lost to the Los Gatos Wildcats in the CCS championship but continued their season with a CIF Division II state title run. They defeated the Sacramento Dragons 70-64 in the opening round but lost to the Del Oro Golden Eagles 85-74 in round two.

Girls Basketball With an overall record of 15-11, the Bears punched their ticket as the 7th seed in the CIF Division I Championships. In round one, they trampled the Mountain View Spartans 52-26, but fell to the secondseeded Branham Bruins in the quarterfinals.

Boys Soccer The Bears varsity soccer team did not qualify for the CCS playoffs and instead concluded their season with a 3-1 win over Half Moon Bay. The win capped off a 8-9-3 record for M-A.

Girls Soccer M-A did not seed in the CCS playoffs.

The team ended with a 4-10-3 record overall, and a 2-5-3 record in league play.

Boys Tennis M-A sent one doubles team, seniors Oliver Novak and Thomas Garrf, to CCS playoffs, but they were eliminated in the first round. The team itself was also eliminated in the second round by the third-seeded Homestead Mustangs.

Track and Field The varsity girls won PAL for the third year straight and the varsity boys placed fifth. After competing in CCS, two Bears qualified for the CIF State Championships in the 800m and 1600m.

Three individuals and several relay teams qualified for the Nike Outdoor Nationals.

Co-ed Swim Both the varsity girls and boys placed third in PAL, with 20 swimmers qualifying for the CCS Championships.

Sophomore Hailey Preuss broke the PAL Championship meet and M-A record for the 100 breaststroke.

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by Jolene Chu, Mateo Cuellar-Koh, and Ameya Nori photos courtesy of Bob Dahlberg, Noah Eisner, Jack Loder, John Hale, and West Coast Preps

Boys Baseball

Girls Softball

The boys baseball team ranked 3rd in the PAL Bay Division with an overall record of 14-13. They seeded eighth in the CCS Division II playoffs and lost 3-5 to the Leigh Longhorns in the quarterfinals.

Senior Rowan Kelly led the team in batting average, on-base percentage, home runs, stolen bases, hits, runs, runs batted in, slugging percentage, doubles, and triples.

M-A did not seed in the CCS playoffs and ended the season with a record of 13-10-1. They finished second in the PAL Bay Division and ended league play with a win against Terra Nova.

Boys Volleyball

The boys varsity volleyball team ended the regular season with a 25-6 record and was seeded 3rd in the PAL Bay division. They beat the Westmont Warriors 3-0 in the first round of the Division I CCS playoffs and lost 3-1 to the Cupertino Pioneers in the quarterfinals.

Boys Lacrosse

The boys varsity lacrosse team had an impressive 20-1 record going into CCS Division 1. Their season ended after they lost to the Sacred Heart Gators in the semifinals. Four records were shattered this season, with junior Colin Kryger scoring the most career points, senior Jack Kryger having the most ground balls and forced turnovers, and junior Olivier Yuk holding the record for the most number of career saves in M-A history.

Girls Lacrosse

The girls lacrosse team ended the season with a record of 6-10. They lost to the Menlo Knights in the CCS Division 1 Semifinals with a score of 12-20.

Badminton The co-ed varsity badminton team sent one doubles team to CCS, junior Addison Youngblood and senior Rosemary Huang, but they lost in double eliminations.

Youngblood and Huang placed second in the PAL Bay Divison.

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The Galles Guide

by Avery Galles

FOR THE BEACH Bright Swimwear Bright Swimwear products are the perfect compromise between Shein and Frankies Bikinis: less expensive but also high quality.

Beach Read Beach Read by Emily Henry is a romantic page-turner full of humorous and adorable scenes that will have you longing for the warm weather!

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac—a band with M-A graduates Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham—makes the perfect summertime music, whether it accompanies tanning sessions, long drives, or going to the beach.

Dorm Essentials Mattress Topper In the hot months, ventilation throughout a cooling mattress topper lets the humidity escape and frees you from waking up in a pool of sweat.

Utility Cart Dorm rooms can easily get crowded, but a utility cart makes it easy to separate your items while organizing them.

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Command Strips From hanging up wet towels to safely sticking nostalgic photos to the wall, command strips offer a variety of easy applications!

Moving Bags Get rid of bulky boxes and use heavy duty extra-large bags to help move all of your gear and clothes to your dorm.

! s r o i n e s , L G HA EDIT OR

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Natalie Fishman

Sonia Freedman

Dylan Lanier

Cleo Rehkopf

Sarah Weintraut

“The Bell Ringer”

“Music Enthusiast”

“Clickbait King”

“Most Stamina”

“Bad Journalist”

Andrew Ahn

Damian Boye

Kate Budinger

Jolene Chu

Riona Faruqi

Ellen Forte

“Classical Music Fanatic”

“Most Swedish”

“Most Energetic”

“Spontaneous Genius”

“Design Queen”

“Bacteria Expert”

Avery Galles

Collin Goel

“The Galles Guide Gal”

“Website Savior”

Logan Greenbaum

DonnaBella Gaetano

“Cover Girl”

Brian Hoyle

Tiffany Karp

“Political Analyst”

“The Dancer”

“History Buff”

SPORTS

EDITOR

Leehan Kim

Peter Koren

Sarah Larson

Samuel Leslie

Arden Margulis

Sofia Merlino

“Architecture Admirer”

“Most Punctual”

“Illustration and Satire Beast”

“Most Opinionated”

“Not Actually a Senior”

“Human Sunshine”

SPORTS

Amala Raj

Michael Roman

Isabel Seniawski

Chase Trigg

“Most Mysterious”

“The Idea Guy”

“Most Unexplained Lore”

“Guy Having the Most Fun”

EDITOR

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@machronicle