1
5| Editor’s Note 6| Twelve Things To Do Before School Starts By Jaime Wang “#10: The night before you (semi-) willingly throw yourself into the mercy of another stressful, tear-inducing, sleep-deprived, deathly 9.5 months, try to actually get your life together”
8| Dear Students By Athena Xue “Dear Students, Never fear the unknown/Even if you run into a wall of stone/Tunnel forward and cross your comfort zone/By the end, all of you will have grown”
10| High School Hell By Campbell Ravens “Nothing is more disappointing than making a goal to do something revolutionary in your life and ending up with a bowl of ice cream while you stare aimlessly at the open textbook on your lap…”
15| The Kill By Eve Lin “My strong jaws open and those rows of shiny, silver fangs sink deep. The pale, shivering, white flesh, so helpless, so vulnerable…”
16| Yesterday is Not Today By Ayushi Batwara “The next generation needs to be a set of ingenuitive thinkers, not people who are studying the same field to work a nine-to-five job… We need an entrepreneurial system of education--not an industrial system” 2
18| A Change in Perspective By Lily Yang “That stray marks of language sprung from outcomes are not I/And life is not a contest that goes until we die”
20| Sar-Chasm By Sashrika Pandey “Because we’re all so used to this culture of stress that we forget to recognize how much school has actually helped us. I, personally, can thank our academic system for teaching me how to squeeze five hours of work into one hour”
22| Class X By Euonymus “But to them, they were the first”
23| School Drools By Anonymous “Grades, grades - go away/Come again another day/Mommy and Daddy don’t need to see/The printed column of C’s and D’s”
24| Wasted Sunsets By Pooja Bale The summer days/Summer nights you knew so well/Loved, even/Are dwindling
3
ISSUE 6 4
Back to School
8.29.17
Hello wonderful people, As school starts (literally tomorrow for our peers at the glamorous institution of Irvington High School), we, as students, are all filled with the deep sense of dread and pain at the thought of once again having to return to the confining establishment that really feels more like a prison than a school. So instead of thinking about it, why don’t you sit back, relax, and distract yourself from your inevitable impending doom by reading about it instead! This latest issue of the Penchant features the desperation of reaching the end of a lazy summer, the regret from days spent meaninglessly, and the frustration of re-entering the cycle of hope and failure. All jokes aside (not really), as the school year approaches (or has already hit like a train wreck), try to remember what school is really about–and no, it is not an adolescent torture house–and how privileged we are to have this education. Try to enjoy this school year instead of complain about it (difficult, I know), and use your time here to reap all the benefits you can [see more at Sar-Chasm by Sashrika Pandey on p. 20], it’s not going to last for long (whether or not you may view that as a bad thing). Enjoy the last edition of the Summer Mag series, and have fun dying (we’ll all be right there dying with you)!
Jaime Wang Editor, CWC Media Manager
5
6
Twelve
Things To Do Before School Starts By Jaime Wang
Buy school supplies. Compare your schedule with all your friends to see if you might not be completely alone in this new year of horror.
trying to cram in the rest of that Netflix show/ K-drama. Again, completely ignore #3 and sleep till noon while you still can.
Start practicing sleeping and waking up early. Completely ignore #3 and spend your last few nights of summer staying up late
SLEEP
Tell yourself that you’re going to study ahead for all those APs you’re taking this year. Tell yourself those APs can’t be that bad right? –the night before school starts as you stare at your untouched textbook and complete absence of notes, a sense of dread and despair churning in your pathetic little soul.
7
Tell yourself that this year, THIS YEAR you will finally stop procrastinating and actually study ahead of time and do all your assignments as soon as you're home. Try to ignore how you made this same resolution year after year after year…and try to ignore how you of course
failed spectacularly just 5 days into the school year, year after year after year... The night before you (semi-) willingly throw yourself into the mercy of another stressful, tearinducing, sleep-deprived, deathly 9.5 months, try to actually get your life together.
As a follow-up to #10: lie in bed staring at the ceiling, your soul empty as you contemplate where the f*ck your summer has gone, trying to come to terms with the fact that yes, school is actually starting. First day of school: “just five more minutes…"
8
Dear Students By Athena Xue
Dear Students, As you enter the new school year, Do not forget the summer cheer, If you continue to peer and hear, It will never ever disappear. Dear Students, There are challenges you will face, Worry and stress behind you will chase, But summer has left its happy trace, Those memories never can you erase.
9
Dear Students, Never fear the unknown, Even if you run into a wall of stone, Tunnel forward and cross your comfort zone, By the end, all of you will have grown. Dear Students, Inside you remains a seed, Its needs and wishes you must heed, Watch––it’ll become a flower, bright and honeyed, Carrying a glow that must never cede.
And lastly, dear Students, You must link arms and smile, Only then can you disperse the vile. With your companions you’ll reconcile, Together you can walk a mile.
10
High School
Hell By Campbell Ravens Y
ou know how in the beginning of the school year you’re just counting down until summer, praying to the test taking gods to supply you with an inkling of hope (and LOTS of luck) because you think this would be the year. Oh lord. The novelty of starting a year afresh gives you that little boost of confidence you never knew your stressed out, hope-deprived, and hah-what-is-sleep self could be dumb enough to fall for again. But miraculously you jump head first into the familiar embrace of that little asshole called perfection. Too bad it isn’t even real. At least not in the lives of 99.99999999% of humanity. Goddamnit, Einstein.
You make some goals like: finishing that assignment before it’s 12:00 am the day it’s due; keeping your eyes open during class or on the toilet or in the hallways (slow people: identifying as a living pole is probably a new thing nowadays, but please, you and your friends can talk and walk); and trying to sound like you did read through the 40 or so pages that you totally didn’t shmoop or sparknotes or, hell, asked your friend to summarize in two seconds. But goals are goals—Great Orange Angry Lost Snakes. Fun. That didn’t really make sense, but that’s exactly the point. Not only is it perfectly representative of a certain important someone, but also, it captures the essence of goals.
11
12
They’re great because they make you feel like you’re finally that responsible person the “12 ways to be successful” type of articles and desperate-to-save-thebroken-children-in-front-of-them teachers advocate for. They’re orange because, well...let’s skip that one. They’re angry and lost because, quite frankly, they get tossed into the laundry basket of other things you have on your mind and never really surface after the two seconds of fame they got when you made them.
Most importantly, they’re snakes because they slither all over your dreams and leak your deepest insecurities
13
Nothing is more disappointing than making a goal to do something revolutionary in your life and ending up with a bowl of ice cream while you stare aimlessly at the open textbook on your lap and take a picture of that for snapchat instead of actually following through and studying. True story, by the way. Sure, in the moment it’s bliss and that long deserved respite you saved up for, but regret is almost instant. You’ll never get back the 3 hours of your life you unknowingly fed to the snakes. Then panic settles in. To save yourself, you make the ol’ “Flipping burgers for the rest of my life doesn’t sound terrible” joke and cry inside. But this is just the beginning when you’ve been refueled and hyped up for yet another year. The middle portion between the beginning and end of the school year doesn’t even deserve its own text wall. It’s just a limbo between “I’m so motivated” and “Kill me now.” Mysterious things happen during it like random cups of coffee that seem to empty themselves and piles of papers that seem to increase in size every time you look away. Nothing special. The last stretch, however, is when all hell breaks loose.
Absolutely fantastic.
14
At this point all those goals you thought you could accomplish are either still on standby or simply memorial -ized in your conscious as memes. Oh spongebob, you describe my life with such accuracy. You begin to notice small things like how your handwriting in the end of your notebook looks like the result of a toddler and a crayon compared to the pristine beauty of the first few pages. You shrug and leave it because you’re going to peace out in a couple of months, anyways. With a cocktail of finals and AP tests coming your way, your brain doesn’t seem to care and motivation is at an all time low, but your parents, friends, and teachers never fail to remind you that you need to do something. Anything. So, you grudgingly oblige… the class period before that big test. Whoops. There goes that A… Maybe preparing would have helped. Determined to not let that happen again, you decide to eat, breathe, and live your classes. Princeton Review, Kaplan, Cliffnotes, Khan Academy, Barron’s (need I say more?) become your new acquaintances, alongside your brick-heavy textbooks. You take them everywhere with you—opening them and closing them and slamming them and sleeping on them and ripping them; but what’s
depressing is that even though you put all that effort in, on the day of the test, you could only remember that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell and that F = ma. Even if your studying does pay off, you still have 127386592990992 more tests to take, and discouragement becomes an underlying theme.Consequently, your priorities start to shift.
...you could only remember that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell and that F = ma... Should I binge watch Netflix or should I actually study? I have my final in four days, so if I pull three all-nighters and sleep during lunch for an hour, I can finish four seasons and eighteen episodes, while getting three hours of study time and four hours of sleep! ...and that was probably the most “math” you did and probably the only plan in the whole year that was semisuccessful.
Then, lo and behold, you make it to the point in which the tests are dying down and the other students stop looking like zombies! Though, you can’t help feeling that you still are one. With some tests out of the way, those TV shows gobble up your free time until you remember that you have a binder check coming or a project to be done. You flip through your backpack, your seven 3-inch binders, your room, your pants, your desk, your socks, and your locker for that one sheet of paper that was supposed to be worth 50 points. Rolling on the ground, covered in years of binder paper and random colored sheets, you stare at the ceiling wondering why your problems couldn’t just disappear like those 50 points. But soon enough, through all the stress, pain, and suffering, you arrive at that day. The last day. Congratulations. You survived yet another year.
15
The Kill The Kill. It has started. I wait. My sleek black body is still and patient. I wait. My many fangs are silver and glistening. I wait. My skin shines with anticipation. I imagine the serene feeling I always get when I Ah, there comes the prey! I lean closer. Closer. I love the power I have over these poor pathetic beings.
By
Eve Lin -
They never stand a chance. My strong jaws open and those rows of shiny, silver fangs sink deep. The pale, shivering, white flesh, so helpless, so vulnerable…
“Next packet!”
My owner's shrill voice breaks through my imagination. She stuffs another packet of paper into my mouth and snaps my jaws down. I groan silently, creaking at my joint. Can't I be allowed to dream and relax for a while? "I don't know how I could've finished all this work without you," my owner says. "Thank God someone invented the stapler."
16
Today’s
education
system
was
yesterday’s education system. When yesterday’s archaic technology is being replaced by new and advanced technology, why can’t we do the same with our education system? The U.S.’s education system was, in fact, an idea stolen from the Prussians in the industrial era. During this era, the need of employees was exponentially increasing, but the amount of training required wasn’t readily available to the common man. As a solution, the U.S. adopted a “factory model” of an education system which was completely structured in a way that it feeds the minds of young children to accustom them to industrial lifestyles. Industrial lives were very monotonous, where the ring of a bell would signify a rotation, a break, or the end of a workday. Is this what we want to happen to our generation and future generations? If we want to bring a better and more advanced future, we need to make change in the place that feeds the minds of young kids--schools. As of right now in the status quo, no change is happening! Courtney C. Stevens once said, “Nothing changes if nothing changes”. This statement sums up our education
Yesterday Is Not
Today By Ayushi Batwara
17
We need an
ENTREPRENEURIAL system of education— not an INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM
system because many people have been wanting to see a better education system suited for the modern needs, but nothing is happening. Change starts here, in the hearts of our schools where an industrial education system will be removed from its roots and a new education system will take place. This newer and more ideal education system will be fitted to modern needs, and aside from being more accustomed to technology, these schools will be created about the mindsets of today--entrepreneurship, being your own person. We desperately need this new system of schools to teach our students. Even if you don’t believe we need a new system just solely for transforming our students’ mindsets, think about the future economy. In the near future, many jobs will be replaced by artificial intelligence. This means all of the in-demand jobs such as engineers, doctors, and lawyers, will be replaced very rapidly by the fast-paced, instantaneously changing and ever-growing technology. We need a new generation, in simplest terms, and this will only happen if we, the millennials, can cease our education system from creating monotonous robots into a system that creates a unique, individual person who can achieve on their own. The next generation needs to be a set of ingenuitive thinkers, not people who are studying the same field to work a nine-to-five job. The industrial system of education created humans to work like machines, but now, we need machines to work for humans. All this change can only happen in our schools. We need an entrepreneurial system of education--not an industrial system.
18
A Change in
Perspective
By Lily Yang
B
lack slithers beneath two glistening eyes of brown. A drop of bittersweet crystal rolls steadily down. A fear to fail and a desperate hope for success, Grown from a fiery desire to entomb past footsteps, Contains the rotting roots of my heart’s deep sorrow, But also the elements for a prosperous tomorrow. The sinful greed to be superior no doubt propels me, To perspire for the poison of want and vanity. In those moments I try to convince my rigid mind, That crimson letters on sheets do not mean I’m behind. And soulless numbers made to paint strokes of my effort Can not cage me in murky self-distrust forever.
19
But the iron muzzle formed to silence my own voice, Also blinded my conscience from making the right choice. After eight years of dwelling within depths with no end, The staunch beams arise and I begin to comprehend That stray marks of language sprung from outcomes are not I, And life is not a contest that goes until we die, Constantly now, my putrid pride is casted aside, As the fleshy strikes of palm to palm fills the inside, Warmly content am I about where I stand, Not at the top, but linked hand-in-hand.
20
Sar-
chasm By Sashrika Pandey
Walking into a classroom on the first day of school feels like a new beginning- a fresh start where you can reinvent yourself by embracing your true qualities before plunging back into your academic career. How refreshing. Said no one ever.
Let’s take another perspective, shall we?
Walking into a classroom on the first day of school feels like pressing play on a video that you paused ages ago. You don’t exactly remember what was going on in the beginning, and you sure don’t remember what you’re supposed to remember now. Ah yes. Watching videos as you squander the last days of summer. That’s definitely not something you can do anymore! Some may view this mentality as somber, or morose. Others may view it is as relatable. Or realistic.
21
But I suppose that there are some positive sides to going back to school. For one, you don’t oversleep, which means that you have more time to dedicate to your studies. And you get to embrace the concept of how you are impacting your future with every minute of your life. Not a terrifying thought at all. And as much as the end of August acts as a rude awakening, it can also be a positive note. I, for one, can’t wait to get back into a busy schedule that forces me to run from class to class to activity to homework to seven hours of sleep (hopefully) back to class and- I’ve lost my train of thought already. Much like I do in the middle of my essays and tests, which once again force me to confront how I’m negatively impacting my future. But in all seriousness- well, as close as I can get to seriousness- going back to school must have some positive benefits. At least, that’s what all the peppy posters that decorate the grounds tell me. Along with the cheerful posts on social media that refuse to acknowledge the elephant in the room, or in this case, the comments in the forum. Because we’re all so used to this culture of stress that we forget to recognize how much school has actually helped us. I, personally, can thank our academic system for teaching me how to squeeze five hours of work into one hour. And thanks to school, I can prepare for real world problems, such as carrying the brunt of a project, dealing with overly complicated schedules, or being so frustrated that you simply want to scream (internally, of course, as civilized students are expected to do). So here’s to another great year, where we can learn from our past mistakes by repeating them relentlessly until we realize that there’s a better system- just abandoning them altogether!
Or embracing them and fixing them. That works too. Because we can either retreat to a hole of writing attention-hogging posts on Facebook and using passive-aggressive sarcasm (a great example of which is illustrated here), or we can improve on our outlooks. Because a new year of school is a new start. A chance to fix your GPA, or join clubs, or simply discover yourself and finally accept who you really are on the inside. You can do what you want to do. Because you have the chance to change this wide world, and if that means that you have to retreat outside your comfort zone and finally embrace your personal mistakes, then that is what you must do. Yes, every minute you spend in school will impact your future. Will you spend that time being a sarcastic pessimist or a driven optimist? The choice is up to you. And perhaps it’ll impact your life. Perhaps it won’t. But in the end, it is your choice. School is the foundation for you to become a different person, but only you can decide what kind of person you want to become. Anyways. I think I’ll stay here in my sarchasm. Have fun, friends.
22
Class X
By Euonymus They walk down the same halls Sit under the same lights Flip through the same books Laugh at the same jokes Fall in the same cliques But to them, they were the first
23
School Drools By Anonymous
Grades, grades - go away, Come again another day. Mommy and Daddy don’t need to see, The printed column of C’s and D’s. I know, I know that it’s all my fault, For watching T.V. and doing somersaults. But Mommy and Daddy, I really did try, And you should know that’s not a lie. I know, I know that I shouldn’t have eaten the glue. That instead of that, I should have made a card for you. And I know, I know that I shouldn’t have written gibberish on my test. That instead of that, I should have honestly tried my best. But now I know and that’s the important thing. And I hope that’s enough for you to still take me under your wing. So, Mommy and Daddy, what do you say? Let’s strap on our skates and go out to play!
24
Wasted
Sunsets By Pooja Bale
A fiery summer day is gone When blue gives way to pink Orange to red Purple to black A sight to behold To revel in To hold onto forever To live to the fullest A way to cherish the day well spent One full of wonder One full of memories But it has only become a fleeting moment
Countless spent inside Wasting precious seconds Wasting sunsets The sky darkens Shadows fall Another day Withered away like a child lost in the desert Hours pass in minutes Windows collect dust “One more!� you cry But the weather cools The sun dips earlier The clouds roll in
25
The summer days Summer nights you knew so well Loved, even Are dwindling The sand still on your sandals The pile of stubs from seasonal blockbuster films The program from the play in the park on your dresser It feels like just yesterday You were frolicking in the waves, in the grass You wish you could do more Could have done more Spent every moment living
But you've wasted too many sunsets You can't help but think back To all the wasted sunsets Too many wasted sunsets
Too many wasted sunsets
26
Issue 6| 29 Aug 2017