Almost, Maine Proved Perfect Practice for Life, Love P. 6 & 7
The Coach Effect P. 11 Survey Says… P. 14 & 15
Seen here are art pieces from students in C Jaap’s fall classes Drawing and Painting and Advanced Drawing and Painting.
Table of Contents 4 Letter from the Editor 5 Meet the Staff 6 Almost, Maine Proved Perfect Practice for Life, Love 10 Humans of Overlake 8 Book Review: The 11 The Coach Effect Bonds Formed In War 12 Opinion: Repealing 9 How Much Is Too Net Much? Neutrality Was A Net Benefit On the cover: In the early 70’s, 14 Happy Where You Overlake published, “The Overlake Live? Survey Says… Book”, which was an annual produc16 Opinion: Wonder tion that students and faculty used to Woman Revisited find any and all information they could possibly need to know about the school. Students could find sports schedules, class curriculums, and more! The Overlake Book had it all, and we hope our cover is almost as cool as the original Overlake Book.
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Letter from the Editor As we move into the new year, the role of journalism in an evolving society becomes more and more apparent. With technology and politics influencing the role of an American citizen to a greater and greater degree, the duty of a journalist remains constant: to help produce a generation informed in its decision-making. Student journalism plays a vital (and often overlooked) part in fueling an informed democracy. A school magazine or newspaper can help launch a young person’s interests in the field of journalism, and provide valuable experience to give those interests professional weight. That certainly was my experience as editor-in-chief last semester, and now it’s time to pass that baton off to Maria Russinovich. I’d like to spend a moment to look
back over the work the Independent staff has done in the last semester. The past four months have seen many good pieces, both online and in print, ranging from an interview with Redmond’s mayor to book reviews and political commentaries. The magazine itself has evolved, featuring art and photography alongside the usual stories and columns. Moving forward, I’m excited to see the breadth of new stories that Maria will curate.
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Meet the Staff Andrew Monteith (editor-in-chief, staff writer): Andrew occasionally abandons his post as Professor of Pedanticism to express his love for words.
Maria Russinovich (staff writer, design artist): She got there the old -fashioned way: hanging in until everyone else dropped out.
Lindsay Rubin (staff writer, reviewer): Speaks only in vine references. Welcome to Chili’s.
Farah Lindsey-Almadani (staff writer): While Beyoncé gets in formation, Farah gets information.
Evan Lauer (contributor): Evan enjoys making loud noises, both with his trumpet and his mouth.
Alisa Diaconu: Alisa’s particular brand of reporting involves posting pictures of her dog.
Stefan Beskin (staff writer, photographer): Most people are 87% water. He’s 87% Boost.
Teya Hisel (contributor): Teya has grand ambitions, from a post as the US president to a stint with The Overlake Independent.
Miguel Llanos (patron of young journalists): In Miguel’s mind, maté makes the world go ‘round.
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Almost, Maine Proved Perfect Practice for Live, Love Andrew Monteith
With the all-school production of The Music Man fast approaching, it’s time to look back at the
Overlake drama that preceded it: Almost, Maine, a play featuring nine simultaneous love stories. The question that immediately arises when examining a play comprised entirely of love stories is the degree of intimacy involved. “Acting out love stories in front of your peers is hard—it requires vulnerability and honesty,” says Bill Johns, the director of the show. “It’s perfect practice.” Actors adhered to a rigorous rehearsal schedule, spending nearly an entire semester acclimating to their role not only as an independent character but also as the counterpoint to another character’s romantic arc. The culmination of these hours was a total of five performances in front of hundreds of peers, faculty, and parents. A willingness to put oneself in uncomfortable situations for the sake of the show was the bread and butter of Almost, Maine. Perhaps it is the magical nature of the show and the accommodative structure of its vignettes that led Almost, Maine to its success. Though the play hardly ever saw Broadway, it was the mostproduced show across American high schools in 2010, according to The New York Times. Any show that includes love as a primary theme runs into the problem of love itself—how can a script, director, cast, and crew portray accurately what is arguably the most complicated of human conditions? The answer lies in the play’s script. Almost, Maine “takes the things we can’t describe and makes them physical,” says sophomore Shri Iyengar. Shri, whose scene with sophomore Silvia Nica brackets the show, recognizes the difficulty of portraying love onstage. “It necessitates a suspension
of disbelief,” she adds.
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In a scene entitled “Getting it Back,” sophomore Anabelle Parks and freshman Alan Ngouenet portray a discontent couple. The scene begins with Anabelle’s character returning several large, pinkish -red bags to her boyfriend. “What is this?” he asks, and she tells him that it’s all the love he ever gave
her. It soon becomes apparent that, if love were to be measured by volume, he gave her quite a lot of it. When she asks for the love she gave him, he hands over a small red pouch that easily fits in her hand. The play revolves around tangible representations such as this one. Every scene incorporates magical, impossible elements, lending the production an ethereal quality. Few scenes end on a sad note, however, as most of the
couples in the show resolve their differences. Shri and Silvia’s scene, which both begins and ends the play, progresses similarly to the vignettes it bookends: a certain mood is presented, then subverted, then triumphantly restored. Even the scene between Anabelle and Alan ends on a high note: The small red pouch he gives her turns out to be an engagement ring. But why did Overlake choose Almost, Maine in the first place? The decision-making process involved considering multiple other plays. Bill whittled the list down to two -- Almost, Maine and All in the Timing, which also had multiple theatrical sketches -- before presenting the two options to his cast and crew. It was then a matter of “which show made the biggest impact,” say Anabelle and sophomore Alyssa Jiwani. Part of this decision hinged on the two same-sex couples presented in the play. “It was a conscious decision,” Bill says. “[The cast and crew] really wanted to do it.”
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The Bonds Formed In War Lindsay Rubin
World War Two, in terms of body count and aftereffect, was the most devastating war in recorded history. More than 70 years after its final battles, the planet is still suffering and learning from the repercussions of the global battle. Over 60 million people were killed, that being about 3% of the world’s population at the time. There is no escaping the horrifying reality of our past, and stories, books, and movies keep us aware of the battles of our ancestors. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys showcases the different stories of four different voices during the war. Joana, the pretty Lithuanian nurse ridden with guilt from her past; Florian; the mysterious, guarded Prussian with a high ranking secret; Emilia, the young, traumatized Polish girl fighting for the lives of two; and Alfred, the proud Nazi working the lowest ranking job in the German Navy, fighting for a chance at the top. The story is told in short chapters, jumping from character to character. However, the story mainly focuses on Joana, Florian, and Emilia’s battle through no man’s land of East Prussia to the coast to find a refugee ship. They travel with the old cobbler, otherwise known as the Shoe Poet, a child rumored to have come from Berlin addressed as the Wandering Boy, the blind Ingrid, and the feisty giantess Eva. This novel is dark, heavy, intense, and beautiful. Sepetys does an exceptional job telling their stories, weaving in each character’s backstory slowly, periodically dropping hints about their past, but always leaving enough unknown to drive you to continue reading. The novel has the pace of an action thriller, maybe not always packed with fights and chases, but always heavy with decisions and secrets. Your heart races through the entirety of the story. You become quickly attached to all of the characters (except for Alfred, he was fairly annoying). You go through this journey with them, feeling the weight of survival. Character development was also showcased beautifully. These characters are forced through hell, making life or death decisions one after another. Sepetys does a spectacular job of showing the weight the war has on each character. We get to watch them grow old beyond their years: falling in love, birthing children, revealing secrets, creating new ones, losing friends and finding new ones. Salt to the Sea showcases the bonds formed in life and death situations, bonds to last a lifetime. But the novel also reminds us that nothing is truly permanent, and an entire life can be changed in an instant.
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How Much Is Too Much? Stefan Beskin
High school is a stressful time. There are tests to keep up with, social lives to maintain, and, of course, homework. Lots and lots of homework. In the last issue, we showed some statistics from teachers, seeing how much homework they try to give out per night and, more importantly, how late they thought students should be quitting the books and hitting the hay. This time, however, we’re addressing the situation in a different manner. We asked teachers if they try to account for other classes’ workloads. It feels like it might be binary, black and white, either yes or no, but things aren’t so simple. Some of the surveyed teachers were straight to the point, some seemed more straightforward, and some were more lenient with the subject. In a follow-up with science teacher Emma Ross, she explained how she aims for 20 minutes a night, saying, “It’s always an estimate but I try to look at the assignment. Sometimes, I’ll even try doing it myself and make sure it doesn’t take me more than about 15 minutes with the assumption that it would take students a bit longer.” Even whilst ensuring that she generally gives around 20 minutes, she also checks in with students. “If they’re saying ‘we have something due tomorrow,’ I might just say, ‘Let’s just do page one and two.’” Science teacher Brian Husted has a similar philosophy to Emma’s, asking students to “stop after 30 minutes of working and send me a message to let me know they were having trouble with the homework.” It’s nice to know that teachers think like this and, for students, that feels like a departure from the usual. With a bit of a different tone, Spanish teacher Micah Orr believed that if each class were equal to one graduation credit, then the workloads should remain equal between them. “If [the graduation credit is not equal to the class commitment], then we need to have an institutional conversation to make sure this happens,” he said. “If teachers are giving more work than a credit is worth, then that needs to be communicated ahead of student registration, so that they can balance their schedules accordingly.” Don’t misunderstand the situation here, three of the teachers surveyed said that they simply don’t try to account for other classes. As with every story, all sides should have their argument. There were three people who went against the grain, and don’t change their homework load based off other classes alone. However, statistics can be misleading. Each teacher who doesn’t try to account for extra homework in other classes gives a small amount of homework themselves. One of the teachers tries to give only 10 minutes of homework a night, one doesn’t give any homework at night, and one assigns anywhere from nothing to a maximum of half an hour. They don’t give more or less homework based on other classes simply because they try to give virtually (or literally) no homework at all. As Randey Chung once said, “High school was easy. It was like riding a bike. Except the bike was on fire and the ground was on fire and everything was on fire because it was hell.” If it’s truly guaranteed that high school will be hell, hopefully teachers who think about how much homework they give will make it a little less hellish.
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Humans of Overlake Maria Russinovich “Why do you love bagpipes?” “I think you either love [bagpipes] or you hate it. And there’s not really a group of people that just tolerates it, and is neutral about it, so either you love bagpipes and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, I love bagpipes, every time I hear them I start crying’, or you hate them, and you’re like ‘No, it sounds like a dying cat, stop playing the inflatable goat’. So, it’s kind of divided like that, I guess.” — Weston Kennedy ‘18
“Did you always want to be a college counselor?”
“So, you’re the editor of The Independent for first semester How long have you been helping The Independent? Why journalism?” “I have been doing journalism since the second semester of last year, which makes me the longest running person in The Independent as of this year. And I chose journalism because Overlake has a real paucity of English electives for ninth and tenth graders as in there’s nothing you can do that’s an English elective for ninth and tenth graders but in the math track you have these gradations like, if you’re more interested, you can go into higher level math, and if you’re not as interested, you stay in lower level math. Well, we don’t have that for the English Department. So, I thought journalism would be a good way to explore my passion.” — Andrew Monteith ‘20
“No, I had no idea what I was going to be when I went to college. I majored in sociology and psychology and then during my college years, I had an on-campus job in academic advising. And that’s how it got me into higher education administration, figuring out that I liked working with students, and figuring out their academic profile, and how to get them to graduate college so I got my masters, and I got a job at my university after I had graduated, working in the undergrad admissions office.” —Tanya Cummings
The Coach Effect 11
Lindsay Rubin
Sports. They’re everywhere. Everyone at Overlake is either a student athlete or has a friend who is one. When we think of sports, we think of athletes pushing themselves mentally and physically for hours every day. However, we don’t always think about how much of an impact coaches can have on their athletes. “Coaches have made me want to play or not want to play… sometimes, a coach has made me not want to play anymore, or changed the way I feel about the sport,” says Bryce DeLay, a senior who plays basketball and baseball for Overlake. Bryce feels strongly that the energy and how much the coach cares about the athlete can affect the overall mentality of the athlete, saying that the coaches who care about the individual are much more successful in empowering their athletes. When asked about what coaching styles were most useful for him, he talks about the coaches who were energetic and had a good attitude, along with keeping the individual’s needs in mind while thinking about the team. Bryce believes that it’s more useful for a coach to focus on the team as a unit instead of each player separately, while still caring about each player. “I think when they start to mess with the individuals, it hurts the philosophy of the whole team and doesn't really allow them to grow as much,” he says. Not everyone, however, believes that the focus should be on the team as a whole. Nell Corley, a freshman on the JV Volleyball team, strongly believes that a coach should put more emphasis on the individual. The JV Volleyball team would be nowhere without their coach, Allyson Ahern, Nell says. Nell has always done volleyball for fun, playing for her school and enjoying being able to play the sport without too much pressure. She says that she really appreciates Allyson’s individual focus, and feels like getting individual advice on drills is really helpful. Asked if Allyson gave her a new appreciation for the sport, Nell says, “Yeah, I think she did… On my old team, we didn’t have the competitive nature, and I feel like [Allyson] really balances being competitive and teaching us how to play… She definitely helps everyone with their needs … and helps us be the best team that we can be.” For Leland “Lee” Rivers, a swim coach who has worked with Overlake students and has been coaching for seven years, a dynamic and unpredictable coaching style works best. What kind of effect does his coaching have on his athletes? “I don’t think I see my swimmers improve their times even more than (any other coaches kids), but I feel like my kids gain a little more confidence and get a little tougher, and I attribute that to me, because I work hard to get my swimmers to realize it themselves... Everyone needs a swift kick in the pants every now and then. It’s up to the kid to determine whether or not it sticks.” One swimmer who graduated last year “is a great example of someone who’ve I’ve kind of kicked in the butt,” Lee says. “They snapped out of it, and [have] grown but not changed fundamentally… in and out of the pool.”
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Repealing Net Neutrality Was A Net Benefit Evan Lauer In the beginning, there was nothing. Then, computer scientist/psychologist J. C. R. Licklider said “Let there be internet”, and our lives were never the same. From the get-go, the internet always seemed to be one step ahead of the real world, progressing faster and gaining a massive following in an unprecedented small amount of time. Largely unregulated
since its creation, the internet went untamed for years and was the target of investment totaling over $1 trillion. Before long, companies started appearing called Internet Service Providers (ISPs), which exist for the sole purpose of providing end-to-end connection of consumers to the websites they’d like to visit. Through complicated deals and purchases, ISPs each control and have access to a little portion of internet infrastructure. In order to expand their portion of the internet and thus gain traction in the market, ISPs must invest money to expand the amount of bandwidth they are capable of distributing. If a customer of one ISP would like to access a website controlled by another ISP, the first ISP would make a deal with the second ISP that allowed that connection to be transferred. Once the success of the internet started picking up speed, it snowballed into what many would describe as a powerhouse. Between 1995 and 2015, the total number of users on the internet increased by approximately 21,000%. The global economy benefitted hugely from it, and there seemed to be no end in sight. That was, until a set of 2015 regulations were imposed under the Obama administration known as net neutrality. In order to truly understand this issue, one must have a very clear understanding of what net neutrality rules actually did and why. What the 500-page order essentially boils down to is that it establishes broadband ISPs as “common carriers”, a legal term that dates back to the 1930s to prevent the Bell Tele-
phone Company from monopolizing the telephone industry. A common carrier is essentially a corporation, either public or private, that provides a service to the public that is generally regarded as ubiquitous. A few examples of common carriers include water, electric, power, and shipping companies. Being a common carrier – from a company’s perspective – was generally a drawback. For shipping companies, it prevented the competitive pricing of out-of-the-way areas, so that people living in rural Tennessee were treated the same way as people living in New York City. For electric companies, it meant that people living in Eastern Washington weren’t forced to pay millions of dollars just to have access to lights in their homes.
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Unfortunately, due to the dynamic nature of the still-growing broadband market, common carrier regulations meant something a little different. What it meant to broadband ISPs (broadband being the type of internet you have at your home, not your cellular data) was that they would have to treat signals from all “legal, non-harmful devices” exactly equally. While relatively inconspicuous on the surface, these rules had much deeper implications for broadband ISPs. These rules meant that ISPs were no longer capable of ultra-competitive pricing plans and slowing signals from devices owned by customers who subscribe to less expensive broadband data plans (again, not cellular data). “OK,” you may say, “these rules sound great for consumers!” That’s not exactly true. While wellintentioned, net neutrality rules prevented ISPs from charging more for high-bandwidth services, like video streaming and video gaming. Unfortunately, these rules came in with pretty poor timing, during a period in which streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu were seeing incredible success and growth. But the platform upon which they were growing was limited by net neutrality and was not capable of handling the new traffic. Thus, video quality tanked nationwide, and in the two-year period following the passage of net
neutrality, the booming market of internet investment saw a 5.6% drop in investment from ISPs, meaning that, for the first time since the recession, the internet’s user base was growing and the expansion of bandwidth capability was shrinking (and still is). This was terrible for the everyday larger internet community, because it meant that global bandwidth wasn’t expanding to meet the needs of consumers and internet speeds suffered. “OK, if net neutrality is so bad, how will we prevent ISPs from charging ridiculous premiums and micro-transacting things like Google searches or website access?” one might ask. Well, the answer is pretty clear and is the basis for a huge amount of the US economy’s success throughout history: competitive mar-
kets. The popular narrative in US politics right now is that there are one or two ISPs dominating everywhere, when in reality, the market share of the largest ISP, Comcast, doesn’t even total 35%. That’s hardly a monopoly. Ironically, one of the largest proponents of net neutrality rules, Google, possesses both a monopoly in the search engine market and, simultaneously, its own ISP subsidiary (Google Fiber) that itself competes with larger ISPs. You might be caught up in the terrors of paying extra money each month just to access Facebook, and photoshopped pictures of stingy payment plans may send shivers down your spine, but the reality is that the repeal of net neutrality will allow for the proper distribution of cost among consumers, more ubiq-
uitous internet access, and a stronger economy in general. Worry not about the internet market being free; it was between its conception and 2015, and it should be until the end of time.
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Happy Where You Live? Survey Says... Farah Lindsey-Almadani
Everyone knows Overlake is a close-knit community filled with creative, proactive, and passionate young learners. It’s hard to find a student who doesn’t have a certain opinion on a topic. The Overlake Independent wanted to find out what Overlakers think about where they live. And what they think about Washington as whole? The Pacific Northwest? What about other regions of the country? Freshman, Nell Corley was one of those who completed the survey and sat down with the Independent to talk more about her feelings on her home state of Washington. Nell has lived in the Seattle area her whole life and so has her father. Nell says Seattle and Washington are “so familiar to me”. “It’s just always been kind of my home” so Nell has “adapted to the idea of [Seattle and Washington as] always being there for me”. Nell does acknowledge it rains a lot in Western Washington and she sees how it can seem to be a depressing place to outsiders. Nell also adds that she doesn’t appreciate how early it gets dark when the seasons change. Overall, Nell’s attitude towards Seattle, Washington, and the PNW is extremely positive. Although she seeks to travel the world, Nell wouldn’t mind raising her future children in this area, which she describes as an “inviting community” and “such a wonderful place”.
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For a different point of view, one similar to my own The Independent sought out senior Manasa Gadiraju. She moved to Redmond in the summer of her junior year from her hometown of Marlboro, New Jersey. Manasa recognizes Seattle has more trees, is more scenic (especially in the summer), more proactive when it comes to activism, and essentially more liberal than her home state. But Manasa also noticed how it rains more here than in her home state of New Jersey. And, since nostalgia is often felt when moving occurs, Manasa says she misses New Jersey— mostly because she was 30 minutes from the Jersey shore. Manasa also thinks some changes are needed to Seattle’s way of life. She thinks Seattleites need to lose their attitude of superiority and should stop living in “a cultural bubble”. When Manasa first heard of The Seattle Times article on Seattle being the fifth whitest big city in America, she wasn’t even the slightest bit surprised. She believes there is a concentrated Asian-American and Indian population, but she feels there is a lack of Hispanics and African-Americans in Seattle, therefore a lack of diversity compared to New Jersey. In addition, Manasa thinks Seattleites have an attitude of superiority when it comes to their city and they sincerely believe “everything here is perfect!” Overall, she doesn’t know much about Washington state and she is currently “only starting to learn about King County, so [I] need to work my way out”. She also doesn’t know much about the West Coast in general, but has been to Portland and Los Angeles. Manasa says she doesn’t know much about the Pacific Northwest either, but imagines it to be “very white, very expensive, very liberal, very ‘bougie’ like hipster and sort of superior-feeling”. But she does admit it might be bias because she is from back east and that “as with any stereotype, it is not comprehensive, and there are exceptions to the ‘rule’.”
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Wonder Woman Revisited Teya Hisel
Even though it came out last year, Wonder Woman has been on senior Teya Hisel's mind -- and not how you might think. Her disclaimer: This reflection is solely about the movie, it does not consider the comics. In a time when the trope of a hero conquering evil in two-hour feat of fighting and bravery completely dominates the big screen, this film begged to be different. This film wanted to be so much more – a tale where the hero is a heroine, and where love and peace conquer over violence – but while this goal was noble, it was not reached.
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Despite her incredible physical strength and prowess, as shown from the beginning of the film in her training scenes, and her extensive wisdom gained by reading every book imaginable, Diana is still incredibly naïve and idealistic, as she was raised to be. But her idealism is what is supposed to make her different from other superheroes – she truly believes in the good of every man. She believes that any man that commits acts of war is simply under the influence of the war god Aries. But then, she falls prey to the classic superhero-savior complex when she comes across a town under siege, on her way to slay another enemy. She liberates the town by fiercely defeating and killing the enemy soldiers that hold the town hostage – something she sees as righteous and noble. But she is supposed to be different. She believes that these men are good, just under the influence of a corrupt system, but she kills them all anyway. She is supposed to be the superhero who believes in the good of all, not one who just continues the classic superhero trope of killing off all the side characters for the good of the oppressed. Her act of liberation in the end proves futile anyway as the generic-old-German-general, Luddendorf, attacks the town with toxic gas, killing everyone within – suggesting as well the futility of war and killing one’s supposed ‘‘enemy’’.
This film is filled with powerful fight scenes – what one expects to find in a superhero movie. It is filled with great ‘‘heroism’’ and ‘‘bravery’’, at least by today’s standards of what makes a hero. This film, which tried to be so much more than yet another superhero movie, managed to just be another superhero movie, just with a female lead. And that alone is great, maybe that is exactly what we needed – to show that women can be just as needlessly violent and arrogant with their power as men. Or maybe we need something more. Maybe we need to stop glorifying the killing of (even guilty) people in the name of good. We need to show further how there are alternatives to violence, even when what you are fighting against is violence. Maybe Wonder Woman’s final message, that the most important thing is love, is right. Maybe this film is truly how Richard Brody, the New Yorker writer, describes it; “An entry in the genre of wisdom literature”. But love has no chance of winning if we continue to paint glory with violence, and peace with naivete.