Siriya Kanya News Portfolio

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Article One Selena Gomez’s revival album By: Siriya Kanya On Oct. 9, 2015, artist Selena Gomez released her second solo album, Revival. This confident pop album is just the start of Gomez’s revival era.

Earlier this summer, Gomez released the first single featuring A$AP Rocky, “Good For You” as a preview as to what was to come from the album. This song was unlike any previous song Gomez had released before. The message behind this first single was, as Gomez says, “It’s how a woman feels when they wake up in the morning.

Things that make women feel sexy and beautiful.”

Revival is definitely a different sound from Gomez’s previous albums. The songs are more confident and mature compared to what she has composed in the past. The album features a mix of pop, tropical beach vibe and a bit of electronic dance music. There are upbeat tracks such as “Me & the Rhythm” and tropical Latin inspired songs like “Body Heat.” “Camouflage” is a strong ballad while “Me & My Girls” is a lively song to dance along to. There is a song for everyone to enjoy.

Sophomore, Andrea Febres has been a fan of Gomez for years now and loves the album. “I absolutely adore this album. I think it is well-written and you can tell Selena put her everything into this album. It’s truly a masterpiece,” said Febres.

Gomez also announced her second single off the album, “Same Old Love,” prior to fully releasing Revival. With this single, Gomez got her fans involved and hosted a special event just for them. There she surprised them with a performance as well as including them in the music video for the single.

Junior, Maddy Lightfoot says, “Kill Em With Kindness is my favorite because the message of that song is really strong and powerful.” Gomez sings, “We don’t have to fall from grace. Put down the weapons you fight with. Kill ‘em with kindness.” According to Gomez, everyone has always had a say in her life and she has ignored it. So, she put together the song to say what she wanted to say.

Febres and Lightfoot agree that “Revival” is a standout song on the album because it holds such a beautiful message.

Rolling Stone gave a four out of five star rating while Billboard predicts that it will be Gomez’s second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart. There is no exact record sale for the first week sales, yet but fans love the album and are proud of Gomez.

Sophomore Marissa Tran says, “I think the album is getting positive feedback. I hear everyone talking about it online and on the radio. It seems they are all in love with it.”

This is Gomez’s first record with her new label, Interscope, and it has been a little over two years since she released Stars Dance but there’s no slowing down for Gomez now. Not only has she been promoting Revival nonstop, she has also just announced her Revival Tour which kicks off next May in 2016. This is Selena Gomez’s revival.

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Reflection One This was my very first review I had ever written, so I honestly did not know how this was going to go. I think I am most proud of my third paragraph. I thought that that paragraph was really descriptive with how I could describe the album to the best to my ability. I tried to give a little hint as to what the songs were about and I thought that I captured it really well. I also really like the headline of this one. Since her album is called Revival and it was Gomez’s comeback album after all that she’s been through, I thought that the headline was fitting. This article demonstrates good journalism writing because I think of the style I went with. I had a good amount of quotes to where they didn’t overpower the whole review and where they didn’t get lost. I thought that the quotes fit in well. I do wish I would’ve gotten a males opinion on the album because the quotes I got were just from the female perspective. I think there could be a few grammar changes and maybe the review could have been a bit more but besides that, I really liked this article.

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Article Two Gaining Confidence By: Siriya Kanya When we look into the mirror we often like to pick out a flaw in ourselves. Sometimes we are happy with the way we look that day and just move on, but sometimes there are those days where we cannot seem to look the way we want. It is almost as if there are these standards that are set and we have to meet them or else the world can come crashing down on us. But in reality, there are no specific standards, it is just us pushing ourselves to try to look and be a certain way.

Body positivity is defined as, “accepting your body as it is and trying to make others feel comfortable with their bodies as well.” Students sometimes have a hard time accepting the way they look because they feel as if they might be judged by others. There are times where we are so quick to judge the way someone looks without truly getting to know the person and that is the way it should not be. The way someone looks should not define who they are.

Another reason why body positivity is so important is because the media puts this ideal image into our head.

They put these unrealistic standards in magazines, movies, T.V. shows and social media that make it seem like we have to be a certain way. These unrealistic standards have us feeling like we have to look like that. In a poll taken at University High School, it was found that 86 percent of students think that the media affects the way we look.

We often see media sites compare other celebrities or comment on the way their body is, and once we see what is accepted we feel as if we need to be that way. Celebrities have been promoting body positivity and the importance of loving your body because they have that voice to speak out to their fans and capture their attention on how important it is to love their own body. These celebrities speak out about how they should feel confident and not be ashamed of who they are.

When we hide and lose confidence in the way we look it affects our mood. We feel ashamed and self-conscious like we are not accepted because we are not like the others. That does not necessarily have to be the case. We should find something we are proud of and embrace it. The top three features that the students love about themselves are their eyes, smile and hair. That is what we should be focusing on, the positives not the negatives in ourselves.

Sometimes the concept of loving our body can come off as a bit conceited, but loving the way our body looks is fine. If we are happy with the way we look why should we let someone else’s comments affect the way we look at ourselves. It is such a good feeling when being surrounded by people who also love their bodies because there is no worry that they are going to criticize the way we are. Not everyone is confident with the way they look though. No one is perfect but if we can just take some time to build up confidence, we can begin to accept our flaws.

The way we see ourselves should be the opinion that matters to us. It does not matter what someone else has to say because, at the end of the day, it is us who has to live with our own bodies and we should just learn to embrace it. Nobody is perfect and we are all beautiful the way we are.

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Reflection Two This one was a tough one for me to write. I had gone back and forth with this article and for the longest time I was stuck trying to express my feelings into words. This one was also published in the first issue of Titanium so that is something I am very proud of because it is my first official piece publish in print. I think that with this article, I had a good amount of background information and I even tried to include some statistics. I feel like I should have included some quotes into this article, but in that spread there were quotes all around it so I don’t know if it would be necessary to have the quotes in the article. I mean if it were an individual article itself then yes I would change it and incorporated some quotes into it but since there were quotes on the spread I thought that it should cover it. I do think this is one of my stronger articles I have written this year.

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Article Three The sports with no support By: Siriya Kanya and Savannah Yilk The crowds cheered and the bleachers rumbled abruptly all throughout the stands as another one of many games of the football season was taking place. More than half of the students and faculty were present during these intense games, watching play by play from start to finish.

While some sports draw the attention of the student body, not all sports are able to receive that same amount of hype. In the world of high school sports, football reigns supreme. As the ultimate sport during the fall season, other sports are left in the dust.

Students’ tend to join a sport that they feel the most passionate about. Some may even love their sport more than life itself. They go to practices that last for several hours each week as well as train for pre-season in order to better themselves at what they do. Although they are performing at their pinnacle during tournaments and meets, there is only a small group present cheering them on.

Students do not have to attend every match to show their support, but coming every once in a while is a great way to show school spirit and the players certainly appreciate it.

From a fan’s stance some might find particular sports to be “boring” just because of misconceptions about the sport not “actually” being a “sport” and therefore not worth watching. With this mentality it truly comes down to the idea that people think some of the sports are too easy or that they require no effort to practice their techniques because of how simple people see it as. Or, an even worse reality for the sport is that other times the students may not even be aware that their school even has that sport to begin with.

For these “lesser known sports”, as far as spectators go, there is the usual parent that comes out every match, the occasional administrator and even a few students walk out to see what is happening. While some students come out and stand to watch for a few minutes, many students disregard the sport entirely.

Tennis is one of these very high school sports that does not receive as much attention compared to its counterparts.

According to Statistica, about 340,000 students participated in high school tennis during the 2014-15 school years “I think tennis is not taken seriously because people think it is hard or boring, but that’s not the case at all,” senior Ashley Lovell said. “Also it does not get the attention at the school because the students either do not know it is happening or they think tennis is boring.”

Golf, swimming and bowling just as much as tennis do not get as much credit as they should. These sports can be just as equally strenuous as football and wrestling and should be thought as equals.

“People don’t understand swimming until they see it first hand, then they get addicted,” junior Paige Williams said.

“It’s all a mental game with swimming because your mind tells you to keep going even if you feel like stopping.”

Attending almost any match for these sports is free all it would cost is a few minutes of see just what these sports truly have to offer. Why not let them step up to the plate and giving them a chance to swing? It could be the few PAGE 6

minutes that change your mind set about the sport.

There should not be such a heavy focus on just one sport during each season. Giving all of the sports at school equal attention can boost your school spirit and allow you to see how much effort students put into the activities they are animated about. If every sport got the same amount of support, whether it is having fans out in the crowd or maybe just a quick shout out in the announcements, it would make it so that everyone gets that sense of recognition. Every student works hard and deserves to be recognized for their accomplishments.

“When you go to school the next day and people acknowledge how your team did, it makes you feel like people are supporting you and giving your team recognition for your accomplishments,” sophomore Kayla Hartmann said.

Reflection Three I wrote this article with collaboration of Savannah. I believe it was Laurel who decided to bundle our articles together into one since neither of our articles were strong individually. Once again this article was published in the second issue of Titanium and that is something I was really proud about and I honestly didn’t even know that it was going to be published to begin with. This article is really a combination of all three of us really since it combines both of our writing. I think that it had a good amount of quotes, and it was a good length. I really like the descriptive lead placed in the beginning. I think that looking back if I could change something, I would want to try to write this article again on my own and see if it even compares to what this one is. I struggled writing this one so if I were given another chance then I would want to try to write it myself. Since we all thought the same way about this topic, it was easy to blend our ideas together which is something I really liked.

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Personal Essay Growing up, I guess you could say that I never really ventured off. All my life so far I have been living here in Orange City, Florida. I never really minded it but eventually I want to move off and experience a new setting. I was always careful with everything I did and I always tried to stay within my comfort zone, but now I think I am beginning to burst that bubble.

I was always known as the shy quiet girl in school and to be completely honest, I still am. I am that person that you have to get to know for a little bit before I can really open up and have my personality fully shine through.

I never adjusted to change well. I didn’t like the idea of having to change up my routine or meet new people but let’s face it; it’s a part of life. From pre-k to fourth grade I attended a private school. I was familiar with all the students in just about every grade and I knew each faculty members’ name. I knew the hallways and where every teacher’s classroom was located. I had the same group of best friends and I had grown to just be comfortable with my surroundings. That all changed in fifth grade when I had transitioned over to a public school.

Pulling up in the parent pick-up loop and being dropped off on the first day of my new school was nerve-wracking. I had lost everything I was familiar with and it was almost as if I had landed on a new planet. No one looked familiar, the buildings weren’t the same, and I had no one to conquer this journey with me. While everyone else in my class was friends and knew each other, it was the complete opposite for me. No one really wanted to talk to the “new girl” so it took a while for me to settle to this new environment. I remember coming home and crying about how I didn’t like it or how I wanted to go back to my old school. Over the first couple months of the school year I had made friends but looking back now, I would not consider them friends at all. I still talked to my old friends from my previous school every so often but as time went on, that connection slowly began to dwindle.

Those “old” best friends were soon replaced by my “new” best friends I had made.

I never really had a set of friends in fifth grade. I just went with the flow of things and what I thought was best.

There is always a leader of the pack and there are the followers of that pack, I would be classified as one of those followers. I was never really happy with my new setting until about half way through the school year. It was a tough transition but I had learned to accept it. I was quiet, shy and always that student to have their work done.

Those people I became friends with in fifth grade were never really my friends. They were like a temporary tattoo, there when I needed it but gone as time (or as in this case summer) came along.

After that summer, I was just faced with another obstacle called middle school. I mean middle school was okay, maybe a bit better than my fifth grade year but still I am not one to reminisce on those years of my life. Those “friends” I had made last school year were gone. When I saw those kids in from my fifth grade class, I thought we were still friends but oh no, they did not even spare me a glace or hello. So I was back to square one, starting a new setting trying to settle in and find a new group of friends. Making friends now wasn’t an easy task like how it was in kindergarten when everyone was your friend. Eventually, I met a group of girls who I am still friends with to this day. I would even consider them my best friends now, but even now I am iffy on that title because I knew how fast that title could mean something one moment and be gone the next. They were already their own group but they had accepted me with open arms and it has almost been like I have been with them since day one in kindergarten.

Flash forward to high school and we are still the same group. We lost a member of the group and there have been new additions but either way, everything fits. With this group of friends who I have developed a strong PAGE 8

friendship with have helped me with who I am today. They have been with me through my highs and lows, even through the times when our friendship would begin to falter a bit. I am still trying to figure out who I am to this day but with the help of my group of friends that have been by my side, we are all trying to figure it all out together.

Five years now and they have been my support system. Who knows how I would be in school without them.

They have given me competition in everything I do. We have pushed each other to our breaking points to the point where we have a joke about how there is going to be a day where we all turn on each other. We have encouraged and supported each other in trying new things. Laughs and jokes are made every day that will not be forgotten. I honestly do not even know if I would have joined the Titan Times news staff if it weren’t for them to challenge me to try it. They have come out to my tennis matches to show their support just as I have done the same for them.

This group of friends finally helped me find my comfort zone again even though there are times where we do test the boundaries of our friendship. I think without them, I would still be lost in this high school world trying to settle in and try to fit in. Who knows where we’ll be in a couple years from now and if these friendships will still hold up but if I could make a prediction right now, I would say that it will remain stronger than ever.

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Photography I really enjoyed the colors in this photo. The colors are vibrant and stand out. The flowers are the only thing in focus and so it really captures the viewer’s attention. Everything in the background is blurred while everything in the foreground is in focus.

I took this photo back in the very beginning January when I went to Disney’s Magic Kingdom when they still had all the Christmas decorations still up. I think this is one of my favorite photos I have ever taken because it is not your typical straight forward from the front of the castle picture. This photo has a different perspective, one that most people do not take the chance to capture. The colors of the photo are really glowing and the main focus is just on the castle.

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I took this photo on that same trip to Disney. This was near the Tangled restroom area and I took a picture of the lanterns because I thought they were really pretty. This is also one of my favorite photos. I really liked the colors and how the lanterns contrast with the sky. I’ve always loved the lanterns in the movie so of course I had to take a picture of these ones.

This year, I don’t think I got to explore with photography as much as I wanted to. It is something I really want to try to get into more but I never really got the chance to. With these photos, I would say that they are a typical photo that someone may capture, but there is just something about them that makes it different compared to any other photo I taken before. So maybe with some more practice, I would be able to develop more skills that will help my photography improve in the future.

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