Advice

Index

Advice p2 Glenforest p4 Student Voice

Science p5 Plastic-eating "super-enzymes":

The Key to the Ecological

Crisis? The Dangers & Unethical Practices of Animal Testing Stress - A Hidden Friend

Global p7 Breaking Barriers - A Celebration of Women A Fractured Democracy The Impact of Affirmative

Action Business as (un)usual

Culture p10 Misconceptions in Gender

Equality: The Truth of Feminism Michelin Stars: The Oscars of the Culinary World Dawn FM Album Review Stay-Cation Ideas - What can you do at home instead of traveling? Benefits of Home Cooking A Man Disguises Himself as an Onion Vendor to Return

Home Amidst the Covid

Lockdown

Editorial p15 You Should Care About the Oxford Comma - Here’s Why

Comics Comics p16 p16

Credits

Teacher Supervisors Ms. Alim

Student Voice Nayeema Rahat Jahan Sanjali Paruthi Varun R. Dhanam

Journalists David Lee Hannah Wang Selena Zhou Tenzin Ghaki Victoria Gotcheva Varchas Varma Krisha Veera Ivona Lu Latinovic Ashwin Kailayaruban Zerina Bakrac Nitya Kharidehal Navam Thind Saanvi Dixit Nayeema Rahat Jahan Riya Piryani Sophia Zhang

Continued on page 16

How to Survive High School

Due to a lack of serious questions, we decided to have our team give their own unsolicited advice! In this issue, three senior columnists unearth the ups and downs of their high school experience to help you make it through this strange time in our lives.

However, this new section doesn’t mean that we won’t be answering advice prompts anymore. If you have any questions you’d like to ask our columnists next issue, submit them via our advice box in the library or the form on our Instagram: @gfss.talontimes—link in bio!

Response 1:

I kept a list of regrets and panic moments throughout my 4 years at high school so here are the condensed hysteria journal entries distilled with only the finest advice. 1) Find an organization system that allows you to balance your academics + personal life: Notion? Google Calendar? Time blocking? 2) Make use of all the free time you have instead of playing Genshin six hours a day. It’s the perfect time to explore your interests and experiment, break down your time, and analyze how you are currently living your life. Are you being intentional with your time? 3) I don’t know who needs to hear this, but please learn how to study and learn. I'm serious. Bloom’s taxonomy, active recall, abusing mindmaps, or grinding practice questions! You can experiment. Learn to eliminate these inefficiencies right now in grade 9-12 while the workload is still light. 4) For university: knowing exactly what certain university supplementary applications look like ahead of time, the grade boundaries needed, how to build your portfolio for arts, buffing your SAT score, etc. 5) Develop a growth mindset instead of a fixed one. 6) Teachers know when you lie, but they’re there for you, so just tell them the truth and work deadlines with them. Communicate, communicate, communicate with your teachers about makeup tests and deadline extensions. I promise that they’re there for you. 7) Take life a little less seriously, it's just high school: nobody remembers that slip up. You have a second chance, shoot your shot, don’t be consumed by fear, just do it. 8) Build good habits to keep you fit, organized, creative, and hold yourself accountable. 9) Friend groups are flexible and can change, so put yourself out there and find your people! 10) Yes Savithru, I agree. Join a cappella. 11) Seek out resources: ask your local math teacher if they do extra help at lunch, ask older students for resources, your counselor is your best friend. 12) Read the book twice: the first time for enjoyment and the second time for analysis and annotation. 13) You don’t need fancy stationery for school, stop spending a mini fortune on Muji notebooks and Mildliners. 14) Start scoping reference letters early. 15) For IB students: don’t procrastinate your extended essay or IAs; it’s not worth it. 16) If you can't motivate yourself to work, just set a timer on your phone and watch it tick down; you might as well work~

17) Always have enough printing credits.

Advice

Response 2:

I’m sure you guys have all heard the old “don’t procrastinate”, “manage your time properly”, and “work hard” advice from everyone around you, so I won’t bother repeating it again. High school is the place to experiment and try new things, so this advice mainly goes to the grade 9s and 10s. In your first few years, it is better to attempt everything, whether it be academic clubs, recreational clubs, or sports teams.

Of course, if you already have a set plan of what you want to do, then don’t worry about it. Continue with the interests you’ve found, but still keep an open mind because you never know what might pop up. I thought I came in with a relatively good plan for high school, as it was essentially an extension of my middle school interests, such as STEM, Debate Club, and Model UN, along with a couple sports teams such as table tennis and badminton. I thought that the arts just weren’t for me. But then I encountered the a cappella team in my grade 10 year. I'm sure we’ve all sung to our favorite songs from the radio or gotten distracted by music while working. Personally, I’d never gone beyond that, but I wasn't too busy so I tried out for a cappella, and what do you know, I made it!

You never know where your talents lie, so it's a good idea to have a broad list. Another benefit is that as the years progress, you’ll automatically find yourself putting more time and attention to 1 or 2 clubs. This way, you’ll easily rise up the ranks since your experience starts straight from grade 9 and you'll have a deep connection with those clubs, which will be very useful for your university applications as most of the time it’s “quality over quantity”. I am fortunate enough to not have many regrets in highschool and I hope you guys can too, because high school is not a place to get overly stressed. It’s a place to have a good time, go out, discover what you enjoy, and make new friends while still keeping in mind the future ahead of you. - Savithru "Natsu" Kannuri

Response 3:

We’ve all heard that high school is supposed to be the best four years of your life. Parties, dances, clubs, new interests and newer friends. It’s going to be brilliant, everyone says, a key part in shaping your personality. I’m telling you right now that’s the least true thing I’ve ever heard. So this is how I survived high school, everything coming from experience.

Obviously, the next four years of your life aren’t going to be horrible. They might even be good, for you, but they aren’t anything like the movies. Don’t feel any pressure to grow up, to emulate what you’ve seen on late night cable and HBO. We’re still children in many ways, so the first piece of advice is not to hurry. Make as many mistakes as you want, entertain every other hobby, be as silly and stupid and immature as you can. I’m about to turn eighteen, and I spent the last few years trying to get here as fast as I could. But now that I’m here, I’m not exactly sure what to do. How do I win back all the time I had when I was younger? I still feel thirteen. Don’t have huge, media-inspired expectations for the next four years, and don’t waste your time trying desperately to meet them. There are more important things to worry about.

Second piece of advice: get good grades. Work hard, but do not forsake your mental health. Depressive episodes and anxiety attacks are all debilitating. You can’t shower, you can’t eat, and working is off the table. There are going to be people who dismiss what you’re going through and say it's only an inconvenience, but I disagree. Ignoring your issues will only make them worse, until you can’t put them to the side. I skip school now, not because I’m lazy or irresponsible, but because I break down leaving my house. I didn’t heal myself when I should’ve. Assign some of your time to self care—actual self care, not just face masks and bubble baths. Let yourself be unproductive. Watch old, cheesy, terribly-written movies so you can make fun of them. Journal. Drink water and please, sleep. If you tend to forget eating, like me, set alarms (three meals a day, I mean it). Take care of yourself as you would any other, and love yourself as you would anyone else.

Take your time. Don’t rush. Spend your time in high school exactly the way you want to, not how you think you should. This is just another period of your life—it’s going to be okay. - Harshta