Volume 46 Issue 3, November 18, 2015

14

NEWS outside the box 04 Thinking Physics Dropbox folder complicates testing

A two-way street Healthy relationships require us to evaluate our obedience

Scoring style 15 We should value the artistry in all sports

06

After the war

The gender scale

16 Teachers and students share

25

Exchange student

A senior relives a day in freshman year

A&E 26

opinions on gender issues

Outside land Some restaurants thrive as the Oaks Center gets left behind

Play it forward

28 How music organizations help the community

SPECIAL

29

20

The popularity card Looking at the influence of celebrity figures in the political world

Channeling you

30 Looking at the influence

What coming home means for veterans in Cupertino Against the glass ceiling

10 International Men’s Day sheds light on gender inequality

of celebrity figures in the political world

Female lead The stigma around girls asking boys to dances

Squad roles

OPINION 12

Losing the point Homework points breed stress, dishonesty

22 The different roles

32

Black’s friday

in a friend group

Parental guidance

23 Students take on parental roles in translation

Musical musings

21840 McClellan Road Cupertino, CA 95014 mv.el.estoque@gmail.com Editors-in-Chief: Alina Abidi, Kristin Chang Managing Editors: Maya Murthy, Malini Ramaiyer, Sharon Tung, Vanessa Qin Copy Editors: Daniel Lin, Sanjana Murthy Webmaster: Itay Barylka News Editors: Amanda Chan, Avni Prasad, Andrea Schlitt, Caitlyn Tjong Sports Editors: Kalpana Gopalkrishnan, Pranav Iyer, Karen Ma, Aditya Pimplaskar

2 / EL ESTOQUE / NOV 2015

Entertainment Editors: Meghna Gaddam, Neha Patchipala, Ilena Peng, Anushka Tyagi Opinion Editors: Pranav Jandhyala, Tal Marom, Isabel Navarette, Emily Zhao Beats Editors: Aditi Desai, Dylan Tsai Visuals Editors: Fatima Ali, Om Khandekar, Justin Kim Graphics Editors: Elizabeth Han, Hannan Waliullah

Special Report Editors: Trisha Kholiya, Anjana Melvin, Priya Reddy, Mingjie Zhong Business Editors: Tal Marom, Ilena Peng Public Relations: Shriya Deshpande Staff writers: Ananya Bhat, Vijeet Chaugule, Ada Chen, Jennie Chen, Bill Cheng, Vivian Chiang, Ankit Dua, Aanchal Garg, Sneha Gaur, Sandhya Kannan, Aditya Krishnan, Emma Lam, Stephanie Lam, ZaZu Lippert, Amita Mahajan, Akshara Majjiga, Nanda Nayak, Issra Osman, Renee Pu, Chetana Ramaiyer, Priya Reddy, Sarah Robinson, Zach Sanchez, Derek Shao, Andy Tu, Miloni Vora, Kingsley Wang, Devika Watave, Jessica Xing, Sebastian Zhang, Grace Zhou Adviser: Michelle Balmeo

SPORTS 33

Blurred lines

The challenge of distinguishing sports

Keep your enemies closer

34 Students describe rivalries with competing schools

36

Polo bros Water polo teammates reflect on growing up with each other

38

Stuck in the middle Problems middle college athletes face

The time I got carded

39 Athletes recall being

Letter from the Editors After Halloween, we folded our costumes and tucked them away, tossed them in the garbage and passed them down to our younger siblings and cousins. For the rest of the year, our closets or garages are speckled with the remnants of imagined lives: Dorothy’s slippers, a cape, a plastic fireman’s hat.

But the ability to define yourself isn’t just limited to the last day of October. Every day, the same way we step into sweatpants or ballet flats, we get ready for school by putting on our roles: Freshman. Student. Daughter. Friend. And we shed them just as easily. Our teachers may have taught us how to write a thesis statement, but we taught them what a “meme” was. Our parents helped us take our first steps, but we proudly watched them send their first text message. As explored by reporters Akshara Majjiga and Mingjie Zhong on page 24, sometimes our parents, the very people who taught us to speak, need us to translate for them, to help them navigate the world they brought us into.

We often don’t notice that we’re doing it, but we change our roles as easily as we flip through channels: in one period we’re starting from scratch, learning the basic principles of physics, and in the other we’re leaders, we’re teaching assistants, we’re captains. It can be terrifying to think about the fluidity of

our roles: when do we definitively say that we’ve stopped being a student? Can we ever? We sure hope not.

Our roles get us started down the right path, but after that, they start to matter less and less. When we were younger, we liked them to be straightforward and clear, but they’re about as messy and com-

ALINA ABIDI KRISTIN CHANG LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

plicated as we are. Luckily, there’s something liberating about being undefinable.

In journalism, we’ve all got roles, so neatly listed on this very page: staff writer, section editor, managing editor, editor in chief. And while on paper it appears to be a hierarchy, it’s really not that simple: while we’ve become comfortable with the way we plan and edit and work, and we often think our way is the best way, sometimes a fresh perspective is just what we need. Whether or not they realize it, the “newbies,” as we affectionately call them, can have more lessons to teach us than we have to teach them.

And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

penalized

Mission Statement El Estoque is an open forum created for and by students of Monta Vista High School. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the journalism staff and not of Monta Vista High School or the Fremont Union High School District. The staff seeks to recognize individuals, events, and ideas and bring news to the MVHS community in a manner that is professional, unbiased, and thorough in order to effectively serve our readers. We strive to report accurately, and we 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 email or mail.

They may be edited for length or accuracy. Letters cannot be returned and will be published at El Estoque’s discretion. We also reserve 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.

THINGS OVERHEARD AT LATE NIGHT “I just erased my entire iPhone.”

“What is journalism?”

“I can’t believe you’re eating a plate of just meat and sour cream.”

CORRECTIONS An original version of “Playing the price: The cost of playing a sport at MVHS” printed on Oct. 23 misstated coach Brittany Carey’s name. It also misstated spirit’s involvement in booster fees. Spirit does pay booster fees.

An original version of “A guide to fanfiction” printed on Oct. 23 misspelled the names of freshman Hadas Brook and freshman Samantha Liu. We regret the errors.

ZACH SANCHEZ l ILLUSTRATION

Physics students and teachers voice concerns over Dropbox-accessible tests STORY BY JESSICA XING AND ZACH SANCHEZ

A

P Physics I has a reputation as one of the test printed out from the Dropbox durMVHS’ toughest classes — it might be ing their test prep periods. that reputation that led students, over “It wasn’t until the fourth test of last the span of three years, to year, that I was taking the [praccontribute to a Dropbox tice] test and this guy asked me a for the course, containing “I WENT question, and it’s like, ‘Where did old, unreleased tests from you get this question?’ And he’s 2011-2014. It is by far the TO [TAKE] like, ‘Oh, it’s from the Dropbox,’” most extensive prep book a THE TEST, Geha said. “And then he showed student can get their hands me the [old] test…and I was like, on, with copy after copy of AND IT WAS ‘This is weird.’ And so I ignored it. unreleased material stored THE EXACT But then I went to [take] the test, neatly in folders by year, and it was the exact same test but SAME TEST topic and version. with different numbers.”

“I got it pretty late last BUT WITH While AP Physics teacher semester,” said one stuJim Birdsong posts review matedent who took AP Physics DIFFERENT rial on Schoolloop for students 1 last year, “but the first to practice from, the answers are NUMBERS.” time I used it all the free blank. Senior Ansuman Somaresponse questions were SENIOR sundaram claims the Dropbox is the exact same except for MARK GEHA a joint effort between students the numbers.” from past and future years to Free Response Quescompile all the possible answers. tions, which require students to independently form their answers, NO ONE IS REALLY SURE who first are worth twice the multiple choice. The created the Dropbox, as the company has Dropbox has essentially all the materials made its public links untraceable by default. someone would need to do well on Physics For students, the physics file remains just a tests, from old multiple choice questions to rumor floating around in the air until they worked out solutions to the FRQs. Senior meet the lucky person with the link.

Mark Geha, who took the class last year, According to Geha, the advantage the said there would be students with copies of Dropbox gave students was huge — every

4 / EELL EESSTTOOQQUUEE / N OV 2 015

other exam, another student would bring another test in and ask him questions.

“It was [brought to Birdsong’s attention] second semester when somebody found the final online,” Geha said, “Like, all but one class found it. Killing the curve killed me, when they were getting these tests…it just killed me.”

Because the Dropbox is only accessible to people with the link, in order to get in a student would need to know another classmate who has it. Physics is graded on a curve, so when students are able to study off of materials not available to their peers, they have the potential to do much better on graded assessments. This, Somasundaram said, sharply elevates the curve against students without the Dropbox link who are struggling in the class.

While Geha understands that some people use the Dropbox to study, he believes having access to all those resources puts a certain group of people at an unfair advantage. The one student, who used the tests but did not want to reveal their name, said once someone learns how to solve the “Dropbox problems,” they are good to go for the test. Having the Dropbox second semester helped them a lot, especially since the problems for the multiple choice and free response remained relatively the same.

“[The Dropbox] definitely affects the curve for Physics because it makes it a lot lower,” Somasundaram said. “It is frustrating to know that someone put zero effort into studying for the tests and just memorized the answers.”

it, they have two options: either stop giving out the tests afterward, or release all the past years’ assessments to completely level out the playing field for all physics students. They do not see any point in trying to actively take down the Dropbox.

“So what we’ve talked most about is actually having all of my tests on Schoolloop,” Birdsong said, “to sort of co-opt what the Dropbox thing is trying to do.”

Birdsong hopes that it is just his old files in there, but if students have access to other unreleased assessments, the only thing he can do is not put up the answers to the dropbox-accessible problems. Both teachers agree that it is counter-intuitive to punish students by taking away resources in an already difficult class, so they try to accommodate

MOST STUDENTS REALIZE that Birdsong and Michael Lordan, another AP Physics 1 teacher, know about the Dropbox but can’t do much about it. “[I encountered rumors about the Dropbox file] at least two or three years ago.

Just people referring to, well, ‘That was on the Dropbox,’” Birdsong said. “Now I don’t know exactly what’s in there…but I don’t have evidence that it matters because I change all the questions to a certain degree, so they’re not going to see the same question that they may see in the Dropbox.”

Birdsong and Lordan both realize that Physics is a difficult class, so they try to provide as many resources as possible — from putting up old tests to supplying students with an overwhelming amount of extra practice problems.

Birdsong thinks that’s where the Dropbox might have originated — just practice copies of Birdsong’s old tests all in one convenient location.

Lordan is not sure why students would need the Dropbox as, according to him, Physics students already have a wealth of resources at their disposal.

More old tests, according to him, should not have that great of an impact.

“The students already get old tests. They get a multitude of practice problems, so having additional old tests — the benefit of that is pretty minimal,” Lordan said, “but I am not exactly sure what is out there, so it is hard for me to quantify.”

Birdsong and Lordan understand the class is graded on a curve — that students will be affected by any potential increases in other students’ ZACH SANCHEZ l ILLUSTRATION grades. The way they see

*content c

ount from

to prevent any impact the Dropbox might have on the curve. “ [ To ] s t o p NEWS giving out the tests afterw a r d ... a c t u ally wouldn’t fix the problem that exists,” Birdsong said. “[Maybe] five or six years from now it would go away, but that genie is out of the bottle.” e

the Physic

s Dropbox

N E WS / 5

After the war

Cupertino veterans share stories of return and adjustment STORY BY ANDREA SCHLITT

T

hey were the enemy, he thought. The death of the Japanese soldiers was supposed to represent America’s triumph, but something just didn’t feel right about thinking like that. A wallet next to the dead Japanese soldier caught his eye and inside rested a picture of a woman and two kids. No, a widow and fatherless children. A wave of uncertainty washed over him. He couldn’t just go back to camp and say he felt sorry for a Japanese soldier, yet there was an overwhelming burden of silencing those emotions.

A room full of students at Cupertino High School listen intently to FUHSD substitute teacher Richard Klokow, a 90-year old World War II veteran, reliving that moment and finally letting go.

“After 70-some years, that’s the first time I spoke of what my thoughts were before, which was a powerful thing in the sense that

ANDREA SCHLITT EL ESTOQUE

I wasn’t really holding it back,” Klokow said.

“This whole place was all blossoms, and “I felt free to just say it.” in the spring we would have blossom drives Coming home marks the end of a vet- through the valley,” Austin said. “It was eran’s service. The battle scars called the Valley of Heart’s and wounds that exist on the sur- Every bell Delight, and it truly was.” face may inhibit them physically, Introduced in 1944, the but the emotional journey is just in Santa Servicemen’s Readjustment as challenging. Regardless of the Clara Act, also known as the GI Bill, wars they fight in, veterans are was the other key factor that connected by their experiences Valley was increased the population by adjusting and settling down: providing benefits to veterringing their experiences after the war. ans. The new bill ensured zero and people down payments on home loans President of Cupertino and low interest rates, which were Historical Society Donna Ausallowed veterans to obtain setin was only a child when World outside cure housing War II ended, but she distinctly De Anza College has carremembers the joy felt through- banging ried on its history with the GI out the city.

Bill, with a Department of Vetpans, “Every bell in Santa Clara erans’ Affairs to provide the Valley was ringing and ringing yelling support veteran’s need to comand people were outside bang- that the plete their schooling. According pans and yelling that the war ing to Attila Ujvari, an employwar was was over,” Austin said. ee at their office on campus, According to Austin, people veterans get help with anything over. who had relatives in Cupertino from mental health issues to came back to work on their richard seeking employment, or findfamily farms, and others began klokow ing out which classes to take. to slowly move into the city be- World War II “Some of [the veterans] cause of its natural beauty. The have problems with something veteran steadily growing population was as basic as walking down the seen as an opportunity for more street, and they have to cope businesses, including the Vallco shopping with themselves not just as a person who center, and farmers began to sell their land was deployed but as a student with different to account for growing housing costs. identities,” Ujvari said. “We try to help them

ANDREA SCHLITT | EL ESTOQUE

John Zwaanstra shares an old atlas with a map of Germany’s divided territories. Zwaanstra served as a war doctor during the Vietnam War. ANDREA SCHLITT | EL ESTOQUE

6 / EL ESTOQUE / NOV 2015

Aanchal Garg | EL ESTOQUE

as a person in general.”

When Klokow enlisted in the military he was only 5-foot-5, 118 pounds and 17 years old. But he knew it was what he wanted to do.

“At the time when you’re 17 everything is okay,” Klokow said. “Except for a few mornings in boot camp, then I would think I’d like to be home with my mom instead of getting up at four in the morning.”

He went to radio school and was responsible for preparing electrical generators and batteries, but experienced the danger and fear of being stationed where there was active fighting. A daily work day kept him busy, and the danger that loomed over them kept him alert. Klokow still has several fond memories of his experience, one of them being Thanksgiving of 1942.

“I filled my dungaree [blue jean] jacket with turkey from a supply ship for my friends back at the base, and I was going over to the other side and the naval officer said, ‘What you got there?’” Klokow said. “I told him ‘some turkey for the marines. What are you going to do about it?’”

After Klokow’s service, the GI Bill provided educational benefits so he could attend Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a degree in electrical engineering. He was handling a busy life with his family and schooling, yet his young age allowed him to

adjust to the new lifestyle. He also believes the mentality of veterans of World War II helped with the settling down and moving on from his past.

“What we did was we said we did it, we served, they’re giving us a fine education here, that’s the end of it,” Klokow said.

“Don’t dwell on the past and don’t let your life be defined by the fact that you served four years.”

After his education and retirement, he saw

ing stationed amidst the fighting.

“There was an undercurrent that this could all explode in a matter of hours,” Zwaanstra said. “It wasn’t exactly a friendly situation.”

As a doctor, there was a lot of similarity to his life back home, but Zwaanstra quickly became acquainted with the differences. He experienced more cases of burn injuries, gunshot wounds and radiation.

After his service ended, he worked on the reserves for a couple of years, and came back to America. When he moved out to Calif., he bought a house in 1979, the same http://www.elestoque.org/2015/11/13/un- house that he still lives in to this day. His two sons went to categorized/thestoryofourveterans/ MVHS, and he retired. The city has changed a lot since then. that MVHS needed a new football coach, After being out of service for almost 50 and after coaching for a season, decided to years, Zwaanstra’s concerns and memories substitute for teachers. of the war have been dampened. Having “It’s been a very pleasurable part of my time to relive his experiences has taught him life although now, it’s a little harder to get up about the nature of war itself, rather than his at 5:30 in the morning.” Klokow said. personal development.

“When you go around and see how cruel peoCurrent Cupertino resident John ple can be to one another, you realize there’s Zwaanstra was stationed near Frankfurt, a lot of evil in the world,” Zwaanstra said.

Germany during the Vietnam War. His situFor veterans, settling down and startation wasn’t exactly like that of Klokow: he ing a family takes time, but experiences of entered the military as an adult, lived in mili- triumph or defeat affect how veterans allow tary housing with his wife and worked the their involvement in the war to shape their same job he went to graduate school for. But new lives. It’s not just “after the war”, but a as with Klokow, there was the danger of be- continuation of their lives. e

FOR MORE PHOTOS

NEWS/ 7

Against the glass ceiling International Men’s Day brings up the history of gender inequality

V

STORY BY BILL CHENG AND ELIZABETH HAN

ETERAN’S DAY, MOTHER’S DAY, FATHER’S DAY: calendars across the country mark these days in red, as a tribute to unique groups worthy of celebration. The days often recognize the victories that these people have won, and hardships they’ve faced. One day in particular tends to cause skeptical amusement more than anything else.

International Men’s Day is sponsored by the Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation, an organization that serves “to encourage fathers, empower families and help children,” Founded on May 1, 2000 by Warwick and Alison Marsh, members of the foundation have been on speaking tours around the nation and created FathersOnline, a resource for busy fathers to find support.

The purpose of International Men’s Day is separated into six distinct sections, one of which hopes to “highlight discrimination against men.” The statement seeks to establish the inequity that men, it suggests, suffer in society. History reflects a different story through the struggles women have faced.

N US TRA TIO ILL UE OQ EST EL Nl HA ETH ZAB ELI

MALE LEADERSHIP HAS DOMINATED the United States since its inception. Married women were banned from office jobs in many parts of the United States until World War II. In the 1920s, a woman’s citizenship depended on her husband or father. It was taken away if she married a foreign man.

Only in the last century have major changes started taking place — gender deiscrimination was outlawed in the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The long-awaited equal rights for women were almost in place toward the end of the 20th century, as almost all of gender based laws disappeared.

Despite the progress, gender inequality lives on. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research claims that a college-educated woman will have lost almost $800,000 in her life by age 59 due to the gender wage gap. Male privileges are still present as well — English teacher David Clarke feels that due to his status as a white male, he does not experience the judgement that others may experience.

“I don’t have to go into a room and feel like the way the conversation is structured or the experiences that people have around me are somehow different than mine because mine always trumps everybody else’s,” Clarke said, “When they talk about the glass ceiling, I’m above the glass ceiling, I’m not below it.”

In contrast to Clarke, English teacher Jireh Tanabe recalls several instances of ill treatment for both her race and her gender.

“I feel like every day is Men’s Day,” Tanabe said. “We live in a patriarchal society in which men currently still get paid more than women, in which men still get privileges over women, so every day is Men’s Day. I’m not sure why we need another day celebrating Men’s Day.”

8 / EL ESTOQUE / NOV 2015

MVHS SEEMS TO EXPERIENCE less gender judgment than its surrounding areas.

Some teachers and students attribute this to its tolerant nature. Others conclude that the focus on academics creates a uniquely level playing field. Clarke offers his view on discrimination at MVHS. “There is a certain amount of gender stereotyping going on here, but compared to other high schools there is so much less gender stereotyping,” Clarke said. “It is...a much more welcoming place to be a minority, to be a woman, to be an LGBTQ person.

Although the general school atmosphere leans towards a more equal attitude in many fields, some people still see a distinction between the treatment of males and females.

One such example, according to sophomore Rucha Bhise, is discrimination against males.

From her perspective, some teachers seem to favor girls over boys with no clear reason.

“I don’t know if that was based off an assessment of who the people were,” Bhise said. “I don’t think that was the case.”

Contrarily, both Tanabe and Clarke see an influence by “dead white male” authors in the literature curriculum. To fix this imbalance, Tanabe engages more female writers and protagonists in her classes. She teaches the progessing view on gender to the next generation, including her sons.

“I explain to them that blue is just a color,” Tanabe said. “One time my son asked me when I had magenta nail polish...‘Oh, Mom, what color is that?’ I said, ‘It’s magenta.’ ‘Is that a girl color?’ he said. I said, ‘No, it’s just a color. Anybody can wear magenta.’ So I try to keep their minds still open and not locked into the stereotypes.”

International Men’s Day is still a contested event at MVHS, partly because of the inequality that women experience in their daily lives.

Despite the existing discrepancies, changes are steadily being made to legislature and society that reflect progress, hopefully towards a brighter and more equal future. e

201 5

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EL ESTOQUE

Score Name 2400 Donhee Han 2400 Sungho Park 2400 Jayanth Bharadwaj 2400 Nicholas Zhang 2400 Claire Li 2400 Nathan Lee 2400 Joseph Hong 2400 Bhavya Malladi 2400 Ravi Bethamcharla 2400 Harman Brah 2400 Jihan Yi 2400 Smitha Nagar 2400 Cynthia Chang 2400 Chris Wang 2400 Alyssa Zhao 2400 Katherine Chen 2400 Fendy Gao 2400 Jeffrey Wang 2400 Titus Wu 2400 Hanah Lee 2400 Augustine Chemparathy 2400 Monami Mukherjee 2400 Andy Zhang 2400 Ashima Katakwar 2400 Bethany Hung 2400 Bhavesh Patel 2400 Cari Gan 2400 Catherine Tu 2400 Derek Feng 2400 Erica Hwang 2400 Harsh Wadhwa 2400 Kaiwen Zhou 2400 Kelsey Ichikawa 2400 Michael Prattipratti 2400 Nikitia Thareja 2400 Preetham Gujjula 2400 Ryan Sim 2400 Sara Cao 2400 Shivani Chandrasekheran

School Year Leland 2015 Leland 2015 Mission SJ 2015 Westlake 2014 Trabuco Hills 2014 Harvard-Westlake 2014 University 2014 American 2014 Mission SJ 2014 Mission SJ 2014 Mission SJ 2014 Mission SJ 2014 Washington 2014 Mission SJ 2014 Mission SJ 2014 Mission SJ 2014 Mission SJ 2014 Arcadia 2014 Arcadia 2014 Arcadia 2014 Dougherty 2014 Troy 2014 Claremont 2013 Dougherty 2013 Mission SJ 2013 Villa Park 2013 Mission SJ 2013 Almador Valley 2013 Mission SJ 2013 San Marino 2013 Dougherty 2013 Arcadia 2013 Irvington 2013 Northwood 2013 Saratoga 2013 Monta Vista 2013 Dougherty 2013 Mission SJ 2013 Harker 2013

No one actually cares!

Evangelical Christians get to feel like everyone else for once

S

O IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY around the globe celebrate the defeat of heard, Starbucks has a new holi- evil by lighting lamps and stringing up their day coffee cup. It’s red. Actually, Christmas lights a month in advance, anit’s a pretty nice red: it’s deep and rich, nouncing their heritage to everyone on the and a gradient from a vibrant vermilion street. to a more cranberry color at the bottom.

I myself climbed the banisters on my Moving on, then! front porch wearing pajamas We wish. to put up our lights, so I’d just It’s November, and the like to apologize to any of the War on Christmas has alneighbors I might have trauready started. Bombastic matized in the process. claims from Fox News Diwali is important. In and Troll Dolls running India, kids would get the day for President have clutoff. Here, I went to school and tered my Facebook news ended up having to stay until feed to the point where I MAYA MURTHY 9 p.m. working before I could logged off and went to do come home and celebrate OUT OF THE BLUE my homework for once. with one other family. We also “We can’t take Christ hosted a party the Saturday out of Christmas,” they before, where people wished say. “We can’t take Christmas out of our pa- each other preemptively and promised to per cups!” call on the day of.

First of all, I’m pretty sure that vintage The American calendar is built around Coke ad with the Santa Clauses took care of the whole Christ in Christmas thing. As for the latter, well I don’t know what to say.

I mean, I’m agnostic but the idea of putting religious iconography on something meant to go in the same trash can as my half eaten Subway sandwich or freshly chewed gum makes me more than a little uncomfortable. But hey, that’s just me, and I don’t want to impose my beliefs on anyone, you know?

Anyway, my issue isn’t really with the cups. The people freaking out over this are largely fighting back by purchasing more Starbucks and just writing “Merry Christmas” on a cup they’re supposedly tossing in the trash within the next 20 minutes.

The fact that they’re just giving Starbucks more money hasn’t occurred to them, so I’m content to dismiss the entire movement as a small bit of humor to brighten the dark days ahead.

The Starbucks holiday cup doesn’t recognize Christmas, so a small sect of evangelicals are angry. What they don’t seem to understand is that this is how the rest of us feel about everything. All the time.

For example, about a week ago it was Diwali, the Hindu holy festival of light. It’s a religious festival, and Indian families all SNEHA GAUR l EL ESTOQUE ILLUSTRATION

1 0 /EELL EESSTTOOQQUUEE / N O V 2 0 1 5

Christianity: we get Easter and Christmas vacations, arrange our weekend to include the Sabbath. I’m not complaining about the days off, but it’s incredibly easy to be a Christian in America.

Anything else, and your life gets much harder. Religious holidays, fasting, days of rest: all of these need to be tailored to fit inside the framework of a Christian country that emphasizes a separation of State and Church in its governing document.

An awareness of religion, and Christianity in particular, is a big part of being American: after all, Ted Cruz just said that he wouldn’t trust a man that didn’t spend time on his knees everyday with running this great country of ours. I pledged my allegiance every day until high school to one nation under a God I didn’t believe in. I spent weeks learning about Jesus Christ’s life in the sixth grade as if he had actually existed, which is entirely possible but was a far cry from the way the comparatively smaller unit on Hinduism largely focused on the caste system and multi-handed blue gods.

My father told me that I lived in a Christian country a few years ago, and after some internal struggle (But Thomas Jefferson!)

I’ve come to accept it. Everyday, whether consciously or not, I operate under a system influenced by a religion I have no experience with, outside of the children’s Bibles at TJMaxx. Every non-Christian has found their own way of dealing with it: some of us take holidays off while others celebrate on weekends. Some of us fast, others don’t. Some of us speak about our faiths in public, others lock our beliefs inside our homes. All of us work within a system that wasn’t built to acknowledge our existence.

So honestly? It’s kind of nice to see that same lack of acknowledgement at my local Starbucks. Everyone is finally equalized by how little our favorite coffee shop cares about our religious beliefs.

And besides, I still like the color. I think it’s festive. e

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Missing the point

In order to reduce cheating and emphasize learning, homework shouldn’t be graded

R

ECENTLY, STUDENTS IN a few AP Physics 1 classes gained access to all of last year’s tests through a virtual Dropbox, perceived as cheating by many of their peers. In a situation like this, it’s easy to point fingers. It’s easy to tell someone that what they did is wrong and to judge their character for it, but in reality, the motives behind academic dishonesty are much deeper than that.

We need to question the underlying ethics. How often are students actually cheat-

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ing? In an online survey of 128 students, 85 percent admitted to cheating one way or another. The most common form of cheating was copying homework, which was indicated by almost all respondents who admitted to cheating. But why are students cheating?

Around half of respondents believe that the single greatest reason is due to large work loads, while 20 percent think it’s due to pressure from home and another 20 percent believe it’s because of a lack of confidence in knowledge and understanding of the material. Students are receiving all sorts of pressures to be successful, from school, home and society, which simultaneously act as pressures to

cheat. Although cheating is inexcusable, the temptation is understandable.

Not surprisingly, cheating and points culture are very much intertwined at MVHS; one fuels the other. Students at our school are notorious for doing whatever amount of homework we’re given, no matter what it takes, whether that’s an all nighter, using the answer key we found online, or asking a friend to copy their homework.

If we want to reduce cheating on our campus, we have to hit two birds with one stone. Let’s stop only treating the illness, cheating, and focus on prevention: let’s stop grading homework. Although discussing the ethics and consequences of cheating is important, it’s not enough to tackle the issue.

That might sound extreme to some, but ending the practice of assigning graded homework could provide many benefits for our school on top of reducing cheating.

Teachers assign homework for one main reason: so students grasp the material discussed in class. The goal is learning. The problem, however, lies in the points that are often tacked onto homework. MVHS students will complete any amount of homework assigned, but given their busy workloads, homework i s n ’ t about learning anymore.

It’s about points.

It becomes a rush to get it done, to do the absolute minimum amount of work to still receive that stamp, possibly the period before it’s due, possibly copying from another student’s homework. Anything for that stamp, that check mark, that A. Forget learning, and forget academic integrity. If teachers simply gave out the same homework, but awarded no points and set no deadlines for it, this problem would be relieved. In fact, 92% of respondents in a survey of 51 students said that they would be less likely to copy homework if it was not graded.

Even if we forget quality of work and the possibility of cheating, the case for homework isn’t very strong. Studies have shown little to no correlation between homework and understanding. One study by Valerie

Cool and Timothy Kieth in 1991 used data can choose when and even if to do an ascollected on high school achievement by signment, allowing busy students to have another major study to analyze what fac- more control of how they budget their time. tors and practices had the strongest effect 88% of respondents said they get less than on academic achievement. The study found 8 hours of sleep a night, 89% of which inthat “homework had inconsistent direct ef- dicated that it’s due to their academic work fects [on academic ach ievement]”, which was measured through standardized testing.

OPINION OF THE EL ESTOQUE Some studies have found a modEDITORIAL BOARD est positive correlation between amount of time spent on homework and loads. Students would clearly benefit from scores on standardized tests in math and sci- this much needed flexibility, especially in ence, but these are correlations, not causal light of the fact that sleep deprivation is all links. Students that spend more time on too common at our school. homework are probably going to spend more time preparing for exams. At best, these studies tell us that the subjects are hardworkers, not that homework led to their academic success. As Alfie Kohn, a well-known lecturer in the field of human behavior and proponent of progressive education puts it,

STAFF EDITORIAL

“Even assuming the existence of a causal relationship... is [homework] really worth the frustration, exhaustion, family conflict, loss of time for other activities, and potential diminution of interest in learning?” Teachers might be well intentioned when they assign homework, but there simply isn’t much empirical backing.

The benefits could even extend far beyond reducing cheating and a renewed emphasis on learning. We all know that students at MVHS often take up rigorous course loads, but that’s not something that can easily change in the foreseeable future.

That would require a shift in campus culture.

By not grading homework, students can be more flexible with their learning. They

OPINION As a school, a divorce from the outdated concept of awarding points for homework would leave tremendous effects on our school. It would bring about a cultural change on campus that would emphasize learning and understanding, placing less of a focus on meeting deadlines and doing homework for the sake of points. In effect, fewer students will cheat day to day. If academic integrity and maturity is at stake, we should all be open to making this change. e

RENEE PU l ILLUSTRATION

OPINION / 13

A two way street

Having a healthy relationship with teachers requires students to examine their mentalities and recognize the harms in constant obedience

STORY BY EMMA LAM AND KINGSLEY WANG

STOP BLIND OBEDIENCE. Adolf Eichmann was just another German man with a family, even if he was the Nazi officer behind all of the logistics of the Holocaust, according to The Milgram Experiment. Though he had normal cognitive ability, he was still extremely surprised that the Jewish people hated him for what he did. He argued that he was just “following orders and that is a good thing, isn’t it?”

This puzzled American psychologist, Stanley Milgram, conducted what was known as the Milgram Experiment to unravel this phenomenon of obedience. In the experiment, Milgram strapped a man to an electric chair and random test subjects were told to be in control of the dial that controlled the strength of the electricity shocking the victim. When told to do so, test subjects increased the voltage being shocked into the victim. The results were appalling: 65 percent of the test subjects increased the dial to release lethal voltage while all subjects increased the voltage to where it threatened the victim’s life.

Although the Milgram experiment was an extreme case where human life was in peril, it still demonstrates the harms of blind obedience and submission on a much higher level altogether. However, this submission should not occur between students and their teachers. If there is an opinion, it is the duty of the student to share it out.

In the MVHS environment, we can see the teachers trying to provide help, from setting up appointment times, to making sure everyone understands the material by asking students in class. Students tend to always shrink in fear when it comes to teachers, like for asking questions or sharing troubles they are having.

We think our role is to listen to the adults and to have them make decisions for us. Yet we often feel unsatisfied with the decisions being made. And although it may seem scary to ask a teacher for help or a parent to confirm an answer to a problem, we have to do it. When teachers make actions that don’t satisfy the student, most students

STOP

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Sophomore Nikita Shankar asks math and computer science teacher David Greenstein for advice on a computer program. The computer program, RandomHopper.java, generated random pictures of shoes on the screen. Photo by Fatima Ali grumble and backtalk rather than politely reason with and ask the teacher about his or her actions. When questioned on why they did talk to the teacher, the response more or less is along the lines of “They will get mad at me,” or “They can’t be bothered.”

That couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Teachers have as much patience as the student themselves.

Even according to the Common Core Standards, “States and districts recognize that there will need to be a range of supports in place to ensure that all students, including those with special needs and English language learners, can master the standards.” Teachers are waiting for students to ask them questions, and are ready to support us at any time. Instead of ignoring their support, we should take advantage of all that is at our disposal.

Students need to have a proactive urge to evaluate their actions and simply change their ways. If we don’t start to change the way we respond to situations, we could potentially harm ourselves in the long run.

Go. When we feel that something is wrong or unjust about the actions of a teacher, we shouldn’t blindly follow their suggestions, but learn to evaluate our behavior and whether we are blindly following adults. This is not to say that we should rebel against adults and out-maneuver them; rather, we should evaluate what they say and recognize when something is wrong. If we feel that the point was taken off for no substantive reason, we should ask the teacher respectfully. The other option would be to shove the paper in your backpack and blindly obey what you’re given without reflecting on the reason. It’s up to us to decide which path we take. e

Scoring style

By learning to recognize athletic style, we can see sports as art STORY BY SEBASTIAN ZHANG

S

PORTS, FOR MA NY, ARE A FORM of entertainment. There’s a reason that games get played so much on TV and fans are willing to pay over $100 for tickets to Los Angeles Lakers games. In fact, the popularity of sports has grown so much that we now have Major League Eating and a World Armwrestling League, which hosts 214 competitors. Spectators want a show.

They want to see players STYLE score unbe- MEANS THE lievable touchdowns and SUBTLETIES ga me-cha ngTHAT DO NOT ing buzzer beaters, or, IMMEDIATELY as Matt “The M e g a t o a d ” STRIKE THE Stonie did in MASSES. 2014, eat 120 twinkies in six minutes. They want to vicariously experience the intense pressure of the last minute, the unpredictability of it all, the ultimate triumph or defeat of their favorite team.

However, this excitement can lead spectators to overlook the more subtle artistic side of sports: the players’ styles. If more of us could learn to recognize athletic style, then we might find a new way to see sports, a deeper appreciation for beauty that can extend into the bigger world.

Style is how the players pull their moves, whether those moves are showy or ordinary. The way an arm snaps when it shoots the ball. The weightlessness of a body as it jumps into the air. The strategic leg movements in an arm wrestling match. Even the sound of the ball swishing through the hoop.

While flashy moves still require immense skill to pull, spectators more readily see them as indications of a player’s personality.

The more discrete stylistic elements might then better reveal a player’s raw skill.

However, many fans miss that talent presented in less flashy forms because they focus on athletes who put up a show. Physical education teacher Jeff Thomas compared Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs to Shaquille O’Neal: while both are some of the greatest, O’Neal outweighs Duncan in popularity simply because he plays with

more flare, more personality. The BMX bikers chosen to participate in the X Games are typically those who do backflips, tailwhips — the flashy tricks; that’s what most spectators want to see. But what looks most attractive is not always the most artistic. A BMX biker can simply air a dirt jump — performing no tricks — and do it with more style than someone who does a double backflip.

Style means the subtleties that do not immediately strike the masses, that only the trained eye might register. According to Thomas, being able to recognize style requires extensive experience in either playing or watching the sport and the ability to appreciate the human body — specifically, the human body in motion — as well as the coordination required to perform such movements. Devoted sports fans and players tend to have developed these skills and can more readily see the beauty that underlies the flash.

“The way Steph Curry shoots is a work of art,” Thomas said. “His shooting stroke, it’s a work of art. It’s perfect. His form is perfect. There used to be a guy named Ken Griffey Jr. [who] played baseball, and his swing was so smooth and looked so effortless, and he hit like 600 home runs. It was a work of art.”

Style can be found anywhere, from the exhilarating moments invincible to time, such as Vince Carter’s “dunk of death” over the 7-foot-2 Frédéric Weis, to the fundamental moves like passing or shooting the ball. However, that style is often either overpowered by flare or unnoticed simply because the play was relatively ordinary. For example, a typical three-pointer during the second quarter won’t receive more than a quick cheer from the crowd. But that style is there. It may not immediately jump out, but it’s there.

The same beauty in the popular sports lies in the more atypical ones. Competitive eating isn’t just about cramming food into your mouth and gulping down water to wash it down. That might be exciting to watch, but there’s an art that lies below. According to professional competitive eater, William “Wild Bill” Myers, a skilled eater must strategically plan when to switch between swal-

lowing and eating more, chewing frequency and which bites to take. These little strategies might be difficult to spot, and are perhaps less exciting to watch for than someone relentlessly gorging himself with food. But if more people can develop the eye to notice such details, then we can learn to see sports as arts, to see beauty in a world plagued with superficiality, commercialism, conformity. We must slow down in this fast-paced world and appreciate the simple elegance behind the chaotic complexities in sports and beyond. e Snap of wrist

Arm straight

Back straight

Feet square to basket

Freshman Siddhant Rao shoots a freethrow. These are some elements of a shot executed with style. Photo by Ananya Bhat.

OPINION / 15

The gender scale Teachers, students share comments on gender issues

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STORY BY EMILY ZHAO AND GRACE ZHOU

ENGTHY DEBATES ON THE INTERNET, anonymous comments on YouTube, angry discussions on social media. We hear about gender inequality all the time. There are those from all different points of

the spectrum: the radical feminists, the men’s right’s activists, and those who play devil’s advocate.

Five students and teachers describe what gender inequality means to them. e

English teacher Mark Carpenter Feminism I am in favor of gender equality. I think of feminism extremely positively. It’s still a necessity as long as there’s a wage gap in this country, as long as there’s a huge gender gap in the tech industry. It’s 100 percent necessary, important, and good.

Gender Inequality I’m the advisor for the Monta Vista League of Legends club. I took over the position from the teacher who previously had this room. I wasn’t unfamiliar with the game or its culture before becoming the advisor, and I see the way that male members of the club treat the club’s sole female officer, kind of dismissively, kind of patronizingly, and I know that that stuff happens in other places at this campus. And the fight’s not over until that stops.

senior Franklin Ty junior Meghan Rai

Gender Inequality [Gender inequality] comes in small incidents and big incidents. There’s big issues of gender inequality and there are the small everyday things you hear that sound kind of unfair. I play football, so I feel like I have to work a little bit harder and be more focused and push myself a little bit more because I’m a girl, and people won’t take me seriously if I don’t. I think we always treat men with a little more respect [than women] in society, so there doesn’t need to be a special day when we do that.

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Gender Inequality I think we’ve gone a long way in terms of creating gender equality in America, but I still think that there’s a long way still to go, especially in terms of getting more women in leadership roles.

Feminism I think the idea of feminism is good, but I feel like in certain movements, it’s become more of female superiority rather than female equality.

I mean there’s one thing, like females in STEM and engineering fields and all that [...] but I don’t think we should give them an unfair advantage over males just because they’re female.

Men’s Rights Gender equality is, of course, a two way street, and though females undergo more oppression than males, males are still slightly oppressed in America, but not to the same scale that women are.

Transgender People I think it’s good that people are being more accepting of [transgender people], but I just don’t like it when people become very offended over the little things people say and things that are pretty trivial.

senior Mihir Gokhale

English teacher Jessica Kaufman Feminism I think true feminism should be an issue of equality between genders or sexes, versus having to put somebody else down.

Being the way you are and owning that and really trying to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and be understanding of others’ perspectives [...] I think that will help change the ideas that are out there.

Gender inequality Women should get to own who they are as a woman just like men get to own who they are as a man. Having to be conscious of walking around at night and knowing that I could be taken advantage of in a way that a man can’t, that’s difficult.

Why I watch Fox News

The national gridlock can only be solved with a little understanding

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S T O RY B Y P R A N AV J A N D H YA L A

students are courteous, but they are undoubtedly left with a sense of discomfort, something similar to what I feel after listening to Ted Cruz speak for an hour. But it is out of this very sense of discomfort that our intellects are challenged and we are forced to think.

Bipartisanship pervades this nation because most decide to forgo this necessary process. Quite simply, no one wants to be proven wrong or even have their principles disputed.

But I’d say that being proven wrong is something that should be celebrated. It means that one has escaped the clutches of a previous ideology that contained opinions too weak to hold weight. Failure to expose one’s opinions to scrutiny therefore undermines the intended purpose of politics, for progress is the result of a continuous pursuit to develop more advanced belief systems.

Opinions are but suggestions for a course of action that are entirely based on the experiences we have had, the books we have read, the people we have listened to and the news we have absorbed throughout our lives. I, nor anyone else, holds a monopoly over opinions. One can only hope to impact meaningful change if they seek to understand the place where opposing opinions come from. Part of this process involves respecting and understanding those whom we disagree with, even if it means taking my daily dose of Fox News. e

MINGJIE ZHONG l EL ESTOQUE ILLUSTRATION

OST MORNINGS, I WAKE UP early, our country’s problems. This is, for the most pour myself a cup of black coffee part, what most politicians want in some and absorb the news. A quick visit capacity regardless of which political party to either Foreign Policy’s or The Economist’s they identify with. Liberals and conservatives website allows me to catch up on any global want the same thing, especially when it issues. After that, I like to read over any comes to fundamental issues such as the interesting recent case analyses published health of the economy. So why is it so hard by the Harvard Law Review. If I am still to find common ground?

For a long time I maintained a awake by then, I indulge by visiting the New York Times’ opinion page, but there is one caricaturized image of the Republican party in my mind. The image thing that I always was racist, xenophobic, do without fail: tune homophobic, sadistic, into the previous and would reappear night’s episode of my whenever someone favorite show, the told me they were O’Reilly Factor. conservative.

This Yes, my favorite was all because I show is the O’Reilly was never exposed to Factor and that manners of therefore means PRANAV JANDHYLAYA different thinking from my own. that Bill O’Reilly, a I read works by liberal staunch conservative THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM thinkers voraciously, (gasp), is one of my but I never realized how favorite political commentators. I know what you’re thinking, they enforced the same patterns of thinking, and no, I have not been brainwashed by his restricting my fixed belief system more and limited logical reasoning or his fruitless more. As a result of intellectual stagnation, attempts at fear mongering that enforce I inadvertently reverted to the state of mind the belief systems of only an extremely I believe the vast majority of politicians ignorant portion of the American electorate. are in: egotistical complacency. The search If anything, his show has done the opposite. for answers is suspended and intellectual When I tune in, I have a pen ready in hubris instead prevails. As a result, they are my hands and a yellow legal pad in my lap. preoccupied with defending a set of beliefs During his rant sessions, I jot down counter by any means necessary.

At liberal universities across the points and form a rebuttal, which I deliver during commercials. In a way, I debate country, there is currently a trend towards O’Reilly every day, and my intellectual automatically dismissing individuals with capacities have grown immensely as a result. a different viewpoint. This PC culture an amplification However, the reason I appreciate him and his is an instinctual show so much go far beyond his status as a of reaction towards a punching bag.

I am a liberal who holds liberal beliefs. caricaturized image, and I believe in the separation between church it embodies intolerance. speakers and state, that we should decrease military Conservative spending, that climate change is real and that like Condoleezza Rice the government has a duty to help those who and Christine Lagarde cannot help themselves. But I only developed are regularly turned away these beliefs with a single principle in mind: from speaking events that politics should involve a constant at liberal schools. But Christian search for answers rather than an endeavor evangelical frequently to develop and defend a fixed worldview, universities for a stubborn mindset is the precursor of invite liberal speakers to share their opinions on dogmatism and entrenched orthodoxy.

I want to one day contribute to solving issues like abortion The conservative

OPINION / 17

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role play

SPECIAL

Exploring the roles that define us noun |rol| and that we defy t some point, we’ve probably seen 1. a characteristic that those classic class superlatives: STORY BY MINGJIE ZHONG class clown. Most likely to succeed.

Most likely to trip walking up the stairs. somebody is either given It’s easy to assign roles. Categorizing others is second nature to many; according or innately has to a survey of 420 MVHS students, 92

A

percent of students have found themselves categorizing others. The “mom” who looks after everyone. The diplomat who mediates every argument. The parent, the child, the teacher, the student.

But these roles are more difficult to define, their nuances elusive in a blackand-white world of labels. How does one describe each deviation from these roles?

Junior Justin Singh believes that these roles come with expectations based upon other people’s perceptions of oneself — these expectations can be limiting.

“The problem with these roles is that they constrict us to what we expect each other to be,” Singh said. “But in reality we have a lot more to offer.”

Yet there may also be benefits to these expectations. Sophomore Aurum Kathuria, who describes himself as an overachiever, says his friends often see him as academically successful — an image that pressures him to work harder.

“If everyone else around you says you are really good at [something],” Kathuria said, “you’re probably going to do better than if no one told you that.”

But trying to fit into a certain role may nevertheless be too restricting. Senior Priyanka Agarwal believes it is possible to step outside one’s assigned role.

“I think [stepping out of roles] shows different aspects of ourselves that we might not have known,” Agarwal said. “It gives us a place to think more about ourselves, to know what we are capable of.”

Read pages 20 to 25 to explore more about the roles we play and sometimes defy. e OM KHANDEKAR | PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

SPECIAL / 19

FEMALE

lead

Examining the stigma around girls initiating askings

STORY BY TRISHA KHOLIYA noun |led| 1. The one in charge: She led the asking.

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JUSTIN KIM | PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

he still had yet to hear a response.

Freshman year. Senior Mallory Strom could hear her pulse race as she waited. She was the one who asked her boyfriend out, and stood shaking waiting for his response. To this day, she doesn’t know how he reacted to her question because her nervousness blinded her to everything but the answer.

“Why does she have to ask him?” To Senior Vidhi Tibrewala, this is the mentality of the average student to a dance asking initiated by a girl. Even she, an avid feminist who almost asked one of her friends to a dance, can’t help but think these thoughts when she sees that kind of asking.

As girls awkwardly fumble posters in their hands, they wait to ask a potential date to the only dance of the year where the majority of people that ask are girls: Sadie Hawkins. A tradition first started in 1934, this dance has become a controversial topic in discussions. Although MVHS stopped holding the dance two years ago, Sadie Hawkins remains a common dance around the community.

Strom notes that creating a separate dance for girls to ask boys not only enforces the idea that the norm is for boys to ask girls to dances, but also alienates non-binary genders and same-gender couples from feeling involved.

“I’m sad that there needs to be a specific event where girls have to ask guys,” Tibrewala said. “That’s just kind of

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inherently weird to me.”

However, the dance also has its own upsides. According to Tibrewala, it allows for an atmosphere in which girls can ask the person of their choosing to a dance without breaking traditions. Sophomore Jadon Bienz sees this dance as the opportunity to encourage the uncommon.

In eighth grade, a girl approached Bienz and asked him to a dance, an offer he accepted. He sees nothing out of the ordinary about girls asking someone of their choosing to the dance. But not everybody sees this in

We think in a way that still promotes how it used to be. We’re almost surprised when it doesn’t happen in the traditional form of courtship. senior Mallory Strom

Photo by Justin Kim.

out for someone to be accepted in the sense that they’re worthy because someone else said yes to them.”

Bienz says that the subtle external pressure that boys place on each other to ask somebody to a dance still persists even as times change.

“No female exactly fits the female gender roles and no male exactly fits the male gender roles,” Strom said. “When you try to force that one very specific view of the world onto a relationship between two actual humans, it doesn’t work out and you don’t get as wonderful a relationship.”

There is some sort of pressure for someone to ask someone out for someone to be accepted in the sense that they’re worthy because someone else said yes to them.

sophomore Jadon Bienz

JUSTIN KIM | PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

the same light.

“I don’t think it’s awkward [for a girl to ask somebody to a dance] but I think society will definitely be judgmental in the sense that she had to ask him,” Tibrewala said. “He didn’t ask her.”

Tibrewala thinks that askings initiated by girls are looked down upon by others because students think that the girl was forced to be the one to ask because the boy wouldn’t ask her. Strom thinks that the biggest problem is the fact that peoples’ reactions to these askings are different than reactions to the typical male asking female.

“That’s where I think the issue is, not in the day-to-day actions, but in the mindset,” Strom said. “We think in a way that still promotes how it used to be. We’re almost surprised when it doesn’t happen in the traditional form of courtship.”

Tibrewala was going to ask someone to a dance until complications arose during MVHS. Her reason was simple — she really cared about the person and wanted to make them feel special with the really cool asking and the posters. She views asking as showing someone how you care for them by making them feel special through planning something really genuine from her heart. Not a culture where boys have to do a majority of the work.

As a young child, Bienz remembers hearing the traditional ideas of how boys ask girls. Traditionally, men are supposed to pay for the date, be the care-taker and manage the relationship by being the stronger one.

However, as gender equality becomes more prominent in the world, Tibrewala says that girls need to catch these gender differences of society and break the traditions once held.

“I observe it a lot with the males around here. They’re like, ‘Oh, you should go ask this person out,’” Bienz said. “So there is some sort of pressure for someone to ask someone

JUSTIN KIM | PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

SPECIAL / 21

squadT roles |skwäd| noun 1. persons engaged in a common enterprise.

Friends define their roles in a group STORY BY KRISTIN CHANG AND ADA CHEN PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JUSTIN KIM

hey lean on the concrete walls — and sometimes one another — as they eat their lunches.

Then it begins.

One girl hums a chorus. Before they can stop themselves, they’ve broken the only formal contract of their friendship: the two-line rule.

The law of the land is that everyone can only sing two lines of any song, or else they’d be singing all through lunch.

After all, many of them met in choir at Kennedy Middle School, and so

their singing is compulsive.

The rule is broken almost daily, and they soon dissolve into laughter. Their lunches together never fail to bring them closer as they hum or laugh or imitate one another, their voices overlapping, ebbing and blending like song. And yet each voice is distinct.

“We’re all complete opposites of each other,” freshman Samheeta Mistry said. “Opposites attract.

That’s the one thing that describes us.” e

The honest one Samheeta mistry

“I am myself and I’m not going to listen to you,” freshman Advika Verma said, imitating Mistry.

“People say I’m very direct,” Mistry said, agreeing.

“She’s never afraid to say what she thinks,” freshman Maddie Yung said. “She’s not afraid of making her feelings known. You can ask her opinion on anything, and she’ll tell you. But she doesn’t impose her opinion.”

The realist Meijie Liao

“Most people in this group say, ‘I’m gonna be a pop star, I’m gonna be super successful and make a lot of money,’ and I’m here saying, ‘I’m probably going to be working as a checkout clerk at Staples,’” freshman Meijie Liao said.

Liao describes herself as an observer, someone who can distance herself from any situation.

“A lot of people are focused on the little things, but they miss the big concepts,” Liao said. “It helps you see the world differently. Instead of the nitty-gritty things, you see the world as a whole.”

The political one Advika verma

“I know this country is broken,” freshman Advika Verma said. “I feel very strongly about government [and social] issues, [like] gay rights, abortion, college —” “You feel strongly about everything!” freshman Mahima Kapur said. Laughing, Verma agrees.

“I [even] have opinions on pockets — I think they should all be bigger.”

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The mom Elika Hashemi

“We balance each other out. If you’re the loud one, then you’re with other people who are quiet, if you’re the mom, you’re with adventurous people,” Hashemi said.

“It really makes you try new things.”

When everyone speaks at once, she shushes the group, waving her hands.

“Pay attention,” she says, and they do.

The diplomat Maddie yung

“I’m scared to order food at a restaurant. I ask other people to order for me sometimes. I don’t like being rejected, even if it’s not harsh rejection,” Yung said.

“I don’t understand how she’s so nonconfrontational because so many things make me mad,” Verma said, interrupting. “She’s so good at brushing things off and not taking things to heart. That’s her strength.”

The perfeCtionist Reema apte

Freshman Zinnia Saha recalls that in seventh grade, their math teacher called on freshman Reema Apte to write something on the board, and she brought a ruler with her. Even now, whenever she writes on a sheet of paper, she makes sure that her writing is always perfectly straight.

But she’s more than just neat. To many of her friends, Apte is the very example of perfection.

“Six-minute mile. Pretty green eyes,” freshman Zinnia Saha said, listing out Apte’s traits. “Amazing artist, smart. She’s so perfect… That’s why we pick on her.”

“It’s out of love,” Saha said.

The sweet one savannah stevens

The outgoing one

zinnia saha

Freshman Zinnia Saha admits she often speaks impulsively, though she’s learned to think before she speaks. That hasn’t always been the case. Once, when she was watching two friends fight, she blurted out to one girl if she could calm down.

The girl began crying, and Saha later realized she had been a little insensitive. But speaking impulsively is also her strength.

“It gets you noticed. If you’re not mean about it, it gets you respect,” she said.

“I’ve learned that you can go farther in life by being nice and saying things that make other people happy, rather than being negative,” Stevens said. “So I try to be [that person].”

“She always looks out for everyone in the group,” freshman Reema Apte said, pointing at the gray jacket slung over her shoulder. It was Savannah who asked for that jacket from a friend so that Apte wouldn’t be cold.

“She makes sure that the group is well.”

Stevens smiles bashfully. “And when you’re at your lowest, it feels good to have someone recognize you at your best.”

SPECIAL / 23

Parental

guidance

BY AKSHARA MAJJIGA noun |gahyd-ns| STORY AND MINGJIE ZHONG 1. supporting another person

Students support parents in breaching the language barrier

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here are times when senior Keven as her mother’s English-Chinese translator Shang would rather his mother not and often feels frustrated with her mother’s speak English at all. language shortcomings — a frustration For instance, the time his mother dragged she can empathize with, however, because him to a department store a few years ago. Ma moved to the United States only at the Shang recalls his mother attempting to beginning of her freshman year. haggle with the clerk over the price — a Despite first learning English in common practice in his kindergarten in China, mother’s homeland China I had to do it Ma did not begin — as he desperately tried to because I knew speaking English on a persuade her to do otherwise. day-to-day basis until The clerk stood nearby, that she wouldn’t she arrived in the United confused by the heated for the start of understand. I had States conversation and hindered high school. But on top from understanding by a to kind of act the of the uncertainties language barrier that lasted often face on role [of a parent]. students only until the two jabbering the first day of freshman customers left. sophomore Priscilla Siow year, Ma experienced But for Shang and his frustration over the mother, the English-Chinese usual first-day-of-school language barrier is an inescapable one. In signatures: green sheets.

Shang’s mother’s 18 years in the United When Ma handed her mother the green States, communicating in English has been sheets, she expected that her mother would a source of dismay. After learning English sign them without argument. However, her for the U.S. Naturalization Test which all U.S. mother insisted on knowing the specifics immigrants must take, Shang says his mother of each sheet, and Ma’s weak translation essentially forgot English. As a result, Shang, caused her mother to lose her patience, who sees himself as a part-time translator, resulting in an argument — how almost has become his mother’s voice and ears with every translating case ends for Ma. English speakers.

Yet, due to increased immersion in “Just being there to support my mom MVHS’ English-speaking environment, Ma’s with her language struggles [helps] me improvement in English has allowed her to understand we all come from different better understand her peers. places,” Shang said. “[We] all have different “Sometimes I feel proud of myself backgrounds and ways of thinking.” because my English is better than [my Like Shang, sophomore Kitty Ma serves mother’s],” Ma said. “[When] I [first came]

FIRST NAME BASIS English literature teacher Kate Evard’s children, who are 15 and 17, refer to her as “Kate.”

While Evard isn’t exactly sure why, her children began

24 / EL ESTOQUE / NOV 2015

to this country, I wasn’t able to understand people very well.” Ma notes, however, that life here is harder for her mother.

Sophomore Priscilla Siow and her younger brother are the only ones in her house who speak English fluently. With her father working overseas, Siow assumed the position as the family translator — it has become commonplace for her to order food at an American restaurant or read her mother’s mail for her. Sometimes, Siow is forced to bypass the system altogether and fill out surveys and sports forms on her own.

To some extent, she finds it easier that way.

“I had to do it,” Siow said, “because I knew that [my mom] wouldn’t understand.

I had to kind of act the role [of a parent].”

Siow lives with her grandparents, who also speak minimal English. They try to get by with smiles, nods and hand gestures.

Siow can empathize with their frustration at living in a country where communication is an issue because her own knowledge of Chinese is simply “enough to get by.” Her struggle to speak Chinese at home helps her relate to her family’s struggles with English.

Shang laughs lightly as he recalls the times he helped translate conversations for his mother.

“After those moments, when you look back [and] feel that you’ve done something to help someone connect with another person — being that bridge is a rewarding feeling in the end,” Shang said. “But it’s something that I didn’t start realizing until I looked back.” e

BY DANIEL LIN

to call her and her husband by their first names five years ago. “[It] started when you go shopping or you’re out in a public place and you hear ‘mom’ and all of the moms turn their heads and everything,” Evard said, “so they started finding they could get our attention better if

they called us by our first names.”

Evard initially found it amusing, but beneath the humor, Evard does recount feeling a bit disappointed.

“I’m sure I thought, especially early on, ‘That’s kind of sad. They don’t call me mommy any more,’” Evard said.

exchange STUDENT noun |iks’CHanj| 1. to switch positions in order to immerse oneself in a separate environment

The time I refused to kill a Mockingbird

JUSTIN KIM | PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

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early 16 days ago, I faced what my fellow AP Literature students would call a “blasphemy of nature,” the incomprehensible idea that I, a 17-year-old high school senior taking AP Literature, was stupefied by a question about making inferences. The question in front of me was simple enough: Complete each sentence by making an inference about each subject.

“Dill is a child who is ________.” All I had to do was guess, but for some reason my past three years in literature failed me in my most dire time of need: freshman literature.

Let me explain. A couple weeks ago, I left the reign of 2016 and entered the unknown land of 2019. I followed freshman Claire Chang to her classes: elementary biology, rudimentary literature, the typical freshman schedule. I started my day thinking it would be a break from my college application-andAP-oriented life, and it had been, until I was faced with the inexplicable Dill Harris from Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird.”

After contemplating the question (and my sanity), I concluded that there was no way I could answer it. There were layers and layers of Dill, and trying to fit him in a little blank would be as utterly wrong as, well, killing a mockingbird. I knew I just had to simplify my thinking. But it wasn’t that I refused to

simplify my analysis, I just couldn’t. Since leaving the confines of freshman literature, I have forgotten what it means to think simply. I have forgotten what it means to be a freshman.

But as I followed Chang around, being a freshman suddenly reminded me of the first time I went ice-skating. I walked into the rink with a perfect plan: stick to the wall like a barnacle.

My friends tried to make me let go, but why on Earth would I venture to the center of the rink when there was this nice, solid wall to support me?

The skates on my feet weren’t exactly stable and I preferred my body intact. To me, my decision was black and white: Not do, or die.

Freshman year was my first attempt at the skating rink that was high school. I remember when I was a freshman, a Link leader came in and told the class, “It’s way too early to be thinking about college now.” I thought he was a nutcase, that it couldn’t possibly be too early to start thinking about college. Besides, I had

it figured out already. I was going to major in biology, become a doctor, start my own clinic and come back to teach in 40 years. I was scared of uncertainty then. There was too much ice and only my wobbly skates to support me. So I took the simple course of action and designed my future, hoping it would keep me from falling.

It had been a great plan, until I met a certain fetal pig and learned the truth about dissections. That forced the question, what happens if I let go of the wall? I fall, duh. And if I don’t? Eventually a couple of my friends coaxed me away from the wall and I slowly began to skate. It was only after some frightening almost-falls that I discovered my true passion.

So sitting in freshman Biology with Chang, one freshman girl asked me, “I see people that have their whole paths figured out with their four year plans and such. It’s way too early to be thinking about this sort of thing, right?”

I found myself saying, “It’s definitely too early.” What four-year paper plan was going to be able to predict the bends of her life?

It’s hard to describe what changed, but the moment I found myself back in freshman shoes, I realized that my feet didn’t fit them anymore. Cornell notes in biology, A-B-C theses in literature and homework collected every day in math — all these things represented the simplicity of freshman year. I needed the freedom to make mistakes. Although some of these freedoms seemed insignificant, as I relived my day as a freshman, I realized I’d gotten so used to them, that suddenly their absence seemed stifling. I don’t want straightforward and simple anymore, not if it means losing the lessons I have learned and the maturity I have gained.

I couldn’t simplify Dill in all his glory. It wouldn’t do Dill, or me, justice. e

MILONI VORA

SPECIAL / 25

OUTSIDE LAND Some Oaks Center businesses find success in a left behind part of Cupertino STORY BY ALINA ABIDI AND SANJANA MURTHY

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T SEEMS LIKE EVERY MONTH, YOU GET A FACEBOOK INVITATION TO THE GRAND OPENING OF A NEW STORE IN CUPERTINO. Something shiny and sleek, with a short, catchy name: The Melt, CREAM, The Counter. But on the other side of Stelling Rd., there’s an area that doesn’t really exist on social media.

There’s an area that’s been here for 25 years, an area that’s seen all of Cupertino modernize around it — an area that’s getting left behind. And yet, in The Oaks Shopping Center on Stevens Creek Boulevard, a few businesses have found success in unique ways and grown their roots.

AS YOU WALK up to the Hobee’s front door, there’s usually someone rushing to the entrance to open it for you. Sometimes that person is manager Rekha Mayavan.

On a cold Friday evening, she held the door open as a disabled patron left the store after warmly wishing her a good night. She casually confided that she gave the customer a 50 percent discount on the meal.

This scene isn’t uncommon at Hobee’s.

The management knows a lot of their customers well, and some of them extremely well. Since the store’s opening in 1986, it’s had regulars coming in every week or even every day, often ordering “the usual.”

Though Sid Quezada, a student at De Anza College across the street, has

only worked at Hobee’s for a month, she already has a regular to whom she serves iced tea every night.

“Just having a couple of regular customers isn’t enough to generate the sort of constant revenue you need to keep this place open,” she said, “but the fact is, [Hobee’s] is reliable [in the community]. It’s got more of a vibe — old fashioned, I guess.”

Quezada’s mom worked at another, now defunct Hobee’s a decade ago, while studying and raising Quezada. This Hobee’s is the only franchise location left — all the other ones have gone corporate or shut down.

Aside from the family connection, the main reason Quezada went to Hobee’s and eventually applied for the job was because of its convenient location. “[Before or after] a long day of classes, you can run in and grab something,” Quezada said. “It’s not full, except during breakfast.

It seems like one of those places where if you heard about it going under, you’d think, ‘Oh no! I loved their coffee cake.’”

Hobee’s doesn’t advertise, but according to Mayavan, it’s not going out of business anytime soon. After an event at De Anza or the Flint Center, they see a surge of customers and groups. As part of its efforts to be a strong part of the community, the restaurant also donates its famous coffee cake to local events, like Memorial Park’s Veterans Day ceremony.

However,

that’s the extent of their high school connection. The store’s average customer is older and more traditional, someone who prefers coffee cake and iced tea to ice cream sandwiches and pearl milk tea.

ACCORDING TO Coffee Society barista Caleb Seaton, when he grew up in Cupertino, people went to three places: work, home and Coffee Society. It was the place where he met up with his friends before deciding what to do that day.

Now, a decade later, it’s a convenient location with competitive prices, but it’s by no means a community hub.

“There’s no real pull to this IF YOU place,” he said.

However, HEARD Seaton noted ABOUT that Coffee Society goes through [HOBEE’S] cycles of popuGOING larity with high schoolers.

For UNDER, awhile, it won’t YOU’D be cool. Then one student will THINK, ‘OH “discover” it, their NO! I LOVED friends will start trickling in and THEIR it’ll eventually reach where it is COFFEE now: most school CAKE!’ nights, the restaurant is full of SID QUEZADA, MVHS students Hobee’s server sipping on iced

Harlan Graves (right) talks to friends outside COFFEE SOCIETY and HOBEE’S on Nov. 6. Graves, a student at De Anza College, visits the Oaks every weekday.

16 / EL ESTOQUE / SEP 2015

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L EST

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cappuccinos, typing on their Macbooks.

Though the coolness cycle currently brings in customers, the business also has daily visitors due to ALIN A AB its proximity to IDI | E L EST OQU De Anza. Despite the E steady flow of customers, there’s a sense that the establishment is taken for granted. According to the baristas, they check the prices of all nearby coffee shops to keep theirs low, but people still complain. They also agreed that they have “the most used bathroom in Cupertino,” with people ranting on Yelp if there’s ever a line.

But not everyone is unappreciative — Harlan Graves, a De Anza student who hangs out outside Coffee Society five times a week, loves the area for its people. Graves thinks that most of his classmates come for the WiFi, but he comes for its bitter but friendly employees and his group of friends, who mock each other’s facial hair between cigarette puffs.

OTHER OAKS CENTER restaurants lack the personal connections Hobee’s and even Coffee Society have built. While these establishments have had over two decades to develop them, newer restaurants at the center have had less than two years — or even less than two months. Older restaurants can depend on a steady stream of customers to keep them afloat while newer and cooler places pop up, but their neighboring shops are not as lucky.

Thai Square and Chaat House have similar tales of turning over a new leaf. Both struggled under previous owners, with understaffing and customer service issues, until the owner gave up and sold the restaurant to a friend. Now under new management, the current owners are learning from previous mistakes.

“I hired one of the best Thai chefs from San Francisco, and now many Thai people

A&E Senior Mallory Strom, freshman Heather Migdal and senior Paula Perez drink JAMBA JUICE after a field hockey group run on Nov. 6.

Each year, the team collects orders and runs together. invite their friends for lunch for authentic Thai food,” Thai Square owner and manager Boyd Sooknetr said.

The two businesses attract customers through high quality food and service, and let word of mouth do its job. Whether it’s people happy to have authentic food close to home or people eager to test out flavors, these new restaurants are rapidly growing and working hard to succeed where others have failed before.

LOCATED NEXT TO BUSINESSES fighting to make a name for themselves, there are two big chains in the Oaks Center for whom that isn’t exactly a concern: Jamba Juice and Quickly. The restaurants draw in customers from De Anza College and nearby high schools throughout the day. Other places in the center, like Swurlz Frozen Yogurt, have to rely on advertising such as discounts and loyalty cards to gain customers, but the well known brands of Jamba Juice and Quickly are enough to keep customers coming back.

“We get all kinds of people com-

ing in, but definitely a lot of De Anza students because it’s so close,” said Alana Harris, freshman at DeAnza and Jamba Juice employee.

For most students who spend time at the Oaks Center, its proximity trumps the wider variety of shops available at other centers in Cupertino.

“I live by Target so we go to the TJ Maxx complex,” junior Oeshi Banerjee said. “I think it’s the options that are available that makes it better [than the Oaks Center].”

Banerjee spent her Friday afternoon on Nov. 6 on a Jamba Juice run with her field hockey team, and probably wouldn’t have thought to visit the Oaks Center otherwise.

For her, unless she has a reason to be there, it’s just not a place she would choose to hang out.

As Cupertino gravitates toward change, hurting parts of the Oaks in the process, the restaurants with loyal followings know that people will keep coming back for a daily latte before class, or a nightly piece of coffee cake to wrap up the day. e

Cathy Ning and Vicky Liu, De Anza College students, study in COFFEE SOCIETY after class on Nov. 6. The two often come here to work due its proximity to school.

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A & E / 17

Play it forward

Students service their community, the world through music STORY BY HANNAN WALIULLAH

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OMMUNITY SERVICE IS A MEDIUM for change. People can change the community and the world through their service. Global Youth Philanthropy

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NE OF THE EVENTS THAT senior president Meredith YoungNg looks forward to in Tri-M is “Breakfast with Santa”, where little kids eat breakfast, meet Santa Claus, and make arts and crafts. Tri-M’s role in this event is to play the background music.

“At the Quinlan community center, one guy dresses up as Santa, and little kids get to meet Santa, and eat breakfast and do other crafts,” Tri-M member senior Janani Sridhar said. “They give background music, like holiday songs.”

However, Tri-M’s music was not just “background music”.

“The kids came up and approached us, and they were watching really intensely.

Some kids asked ‘Oh, what instrument is that?’ as though they were possibly interested in learning,” Young-Ng said. “I was happy that they noticed because a lot of times when you go to events, background music gets lost.”

Young-Ng became an officer in her junior

and Tri-M Music Honor Society are both organizations that blend both community service with their music, to help their club, their community and the world.

year and is currently president. Throughout her four years of being in this club, she learned organizational, logistical, and practical skills. However, the most crucial skill she learned in this club was how she could use music to impact people.

“One of the most important parts about music is a very communal shared experience, and I think that perfoming at all these community service events allows people to get involved in it and experience it as well.”

Many senior citizens are unable to go out and enjoy music themselves. One of Tri-M’s recurring events is to play at the Forum Retirement Community to the seniors. Young-Ng explains how playing at the Forum is fulfilling. ”I remember one time last year one of the members was playing a piece, and the seniors started singing along. It was cute,” Young-Ng said. “Even just for a little bit, you’re entertaining someone and making their life better.” e

W

Freshman Eric Huang Global Youth Philanthropy 28 / EL ESTOQUE / NOV 2015

HEN FRESHMAN ERIC HUANG plays the piano, his head sways up and down as his fingers delicately touch the black and white keys. His music is elegant; for a purpose. It’s hard to believe that a few years ago, Eric thought he found it hard to emotionally touch people.

Four years ago, Huang was attending classes at Kwan Music when he learned about Global Youth Philanthropy. Members were preparing for their first fundraising concert “Sending Love to Nepal”. After deciding to play at the concert, Huang started to feel the pressure, being a sixth grader and one of the younger performers.

“It was taken seriously, and everyone was so talented. I was pretty young, so I didn’t have that much experience back then. I felt as if I need to practice more and more to meet their standard,” Huang said.

Senior Meredith Young Ng Tri-M Music Honor Society

“They had this thing with music where they touched people and I felt that people could really enjoy their music.”

The concert sold out, raising over 7,000 dollars. This year, it was Huang’s fourth year doing the concert. Throughout his years playing for Global Youth Philanthropy, Huang has matured as both a person, and a musician.

“It’s not as much pressure,” Huang said.

“I was more open to an audience and wasn’t afraid of people watching and judging me.”

According to Huang, the performers at the concert serviced both the audience and the orphans in Nepal. The audience was given music to enjoy, while the people in Nepal were helped with the money the performers raised.

“Over there, even going to school is a privilege, you actually have to pay,” Huang said. “Not everyone can go to school to receive their education.” e

The popularity card

Entertainment figures use influence to become politicians STORY BY ILENA PENG

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ESPITE MIXED OPINIONS ON DONald Trump’s run for the presidency, he is still leading the Republican polls, meanwhile influencing other celebrities. At the 2015 Video Music Awards, Kanye West announced his decision to run for president in 2020 and soon after, Lindsay Lohan made an Instagram post revealing her interest in joining the election.

Celebrities have used their experience with

media to become successful politicians in the past. Comedian Al Franken is currently the senator of Minnesota. Bodybuilder and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger previously served as the California governor, and former actor Ronald Reagan was also a California governor before becoming president.

But how influential are celebrities? If your on-screen movie crush ran for president, would you vote for them?

DOES CELEBRITY STATUS AFFECT OUR VIEWS?

SENIOR Ahmad-Ali Ahmad We see how our favorite entertainers are going into politics and we see that connection and think, ‘Well if they’re good in the entertainment industry, they might be good at politics.’

DO CELEBRITIES HAVE THE ABILITY TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL POLITICIANS?

GOVERNMENT TEACHER Ben Recktenwald No. I think entertainers are grossly unfit to be politicians.

Most of them have no clue what they’re talking about.

WHY WOULD PEOPLE VOTE FOR FIGURES LIKE DONALD TRUMP?

Voting Poll *From an online survey of 420 students

Do you think Donald Trump should be running for president?

17%

Yes

Can celebrities become successful politicians?

49%

Yes

If your favorite celebrity ran for president, would you vote for them even if you didn’t agree with their political views?

94%

No

Why do you think celebrities want to run for president?

To get more media attention

79%

To earn more money 11%

JUNIOR Aviv Brook He’s uncensored. He can just say what he wants.

To help the country

10%

MINGJIE ZHONG | EL ESTOQUE ILLUSTRATION

A & E / 29

Channeling You

Students discuss effects of YouTubers on inspiration, entertainment S T O R Y B Y S H R I YA D E S H PA N D E

SOPHOMORE MARGARET HALCIN

Last liked Danisnotonfire’s “Pumpkin Spice Pumpkin Cookies” video Last liked a “Buzzfeed” video SENIOR NATHAN NGUYEN

Last commented on own video “Dinosaur Attack 3” Last liked “Godzilla vs. Roshan Teaser SOPHOMORE TRISHA ANAND

Last liked Troye Sivan’s vlog “This is the Best Day of My Life” Last liked Danisnotonfire’s “The Internet Is Mean” video

Photos taken by Justin Kim

Icons used from Noun Project

1:13/3:00

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YLER OAKLEY: 7.7 MILLION as Nguyen posted, the number of subscrib- entertain his viewers and himself. subscribers. Troye Sivan: 3.6 ers slowly rose.

Sophomore Trisha Anand, avid Youtumillion subscribers. Dan and His channel now has 24,853 subscrib- ber follower, has an answer: She thinks part Phil: 1.6 million subscribers. ers and features short films about dinosaurs of what has allowed some Youtubers to reach The large numbers above beg the and seasonal movies, such as a Halloween stardom is how unique each video is and the question: What is it about these individu- themed horror film in October. Nguyen uses understanding video makers have of their als that has garnered the attention of mil- analytics as feedback to see what people en- audiences. Part of receiving a lot of views is lions of fans internationally? being receptive to what sort of conAnd in particular, what is it “[YOUTUBE] IS ONE WAY TO PICK tent is relatable to a range of people. about these individuals that believes that the ability to MYSELF BACK UP SO THAT I DON’T formShe draws some MVHS students? a connection between themSenior Nathan Nguyen GO BACK TO THAT DITCH I WAS IN.” selves and their audiences is what has an answer, and the anallows people like Tyler Oakley, an swer starts with a moment in SOPHOMORE MARGARET HALCIN active Youtuber talking about his 2010, when he first created daily life, to grow their fan bases. his Youtube channel. Although initially he joy watching.

Anand formed this thought when she was creating short video clips for fun, as “I make movies that I would watch,” was introduced to Tyler Oakley’s channel a simple and creative way to spend time Nguyen said. “Viewers expect the dinosaur in seventh grade after some of her friends with friends, it grew to be something ones the most [...] I make sure to give my discovered his videos. She became a regumuch bigger. viewers the dino fix that they desire.” lar visitor of his channel and began hunting Soon, he started watching videos Using other Youtube videos and his for other Youtubers with their own takes on that other Youtubers were creating, es- audience’s interests as inspiration, Nguyen school, other people and life in general. pecially Lego stop motions, and came to and his friends collaborate to create scripts For Anand, watching YouTubers like realize that the ones he most enjoyed were and short films for a variety of different top- Oakley and Dan and Phil, who make humorones he wanted to recreate with a unique ics. Not only does he enjoy watching others’ ous videos about gaming, and Sivan, who twist of his own. He did exactly that and videos, he tries to emulate what he sees to makes videos about his life and music, is a

3 0 / E L E S T O Q U E / N OV 2 0 1 5

PRESS PLAY Subscriptions

Video Bloggers Jenna Marbles Ryan Higa

Do-it-yourself Rachel Levin Zoella

Music

Tyler Ward Kina Grannis

Food Recipes Laura Vitale Byron Talbott

Gaming

PewDiePie Smosh Games way to spend free time after a school day and also learn about strangers’ experiences.

“Through their videos you can really tell their personalities... like Dan, I think his personality is kind of similar to mine,” said Anand. “I understand what he’s saying when he makes videos about certain topics, like I can relate and then I’d want to watch more, you know, to see where I stand on things.”

Even though Dan and Phil, Tyler Oakley and Troye Sivan’s Youtube channels generally serve as a way to relax and have fun, it also gives Anand a sense of awareness about what others are going through and how to cope with any of her own problems.

Youtubers carry a different sort of importance for sophomore Margaret Halcin.

Towards the end of eighth grade, she was at one of the lowest points in her middle school years. Unlike many other students who procrastinated and neglected their work, Halcin continued to struggle to earn what she considers “average grades at best.”

Regardless of how much effort she put into her school work, it was difficult for her to keep up and the frustration grew. It was then that her depression worsened and Halcin found it difficult to keep from giving up.

During this low point, Halcin’s friend introduced her to Oakley. She did not immediately realize the effect he and other Youtubers would have on her perspective on positivity and finding happiness.

When she started watching Oakley’s videos, Halcin realized that he and several

others had faced problems and they had found ways to overcome them. She describes how watching Youtubers who seem so enthusiastic, even with the hate they face, makes her feel happier and more excited.

“It’s nice to know that there’s someone out there who went after what they wanted,” Halcin said. “And they’re happy now and I hope to see myself like that in the future.”

During bouts of sadness, Halcin finds comfort through binge-watching television and Youtubers.

“Even on some days when I’m feeling a bit more down than usual, I usually go and check Youtube first,” Halcin said. “Because that is one way to pick myself back up so that I don’t go back to that ditch I was in.”

What Anand and Halcin both have in common, aside from following the same Youtubers, is their mentality on the Youtubers’ increasing popularity.

Anand and Halcin both attribute Oakley’s growing popularity to his connectability — when he describes random situations, the humor of the situation makes it easy for them to understand what he is saying regardless of whether they have experienced that moment themselves.

“They speak up about a problem they faced in their life that I didn’t know was a prevalent problem,” Anand said.

According to Anand, each channel, regardless of topic, promotes a certain ideal and each video, whether it is about how a bird pooped on Oakley or whether Troye Sivan released a new album emphasizes an aspect of their lives that can be translated to a message. Some videos show the significance of physically writing down, with pen and paper, aspirations and dreams or the importance of maintaining an open mindset about other people’s choices.

For Anand, Youtubers help with relaxation and sometimes give life advice. For Nguyen, Youtubers are a source of inspiration in terms of ideas for his own videos.

For Halcin, Youtubers help with her thoughts on negativity and school work. Even though they serve different purposes, these online gurus are impacting how students see things and feel about each other.

“If I liked [the Youtuber’s] personality enough, I would enjoy them as a person too,” Anand said. “Not just their content but the Youtubers themselves.” e

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A & E 31

Just another Friday

Thoughts on Black Friday through Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’

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ACH NOVEMBER, I’M BESTOWED Apparently, there are online sales for both WITH A BEAUTIFUL GIFT known Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which just as Thanksgiving break, what’s goes to show how this is all one huge sales supposed to be a cornucopia of food, promotion. Any shopping I do this year will sleep and fun. And among those two short be on my laptop, which ironically, I bought school days off is Black Friday — a day that online on Black Friday the year before. is much too hectic for me to even step outside. A few years ago, I Seeing every thing, the swore I’d never again stand in one time is going of those mile long lines. So I stay home, following my self-patented I don’t need to see what’s anti-Black Friday routine. After happening in every mall all, what is there for me to across the country. The imexperience? It’s just an overly age is painted right before promoted marketing plan for I’ve heard all the horILENA PENG me. every store across the country. ror stories. Endless “lines” The hate I have for Black MUSICAL MUSINGS that in reality, look closer to Friday is just slightly more than mobs. Waiting six hours for the loathing I feel for Rebecca something and then having Black’s “Friday,” which says a lot as my the product run out five minutes before you distaste for her song on a scale of 1 to 10 is reach the front of the line. Carrying pepper roughly 9.1 billion — the amount of money spray just because, you know, humans can people spent on Black Friday last year be bears too, right? according to CNN. I’ll just sit at home with a bowl of pop-

Seven a.m. waking up in the morning It’s thanksgiving break, for crying out loud — I am not getting up at seven. Trust me, I won’t be up until noon at the earliest.

By which time all the good deals will be gone since there are always overzealous shoppers each year who line up on Thursday night.

Ticking on and on, everybody’s rushing

corn beside me watching the endless movie of Black Friday disasters on my computer.

Oh, did I mention that I’m also using this wonderful device to buy the exact same things that those pepper spray-carrying shoppers are?

I’m sitting with my phone in my hand, my computer still open on my lap. Unlike most people, I can sit and relax in peace. The ticking clock doesn’t bother me; I’m calmly reading “breaking news” about Black Friday.

At the mall, the sounds of fragmented conversations overwhelm one’s ears. The hours of Black Friday are rushing by just as fast as the exuberant shoppers are.

The mall is a sudden flash flood of sweaty human beings and trampled feet.

The online store crashes right when I’m about to hit the “checkout” button.

I sigh and give up, closing the lid of my laptop. I get up and stretch, then pick up my homework. After all, it is just another Friday night and my two school days off don’t really offer that much consolation. I shouldn’t be using online shopping as an excuse for procrastination anyway.

Five minutes later, I’ve not only given up on shopping, but on homework too. It’s okay; I’ll do the homework eventually. On Sunday night. And I promise I’ll still go shopping.

Monday night.

Looking back on my Black Friday routine, it seems rather unproductive. But in reality, what I need isn’t new clothes or gadgets.

This routine is all I really need — a day at home by myself to destress and enjoy all the things I’ve neglected for months. e

Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal Not only would I wake up too late to get all the good deals, it’d be so late that it’s lunchtime. No one has time for cereal. Off to the mall food court I go.

However, it’s been several years since I’ve shopped on Black Friday. No longer do I have to endure the juxtaposition of overpriced food court items and discounted “made in China” products at the mall. In this 21st century marvel, I can get all the cheap products I want online.

32 / EL ESTOQUE / NOV 2015

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Blurred lines Students explore activities on the fence of being classified as “athletic”

SPORTS

STORY AND PHOTOS BY SANDHYA KANNAN GRAPHIC BY ELIZABETH HAN

MAKING THE MOVE THINKING OUTSIDE THE CUBE

Junior Kesav Viswanadha teaching a club member a useful trapping move on Oct 27.

Viswanadha is currently working toward the Grandmaster title.

Senior Tiffany Chien demonstrating speedcubing. Chien is currently at an 11 second solving time for 3-by-3s.

BRIDGING THE GAPS

Senior Tiffany Chien has “speedcubed” for as long as she can remember.

For her, speedcubing, although a competitive activity, has been more a mode of relaxation than anything else.

The idea behind cubing not only requires the ability to algorithmically solve the cube, but also the ability to progressively gain speed through each round of solving it. For Chien, her specialty is three-by-three speedcubing. While most boast their abilities to simply solve the cube, to Chien, any time that isn’t within a few seconds is not incredibly impressive.

“I think at this point, I can solve a 3-by-3 in 11 seconds or so,” Chien said.

“I calculated being in the top 2 percent of cubers, and being a girl, that’s sort of uncommon.”

Cubing as a competitive activity requires thorough dedication and skill development; however, it is not officially recognized as a sport, nor have there been any motions for its recognition as one. And even though Chien is actively involved in competitive cubing, her stance on the activity being a sport is somewhat hazy.

“Yeah, I guess you could call it a sport, maybe. It depends,” Chien said.

“If you consider a sport something with excessive physical activity, then it isn’t.

But [speedcubing] requires skill, training and equipment and it is competitive, so I would consider it a sport. In every other

To senior Dan Zhukov, the card game bridge was an activity that effectively bridged the distance between the move from Russia to the United States. Having first learned the game in Russia, he became more involved after he arrived in America.

His first exposure to bridge tournaments was in New Jersey, when he and some of his cross country teammates got together one evening to play. From that point on, he began going to tournaments, especially after his move to the Bay Area.

“There is this element of guessing and luck,” Zhukov said. “When you think through your moves, you have to account for the possibility that what you are guessing might not be the case.”

Zhukov, though not incredibly involved in the activity, still considers it to be no different from conventional athletics. For him, it is just a matter of breaking the boundaries and looking outside of the stereotypical perspective that is often set for sports.

“The thing about running is that it is a burst of 15 to 20 minutes, whereas bridge games can last a long, long time,” Zhukov said. “I’d suggest to all of those people who scoff at the thought of it being considered a sport to try the game for themselves and see if they still think that way.”

Senior Dan Zhukov explains the rules of bridge on Oct. 27. Zhukov is currently trying to reinstate the idle bridge club for the 2015-2016 year.

Chess has always been an integral part of junior Kesav Viswanadha’s life.

He has won tournament after tournament, building up his chess toolkit with several years of arduous practice.

Viswanadha started learning chess at the mere age of five. Over the years, he has attended international competitions, such as the World Youth Chess Championships in Greece, and was recently crowned the North American Junior Champion at a tournament in Canada.

“I used to play tournaments once every two weeks, and now it’s maybe once a month, Viswanadha said. “I’ve traveled all over the the world, and it’s been a really great experience.”

Currently, Viswanadha’s goal is to transcend his current position as an International Master, the second highest level possible for a competitive chess player to reach, to reach the Grandmaster position. Having trained for years to get to this level, to Viswanadha, chess is a sport in every sense — regardless of what other people have said about the activity.

“Anyone who says it isn’t a sport just doesn’t know the game well,” Viswanadha said. “I’ve grown up with this sport, and I have grown as a person because of the game. People just need to open up their minds and play the game before making judgments.”

SPORTS / 33

MALINI RAMAIYER | EL ESTOQUE

KEEP YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER ATHLETES FIND THAT THE CLOSEST TEAMS MAKE THE BIGGEST COMPETITION STORY BY PRANAV IYER AND MALINI RAMAIYER

T

he stands were full, it was raining and the game was in a deadlock as they headed into a tiebreaker. It was the 1973 helmet game and current head coach Jeff Mueller led the team as the starting quarterback in this game as part of the first graduating class of MVHS. “We had them beat and all of a sudden, they threw a double pass and went for 50 yards and they beat us at the tiebreaker,” Vierra said. “To this day, all those kids that I see who played in that game, even [Cupertino High School] people who played in that game, come and talk to me and tell me about that game.”

The football team, along with other

3 4 /EELL EESSTTOOQQUUEE / N O V 2 0 1 5

MVHS sports, define their primary rivalries as ones either with teams of similar skill or teams with familiar faces. Knowing their opponents brings out their best for the Matadors — it’s friendly competition.

Football is the only program at MVHS that has developed a formal rivalry since 1969 — no matter what league they play in, they play Cupertino High School each and every year. To add more incentive, both teams play for the coveted Helmet trophy and bragging rights for the rest of the year.

The Matadors have dominated the rivalry throughout the years, having won the past 12 years in a row.

At this year’s Helmet game, senior

Golan Gingold and the Matadors faced their rivals during the Pioneers’ senior night and emerged with a 28-12 victory.

“Every year there are going to be different players, but it’s just knowing that it’s MV versus ‘Tino that makes the rivalry,” Gingold said. “No matter who’s on our team, it’s always a rivalry.”

Unlike the football team, the girls tennis team hasn’t considered Saratoga High School their rival for its entire history; however, the rivalry was prominent beginning a couple of years ago. In 2012, they faced SHS four times throughout the season, beating then all four times and going on to become undefeated. In 2013, in their first game, they faced SHS and lost.

Senior Anna Kang recalls the team’s disappointment her sophomore year as they fell to their rival. They ruined their undefeated record from the previous season in one game, the first game. For the rest of the season, the team had close matches with SHS but was never able to defeat them.

“We’re actually close with all of [Saratoga people],” junior Laura Cao said. “When we go on the court, we’re always talking and friends. There is no animosity between the players.”

“Until we play the game,” Kang said, qualifying Cao’s statement. “But it’s only on court.”

MALINI RAMAIYER | EL ESTOQUE

HISTORY OF THE HELMET GAME SANDHYA KANNAN| EL ESTOQUE

The volleyball team experiences a similar dynamic with their rival Lynbrook High School, only four miles away.

“Some of our teammates on club are people from Lynbrook,” team captain senior Sydney Howard said. “That gives both of our teams an advantage since we know each other’s tendencies.”

The Matadors won the El Camino League with the Vikings coming in a close second. The first two times the two teams met, MVHS won in straight sets. For the third match, however, the Matadors lost 2-0 at the Milpitas/Independence Spikefest II Tournament on Oct. 31. Even though the Matadors’ loss was not in league play, it still was a loss to their rival.

As a devout fan of both teams, LHS junior Kevin Chu frequents the stands of both Matador and Viking home games because he has many friends on the MVHS team.

Chu doesn’t believe that there is much tension between the teams.

“It’s like a friendly rivalry. We’re all just goofing around, even with the players,” Chu said, at the second game on Oct. 27. “They are just here to play a good game of volleyball. They’re not here to start any beef or have any drama. After all, it’s just a sport.”

Cao wants to de-emphasize the rivalries as the new tennis players come in. In

OVER LEFT MVHS outlasted Cupertino High School 28-18 on Nov. 6 and retained the helmet for the 12th year in a row. ABOVE Junior Amanda Hua hits from outside against Lynbrook High School. They defeated their rivals for the second time on Oct 27.

IMMEDIATE LEFT Junior Laura Cao competes in a match against Homestead High School on Sept.

29. The team would classify the Mustangs as their rivals. the past couple of years, the team has lost key players and every game feels as intense as a rivalry match. New players have heard the stories of rival matches seasons past with teams like SHS and when the rivalry is built up like this, Cao believes that a loss or a series of losses cause extra disappointment for the team.

“Nowadays, we just have to try against every team,” Cao said. “We don’t really want to focus on rivalries per se, because I feel like that sets a bad precedent of ‘you have to beat this school, you have to beat this school.’ When you don’t, it becomes really disappointing.”

As girls tennis moves away from their rivalries, the football team knows that their rivalry with CHS will always play a role in their season. Players from both sides always treat the Helmet Game as the most important game of their season despite how minimal its implication on their season may be. Win or lose, this rivalry is not something they’ll forget anytime soon.

“No matter where I end up, I will always remember this game,” Gingold said. “I know that 30 years from now, 40 years from now, I’ll still remember every play of that game and it’s giving me goosebumps just thinking about it.” e

USED WITH PERMISSION OF KAMESH VEDULA

Coach David Vierra has been at MVHS since its opening in 1969, witnessing the Helmet Game every year. Vierra reflects on the rivalry and its beginnings.

HOW DID THE RIVALRY START? David Vierra: The freshman class at

Monta Vista was going to Cupertino [High School] at the time [in 1968] because Monta Vista wasn’t completed, so the rivalry started at that time.

What is your definition of a rivalry?

DV: A rivalry is playing someone you

don’t want to lose to. You want to absolutely do the best you can, leave everything on the field and don’t come off the field wishing you’d done something.

Does the game lead to tension off the field?

DV: It’s all in good fun. It’s all in good

sport. The kids have a good time doing it. Like I tell them, when they meet now, at Jake’s Pizza or where ever other place they go, when they see the Cupertino kids, they’re going to be able to say they won the game.

SPORTS/ 35

POLO BROS

ADITYA PIMPLASKAR l EL ESTOQUE PHOTO

Years of playing together fosters a second family for water polo players

S

STORY BY STEPHANIE LAM

ITTING ON A BROKEN WOODEN deck outside the wrestling room may not be where water polo juniors Spencer Springsteel, Brendan Hughes and Pranav Madanahalli made their best memories. It doesn’t have that chlorine smell that the boys have grown up with. It isn’t wet, like the drenched pool deck after a game. But it doesn’t matter. Because when they are together, anything is worth remembering. The trio laughs every few minutes at inside jokes, from old games to random memories, like Hughes’s almostforgotten pet rock.

“What was his name —” Hughes said.

“Jimothy,” Springsteel said.

“Jimothy! Jimothy!”

The name bounces back and forth among

3 6 /EELL EESSTTOOQQUUEE / N O V 2 0 1 5

the trio and they erupt in laughter.

When they talk, neither boy can finish an entire story by himself. Each story is finished by another, continued on mid-sentence. It’s a special chemistry between them that has developed from swimming with each other for six years.

“It’s just that commonality and sense of brotherhood that happens when you play that closely on a team,” Spencer’s mother, Cindy Springsteel, said. “The [boys] can almost finish each other’s sentences and predict how they are going to respond in certain situations.”

Springsteel and Hughes have known each other and swam together at Cupertino Hills since the age of five. Hughes met Madanahalli at De Anza Cupertino Aquatics

in sixth grade and introduced Springsteel to Madanahalli. Swimming and talking outside of school together was what started their friendship, but it wasn’t until JV water polo in freshman year that they all became closer.

Hughes cracks up suddenly, remembering a particularly funny event that happened during their freshmen year.

“One time our coach told us not to touch a ball...” Hughes said.

“Yeah, I remember that,” Springsteel said, continuing the story. “The coach was like, ‘The next person who touches a ball does a thousand butterflies.’ Then [junior] [Madanhalli] flicks the ball up on the pool deck. We did a thousand butterflies.

[Madanhalli] just laughed the whole time.”

Hearing this, Madanahalli laughs and

turns away from Hughes and Springsteel.

The bond not only affects them in the pool, but out of the pool as well. Coach Ben Vierra, who has known all three boys and is a current director at DACA water polo, says that the chemistry between the team and the boys is what makes the team successful when they play.

“A team that’s grown up and played together, or even just some of the players,” Vierra said, “that chemistry, that bond, that friendship, it makes them want to play for the other guys.”

Vierra also pointed out how the bond between the boys strengthens their teamwork, an essential quality for any team.

“In water polo you have to work together,” Vierra said. “Not one person can do it, not two. The whole team needs to back each other up. You motivate each other in and out of the pool. It’s a sport where you really need to be a team.”

Madanahalli agrees that the closeness of a team is an important factor — to Madanahalli and Vierra, there is an obvious difference between a team that bonds and a team that does not.

“You can see it,” Madanahalli said. “[A] team’s chemistry isn’t there when you’re playing. Even on the deck, you’re just not bonded together. You don’t know each other’s in’s and out’s, like what the other person likes on a play in the game or other stuff, you know, [the bond is] not there.”

Teammate junior Madhav Mukundan, who is a close friend with the trio, sees the closeness of the team as not just a factor for playing well, but also as a second family. “[The team environment] is great. We’re all really close,” Mukundan said. “It’s like a little family, having people there to walk through anything you might be having trouble with, whether it’s in the pool or outside the pool. It’s always something you can come back to.”

It is a close experience the boys think will not be available after high school.

“It’s like a one time experience,” Hughes said. You look back on this, 50 years from now, you get together and you’re like, remember that time... ” For a rare moment, the trio is silent as they finish laughing. They gather their backpacks, and walk away toward their lunch group, still chatting with each other. They may look like an ordinary group of friends. But, in reality, they are teammates, best friends, brothers whose love of water polo and swimming have brought them closer together. e

BROS timeline

A lookback at the years of friendship

Junior Brendan Hughes started swimming at Cupertino Hills in 2005 with his older brother.

Junior Spencer Springsteel joined the swim club in 2006

2006 Juniors Brendan Hughes and Spencer Springsteel met junior Pranav Madanahalli in sixth grade at Kennedy middle school

2011 Juniors Pranav Madanahalli, Brendan Hughes and Spencer Springsteel take a photo with the MVHS JV water polo team

D s p

2013 Juniors Pranav Madanahalli, Brenden Hughes and Spencer Springsteel with the current MVHS varsity water polo team.

2015

PHOTOS USED WITH PERMISSION OF SCOTT HUGHES

SPORTS / 37

MIDDLE stuck in the

Attending Middle College poses difficulties to athletes STORY BY NANDA NAYAK

J

UNIOR ORI LAVI’S COACH CALLS it “Middle Earth.”

Lavi is one the few MVHS students who currently attends Middle College at DeAnza. Playing soccer at MVHS, Lavi has found that attending middle college and being a high school athlete poses challenges that may not be expected — like missing parts of class to play a soccer game.

“Over at Middle College, we have waivers to get cleared for an hour, but we have to make it up eventually, with the adviser,” Lavi said. “And I have to figure that out as early as possible, so that I don’t get behind.”

Lavi has experienced several other impeding factors such as the commute, but he believes his decision to attend Middle College over MVHS, was the right one. Lavi aspires to be a graphic designer and feels that he is able to further his studies in an ideal way that MVHS may have been unable to provide.

Senior Giselle Kaneda, who also attends Middle College, believes that Middle College provides and supports a healthier mentality, which focuses on learning rather than getting a good grade.

“One of the things I like about Middle College is that it’s not a pressure-oriented place,” Kaneda said. “[At MVHS], you get the good grade. [At Middle College], it’s that you learn. And if you get a good grade along the way, that’s great.”

Unlike Lavi, Kaneda has found that, at least for her, attending Middle College rather than MVHS has resulted in many more advantages than expected. Kaneda does hurdles, and the MVHS hurdle coach is from De Anza, so the practices are held there. It has helped her because she does not have to commute between two locations to attend practice. She has found that several times, she arrives to practice before the coach does.

Both Lavi and Kaneda believe that their choice to attend Middle College has helped them pursue their careers in depth, and hasn’t impeded their ability to play a sport at MVHS, so they both believe that the positives of attending

Middle College outweigh the negatives.

Senior Nicole Anderson-Au, who currently attends the “College Now” program at De Anza, believes that her choice to enroll in college wasn’t the right one. While attending Middle College allows an athlete to play a sport at MVHS, attending the College Now program prevents the athlete from participating in sports at MVHS. “Not being able to play is really stupid and annoying,” Anderson-Au said, “because I’m not allowed to play on the college team either. So I really CHRISTINE LIANG |EL ESTOQUE can’t play any school volleyball for really Junior Ori Lavi watches his team play. Lavi does not believe his enconvoluted reasons.” rollment in Middle College affects his relationship with teammates.

Anderson-Au also finds that not being able to play on the MVHS team puts her in an awkward situation — she’s a “player” on the team who can’t play in games. She is considered an “assistant coach” and attends every game, even though she cannot play.

“At the same time I’m a peer, but also a coach,” Anderson-Au said. “So I don’t get the respect of a coach.”

But more importantly, Anderson-Au feels that volleyball is a very social sport and believes that she is missing out on this aspect. Anderson-Au believes that because she does not attend MVHS, she PHOTO USED WITH PERMISSION OF KIRK FLATOW is not really part of the team because Senior Giselle Kaneda focuses as she jumps over a hurdle. Kaneda she does not know about anything that has been hurdling since she was a freshman. happens at school.

“I’m not a peer [to them] because I can’t play in games so I sometimes get overlooked,” Anderson-Au said.

Anderson-Au, in turn, does not recommend any athlete to attend College Now while at MVHS. “I definitely would not recommend College Now — it makes it really hard because you can’t compete,” AndersonAu said. “But it’s a great program if you don’t play a sport.”

Despite the difficulties that attending De Anza poses, Anderson-Au and the other athletes will not quit their sport.

KALPANA GOPALKRISHNAN |EL ESTOQUE “I like playing the sport,” Kaneda Senior Nicole Anderson-Au helps pack up at senior night. Though said. “Like anything, if you like it enough, she cannot play, Anderson-Au attends every volleyball game. you’re willing to deal with the issue and make sacrifices if the need arises.” e

38 / EL ESTO QUE / NOV 2015

THE TIME I...

got carded

STORY BY KALPANA GOPALKRISHNAN

Filtered out

Calling the referee an idiot didn’t help junior Cameron Feit’s case. During a De Anza Force game, Feit was frustrated with the referee’s call (and the fact that his team was losing). So he called the referee an idiot, and he received a yellow card.

“Games can get out of hand because the players care about it a lot more than the refs,” Feit said.

Still, Feit’s coach was angry with him for singling out the ref.

“In sports you’re taught to keep playing regardless of how the refs are doing and count on yourself to win,” Feit said.

Although Feit understands his action was brazen, he believes that sometimes players need to remind the referees to keep the game safe.

“Things start getting violent,” Feit said.

“And you have to intervene and tell the referees they should be making a call.”

And Feit didn’t believe his card qualified as promoting player safety. Unless the words are threatening, he believes words do not warrant cards.

Rolled for rolling eyes

Water polo ejections happen in many ways, but sophomore Olivia Lassa didn’t know chlorine in her eyes was one of them.

Evidently, the referee during one of her games with MVHS this summer did not feel the same way. When Lassa swam over a girl on the other team, the referee called a foul. As was customary, Lassa backed off, but then the girl swam into Lassa. The referee ejected Lassa; and in water polo, an ejection only lasts about twenty seconds. But then the chlorine in her eyes made the situation worse. She raised her head out of the water, and the referee thought he saw Lassa rolling her eyes at them. But really, Lassa had been recovering from the chlorinated water.

“The ref thought I had rolled my eyes because I had been swimming head down,” Lassa said. “But I was like ‘what’.”

That’s when the referee waved his red card and decided to roll Lassa, or eject her from the tournament entirely. To this day, she replays the moment over and over again in her head and still does not understand the decision.

“If you take your eyes out of the water, you might be like “Oh my goodness, light!’” Lassa said. “I mean, it’s the sun.”

As the sun set on Lassa’s tournament play time, she took the card in good spirit. But she does not— and may never— understand why she was carded.

The other side of the card

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As a referee of U9 competitive soccer, senior Allegra Ziegler Hunts feels bad when she has to card a nine-year-old.

“They’re clumsy [...] and there’s not really any option but to card him,” Ziegler Hunts said. “So, sorry kid.”

With her experience on the other side of the card, she has realized coaches and parents obsess too much over the details. There are 22 players on every soccer field, and Ziegler Hunts keeps track of each player’s whereabouts.

“I think in soccer, cards tend to be used more to send a message to a single player,” Ziegler Hunts said.

In field hockey, where she plays center forward, Ziegler Hunts thinks cards serve as a message for an entire team rather than an individual.

As a soccer player and a field hockey player, she noticed field hockey requires more fouls and referee involvement, while in soccer the fouls tend to flow with play.

But despite having a referee’s insight, Ziegler Hunts has still received what she believes was an unfair call. During a free hit in field hockey, she received a green card for being less than five yards away from the ball. But since there were no five yard markings, Ziegler Hunts still does not understand the referee’s logic.

“Sometimes the ref’s definition of five yards differs from reality,” Ziegler Hunts said.

It wasn’t the call, but the referee’s refusal to explain why he gave the foul that angered her.

“Mistakes happen,” Ziegler Hunts said. “I think the ref should’ve done a better job explaining it, because he refused to explain his card, which is generally not the right decision.”

SPORTS / 39

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