Volume 50, Issue 2, October 23, 2019

OPINION 11 Childhood hardships are necessary for self-growth on students

NEWS 5

F E AT U R E S 2 2

A&E 28

SPORTS 36

Discussing the effects of trauma and the road to recovery

Exploring the impacts of the Iranian Revolution at MVHS

A look behind Brett Park’s Instagram page Thumbpaint

MVHS athletes who play sports all three seasons

TABLE OF CONTENTS 02

EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

5 6 8 10 11 12 14 16 17 19 20 22 24

27 28 30 32 34 36 38 39

NEWS HEALING — Individuals’ journey through the healing process ROAD TO RECOVERY — Exploring people’s recovery from major injury PROCESSING PAIN — How students cope with a loved one’s illness COST OF CARE — Exploring the financial aspect of healing

OPINION YOUTHFUL MELODIES — Holding onto my childhood passions REPUTATIONS: CHILDHOOD — Exploring students’ childhood experiences VOL. TWO: HALLOWEEN — Halloween is detrimental to society POST SUCCESS — The trade offs students make to gain accomplishments WHAT MAKES US — Why childhood hardships are needed for self-growth

FEATURES

I DON’T DANCE — Facing my fear of humiliation through Bhangra INNER BATTLES — How people can help with others’ internal struggles TOO CLOSE TO HOME — Exploring Iranian Revolution’s impact on people THE DAMAGE DONE — Experiences being disciplined as a child

A&E

GOTTA CATCH ‘EM ALL — Reflecting on my love for Pokemon THUMBPAINT — How senior Brett Park created the character “Thumb” REWIND — The comeback of older trends in 2019 BEING PRISCILLA — Delving into the dancer’s career

SPORTS COMPARING COSTS — Exploring the donation costs of different sports TRIPLE THREAT — How some athletes play a sport all three seasons @MVATHLETICS — Using social media to give updates on sports events ATHLETE OF THE MONTH — Water polo player Luke Bowman EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

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elESTOQUE 21840 McClellan Road Cupertino, CA 95014 mv.el.estoque@gmail.com

Editors-in-chief: Hannah Lee, Anish Vasudevan Managing editors: Alyssa Hui, Shuvi Jha, Swara Tewari, Stuti Upadhyay, Emily Xia Copy editor: Zara Iqbal News editors: Anushka De, Andie Liu, Tina Low, Jai Uparkar Sports editors: Justine Ha, Kamyar Moradi, Tabitha Mendez, Rucha Soman Entertainment editors: Ayah Ali-Ahmad, Charlotte Chui, Shivani Gupta, Robert Liu Opinion editors: Lakshanyaa Ganesh, Sreya Kumar, Jasmine Lee, Oishee Misra Feature editors: Tyler Cho, Iman Malik, Claire Wen, Brian Xu Beats editors: Lance Tong, Annie Zhang Graphics editors: Claire Yang, Sarah Young Visuals editors: Justine Ha, Tabitha Mendez, Collin Qian Website Editor: Devin Gupta Staff writers: Michelle Chen, Sophia Chen, Ishaani Dayal, Anushka De, Aditi Dixit, Devin Gupta, Jayanti Jha, Rachel Jiang, Vivian Jiang, Elena Khan, Jefferson Le, Andie Liu, Jacqueline Liu, Tanish Mendki, Nivedita Menon, Shreshta Ranganathan, Anjali Singh, Neysa Singh, Leanna Sun, Lance Tong, Sean Yagi Adviser: Julia Satterthwaite Mission Statement El Estoque is an open forum created for and by students of Monta Vista High School.

The staff of El Estoque seeks to recognize individuals, events and ideas and bring news to the Monta Vista community in a manner that is professional, unbiased and thorough in order to effectively serve our readers. We strive to report accurately and will correct any significant error. If you believe such an error has been made, please contact us. Letters of any length should be submitted via e-mail or mail. They become the sole property of El Estoque and can be edited for length, clarity or accuracy. Letters cannot be returned and will be published at El Estoque’s discretion.

El Estoque also reserves the right to reject advertising due to space limitations or decision of the Editorial Board that content of the advertisement conflicts with the mission of the publication.

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS There’s a 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it. So the annual problem for our generation is finding a good way to spend it …

As the theme song to “Phineas and Ferb” echoed throughout the rally court, we began to reminisce about the cartoons that welcomed us on our television screens when we got home from elementary school.

While practicing for the homecoming skit at familiar childhood locations like Memorial Park and Kennedy Middle School, we were brought back to the times when we weren’t busy studying for the next math test, but were instead determined to catch our friends, eyes-closed, while playing Grounders on the playground.

Our childhoods are defined by seemingly meaningless moments from our everyday lives — from the heart-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches our moms packed to the excitement we felt when we received letters from the Tooth Fairy, signed by our older siblings in an elaborate cursive font.

While we might not realize it, these seemingly meaningless moments from our childhoods have shaped our current lives.

So as homecoming week reminds us of our vibrant past, let us take some time to visit the places that once held a special place in our hearts.

Explore the neighborhood that embraced you as you learned to ride your first bicycle. Revisit the elementary-school monkey bars that gave you your first calluses. Pull out your old Nintendo DS or play a game of Wii tennis with your friends.

Let’s remember the people, the places, the memories that have molded us into the people we are today, and let this trip down memory lane serve as a friendly reminder to continue adding new chapters to our vibrant stories.

Because when we look back later, perhaps our afternoons at Cafe LaTTea or our spontaneous weekend excursions to Santa Cruz will serve as memories that we can reflect on with a smile — just like how the highlights from our childhood fill us with the buzz of nostalgia.

COVER PHOTO | ANISH VASUDEVAN COVER ILLUSTRATION | HANNAH LEE

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EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

Hannah Lee

Anish Vasudevan

NEWS

HEALING

Exploring how people cope with physical or mental injuries as they journey through the healing process

PHOTO | JAI UPARKAR

NEWS | OCTOBER 2019

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PHOTO BY SCOTT VICTORINE | USED WITH PERMISSION

ROAD TO RECOVERY

Teachers and students reflect on their healing processes after dealing with a major injury

BY JAYANTI JHA AND JAI UPARKAR

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EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

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or most, going to a concert to listen to‘ 90s rock band The Offspring at the Vans Warped Tour would be a night to remember. For history teacher Scott Victorine, he remembers that night vividly — but not because of the band or the music.

Instead, he broke up a fight between three men and ended up being assaulted by one who broke both his tibia and fibula. One of the most difficult parts of his recovery has been the slower pace of his life.

“Mentally, it was a big change for me at first because I’m so ‘go, go, go’ all the time,” Victorine said. “I always [have] to be doing something around the house ... so I was always finding something to do.

So to have that stop all of a sudden, [to] have to slow down, was a big change for me at first. And to be able to remind myself like, ‘you’re going to need some time for yourself, you’re going to need to recover.’”

Victorine’s broken bones, two long bones in the lower leg, otherwise known as the shin bones, will take between late January to late March to heal before he can return to the level of physical activity he was used to, such as running and hiking. The day after his injury occurred, he required surgery to realign the tibia and fibula as well as permanently place one rod, one plate and 13 screws in his leg.

Currently, Victorine wears a walking boot, but previously, he had a permanent cast for the initial six weeks after the injury.

After the boot, he will walk with crutches at the 14-week mark, and following this he will be walking with a cane. Lastly, with physical therapy, he will be able to walk on his own around Thanksgiving. While his recovery back to healthy may seem long, he says he keeps a positive mindset.

“It’s a test of patience,” Victorine said.

“It’s a test on character strengths and character building. So I’m trying to keep it as positive, trying to learn something from the experience. Sounds cheesy, but [it’s] to take a negative and try to turn it into a positive. Because if I was miserable about this, if I was constantly thinking about it or down on it, it would make this recovery a lot worse. And I think it would be harder on my body.”

Similar to Victorine, senior Divya Suresh is also experiencing a long recovery process after getting injured during a volleyball game when she went up to hit the ball and landed awkwardly, realizing that she wasn’t able to stand back up again.

Immediately after, she went to the ER and eventually had an MRI that later revealed she had torn her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and meniscus. She is getting

“MY WIFE ALWAYS CALLS ME CAPTAIN AMERICA BECAUSE SHE SAYS, ‘YOU’RE ALWAYS TRYING TO DO THE RIGHT THING.’” SCOTT VICTORINE surgery on Oct. 15 and will need to do 500 to 600 hours of physical therapy. As a captain of the traditional Indian dance team, Raas, and a volleyball player, Suresh found herself unable to participate in the activities she loved.

“It was really heartbreaking because it’s your last year and you want to do everything with your family — your sport family, your dance family. But then I couldn’t do any of that because I have to go to PT and take care of [my body],” Suresh said.

For both Suresh and Victorine, another major emotional adjustment was developing dependence on others. They both realized that simple tasks were much harder to execute and they grew tired more easily. For Victorine, washing the dishes, doing the laundry and even carrying a cup of coffee became much more difficult than it had before.

In the beginning, Suresh’s leg was stiff so she couldn’t drive, something that was always therapeutic and calming for her.

Depending on their family and friends for simple things was hard but she also knew that they were her support system. “[My friends and family have] been super awesome, everyone has been super supportive,” Suresh said. “Since my friend tore her ACL, I have someone who directly relates to the same emotions and feelings I’m going through right now so that’s comforting too. She’s also a model of like someone can go through this and get past it and return [to] play volleyball again.

So it’s not an end all be all thing, it’s just temporary. But you can come back and be stronger than you were before.”

Unlike Victorine and Suresh, junior Miranda Flint doesn’t deal with a physical injury, but instead a mental illness, anxiety.

However, this also can entail a long recovery

process. Her anxiety disorder has recently taken a toll on her.

“It’s weird because everything can be going completely fine,” Flint said. “The next moment, you just feel hopeless or an immediate emotion change. You don’t really have any control over your emotions.”

While her anxiety has affected her throughout her life, she noticed an increase in symptoms in the last year. However, Flint has been taking steps to ensure that she can handle her emotions more effectively.

“I’m getting better at controlling it, and talking to people that I need to talk to when I can feel it started to happen,” Flint said.

“I’m better at taking deep breaths and trying to get more on top of it. Sometimes I can’t stop it. [But] I’m in a good place now. So I hope this can stay steady where I have control over myself for the most part.

I don’t think I’ll ever have it completely gone. That’s not how it works, [but] this is a good spot.”

The road to recovery isn’t easy for Flint, Victorine or Suresh, for they still have to deal with the highs and lows of the journey.

Often times it’s easy for them to get frustrated at themselves for their struggle in performing what they see as simple, daily actions. But on the whole, they realize they have to respect their body and the time it will take to return to normal.

“I’ve been trying to follow my doctor’s guidelines to a T and not pushing it,” Victorine said. “Even though there’s an urge to want to do more things, I have to tell myself: don’t overdo it, don’t push it.

In the long run, you want health recovery, you want to make sure everything heals properly. Now, I just have to move forward and as long as I’m healing and my progress is going in the right direction, that’s all that really matters.” e NEWS | OCTOBER 2019

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PROCESSING PAIN

Exploring how MVHS students cope with a loved one’s illness

BY JEFFERSON LE AND TINA LOW

Sophia Powell’s mother holds her as a baby.

PHOTO BY ANDREW POWELL | USED WITH PERMISSION

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EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

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wo years ago, senior Sophia Powell lost her mother to a brain hemorrhage. Powell’s mother died in part due to her aplastic anemia, a condition that prevented her body from replenishing its supply of blood cells. Her mother had struggled with liver disease as well, and the combination of these two illnesses on top of the variety of medications she was prescribed took a drastic toll on her wellbeing in the years leading to her death.

Powell’s family approached her mother’s medical issues from all angles, including trying a variety of medications and procedures. These attempts either worked temporarily or immediately invoked negative side effects, so ultimately, doctors suggested a liver and bone marrow transplant. However, her mother suffered a stroke before receiving any of these procedures which led to her passing.

Six years ago, junior Andrew Dinkha’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Unlike Powell, he was relatively unaware of his mother’s illness until it had progressed late into the stages of her recovery. This past summer marked her five-year cancer survival anniversary.

Therapist Mary Ruth Cross from Treehouse Family Counseling Services specializes in counseling those like Powell and Dinkha — children who have experienced the trauma of losing or nearly losing a loved one. When it comes to helping her clients with trauma, she believes that instead therapists should avoid “rubber stamping,” or taking their clients’ cases and assuming that their grieving process will be identical. Instead, Cross recognizes that each family’s culture and social background varies, making each individual client’s recovery process unique.

“You’ll have to then look at what are they telling themselves about all of this?”

Cross said. “So you can have what we call stinking thinking, which is the child blaming themselves in any way. There’s a lot of assessing that we do. It’s very individual and particular to each child.”

Cross says that, regardless of what type of client she’s assisting and the type of trauma they’ve experienced, she always tries to make them feel as if that someone’s listening to them.

“The biggest thing I think for kids is making sure that they have a voice and can talk about what it is that they can feel about

Andrew and Joseph Dinkha celebrate with their mother Helen.

PHOTO BY HELEN DINKHA | USED WITH PERMISSION

the loss of a loved one, and somebody to be really present to them,” Cross said. “And be able to say, ‘Yeah, this one hurts,’ because we can’t really change that — it does hurt.

But what we can do is be present.”

Powell depended on this notion of leaning on and connecting with others to help her through her grief after her mother passed away at the age of 57. Instead of going through long-term therapy, she relied more on her friends, family and mainly herself to help cope with the loss.

“It honestly took me a long time to realize what happened,” Powell said. “But it made me a lot stronger. I feel a lot more mature. I know what life is going to throw at me now. And I realized who real friends are in my life too, who were there for me to support me.”

According to Cross, this phenomenon that Powell describes is the process that her clients often go through as well. There are three main stages of grief: the first one being accepting the loss and understanding that their loved one won’t be present anymore. During the second, there’s more processing of loss, where longing comes into play. The third involves memorializing, where those who have lost a loved one have a certain ritual or tradition for closure, which depends on the family.

Cross’ job is primarily to aid children through this grieving process, whether it be guiding them through a difficult time or helping people who find themselves unable to let go of their grief and move on to the next stage of healing.

However, Cross also helps children like Dinkha, who might not have necessarily lost a loved one, but have had a very sick family member. At the time of Dinkha’s mother’s breast cancer, he says that the experience wasn’t particularly difficult for him because he was in fifth grade and his parents chose to withhold the information about his mother’s illness until she recovered. In his opinion, not knowing about his mother’s illness for the majority of her treatment period mitigated the potential negative effects on his mental health.

“I wasn’t really concerned at the time [of the treatment],” Dinkha said. “My parents didn’t want me and my little brother to

worry about it, so no matter how much it hurt them, it would hurt them more if we were worried too. I feel like I probably would have needed a therapist if I’d known about it while she was recovering just because of all the worrying it would’ve put me through.”

Dinkha’s mother hid her illness by staying positive throughout her treatment and eventual recovery, while he focused on friends and video games without knowing about her cancer.

“I used to play video games with my friends,” Dinkha said. “My mom would come back from the hospital looking super tired and ill and I never took the hint.

Video games were a huge distraction from her illness though, and I guess it put less stress on my parents because I was way too distracted to ask.”

Despite the different end results of Dinkha and Powell’s situations, both took one main lesson away from their experiences: people shouldn’t take the ones they love for granted, whether that be a parent, a sibling or a friend. While Dinkha notes that his relationship with his mother has strengthened after almost losing her, Powell’s relationship with those who helped support her during her period of grieving also solidified.

“It does get easier over time,” Powell said. “Obviously, it’s still going to be something that impacts you everyday, probably for the rest of your life, but it does get easier and just learn to appreciate what you have before you lose it.” e

“IT HONESTLY TOOK ME A LONG TIME TO REALIZE WHAT HAPPENED. I KNOW WHAT LIFE IS GOING TO THROW AT ME NOW.”SENIOR SOPHIA POWELL NEWS | OCTOBER 2019

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COST OF CARE Exploring the financial aspect of healing

BY CLAIRE YANG

$75-350

$50-240

Without insurance, physical therapy costs from $75 to $350 per session.

The nationwide average cost per session is $150.

The cost for private counseling or therapy ranges from $50 to $240 for a one-hour session.

SOURCE | THUMBTACK.COM

SOURCE | DEPRESSION. INFORMEDCHOICES.CA

$150,000

$10,700

The average cost of cancer treatment, including chemotherapy and radiation, adds up to around $150,000.

The average hospital stay in the U.S. costs around $10,700.

SOURCE | AARP.ORG

SOURCE | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM

$403

The average monthly cost of health insurance in the United States in 2019 is $403.

SOURCE | VALUEPENGUIN.COM

$21

The average hourly cost of one home health aide is $21 per hour.

The monthly cost would amount to $3,360 a month and $40,320 a year.

SOURCE | CARINGVILLAGE.COM

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OPINION

childhood.

Picking at calluses from climbing on monkey bars. Flaunting hundreds of Silly Bandz along our arms. Hearing clicking noises as our glittery Heelys rolled along the cracks of the sidewalk. Our childhoods were filled with blissful bursts of euphoria and life changing bits and pieces that shape us into the people we are today. As children, we were passionate, wandering and lost. Some of our childhood was spent compromising for the future. Some of our childhood was spent enlivening and nurturing our interests. Some of our childhood was spent aimlessly trekking into the unknown, growing from trial and error through righting our wrongs.

Now that we’re venturing towards adulthood, childhood is but a faraway memory. Now that we’re consumed by heaps of schoolwork and responsibility, we’ve lost sight of our childhood whims — of our past selves. Childhood blurs into the mesh of vibrant colors of our life, and we hardly put it upon ourselves to ponder and reminiscence about the past.

It’s perfectly normal to get caught up in the current chaos of life; after all, our past memories are exactly that — they’re memories, and we don’t need to be distracted with them all the time. However, it’s important to reflect on them once in a while and return back to our roots.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION | SREYA KUMAR AND SARAH YOUNG

OPINION | OCTOBER 2019

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youthful melodies Holding onto my childhood passion

BY JASMINE LEE freshman, I put a pause on every single hat began as an ambitious attempt to activity I devoted time to in my childhood one-up an academically-outstanding — except for piano. classmate in kindergarten transformed I thought of many potential answers as I into my ultimate passion. The piano and I reflected on the reason for my persistence go way back; I remember how I raced to my with piano: the rush of excitement during Taiwanese teacher’s apartment on Tuesday competitions, the ability to convey afternoons for lessons, disciplined myself emotion through treble and bass clefs, to give up playdates for practice time and the opportunity to collaborate with other experienced how my fingers trembled when musicians. While those reasons did inspire I performed at my first recital. me to continue my musical career, in As children, we were all faced with the end, I could only settle on one main the question, “What do we want to be motivation: my teacher. when we grow up?” It’s not surprising to The first day hear answers like I met my current doctors, athletes piano teacher, SCAN FOR MORE and teachers. In I went home fact, according to COVERAGE bawling.

Her Forbes, some of expectations the most popular for her students childhood dream were beyond my 10-year-old imagination. careers in 2015 were teachers, firefighters She would sing along with her students and professional athletes. playing in class, make those who showed I dreamed of becoming a pianist when little improvement practice at her house asked the question. At that time, I believed after lessons and host rehearsals on the that there was nothing more satisfying than weekends to ensure that all her students the thunder of applause on stage and the were ready for competitions and recitals. feeling of accomplishment after completing I only paid for one hour lessons, yet she a performance. taught me for at least three hours every When I was five, my parents gave me the session simply because she believed that it opportunity to try out swimming, dancing, is impossible to teach students five pieces drawing, soccer and piano. By the time of music within the paid time limit.

I returned to America as a third grader, As a beginner, I practiced the piano for I stopped swimming and dancing. Two hours because she made it clear that she years later, I stopped playing soccer and would stop teaching those who lacked attending drawing classes. As a high school

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improvement and the ability to meet her expectations. Ultimately, this fear guided me to build a solid technical foundation in piano. Having her push me to become a better pianist brought me many unexpected opportunities, whether it was truly appreciating music, organizing chamber music, self-composing or teaching the instrument to others. And because of her guidance, there was not one second where I contemplated on quitting the activity.

Just a few days ago, I came across the video of my first piano recital. I laughed as I recognized the proud smile etched on my 7-year-old self, who, at that moment, felt like a professional pianist despite playing simple music pieces.

This moment of reminiscence made me realize how important our childhood passions are. If I had not been so sure in pursuing a piano career as a young child, I could not have had the opportunity to play in competitions, perform in recitals and teach students the way I do today. In fact, I wouldn’t have been able to bring myself to appreciate music and the arts as a busy MVHS student if it weren’t for the piano.

The passion accompanied me for more than 12 years, taking me from Taiwan to America, practices to performances, audience to artist and most importantly, childhood to adolescent. I grew up with piano and I cannot imagine myself loving another activity more than playing music. e

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION | ZARA IQBAL AND JASMINE LEE

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EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

WHAT MAKES US

How hardships from childhood decisions are necessary for self-growth

BY EMILY XIA AND ANNIE ZHANG hildhood — a time when we couldn’t reach the bathroom cupboard, when we wore size five light-up Skechers and started on the bumpy dirt road of life.

We wandered aimlessly as children on a meandering route, trekking up and down hills to maturity. In this time period of self discovery, we tried to find and ground ourselves and make sense of the unknown.

While traveling this path, we encountered life trials that tested our morals, assessed our capabilities and molded our personalities. As children, we were reprimanded when we accidentally smashed a pristine vase with a slip of our fingers. We were lectured at the dinner table that time we told a white lie under the radar. We were corrected by our parents and guardians when we voiced our malicious thoughts. Over and over again, we’ve encountered trials that shaped our maturity and helped us transition from childhood to adulthood. On the daily, we’re greeted with scenarios — social confrontation, conflicting morals and troubles. Over time, our shoes became caked with dirt and grime, and we had to switch them out for a new pair of size seven Nike sneakers.

At MVHS, we are muddled with the “what-ifs.” What if we spent more hours on the black top playing kickball rather than staying inside jotting page after page of Kumon homework? What if we learned to be a bit braver when we tried out for that team that seemed way too talented for us?

What if we told our younger selves that it’s okay to cry every so often into our pillows late at night? Where would be now? Less consumed in self doubt and deprecation?

Driven and passionate rather than weighed down by obligations and duties?

However, without the difficulty that we’ve had to endure as older

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individuals as a result of the “mistakes” we made as kids, we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to learn coping mechanisms and self-awareness before being thrown into the abyss of the “real world.” The pain, hardship and struggles we’ve been through set us up for growth and prepared us for the next stages of life we’re bound to encounter sooner or later. And by the time we become adults in the workforce, we will be ready for new challenges because we’ve braved similar ones already.

So yes, it is absolutely possible that our lives would be significantly different and possibly easier if we had fulfilled what we wish we could’ve done as children. Childhood is a very sensitive and transitional time, prone to influence from cultural and environmental factors — it creates the necessary foundation of our personal identities.

If, as children, we had followed through with what we are now unsatisfied with, our path would be completely different, and not necessarily in the way we would think.

We would never have had the chance to grow and become the complex people we are today — our childhood choices have gradually paved the way for self growth in the most counterintuitive ways. We’re given chances to remake and redefine ourselves as people through the obstructions on our trail of life.

With that in mind, it’s important to acknowledge that aside from the obvious morals and sense of identity that our childhoods have provided us, we have also been given more chances to grow due to the adversities caused by the decisions we made as children. And, as weird as it is to verbalize, that isn’t something that we should regret.

The path of life continues, and we’re ready to trek onwards. Our Nikes have been swapped out for dirty size nine high-top Converse that have braved grime, stones and rough pavement. We may have new shoes, but they’re just a sign that we grew out of our old, glittery Sketchers, ready to brace the bumpy road again. e

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OPINION | OCTOBER 2019

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PHOTO ILLUSTRATION | RACHEL JIANG AND ADITI DIXIT

post success Addressing the trade offs students make to gain accomplishment

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EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

TO PULL OR NOT TO PULL, THAT IS THE QUESTION. TO PULL OR NOT TO PULL. WOW HOW FUN I LOVE QUOTES SO MUCH.

ALT HOUGH WE T HINK WE ARE PREPARING FOR EVERY T HING WE ANT ICIPAT E, REALIZE T HAT WE ARE ACT UALLY T HE BIGGEST PROCRAST INAT ORS IN LIFE. ike a hamster living in a small cage, as an example. If volunteering isn’t the a typical MVHS student eats, studies, cherry on top of a resume, would we still be sleeps and repeats. We stay in this spending our Saturday mornings dragging cycle in hopes of fulfilling one thing: getting ourselves out of bed to an event? Being into our dream college. We have this half-hearted about how amazing helping goal because we believe in a simple math others feels might appeal to colleges, but it equation: You go to a good college = you does not hold value in the real world.

Success can’t exactly be obtained are set for life.

No one finds it odd when classmates if all we care about is academics and get less than a couple of hours of sleep extracurriculars as a means of embellishing but we’re rather surprised when they get our college applications. Sure, there are more than seven. Lifestyle choices like clubs on campus that allow for more social these are not out of the ordinary when we interactions and teamwork, but it is not are taking so many AP courses throughout unheard of for students to join clubs solely our high school career, in fact, it would for their resume. At the end of the day, if be more surprising for us not to take any. we only indifferently join these clubs, we Educational success is often the only thing will never truly gain necessary life skills.

Upon finishing our high school careers we want to achieve even at the expense of and finally getting into that dream school (or social, mental and physical health.

By being constantly fixated on the future, not, but heading to college nonetheless), we tend to be oblivious to the present, we are completely lost when we finally where not everything leads to one ultimate wake up to reality, where we cannot just goal. Instead, the reality of success in life eat, study and sleep; instead, we must is not correlated with getting into a good engage in social interactions, reading news and paying college. attention to Ac c o rd i n g our health. to Stephen Our goal Guise, the has been author of achieved. We Mini Habits, are at college, success OPINION OF THE EL ESTOQUE but what now? requires EDITORIAL BOARD We notice l a r g e that our peers amounts of social connections and networking. are more connected with society, seemingly At MVHS, our culture does not place an more ahead in life. We begin to realize that emphasis on socialization, resulting in our half-hearted motivation for success fewer face-to-face interactions. Having plays little role in actual success in life. little social life is also very closely linked to We find out too late that communication, collaboration and resilience are the true mental illness.

Improving your college applications may skills that determine our future. In essence, seem like the only way to a prosperous all the hard work we put into college didn’t future, but it is not beneficial to reject your really guarantee us a perfectly stable life.

It is physically draining to live in a passions and activities though they might not look as impressive. Take volunteering community completely different from

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STAFF EDITORIAL

high school and it’s so easy for us to forsake our bodies before getting to the harder milestones in life. The culture of procrastination has become so prominent in many of our lives that it’s easy to just deprioritize our health and other problems.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

Society is harder to please than college administrators, and people can identify true passion and potential when they see it. Skating by our high school years with only the motivation of slapping it on our resume can change the definition of education and what we are gaining from it.

This will eventually lead to greater difficulty when we join the workforce and have to develop skills we should have developed much earlier — that is, if we actually paid attention to them.

Trying to take more than eight AP classes just to get ahead for college may divert our focus from real relationships with others. Although we think we are preparing for everything we anticipate, realize that we are actually the biggest procrastinators in life. We brush off our health concerns and isolation until after we graduate since we think we can worry about these things later. However, when we procrastinate on these things, we end up missing the deadline. Once we face society, we don’t have the social skills or physical and mental health to work, or sometimes even get a job, leaving us hopeless for the future we have always wanted. e

OPINION | OCTOBER 2019

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reputations: childhood Exploring MVHS students’ childhood experiences

BY SREYA KUMAR

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27% 26% 20% 18% 5% 4% 1%

4O%

OF STUDENTS SAID DISNEY CHANNEL WAS THEIR FAVORITE *According to a survey of 356 MVHS students ILLUSTRATION | ZARA IQBAL

*According to a survey of 356 MVHS students

A FULFILLED CHILDHOOD

WHERE DID YOU GROW UP?

73% 89% OF STUDENTS BELIEVE THEY HAD A FULFILLING CHILDHOOD

OF STUDENTS GREW UP IN NORTH AMERICA

*According to a survey of 361 MVHS students ILLUSTRATION | SREYA KUMAR

*According to a survey of 361 MVHS students ILLUSTRATION | SARAH YOUNG

HOME

46%

of students were born, raised and are currently living in Cupertino *According to a survey of 364 MVHS students

MOST INFLUENTIAL FIGURE PARENTS FRIENDS SIBLINGS TEACHERS/MENTORS/COACHES EXTENDED RELATIVES CELEBRITIES/PUBLIC FIGURES PET(S)

16

*According to a survey of 363 MVHS students

EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

33% 24% 18% 12% 7% 4% 3%

VOL. TWO: HALLOWEEN Why I believe Halloween is detrimental to society

D

ear Halloween, I cannot stand you any longer and something needs to be done. For years, I struggled to resist the little bundles of aluminum wrapped diabetes waiting outside people’s doorsteps, but over the years, all of that has changed.

As my will became stronger and my mind sharper, I began to see you as the detrimental, commercialized piece of nonsense you really are. Let’s start with the only thing that the majority of your fans support you for: the candy.

According to the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention, 93.3 million adults struggle with obesity. This is not a problem that affects only a tiny sliver of the population, but instead threatens the health of nearly 40% of the country. Yet for some reason, you continue to dominate the headlines and store fronts throughout the month of October, forcing people to go out and buy bags on top of bags of life-span shortening candy. If they don’t, all they receive is s--for being that one family on the block who forgot to buy candy.

Yo u are the re a s o n k i d s grow up wolfing d o w n K i t Ka t s instead of baby carrots.

You are the reason why kids think all green-colored foods taste like dirt. Young m i n d s are one of the most

malleable things on Earth, and the way we remember the men and women who you choose to influence them through lost their lives fighting for their country. manipulative advertisements is despicable.

Now, let’s get into another issue with The narrative that vegetables are evil begins your disgusting traditions. Are you trying and ends with the cycle of lies you have fed to tell me that the only way kids are to the public since your inception. Even going to be rewarded is by dressing up as after all this, some people of the moron somebody else? Children seem to think origin have that they aren’t the nerve to good enough for utter you in the who they are, but same breath the only way to as holidays like fill the Hershey’s Martin Luther sized hole in their IM SICK OF King Jr. Day, hearts is for them THIS S--Thanksgiving to run around in and Christmas. blue tights and Let’s be real, KAMYAR MORADI foam muscles. you’re as much Little girls and of a holiday as the world is flat — it’s all one boys should not grow up thinking they are big myth. When I think of a holiday, I think not good enough to be rewarded on their of a day when people come together to own merit and must resort to tricks and celebrate someone or something important gimmicks just to be recognized. Society — something of value. With Christmas, deems it unacceptable for children to not there’s the birth of Jesus dress up, punishing these youngsters by and an overall sense not handing out the one thing that makes of family and you worthwhile — candy. togetherness.

Apart from money and calories, what are With New you good for? Nobody remembers a fallen Year’s, there’s soldier on Oct. 31 nor does anyone give a celebration thanks to anyone or anything other than of a new the bowl full of junk food sitting outside a b e g i n n i n g lazy neighbor’s patio. You are so irrelevant a n d as a holiday that the country doesn’t even committing consider giving anyone the day off to do to be some mind-numbing trick or treating. You better each provide nothing to the millions of hard year.

With working Americans, apart from money lost Memorial Day, to bags of candy and costumes. Even for a lousy high school student like myself, I’d rather have a Staff Learning Day than your sorry self. Don’t ever consider yourself a holiday ever again. This has to stop!

In the words of the great Joe Pesci, “I’m done with this guy.”

Worst Regards,

Kamyar Moradi ILLUS TRAT

ION |

KAMY A

R MO

RADI

OPINION | OCTOBER 2019

17

I DON’T DANCE Facing my fear of humiliation through Bhangra

E

very Sunday morning for three years, up energy, and in spite of the immense in a small building behind a townhome positivity around me, the only thing I could complex in Mountain View, I learned think to myself was that “There’s no way how to dance alongside 15 other girls. Our I’m going to be able to do that.” teacher, a middleThe captains aged woman with started to teach us a tight braid that the routine shortly trailed down her after, and my stress back and a severe was palpable. I stare would teach us mentally chastised BEING the ancient art form myself each time BRAVE of Kathak. From 9 I didn’t get a step a.m. to 12 p.m. in or accidentally the sweltering heat danced off beat. of the morning, ANUSHKA DE However, to my she worked our surprise and bodies, minds and souls — her only aim to despite my inner critic, I couldn’t help transform a group of ungainly 12-year-olds but enjoy myself. I found myself smiling into graceful, poised dancers. without having to be told to and dancing I hated it. with my full energy despite I hated the feeling of the 150 ghungroos, my fear of looking stupid. or bells, on each of my feet, weighing me Two weeks later, after down and making it almost impossible to several Facetime calls move. I hated how the only sounds were with my partner and even of feet slapping the hardwood floors, bells more spontaneous practice jingling loudly as we moved and music older sessions, I stood at the steps than my grandparents. The only thing that of the E Building, waiting for drowned out the sound of the bells was my my turn to tryout. The captains teacher’s voice, screaming at us to “Move called my name and as I walked up faster, spin better, smile.” the steps, the only thing I could think Needless to say, at the end of seventh to myself was: “I don’t dance. Why did I do grade, when it came time to choose this? I. Don’t. Dance.” between dance or soccer, my choice was I won’t lie and say that a no brainer. From those three years, the as soon as the music only thing I really learned aside from good started, the fear posture was that I don’t dance. evaporated and I But, this month, with the crippling put on the best promise I made to myself to be brave show of my life. looming over my head, I thought to myself, I wouldn’t “Why not try again?” even be So I decided to tryout for Bhangra able to one day in Spanish after spontaneously tell you listening to announcements advertising if I messed various foods for clubs. The first workshop up — I was so was announced for that upcoming Friday stressed that the along with the promise of free samosas, only thing I could and I made the decision to attend at least think to do was smile. But, as I walked one workshop. down those steps a measly two minutes That Friday after school, with the later, the thought of knowing that I’d done crippling weight of my fear of humiliation something that pushed me so far out of my sitting in my stomach, I made my way over comfort zone was downright empowering. to tryouts. Forty people crowded around The next day, I checked my phone the student union under the afternoon heat right after my soccer game and I saw a as the captains promptly began a quick notification from MV Bhangra that said performance of the expected routine. “Congrats!” in the subject line. And my Within seconds, I knew I’d made a mistake. first, genuine reaction was to scream really I watched them smile and radiate hyped- loudly right there in the middle of the

soccer field.

But no matter what the outcome, I would have been extremely proud of myself. I faced my fear of humiliation and I tried to do something that I’ve been telling myself that I couldn’t do since I was 12. I got really close to my partner, I made new friends and I learned that I can have fun while doing something that terrifies me.

Nonetheless, ecstatic doesn’t even begin to describe my feelings for making the team.

And I haven’t stopped dancing in the mirror since. I guess I do dance. e

ILLUSTRATION | ANUSHKA DE

FEATURES | OCTOBER 2019

19

INNER BATTLES Exploring the impact individuals can make in the lives of students facing internal struggles

BY HANNAH LEE AND BRIAN XU

H

e sat on the cool concrete ground uplifted Guo and opened him up to and opened his lunch. He admired becoming more friendly and interactive, the heaps of pork and rice neatly according to Chang. packed into the colorful plastic containers The impact that one person can have — a sign of his mother’s love and dedication. on another, as Chang describes, is further His mother woke up at 6:00 a.m. each explored by Psychotherapist and Marriage morning to cook his lunch, and Family Therapist and she always reminded Kaltana Asok. Asok TEENAGERS, AS him to finish all his food. explains that one person THEY DEVELOP So Xiao Guo took his can have a sizable THEIR IDENTITY, mother’s words to heart impact on another and made sure to eat every person if they come at a WILL LOOK bit of his lunch, not even significant time in one’s AROUND FOR wasting a single grain of life. She adds that this OTHERS WHO rice. When other students is especially pertinent THEY MIGHT VIEW saw the scrumptious meals to teenagers who may he brought to school, they not have a role model in AS HEROIC IN began to approach him and their immediate family.

THEIR LIVES. take bits of his meals. They “Teenagers, as they slowly made it a habit to develop their identity, MARRIAGE AND grab some of Guo’s food will look around for FAMILY THERAPIST each day, amused by his others who they might KALTANA ASOK defensive reactions. It was view as heroic in their not until another student lives, or even as being decided to stop Guo’s classmates from different and exciting,” Asok said. “This teasing him and sit down to eat lunch with is often not a conscious process. So when Guo that this behavior finally came to an an adult looks back at their lives and says, end.

‘Oh, you know when I was a teenager, I had “This girl, Michelle, stepped in to join a very hard time with my mom, but there Guo for lunch and things have changed was this aunt who was cool and exciting ever since,” Chinese teacher I-Chu Chang and was doing really interesting things in said. “He was willing to share his food her life. She gave with others, which he never wanted to in the past, and he even helped another transferring student to have company on campus. I think it’s just all because of this Michelle. She cared and she stepped out and made a difference, and I think everyone can be a Michelle.”

Chang got to know Guo very well, as he often came to her room outside of class time. She notes that Guo was socially awkward and did not have many friends as a result. In the midst of his loneliness and social isolation, Michelle became a key figure who

20

EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

me an opportunity to think about things differently.’”

Asok explains one particular experience in which she personally helped a young woman who felt cultural pressure from her parents to pursue a STEM major. Although the young woman was not interested in these subjects, her parents thought that following the STEM path was the most ideal way to ensure a “certain level of material comfort in the world.”

“Her parents thought, ‘I just don’t want my child to experience the hardships, which is why we’re trying to make her do X, Y and Z,’” Asok said. “I helped the family accept and identify and helped the parents be less flooded by their emotional experiences or fear in a new country. It also helped the teenager to say to her mom and dad, ‘Hey, I am not you. I am not afraid and I don’t need your lifestyle. I can live a different kind of lifestyle and still be happy and productive.’”

As a child, junior Prerana Bathula faced a different type of internal struggle.

She was diagnosed with alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease which results in hair loss. To adjust to her condition, Bathula began wearing wigs in fourth grade, switching between several before consistently wearing one in sixth grade.

“I knew that everything was a bigger deal and people would actually pay attention and care starting from middle school,” Bathula said. “I think it was better because I wore wigs and

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION | BRIAN XU // EL ESTOQUE

not as many people could tell, but the that you want something that is different people that did know and didn’t like me, from what your family wants for you’ — I think I heard that they spread rumors, even a small recognition of the fact goes a which didn’t feel good.” long way,” Asok said. “Because the student Along with dealing with her peers’ will carry with them … the memory of the perception of her, teacher who was able to Bathula was also say, ‘I saw you. I recognize YOU’LL LEARN physically restricted by your struggle.’”

THAT THERE IS her condition. Due to Chang agrees with ANOTHER LEVEL her use of wigs, she was Asok, adding that it is these unable to pursue sports small, but meaningful OF HAPPINESS like basketball or soccer, actions that create a better WHEN YOU ARE which she had wanted atmosphere at school. She ABLE TO HELP AND encourages students to to explore as a child.

In P.E. class, Bathula break out of their comfort YOU FEEL REALLY needed to constantly hold zone and reach out to CONTENT INSIDE. her bangs down when people who are alone.

CHINESE TEACHER running. As she became “Just observe a little more apprehensive about more,” Chang said. “I think I-CHU CHANG participating in sports, for students, very often one of her teachers helped motivate her to we are focusing on our stuff and only care push her limits. about friends. We are very comfortable “I think if my teachers did know, they’d being in a circle with the same group of be really nice about it, and they would try to help me, especially [in] freshman year [with] Ms. [Julie] Sullivan,” Bathula said. “I ended up telling her in the first week of school, and then she was really nice about it.

I kind of wanted to skip the swimming unit, but she was like, ‘It’ll be fine.’ And then I just did it.

And I did really well.”

At school, A s o k expands on the fact that teachers c a n become significant figures for students simply by e x p re s s i n g an interest in the students’ p e r s o n a l concerns.

By reaching out to students who appear to be struggling, teachers leave a lasting impact on students’ lives.

“I think, [for] a teacher, just by asking, ‘What kind of pressure are you feeling? I see your struggle. I see

friends and don’t want others to join, to break the harmony or something. They feel like ‘We’re cool together.’ However, I feel like when we resist or when we don’t open up we might lose the opportunity to get to meet another cool person, you never know, and then we just leave someone out there struggling. Just be more accepting and open to others.”

While Asok believes it is important to approach others who appear to be having a hard time, she recognizes the difficulties in getting the person to open up about their struggles. Rather than alienating a person for their personal struggles, Asok explains that it is important to show an openness towards talking about potentially sensitive subject matters.

“It might be good to compare the situation with a broken leg,” Asok said. “A broken leg is very obvious, and people will be helping the student carry her books, or his books. They would say, ‘How’s your foot?’ They might sign encouraging words on her cast or his cast. It becomes something that’s okay to talk about.”

Chang explains that taking these steps creates an inclusive community and can reward both the helper and the person being helped.

In fact, her own experiences helping students inspired her to be who she is today.

“You’ll learn that there is another level of happiness when you are able to help and you feel really content inside,” Chang said.

“This is what made me want to be a teacher.

That happened 17 years ago, the Xiao Guo story.

Now, 17 years later, I still believe the same thing. To help other people, to help each other.” e

PHOTO BY PEXELS | USED WITH PERMISSION

FEATURES | OCTOBER 2019

21

TOO CLOSE TO HOME The impacts of the Iranian Revolution on students and staff

BY ISHAANI DAYAL AND IMAN MALIK

H

is father has been nervous before, but his father and younger brother. They were this is unusual — he looks terrified. the last people from his family to flee the His father hands him the papers and Iranian Revolution, a political uprising that tells him to tuck them into his jacket. Those took place in 1979. documents will give his family a new life in Before the revolution, the Shah, Reza the U.S. — a life free of the oppression that Pahlavi, led Iran with the help of the U.S. has become a regular presence in Iran in and the U.K. both of whom had an interest the last 12 years. in the country’s oil. But as the economic His father told him stories that had state of the country deteriorated and the given him hope for the future. He said people began to feel more restricted by that in America, the streets were so clean the Shah’s rule, they took to the streets you could lick them. In to protest until the Shah America, he might finally abdicated his throne.

I LOOK AT PEOPLE Soon after, Ayatollah be able to get a dog.

But now, he points to a Khomeini, a former WHO ARE MY mountain and tells him to revolutionary speaker AGE IN IRAN AND take his little brother and against the Shah, took THEY HAVE SUCH hide behind it. over as the country’s DIFFERENT LIVES He is scared, but he political leader.

THAN ME. HERE, tries not to show it — According to Hajjarian, instead, he tells his brother THE FREEDOM TO the people of Iran initially stories until the sky turns believed Khomeini would DO WHAT I WANT dark. Finally, he sees a change the country for IS INCREDIBLE. silhouette coming towards the better — because of BIOLOGY TEACHER him. His father arrives and European imperialism, POOYA HAJJARIAN tells them it is safe to cross.

Iran became Westernized The time spent behind that and was in need of a mountain felt like forever, ruler capable of bringing but his father knew all it would take was cultural and religious stability. However, the one person to destroy those papers, and outcome was far from their expectations with them, dreams of a better life. and Hajjarian believes Khomeini left a In 1992, when he was 12 years old, lasting negative impact on Iranians.

Biology teacher Pooya Hajjarian crossed “They didn’t realize that [Khomeini] was the border between Iran and Turkey with not going to bring back stability, but he

ILLUSTRATION | IMAN MALIK

22

EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

was going to bring oppression,” Hajjarian said. “I think my parents’ generation feels responsible for what happened because it was a revolution of the people. So I think my dad always had a sense of guilt about what he had done because he played a role in the revolution.”

Hajjarian’s parents saw signs of the revolution early and began applying for Visas for their children. Even though Hajjarian was born after the revolution began, it still took him several years to leave the country.

“When my dad was on his deathbed, and he was passing away, one of the last things I told him was I thanked him for bringing us [to the U.S.] because it changed my life,” Hajjarian said.“I look at people who are my age in Iran and they have such different lives than me. Here, the freedom that I have to do what I want is incredible. And it makes me happy that I’m here, [but] it makes me sad for the people who are there who don’t have a lot of what I have.”

Junior Roya Ahmadi’s parents experienced the Iranian Revolution first hand as well — both lived in Tehran, the capital of Iran and a central part of the uprising. Ahmadi’s mother’s family had political affiliations to both sides of the revolution. While many family members had high positions in the Shah’s military, others took to the streets to protest.

Ahmadi remembers stories about how believes reading “Persepolis” in class was her mother and her aunt, who were both an important experience; it provided him teenagers at the time, would sneak out to with insight on past political conflicts join the protestors against their parents’ and stressed to him the importance of wishes. It wasn’t uncommon for the younger not repeating the mistakes of history. generation to be more vocal about change Additionally, Gangaram believes the in Iran, while Ahmadi’s grandparents and novel was successful in disproving any older relatives were more reserved about stereotypes of Iranian culture, such as their their opinions in the time of conflict. perceived religious values.

“I feel like those people are Ahmadi claims her parents’ exposure to that time period impacted their lives, and misunderstood or mistaken for something she believes they carry their experiences else, even though they’re just normal people,” Gangaram said. “There are a with them even today. “[The Iranian Revolution] just instilled lot of stereotypes, unfortunately, which a revolutionary spirit in them,” Ahmadi are negatively associated with them. [The book] really proved said. “And I think that a lot of people are that translates to THE IRANIAN adhering to their cultural a combination of REVOLUTION and religious values wanting independence JUST INSTILLED A and it’s unfortunate and striving for it, for a lot of people to whether it’s a better REVOLUTIONARY just mistake them for government or in terms SPIRIT IN THEM. whatever fundamentalist of their personal [lives], AND I THINK THAT or religious ideals they wanting to pursue an have. I feel a lot more education and taking it TRANSLATES TO open minded and less to a pretty extreme level A COMBINATION judgmental as I was and moving across the OF WANTING before [reading] the world to do that.” book.”

Every year, MVHS INDEPENDENCE Hajjarian also sophomores learn AND STRIVING FOR recognizes the negative about the Iranian IT. assumptions made about Revolution in both their JUNIOR ROYA AHMADI Iranians after the Iranian history and English Revolution. He believes classes. Students read that because the public the graphic novel “Persepolis,” an autobiography by Marjane had the wrong idea about the revolution, Satrapi detailing her coming of age in a Iranians have often been mislabeled time of political instability. This book and as terrorists, despite no Iranian having its portrayal of the revolution especially ever been involved in a terrorist attack.

Additionally, Hajjarian believes these intrigued junior Suraj Gangaram.

Before reading “Persepolis,” Gangaram incorrect judgements have also led the U.S. had little to no knowledge about the to list Iran as a dangerous country without Iranian Revolution. Because of this, he any real justification.

Hajjarian was subject to some of these stereotypes himself when he immigrated to the U.S. and attended MVHS. He appreciates students learning about the revolution and understands the importance of reading books like “Persepolis,” especially since none of his peers were aware of his situation in high school.

“I think it’s about perspective,” Hajjarian said. “I get to see life from a different lens, [which] I think [is] really important, especially from the lens of a country, a culture. I think it’s just mind opening in a sense. The world is so different — it’s like we’re a flight away from completely flipping our lives upside down. So I like that [students] do that, it doesn’t have to be about Iran, but selfishly, I’m glad that it is because [if] you look at the Persian Empire, there’s so much pride.”

Ahmadi believes that her life as a second generation Iranian is influenced by her parents’ experiences with the Revolution.

Their experiences with a large political conflict have made her more grateful for the opportunities she has in America.

“I always consider my parents’ involvement in this revolution as this really historic thing,” Ahmadi said. “I’m proud of it. Especially more recently, as I’ve become more politically active myself and have been interested in learning more about my own history, the history of my family, their involvement with politics and their history with the revolution. I think just learning about all of that has really made me thankful for the opportunities that I have here and how I can focus on school without having to think about the government changing.” e

FEATURES | OCTOBER 2019

23

THE DAMAGE DONE

Students and staff share their personal experiences being disciplined as a child

BY MICHELLE CHEN AND JACQUELEINE LIU

W

hen she lived in China, Chinese teacher Zoey Liu was recruited by her local swim team as a first grader because she was much taller than kids her age. She trained for countless hours during her youth in hopes of making it to the national swim team. The training was brutal and her swim coach would not tolerate any excuse for rest.

“Whenever I felt scared, trying to take a break, I’d put my hand on the edge of the swimming pool,” Liu said. “And our coach

[would] use slippers to smash our hand, so we [couldn’t] take a break.”

Her father would observe her performance and would become embarrassed at her perceived lack of perseverance. One day when practice was finished, he told Liu that he wouldn’t take her home.

“He didn’t hit me that day; it was in the public,” Liu said. “But I think that counts as emotional abuse. He’d be like ‘No, I don’t want to take you home because you’re doing so bad. I’m so embarrassed by you.’”

Although circumstances like this weren’t frequent, they had a powerful impact on Liu’s emotional state. Over time, she actually began to develop a fear of deep water, constantly thinking about the sharks and alligators that could be lurking beneath her. At the time, however, Liu viewed this as normal because those around her faced the same punishments that she did.

“When I was a kid, I didn’t feel like I was being abused through this treatment because everybody was the same,” Liu said. “And I knew I was not the worst in the class. There were boys who [were] naughty

ILLUSTRATION | MICHELLE CHEN AND JACQUELEINE LIU

24

EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

and they definitely got more beatings than I did. So I thought, it’s all the same.”

In Liu’s childhood, every kid was treated similarly for misbehaving. However, junior Jatin Soni, who moved from India after fifth grade, believes that when correcting a child, one must heavily consider their personality as well as their age.

“Depending on a child, some people get disciplined really easily if you explain to them,” Soni said. “But if you try to take it too far, like hit them or be super down on them, it can really set them back and hurt them a lot. But with other people, they need a little bit harsher treatment in order for them to realize that something is bad or incorrect. So depending on that and also if they’re young [and make] a small mistake, it’s no big deal. But if they’re older and they’re stealing or plagiarizing or something bad like that, then there seems to be a harder discipline at that point.”

Soni, too, has had personal experience with physical discipline. When he was younger, Soni inadvertently broke his father’s laptop screen while trying to gain his father’s attention.

“In the moment in front of other different cultures, all of which are effective people, he just got a little mad and hit in varying ways. me,” Soni said. “It was light, it wasn’t bad.

“We have different worldviews and Afterwards, a day or two later, he came values,” Pasut said. “And I want to be clear, back and apologized to me. So I was super you know, I don’t think that one is better afraid because of that. And I felt really than the other. And I want to be very bad about it. But then he came back and careful to say that it’s really about does explained why [he] shouldn’t be doing that the child feel safe and [do they] trust and [and] it was all good.” respect authority figures — that matters In the eyes of Soni, disciplining without to me. And that can be achieved in a few explanation is not only ineffective but it different ways.” can also damage a When it comes IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT relationship. In that to Liu, instances of YOU DO. THERE ARE vein, therapist Larissa her father losing his Pasut reflects that temper have forever MANY DIFFERENT WAYS parenting in and of been imprinted in her OF PARENTING, WHAT itself is difficult, as memories. Recently, MATTERS IS THAT WHAT parents must cope she has learned more YOU’RE LEVERAGING IS with dealing with their about the permanent LOVE AND TRUST. own issues alongside effect of parents making sure that their THERAPIST LARISSA PASUT losing their temper children are well. She with their children. warns parents of the dangers of not being Despite this, she notes that striving for able to remain calm in the face of their perfection in parenting is difficult. kids, and the detrimental impact it brings.

“That research I read is, you can never “The thing is, kids take their cues from make up for that moment because in that their parents … when a parent is degrading moment the damage is done, but not the message that ‘you’re not good enough, saying that you have to be perfect, perfect you’re not good enough as you are,’” Pasut parenting, and no yelling,” Liu said. “I said. “‘You’re not worthwhile,’ and so it’s think, in the end, if you love the kids, the really damaging.” kids would know and they will forgive you.”

Although Pasut grew up in America Liu’s father was a scary figure for much and was therefore exposed to a different of Liu’s childhood, but as Liu grew up she culture from those in India or China, she began to realize that her father’s efforts understands and accepts that there are were ultimately for her own benefit. Even many different forms of discipline among though there were times when their father-

daughter relationship seemed rough, it came from a place of genuine care and love, according to Liu. In Pasut’s eyes, that is the most essential element when raising a child.

“It doesn’t matter what you do,” Pasut said. “There are many different ways of parenting, what matters is that what you’re leveraging is love and trust. And if you have love and trust, you have respect.” e

61%

of students have been hit by their parents before *Out of a survey of 351 MVHS students

35%

of students believe disciplining a child by hitting them is justified *Out of a survey of 355 MVHS students

FEATURES | OCTOBER 2019

25

A&E

GOTTA CATCH ‘EM ALL I reflect on my long-lasting love for the Pokémon franchise

BY ZARA IQBAL

W

years since I’ve played my first Pokémon game. And on Sept.

15, Ash won a Pokémon League for the first time after I spent the entirety of my childhood watching him lose. It’s hard to describe how I felt when I heard about these two things, but I was overwhelmed with a mixture of pride, nostalgia and disbelief.

It really doesn’t feel like 10 years, as I can vividly remember struggling to catch legendary Pokémon Ho-Oh when I was seven and Googling whether or not having crushes on fictional characters was normal.

And I wasn’t the only one freaking out — people who have even deeper connections to Pokémon and people who simply watched the show as kids bonded over Ash’s feat on social media.

I can’t name the 800+ Pokémon off the top of my head, I don’t invest time in competitive battling anymore and I definitely am not still in love with Ash Ketchum, but Pokémon has been with me throughout most of my life as a means of escape. The Pokémon world is exciting — it brings people together and provides challenges. Because it’s always growing and changing, I can always look forward and anticipate what’s next. It’s something that was introduced to me in my childhood, but I can’t see myself devoid of it even when I’m an adult simply because I can’t name many things that make me happier. e

TRAT ION | ZARA IQBA L

with the franchise raises many eyebrows — and found myself yearning to play the Nintendo games again.

I sported Pokémon-related graphic tees in middle school and drew Pokémon on the backs of notebooks. I watched an unhealthy amount of “Let’s Play” videos after discovering the Pokémon gaming community on YouTube and got into competitive online battling. I got a new 3DS and whenever another game came out, I would tag along with my mom on trips to Target, so I could stop by the (now nonexistent) GameStop next door to buy the most recent release with whatever money I had scraped together.

What I thought would just be a hyperfixation or a phase turned into something bigger. Thankfully, I quickly ditched the Pokémon-related fashion and stopped watching the show, but I realized I was actually passionate about Pokémon.

This was kind of a big deal for me because my largely apathetic personality doesn’t make a lot of room for honing passions.

It makes me genuinely happy, and I don’t have many things I could fall back on to give me the same excitement that playing Pokémon does.

Which is why in middle school, I connected with a group of online friends on Instagram for the sole purpose of battling competitively together online on Pokémon Showdown. And why I jailbroke my 3DS a couple of months ago so I could play as many Pokémon games as I can for free (if someone at Nintendo is reading this right now, please don’t sue me, because suing me after reading about my love for Pokémon is just mean). When PopSockets first came out, I thought the invention was pointless — I immediately changed my mind when I first saw a Pokéball PopSocket on Amazon and bought it on impulse.

Sept. 12 was the 10 year anniversary of the release of Pokémon HeartGold, which means it’s been 10

ILLUS

hen I was 10 years old, I had a crush on Ash Ketchum from Pokémon. … Alright, that was just to soften the blow so when you read the rest of this, you’ll think, “okay, understandable,” because what can get worse than having a crush on someone who took two whole decades to win the Pokémon League, right?

I wish I could have a rational explanation for why Pokémon has been a part of most of my life. But I really don’t. I’m just borderline obsessed and it’s embarrassing that I’m exposing myself like this, but here we are.

From what I remember, the first encounter I had with Pokémon was watching the show after I came home from elementary school, and playing with the cards that my brother and I collected.

In 2009, my parents bought us Nintendo DSis and I played my first ever Pokémon game, Pokémon HeartGold. I was hooked instantly. Being able to catch my own Pokémon, battle and explore different regions just like how I saw it on TV blew my mind.

But then, a couple of years later, I underwent a momentous tragedy: I lost my DSi alongside all of my games (please … don’t ask). If you’re a Pokémon fanatic like me, you’re probably internally screaming right now, and I get it. For those of you who don’t know, Pokémon HeartGold is arguably the best game of the series (your Pokémon can walk alongside your character on screen, for goodness sake), and over the years, the existing cartridges have become rarer and thus more expensive. Pokémon games usually cost around $40 when they first come out — after a quick Amazon search, HeartGold is being sold for over $300 right now because, clearly, I’m not the only one who garnered a strong emotional attachment to the game.

After that, I was too traumatized to bring myself to associate myself with Pokémon … but thinking I could last long without it was almost laughable. On a whim, I binged the show (“Oh my god, this is so bad,” I thought as I clicked “next” to the 700th episode) — yes, probably embarrassing for a kid about to enter middle school, but I had long accepted that in general, being obsessed

A & E | OCTOBER 2019

27

THUMBPAINT

Senior Brett Park creates comics to inspire thousands of Instagram followers

BY AYAH ALI-AHMAD

A

fingerprint is something unique “As the account grew, I realized that it to each individual — not one is might have been more powerful if I shared identical to the next. myself in it a bit more and shared my story Thumbpaint is an Instagram comic through Thumb, [and tried talking] about account that senior Brett Park started racial inequality and body positivity,” Park in November of 2017. Since his first said. “I wanted something that’s always post, which features the account’s main familiar to everyone, especially because character, Thumb, Thumbpaint has Thumb was supposed to be something gained over 175,000 followers as well as that everyone can relate to … With finger sponsorships from large painting, I feel like companies like Pentel. we’ve all done that I’VE GROWN MORE To get there, Park has when we were kids, CONFIDENCE IN published weekly comics, and so I thought THE MESSAGE OF has created merchandise there was some and has become a part underlying beauty THUMB, RATHER of a large community in doing things really THAN HOW MANY including his followers and simple and making LIKES HE GETS OR THE [the art style] like I other comic artists on Instagram.

SUPERFICIAL NATURE would as a kid.”

Park started with Art teacher OF INSTAGRAM. acrylic paint and an index Brian Chow, who card. In almost every has taught Park’s SENIOR BRETT PARK post, Thumb is featured Art 1 and 3 classes, in either a humorous and recognizes that relatable situation or is paired with a more branding through the use of thumbprints is serious message. a way to recognize Thumbpaint.

Park didn’t intend for Thumb to be a Chow explains that, although not representation of himself or his beliefs, necessary, the best way to grow on and started with nothing particular in mind social media is by staying relevant and about the kind of content he wanted to recognizable, which he says Park does make. But as the account grew and began well through the repetition of the familiar to reach a larger audience, Park shifted his thumbprints. Chow sees this similar to how content in hopes of using his platform to Nike and Adidas have made themselves spread messages of positivity. This, in turn, recognizable by many through merely shaped the simplicity of the brand and its a symbol. continuation of solely featuring the same “It’s very smart that he has a very specific thumbprint scan. curation of his brand — there’s no deviation

28

from it, it’s super consistent,” Chow said.

“Part of building a brand is consistency and to be known. Now, when you see these little thumbprints, you’ll know it’s his work.”

Running the account for the past two years and uploading weekly in the hopes of pleasing his followers has brought

ILLUSTRATIONS BY BRETT PARK | USED WITH PERMISSION

EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

Park to what he calls “creator’s block.”

One way he has countered this is with his recent introduction of four new fingerprint characters. This idea came from one of his late-night 2 a.m. spontaneous thoughts and his Notes app.

After brainstorming a list of ideas on the app, Park selects the ones that he thinks his followers will like. Part of how he determines this is by looking at the number of likes on specific posts, as well as when his followers increase around a certain period of time.

“I kind of used the analogy where I’m the driver of the car, but I don’t have control over the direction,” Park said. “[My] posts help some kid out there in the world just to laugh a bit, but then maybe my more serious posts help another person realize something about themselves. It’s kind of just finding a balance between being the driver of my own car, but then also navigating the path that they kind of choose for me.”

The partial control that Thumbpaint’s followers have on its content is an example of the superficial nature of Instagram according to Park. In order to hit his goal of 50,00 followers, he published triweekly comics, but later realized that he didn’t gain anything beneficial by focusing on the numbers. Now that he is more self-aware of the impact this mentality has had on him, he tries to not focus on numbers as much anymore.

“I want to be that person that’s like ‘I don’t care about followers,’ but it really kind of messed with me a bit, and it still kind of does,” Park said. “When I post something, I’m always afraid to fail — if it doesn’t get enough likes or followers increase — because everyone can see your likes to followers ratio. It’s just something I always would obsess over, but I’ve grown more confidence in the message of Thumb, rather than how many likes he gets or the superficial nature of Instagram. I kind of just started posting what I wanted to post.”

Junior Jackie Chang has been following Thumbpaint since its debut in 2017, and before meeting Park or knowing he ran the account, she says it was one of the few comic accounts she followed on Instagram.

As she scrolled through Instagram’s Explore page, Thumb stood out to her in the sea of other posts because she was impressed by the use of a physical trait made into a character.

“I think it’s really concise, and it’s really wholesome,” Chang said. “It’s really unique because his thing is a thumb, and I’ve never seen anything [like] that … I

remember a year [after I first followed Thumbpaint], it was 10th grade, and [Park] posted a face reveal because he passed an amount of followers or something. I was internally shook.”

In the beginning, however, Park never intended to mix his online presence and his personal life. To accomplish this, he did not let his friends follow the account or tell his parents about it — Chang happened to be an exception having found the account on her own. As he has increased his following, additional people from his life have found the account, but Park says he’s OK with that now.

“I didn’t want my friends to know, I didn’t want it to become something else and have their influence in my comic, I just wanted kind of my own venting area,” Park said. “I just wanted it to be mine. But then, I thought if my message and this whole thing was to spread to multiple people, why am I just shutting these people in my real life out for the account? So, I told my parents after I had 30K [followers], because that’s when I felt like it was enough to be validated in their eyes, and then I was like now there’s no real consequences for letting my friends follow it.”

Park has created new friendships online through Thumbpaint by being in a Discord server, an online chatting service, with over 300 artists from Instagram and eventually getting to talk to one of his biggest inspirations for the account, Ketnipz, a bean character with over 1.3 million followers.

As his life has become busier with college applications, Park has had to put larger projects for Thumbpaint on pause in order to focus on his school life. He says he is grateful for what he has experienced while running the account, making hundreds of relatable content and being able to talk to his followers and other creators. Through Thumbpaint, Park explains that he has found a platform to use his voice.

“I hope it does grow into something bigger than what it is now,” Park said. “I’m a first-semester senior. I really can’t do this right now because I barely have time to do one post a week, which I’m struggling with ... I think I am at a wall creatively with Thumbpaint. But I definitely hope it grows into a bigger brand.” e

@ Thumbpaint THUMB -Constantly tired

INDEX FINGER -Super smart -Book Worm -Quiet

MIDDLE FINGER -Angsty -Has earbuds in constantly -Gets mad easily

RING FINGER -Super rich -Drives a Tesla -Has AirPods

PINKY -Wears hype-beast clothes -Takes selfies constantly -Thinks they are an Instagram baddie

A & E | OCTOBER 2019

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30

EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

REWIND

How older trends are making a comeback

BY CHARLOTTE CHUI AND ELENA KHAN

S

ince their invention in the ‘40s, vinyl records have steadily increased in popularity, reaching their peak in the ‘60s. Their demand began to decline in the early ‘90s, replaced by cassette tapes and CDs, then mp3s and mp4s. In the late 2010s, however, vinyl records have seen a resurgence in popular culture.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA’s) 2018 report, CDs sales decreased three times as fast as vinyl sales were growing. If trends continue, vinyl is predicted to surpass CD in 2019 for the first time since 1986.

For senior Jiani Tian, who bought a Popsky record player from EBay three years ago, her interest in vinyl records was rooted in her “fondness” for old music.

“I’ve been listening to Frank Sinatra, Paul Anka and Al Green for years now, and it’s really hard finding actual versions of it on iTunes or the [un]edited version,” Tian said. “I was just trying to find their original studio recorded versions, and they only came in vinyl, so that’s how I got into it.”

English teacher Sara Borelli bought a record player because she had old vinyl from when she was growing up. She keeps a record player in her classroom, often listening to opera music. Borelli believes the music sounds better on vinyl and can’t be replicated by computers.

Tian holds a similar belief and thinks that vinyl changes the feeling of the music.

While she typically listens to music on her phone while in her car or during work time, Tian says that her record player is almost always on when she’s at home — before going to bed, while doing homework.

“The record just gives it a different vibe,” Tian said. “It has that — I wouldn’t say scratchy — but more of that static, and I think it serves more as like white noise in the background.”

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For Tian, the distinct sound and format her friends did. To her, the spontaneity of a influence how she uses her record player Polaroid is an attractive feature. compared to modern methods of music “When you’re taking the photo and it listening. Junior Alexandra Sze notes a prints out through the Polaroid, it kind of similar observation about how her family feels more in the moment rather than just uses their record player. They keep a box of taking a picture on your phone and printing their favorite vinyls in the living room, often it out later,” Thompson said. listening to them while cooking or cleaning.

Sze also enjoys the convenience of Tian noticed this recent rise in record Polaroids. Since she decorates her room players, attributing it to cultural trends. with pictures, she found it easier to directly Though Tian’s first vinyl print photos, rather than purchase — Frank Sinatra’s and printing THERE’S THIS NEW uploading album “Songs for Swingin’ from her MacBook. For OBSESSION WITH Lovers!” — was rooted in both Sze and Thompson, her love for old music, Tian Polaroid film’s “retro” VINTAGE FASHION has started buying vinyl aesthetic also drew them AND THE WHOLE from modern artists like to the cameras.

AESTHETIC OF her favorite rappers.

As a frequent Urban Tian believes Outfitters customer, HAVING OLD ‘90S modern artists starting sophomore David AND ‘80S STUFF. to release albums on Budziwojski has noticed SENIOR JIANI TIAN vinyl has increased cyclical trends in culture. vinyls’ popularity. Sze, Though Budziwojski for example, collects vinyls from pop chooses Urban over other clothing artist Troye Sivan. In addition to cultural stores because they always have “the influences, Tian thinks retailers like Urban current trends,” he believes these trends Outfitters contribute to recent trends. incorporate elements of the past.

Founded in 1970, lifestyle retailer Urban “I’ve always known they reuse ideas,” Outfitters targets offers “a collection of Budziwojski said. “Like you can see [fashion handpicked vintage clothing,” according to designer] Virgil [Abloh] — even he said he its website. Urban also offers vinyls, record just uses old ideas and he makes it better.” players, cassettes and Polaroids.

Borelli also believes “everything comes “There’s this new obsession with vintage full circle,” including trends like vinyl, fashion and the whole aesthetic of just recalling that she recently saw someone having old ‘90s and ‘80s stuff,” Tian said. with a Walkman. Even so, Borelli feels that “Urban Outfitters is a huge distributor the echo of past trends can never truly of this kind of old fashion and trends, so replicate the original trend.

I think when they put out record players, “I don’t think you get the full effect of that became a really cool thing. You see all when we had it, when we would record these influencers starting to have record music off the radio and make mixtapes players and records.” for our friends and exchange that,” Borelli Similar to Tian’s observation about said. “It’s great that it’s coming back, but I influencer trends, sophomore Maya don’t think it can be the full effect of when Thompson bought a Polaroid after many of [a whole generation] had it.” e

of 360 students surveyed

own a record player + vinyls

64

of 362 students surveyed

own a Polaroid camera

ILLUSTRATIONS | CHARLOTTE CHUI

A & E | OCTOBER 2019

31

BEING PRISCILLA. T

Delving into junior Priscilla Tom’s dance career

he start of the school year also marks the beginning of rehearsals for junior Priscilla Tom. As a part of the senior company, The Collective, of her dance studio Nor Cal Dance Arts, Priscilla is either competing from February through July or preparing for the next competition season. Whether it’s seven-hour practice on the weekend or classes during the week, Priscilla says she is always dancing.

Priscilla’s mom, Vivian Tom, introduced her to the sport by putting her in a preschool dance program to help her become more sociable. Vivian says she wanted to help Priscilla “be more comfortable and confident with a group of people and in front of an audience” because Priscilla had always been shy as a child. Although she’s tried other sports and activities in the past, dance always interested her the most.

“Dance appeals to me because I like both sports and artistic things,” Priscilla said. “Dance kind of incorporates both of those. I’ve tried other things, but they just never stuck with me. It’s always been dance.”

Since preschool, her involvement in dance has evolved. Now, rather than just a hobby or afterschool activity, Priscilla is looking to turn her love for dance into a career. Priscilla explains that Instagram has helped further her dance career. With 17.3 thousand followers on the platform, she has gotten the opportunity to be an ambassador for dancewear companies like Five Dancewear.

“Social media, especially Instagram, is your resume,” Priscilla said. “It’s really important to maintain that and to make sure that it’s very relevant and what other people want to see … Say if a teacher or choreographer or someone who wants to hire you for a job is looking at your Instagram page, and they just see a bunch of pictures with your friends, they’re going to wonder what you are like. So for me, I kind of want to make sure my page shows what I’m passionate about, which is dance.”

However, Instagram is not the only way Priscilla is able to communicate with other dancers and stay relevant in the dance scene. Priscilla says that the director of her dance studio, Tawnya Kuzia, also provides her dancers with unique opportunities during their trips to Los Angeles.

BY ALYSSA HUI AND ANISH VASUDEVAN

32

EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

PHOTO | ANISH VASUDEVAN

UI LY SS AH |A N ILL US TR AT IO OT O

Vivian explains that she does whatever she can to help Priscilla by being her chauffeur, providing financial support and always encouraging Priscilla to do what she loves. However, because she’s not a dancer herself, Vivian leaves the dance technique and training to Priscilla’s studio and dance director.

Because they are on the road a lot, Vivian explains that sometimes there’s tension between herself and her daughter when trying to get everything done, especially because of time constraints. Nonetheless, she still feels as though dance has brought the two of them closer together.

“Our relationship gets stronger and closer because I appreciate her endurance and her dedication, and she knows that I support her and I’m her biggest fan,” Vivian said. “I’m always there for all the competitions, supporting her ups and downs.”

Vivian notes that dance is something they talk about all the time. Whenever she sees a dance clip on social media or YouTube, she can’t wait to show Priscilla.

Similarly, when Priscilla learns a new trick, she always makes sure to show her mother what she’s learned. Vivian explains that because she watches so much dance, she has come to love the art form, which creates a common interest between herself and Priscilla.

“This is something that allows us to always be open and be talking all the time about what she’s done in the past and currently, as well as how I can help her in the future,” Vivian said. “I’d say it definitely allows us to build a stronger relationship, [and] although there are tensions … [it’s] pretty small in the grand scheme of things.”

Although Priscilla has been able to strengthen her relationship with her mom through dance, she explains that it’s hard to find quality time to spend with the rest of her family.

“I can’t go [to family gatherings] because [I have] dance or rehearsals and a lot of people don’t understand that’s not something you can miss,” Priscilla said.

“They’re like ‘Oh, why don’t you just skip it for once?’ It’s always been kind of like that.”

PH

“I’ve been to so many conventions, and from there, the choreographers recognize you if you take their class multiple times, and they’ll ask [some of us from the dance company] to perform for them,” Priscilla said. “Kuzia puts a lot of her family [time] aside to do things for us as if we’re her kids, and she spends a lot of time rehearsing us and cleaning our dances and making sure that we’re looking at our best on stage. She really inspires me to be better.”

Specifically, Kuzia has sent videos of the teams to television shows like “World of Dance” and “America’s Got Talent.”

In eighth and 10th grade, Priscilla was featured in seasons one and three of World of Dance with her teams The Posse and JDC, or Junior Dance Company. In ninth grade, she made her way onto season 13 of America’s Got Talent with other members of The Collective.

“Every year has been really hectic for me because I’ve missed months of school at a time for rehearsals and being in LA,” Priscilla said. “I’d have to ask my teachers for work ahead of time, [and] sometimes they can’t give it to you. I had to do rehearsals during school so a lot of the time teachers would get really frustrated because I can’t come.”

Senior Jana Tsai, who is teammates with Priscilla, explains that this period of time when they were competing in shows like World of Dance was extremely taxing on the entire team. Not only did they constantly practice, but Kuzia also prepared them for interviews. However, Tsai says that all the work was worth it.

“When we got there, it was really surreal,” Tsai said. “Honestly, I still couldn’t believe it when we’re actually on the stage in front of the three judges, Ne-Yo, Jennifer Lopez and Derek Hough. Being on the stage, it was really cool. Receiving good feedback from them, it really boosted our confidence and I felt like it brought my team together.”

Tsai describes that throughout the whole experience, the dancers’ parents also showed their support through helpful tasks, such as bringing them food during their long rehearsals. Similarly, Priscilla explains that she found motivation to endure her strenuous schedule with the help and support of her family.

“I live with my mom, so she’s always been supportive,” Priscilla said. “She’s the one who drives me to dance and everything.

My dad is supportive too, but he’s like the grandparents. [He’s] more, ‘Oh, stick with school, be a doctor’ — that kind of Asian parents vibe.”

Despite challenges like these, Priscilla says the effort she puts in now is integral to both her current interest and future ones. However, Priscilla understands the difficulties in becoming a professional dancer, so she hopes to be involved in the dance industry through choreographing routines for other people.

“Dance has always been worth it for me,” Priscilla said. “I meet so many different, unique people through dance, and it really inspires me to keep going.

Once I got into dance, I wanted to be really good at it. I don’t want to drop it because it’s always just been a part of me. I feel like I don’t know how to do without it. I would just quit school and just sit at home and do nothing.”

Tsai explains that Priscilla’s dedication to the sport is apparent in the way she dances because of her “full out” mentality.

“I love dancing with Priscilla,” Tsai said.

“Her movement is just really unique. I love the way she dances and I love watching her.

It really inspires me to learn from how she’s learning from our own teacher because the way that she dances is really phenomenal.

I’ve seen her grow as a dancer ever since middle school and I couldn’t be more proud of her. She has a lot of potential to be even more amazing later on, so I’m really excited to see how that goes for her.” e A & E | OCTOBER 2019

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COMPARING COSTS Exploring the athlete and coach opinions on the donation costs of different sports

BY RUCHA SOMAN AND SWARA TEWARI

Running: $65*

Soccer: $200-400*

Junior Rohan Agrawal explains that the cost of participating in both cross country and track and field isn’t too high, and he says it’s worth it. Agrawal adds that although the cost is technically a donation, paying for uniforms and apparel wouldn’t be possible without it. “[Cross country and track and field] are basically my life,” Agrawal said. “I run everyday for three hours and I’m completely consumed in it.”

Along with the donation, Flatow believes that an investment in good running shoes is beneficial. These shoes are around $120 but Coach Kirk Flatow has connections to local shoe stores that can offer MV athletes discounts. Since the cost can technically come out to $0, Flatow believes that the cost is worth it because of the positive impacts running has on long term health.

Junior Shriya Kaushik explains that she prefers higher quality equipment, such as shin guards and cleats, so they last longer and save her money in the longrun. Kaushik believes that the amount of money her parents have invested in her soccer career, including both MVHS soccer donations and club fees, has been worthwhile to her. However, she views club soccer as more formative and serious compared to school soccer, which she sees as more recreational.

“I’ve been [playing soccer] since I was 4 years old and I play club,” Kaushik said.

“The money [my parents have] spent for [club soccer] makes me better as a player because of the intense training and stuff, it really helps me. School soccer, I only play for fun so I guess the money they put in for that helps me have fun, so I guess it is beneficial.”

*according to Agrawal

PHOTO | EL ESTOQUE

*according to Kaushik

Swimming: $100-150* According to senior Audrey Luo, high school swimming is fairly inexpensive for her family. Like cross country, swimming also runs primarily on donations. The money is used for equipment such as lane lines, pool covers and swim caps. Luo explains that club swimming is far more expensive than the school team.

“The club team I’m on is kind of pricey” Luo said. “I would say it’s worth it but you don’t necessarily have to get all the extra gear which is super expensive.”

Swim coach Molly Guadiamos confirms that although none of the sports require payments, donations are encouraged.

Guadiamos supports parents donating to Athletic Boosters because it gives the team funds to buy equipment like swim lanes and pool covers that last up to 10 years.

PHOTO | ROSHAN FERNANDEZ

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EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

*according to Luo

PHOTO | ROSHAN FERNANDEZ

PHOTO | EL ESTOQUE

*according to Pisnennya

Dance: $3,000-4,000* Sophomore Arshiya Choudhary breaks down the requested cost of participating on the dance team for competitions and choreographers. Choudhary mentions that competitions come with external prices like food, hotels and trips to Disneyland.

Despite the relatively large donation this sport requests, Choudhary believes it’s worth the money.

“It’s a really good experience — you get close to a lot of people,” Choudhary said.

“It’s a really fun time. You learn a lot, you grow a lot.”

Dance coach and P.E. teacher Dasha Plaza has never encountered a student at MVHS who has had financial difficulty in paying for the team. She explains that if the situation were to arise, she would arrange a payment plan or fundraise to help the dancer. Additionally, Plaza believes that the cost of the dance team is a deal, considering all the opportunities the dancers get.

“For the experience, for what they get, it’s actually a bargain,” Plaza said. “They have master classes, they have guest choreographers, they have guest teachers, they have nationals, regional competitions, team dinners and amazing costumes and outfits. In comparison to what the average tuition per year would look like for a dancer in a studio, it would be around like $10,000 per year. The margin is pretty significant but the exposure and the training they have throughout the year is similar.” *according to Choudhary

Junior Sophia Pisnennya believes that the cheer donation at MVHS is extremely expensive. However, as far as she knows, none of her teammates were unable to afford the cost.

“I feel like the cost could be less,” Pisnennya said. “There was a lot of unnecessary things we got. We got a bunch of shorts of different colors and bows that we use once. I think the cost could be less and it would be more worth it. [With my parents], there was hesitation because it was a lot of money, so they weren’t sure whether they wanted to pay it. I convinced them by showing them how much I wanted to do it.”

SPORTS

Cheer: $2,000

PHOTO | RUCHA SOMAN

70% 19%

of MVHS students think that their sport is reasonably priced *according to a survey of 272 MVHS

of MVHS students know of athletes who financially struggled to pay for an MVHS sport *according to a survey of 202 MVHS

SPORTS | OCTOBER 2019

35

TRIPLE THREAT

Exploring MVHS athletes who play a sport all three seasons and how it impacts their life

BY TABITHA MENDEZ AND STUTI UPADHYAY

W

ith MVHS offering 18 total sports, each season provides a variety of sports that students at MVHS can engage in after school.

Teams typically practice or compete in games every weekday, and because of this, being on a sports team is a significant time commitment. As a result, it is not surprising that very few students are involved in a school sport all three seasons.

Senior Catherine Cole is an example of a student who participates in sports all three seasons: field hockey in the fall, soccer in the winter and track and field in the spring. Although Cole has participated in soccer and track every year so far, this is Cole’s first year on the field hockey team.

Cole is constantly on the field, and to her, it’s worth it. “[Sports] gives me something to look forward to everyday — playing and having fun with my teammates and friends after school,” Cole said. “It gives me a sense of belonging when I go and play or practice with my teammates. If school gets boring or if there’s a lot of stress, there’s always this time after school that I can look forward to.”

Track and cross country coach Kirk Flatow also believes that playing multiple sports is beneficial as students develop new skills or improve current skills. He explains that it’s relatively common for a cross country athlete to also participate in track.

Flatow stresses that when kids are young, they should focus on exploring many different sports rather than constricting themselves to only one.

Flatow also disagrees with the idea that taking a three-month break from one sport can seriously harm an athlete. In fact, he says it can be beneficial to branch out. Flatow recommends taking breaks, whether it’s trying a new sport or looking at new ways to train.

“Sometimes you need to make a big breakthrough — you should change things up,” Flatow said. “When you go back to this other sport, whether it’s soccer, or volleyball, or whatever your sport is, maybe you go back there now with a different capability that you didn’t have before. And you kind of leapfrog all the people that you’ve been even with for so

36

EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

1

PHOTO BY ROBERT MA | USEDWITH PERMISSION

long because you’ve changed things up and tried something different.”

Throughout high school, 2018 alumna Sara Nordby played year round after school sports. For four years, she competed in field hockey, soccer and softball. Although Nordby does not play on an official college team, she participates in intermural soccer, volleyball, softball, flag football and possibly spikeball this year.

“I think sports teams are a great way to meet people that you would not normally meet,” Nordby said. “Even in college, I’ve noticed that doing intramurals, I meet people that are outside of my major, outside of people that I’m comfortable with. And it’s been just a cool way to connect with people over something that you have in common. And so I think in high school that was really big; I found a lot of my community was through those sports.”

In Nordby’s senior year at MVHS, she competed in track and softball at the same time — something that had never been done before. Nordby explains that she ended up skipping many softball and track practices, often only showing up to track for the meets. Because she was committed to two sports in the same season, she had to focus on communicating with both coaches, and working on finding time to practice in order to not fall behind outside of allotted practice time.

“It was a fun time because I got to experience two completely different

2

PHOTO | EL ESTOQUE

communities,” Nordby said. “What I was learning in one [sport], [I applied] it to the other and vice versa. It was super fun and I’m glad I did it, but I think it would have been exhausting to do for more than one [season].”

Sophomore Nitin Kukrejia runs cross country in the fall and participates in wrestling in the winter and wrestles outside of school when his school sports are not in season. Kukreija agrees with Nordby,

claiming committing yourself to sports year round can be extremely demanding.

“It’s mostly just organization,” Kukreja said. “I have a free seventh and you have to use the tutorials to really communicate with the teachers [about] what you need.

And then also just getting [to the] place on time and knowing what’s expected of you.”

Nordby agrees with Kukreja, explaining that sports force her to be more productive with her time, both in high school and in college. For example, Nordby has learned to work twice as hard to finish all her work in the morning and afternoon, even if it means working after practice or after

3

PHOTO | ROBERT MA

classes when she is tempted to just rest or hang out with friends.

Even though this can be inconvenient, Nordby believes that learning about yourself and your work habits is important for everyone, regardless of if you are an athlete or not. She also emphasizes that no one should ever shy away from playing a sport because they are worried it will impact their grades.

Flatow agrees with Nordby, claiming that the idea that sports interferes with school is largely a misconception. Based on the students who he’s worked with in the past, he’s noticed that students who are involved in school sports can still succeed in their academic life. Since Flatow has been coaching at MVHS for almost 10 years, he has been able to see many extremely dedicated athletes move successfully into college and careers.

“They’re getting great grades, they’re working on their PhD programs, they’ve they’ve got great jobs, they’ve graduated with honors from colleges,” Flatow said.

“I mean clearly, being a year round athlete in high school didn’t hurt them. In fact, my argument would be that it helps them ... academically, not just athletically, because their bodies are strong, their minds are fresh, they feel confident in themselves.

They know how to work hard, they have learned how to organize their time.”

Cole explains that even though sports are time-consuming, anything you care about is worth investing in.

“If you really enjoy [the] sports [you play], it will be a rewarding experience PHOTO | EL ESTOQUE

because the time that you spend out on the field is very enjoyable,” Cole said.

“You find time for things that you value, so if you really enjoy your sports then you’ll find time for it. And if you end up not really liking sports then you can find other things that you like to do.”

Nordby emphasizes the idea that no one should hold back from trying a sport.

The lessons Nordby learned in high school helped her in college, and despite the academic rigor of MVHS, she says she would take on the same athletic workload without a second thought.

“Especially since getting out of the Silicon Valley, I’ve understood this to a new degree,” Nordby said. “I understand that academics are important, but there’s more to life than getting a 4.0. For me, having a balanced life and being happy is so much more important, and sports is a great way to do that. [It’s] just understanding that your identity is not based on your grades.

You don’t need to stress about it as much as you think you do.” e

1

Senior Catherine Cole has participated in track and soccer for three years.

This year, Cole also decided to play field hockey.

2

2018 alumni Sara Nordby played school softball for all four of her years at MVHS. Her senior year, she participated in both softball and track, becoming the first MVHS student to play two different school sports during the same season.

3

Sophomore Nitin Kukreja runs cross country in the fall and wrestles in the fall. When Kukreja’s school sports are not in season, he wrestles outside of school for a club team.

4 4

Nordby also played field hockey for four years in high school. Field hockey was Nordby’s favorite sport because of how supportive the tam was.

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@MVATHLETICS Athletic director uses Instagram to provide information to athletes and promote sports teams

BY SOPHIA CHEN

T

he Monta Vista Athletics Instagram page currently has 761 followers and 585 total posts. What began on Aug. 22, 2017 with a series of game day pictures has become a source for a variety of regrammed team photos, logistical information and other MVHS sportsrelated news.

Athletic director Nick Bonacorsi, the account’s creator, has been primarily responsible for the page’s activities — using a combination of photos, videos and Instagram stories.

“When I took the role of athletic director, one of the biggest struggles I had was getting information out to athletes in a meaningful way,” Bonacorsi said. “And so

then feedback from players was to try and use some type of social media presence as a way to get information out. So that’s kind of how [the account] started. So I could post updates and then it’s kind of morphed more into a publicity thing as well.”

Freshman and varsity volleyball player Miranda Shakouri began following the account after hearing about it from her friends. She agrees that the page’s content has been beneficial. “[The account] has helped me stay informed about all the other teams and sometimes just my team in general,” Shakouri said. “I think it’s pretty good and how it talks about the wins and how they do.”

1,234

users reached by the most popular post

33%

did not know about the account *According to a survey of 361 MVHS students

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EL ESTOQUE | OCTOBER 2019

*As of Oct. 15

Senior and cross country captain Nitin Subramanian agrees that he can learn more about the other teams’ performance as well as their experiences.

“I think [the account is] just a good source to see how all different what all the fall sports teams are doing or whatever sports team is in season,” Subramanian said. “It gives you a deeper insight [about] your team and stuff you don’t know [about].”

This “deeper insight” is something that Bonacorsi values about the page, since he finds that it can be more than just a source for high school athletics information. “[The page] gives you a little bit more of the behind-the-scenes view,” Bonacorsi said. “A lot of teams are posting their team dinners. They’re posting their bonding events. They’re posting all these things that kind of show you more of the family side of athletics, which I really like.”

In terms of how to improve the page, Bonacorsi points out that there is some room for improvement in terms of balancing the content posted.

“That’s probably one of the areas that I always feel bad about, is certain sports get more publicity than others,” Bonacorsi said. “Because maybe their coach is more involved with taking pictures or their captains are more involved with taking pictures. So I’ve tried to get some of the less publicized sports to be more engaged, but it’s been difficult.”

Although Bonacorsi doesn’t have any specific objectives going forward, he hopes that he can continue to showcase all the sports team’s activities, among other things.

“I hope [MVHS students] are believe the account proud of the content when it’s doesn’t equally cover personal to them,” Bonacorsi said. “I hope they like it.” e all sports teams

64%

*According to a survey of 235 MVHS students

ATHLETE OF THE MONTH LUKE BOWMAN

BY LANCE TONG

Sophomore Luke Bowman has been surrounded by water polo players since he was a child. His dad and sister both played, so it was only natural for him to start in sixth grade.

At first, Bowman saw an athletic career in soccer, but liked the challenge of playing a different sport and using a new skill set.

He played on the JV team for part of his freshman year and was moved to varsity soon after the season began. As a two meter specialist, Bowman is proud of his recent achievement of scoring seven goals in a varsity game.

He likes the team dynamic as he says his coach Cory Murphy connects very well with all the players due to his young age. Despite being only a sophomore, Bowman has been noticed by numerous college scouters and hopes to pursue water polo in college.

4.6

goals per game

2

years on varsity

7

goals in one game

PHOTO | JUSTINE HA

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