The Lake - Senior Edition

the lake

senior edition

xvi.

9300 W 104th Avenue | Westminster, CO | 80021 | USA | Planet Earth | Milky Way Volume 27 | Senior Edition May 2016

Dechen Chhenmorito, Yao Lin, Mary Garg

2 May 2016 | Senior Edition

oh,

the places w e ’ l l go!

The last four years have been filled with laughter, tears, and more than a few unforgettable memories. To commemorate the end of our time in high school, we brought together seniors from every corner of Standley Lake for one final (glitterfilled) goodbye.

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CIAO. IT MEANS BOTH HELLO AND GOODBYE (BECAUSE WE’RE FREAKING CLEVER)

So this is it.

We’re off on the next leg of our journey. This here is one finish line of many races coming for us. It’s been 4 years. And boy, XVI, the time did fly. Somehow, we got lucky enough to get to meet all these incredible people. Some of us found love. Some of us found what we love. We had some amazing opportunities.

On May 19th, we can post on our Instas that “we clean up nice”. But here, now, we decided to go out with a bang. (Trust us, glitter may remain hidden in the crevices of our room for decades). Also, sorry janitors. We love you.

During each of these photoshoots, and each of the stories that we put in this final issue, there was one thing common throughout: pure happiness. That’s what we wanted to preserve in this magazine dedicated to the class of 2016—joy.

We’re so excited to actually start our lives in the real world.

And we’re excited to see where everyone is headed.Good luck.

Good luck on this next adventure. Make sure you take a fanny pack with some Chex Mix as you head into the big scary wild world.

Thanks for the journey, seniors. It’s been a good ride.

Welcome to our farewell, featuring the photoshoot that made the biggest mess in The Lake history

xoxo,

FOR THE LAST TIME

NICOLIVIA A.K.A. THE EDITORS-IN-CHIEF OF THE LAKE

4 May 2016 | Senior Edition

Nicole LaVelle

circle

coming around full NICOLE LAVELLE DEFIES EXPECTATIONS WITH CREATIVITY

N

icole Lavelle is a girl of self-expression. She is an accomplished artist with a vision and a hula hoop.

Yep, a hula hoop. “One day, I was just sitting in my room, and I just thought ‘I want to do something with my life’, I want to do something that is going to make me a bigger person,” she said.

And so as can be expected, she decided to pick up a hula hoop and try her hand at it. Eventually, she would perform on Pearl Street in Boulder with various street musicians. One day, her passion for this dream that many could call far-fetched seemed to all fall into place. “[One musician] sang this one sentence where it went ‘I’ve never been happier in my life’, and right when he said that, I just did a perfect move, and the sun hit my face,” Lavelle said. “It just felt like everything I’ve been through, all the pain and whatnot, and all the battles, it brought me to that one moment, and it was just worth it.”

Lavelle wants to become a lyra dancer, which combines a hoop with aerial acrobatics. But just in case that doesn’t work out, she has a back up.

“If that doesn’t work, or I have different plans, most of all, I want to be a fire dancer. I want to travel the world and I want to dance with fire with my hoop. That’s all I want to do.”

No biggie.

She may have very eccentric, unique plans for her future, but Lavelle is simultaneously following a more traditional post-high school path, as she will attend Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design for graphic design. Lavelle can see our world entering a more digital age, and so she’s looking forward to transitioning her painting and drawing background to this different medium.

Like seemingly everything else in her life,

Lavelle has a vision for each piece of artwork she creates. My main goal when it comes to my artwork is I want to expand consciousness,” she said. “I want to comfort the disturbed and I want to disturb the comfortable.”

Trying to show people how she sees the world is ultimately Lavelle’s life purpose, and it all started in one pivotal moment. “It was a huge epiphany for me. I even threw up actually. It literally just happened to me, and it happened to me in the Walmart parking lot. I looked around me, and I was just like ‘woah’, I was baffled by how beautiful the world was.”

Woah, Walmart and beautiful in the same sentence? Lavelle must have some rose-colored shades that we all can’t find. Her optimism though, grew out of her general philosophy about life and its continual evolution. “I think life is just like a cycle, cycling from good to bad. And that’s another thing I want to subliminally do with my hoop, that’s the main thing.

The hoop is supposed to represent the circle of life.

It goes from one end from lows, to highs.”

With a vision like that, Nicole Lavelle is set, packed, ready to hoop and paint her way into her creatively envisioned future. We wouldn’t expect anything less. | Olivia Koontz

“high school is like a peach. It looks really soft and fuzzy for anyone that’s not in it but on the inside it’s really hard and it can be a struggle. But it’s still sweet.

— M I R A N DA S C H M I DT 5

Alyssa Murphy, Bre Hurst

ALYSSA MURPHY IS GRADUATING AFTER ONLY THREE YEARS OF HIGH SCHOOL. SHE WILL BE ATTENDING JOHNSON & WALES UNIVERSITY IN DENVER WHILE HER OLDER SISTER, BRE HURST, WILL STUDY AT CU BOULDER. AS THEY BOTH HEAD TO DIFFERENT COLLEGES, THEY TALK ABOUT THE EARLY SPLIT.

alyssa:

It’s gonna be hard not having her across the hall, just because she’s a good support system and we just share everything together and it will be hard to lose that everyday. I think she’ll make time to visit and I’ll go visit her, I think we have a strong enough relationship where distance won’t wear it out at all.

6 May 2016 | Senior Edition

WHAT WILL YOU MISS ABOUT LIVING WITH YOUR SISTER?

bre:

How dorky she is, I think. Having that person around, randomly throw out some silly comment... And I’ll probably miss how much she loves her cat, because she’s always just showing me her cat pictures, showing me her cat, and I think even though her cat’s a pain in the butt I definitely am going to miss that.

Daryn Johnston, Skylar Carnes

Michelle Han, Yao Lin

Cybil LaPenna

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passion LAYERS OF

PROSTART CREATES LASTING BOND FOR THREE SENIORS

I

ing a career in the restaurant industry, but she was set on her decision to at least try it out. “I knew that I was going to join Prostart when I decided to come to Standley,” Riggs said.

Riggs was coping with the unknown fear and anticipation of entering IB and devoting obscene amounts of time to studying. McEwan was busy playing soccer with people she had known since first grade, if not longer. Baylie was anxiously waiting to enter the program she had dreamed of for years.

Baylie, whose mom Ms. Valerie Baylie formerly advised Prostart, always knew what she was destined for. “Ever since I was little, I went to the competitions with my mom,” Baylie said. “I saw the culinary competition and the management competition and I knew right away that I would join Prostart.

I’ve grown up with it.”

f you could go back four years and take a snapshot of Mikayla Riggs, Caitlyn Baylie, and Lindsay McEwan, you would find them on completely different paths—different paths that were about to convene.

Little did they know, all three would soon enter this program—one that would bring them together indefinitely.

The program is Prostart, a two year hospitality, food-service organization designed to prepare students for careers in every facet of the restaurant industry. “It’s basically a two year crash course preparing you for culinary school,” McEwan said.

For McEwan, the path to finding Prostart was a little bit bumpier. “I was not going to join Prostart as a freshman,” McEwan said. “I loved baking and cooking at a really young age, but I got into highschool and I was like ‘I like soccer better. I’m more the athletic kind of person.’”

While Riggs, Baylie, and McEwan all enjoyed cooking and baking from a young age, their perceptions of Prostart differed greatly at the start of high school.

McEwan thought she had everything figured out, until a series of injuries left her unable to play soccer and searching for a new passion. That’s when she decided to take a chance and join Prostart in her junior year. “I’m glad I did it, it changed my life for sure,” McEwan said.

Riggs questioned her commitment to pursu-

Jump to the fall of 2014 and Riggs, Bay-

8 May 2016 | Senior Edition

lie, and McEwan—all of whom barely knew each other before—were busy learning and preparing for competitions.

After coming in first place in the Colorado Prostart competition, Baylie, Riggs, and McEwan, along with members Austin Rosendahl and Jeffrey Sanchez, moved on to the national competition.

“We had to create a business proposal that was around like 60 pages,” Baylie said. “The competition consists of a business proposal: menu, employee’s, a floor plan, and stuff like that. And then we have a display board so the judges understand the concept. And then there’s an oral presentation and a powerpoint presentation. Then you have to answer questions that the judges have for 5 minutes and then we go to critical thinking questions.”

After months of hard work leading up to the national competition, Standley Lake’s Prostart team presented their concept for a restaurant called “Stacked”.

“It was a breakfast restaurant,” Riggs said.

“Our idea was ‘Layers of flavors’ and that everything on the menu was stacked.”

The idea of a breakfast restaurant with

Caitlyn Baylie, Lindsay McEwan, Mikayla Riggs

stacked items may seem simple, but attention to detail set Standley Lake’s team apart from the rest. “You really have to think about it as if it’s a real restaurant,” Riggs said. “I mean, we talked about what paints we would use, like what brands.”

When it was all said and done, Standley Lake placed third in the nation and earned thousands of dollars in scholarship money. More importantly, Prostart walked away with an end product that they could be extremely proud of.

After spending the better part of two years together, Riggs, Baylie, and McEwan are preparing to take the next step in their culinary journeys.

All three students will attend Johnson and Wales University next year, another unlikely occurrence considering each of their starting points.

wanted to move farther away from my comfort zone,” Riggs said. “But after looking at other schools, I realized that Johnson and Wales was the best fit for me.”

find something that you want to do for the rest of your life, you develop this overwhelming passion for what you want to do,” Baylie said. “It changes your outlook on everything.”

Even more hesitant was McEwan, who doubted her decision until the last minute. “Johnson and Wales was my last choice,” McEwan said. “I’m excited, I just never saw myself going there.

The reason I chose it is because I know I have the most possibilities to blossom there.”

Prostart also helped Riggs decide to pursue an exciting, but unknown, career path. “Prostart taught me a lot,” Riggs said. “I learned how to be more confident in my choice in the industry and in my skills.”

Prostart’s success seems unexpected considering the circumstances of how the team came together, but the team knows exactly why everything worked out so well: passion.

“It’s a risky industry and if you don’t have passion, you’re going to fail,” McEwan said.

The choice was easy for Baylie, who has planned on entering culinary school since she was a child.

Riggs also reiterated the importance of having a common goal in overcoming adversity. “We don’t always agree but we have that passion to lay back on and we’ve found ways to work together so that we all use our strong suits to make a project that we were really proud of,” she said.

For Riggs, nagging apprehension made deciding to attend Johnson and Wales difficult, but extremely fulfilling in the end.

With their time in high school coming to a close, Riggs, Baylie, and McEwan can finally reflect on what Prostart meant to them.

“I was looking at other schools because I

“Prostart has changed my life because when you

McEwan, who never thought she would pursue a career in the restaurant industry, changed drastically because of her her decision to join Prostart. “I learned a lot about myself, my future, about the industry,” McEwan said. “I don’t regret any moment I spent in Prostart, I loved it.”

Aside from Prostart’s influence on their personal developments, it also brought together Riggs, Baylie, and McEwan for what they think will be a lifelong friendship.

“Caitlyn and Lindsay are probably going to be a part of my life for a long time,” Riggs said.

As McEwan put even more simply, “I’m super pumped that I’ll always have them,” she said. “They’ll always be there.” | Christina Rudolph

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10 May 2016 | Senior Edition

this summer...

MAKE A SECOND SNAPCHAT

GO TO A DRIVE-IN THEATER

Every time you do something fun, send it to that account.

When you leave for college, watch all the snaps you sent yourself and try not to cry too much.

It’s like a regular theater, but it comes from the 1950’s with cheaper tickets and cooler people.

PUT TOGETHER THE ULTIMATE PLAYLIST Nothing can chase away the any fears for the future you may have like jamming out to your favorite tunes.

BINGE-WATCH THAT NETFLIX SHOW Just in case your parents kick you off.

CHASE AN ICE CREAM TRUCK Allow the truck to symbolize your childhood to ensure that your frozen treat tastes twice as nostalgic.

SQUAD SLEEPOVERS Maybe even once a week. This way the summer will be filled with memories and you will be sick of your friends by the time you have to leave them.

MAKE BUZZFEED & PINTEREST RECIPES You might stumble across an easy favorite that will make you very popular in the dorm rooms.

START YOGA

Find your zen space; you will need it in college! | Sara Cooley

Jonathan Vu, Brodie Snavely, Ariana Rinken, Noah Zimmer

Hailee Frazier, Cybil LaPenna, Michala Caywood

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serve DEDICATED TO

GABE BECERRA TRADES FACE PAINT FOR CAMOUFLAGE

G

abe Becerra didn’t really seem to mind being doused in glitter confetti during our photo shoot.

Maybe it’s because he’s never been afraid to go all out when it comes to school spirit. After painting his face green and blue countless times, and putting together ensembles ranging from superheros to beach boys, a little glitter probably felt like nothing.

After quitting high school baseball and football, Becerra took a different role in the energy of each game. “I just found my spot as ‘most school spirit’,” Becerra said.

“I was on the sidelines being a cheerleader instead of actually being a player.” It was difficult, transitioning off the field and and onto the bleachers, but Becerra enjoyed being a supporting fan. Becerra may have been on the sidelines, but he was far from quiet. His loud cheers and undiminished Gator pride display one aspect of his flamboyant personality.

And as these things often go, Becerra’s supportive nature towards his peers sprouted from the support he received, specifically from his mom. “She was a single mother, she raised me by myself, and if she could do that, then I feel like I could do anything,” he said. “I feel like she gave me all the tools and qualities that I need to be a good person in society and go through high school with confidence.”

in the United States Army. Joining the Army has been a lifelong dream of his, but it is also a way to follow in his great-grandfather’s footsteps, who served in WWII, but wasn’t deployed. “He was the man in my life, and when he died, it was devastating,” Becerra said. “He was my father because my dad wasn’t there.”

“I wanted to go towards the Army, and getting more hands-on job experience, and then come back into the civilian world and being able to apply those skills to a job,” Becerra said. He can already predict the lessons he will learn outside of textbooks. “[In the military], you become a more strict type of person, you know your goals, you can stay focused to what you want, that’s what they teach you, and those traits [teach you] to be a hard-working person in every aspect that you have to be.”

Soon, Gabe Becerra will turn in his Gator pride for national pride. His family was his inspiration, and through his service, he may become that for someone else. Regardless, his drive to empower those around him will remain. | Olivia Koontz

Mama Becerra’s work ethic impacted Becerra greatly, helping him even in the most difficult times in high school, to keep focused on where he was headed. “I had to mentally gather my thoughts and think about what in the future, how it’s going to benefit me,” he said. “Obviously you’re not going to have all these flower patches in life, so you’re going to have to have those struggles.”

In the next few months, Becerra will take a series of military readiness tests like the ASVAB and MEPS tests in May, will enter basic combat training, and then become specialized in a certain area to serve our country

12 May 2016 | Senior Edition

Gabe Becerra

I know nothing

high school taught me... to see the best in everyone to fall in love tirelessly

In the course of your life, you’re going to cross paths with millions upon millions of people. This vast expanse of human interaction gives the opportunity to build sincere, lasting relationships with at least a few of the individuals we encounter. However, it’s an inevitable reality that you’re not going to click with every single person you meet.

The first time I realized this was a few weeks into my freshman year at Standley.

Despite my best efforts to be friends with every person I had just met, there were some people that just weren’t compatible with my personality. And that’s ok. What mattered is that I learned to be able to see that everyone brings something to the table, regardless of if it appealed to me at all.

High school takes people from all different backgrounds, with all different interests and passions, and throws them together in a mix of hormones and angst. This dangerous combination could easily breed misunderstanding, but somehow it often creates lasting friendships and intricate connections instead. High school taught me to find this connection— some little glimmer of similarity—with every person I meet. As a result of this conscious, constant choice, I can proudly and confidently say that I have friends from every walk of life in this school.

I’m friends with mega-geniuses in IB, super-athletes from my time on the girls basketball team, passionate journalists from newspaper, and countless other people that I may have only met once or twice in passing.

Regardless of their background, each person I call my friend has had some sort of positive impact on my life. I’ll forever be grateful for the lesson high school unknowingly taught me: to not only meet, but also to make memories with so many people in this school. And most importantly, I’m thankful for each and every friend I made. | Christina Rudolph

One of my favorite quotes is from Anne Lamott, who wrote, “I think this is how we are supposed to be in the world – present and in awe.”

How can be bored in this universe?

There have been things that forced me to grow up a little too fast, and moments that I wish I could live in forever.

All of it renewed my appreciation for the beautiful, weird, messy life that we live.

Because it is this love that changes the world.

My heart is so full of appreciation for my best friend who stuck by me through all my worst days, my favorite things which never stop inspiring me, my family who give me endless support and love, my newspaper staff for showing me what passion can do, my mentors who have helped me find a place, and all of the beautiful people I have met who make me feel happy and at home whenever I am with them.

I’m finding new things to fall in love with, and I’m finding them in the why-the-hellnot’s, in beautiful people, great stories, and the journey.

The world is a jumble of beauty and confusion. I haven’t fully figured it out yet.

But I’m getting there. | Nicole Heetland

I’m a youngster in our class. I won’t be an official adult until this September, a week into college. But besides my literal age, I feel like my intellectual age is certainly far from adulthood. If there’s one thing high school taught me, it’s that the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know about the world.

One of the most memorable weeks of my senior year wasn’t even in high school. It was at Outdoor Lab. Spending a week at 7000 foot elevation with twelve-year-olds gives you some perspective.

Where did that tween confidence go? We thought we knew it all then, that we had reached the top of Mt. Everest and that it was only downhill from there. That sure was a harsh awakening.

These here are the last words I will ever write for The Lake.

And it’s bittersweet. The stories within these pages have been my passion for nearly four years.

I entered B135 in January of my freshman year, quiet and uncertain. I was terrified and had to give myself pep talks to go interview different students or teachers. But I grew. I learned, through high school journalism, that I was intrigued by the stories that everyone has, and even though I’m not going into journalism as a career, that will remain a part of me.

B135 showed me how much more there are to people than you may see at first. And to this wonderful world. I have barely scraped the surface.

I’ve learned so much, but still know so little. But I also have found that just a smidge of cluelessness is healthy. The unexpected is an adventure just waiting to happen. And boy, am I ready.

what i cannot control

| Olivia Koontz

Trying to control every aspect of my life left me with a dark cloud that followed me around high school hallways, always rode passenger seat in my car, and landed in the pit of my stomach after every meal. Realizing that it was okay to let some things go, on the other hand, allowed the sun to suddenly shine through that haze. Sometimes, you study and you don’t get an A. Or, all the time, if we’re talking Calculus. Sometimes, a friend doesn’t put in their share of the work and the presentation flops. Blaming myself for things outside my control was only making things harder. Life gets so much easier when you learn to let go of the little things and just let others be.

That was easily the most significant way that the friendships, classes, and extracurriculars of SLHS allowed me to grow as a person.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not to say that you should allow yourself to live a passive life. You have to be aware of what is inside your circle of control. One of the most revolutionary phrases I’ve ever heard came from my yoga teacher here at Standley: you don’t have to believe your own thoughts. When I thought that I was ugly, that people wouldn’t like me if I came out, or that I wasn’t good enough to succeed in school, I did not have to accept those thoughts as any sort of truth. Just as liberating as letting go of what I couldn’t control was realizing that the way I reacted to failure, and more importantly the way I viewed myself, were completely up to me.

Mistakes happen. Life is messy. I was trying to squeeze everything into a box because I thought that it would be easiest.

Here’s to knowing that it isn’t easiest. | Sara Cooley

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Dechen Chhenmorito

the perfect fit

DECHEN CHHENMORITO’S ACADEMIC JOURNEY

F

rom a young age, the expectation is set that high school should be the best years of your life. Some may walk through the front doors and find this to be true immediately; some may find that the hormones and friendship drama make it nearly impossible. For others, their golden years are there, it just takes a little bit more work to find them.

The fact that the IB trek wasn’t the best course for Chhenmorito to follow doesn’t mean she writes off the experience as a loss. She was able to expand her horizons, both socially and academically. She was now able to pick the classes that suited her best individually, which gave her time to balance school and the friendships that she had made both in and out of IB.

For Dechen Chhenmorito, the challenge was in finding a balance between what school work was manageable and what goals she had set for herself going into highschool. Chhenmorito started high school on the IB track and completed a full semester of the program before special circumstances and the heavy workload forced her to reevaluate her high school path.

“While I was in IB junior year, there was a big separation from friends who weren’t in IB so I didn’t get to talk to them as often, but after I dropped out, I could, and because I’m still taking IB English, I can still talk to my IB friends and people not in IB, so it’s a balance.”

“It was just a very drastic change from sophomore year to junior year, and I don’t think I adapted to that change as well as I thought I could.” Chhenmorito said. “That made it really difficult for me to keep up with the pace that IB was going.”

14 May 2016 | Senior Edition

Decisions that might alter your life path can be hard to make-- it’s difficult to evaluate a path you haven’t walked along yet. But if the first guess isn’t good enough, it’s always possible to make a change and start again to find that balance. | Sara Cooley

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movies you need to watch before the real world

Going to college means being exposed to new people, new experiences, and lots of new pop culture references. We compiled a list of movies you need to watch over the summer in order to prepare for your first pop quiz next year: understanding at least the most common popular quotes, characters, and jokes.

1. Fight Club 2. The Breakfast Club 4. Pulp Fiction 5. The Sixth Sense 6. Animal House 7. The Shining 8. Back to the Future 9. Breakfast at Tiffany’s 10. Mean Girls 11. Titanic | Christina Rudolph

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thoughts

FROM CLASS TEACHER MR. JAMES MCAVOY

Dear Class of 2016,

1. Find what you are passionate about and pour yourself into it.

2. Work hard at everything you do. Never let them criticize you being lazy and/or for not trying.

for

3. Set your ego aside and experience life without getting in your own

way. Push yourself out of your comfort zone, have new experiences with different people. Break your normal routine. Throw away your detailed plans and fly by the seat of your pants. Or, if you normally fly by the seat of your pants, make a detailed plan. Allow yourself to be uncomfortable, you may enjoy it, and you will learn who you really are and what you really enjoy.

4. Travel. Travel far and often. Get out of Colorado. As great as it is

ask those questions, demand answers. If suitable answers are not given, find the answers yourself. Here are a few questions to ask yourself: why am I doing this?; what do I want to do?; how can I get there?; why do I care?; why don’t I care?; what does it mean?; why do I believe?; why don’t I believe?

9. Remember, there is a time and a place.

Know when to…and when not to… Sometimes you should look before you leap, other times you should leap before you look. The trick is, knowing which to do when.

10. Be on time. Always. Be on time to your job, to class, to appoint-

ments, when meeting your friends. Always be on time. When you’re late it’s a sign to others that you don’t care about their time, which means you don’t care about them. Being late will come back to haunt you. There is no Raptor in life, you just get fired.

here, live in other places and meet new people. Get a taste of what else is out there, you will learn to appreciate the new and will get a newfound appreciation for the old. Drive across the country, if you can avoid interstates at all costs.

11. Be aware. Be aware of yourself, be aware of others, and be aware of what’s going on around you. It’s not just enough to be aware of what’s going on around you; it really helps when you care about what’s going on and take action.

5. Always look busy, even when you’re not. When it looks like you are

12. Follow through. If you commit to something, do it. Never agree to something and not follow through. When you do commit to something don’t forget to reference number 2.

doing nothing to a boss, a professor, your parents- they will remember it and judge you accordingly, even if it’s not true. So remember, always look busy.

6. Be who you want to be. Don’t be who others want you to be. If you

don’t know who you want to be keep trying until you figure it out.

If it’s taking a long time make sure you are enjoying the journey and don’t forget numbers 1 – 3.

13. Find a mentor, or mentors. Be receptive to learning from people who know more than you or have more experience than you. Also, learn to recognize when people know more than you, it’s probably more frequent than you realize.

7. Shut up and listen. Knowing when to talk and when to listen is a

14. Be independent. Strive out on your own. Have experiences by yourself. Learn to appreciate you, then you can appreciate others.

8. Ask questions. Ask questions of other and of yourself. When you

15. Don’t forget to Breathe.

16. Embrace change, its coming.

valuable life skill. Shut up and listen to: people, music, nature, and your body.

Carley Coxsey, Abby Marko-Franks, Andres Godines-Andrade, Anna DeRocchi, Ryan Videtich

| magazine design by Nicole Heetland

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it’s been real.