Stance of the Staff

Editorial

You can see it everywhere: the drive to school, the classrooms, the AQI on your weather app, the price of your morning coffee. We—our school community and our world—are bursting at the seams.

While abundance can be a valuable and positive thing (such as when our school’s admissions is at full capacity), there will always be limitations to the positive effects of growth and change.

With overabundance comes growing pains. During COVID-19 we took a step back from our normal existence. Our day-to-day routines slowed down—we transferred from classrooms to computer screens, we said goodbye to sports seasons, and we simplified our school schedule. But, now, we are re-assuming our preCOVID-19 activities and entering a new normal.

Our staff shares the sometimes overwhelming burden of adjusting. It feels as if expectations have been heightened. Our lives feel stressful, especially for the senior editors who are in the midst of the college-application process. Thus, this issue’s theme, is about bursting at the seams.

It’s clear that almost everyone is caught in a tug-of-war. Yet, we are so grateful that we are able to continue to continue with in-person learning and have our days feel more normal, more united, and more involved, but the toll of commitments, school work, and planning our futures, burden us.

It is this convergence of emotions, the happiness and the worry, that has created an intensely unique atmosphere for the school year. As the school community strives to find its footing, we are changing and expanding more than ever.

The recent admissions boom indicates the success of our in-person program and gives hope for the future of our school. We’ve had three fall sports teams advance to CIF level, a homecoming football game and dance, and an all-school Jogathon celebration.

As the staff enjoys the beginning of a new era for the school, our focus continues to shift to larger issues as expressed as in our articles about inflation, the effects of social media, and the ever-increasing climate crisis. These aren’t just topics of interest, but the subjects we feel are the most deserving of our reader’s attention and examination.

We are truly bursting at the seams in every sense of the phrase. Emotionally and intellectually, our staff has never been more inclined to dive deeply and enthusiastically into pressing issues. Our school has undergone a drastic cultural and numerical change, as we all attempt to readjust to our normal lives.

But we are forced to ask the question—what is normal in a world that is always evolving? What can we let go of? And what can we hold onto before we burst?