Senior Tribute Magazine | Issue 2 - Part 1 | May 2022 - Tonitrus & Flash Joint Production

EDITOR NOTESEDITOR NOTES

The Senior Tribute magazine highlights Rocklin High School (RHS) seniors undercovered in the school yearbook. This year’s Senior Tribute theme is focused on the “defining moments” of high school for RHS students. While RHS seniors haven’t had a “traditional” high school experience with the COVID-19 pandemic, the end of the 2021-2022 school year has finally brought back a sense of normalcy. With this, we encourage you to read their stories.

Jillian Andrew (pictured on cover)

Rocklin High School senior Jillian Andrew discussed the biggest challenge she faced throughout her time in high school. “Since middle school, everyone assumed I had an eating disorder because I’m skinny. People bullied me a lot. I wanted to gain weight, but it was hard and I was lazy. I felt like if I ate too much, my body wouldn’t be able to handle being over 100105 pounds,” said Andrew.

“I wouldn’t eat food that was sitting out or looked weird, and I would only eat food that I or my family got in the past 3 days. I went into a program at Kaiser, and I talked to a dietician and a therapist weekly. Over quarantine, I was eating more and gaining weight, and finally happy,” Andrew said. I remember this particular day, I was really happy with the amount of food I ate. I was like, “heck yeah, I ate all of this!”

CONTENTS

Acke, Austin 34

Adao, Marisa 52 Alfaro, Grace 52 Allin, Aidan 61 Andrew, Jillian Cover Andrews, Victoria 52 Azavedo, Alyssa 57 Baddley, Mariah 22 Bal, Jasleen 50 Baptista, Brooke 30 Barbieri, Ryan 50 Basle, Vincent 51 Blair, Logan 09 Blanco, Sidney 19 Botrous, Sandra 42 Boyd, Genevieve 47 Calia, Jacob 55 Carrillo, Emiah 29 Charles-Rambally, Meshack 36 Cissna, Tommy 06 Cissna, Tony 37 Clough, Kennedy 33 Cooke, Gavin 08 Cunningham, Sheyenne 33 Daley, Liam 10 Daniels, DJ 03 DeLaby, Julia 05 Domino, Alexander 17 Doran, Maddy 20 Dugarr, Brandon 13 Dunievitz, Mason 60 Dutt, Ronnit 21 Eaton, Madi 23 Eiras, Jordan 16 Ellis, Reece 38 Estonactoc, Niccolo 55 Fagan, Tristan 44 Fajardo, Audrey Joan 07 Finley, Hannah 40 Francis, Katie 41 Gad, Mary 47 Gamba, Connor 36 Garcia, Andrea 38 Garcia, Bella 11 Garcia, Bernardo 63 Ghazizadeh, Parastoo 51 Gilsdorf, Joshua 35 Gober, Gannon 43 Gonzalez, Camila 10 Goodman, Owen 61 Gould, Dylan 13 Green, John 35 Grenfell, Emma 28 Guter, Emily 35 Hawthorne, Maci 25 Hernandez, Aby 15 Higginbotham, Ethan 46 Hill, Nash 19 Hopkins, Hope 29 Huerta, Brycen 14 Ja, Isaac 37 Jain, Advik 14 Jeffra, Olivia 59 Johnsen, Rylee 59 Kapanen, Nina 26 Kinser, Everett 43 Laflaur, Ellie 20 Lamb, Jacob 17 Lanto, Lily Ann 47 Larson, Brandon 22 Le, Ryin 31

Lebedev, Vlad 45 Lee, Justin 09 Lee, Megan 38 Leiper, Sarah 48 Lennig, Parker 12 Lew, Mason 37 Lomeli, Sierra 43 Martinez, Priscila 49 Mason, Ryan 11 Mcdonald, Lauren 48 McKevitt, Reilly 24 Meyers, Kevin 62 Miller, Zachary 16 Moniz, Owen 54 Morales, Carlos 44 Najafi, Yasi 30 Paulson, Sydney 02 Pelly, Aloysius 23 Piacentini, Katie 56 Picart, Audrey 33 Pineda, Nyah 39 Pojda, Quinn 35 Pompa, Eva 05 Price, Riley 28 Purkiss, Hanna 46 Rakkar, Maneet 63 Ramirez-Flores, Malena 63 Rekers, Karson 31 Robertson, Marissa 32 Robinson, Dawson 17 Rodier, Lexie 41 Russo, Aidan 62 Ryu, Eric 27 Sadiq, Alisha 41 Salvotti, Seth 60 Samba, Tejan 15 Sanayev, Markel 55 Schaack, Jake 03 Schmidt, Margaret 21 Scott, Keke 56 Sieber, Ben 59 Singh, Arun 12 Smith, Adrineh 05 Smurthwaite, Carla 04 Staebler, Helaena 06 Stice, AJ 39 Swaleh, Zaynah 07 Szeremi, Taryn 02 Tew, Claire 57 Thomas, Jack 58 Tolentino, Zehavi 24 Torres, David 42 Tyukayeva, Leila 40 Vaishnav, Zankar 31 Vandre, Hunter 06 Varner, Elizabeth 49 Vasques, Hailey 26 Verma, Shayla 52 Vo, Jayden 36 Voelker, Paige 03 Watkins, Lorelei 49 Watts, Brian 19 Watts, Cheyanne 18 Weber, Kylee 10 Wells, Kayla 22 Wetteland, Becky 32 Wiebe, Austin 41 Witte, Zach 27 Wuelfing, Mary Kate 46 Ybarra, Nathaniel 08 Ziminske, Rohan 09

Taylor Aubry and Teagan Van Biber

S Y D N E Y P A U L S O N

COVID AND COLLEGE

Friends are one of, if not the most, impactful parts of the high school experience. They can shape who you become in four short years. No one knows this better than this year’s Seniors, who have seen the effects COVID can have on a school. Some grew apart, but others grew closer as shared experiences bonded this class together. Senior Sydney Paulson had seen this first-hand and shared what her high school life was like with her friends. She started by sharing one of her good memories of high school, “One of my favorite memories from all of my time in high school was going camping with all my friends the summer of Junior year. It was the first time I had gone on an independent trip like that,” said Paulson. She has had, “the same six friends since middle school, so that’s like from when I was 12 to now.” With this year coming to a close, Paulson said she will miss “being so close to my friends. We’re all going to different colleges, and many of us are probably moving out of state or places far from Rocklin. I won’t see my close friends as often anymore, and that’s probably the number one thing I’ll miss.” Though she said she had a strong support system consisting of friends and family, COVID was still challenging for her. “The toughest challenge in high school was COVID like everyone else. Everyone says the same thing about how COVID really took a toll on them socially and emotionally, and I have to agree. Through all that, I dealt with it by having a good support system of my friends and family, so

TARYN SZEREMI

CAMPUS COMMUNITY

One of the most important things on Rocklin’s campus is the community that exists and how there is a place for everyone. This was one of the most valu able things to Taryn Szeremi, “I’m going to miss the community. I’m not really involved in the communities, but I’m trying to since I’m going to a school in a smaller city. I got to get into the community spirit just having people around is pretty cool when we have our football games, and everyone comes.” Even with such a close community, Szeremi still faced some issues within her friend group, “Coming into high school, I had a stable friend group, but more and more as the years went through, we dissolved into our separate areas. We split up, but we still talk to each other.” Looking back on her years as an underclass man, there were things that Szeremi wishes she had done differently, “I would go back to my freshman and sophomore years to take that extra step and get the help that I needed instead of going for the mini mum grade. I would go the extra mile to actually do my work, go in after class, during break, or anything like that.”

DJ DANIELS

COMING TO A CLOSE

Senior DJ Daniels shares his thoughts on his past years in high school. For merly from outside Rocklin, Daniels has insight on some differences between his two schools, “High school is so much different out here from Sacramento, where I used to go to school. There are definitely more kids here, and it’s more suburban,” he explained. But here at Rocklin, Daniels’ favorite classes were “probably theater. I really liked it because you don’t have to do much and it’s still fun. I honestly liked history too. It was the only class I could pay attention to.” When asked about how high school shaped him, he stated, “I think school definitely made me more mature and has me thinking how it went by quick. I feel like coming into adult years is kind of scary. You have to make money and be responsible straight out of high school.” Overall, Daniels believes he had a “pretty normal high school experience,” and was happy to close this chapter with the Senior field trip, “For school events, I liked the Six Flags trip, that was

PAIGE VOELKER

CONNECTIONS ON CAMPUS

Transitioning into senior year without a solidified friend group can be difficult. This is how it was for senior Paige Voelker as most of her friend group was moving away. Coming into her final year of high school was not as simple as she hoped it would be, “Last year was pretty hard because most of my friends graduated and went off to college, some in different states. I started this year out kinda sad because I didn’t have my old friends to hang out with.” Even though she came into the year unsure of where it would lead, she was able to gain connections through the campus. Since Paige was a part of Rocklin’s band, she was able to make meaningful connections there, “by just being in the class, I made friends with a lot of freshmen and sophomores, and honestly, it’s been the highlight of my four years here.” These new connections made one for her to remember, “I don’t have a last block, so sometimes I go sit in their class es and help them with their work or I’ll go to the park with them after school to have a sword fight with sticks. It’s been so much fun having them around this year and getting to know them.”

SCHAACK

BASEBALL AND BEYOND

Senior Varsity Baseball player, Jake Schaack, reflected back on his high school experience as a whole. He said, “Most of my core memories are from pre-Covid due to all the rallies and sporting events I attended before… I play baseball so a lot of my core memories came from that too.” One of his more recent memories was that of a Baseball tournament, “Outside of school, for baseball, we went to San Luis Obispo for a baseball tournament and that was very fun and that was over spring break this year,” said Schaack. Though his four years at Rocklin didn’t go as planned, much like everyone else, he still believes he “had the typical high school experience,” he continued, “I actually liked Covid, I had a lot of fun during quarantine so I do actually think I had a good high school experience.” Other than Baseball, Schaack shared his favorite classes he took at Rock lin, “My favorite class was culinary. It got taken away but it was amazing. I loved being able to eat in class, make my own food, and I just liked the environment. I also had a lot of friends in that class and honestly I loved PE. Just because you’re always doing something active,” he explained.

ENDING WITH A SPLASH

Graduating Early Carla Smurthwaite

Carla Smurthwaite is an already graduated senior going to Brigham Young UniversityIdaho who is also continuing playing polo for their club. Her favorite memory this season was the Del Oro win not just because of the win but the growth the team portrayed throughout this game. Carla said, “I will miss jamming out to music coming from seminary to school with my siblings, family and friends in the car and talking until we need to head to class everyday.” Carla is also mindful about her upcoming transition to college, “The main difference between high school and college is mental and moral discipline. Once you move out and go to college, you have full right and privilege to sit in your room and eat cake and potato chips all day. Teachers and parents won’t be around to tell you otherwise. You have to have good friends to keep you on track and responsible in all areas of your life. If you can’t tell yourself to put down that soda or that tub of ice cream, you have to keep someone around who will. Your life is yours to live, shape, and create. You can live it up or let yourself down by falling into daily traps of pride, greed, or vanity.” Carla will be studying family consumer sciences which centers on the study of the home, marriage classes, psychology, and child development. Her goal is to create peaceful home environments and aid parents in correctly teaching and raising their kids. She isn’t quite sure what career path she is officially set on but she is slowly figuring it out as she goes. This summer she will be hustling with two jobs, playing club polo for California Republic, and heading out for school in late July.

Eva Pompa Adrineh Smith

Eva Pompa is a graduating senior who is going to California Polytechnic State UniversitySan Luis Obispo to study marine science, “I am going to try to switch to animal science so that I can become a veterinarian, but if I stay in marine sciences then I’ll probably do something research oriented in the future.” Eva’s favorite memory was the Del Oro senior night, it was the first win besides Whitney that the team has had for a couple years. This victory meant a great deal to everyone on the team not just because of the win, but because it was their senior night and the game was super close, “I’ll miss seeing my friends around campus and hanging out with everyone.”

Adrineh Smith shares many of the same core memories as her teammates, “The most memorable part of high school was summer polo practices with the team, winning against Del Oro on senior night and playing three games in a row.” Smith plays center defender (set ‘d’) in the water and plans to play water polo this summer for California Republic. She will also possibly continue playing club polo in college. Adrineh says she will miss the team as well as her best friends. She isn’t quite sure what college she is going to attend yet, but she is debating between U.C.S.C. and Humbolt. She is going to major in environmental science, and currently loves AP Environmental Science. She plans to continue her career after college in environmental science.

Julia DeLaby

Julia DeLaby will be going to Sierra College and plans to continue playing waterpolo there. She is going to be pursuing an education in nursing, and eventually plans on transferring to S.D.S.U. to obtain her Bachelors of Science in nursing. DeLaby is going to be playing polo with Sierra College over the summer, taking on-line courses, and looking for jobs as a Certified Nursing Assistant. Julia will miss, “seeing my best friends everyday and all the late night drives.” Julia’s future goals are to become a labor and delivery nurse, and live by the beach one day. She is excited to meet new people in college and make new memories, and is grateful for everyone in her life who has helped her get this far, “I couldn’t have done it without them.”

If Hunter had to pick one song to describe his high school years, it would have to be “The Lazy Song” by Bruno Mars. His experiences on campus have appeared to be pretty far from the cliche idea of high school, which he believes is a very good thing. By this, he means that the welcoming atmosphere of Rocklin has made him “feel like [he] belonged regardless of [his] interests and hobbies inside or out of the classroom.” This is why he is going to miss the community that has been established here on campus. Looking back on the past few years, which have consisted of many fond memories, one seems to stick out as “one of the most electrifying experiences.” Rewind four years ago to freshman prom where he “had the opportunity to suit up, dance to DJ Khalid, and headbang until we couldn’t see in color.”

When looking back at her high school experience, Helaena says that one of her favorite memories was “the Quarry Bowl against Whitney and winning the game.” When she goes to college next year, she is going to miss all of her friends as well as her teachers here. A memorable trip from senior year was “when all the seniors went to Six Flags [and missed school]. It was really nice because we all got to hang out together”. She shares how it felt like groups who may not hang out at school got to mix on the trip and bond together outside of school. Something that was hard for her was as a soccer player, she’s had four concussions, “so [she] wasn’t able to play anymore, which was really difficult.” She claims that she did not have the cliche experience, and that everyone was really nice. She feels that different groups of people mixed and nobody was separated in that way. She doesn’t regret anything, as she feels like everything that has happened led her to where she is now.

Tommy looks back on his past four years at Rocklin as overall positive. He moved here from the Bay Area the summer before starting his freshman year and loved how “the people in Rocklin were so much more friendly and talkative”, which has shaped him into being more social and made him want to get involved with more events. Looking back, he recalls all of the football games with friends and all of the fun memories that came with them. He enjoys making memories with his friends and has gone on many memorable trips with them. “Going to Bodega Bay and hanging out in a cove until midnight then sleeping on the coast was one of the coolest experiences of my life. Waking up to the sunrise right off of the pier is one of the most vivid and fond memories I have.” As his senior year comes to an end, he relates his past four years to the song “It Was a Good Day” by Ice Cube.

ZAYNAH SWALEH

Zaynah’s favorite memory from high school was “homecoming week because of all the dress-up days, the football game, and the dances.“ Something in high school that has changed her was “Covid because before [the pandemic she] was a lot more introverted and now [she’s] a lot more outgoing just because [she] couldn’t be [during Covid].” The toughest challenge she faced in high school was “overworking [her]self and being stressed about classes.” She says this year was kind of cliche “with all the senior activities.” One thing she regrets from high school is “taking too many AP classes.” If she could change one thing about her high school experience she would change her “freshman and sophomore years because [she] didn’t participate as much as this year since [she] didn’t get [the activities] junior year.” Looking back she wishes she had participated more and gotten more involved. According to Swaleh, a part of high school no one talks about is “the classes and the workload because everyone only tells you the good parts of high school” like the football games and dances but it can be very stressful.

AUDREY JOAN FAJARDO

more time to herself. The song that best describes Audrey’s high school experience is “Idle Town” by Conan Grey because it talks about “being teenagers and just driving around and doing nothing with your friends and having fun.” A part of high school that no one talks about is “how hard senioritis is when you’re so close and nothing you do really matters .”

Nathaniel Ybarra

Gavin Cooke

“The one main thing I would miss is the people that I have met on the way. I am going to college in Utah so I’m essentially leaving everyone I have met here and gonna try to start fresh and make new friends in Utah. Hopefully I can make some friends I can hang out with outside of school.”

“A moment from highschool that has shaped me is the day I walked into this school. Coming from a small Catholic school with a student body of 60, chang ing to a school was big for me. I think that this change made me become more social and adapt better. A song that best describes my highschool experience is Day ‘n’ Nite by Kid Cudi. I don’t exactly know why but it all just reminds me of my years at RHS.”

Rohan Ziminske

Logan Blair

“My most memorable moment in highschool was probaby the Quarry Bowl. It was my freshman year and my gandparents were in town. They wanted to do something so we all went to the game and it was a lot of fun. I would say a song that best describves my highschool experience is The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars. It best described it because I always wanted to relax and take it easy and enjoy my high school experience.”

“The most exciting part of high school was definitley seeing my first fight. Nothing really happens at school so it was exciting to see something happen. I would say my most memorable year was my junior year. Covid shut us down so I did a lot of online school and missed out on a lot of opportunities.

“My most mmorable moment in high school was probably going to Tahoe with my friends. It was a lot of fun and it was nice to get away from school and anything else we had to do.

Kylee Weber Camila Gonzalez

ft. Harry Styles

Kylee Weber (center) believes that although COVID had negative results, it was one of the most important experiences in her life, “I don’t think I had the cliche’ high school experience - COVID really interfered a lot. But I am grateful for what I did get and I can look back and I can look back and go ‘I got to do this, I got to do that’, so that’s cool. COVID also changed me in a good way. It helped me realize things and develop more.” After the pandemic, Weber got to experience activities that she missed during the lock-downs, “I went to the Harry Styles concert last October. My friends and I really like him, and we were really looking forward to it. It is one of my favorite memories. The song As It Was by Harry Styles best describes my high school experience. It’s a reflective song on how things aren’t the ‘same as it was’, and this year is all about growing and that song is just the epitome of that. We also went to San Francisco recently. We walked around the city and we went to some museums. We also went to Six Flags or senior ditch day. That was so fun because they set us free and went on a bunch of rides. After graduation, I’m going to miss the people the most because everyone is going their separate ways and I’m going to miss them.” Weber is going to Sierra College to study allied health.

Liam Daley

ft. The Marías

Senior Camilla Gonzalez reflected on her first years of high school, and made some realizations about the transition from middle school to high school. “Every year in high school changed me - when entering, you come from being middle schoolers to basically being an adult.” When looking back, one of most memorable trips of her high school years didn’t go as imagined, “The Six Flags trip was really fun - later in the day. I ate a lot of really bad food, and my friends made me go on Wonder Woman, and I haven’t been on a roller coaster in years! When I got off I was so nauseous, but after I went on other rides it went down.”

“As an underclassman, I put a lot of pressure on myself to get perfect grades, so at first it was hard. I learned that most of the time when I didn’t stress and I did what I needed to do, everything would turn out fine. One incident was in Padilla’s class freshman year. There was a speech that you had to do at the end of the year, and it was the night before and I hadn’t even started. I fell asleep on a bench the next day because I was so tired after my speech, and I wish that I planned that better. The song that describes my high school years is Basta Ya by The Marías because I really like it and listening to it makes me happy.”

Liam Daley has enjoyed his high school years, “One of my favorite memories of high school was going to Tahoe with a few of my close friends for the weekend and just doing the craziest things.” Daley stated. He also spoke about a moment that many other students felt influenced their entire high school experience, “When COVID hit during that year off I found so many new hobbies and got to learn a lot about myself. I also recommitted myself to my faith and found my home church.” He explained. Lastly, we asked Liam that if he could go back and change a moment in his time in high school what that moment would be, “Changing how I acted and just being myself more. I always tried to be someone else and it just didn’t make me happy.” Daley shared.

Bella Garcia Ryan Mason

ft. Morgan Wallen ft. 42 Dugg

Bella Garcia played on the varsity softball team from freshman to senior year, and adapting to high school life was difficult. “Being on varsity softball really changed me - I didn’t play a lot because I was really young and I was still getting used to the pace of it, but it really helped me be ready for future years where I played all the time. As an underclassman, getting used to being in a varsity sport and having a big homework load was hard. Finding a balance between those was challenging too because there was also the mental aspect of it. It doesn’t get brought up with enough teachers and with coaches that we’re balancing a big work load, with tests and quizzes and everything else on top of playing a sport,”

Despite these challenges, Garcia finished her senior year strong with lots of fun moments to look back on. “One of my best memories of high school is going to the dance and hanging out - my favorite one was my sophomore year homecoming because all my friends were there and we all had a blast. I wish I went to every dance, because I only went to the big ones and I regret not going to all of them because they sounded so fun! A trip we went on was to Six Flags. All of my friends went and we went on every single ride. I’m going to miss seeing my friends everyday because they are all going off to college in different states and I’m going to miss them a lot. One thing that I regret is not talking to people and not being more open with my classmates. I’m becoming friends with a lot of new people, and I’m sad that I wasn’t friends with them before. I would say that the song This Bar by Morgan Wallen resonates with my high school experience the most. He says lyrics like ‘making mistakes and making new friends’ and ‘I was growing up and nothing made sense’. These correlate to my senior year because high school was one of the most confusing times in my life. I was learning who I was and what I want to be when I grow up, which relates to the song,” Garcia is attending American River College, where she will continue her softball career and study nursing.

Senior Ryan Mason shared what his plans for the next four years will look like for him. Ryan will soon attend Boise State and will study criminal justice with a minor in accounting. He shared his unforgettable High school experience with us while going in depth about being a student section storm leader this year. “My experience as a storm leader was not as it seemed, there was a lot of behind the scenes stuff that went on and hours and hours on the phone and working things out, hours and hours of planning and trying to put stuff together for the school, but in the end it all paid off. Seeing the crowd all hype and them getting loud and loving the stuff we did was all worth it because for me it wasn’t about me or how i did, it was about how did i leave an impact on the freshman and the sophomores who never had a “storm” and how i could have influenced other people to go out and have fun.” Ryan stated.

Although Ryan has has many moments in High School to remember there was one time that stood out to him the most, “A moment that definitely shaped and changed me was Breaking Down The Walls, I felt like it brought us all together, it was really eye opening to hear everyone’s life stories and hear other people point of views of life and how they live their lives. I feel like that was definitely one of the most eye opening experiences for me,” he shared. We also asked Ryan if there was ever something he regretted during his high school experience, “Something I regret is not saying ‘yes.’ I wish I could have said yes to a lot of things in the past and I feel like everything happens for a reason and if you say yes then you have more memories to look back on and laugh about after you graduate with all of your friends. Just say “yes” and just go do it.” He explained. Mason also shared what he will miss most about high school, “Probably school events, like football games or rallies. But definitely my friends that aren’t graduating with me, and the camaradarie of High School,” Ryan stated.

Parker Lennig

“A moment in high school that has changed me was definitely going into quarantine. Being away from my friends was just really bad and it made me realize how much I enjoyed the high school environment. I think I had a pretty cliche high school experience; I made a bunch of friends, played sports all throughout high school, went to most of the events, got in trouble with the law, etc. A part of high school that no one talks about is that most people are open to talk to you, but you just have to reach out to them and put yourself out there.” - Parker Lennig

Arun Singh

“High school was like the first time I took really hard classes and it was also the first time I didn’t do very well in them. Finding motivation to keep doing the work and keep trying in some of my classes was hard... I talked to my teachers and it was the first time I got support and all that from other people. They wanted me to do better and be better from their help. I feel like that changed me.” - Arun Singh

“My favorite memory was going out with my friends after school and all of us hopping in the car to drive around.”

“If I could change a moment of my high school years, it would definitely be my schedules cause I never took it too serious ly. I kinda just picked random classes. But if I put different classes, it would of have been better, but I’m not complaining. A part of high school that no one talks about is definitely just the connections. Because a lot of people just think of it like oh I know this person and I know this person but it’s just a lot deeper then just knowing them. All of the connections I made were really good and not being to see them again will be difficult. I will miss all of the people and all of the teachers I met. My favorite teacher is definitely Mr. Taghvai, he made math fun, understanding, and his personality is just great. One of my favorite memories was definitely Senior Ball.” - Brandon Dugarr

Dylan

Brandon Dugarr

“It was nice to get with everyone one last time for one last dance.”